Public Bill Committee: Taxation of Pensions Bill: New Clause 3 - Pension flexibility: Treasury review (18 Nov 2014)
Henry Smith: Does the hon. Lady concede that other countries have gone down the route of allowing greater flexibility when people reach retirement? I am thinking of Denmark and Australia. There is already a lot of evidence that people can be trusted to be responsible with choices about their pension funds.
Henry Smith: Does the hon. Lady acknowledge that greater choice already exists in markets in other sensible countries, such as Australia and Denmark, and that we are talking not about some highly experimental new system but about something that will extend choice for UK pensioners as well?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Clause 58 - Embarkation checks (12 Nov 2013)
Henry Smith: TUI Travel, which operates Thomson Airways, is located in my constituency. I spoke to the company yesterday and it confirmed that it had met the Home Office yesterday morning. The company has expressed some concerns about the operation of schedule 7. However, I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for the clarifications and reassurances that he has given this morning.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Clause 33 - Immigration health charge (7 Nov 2013)
Henry Smith: Will my hon. Friend acknowledge that we are not sure that there is any other country in the developed world that offers unlimited free health care to overseas students, and that most students studying abroad are used to paying a fee to access public health services or else having to take out some form of insurance?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Schedule 3 - Excluded residential tenancy agreements (7 Nov 2013)
Henry Smith: I should put on the record my interests, as declared in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am grateful for the Government’s clarification on this point. In my constituency, the Crawley Open House shelter provides support for many people who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances. I am grateful that the Bill takes those circumstances into account.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witness (31 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: My constituency casework includes quite a lot of immigration cases. I frequently come across people who have paid a significant sum to solicitors to help them with their case and who may not have received a fair service. Do you welcome the Bill’s provision for tighter regulation of those who give advice on immigration issues?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witness (31 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: You highlighted the importance of due process in your submission. I do not think anybody in this Committee Room will disagree with you on that. Do you think it is in the interests of due process that it should be balanced? I mention that with particular reference to clause 14, which deals with rebalancing article 8 rights under the European convention on human rights.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witness (31 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Balanced in the public interest in relation to article 8.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witness (31 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Given that there has been widespread public concern about some judgments on the basis of article 8 of the European convention on human rights, do you think it is reasonable for Parliament to seek to express those concerns—we try to do that democratically—by amending legislation in clause 14?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that you said a few moments ago that the number of overseas students coming to UK universities is levelling off. Surely that cannot be as a result of provisions that are not yet law.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Would you agree that the UK has, by most international standards, some of the top universities anywhere in the world and that people come here because of the quality of teaching and of research? They are not really going to be put off by a modest £150 health levy on their student visa.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Finally, universities in the United States are well-subscribed to by foreign students and yet the cost of going to college in the US is among the highest in the world by some way. Does that not indicate that it is about quality of teaching, research and facilities at those higher education institutions rather than the cost? If somebody is looking to get a good degree or to further their...
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Welcome to you both, Professor Thomas and Ms Bishop. From your evidence, and also from Freedom of Information Act requests that I sent to every health trust last year, it seems that what system there is to recover costs from overseas foreign nationals being treated on the NHS is haphazard at best and non-existent in most circumstances. From what you are saying, the NHS is clearly not geared...
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: I appreciate that you cannot speak for the whole of the NHS; you are representing your positions at the Royal Marsden and Brighton and Sussex University hospitals. Can you give an idea from your experience of the percentage of foreign or overseas patients you are treating through your various different institutions? Are we talking 5%, 10%?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: What percentage of landlords go through a managed company setting—that is, how many landlords use agents, on average? Is it 90%? Is it 75%?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Would it be correct to say that letting agents have become used to having to take on different requirements in legislation? For example, most recently they had to take on the deposit insurance scheme system that was introduced a few years ago.
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Would it be correct to say that letting agents are used to periodically having to redo credit checks and fulfil other requirements to update regularly?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: So would it be fair to say that for the more than half of landlords who let their properties through agencies, it is common practice that regulations and guidelines change—the law changes—and that in the past such changes have been successfully managed by letting agents?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Can you envisage a situation in which the proposals in the Bill might be helpful to the letting agent industry, in that more landlords would be more likely to let through a managed setting, as somebody else would be dealing professionally with the complexity of running their lettings?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Given your extensive research in this area, how much of a draw is our virtually unchecked national health service for people coming to this country, particularly illegally but also more generally?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: We heard earlier that countries such as France, Spain, Germany, Canada and Australia manage to recover the costs of treating overseas visitors and foreign nationals and are able to screen their treatments. Indeed, when I was abroad this summer, I had to access primary health care; I paid the bill and recovered the costs on my health insurance. Why can we not do that in this country?
Public Bill Committee: Immigration Bill: Examination of Witnesses (29 Oct 2013)
Henry Smith: Turning to public health, are the provisions in the Bill sufficient to ensure that treatments for conditions like tuberculosis are properly covered?
