Week in Westminster
25 March 2008
Monday morning, Gordon is at Clackmannanshire Council to meet with Education Director Jim Goodall. After the meeting, it was back to the Alloa Constituency Office to meet with staff from Perth and Kinross Council and residents of Balado to talk about the local communities objections to the sand and gravel extraction facility in the area.
After the meetings, Gordon began his trip down to Westminster to attend to Parliamentary business.
On Tuesday, Gordon quizzed Health Minister Ivan Lewis as part of his ongoing campaign to change the UK’s system of Organ Donation. Mr Banks sought clarification that all UK Health Ministers in the Devolved Administrations accepted the recommendations of the recent Organ Donation Taskforce report and urged the Government to continue its discussions to ensure that the issue of Organ Donation is given a UK wide solution.
Later that day Gordon met representatives of UK Transplant to discuss issues in preparation for Gordon’s debate on Organ Donation scheduled for the following day.
On Wednesday, Gordon was again in the Chamber questioning the Prime Minister on his statement regarding the National Security Strategy. Mr Banks was keen to establish what role UK industry could play a new civilian defence strategy. The Prime Minister highlighted the new strategy for defence industries which was published last month and noted that it was an important part of building confidence in this country's defence manufacturing industries.
Later in the day saw Gordon attend the Inaugural meeting of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Land Maintenance to which Gordon was appointed as Secretary. The new group will take evidence from interested parties and aims to produce a report in the near future highlighting the points made in the process and pushing for change where necessary.
After Parliamentary business closed in the House, Gordon led the Adjournment Debate on the subject of Organ Donation. The debate was part of Mr Banks campaign to urge the UK Government to move toward an ‘opt out’ system for Organ Donation. The debate was responded to by Health Minister Dawn Primarolo and she announced that the Government was supportive of the recent recommendations made in the Organ Donation Taskforce paper. She also announced that Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, has agreed to head the group tasked with taking forward their implementation.
On Thursday, Gordon spoke out in question time on Women and Equality matters when he asked what the Government was doing to increase women’s participation in Politics. Government Minister Harriet Harman responded by saying that the current Government has introduced legislation to allow political parties to use women-only shortlists for selection which has been one of the most effective ways of increasing women's representation. She also stated that it was the Government’s intention to legislate in the new equality Bill to extend the right of political parties to have women-only shortlists until 2030.
After the Question, Gordon returned to the constituency to continue his engagements.
On Friday morning, Gordon took part in an interview with Insight Radio to discuss the recent RNIB/Diabetes Roadshow which he took part in last week in Alloa.
In the afternoon, Gordon was in Crieff to hold a surgery and to meet with constituents.
The week didn’t stop there and on Saturday Gordon spoke to the Ochil & South Perthshire Labour Party about his work over the past year before meeting constituents in Alloa