Speeches by Hatton.

“I am aware of that, but these schemes were also found by an NAO Report to be even more expensive for the taxpayer. The Bibby Stockholm barge, in a Report earlier this year, was found to be a more expensive way of housing asylum seekers than the previous hotels that were used. I simply do not understand how you can thro…”

“Right. So you think that the current situation was unavoidable because enough due diligence was done, or do you think insufficient diligence was done at that early stage, which has led to tens or hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money being spent on a bunch of schemes that are all now being scrapped or closed down.”

“I have one final point. I am struggling to match what you say with the reality that we see in the information in front of us, which is that we have huge sums of public money being sunk into these projects, and yet they have almost all had to be abandoned because they are costing the taxpayer a fortune and delivering ne…”

“Should you have required a direction on the others?”

“These are huge figures: £715 million; £34.8 million; £49 million. These are huge sums of public money. You say you did some due diligence, but here we are, some months later, and almost every one of those schemes is about to be scrapped, sold or wound down. Can you honestly say that that diligence was sufficient, consi…”

“Thank you, Chair; I appreciate that. Reading this NAO Report, it was interesting that the performance around DWP customer service is a mixed bag. In some areas, there has been a marked deterioration, and in other areas, things are holding up better. I am concerned specifically about the timeliness with which claims are…”

“Thanks, but what I am specifically concerned about is the fact that there is a mixed bag. On the new state pension, which you mentioned, the timeliness is pretty good, but with PIP it is not good; the numbers are much lower for those who are having their cases processed in a timely way. You say “gradually”, but the rea…”

“Thank you, Chair.”

“T5. The previous Conservative Government exposed themselves to unprecedented levels of corruption and cronyism when delivering contracts during the pandemic. Recent analysis has shown that £1 in every £3 spent went on high-risk contracts, worth more than £15 billion. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that …”

“6. What steps she is taking to increase the level of tax paid by online multinational corporations.”

“Amazon currently makes hundreds of millions of pounds in profits in the UK each year, and often gets away with paying little to no corporation tax. Meanwhile, high street businesses in Weymouth, Portland and Swanage in my constituency pay their fair share. To level the playing field, will the Chancellor consider furthe…”

“What I have been struck by in recent weeks as I have listened to Members from across the House is the clear agreement that the current situation is neither sustainable nor dignified. Almost everyone in this House agrees that the status quo is unacceptable in terms of dignity, palliative care and end of life. Given that…”

“ Finally, I want to circle back to where I started with this part of our session. Looking at what happened during the spring, the clear damage that did do to the credibility of HMRC, and the comments that you made, Sir Jim, after that happened, would you accept that perhaps …”

“ Jim, why do you keep using the language of “no plans”? As the chief executive of HMRC, can you not give us greater clarity?”

“ Thank you, Chair. Jim, when you did it at the start of this year, it was a calamity. When you did those pilots last year, which Rebecca has highlighted, it was with very little notice. Why can you not just say, “We are not going to do it”?”

“ But while you are the chief executive.”

“ Thank you.”

“ I still think we could be a lot more ambitious. To understand how we close the tax gap, do we not also need to understand a bit more about the offshore tax gap? Do you agree, Sir Jim, that to close the tax gap altogether, we need to know how much is held in an offshore tax haven? Are you able to give me any vague…”

“ Forgive me for interrupting, Sir Jim, but £39.8 billion is sort of the equivalent of our MOJ and Department for Transport budgets combined, so would it not be more helpful if there was a clearer aspiration for how much it is going to be reduced by—rather than maintained at—and for when you are going to …”

“ As we have established, the tax gap—the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid and what is actually paid—does sit at a large sum, just shy of £40 billion. Therefore, I am a little bit concerned, Sir Jim, that the language that you used today was around “flatlining” and maintaining it. I kno…”