Speeches by Dean.

“My final question is about the policy levers that we have to address it. We will not know which ones to pull if we do not have the data, but could you explain to us what policy levers there are?”

“Just going back to my point earlier about the potential reasons people might be doing this, would the early take-up of pensions have a big effect on participation? That is people not just having equity in their homes but taking their pensions early.”

“In the London borough of Sutton, we started to in-house some children’s care home provision back in 2020, and we now care for six children with complex needs. What assessment has the Department made of the potential scale of local authorities taking on services directly, if given the right support by the Government?”

“I agree with the hon. Member that some evidence has been cited in the Chamber today, but there is other evidence that we can look at. Let us not forget that the technology exacerbates the known problem—particularly with the Met police in London, where I live—that black communities feel over-policed and underserved. Tha…”

“Thank you, Dame Siobhain. I thank the right hon. Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) for securing this debate. It is shocking that this might be the first proper debate we have had in this place on this topic. We have discussed whether live facial recognition technology is a legitimate tool and, if so, under what…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but the evidence is quite clear in this area. Somebody might watch this debate and have doubts, but the research is quite clear.”

“That is exactly the graph that I dispute. I think you might be talking about—”

“I have 1.A in front of me. The IFS said yesterday that the distributional analysis in figure 1.A did not include the impact of the national insurance contribution changes. When the Resolution Foundation made an attempt at this itself, you are right that the spread was similar, but everybody ended up losing out in some …”

“I totally accept that there is uncertainty about how that may take effect. Yesterday the OBR said that 75% was their central forecast. It could be anywhere between 66% and 90%, so it could go either way. One final, potentially unforeseen consequence of the policy is on your mission to move more of healthcare into the c…”

“So that is a no.”

“On social care, is the £600 million the totality we are pledging towards social care? That would mean that for every £97 we spend on the NHS, £3 goes on social care. Lots of people would see the opportunity for a lock in social care reform freeing up money for the NHS. Is that the extent of the pledge to social care in…”

“Clearly, it was a choice. You had many economic choices in front of you, but you narrowed some of your political choices through what you said in advance of the election and the commitments you made in your manifesto. Given the way that the OBR has assessed the impact on growth, would you like to have had a wider set o…”

“I will try my best, Chair. Can I add my congratulations to you, Chancellor, even though it is late in the meeting? I have not had a chance to say it yet. I want to move on to employer national insurance contributions—I know there has been a lot of conversation around that—particularly focusing on the OBR’s forecasting …”

“Finally, you have identified some additional risks and potential policy perverse incentives. How would you respond to the criticism that it is essentially just a bigger number, it is an accounting trick, and that is all that has changed?”

“Yes, I appreciate that those are the established ways of thinking about it. We have also talked about some unprecedented challenges that the economy is facing. We talked about the level of economic inactivity being really high, and we have spoken about some of the things that might be driving that—particularly in relat…”

“Can I move on also to who this is likely to impact the most? We have a quote here from Alex Baldock, the chief executive of Currys, who said this “disproportionately hits high-employing sectors”. I am thinking of pubs, shops, restaurants and care homes—places that employ a relatively high number of relatively low-paid …”

“Obviously, some of these industries are the ones struggling the most to recruit at the moment. We do not have enough care workers. If you go into any pub or restaurant they struggle to get staff; they are always advertising. What do you think the net effect will be on those businesses that are already struggling to rec…”

“My final question is whether or not you did any sector-by-sector analysis of the impact of this, and if that had subsequent impacts on your forecasting.”

“Public sector net financial liabilities is an established measure, but I am not sure how well established it is as a fiscal rule. Do you have other country comparisons? Do others use it? How do we compare to them?”

“There is the idea of measuring the Government finances where it is novel, and there are other measures as well; public sector net worth is another one that I know you track. Are there other countries that are adopting a slightly more expansive version of fiscal rules, and are we able to learn lessons from them about wh…”