Speeches by Davies.

“In headline terms, we have refurbished the floors that we occupy, so that we are able to use less space in total and let out more, to earn income. But it also now better reflects the way we are working, with a lot more collaboration spaces and places for teams to get together on project topics, rather than just serried…”

“Max does value for money.”

“Yes, of course.”

“For the reason I gave, really: it is where we need specialist expertise. If we have one audit that requires specialist banking or insurance expertise, for example, it is not efficient for us to gear up to the level of specialist staffing you would need for that. Having said that, we are challenging not just individual …”

“It is straightforwardly a value for money question for us; it is a part of our productivity push. We have challenged hard on why we are outsourcing any of our work, and sometimes it is because we just do not have the volume of expertise needed on a topic area. That remains the case for some of our more specialist audit…”

“Absolutely. Picking where it is going to have the most impact is the trick, so we are looking very carefully. There are some big well-known Government priority areas that cannot be dealt with by just one Department. With a whole set of things in the criminal justice system, we know that you need to understand the chain…”

“But I take your point: where does this work smoothly and efficiently, and where does it not? Yes, of course there is a difference, partly because the Government do not have standardised systems across every Department, so they are actually operating slightly different configurations, and partly because the level of exp…”

“We see some of it. Where we have big problems, we always bring those to you—”

“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…”

“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…”

“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…”

“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…”

“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 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…”

“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…”

“I wish to speak to amendments 3 to 23 in the name of my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins). By now we all know what clause 62 and schedule 12 do: they would restrict agricultural property relief and business property relief to 100% of the first £1 million of qualifying assets and 50…”

“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 understand the points that the hon. Gentleman makes, but as the spokesperson for the official Opposition, I speak on behalf of millions of people who were told that this would not happen, and who voted for a party that told them that it would not be increasing taxes on working people. The Chancellor repeated that cla…”