Engagements — House of Commons, 2015-03-18
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: When this Government took office, metal theft was rife, especially in the black country. This Government listened to the all-party group on combating metal theft, banned cash payments, and passed the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013. Once my right hon. Friend has been returned for another term as Prime Minister, what more will he do to ensure that instances of this abhorrent crime reduce still further so that no more church roofs get horrendously damaged and no more trains get stopped in their tracks as a result of sheer greed?; One in four patients is waiting more than a week for a GP appointment, and some in my constituency are waiting two weeks. A third cannot even get through on the phone, but 23% of London GPs are due to quit the NHS in the next five years. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for the increasing crisis in GPs on his watch?; The black country economy in the west midlands has been one of the fastest growing local economies of any region in the United Kingdom over the last two years, with more investment in manufacturing, new high-skill jobs, more exports and better opportunities for local people in my constituency. Would the Prime Minister agree that as part of our long-term economic plan, the people in the black country can be proud of that industrial revival, and be confident in saying that things are made in the black country and sold around the world?; In January, John Smedley in Clay Cross announced that it was making 21 seamstresses redundant. It took nearly two months before someone from the Jobcentre Plus rapid response team went in to see those women. The response was unsympathetic, unhelpful and anything but rapid. What has happened to rapid response and why have those workers been so badly let down?; The unemployment count in Redditch at the end of the year had fallen to below 850 for the first time since 2005. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it would be catastrophic for the hard-working people of Redditch if that was undone by the Labour party?; The Prime Minister will be well aware of the hard work that went into the Smith agreement. He will be as disappointed as I am to see the front page of the Daily Record today showing four Scottish National party councillors burning that very agreement. Not only did they escape discipline; one of them was actually promoted. Are these the actions of a party that seeks to increase its representation in this place?
David William Donald Cameron (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to say how serious this is. It is right that not only is there an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into what happened in the police force, but that a separate part of the Metropolitan police is carrying out an in-depth investigation, Operation Fairbank, into what happened. Added to that, we now have the overarching Justice Goddard review to look at institutional failings in discovering child sexual abuse. What I would say to my hon. Friend and others in the House who I know are very interested in this issue is that we will do everything we can to get to the bottom of what happened. Anyone who is worried about whether people will be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for coming forward with information should be reassured by the assurances that have been given by the Attorney-General and the Home Secretary. It is in everybody’s interest that we get absolutely to the bottom of what happened. If people should be punished for their failures, they should be.