Speeches by Milne.

“I thank the hon. Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) for securing this important debate. It is time to acknowledge that special educational needs and mental health provision in schools is one of the great crises that we face today, although I do appreciate that there is a lot of competition for that particular accolade.…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. Clause 84 states that costs incurred by the Secretary of State in taking recovery actions can be themselves recovered. Will the Minister clarify what happens in a case where the claimant is found to be not guilty? What happens to the costs then? Are they b…”

“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. In my speech, I referred to West Sussex county council but neglected to mention that, as declared in my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, I am still a member of that council. I want to put that on the record—my apologies.”

“A short career, perhaps. Elizabeth?”

“Will the Minister explain to farmers in Horsham why he did not feel any need to consult any farming stakeholders in advance of this announcement?”

“Good morning. As you know, the Government plan to introduce a new jobs and careers service. What have been the shortcomings of the current jobcentre offering and what might be a more effective approach?”

“That leads into my next question. Professor Robertson, you have written about a “considerable cultural gulf” between jobcentres and careers services. What are the implications for the likely success of combining jobcentres and careers services, given where they are starting from?”

“I recently sat in on a careers session in my constituency of Horsham. It was impressive, because there was a sort of private sector vibe; it felt not like an institutional box-ticking exercise, but like they were really trying, as they would for any paying candidate. We would be afraid to lose that. How should the Gove…”

“Ramesh, it is remarkable that you are not sure of your funding past 1 April, which is not very far away. We are looking at the possible merger of Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service. That would be a big organisational change and there are always pros and cons to those. What do you see as the risks of the me…”

“It was about the risks.”

“That is getting to the heart of it. There is a risk by combining these services: we want to upgrade the work element and not reduce the career element, but we are in danger of doing the exact reverse. Becci, is that achievable, or likely to come out on the right side of history?”

“Do you think that a jobcentre is the right or optimal place to deliver career and employment support, in principle?”

“Careers advisers and work coaches require different skills and approaches. How would you describe these different approaches, and do you think they can be successfully combined in the same place?”

“Finally, I will ask a question I asked a previous panel: how should the Government measure success and therefore, in effect, set targets?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Sir Jeremy. I am again raising concerns about a serious power to make direct deductions from people’s bank accounts. Life does not always come in neat paragraphs; it is messy. I have had a number of letters from constituents in Horsham setting out the kind of err…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. As my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay said, the amendment is about checks and balances. We appreciate that the Bill has been introduced in the context of the Government’s desire to cut the benefits bill, but the Treasury deeming something to be financiall…”

“In the light of the Minister’s confirmation that this power does refer both to error and fraud, I am all the more concerned. Removing a driving licence can mean the removal of a means of income. It is almost like the old-fashioned debtors’ prison: someone is in debt, so they are put in prison, and then they cannot get …”

“I am uncomfortable with this proposal, because it seems unfair that one group of people should be liable to a punishment and not another. If someone cannot drive or they do not have a car, this punishment means nothing to them, whereas another group who do drive are affected—and some of them very deeply, depending on t…”

“I am simply concerned that there should be some control of, or protection against, excessive charging. In the past, institutions have inflicted disproportionate charges that bear no relation to the actual cost of servicing whatever action had to be remedied. I am therefore seeking confirmation from the Minister that th…”

“The hon. Member raises the issue of the burden on banks; there is also the potential burden on the claimant. Banks sometimes have very large administrative charges, well in excess of the actual costs of whatever it is they do. Can the Minister give any assurance that there is some upper safety limit on excessive chargi…”