Contributions
1,131 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTax System: Fairness1. What recent steps he has taken to ensure fairness in the application of the tax system.06 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesIt is a great pleasure to make this statement on behalf of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee about its report “Financial distress in local authorities”. Let me…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesI thank the hon. Gentleman—I call him my Select Committee Friend—because he has been part of all these debates and always the Committee report was unanimous. He is absolutely…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesI recognise the particular problems in Birmingham. Some councils that have issued section 114 notices have specific problems; we know about the equal pay issues in Birmingham, for…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesI thank my hon. Friend for his question. We clearly set out that the problem is due to a cut in funding. That is the result of a reduction in the central Government grant, with…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesIf it was in my gift, of course I would give Barnsley the money it is asking for today, but unfortunately it is not. In another report, the Committee was fairly critical of the…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesI completely agree that it should be made fairer. The only caveat I would add is that one authority’s system of fair funding is another authority’s unfair funding, which is always…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesI thank my hon. Friend for his question. The report says that not every section 144 notice can be blamed on the Government. There will be circumstances in which councils get…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesI thank my hon. Friend for that question. Yes, it certainly is doing so. I have just produced a report about local government audit. There is a real problem there. If accounts…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Financial Distress in Local AuthoritiesWhile I might not completely agree with the Minister’s prayers, I agree that if we are to sort this out for the long term, particularly social care funding, we need a system that…01 Feb 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and Referendumsrose—31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsI have been listening to what the Minister is saying with a bit of disbelief. If the commission will not have to take any notice of the statement or act on it, but need only have…31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsI am listening to the Minister reading out a list of the things that the commission is obliged to do by law anyway, so why he has to restate them in this paper, I do not know. The…31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsDoes the hon. Lady not accept that comparing this with other regulators is profoundly confusing? They are different. Regulating the water industry, with the Government quite…31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsI am speaking today as Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee and a member of the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission. I also declare my interest…31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsAbsolutely. No consequences are laid out for what will happen if the statement is not followed by the Electoral Commission.31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsYes, perhaps the Government ought to pay more attention to those problems rather than to one that seems not to exist. The Minister has not told us what problems the statement is…31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsI think the Minister is going to help us with that.31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsThe Minister’s right hon. friend the Member for Norwich North raised it, and she was the Minister who took the Bill through Parliament, so it is worth taking seriously what she…31 Jan 2024HANSARD Political Parties, Elections and ReferendumsI am sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am just trying to encourage the Minister to be helpful to us. Obviously I am struggling in that regard.31 Jan 2024