Mrs Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on recruitment and retention in domiciliary care services.
Mrs Anne Campbell: I welcome the transformation that has taken place in community policing over the past few years, particularly in my constituency, where the police now use e-mail lists to keep residents informed of what is happening. But given his plan to increase local authorities' powers in regard to community safety, will my right hon. Friend advise those of us who must deal with Liberal-Democrat...
Mrs Anne Campbell: Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Mrs Anne Campbell: To ask the Minister for Women what discussions she has had on encouraging the appointment of women priests to the highest offices in the Church.
Mrs Anne Campbell: I should like to speak in favour of the main motion, which largely reflects the recommendations of the SSRB. I want also to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work done by my hon. Friend the Member for Eccles (Ian Stewart) in initiating the Adapt project, which has led to some extremely valuable training provision for our staff. My staff have found that training extremely useful and...
Mrs Anne Campbell: We are always going to get to a point at which the maximum is reached. It is inherent in the capping procedure that once staff salaries total the maximum, it is not possible to pay increments in addition to inflationary allowances. That is one of the difficulties that we have to accept. Staff turnover is rapid, so one can start new staff at the bottom of the scale and pay increments to other...
Mrs Anne Campbell: We must all make a judgment on that, but we all understand the importance of employing permanent staff. I would find it difficult to staff my office entirely, or even mainly, with interns and voluntary staff.
Mrs Anne Campbell: I understand my right hon. Friend's point and do not pretend that the SSRB's recommendations are entirely satisfactory. I use the example to speak against amendment (g), which erodes the important principle that staff salaries should be ring-fenced. Together with the changes to staff pension arrangements, we have put staff employment on a proper and fair footing, and I do not want to see the...
Mrs Anne Campbell: I object to the use of the word "fiddling". Examining the allocation of workstations is not fiddling. Amendment (c) concerns mileage allowances, which I have always considered absurdly generous, possibly because I do not own a car and therefore have rarely had the opportunity to claim them. We should encourage hon. Members to use environmentally friendly means of travel, and the private car...
Mrs Anne Campbell: I was about to wind up, as I have nothing else to say. I shall listen carefully to what others say.
Mrs Anne Campbell: rose—
Mrs Anne Campbell: I would like to refer to the hon. Gentleman's implied support for amendment (g). He will recall that, a few years ago, staff salary allowances and incidental expenses were not separate. We had an office cost allowance out of which everything was paid. There were reasons for changing from that system to a separate system of staff salaries. It was thought that many members of staff were not...
Mrs Anne Campbell: If the SSRB had not made the recommendations, an entirely different set of people would be in the Chamber, complaining bitterly that it was not advantageous for them to have offices in their constituencies. Many hon. Members do not have staff in the House. The proposal is not as draconian as it appears at first sight. The SSRB also recommended that hon. Members should have computers as well...
Mrs Anne Campbell: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the Inland Revenue recommended rate for mileage allowance has not increased for several years? It has remained stationary.
Mrs Anne Campbell: My right hon. Friend will know that many Labour Members find the current hours extremely convenient and that they do not want any substantial change to them. Will he consider a proposal in January to extend the current pilot scheme into the new Parliament, so that the newly elected MPs who come in after the election can make their own decisions about the House's sitting hours?
Mrs Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance he has given to general practitioners who do not wish to change clinical system under the National Programme for IT and who wish to carry on using the EMIS system.
Mrs Anne Campbell: While we are on the subject of access plans, will my hon. Friend pay tribute to the excellent work that is done by students' unions in trying to encourage access? Every year, Cambridge university's students' union sends hundreds of students into the community and into schools to talk to students and to encourage them to apply to Cambridge. Such efforts should be rewarded and applauded.
Mrs Anne Campbell: In the hon. Gentleman's little rant about reading standards, he ignores the fact that examination results at the ages of 14 and 16, and at A-level, are now better than they have ever been. We should be proud of that. It is useful that we are raising standards in the secondary sector, but I want to refer back to the class issue for a moment. Is it not true that students from non-traditional...
Mrs Anne Campbell: May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his dedication to increasing the supply of affordable housing? However, will he examine the plans submitted by Cambridge city council and Cambridgeshire county council to relocate Marshall's airport? The relocation may not be feasible or possible, and it is certainly undesirable. Will he ask the councils to examine the alternative of providing...
Mrs Anne Campbell: Will my right hon. Friend explain why he is considering deploying additional British reserve troops when it is American forces that are under pressure? Will not the people of this country realise that this is political expediency with a large P?
