The plans for today and this week in Parliament only indicate one contribution from a Sussex MP which is happening this afternoon. The Public Accounts Committee which includes Jeremy Quin discussing the theme “Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service”. The committee is responding to the National Audit Office (NAO) which published an article in February this year describing it as “This guide provides insights and good practice for people who deal with whistleblowers, investigate concerns or manage whistleblowing processes in the civil service.” They go on to state that “Whistleblowing is a vital organisational protection. It provides a way for organisations to hear concerns about serious wrongdoing that may not otherwise be discovered.”

Last week sadly no Sussex MP’s participated in the planned session about “Financial Risk Checks for Gambling” which was set out from the e-petition 649894 which is listed as “Stop the implementation of betting affordability/financial risk checks”

Reviewing items from earlier debates is worth a look at when the information becomes available. In the previous week beginning on 19^th of February there was some interesting voting that took place. On the Monday there were three votes for the “Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill” but what was odd was that all three votes covered “Clause 1 – Duty to invite applications for offshore licences”. The clause had 3 parts in its content. Part one was approved by the SNP and the Plaid Cymru and opposed by the Conservatives and the DUP.  There were no votes from the Labour, Liberal Democrats or indeed Caroline Lucas for the Green Party. Labour and the SNPs were in favour of the second part which was opposed by the Conservatives and DUP. The third part saw Conservatives and DUP vote in favour but it was rejected by all of the other Parties. Inevitably the Conservative group is large enough to be successful in its requests. In Sussex most of the Conservatives did vote along with the Government but Peter Bottomley and Tim Loughton did not vote for any of the parts of the clause. Interestingly Peter Kyle who did vote in favour of the second part of the clause but did not vote against the Government on the third part of the clause. Caroline Lucas and Lloyd Russell-Moyle both participated in the discussion about Offshore Petroleum with two statements from Lloyd and five from Caroline. The first call from Caroline was stated

“it might be useful to remind Conservative Members that, according to the UN production gap report, Governments are already planning for their existing developments to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than is consistent with keeping global heating to 1.5°C or below?”. 

On the following day there were two other votes that took place, they were both very different. The first was entitled “Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Reform)” This issue was raised by Therese Coffey a previous cabinet minister and Conservative MP for Suffolk with an aim of supporting local community transport groups in seeking appropriate drivers’ licences. People have had to pay £2000 or £3000 to do a course and pass a test in order to obtain a a licence which for not-for-profit organisations is a considerable amount of money. The Community Transport Association support the opportunity to bring about a Bill- to change the law on this issue including Bexhill Community Bus which stated “We are a small Community Bus operator, and we rely on persons with D1 on their licence. We are facing a future when Cat B drivers lose their automatic right to drive a mini bus and would face the expense of training all the new volunteer drivers’’. The Labour party did not appear to endorse the Motor Vehicle reform and in Sussex most of the Conservatives did not vote at all except Tim Loughton who voted in favour of reform and Peter Kyle who voted against. The Motor Vehicle reform vote was ignored by Caroline and Lloyd which across the whole of the UK saw 59 MP’s vote in favour and 79 voting in opposition.

The second vote of the day was the “Ceasefire in Gaza”, gaining only 9 Aye’s which were Conservatives and 210 No’s which were 175 Labour, 24 Conservatives, 3 DUPs and several Independent voters. The three Sussex MPs who voted against it were Caroline Lucas, Peter Kyle and Lloyd. Caroline also submitted a question on the next day, stated,

“exports to Israel of the press notice by Amnesty International entitled Israel/OPT: New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza causing mass civilian casualties amid real risk of genocide” The answer from Greg Hands began with “The Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel and Gaza.”

The Gaza ceasefire vote process caused significant challenge described widely across the news channels and here from the BBC; “Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke with convention to allow the vote during a debate, sparking fury from SNP and Conservative MPs. He said he allowed the vote  to protect MPs’ safety, but it saw the Commons descend into acrimony. Sir Lindsay later apologised, but still faces calls to resign.” Lindsay has since apologised but the BBC news describes the Health Minister “Maria Caulfield claimed the decision was made “under undue pressure” from Labour, and accused Sir Lindsay of “putting party politics” above his obligation as Speaker to be impartial.” Sally-Ann Hart and Peter Kyle from Sussex both contributed to the debate.