Speeches by Stephenson.

“GPs are contractually responsible for identifying and supporting people with frailty. Of course, those contracts are costing us all a great deal of money. So why does NHS England not set performance targets for GPs to identify and provide support to people with moderate or severe frailty? I think this is probably a que…”

“Yes. That brings me to my final question. I think that what is important is the quality of life of all our constituents. Taking it as a whole, stepping outside of the dashboards, metrics and performance measures, how do you as NHS England ensure that you are really focused on our constituents’ quality of life?”

“I think we agree that significant improvement is required. Paul, could you walk us through your view on what a good strategic approach to regulation ought to be? You are new to the role and have been looking at this with a fresh pair of eyes. Where do you want to get to and when?”

“Finally, there is an awful lot going on, and what you have described is quite ambitious given where you are at the moment. How are we going to hold you to account? At what point are you going to be happy that you have delivered those things? More crucially, how are you going to get off the starting line? You are in thi…”

“And Natural England?”

“What about the Environment Agency?”

“I found the NAO Report very troubling, and I just want to explain why. I spent 15 years in financial services before I came into Parliament, and had a financial services firm received such a report as this from its auditor, it would need to report it to the FCA, and the firm would be dragged over the coals and more lik…”

“The Minister says that the measures that the Government are using are appropriate, but can he explain, in response to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk, why adjusted income was not used and why it is not appropriate?”

“My hon. Friend talks about fairness in relation to amendment 41 on uprating in line with CPI. Is it also worth considering the importance of certainty, particularly for people on fixed incomes who will benefit from this measure? Uprating by CPI would give them certainty into the future that they are not going to fall i…”

“Like quite a few members of the Committee, I represent a rural constituency. We have a lot of villages that are not connected to our towns, and a lot of elderly people who need to get to appointments. There are also a lot of children with special education needs and disabilities who get to school via taxis. Does my hon…”

“DEFRA has been mentioned quite a few times today, including that it is the “worst offender”, which does not surprise me because I also sit on the Public Accounts Committee and there was an NAO report that has just been released, which you may not be aware of, which says, “DEFRA has one of the most significant legacy IT…”

“In the report there are eight out of 59 trends that could not be assessed for these reasons. When you engage with Government Departments and describe to them the impact of that and give them examples of data that would be helpful to enable you to make these assessments, do the Departments think about how they can plug …”

“We have touched on my questions as we have been going through this session, so this should not take too long. Does the OEP have information needed to make reliable assessments? From my experience of asking the Government, since being elected, 1,451 questions, many of which require data for them to respond in a meaningf…”

“My final question is that you have been quoted as saying that resource issues are preventing you from filling your statutory role, the OEP. Could you talk us through that? What further resources do you require? If you were to have those resources, what more would you deliver, given the dependency for you to have the da…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. He is making a thoughtful and important speech. He has spoken eloquently about the cumulative development in both our constituencies, which is putting central Bedfordshire and Bedford borough under significant strain from a planning perspective. Does he agree that it is i…”

“I will speak to amendments 1 and 2 in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor. The Government and those of us supporting the amendments are trying to achieve the same outcome. The aim of the amendments is simple: to enable the Government to achieve their goal of raising billions in tax revenues from former no…”

“In recent hearings, we have heard about the vast waste through fraud and error. Some of that will be attributed to the MOJ, although I do not know how much. With fraud and error, would you say that the MOJ is ultimately responsible, or these small bodies?”

“If I can wrap that question up, for these seven organisations, where there are errors and fraud—or other misdemeanours—where does the buck stop? What oversight does the Ministry of Justice have over those organisations? Going back to a point Rupert made before we went into a public session, these small bodies are accou…”

“That would be helpful, because it would be interesting to know the extent to which these small bodies can stand on their own two feet versus requiring support from the MOJ, and what the cost is to the taxpayer. Are there examples where the MOJ has had to step in to support small bodies because they are way off the mark…”

“For those seven organisations that you provide support to from the centre, how many people from the MOJ are involved, and how much does it cost?”