Speeches by Milne.

“Over the course of this morning we have heard lots of ideas and suggestions for remedies and campaigns and so on, but it does feel as if there is no way through. The problem has not been solved over a long period. I am not feeling that I have heard anything today that suggests that the problem will be solved now. Yet p…”

“Do you think that you have sufficient powers as a regulator to oversee decisions here and make the necessary interventions?”

“In cases where discretionary payments have been refused, are there, in your view, meaningful routes for scheme members to challenge decisions, bearing in mind what has happened over the last 20 years?”

“You say all trustees have that obligation to all members and yet there is clearly a group of members, the pre-1997 pensioners, who were not treated fairly. I think we can all agree on that. How has that happened if that is the obligation and all trustees are subject to it?”

“We know that successive Governments have ruled out statutory requirements over a very long period. We have heard what some campaigners would like to happen. What do you as a regulator think would be effective as an alternative?”

“We would all like to see an end to the use of hotels, which is both wasteful and very unpopular in local communities. However, would the hon. and learned Member agree that the long-term solution to that, releasing pressure across the entire system, is a proper returns agreement with as many countries as possible, but d…”

“Is there not a fundamental challenge in co-production—you were talking earlier about intentions and objectives—in that the objective is to save money by whatever percentage? It is a big ask to expect disabled people to go in there and come up with ways to cut their own benefit.”

“But at the moment they are sticking with that term?”

“What is your definition?”

“The recent Welfare Bill had a rough passage through Parliament, to put it mildly. One of the biggest issues or controversies that it raised was that disability groups felt they were not consulted, yet they were the people most affected. They felt very cut out of the whole process. The Timms review is the outcome of tha…”

“One would certainly hope that they did that before they proposed the policy in the first place. Anyway, moving on to winter fuel. In correspondence on the updated winter fuel payment regulations you express disappointment that DWP’s approach to impact assessments remains “narrowly analytical and data-driven, failing to…”

“To probe a little further on that, this very variable response you are talking about sounds as if it is almost arbitrary, depending on which official is involved. Is it just a random thing or is there, let’s say, a Minister wanting not to delve too deeply into the impacts on occasion?”

“Good morning. In your 2022-23 annual report, you raised questions about the variable quality of the DWP’s impact assessments. Can you give us a bit of background on that observation?”

“As my hon. Friend says, sustainable aviation fuels are being used by the Government to justify major airport expansions. One such expansion would be at Gatwick, adjacent to my constituency. A target of 10% SAF by 2030 is optimistic in the extreme, as the Climate Change Committee said. If the Government’s own advisers d…”

“I pay tribute to all the moving speeches we have heard so far tonight. There are few losses in life more devastating than that of a child—it is every parent’s greatest fear—but when a baby dies just as life is beginning, at the very moment when joy and expectation are at their highest, the pain is all the harder to bea…”

“4. What steps he plans to take to ensure that new housing developments have adequate access to infrastructure.”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, and yes, that sounds like a very similar situation. As I have said, this is all about trust. I understand that concerns have been raised about Donna’s workload and the risk of relying too heavily on one person, but Donna has indicated that she is willing to participate. I a…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and fellow Sussex MP for her intervention, and I very much agree with her. Donna is a midwife herself, and she has been personally involved with the families in Sussex.”

“In my constituency, we have seen promises of new schools and clinics repeatedly broken, but in every case it was not the developer or local council that let people down but national bodies such as the Department for Education and integrated care boards. They do it to save money by cramming more kids into existing schoo…”

“My hon. Friend is right to point out all the problems. We are going to hear a lot about problems; there are also solutions. In my constituency, we have a wonderful school called Muntham House, which teaches high-needs autistic boys, 40% of whom go on to hold down a job and to be able to sustain themselves. That is what…”