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Clause 7 - Electronic communications code: the need to promote growth (29 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: I have viewed some of the hon. Lady’s comments with a sense of absurdity. I wonder whether rural communities in the 19th century railed against red pillar boxes being installed, when that was the main method of communication. Surely green broadband boxes would be less offensive, although of course we all love the red pillar box now.
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Clause 7 - Electronic communications code: the need to promote growth (29 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: In the newly created South Downs national park in my county, West Sussex, that is precisely what communities and businesses are saying. It is perfectly reasonable, and in fact necessary, to achieve economic growth by supporting such 21st-century infrastructure.
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Clause 5 - Modification or discharge of affordable housing requirements (27 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: Is it not also the case that when the previous Government left office, house building was at its lowest level since the 1920s?
Henry Smith: I was a local authority leader during that time and I distinctly remember the undemocratic regional assemblies that sought to force planning decisions on elected local governments, which I am glad this Government have swept away.
Henry Smith: Does my right hon. Friend believe that this should allay the fears of organisations such as the Local Government Association that the measure goes against localism? Is not the reality, in a pragmatic sense, that it does nothing of the kind and is only an extreme measure for extreme circumstances, which is perfectly reasonable?
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Examination of Witnesses (20 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: Clearly, there is not a lot of enthusiasm from the witnesses for the employee ownership part of the Bill. However, if Parliament were minded to go ahead with this part of the Bill, what sort of safeguards would you like to see? What safeguards would you think were the most important to preserve?
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Examination of Witnesses (13 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: Clause 4 of this proposed legislation discusses restricting the amount of information that planning authorities can demand an applicant to produce. What effect do you think that will have from your perspectives?
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Examination of Witnesses (13 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: Do your members raise as a complaint or a concern the cost of having to gather additional information when submitting plans to local authorities? Earlier, we heard an anecdotal example about flood assessments needing to be done for an application on the top of a hill. Is that something your members come to you about?
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Examination of Witnesses (13 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: Clause 4 talks about restricting the amount of information that applicants would have to supply to planning authorities. What evidence do you have that too much information being required is a problem and a barrier to planning applications getting approval?
Public Bill Committee: Growth and Infrastructure Bill: Examination of Witnesses (13 Nov 2012)
Henry Smith: So the cost of additional consultants is a significant barrier that prevents applicants from submitting applications to planning authorities.
Henry Smith: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Clause 83 - Information for benefit of users of air transport services (13 Mar 2012)
Henry Smith: Returning to the UK from several recent visits, I have been impressed that the e-passport system has had no queues whatsoever, which makes it a significant contributor to speeding up access back into the country for UK and other EEA citizens.
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Clause 78 - Aviation security directions etc (8 Mar 2012)
Henry Smith: On Monday, in Washington, I met Homeland Security officials from the Transportation Security Administration. Profiling carried out by US and British authorities is far more sophisticated than simply profiling people crudely; it includes looking at how tickets are purchased and whether cash is used. Other sophisticated profiling methods are used. That has to be beneficial for the security of...
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Clause 18 - Licence conditions (1 Mar 2012)
Henry Smith: I am pleased that the hon. Lady singled out Heathrow rather than Gatwick. During last winter’s heavy snowfall, Gatwick airport was closed for only a matter of hours. It was actually the condition of the roads around the airport that prevented people from travelling, so I want to ensure that the record accurately reflects that Gatwick has the capacity to deal with extreme weather conditions.
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Clause 9 - Operators of areas (1 Mar 2012)
Henry Smith: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Clause 9 - Operators of areas (1 Mar 2012)
Henry Smith: Was it not under the previous Government and the Office of the Rail Regulator that the dedicated Gatwick Express service ended and became fragmented? We need to bear in mind that the Gatwick Express has been reduced as a dedicated airport service because of the Department for Transport’s actions under the previous Government.
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Examination of Witnesses (23 Feb 2012)
Henry Smith: The Bill talks about the possibility of inter-terminal competition within an airport. I would be grateful for your views on whether that would be an advantage for passengers, or whether it will cause problems.
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Examination of Witness (23 Feb 2012)
Henry Smith: Following on from Mr Woodcock’s question, I agree with your assessment that as much information as possible is important. With specific regard to environmental data, which the CAA will have a duty to publish under the Bill, do you think that will really affect passenger choice as to which airport they use? Or is this just an additional piece of information? Will it change travel habits...
