Speeches by Dixon.

“I would like to move us on to look at some of the effects of the prison capacity crisis. In particular, I would like to start by considering the impact on prisoners and prisoner outcomes. The Report lays bare—and we have also received quite a lot of evidence on this matter—that, in particular, overcrowding results in p…”

“Does the hon. Member agree that the investment in and setting up of GB Energy, the location of which is not far from his constituency, will ensure that the transition to clean, green energy generation happens quickly, and that the failure to invest happened on the Conservatives’ watch?”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“The hon. Lady talks about protecting a unique habitat. In my Shipley constituency we have peat bogs, the restoration of which is essential for limiting climate change. It is estimated that the Great North bog stores 400 million tonnes of carbon. The council is doing a lot to rewet those areas. Will she join me in comme…”

“This is a similar point on pensions. Obviously, actuarial assumptions—in particular, things like assumptions about life expectancy—can also make a very significant difference. In terms of the assumptions that underpin this in the WGA, how they have changed, if at all, and do they materially affect the assumptions about…”

“I commend hon. Members for their contributions. Would the hon. Member join me in congratulating organisations such as Remembering Srebrenica, which has done so much to remember those Muslim boys and men killed during the Bosnian war, which is now some 30 years ago—we will be remembering that anniversary this year—and t…”

“Good morning to the witnesses. Before I get into my area of questioning, I have a couple of relevant conflicts of interest to declare. I worked as a civil servant at the Department of Health and Social Care until 2015, and as a result I have a civil service pension. You will be pleased to know that we are moving on fro…”

“I think it is fine. As you say, the Department of Health and Social Care is the largest, and this Committee will be coming back to the most recent Department of Health accounts, subsequent to this. We will probably have more opportunity to drill into that, but I invite the Comptroller and Auditor General to comment.”

“Good. That is positive to hear. Another area in the accounts is the treatment of NatWest Group. Obviously, it was previously under public ownership and, therefore, very much on the Government accounts. Gradually, the Government have been disposing of its shareholding to the point that the Office for National Statistics…”

“Thank you. Another challenge with the WGA is the alignment of financial year ends. Ideally, all the public sector bodies that you scoop up into the WGA would have the same period. Probably one of the most significant misalignments relates to academy trusts and further education colleges, with FE colleges now having bee…”

“Okay, so you are not seeking to move them to align and they will stay on their current pattern. Could you say a bit more about the ability to be transparent about the methodology? Is the intention that you would use a much more transparent, and therefore auditable, methodology to try to model the alignment?”

“Does that lead, effectively, to there being a perpetual qualification relating to this, but there is nothing more proportionate—which is your term, Conrad—to do?”

“Where are we with FE colleges? Are we in a similar position to have sector accounting and transparent—”

“When will your pilot conclude?”

“Okay. And at that point you will take a view as to whether a similar methodology to academies could be implemented.”

“Moving on to the issues around liabilities, the WGA has about £4.9 trillion of total liabilities. A very significant proportion are pensions. I would be interested to see the split between the funded and the effectively unfunded pension liabilities that the WGA exposes. Some written evidence on this from the Institute …”

“I want to go beyond presentation—although that is important—to look at what you are doing to manage these underlying issues. Let’s stick with pensions. What actions are you taking with Departments about some of these very large liabilities in terms of the unfunded pension schemes?”

“Obviously the direction is hiring more doctors, nurses, police officers, so are there projections and assumptions about workforce growth that arise from changes in Government policy built into this?”

“Okay. Perhaps you could follow up in a note on that point. Thank you. The most significant other contingent liabilities—if I could come to those briefly, Chair; I am conscious of time—are: first, nuclear decommissioning, which is some £18.5 billion or around 27% of the amount; and secondly, clinical negligence, which a…”

“As the co-chair officer for the APPG on patient safety I commend you as somebody in Treasury with this understanding, but I think it is perhaps not as high profile an issue with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. The result of not paying attention to patient safety and of not having the right cul…”