PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

1575 Easter Adjournment
26 MARCH 2013 Easter Adjournment
1576
[Mr Stewart Jackson]
dear to my heart is the Sue Ryder hospice at Thorpe
Hall. A grade I listed building which was the home of
Oliver St John—Oliver Cromwell’s money man—it is
no longer fit for purpose as a hospice. The fundraising
committee, of which I was a member for five years, is
raising money for a purpose-built £6 million 22-bedroom
hospice on the site. We desperately need the funds for
that and good work is being done. So my city is generous
and it is raising money for good causes.
May I end by wishing all hon. Members, you, Mr Deputy
Speaker, the Speaker, the Chairman of Ways and Means
and all staff a happy, peaceful and restful Easter recess?
6.24 pm
Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab): May I begin
by apologising to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, the House
and the Deputy Leader of the House for that fact that I
will not be able to stay for the duration of the debate? I
congratulate the hon. Member for Peterborough
(Mr Jackson) on his contribution, as he took the
opportunity to raise a kaleidoscope of issues. I also
congratulate you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and the Backbench
Business Committee on this excellent initiative that I
am taking advantage of for the first time. Although I do
not agree with the hon. Gentleman on tax breaks for
married couples, I hope that he would extend them to
same-sex couples who choose to marry.
Such great issues of human rights have been raised by
the hon. Gentleman and by the hon. Member for Bradford
West (George Galloway), who discussed child poverty, a
shameful and deepening scar on this country. However,
I wish to be a little more parochial and concentrate on
issues closer to home. This may feel like groundhog day
to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, as I spoke about the future
of Cockenzie power station in yesterday’s Budget debate,
but it is an issue of real importance to my constituency.
Cockenzie’s coal-fired power station closed on Friday
15 March, after 45 years of electricity generation which
powered approximately 1 million homes every year
during the station’s lifetime. Some 10,000 people have
been employed there during its lifetime, through
construction and generation. In some cases, three
generations of families have been involved in the plant.
It was a sad and emotional day when we saw those
grown men in their hard hats having soft hearts about
the closure of such an important part of East Lothian’s
history, which has made such a great contribution to its
economy. For many, including me, as I frequently fly
into Edinburgh airport, its twin chimney stacks are the
place that marks home.
I wish to praise ScottishPower, which has a good
record in managing such closures. I praise the way in
which it has worked with the trade unions in the workplace
and with individual employees to ensure that there have
been no compulsory redundancies. Many employees are
moving to other stations, while others have opted for
retirement or severance voluntarily. Having said that,
this was still a tough day for East Lothian, as Cockenzie
now lies like a sleeping giant, waiting for a decision
from this Government.
There has been uncertainty about the future of Cockenzie
for some time, and I do not lay this all at the door of
this Government; the previous administration in East
Lothian council, a Scottish National party-Lib Dem
coalition, opposed planning permission for the plant’s
conversion to gas. Fortunately, that decision was overturned
by Scottish Ministers, who are also from the SNP—
indecision is not limited to those on the Government
Benches. Thankfully, we have a new administration in
East Lothian council, a Labour-Conservative coalition—
that is how democracy can be at times. It results from
the single transferable vote, and I do not think it is a
coalition we will ever see replicated in this place.
ScottishPower is calling for clarity on a capacity
mechanism for thermal generation in the Energy Bill.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the shareholders of
Iberdrola—the Spanish owner of ScottishPower—its
chief executive officer, Mr Galan, said that ScottishPower
would increase its planned UK spend of £10 billion by
£3 billion to build new gas-fired power stations, but
uncertainty caused by market conditions and a lack of
clarity from the UK Government was holding back that
further investment. Some of that money could be used
to refurbish the station at Cockenzie, creating 1,000
construction jobs in my constituency in the process and
with further knock-on benefits to the local economy.
When completed, it would be a welcome source of
skilled jobs and apprenticeships for young people in my
constituency. I urge the Deputy Leader of the House to
take that message back to the Department of Energy
and Climate Change. This is an opportunity for investment
in the UK and in my constituency to create jobs and to
keep the lights on.
6.29 pm
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con): Not long ago, a
Slovak national, Mr Peter Pavlisin, badly beat up his
pregnant Gloucester girlfriend, Natasha Motala, threatened
her with death and had to be subdued by several policemen.
He was sentenced to four years in prison in the Gloucester
Crown court and the judge revealed during sentencing
that during Mr Pavlisin’s four years in the UK he had
been convicted of 14 offences from 21 charges. When I
read that in our local paper, The Citizen, my immediate
reaction was relief for my constituent Natasha, who
had given birth safely, and for my other constituents, as
the criminal would be off the streets of Gloucester.
There was something missing, however. Where was the
instruction to the courts to deport the prisoner at the
end of his sentence?
I rang the judge and he explained that judges have the
authority to deport non-EU nationals but not EU
nationals. That can only be decided by the Home Secretary.
I did more research, and I discovered that if an EU
national is sentenced to more than two years, or 12 months
for certain crimes, the National Offender Management
Service is supposed to make recommendations to the
Home Secretary on deportation some months before
that sentence is over. That system is unsatisfactory in
several ways. First, the victims, the court, the media and
the community are unaware of it. No one in Gloucester
knows that Mr Pavlisin should be deported in due
course. As the judge is silent on the issue—indeed,
judges have to be—the implication is that he will not be
deported and will emerge with a strong likelihood of
extending his frequent appearances in our courts.
Secondly, there is no clear responsibility for action,
no audit trail and no measurement of the Ministry of
Justice’s ability to ensure that dangerous EU nationals