Mr Stanley Crowther: Does the Secretary of State not understand the simple point that giving people the right to join a union of their choice is meaningless unless the union of their choice has the right to negotiate on their behalf? Will he accept that most people in those circumstances would prefer to join a union with such a power? Why is he not introducing a provision that applies in many other European...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I declare an interest in this matter, as I am the parliamentary adviser to the National Licensed Victuallers Association. I am pleased to have an opportunity to draw the House's attention once again to the upheaval that has taken place in the brewing industry and the licensed trade since the beer orders of December 1989. There can hardly ever have been a piece of legislation that has so...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Is the Secretary of State aware that the South Yorkshire metropolitan ambulance service is highly efficient and highly regarded? Will he explain how the service will be improved by being separated from the health authorities with which it has to work, and by management's being top-loaded with half a dozen salaried non-executive directors? How will that improve the service for patients?
Mr Stanley Crowther: I am pleased to have this opportunity to draw the attention of the House to early-day motion 1035, which deals with disruption of the licensed trade and has the support of no fewer than 121 hon. Members on both sides of the House. I at once declare an interest, as parliamentary adviser to the National Licensed Victuallers Association. Let me stress immediately that many of the actions being...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I am sure that that point is valid. There is no doubt that literally thousands of pub tenants are now under notice to quit, and that is causing a good deal of distress. Many are being offered—in place of the traditional tenancy—a long lease at a rent that may be two, three or even four times as much as the present one, with full liability for repairs and renovations, but still tied to the...
Mr Stanley Crowther: This is precisely why I have raised the matter in the House. I hope that, in due course, the Leader of the House will convey all these points to the Secretary of State; action is certainly needed. I wish to be fair to the Secretary of State. He wrote to hon. Members very recently, setting out his position. I feel, however, that legislation will ultimately be needed. Until now, only one of...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Is the Leader of the House aware of early-day motion 1035, which draws attention to and expresses alarm about the disruption in the licensed trade? [That this House views with alarm the disruption now occurring in the licensed trade; deplores the fact that many tenant licensees with long experience of serving the public are being forced either to accept long leases at extortionate rents and...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I shall not attempt to comment on the amusing and rather quaint speech by the hon. and learned Member for Perth and Kinross (Sir N. Fairbairn). It is clear that he did not read our Select Committee report. We should bear in mind that we are debating not only the steel industry in Scotland, but the industry throughout the United Kingdom. This is an opportune time to do that just three days...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Why has the Minister not taken this opportunity to introduce a right of appeal by citizens whose interests will be affected by the granting of planning permission? As the Minister knows, the only right of appeal at present is by an applicant whose application has been turned down. Many people may be adversely affected by the granting of an application, and a right of appeal is a long overdue...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Stanley Crowther: The hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Mr. Warren) has, on behalf of our Committee, covered the specific recommendations in the report. I should prefer to make a few general comments. No one really knows the full extent of financial crime committed here or elsewhere. The one thing that is certain, however, is that far too much of it is going on. On page 4 of the Government's response to our...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I am happy to give way again.
Mr Stanley Crowther: I agree, and the whole Committee was unanimous on that issue. I hope that it will be taken up by those responsible for carrying out investigations and bringing matters to the courts. Most alarming throughout our inquiry was the complacency, indeed inertia, of the then Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (Mr. Ridley). From his laid-back attitude, one might...
Mr Stanley Crowther: As my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, North (Mr. Henderson) pointed out, the Opposition accept the amendment. It is needed to close a small loophole in the Bill. I am the parliamentary adviser to the National Licensed Victuallers Association which drew the Government's attention to a loophole that they had overlooked. I, too, praise the NLVA for spotting this error in the...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I shall not attempt to answer that question. If I did, we should be straying a long way from the business before the House. It would not be sensible to reopen a debate that has long since gone. I am concerned with the position as it is now and as it will be in the near future. I hope that the Minister will respond favourably to the point put to him a few minutes ago by my hon. Friend the...
Mr Stanley Crowther: We all accept that Lord Trefgarne gave in good faith an undertaking which he was unable to implement. I do not understand—and I should like the Minister to try to explain this—why the Government did not adopt one of the other options open to them of introducing a short Bill on the lines of the Bill introduced much later by my noble Friend Lord Williams of Elvel. If they had done so, there...
Mr Stanley Crowther: It is a rare pleasure to find the Government accepting so many of the recommendations in a report of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry. They have accepted so many that I am beginning to wonder where we went wrong. I support the view expressed by the hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Mr. Warren) that the time allowed for the debate is too short. This is an extremely important subject...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I would hardly dare to mention the Conservative party in that connection. If we ever have a single market in financial services—I do not know whether we shall and the Select Committee warned that it will not happen as quickly as some people think—I should certainly welcome it in principle. Properly regulated, properly monitored and properly policed, it could be advantageous to consumers...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Does the Secretary of State agree that that happy state of affairs will not happen by 1993?
Mr Stanley Crowther: Rotherham metropolitan borough council is not a high-spending authority, but even if it were I should be here to defend it because I believe profoundly in the right of every elected authority to determine the level of expenditure required to meet the needs of the people whom it represents and to answer for that decision to the electorate, not to the Secretary of State. My constituents did not...
