Speeches by Davies.

“There is a formal answer to that. As the Committee knows, we are annually assessed in the same way as the big firms by the Financial Reporting Council as our regulator. There are public reports on the quality of our work and of course that is only possible if you have the right people with the right skills to do it. In…”

“That is what we are aiming to be—and given who we are, it is really important that we do that. You will have seen a table in our estimate document that sets out our cashable efficiency savings over the next three years. We have only included in there the ones where we are either already contracting for them or we have …”

“No, although there are good examples as well—hopefully we are one of those. I will just explain the shape of the budget for next year and why it looks as it does. Essentially, we are starting to see some of the fruits of the investment over the last few years—that is the big picture here. As the Committee knows, we hav…”

“Good morning, I am Gareth Davies, Comptroller and Auditor General.”

“It is a great pleasure to be in this Committee on behalf of His Majesty’s official Opposition. The regulations before us continue vital work that occurred under both Conservative and Labour Governments, as the Minister rightly said. I am pleased but not surprised that that work attracts genuine cross-party support. For…”

“I thank the Minister for that response. This is an area that we genuinely agree on. Digital payment technology will genuinely provide an opportunity for British exporters, so I gently ask the Minister to get on top of the detail on that taskforce and provide an update as soon as he can. We asked DBT Ministers last June…”

“We know that some British businesses are put off exporting by the costs, particularly the cost of cross-border payments. One solution is the adoption of innovative digital payment methods, which is why I warmly welcomed the Government’s announcement of the transatlantic taskforce for markets of the future. However, sin…”

“The targets are not disclosed in the accounts themselves, although, of course, the level of fraud and error is separated out, particularly in the case of the two main Departments we have focused on. We report to this Committee every year on significant errors of fraud, as you see each cycle. As Mark says, we have visib…”

“Transparency is a good thing. In the area of fraud, the issue is not so much whether it is embarrassing to the Government as whether it is giving information to fraudsters about where the investment is being focused and where counter-fraud activity is being targeted. That is the balance to strike, but obviously transpa…”

“I wish to speak to new clauses 13 to 15, which are in my name, but first I will cover what the clauses in this group mean for British taxpayers. If you will forgive me, Madam Chair, I will do so slightly out of numerical order. Clause 9 sets the starting rate limit for savings for tax years 2026-27 to 2030-31, keeping …”

“My hon. Friend touches on an important point. What is this for? People know that they have to pay tax. We may disagree on who pays tax and how much, but ultimately, where is the money going? It is going to the surrender of the Chagos islands. It is used to pay public sector workers eyewatering sums, only for them go on…”

“Exactly. I have nothing to add to that; the right hon. Gentleman puts it perfectly. New clause 14 would require a proper assessment of clause 10’s impact on state pensioners, and new clause 15 would require an assessment of the cost of the Chancellor’s so-called exemption from small amounts of tax—let her define that i…”

“I have great sympathy with what my right hon. Friend says. He is right that there is a point at which you overtax risk and enterprise, and people stop taking risk and stop being enterprising. The trick in the Treasury is to ensure that the Government can raise enough revenue from a broad base of different taxes to pay …”

“I will give way to the hon. Gentleman. I hope he will not ask me why we froze the threshold, because he will know that we did so under tremendous pressure, given the covid pandemic and the debt that we accrued in the economy. We are in a very different scenario now. I am sure that is not what he is going to ask.”

“I agree. We are trying to create a savings culture. We are trying to get people to take responsibility, and to put their income away for a rainy day and for their retirement. As I will go on to say, the Opposition’s position is that the Bill does not achieve that; in fact, it does the very opposite. As I was saying, cl…”

“I wish to speak, on behalf of the official Opposition, to new clauses 10 to 12, which are in my name, but first, I want to set the scene on clauses 1 to 8.”

“I completely agree. We would not be doing this, and we should not be here, but clearly the policy has been executed without a plan—without serious thought, analysis or engagement. I would welcome anything that the Government can do to make this less painful for those affected and to get the numbers right. The Minister …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is why I want to ask the Minister, as he does, how this will be delivered. What is the definition of what the Chancellor has described, albeit to the media? How will this work, and why is it not in the Bill? We know that when the Government have spoken before, they have not stuc…”

“That is exactly right. I will let the Minister address that point, but let me pay tribute again to my hon. Friend, who has been a forceful champion for farmers across the country and has consistently raised these issues. That goes back to my point about the warnings provided to the Government about the practical implic…”

“My right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State has engaged extensively with farmers and those who represent farmers. The reason I am raising this point now is because the numbers are questionable—and not just on who is impacted by the measures but the net revenue to the Exchequer too. Some have suggested that the c…”