Speeches by Forster.

“It will be interesting to see what the Government make of my persuasive speech, but I thank the hon. Member for his kind words. I am sure he will not be told off for saying that from his side of the Chamber. I am happy to look into what he said about changing the pub code. One of the things I am highlighting is that we…”

“I thank all hon. Members for contributing to the debate. I welcome the cross-party support for the change to and a review of beer duty. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) and for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean), the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood), my ho…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered beer duty. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. We are here this afternoon to discuss beer. I love beer, and so does Great Britain. I secured this debate to acknowledge calls from constituents, brewers and the pub sector to call on the Government …”

“I completely agree with my hon. Friend. We were in this Chamber talking about EPR several months back; she is a fine advocate for her whole constituency, and particularly the Somerset cider industry. I talked about our need to reduce beer duty. The Chancellor announced a 1.7% reduction in alcohol duty on draught beer a…”

“My hon. Friend is right to promote his amazing community hub and pub in Barnstaple. I pass on my best wishes to Beer Matters for its award. A lot of us have concerns about the EPR rules. Under the current EPR rules, glass packaging used in pubs is wrongly classified as household waste, even though it is collected and r…”

“I agree. There is an economic argument for a small reduction in beer duty per pint, but, as she highlights, there are wider public community benefits as well. I have talked about trying to grow the economy and the fact that less tax per pint has better economic benefits. One of Labour’s key economic election promises w…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I start by complimenting the hon. Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman) not only on securing the debate but on how he introduced it; his speech was excellent. I am proud to represent Woking for many reasons, and one is our long history as a const…”

“Thank you, Chair; I will try to do that. Please can you state what you think the key factors were that led to the summer riots, and how can grievances that communities hold against each other and us be prevented to stop outbreaks of violence in the future?”

“I have two follow-ups, if I may. Dame Sara, could you give some more information about what comments you think politicians have made, which you worry that potential future rioters might have in their head to justify their actions? To the whole panel: the Children’s Commissioner—who I have worked with a fair bit—said re…”

“Will Forster, Woking.”

“Will Forster, Liberal Democrat MP for Woking in Surrey.”

“When the Chancellor gave her spending review statement, I was very disappointed that she did not use the words “local authority” or “council” once. Worse still, she granted the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government a tiny increase that we all know does not meet the challenge. It is an unfair deal to tho…”

“I am MP for Woking.”

“As the MP for Woking, I represent the most bankrupt and indebted local authority in the country. I was very disappointed, therefore, that it appeared that the Chancellor did not mention councils or local government once in her statement. I am more disappointed, having listened to the detail of the statement, that the G…”

“Thank you, Chair. I want to follow up, Joanna, on your answer to the Chair. Could you tell us how many times default notices have been given? I thought that was quite an interesting answer. You said that the contractors respond differently. Most of the time, do they up their game rather than you going into a formal dis…”

“Thank you, Minister. I am pleased that they are implied, but why are they implied and not actual targets that would focus minds? If we fell over outside this building, we would go to hospital. There are clear waiting time targets and other health targets on this fundamental finance issue, but also for some of the most …”

“Do you have targets for reducing the overseas aid spending?”

“I think the Committee would find that helpful, or I certainly would. If you do not have the full details in front of you, which I completely understand, do you think there is a general trend of the disputes going up or going down, or has it been static for some time?”

“My constituency is home to a growing number of people from Hong Kong who have been forced to flee their homeland as a result of actions by China. I appreciate what the Minister says about this being a quasi-legal matter, and the fact that a Foreign Office Minister is sat next to him speaks volumes about how this is not…”

“I welcome this Government’s U-turn. Countless pensioners in Woking suffered last winter, so I am pleased that that will not continue. The Minister stated that £36,000 is the threshold that he and the Government have chosen because it is the average earnings. Will the Government commit to increasing that threshold going…”