HC Deb 21 June 1990 vol 174 cc1107-10
Q1. Mr. Ronnie Campbell

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 June.

The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)

This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today, including one with the Mayor of Paris, Mr. Jacques Chirac, and this evening I shall preside at a dinner in honour of the Crown Prince of Morocco.

Mr. Campbell

Will the Prime Minister commission an inquiry by the social services inspectorate into establishing the allegations that staff shortages in Wandsworth council resulted in the death of a three-year-old child?

The Prime Minister

No. Obviously that tragic case affected us all greviously. As the hon. Gentleman is aware, the death of that child occurred in August 1989. The details of the case are being thoroughly looked into. Wandsworth council had already spent a great deal on that case, including at one stage removing that family to another place of residence at the cost of some £15,000. They were moved to a residential home and then back into a council house. Wandsworth has a very good record on social workers, having about 4 per cent. more social workers in relation to its population than other inner London authorities. This is a tragic case. Of course, there has been an inquiry and the recommendations of that inquiry will be accepted.

Mr. Teddy Taylor

Is my right hon. Friend at all concerned that on Tuesday the European Court instructed our courts to consider interim relief from sections of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 although the House of Lords decided that it had no powers to do so? Until we accept that European law is supreme over our own law, is not it a dangerous development that the court is effectively taking on the power to suspend sections of laws passed by this Parliament? Will not that open up the possibility and likelihood that groups and individuals will seek relief from laws passed by this Parliament simply by going to the European Court and claiming that they have lost as a consequence of those laws?

The Prime Minister

I share my hon. Friend's concern about that judgment. As he said, since the European Communities Act 1972, our courts have been obliged to protect rights under Community law, but the European Court has now said that where those rights are impaired by British law, our courts have the power to grant an injunction until the main case is heard. That applies to what my hon. Friend said, although the injunction may affect the operation of an Act of our own Parliament. The European Court has left it to our courts to decide whether or not to exercise that power. The case in question now goes back to our courts to decide whether the power to give interim relief should be used. We shall argue strongly that it should not. Meanwhile, the position on fishing rights remains unchanged. I should point out that the European Court's decision applies to all European countries, not only to the United Kingdom.

Mr. Kinnock

Does the Prime Minister agree with the statement that the proposals put forward by the Chancellor last night are a very useful intermediate step towards "a Single European Currency"—the view, and indeed the words, of the Governor of the Bank of England?

The Prime Minister

That is not quite what my right hon. Friend the Chancellor said, in a most excellent and constructive speech—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order.

The Prime Minister

—which has been very widely welcomed as building on the present position, going forward in an evolutionary way. We should bear it in mind that many other countries may wish to join the Community, and not make it more difficult for them to do so. The speech does not mean that we approve of a single European currency; it says specifically that we do not. It provides for a common European currency, which each country may use if it wishes to do so. That does not therefore take away from our sovereignty. It provides a way of trying to get inflation down by reference to a hard ecu. I was not quite sure whether the right hon. Gentleman said that he had read the speech or, if he had read it, whether he understood it.

Mr. Kinnock

By all means, I have read the speech. I wonder whether the Chancellor explained to the right hon. Lady that if the idea that he put forward were accepted, with the European Monetary Fund and the hard ecu, it would be the final surrender of monetary sovereignty by Britain, as sterling moved into the hard ecu. Does she take that into account in the view that she expresses about what the Chancellor said?

The Prime Minister

The purpose of that speech, and that proposal, is precisely that we do not surrender control over our monetary policy. Of course, we wish to use monetary policy in a way that gets inflation down, but the proposal does not surrender control over that policy.

Mr. Kinnock

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady. These are important matters. Is she saying, in the responses that she has made thus far, that when the Governor of the Bank of England said to the House of Lords yesterday that a European Monetary Fund and a hard ecu would, and I quote him precisely, be a very useful intermediate step between the … existing EC currencies and a single EC currency he was wrong?

The Prime Minister

I suggest that the right hon. Gentleman reads more carefully the speech of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, which proposes building on the existing ecu—the City has already issued securities denominated in ecu—to have a hard ecu, which could become a common European currency available for countries to use if they so choose. It retains the choice and it retains sterling.

Mr. Speaker

We now come to Question 3.

Hon. Members

Order.

Mr. Speaker

Order. It is all right. I shall come back to Question 2.

Q3. Mr. Bill Walker

To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 June:

The Prime Minister

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Walker

Is my right hon. Friend aware that in the 11 years of her leadership the economy in Scotland has been transformed into a dynamic, vibrant and modern economy? Will she confirm that she has no plans to introduce an assembly Act, which would give Scotland an assembly in Edinburgh with tax-raising powers and which would place in jeopardy that modern, vibrant economy?

The Prime Minister

I agree with my hon. Friend. Scotland is doing better than ever before because of this Government's policies, which Scotland has taken to very well indeed and is using profitably to her own advantage.

We have no plans to introduce an assembly. If one took into account all Scotland's own spending, with Scotland having to bear all its own expenditure, it would mean an additional 20p on the standard rate of income tax in Scotland.