Speeches by Baxter.

“It was just to ask what steps you have taken to resolve the dispute with the Public and Commercial Services Union.”

“I understood there was a dispute with DWP in some areas.”

“Yes.”

“Obviously, G4S provide services to DWP.”

“It will impact on the Department, though, if it is not, so I am just wondering if there is anything else the Department can do to try to facilitate a resolution.”

“This question is to Neil particularly. Last January, you told us that DWP no longer suspended benefit payments when the claimant has co-operated with the fraud review process, but we understand that the enhanced review team might still suspend payments. Can you explain what safeguards you have in place to ensure that v…”

“I will ask a similar question to the one that I asked the previous panel, which is about the compensation scheme that the Government have said would cost £10.5 billion. They say that cannot be justified in the circumstances and that a scheme based on individual circumstances would take many years and thousands of staff…”

“I should declare before I go on that I know Sue Ferns because we used to work for the same organisation. It is helpful, Sue, that you have said that one of the lessons from the gender pensions gap and the report that was published is that the report should be published more regularly and that there should be targets. H…”

“How frequently would you expect to see the publication of a report on the gender pensions gap?”

“Thank you for taking the time to come to see us today. I want to turn to the issue of communication because a lot of the discussion has focused on letters and whether sending letters at an earlier stage would have had a material impact. What is your view on that?”

“Given the information age in which we live, are there better ways of communicating that might be different from or in addition to hard copy letters sent by snail mail?”

“Playing devil’s advocate, given what you have said about the campaign being “vague”, might women have done any other questioning of the Government at the time?”

“Going on to the PHSO’s approach to remedy, the Government have argued that a compensation scheme costing up to £10.5 billion cannot be justified in the circumstances and that a scheme based on individual circumstances would take many years and require thousands of staff to process. What is your view about that dilemma?”

“I was trying to pull out the tension between a blanket compensation approach and something individualised, which might be long and difficult. Do you have any thoughts on the two? They are quite different.”

“I welcome the announcement of the new grain verification scheme, which will help track stolen grain from occupied Ukrainian territories. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is an important UK contribution given Ukraine’s role as a major agricultural producer, which gives it a critical position in global food secu…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. The news of a possible deal is very welcome indeed, and I associate myself with the hopes of colleagues across this House that the hostages will be released and returned, and that humanitarian aid will flood into Gaza as soon as possible. We know that the only way to ensu…”

“I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on vulnerable groups to pandemics. I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement today. One of the most striking conclusions of the covid inquiry was that it was the most vulnerable people in our society who were hardest hit, whether that was because …”

“The hon. Gentleman made an interesting point about individuals having the information to plan for their future. Could he therefore comment on why, under 14 years of his party’s control of the Department for Work and Pensions, one of the major platforms of its work, the pensions dashboard programme, had to be reset? The…”

“Recently, the owner of social media site X has used his sizeable platform to undermine the democratic result of last July’s general election; has stirred up hatred towards my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), putting her safety at risk; and has sought mechanisms to depose the Prime Minister…”

“My constituents suffered real hardship as a result of the disastrous mini-Budget pursued by the Conservative party. Does the Chief Secretary to the Treasury agree that in order to improve living standards for my constituents, we must stick to our fiscal rules, maintain fiscal discipline and invest in our public service…”