Speeches by McEvoy.

“Good morning. In the next iteration of Ofcom’s codes, would you like to see stronger guidance for the platforms about how to take down fraud and their responsibilities in relation to the Online Safety Act?”

“It is interesting, though, because it comes down to the point about affordable credit. You have credit unions that are going above and beyond to help communities that need it, which might be a safer and more responsible way of getting a loan. You then have some of these firms that could take more responsibility for wha…”

“There is certainly a concern about people using multiple buy now pay later products to get through day-to-day spending—for example, there are some takeaway outlets where you can use it. If people are over-indexed on buy now pay later, they could get into financial trouble. Is any work being done about how to track how …”

“With the new regime that you are exploring and are going to be implementing, is there a concern that the affordability checks might end up penalising people who really need buy now pay later just to buy a new washing machine or get some Christmas presents for a family member? How do you feel it is going to fall on cons…”

“I would like to move us on to buy now pay later, which you mentioned to the Committee in our last hearing. The Treasury’s consultation from last October said that 14 million UK adults have used an unregulated buy now pay later product in the six months before January 2023. That is a lot of people in all our constituenc…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her eloquent articulation of Christina’s story. Does she agree that the capital disregard functionality could be extended to future compensation schemes? Instead of each campaign group going through the trauma of trying to get an exemption for people on means-tested benefits, it could be stip…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and for securing this debate. It is clear to me and to all of us who support his campaign that it is about justice. Does he agree that the low uptake of the scheme might also be down to a significant amount of internalised shame, as expressed by my own family members who have been …”

“In Darlington, I met a lovely mother who had recently gone back to work as a school dinner support worker. She was taking part-time, low-paid work, and her children consequently lost eligibility for free school meals, so she was worse off. I promised her that only Labour would be on the side of low-paid working familie…”

“I have one question on this. Is every individual who enters the tax system allocated an online profile automatically?”

“We can.”

“They have found the details somewhere else.”

“With respect, it is the auto cut-off at 70 minutes. I have worked in a call centre before. That would be the difference.”

“Yes, rightly so.”

“That is great. There is one final question from me. This Government are committed to getting things done in the best interests of our constituents as quickly as possible. That is what we were elected to do. People want fundamental change in how they experience public services. Should DWP and HMRC be working more closel…”

“It is a system problem.”

“I want to move on to customer service, which we touched upon in some of your earlier answers. I hope you do not mind me saying, but it might come as a bit of a surprise to our constituents—my constituents in Darlington regularly complain about the customer service at the DWP—to hear that two of the most senior people i…”

“Just on that point, if we see a surge in people using the app and the app works, you will hopefully see a drop in people using the phone. With the same amount of money, you should be able to answer the phones 100% of the time. When we are looking at this 85%, I understand that we are on a journey. I am really pleased t…”

“When you say “customers”, do you mean people entering the workforce or people using a service?”

“Is that due to a loss of a lot of staff? Had you lost a lot of staff? Can you give us a bit more information about what happened?”

“I will come to Angela. Finally, on the point about why people waited so long, there was a massive surge in demand. Is that the same surge that happens every year when people do their tax returns? What happened to incur this huge surge on this occasion? Is it an annual surge? Has it always been this bad, as was discover…”