Public Bill Committee: Civil Aviation Bill: Examination of Witnesses (21 Feb 2012)
Henry Smith: What is the view of the panel about the culpability of airports when it comes to ground transportation, which obviously can be a significant aspect of air pollution around airports but is not necessarily in the control of individual airport operators?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 102 (1 Mar 2011)
Henry Smith: The hon. Gentleman mentioned the future of the Design Council. My local authority, West Sussex county council, put together a design commission of local architects and community representatives. Is not that sort of local solution the best way forward, rather than some top-heavy centralised system?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Schedule 9 (17 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: I should like to extend that questioning. A large part of my constituency consists of London Gatwick airport. Could that facility be considered a neighbourhood?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 94 (17 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Will my right hon. Friend reassure us that when developers are paying under section 106 agreements, they will not face effectively double taxation by paying the CIL as well?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 89 (15 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: In a minute, I am expecting the right hon. Gentleman to claim that the US sub-prime mortgage market has held down house building in this country. Is it not the case that his party was elected in 1997 and the economic downturn hit in 2007? Why was house building in that decade not as high as the top-down method would suggest it should have been?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 89 (15 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: As someone who proudly represents a post-war new town, I have to say that over the past 13 years virtually no social housing was built until a couple of months ago. That was as a direct result of the resistance to the top-down approach. Surely incentivising local communities with greater community benefits is how to get round the nimby attitude that has been referred to this afternoon.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 89 (15 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Does the hon. Gentleman not concede that the old, top-down regional planning system was highly undemocratic? As a local authority leader, I remember it being a disaster in terms of the number of houses built, which was the lowest since the 1920s.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 54 (8 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Before our break this afternoon, Opposition Members said a lot about how referendums as proposed were too easy to hold, or could be called on trivial matters. Now there seems to be an inconsistency, as the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich says the matter would need to go to the full council. It would have thought that he would welcome the provision.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 39 (8 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Will the hon. Lady give way?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 39 (8 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Does the hon. Lady not accept that referendums are more objective, empirical and scientific than petitions, which are more subjective, although they can be useful?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 27 (3 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: It is telling that in the previous legislation councils were asked to represent themselves as being democratic. Those comments have a certain irony, because the Bill will make councils and local authorities truly democratic and will mean local government, rather than local administration, which is what we have largely had up till now. The passage of the Bill, rather than some words in...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Schedule 2 (1 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Will the hon. Lady give way?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Schedule 2 (1 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: There are indeed examples from around the world of political and administrative roles being combined at the top. I know that we are talking about a localism Bill, but perhaps the most famous example is the President of the United States.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 8 (1 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: The hon. Gentleman’s argument would have more credibility if it had not been for his party in Government, which sought to impose regional fire offices on the fire service across the country, costing £250 million.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 8 (1 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: I have been fascinated to hear the tour around Europe and the Commonwealth with regard to how local government operates; I am just perplexed about why that research was not carried out during the last 13 years and why the Labour Government did not enact any such thing. The general power of competence does many of the things described in other countries and therefore represents a radical shift...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill: Clause 5 (1 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: Earlier on Labour Members were complaining that there was no codification of the relationship between central and local government. Yet here we see a very strong protection of the rights of local government. I am therefore perplexed about why Labour Members object.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (1 Feb 2011)
Henry Smith: My wife is a member of Crawley borough council.
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (27 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: Mr Lewis earlier asserted that the Bill would increase participation in the electoral process as people felt more empowered. I certainly agree with that. If one takes this with the health Bill and proposed changes to policing legislation, I think that is certainly true. Do you think that the changes to predetermination will help elected representatives get closer to their communities in...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (27 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: With regard to house building numbers, do you think that greater community involvement will increase the level of housing supply?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (27 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: I am hearing very strongly made points about infrastructure from you this morning and, of course, housing is a key part of that. Would you accept that, during the past decade, almost counter-intuitively, the top-down regional approach to both planning and the raising of business rates, and the redistribution of business rates through the Treasury in Whitehall, has not delivered on...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (27 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: If I may interject, market forces over the past decade, or the past couple of years?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: I would contend—I think the evidence shows this, and we were discussing this earlier on—that house building over the last decade has been the lowest since the 1920s. I would argue that, ironically, the top-down process of planning has not worked. How do you believe that local people can be incentivised to accept much-needed housing for their areas?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: I do not doubt that there is evidence on the need for housing. One reason why people have objected to housing is that they get the pain but they do not get any gain. I am trying to tease out in what ways people can be much more accepting of a development, when they see that they will get something for their community and do not just have more congested roads and more crowded doctors’...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: On the duty in the Bill for authorities to co-operate, do you think it is about right or could it be strengthened or weakened?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: We just had a question from Barbara Keeley about lifetime tenancy agreements and perhaps ending them for new entrants to social housing. Is there a case for ending lifetime tenancy agreements to ensure the availability of a flexible housing mix? For example, when children leave home, if we did not have a couple in a three or four-bedroom house, perhaps the housing stock could be used more...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: Would you like the right of presumption written into the Bill, and the right of third party appeal?
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: I cannot let this opportunity with two eminent professors—I think that I counted 90 years’ experience between them—go without pursuing an earlier point, which was about the perceived tension between elected local members and community groups. How do you believe that that tension could be resolved? Do you think that community groups have a greater role in scrutiny of local...
Public Bill Committee: Localism Bill (25 Jan 2011)
Henry Smith: Obviously the Bill deals with communities and democracy. Do you think that the concept of communities is too finely or too vaguely prescribed? This is a point that Mr McInroy was touching on in terms of the role of elected representatives in the interface with communities.
