Speeches by Benn.

“The 40% of time when the Executive has not been functioning guarantees that there will be no progress on what we have been discussing for the last 10 minutes. That is very clear indeed. Notwithstanding the challenges of operating a mandatory power-sharing system, in the end this is about political choices that the Exec…”

“I am not sure that I accept the premise of the question because the source of the information that the open-book exercise will be looking at is held by the Northern Ireland Executive today and was held by them last week and last year. There is nothing in there that should come as a surprise to the Executive. I do not a…”

“The information that will come out of the open-book exercise is information that the Government and the Treasury will have that we do not have currently. None of it should come as any surprise to the Executive; it is the Executive’s information. It is the information about the budgets that are held in the different Dep…”

“I am not sure that I quite understand the question because this is about sharing—”

“The aim is to try to conclude it by the end of this month, but we will have to see how it goes.”

“What the exercise consists of is Treasury officials working with colleagues in the Northern Ireland civil service and going through the budgets of all the Departments. They are understandably requesting information. The aim is to try to finish the process by the end of this month, although that may be a bit ambitious. …”

“There is a balance to be struck here, and the Government are working very hard to strike the appropriate balance. The situation that we found ourselves in most recently was that the Executive came to us and said, “We are heading for a very significant overspend.” All Governments have an obligation to balance the budget…”

“I did not say that.”

“The choice of the Executive if they decide not to put any more money into the economic inactivity programmes would be their choice. It is not just down to the Government.”

“The decision was taken for the reasons that I have identified. I add that when the spending review settlement came through for MHCLG, we managed to get out of it for Northern Ireland the continuation in cash terms of the funding that was available previously. Whereas MHCLG saw a reduction, Northern Ireland, Scotland an…”

“Well, there was the spending review settlement. The funding for the local growth funds came out of MHCLG’s pot. That is what happened. If you look at the rest of the United Kingdom, a lot of money is going into Pride in Place. We had to negotiate to say that, “We don’t want Pride in Place in Northern Ireland; we want t…”

“I will respond to that question about the funding, then turn to Matthew on the specific point that you raise about public services transformation. What are the Government doing? First, there is the record settlement that arose out of the spending review last summer—an average of £19.3 billion over the three years. Seco…”

“Look, we have a problem, and the question is, what are we going to do about the problem? I must be frank with the Committee: the 70:30 split is not going to change. As you would expect, as Ministers representing the interests of Northern Ireland, we have done our job. It not going to change.”

“As soon as we have a Committee stage date confirmed, the amendments will be published, in line with the normal requirements, a week before. The Secretary of State for Defence, the Armed Forces Minister and I have continued to engage with veterans’ organisations, and we recognise that veterans are looking for greater re…”

“We have met them already. We are meeting them again tomorrow.”

“Let’s take the component parts of this. There are public inquiries, which the Government fund. However, I have made it clear on a number of occasions that we will not address the question of legacy through a whole series of public inquiries. That is why I am currently seeking leave to appeal the decision of the Norther…”

“Are you referring in that latter question to the issue of disclosure?”

“I spend a lot of time reading and re-reading the clauses of the Bill, and I will continue to do so, if I may give you that assurance.”

“Well, I hope I have set out to the Committee’s satisfaction where the distinction lies.”

“Matthew is going to respond and then I will come in.”