After driving down from the Constituency on Sunday 16th July I was able to spend time with my London team of Hannah and Jonathan before the House sat on Monday at 2.30pm. This is valuable time as we don’t always get enough planning time together due to the hustle and bustle of Westminster. I joined the APPRG (All Party Parliamentary Rail Group) for a meeting and Andy Bagnall (Chief Executive of Rail Partners) and representatives of Arriva and Transport Focus were there to discuss the new report ‘The Track to Growth: Creating a dynamic railway for passengers and the economy’.
Later I was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) for the innocuously sounding ‘The draft Postal Packets (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023’. I have written about Delegated Legislations (DLs) before, they are usually non-controversial technical amendments to legislation. Indeed, this appeared the same but as it related to aspects of parcels between Great Britain and Northern Ireland some colleagues became quite exercised by interpretations of detail and some late changes to the Committee. This resulted in some quite animated debate and the debate timing, but as the motion had been put it then becomes a ‘deferred division’. This means that rather than it sitting in the Committee a vote of the full House of Commons is required. This vote was then carried very substantially.
The main votes on Monday were the next iteration of the Immigration Bill, if you recall, last week, we had 18 consecutive votes on the amendments. These were then passed back to the House of Lords which returned nine of them to the House of Commons for further consideration and these nine were then re-returned to the House of Lords. After which I acted as PPS in the adjournment debate. The anticipation was that we would see a smaller number of the Immigration Bill amendments returned on Tuesday and then less on Wednesday to get the Bill passed, but surprisingly the Lords accepted all 9 on Monday, meaning the Bill could go for Royal Assent, which it now has. This meant that Business of the House was lighter than anticipated on Tuesday and Wednesday as space had been allocated to debate further changes.
Tuesday, I met the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) to discuss transition to electric vehicles. I also joined a meeting on banning Trophy Hunting. Then it was back-to-back sessions supporting my Ministers. First the FST (Financial Secretary to the Treasury) in a tearoom meeting – where they meet another MP to discuss an issue relevant to their portfolio – followed by the same for the EST (Economic Secretary to the Treasury) before PPSing a Westminster Hall Debate on Credit Unions and the Cost of Living, also for the EST. That evening there was an Armed Forces APPG dinner where we had Air Vice-Marshall Tamara Jennings OBE MA LLM RAF as the key speaker. Tamara is the Director of the RAF legal services and it was a fascinating insight into her world.
Wednesday included the Transport Select Committee – this time about the National Networks National Planning Statement. This, as usual, was followed by PMQs, I didn’t manage to get chosen this week but after two in a row I shouldn’t be too disappointed. We had a Transport for the North drop in and an Invest North Parliamentary reception which explored the economic strengths and investment opportunities across the North of England. We had our regular treasury team meeting with the Chancellor and Ministers before I went to the 1922 Committee where the Prime Minister came to speak. I had other meetings about improving patient outcomes in heart failure and Carbon Capture and Storage before, on Thursday, speaking in the Sir David Amess Adjournment debate.
This debate takes place just as the House adjourns for the summer. As readers will remember, Sir David was tragically killed whilst carrying out his surgery duties in Southend and the debate is named after him because he was recognised for the incredible number of subjects he crammed into this debate each year. I covered a number of subjects this year, from Menopause to Aycliffe’s 75th birthday but my main theme was about opportunity through education and I talked about how important this was; the school investment we are seeing; the improved ratings of the schools and colleges in the Sedgefield constituency; the Universities around us and the need for them all to deliver pathways for our young people that are aligned to the jobs and careers being offered by our local businesses. As the House has risen for the summer I then headed away on Friday for a week of R&R with Mrs H and then will be around the Constituency most of August if you want to catch up, then please call the office on Aycliffe 790580 or email us on Paul.Howell.MP@Parliament.UK