Speeches by Simons.

“I thank the hon. Member for his series of questions—connected, I think, by virtue of being in relation to the ministerial code. Things happen in politics. Things go wrong and people misbehave. But the difference between us and the Conservatives is that whenever something has come up, we have always followed processes a…”

“Trust in Government and in politics is at an all-time low. For my constituents in Makerfield, Wigan and for others across the country, there is a crisis of faith and trust, and it is incumbent on all of us across this House to fix and restore it. The Prime Minister has always been clear: serving this country is what we…”

“We will look into that. It is a great point, Chair, and we will find out what the nature of the change would be and work back from the timelines in the King’s Speech.”

“No. On the specific issue about written parliamentary questions, the Cabinet Office does not interfere with data provided by the ONS. It is absolutely central that any data production is not interfered with by the Cabinet Office in any circumstance. Responding to parliamentary questions, as you know, is my job; it is a…”

“Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister.”

“On another occasion, I am very happy to have a longer chat about mission-led government and the Cabinet Office’s role in it if you would like to do that, but that is not what we are here primarily to discuss. Of course, I am happy to talk to you about it as best I can, but there are two separate questions. One is about…”

“In order for me to answer that, you would have to spell out for me what those statistics are, and then I would have to find out more information from the ONS about its capacity.”

“The senior leadership of the ONS has assured me that it will be able to perform the core functions, as set out in the Treasury letter, in the spending review period and as set out in the memorandum of understanding in 2020, within the SR settlement.”

“I will make one short point on that; I am sure that Cat will have views too. The ONS produces less than 50% of official statistics. It is sometimes forgotten that the statistical system as a whole, including all the statisticians embedded in Government Departments, plays a vital role in the production of the greater th…”

“I do not think so. The ONS has been clear that the SR settlement will not entail dramatic cuts, and it is entirely fair and reasonable—and in my view, taxpayers would expect this—that any Government Department, including the UKSA, would be asked to prioritise its resources. That is what is happening.”

“Any arm’s length body has to prioritise and account for how it is spending public money. I have been assured that, in the negotiations that were had, the ONS was clear that its core function of providing population and economic migration statistics was more than possible within that budget. The fact that some prioritis…”

“It is worth saying up front that I do not recognise that characterisation of what is happening—or the past. Actually, when I dug into the historical funding of the ONS in recent decades, I was quite surprised at the generosity of past settlements. The first thing to say, of course, is that ONS funding is a matter for t…”

“Kosher is my preferred term.”

“I can just assure you that, as the Minister, I have not read the original legal advice, but I will absolutely seek to clarify that situation and to find out what advice was taken. We will come back to you to confirm that.”

“I would have to see the full written question.”

“There are two distinct recruitment processes. It is worth underscoring that they are different because of the nature of the role. One is the permanent secretary recruitment process, which I understand was run via a cross-Government expression of interest in the usual way in the summer of this year and was open to all e…”

“That decision has not been taken, so I would not take it as there being that ambition. First, we need to see how the splitting of the role improves the performance of the organisation in an urgent and energetic way. A final decision on whether to keep the roles split and, if so, whether to amend the legislation and in …”

“I am very happy to write to the Committee to set out a proposal for how we might do that and make that happen.”

“There are a couple of things I would say about that, and then I am sure Cat would like to come in. First, as I mentioned earlier, the updated framework agreement—which has not been updated in almost five years, I believe—will state the nature of that relationship, the expectations, the ongoing rhythm of meetings and ac…”

“I think that is a fair characterisation of my starting point. The fundamental point is that—having met the permanent secretary, the deputy chair and the acting national statistician—I have been satisfied in the last six weeks or so since I was appointed to this post that the problems of culture, personnel and legacy IT…”