Speeches by Glen.

“When we have met representatives of UK Finance as a group, they have talked about the DISP rules—the dispute resolution rules—needing more clarity. Do you agree with that?”

“Can I ask about the relationship between the FCA’s rules and guidance and the FOS? As we all know, the FCA has a principle-based approach to the rules and regulations, and an outcomes-based consumer duty. When individual consumers find themselves at odds with an outcome that they have received from their financial serv…”

“Thank you.”

“Over several fiscal events over seven years, the option of removing the winter fuel payment from the wealthiest was resisted by the previous Government because there was not seen to be an effective rationing mechanism and there were considerable presentational challenges. Will the Minister confirm that pensioners with …”

“I welcome the progress that is being made by IBCA. Of course, the Minister is not directly responsible for how quickly that is rolling out. I note that IBCA has announced that its plan is to prioritise those infected who are still alive; indeed, my constituent Daryn Craik was contacted last week. I suggest that the Min…”

“There are intermediaries in the market that will say to a company, “Can we deal with your R&D tax credits?” They do it positively, to take out the stress out of it. Do you work with those firms to try to create acceptable pathways to inform firms how to properly make the application?”

“One of our big challenges as MPs is to work out what is a one-off example and what is a pattern. I have also been made aware of some individual cases. Apparently, there is no phone line for somebody to ring up about R&D tax credits. The corporation tax phone line will not answer questions on that. That is a great frust…”

“It would not discuss who to focus on.”

“The board would not discuss that.”

“Yes, I am not talking about individual cases. I totally get the right of the Minister and all Governments to say, “We are going to focus on the tax gap. We are going to make that priority when we think about HMRC.” To operationalise that, you will need to make quite tactical decisions not around individual cases but ar…”

“How is the principle of the HMRC being operationally independent of Ministers maintained if your Minister is chairing a board where you make decisions around the focus of limited resources? Referencing Mr Dean’s questions around millionaires, billionaires and focus, any decision that you might make tactically would be …”

“It is your time to lobby now. That is what I am inviting you to do.”

“Ms MacDonald, you set out a very fair and reasonable assertion around HMRC not being immune to common cyber-attack pressures. Next week, we have a spending review. As a former Chief Secretary, I know that all Departments submit their bids and some of those bids are about system transformation. You have certain paramete…”

“Having sat in the office next to about five of his predecessor HMRC Ministers, I saw them do exactly the same. I do not think that chairing the board would have made a meaningful difference to whether they were able to do the job.”

“His predecessors would have done the same.”

“I do not want to labour the point, but we are quite interested in what is meaningfully different. As you have said, you have worked in other Departments previously. You will have had a lot of interaction with Ministers who, at very short notice, can bring in a permanent secretary or senior DG to address a specific conc…”

“I very much welcome the aspirations of this strategic defence review and welcome the statement on page 7 that, “We will develop a new Defence Investment Plan”. However, as the Secretary of State knows from all the Budgets and fiscal events he has sat through, he cannot give the House a categorical assurance over future…”

“Several years ago, when I was a magistrate in Westminster and my father was a magistrate in north Wiltshire, we lamented a great deal about the fact that when we put people in prison, we found that there was a whole list of antecedents every time and that this recurred all the time. Could the Secretary of State tell th…”

“One of the biggest drivers of satisfaction in any profession is settlements in line with inflation and expectations of inflation. Will the Minister assure the House that the settlement to be announced later today will take account of the fact that inflation is vastly higher than was anticipated when the settlement was …”

“T5. One of the best experiences I had as a Minister in DCMS several years ago was visiting 114 places around the country. I extend an offer to the Minister to come to Salisbury to see the work of Wiltshire Creative. Salisbury international arts festival is starting this weekend, and we would welcome his insights on how…”