Speeches by Hatton.

“Looking ahead, are you confident that the loan management system will be able to cope as we see an increased number of borrowers start to make their first repayments?”

“Just to be clear, that is the point that I was trying to get at. If this system has not been fully operational for most of its lifetime and there has been flaws in it, when are other bodies such as the Arts Council, Sports England or indeed the Department actually picking up the slack of a system that is not actually w…”

“My last question is on the current contract with PwC, which is going to expire next month. What will you do to make sure that, whatever contracting decision you make, you do not repeat the mistakes you have made so far and that we do have good value for money for the taxpayer? Building on the points that Nesil has made…”

“Do you feel that the 9% increase in the estimate will help you to do all the additional auditing that is required of you, but also to retain the staff who are needed to do that successfully?”

“Could you outline in more detail the reason for the 9% increase in the estimate for the next financial year? Is it because the NAO is more ambitious in what it is setting out to do, or is it just because of the general financial pressures facing all public bodies at the moment?”

“So you are confident that the SROs are happy that PwC is in charge when it is working and that these other bodies, like the Arts Council and Sport England, are picking up the slack when the system fails? Is that what you are saying?”

“To go into more detail, if possible, when you look at some of the challenges we face—whether that is a conflict around tariffs, further instability in Europe or further conflict in the middle east—do you feel confident the Department is ready for the potential knock-on impacts in terms of energy, and therefore the pric…”

“If we look at the world picture at the moment, there are a number of reasons that we could see further instability in the cost of energy; there could be similar events to what happened with the pandemic or with conflicts in Europe. It is reassuring to hear that this will be concluded by the summer, but, with that in mi…”

“Going through the NAO Report, it is interesting to see that it has been quite difficult to judge the impact of support schemes for energy. With that in mind, and building on what Anna said, could you touch a bit more on what has been learned about the energy support schemes that were in place during the covid pandemic,…”

“When will that work conclude? The covid pandemic was a few winters ago now.”

“This year?”

“Particularly during the pandemic, we saw much higher levels of fraud in other areas, such as the bounce back loan scheme. As you said, it is important that work is going on to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes that we saw with that scheme. My final point is that we saw slightly higher levels of fraud where ther…”

“Moving on from that important line of questioning, I think it is important that this Committee reflects on areas where a Report highlights good work, and where we have seen success. It is clear from the Report that the levels of fraud and error across energy support schemes were low, and lower, perhaps, than elsewhere …”

“I am glad the work is concluding this year but, to get this clear for the Committee, if the work around whether the previous energy support schemes have been successful does not conclude until this summer, how can the Department be fully confident that it is prepared to offer support in the event of another spike cause…”

“T7. Today we learned not only that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a sanctioned warlord, used frozen funds to make legal threats to silence a British journalist, but that the enablers of this textbook example of lawfare have since gone unpunished, with the Solicitors Regulation Authority ruling that Prigozhin’s lawyers “broke no ru…”

“I couldn’t possibly.”

“Thank you, Mr Blackman. I am sure members of the Committee have read the suggested substantive motion, and can see that I hope with this debate to cover a range of important topics relating to political finance in our democracy. It touches on the opaque funding of political parties, where it is not clear who the donor …”

“I will take that away, but I am sure it would be absolutely fine. I am completely fine with the title. The motion does the talking about what we are debating, so the title is not by any means important.”

“I think that would be fine. We could certainly broaden it to include that. It is about not either/or, but both. I completely agree.”

“Thank you. I should stress that I am a member of the APPG on anti-corruption and responsible tax, and their support has been invaluable. They have helped with previous applications on SLAPPS, for example, and they certainly help to set out issues in a clear and informed way.”