Speeches by Ward.

“I certainly will. Does my hon. Friend want to intervene because I mentioned Bristol?”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) for securing the debate and for his excellent speech, and I thank other hon. Members for their contributions. I am happy to have the opportunity to respond. I pass on apologies from the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, my …”

“I completely agree. I would like to see Bevin celebrated more in Bristol and across the country, particularly for his contribution to NATO and to the trade union movement. Bevin’s journey into public service was firmly rooted in the union movement, which he saw as his true calling, as my hon. Friend the Member for Warw…”

“House adjourned.”

“The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office updated the House on this yesterday, and he has answered a number of questions on that issue. I do agree that insourcing can play a key role in delivering better value for money and higher-quality public services, which is one reason why we are introducing the p…”

“As I have said, one aim of the Government’s procurement reforms is to ensure that we support more British companies and end the reliance on external suppliers. The two Palantir contracts that the hon. Gentleman mentions are for the NHS and defence, so it is best to take the matter up with the Department of Health and S…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise that. Social value should be integral to the system, but the current system has become too tick-boxy and does not deliver what it needs to for local communities like those in Derby. We are working with businesses, unions and charities on a new definition. I am happy to speak …”

“My hon. Friend is spot on, and I thank her for championing her local business while making a bigger point about how we need to support British jobs more widely. We have set out what we are going to do in four sectors, including energy infrastructure, but I agree that we need to go further and look at what more we can d…”

“My hon. Friend raises an important point. He is right about the reforms that we are trying to make to public procurement, and to improve our number of electric vehicles. I will write to him with the specifics on the Government Car Service.”

“As I have said, this Government do not believe that our procurement rules do enough to back British businesses. That is why I have announced steps to address that, and to simplify and open up the system to small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups and charities. We will issue new guidance shortly to ensure that the…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue again. As I said in the House yesterday, Denby is an iconic British manufacturer, and I know the anxiety that the workforce will feel at the moment. Ceramics is not part of the original four sectors, but I do not want to stop with those four; we want to go further, and I am…”

“As I set out to the House yesterday, this Labour Government are ending the age of outsourcing. We will introduce a public interest test to require all Departments to assess whether a service can be better delivered in-house. We will also require all Departments to publish insourcing strategies setting out how they will…”

“The hon. Gentleman is right to flag that concern, and it is something that the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister is working hard on with a package of reforms around transparency. On procurement changes, I emphasise that I am trying to work with businesses, unions, charities, the voluntary sector and as many people …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Communities should be benefiting much more from the taxpayers’ money we are spending on procurement. I believe he mentioned two businesses in his constituency yesterday—Wright’s Flour mill and Lea Valley growers. To be clear, those are exactly the type of businesses we have in mind w…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I also met Royal Mail in my constituency recently and had a similar conversation, and I understand his point. As I say, I am not pretending that we have gone the full journey with procurement reform. We are taking big steps, but we need to go further, and I am very happy to work…”

“As I informed the House yesterday, I am bringing forward a major package of reforms to procurement policy. This includes steps to direct Government procurement in the national interest to support British businesses, to end the era of outsourcing across Departments, and to streamline and simplify the entire process. I w…”

“The Government are, of course, concerned about the risks that my hon. Friend has mentioned. There are strong safeguards in the Procurement Act 2023 to preserve the integrity of the procurement process, but the elections Bill that this Government are introducing will tighten up the regulation of donations, including thr…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question—he has raised a number of points. He talked about supporting SMEs, which is incredibly important to what the Government are trying to do more broadly, and specifically to what these reforms are trying to do. If you will permit me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I also want to point out th…”

“I would just point out that an opportunity is not a requirement. The question I was being posed was about a requirement to recognise trade unions—that is not the same as an opportunity to reflect that within the system. That is the difference between those statements, and as I have said, nothing in the strategy changes…”

“I have to say that of all the questions I was mulling over when I was going through this, the impact on Jammie Dodgers was not top of my list, but maybe it should have been—I will think about that. My hon. Friend makes a good point about how the Scottish Government have not used their procurement powers well enough ove…”