Speeches by Furniss.

“Thank you for coming and I wish you all a happy new year. We had a very late night, so I had plenty of time to read your report, and enjoyed seeing what you are doing for the House. Your report does not say, however, how many times you have held informal discussions with Members or gave formal words of advice about rep…”

“Do you think it would be useful for us to see those numbers in your annual report?”

“T5. Every two hours, someone in the UK is paralysed as a result of a spinal cord injury. After treatment, there is a 20% chance of being sent to a care home due to a lack of suitable available housing. I cannot imagine how a young person feels when they are coping with one of the most traumatic moments of their life, a…”

“I ask Members to bob so that I can see how many people wish to speak in the debate. To start the debate, I call Jim Shannon.”

“Thank you all very much for a really respectful and interesting debate; it has been one of the best that I have chaired—and you all behaved and came in on time, which is always a pleasure. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the UK Town of Culture competition.”

“I call Alex Ballinger to wind up quickly, because we expect a vote at 4 pm.”

“I can let you all have four minutes.”

“We are running quite well at the moment. We will be finishing completely at 7.30 pm, but the Member who moved the motion wants a minute to wind up, which he has a right to do. So the Minister has a bit longer should he need it.”

“Please sit down.”

“6. What steps he is taking to tackle pensioner poverty.”

“Order. The Minister has every right to speak, just as everyone else has had the right to speak. He does not have to take interventions.”

“More than a quarter of a million pensioners received compensation from the Pension Protection Fund and the financial assistance scheme, but those who accrued their income before 1997 have suffered a real-terms cut of 24% in the past five years alone. I welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to provide indexation on these …”

“I have to say that I could not hear him say that, mainly because everyone else was making so much noise, like now. [Interruption.] I did not hear him say that.”

“What precisely was the decision of the PHSO that you challenged in your claim?”

“You have answered quite well one of the questions that I was going to ask, but I want to probe a bit about 4 July, when you wrote to the Speaker’s Counsel that you believed that “Parliament would be assisted with a court’s judgment on the subject.” How would Parliament have been assisted if the PCA decision had been qu…”

“Thank you for attending today; it has been interesting. In your letter of 9 September to the administrative court office, you took the position that the Charity Commission’s proceedings are now academic. Why, in your view, would that be so?”

“Thank you for attending today. The courts have considered previous actions taken by the PHSO, or the PCA, to be amenable to judicial review. Why might the Charity Commission’s legal action in this case be considered a breach of privilege?”

“There will be a limit of four and a half minutes for each speech. I call Sarah Hall.”

“Order. I call Munira Wilson.”

“I call Ben Maguire. I ask you to be quite swift, because we understand there may be Divisions sooner than we expected.”