Speeches by McEvoy.

“Just before we move to Ms MacDonald for the positive story, the PAC report also said that 44,000 people waited 70 minutes on hold for HMRC and then their phones went dead without any warning. Can you appreciate how enraging it would be for a member of the public to wait 70 minutes of their day and then for their phone …”

“Just on that point, it will not be a surprise to anybody that the customer service that people receive from DWP is not good enough. People really struggle to get what they are entitled to. The general consensus on HMRC and DWP is that they are really good at taking your money away and really bad at giving it back. The …”

“In keeping with all of our other Committee panels, I must ask you whether any of you are based in Darlington, my constituency. Are you considering spending more time in Darlington?”

“How representative of the wider employment market is the HMRC data? You have self-employed people.”

“You have 12 agents up and down the country, in every region.”

“I am interested in the framing of the impact of your decision on the quarter percentage point and what that means for business and consumer sentiment, which we know drives growth, and the appetite for people to invest in the UK. We want to see as many people as possible feeling better off. Wages are going up. We know t…”

“A lot of people’s mortgages hinge on them getting the data right.”

“How heavily is it weighted?”

“Just following up from Ms Yang, how much does your confidence in the datasets impact your decision on the rate cut?”

“It comes down to the confidence that we all have in current public data as well. We have previously raised the productivity puzzle and the fact that productivity is looking lower than it was in Q1 2024 but 1% higher than Q4 2019. Again, it poses the question that I raise every time about the reliability of the producti…”

“How much of the business community in the UK is represented in the surveys and the work of your agents?”

“That is not that many, is it? You have one person in every region.”

“Thank you to the panel. It has been fascinating so far. I am an optimist. Given what we have heard about the increase in the US risk rating, which poses an opportunity for the UK economy, I would argue, and the warm welcome from businesses about the trade deals with the EU and India, Governor, are you being too pessimi…”

“Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree that referencing such awful disasters really brings into focus the lack of public awareness of the lack of support for our armed forces in previous years, and that this landmark Labour Bill will transform the culture in our forces in a positive way and is long overdue?”

“Why do you think that 20% of start-ups are with NatWest? What is different about what you are offering to start-ups? One of the big challenges is that microbusinesses are struggling to access capital. We had some data that said that 5% of SMEs would consider another lender if not offered the loan amount from their own …”

“Does anybody else have anything on that point that they want to add?”

“Thank you. Do you have 20% of start-ups because you have such a large proportion of businesses on your books or because you have had a focused strategy?”

“The challenger banks are taking over in terms of funding SMEs. Why do you think that is? Are you going to close that gap?”

“I have one last question about regional disparity. In the north-east, we have a smaller number of SMEs, but we definitely have a smaller number of angel investors, and we really need the big high-street banks to lend to SMEs in the north-east and in Tees Valley specifically. With the Government’s industrial strategy co…”

“Great. Is that specifically to SMEs?”