Speeches by Baldwin.

“Many of our constituents will want to react to this announcement today by increasing the amount of money they give. Will the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office continue to offer an aid match option? Given that 0.7% is still technically on the statute book, will the Foreign Secretary bring forward a named vote…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) on securing this important debate. I should declare that I was once on the board of the Social Investment Bank until 2012, and that my brother-in-law is chief executive of the Oversight Tr…”

“Would you be prepared to resign, if you felt your independence was being threatened?”

“I look forward to the Minister responding to that, but I think we have heard today that even that weaker delivery obligation is not being met. We also need to consider the wider business context that we are living in. Many businesses like Royal Mail have had to pay this additional jobs tax. The Employment Rights Act is…”

“This has been an incredibly powerful debate. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) for securing the debate and my hon. Friends the Members for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) and for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for their contributions. I also thank Members from across…”

“I always think of the Financial Ombudsman Service as the service that can stand up for my constituents, the little guys, against the big financial services companies. In light of the announcements made by the Government earlier this week, I do have some concerns. I know how extensively the industry has lobbied against …”

“Are you publishing the decisions that you have come to on that?”

“It just feels to me, Chair, that we have a Government dramatically reducing the ability of citizens to have cases seen in front of a jury. I detect a bit of a pattern here. Industry has really got a lot of what it wanted in terms of reducing the independence of the Financial Ombudsman Service and reducing the number of…”

“The Committee received evidence from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association that it can actually monitor what is happening to sales of wine and spirits. Should the OBR use more of this microdata in its ongoing evaluation of the measures that the Chancellor might implement?”

“On its budget and its resources to do these things and listen to a wide range of views, should this Committee be given any kind of supervision of its budget and whether it has enough resources in addition to what it already has?”

“Impartiality and independence seem to me to be the value of the organisation. Ms Curtice, you used to be a Treasury official, so do you think the steps taken to strengthen the independence of the Office for Budget Responsibility to do an extra assessment when there is a significant fiscal event have strengthened its in…”

“Yes.”

“The resources it has are not locked either, are they? The Chancellor could choose to reduce those resources.”

“I always say five on this Committee.”

“Professor Clift, could there be efficiency savings for the Office for Budget Responsibility if it took a market consensus and a market consensus of interest rates instead of developing its own forecast and then focused its edge and independence on the rigorous extra resources needed to evaluate—independent of Treasury—…”

“Could I have a quick yes or no from all four panellists on this: if there were to be a significant reduction in the OBR’s resources, would you want that to be something this Committee is required to be told about?”

“I am curious about the details as I have been raising this issue on behalf of my constituents in West Worcestershire all week, many of whom rely on heating oil and liquefied petroleum gas. How much extra money is going into the crisis and resilience fund in West Worcestershire, and how will local authorities prevent “f…”

“Of course, there are lots of well-paid jobs in the steel sector. In fact, the taxpayer is now subsidising every job at British Steel to the tune of £110,000. Can the Secretary of State update the House on how his negotiations are going with Jingye, and on when he will finally publish his long-awaited steel strategy?”

“There was a new private sector investor in the Royal Mail last year. As we heard yesterday in the House, the regulator has let the universal service obligation slip, so will the Minister update the House on how his colleague’s meeting with the regulator went yesterday?”

“Has anyone else heard of anything that is being used as a potential solution by HMRC?”