Contributions
1,533 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDWinter Fuel PaymentThe noble Lord knows that winter fuel payments are a devolved policy in Scotland. The Scottish Government will receive a mechanical uplift in their funding as a result of the…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I am very grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe and Lady Kramer, for their comments and questions on yesterday’s spending review Statement. It would have been…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I am grateful to my noble friend for her kind words and her good wishes. I absolutely agree with her. One of the central themes of this spending review is making sure that growth…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025My noble friend is absolutely right when she says that a lot of our capital spending is long term. I think that is perfectly right. For example, the noble Baroness earlier talked…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025My noble friend is absolutely right, and I pay tribute to the expertise that he brings to this question. In the summer of 2024, at the time of the election, prisons were operating…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025The noble Baroness and I, along with many others in this House, have discussed these issues many times before. I think she knows that what she wants and what I want and what the…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I will do exactly as my noble friend asks and pass that on. The important announcements yesterday that she mentions are incredibly welcome. The Secretary of State for Culture,…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I thank my noble friend for his question. He is absolutely right. The Government are providing the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation, and…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025Yes. The noble Baroness says that we are not spending enough on the health service. Over the next five years, £30 billion will be invested in day-to-day spending, with over £5…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I do not have the specific budget for consultants over the next few years to hand. I am more than happy to write to her with that figure if it is available. She is right that we…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. I know that he is a passionate and long-standing campaigner for the cultural sector. As outlined in the spending review…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025The right reverend Prelate set out a number of issues that he agreed with, and obviously I am grateful for his agreement with those. He talked about child poverty and he knows…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. On the specific question that he asked about whether the manifesto commitments that we have given to working people still stand,…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025Probably because of the inheritance that we faced from the party opposite, which did absolutely nothing to tackle or fund that issue. We have funded it in the spending review on…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025The noble Baroness says that we do not have to wait for it. She is absolutely correct: we do not have to wait for it because her Government introduced it. A 5% cap in council tax…12 Jun 2025HANSARDWinter Fuel PaymentOne thing that was ill-thought-through was the Liz Truss mini-Budget and the £22 billion black hole in the public finances, which is why we had to take the action that we did. It…12 Jun 2025HANSARDWinter Fuel PaymentI am grateful to my noble friend for his question and for his birthday wishes—that was very kind of him. Obviously, we had to achieve the right balance between a simple system to…12 Jun 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025I absolutely agree with my noble friend—both where she started and indeed where she ended. I completely agree about the importance of innovation and the spending that we have been…12 Jun 2025HANSARDWinter Fuel PaymentI am very grateful to the noble Baroness for her kind words. We are setting out these changes now to ensure that more pensioners are able to receive support this winter. That is…12 Jun 2025HANSARDWinter Fuel PaymentI am grateful to the right reverend Prelate for his question. I am sure that all of us have lessons to learn in life. I believe that it is very important that we reform our…12 Jun 2025