Essential questions

A key weapon in a Member of Parliament’s armoury is the Parliamentary question, whether sending a written question to a Government department or by asking a Minister a question on the floor of the House of Commons. The question can be used to great effect; to hold Ministers to account for their actions or to bring information into the public domain. Sometimes the most innocent looking written question can produce valuable information.
A written question to the Ministry of Defence about costs of the sale of Harrier aircraft to the United States brought interesting insights into the working of government. The Minister revealed that £1.1 million had been spent on external consultancy fees as part of the sale. Now we know about this use of public money the Ministry of Defence will think more carefully.

Welfare reform and unemployment are having a profound effect on people’s lives across the County Borough. If we are to tackle the problems we face we need information and ideas. On Monday during questions to the Department of Works and Pensions I asked about the impact the introduction of universal credit on jobs in local authority housing benefit departments. The current plan has housing benefit assessments of benefits claimants being undertaken by Job Centre Plus staff. The reply told me there is no clear idea of how this will work. In a debate on Food poverty I outlined the excellent work of Bridgend Footbank and the wide variety of people they assist. Finally in a debate on Youth Unemployment and bank bonuses I suggested that businesses could be encouraged to employ some of the 1836 unemployed young people in Bridgend if they received a year’s national insurance holiday.

Recently I asked about the number of people in the Bridgend constituency claiming incapacity benefits, the number of those likely to be assessed as being fit to work and the number of job vacancies available each month. In answering, the Government estimates around 2000 people will be taken off disability benefit locally and expected to find work in an area where there are only 500 vacancies a month. Asking questions helps to demonstrate the contradictions of current policy but also helps local business, the Council and the voluntary sector to assess need, plan spending, explore how they can tackle problems, and find ways of dealing with the results of a difficult labour market.