Speeches by Jones.

“There is no change to the ODA mechanisms, no.”

“It is.”

“We published some information, I think, in the spending review document.”

“There are meetings that we have on a fairly regular drumbeat. As I say, a lot of my meetings with the OVFM were to understand where we were dispatching them to do what pieces of work and then to receive their analysis about what they thought we might do differently.”

“It wasn’t 15 people who came to me; it was about, I think, three or four, but they have other people to help them.”

“I suspect that we probably agree with that, which is why there is such a focus on social housing through the affordable housing programme uplift.”

“I would say two things. First, we have devolved funding—for example, the transport funding—for the reason I have just set out, which is that we believe intra-city transport in itself is growth-enhancing and that mayors and their local authorities know best where, at that level of spend, they should enhance their local …”

“Exactly, and I am asking for feedback and reflection on what we have done, and what we might then want to carry on doing, do better, or do differently in the next spending review. You are right that the purpose of my job, now that the spending review negotiations have finished, is to work with colleagues in the Cabinet…”

“I would be very happy to be.”

“If I am still the Chief Secretary by then—who knows, I might be on your Committee.”

“With your permission, I might break it down into three different bits.”

“You are right that we are increasing the R&D budget. In cash terms, it is not at the rate of GDP. With the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, we are also looking at how we gear the R&D budget towards industrial strategy priorities. You will have seen the Business Secretary launch our plans in the highes…”

“Right. I do not know whether we are working from different numbers, so forgive me, but the way I would characterise it is that we have increased the capital budget, based on inherited plans, by £120 billion by 2029-30, when the capital budget ends. Your question is right, though, about the front-loading of that profile…”

“Do you mean £120 billion by 2029-30?”

“As I said earlier, any OBR forecast that looks at the broader fiscal picture, in line with our fiscal rules, is something that the Chancellor will consider at the Budget.”

“The first thing to say is that the Government policy has not changed, and we will be progressing with our reforms to the welfare system. Specifically in terms of the spending review, the bits that are reflected in the departmental settlements, predominantly for DWP, are in respect of their departmental budgets—things l…”

“Thank you for the question. You will no doubt expect me to say that I cannot comment on hypothetical future market movements. To try to answer the question more from a principles perspective, obviously the Chancellor, at Budget time, with the benefit of an OBR forecast, will look at all these things in the round and ma…”

“Yes.”

“The spending review, which goes to ’29-30 on capital, meets Government policy to increase defence spending to 2.6% by 2027, inclusive of intelligence agencies. That is all fully funded in our spending review. We then had an extant commitment to get to 3% in the next Parliament, subject to fiscal circumstances. The Prim…”

“I do not know—you would have to ask the local government Department—but it is a fact that some choose not to, and that is the point that I am making.”