Speeches by Powell.

“No. I have regular meetings with the Chief Whip and No. 10, because the three people who have to agree to a statement happening are me, the Chief Whip and the Prime Minister. I oversee that process and I communicate the outcome of that process; I receive the bids and manage that process. We notify the Speaker in the mo…”

“Yes, they are for the Speaker.”

“It is, but I can’t be late!”

“I need to get in for PMQs.”

“It is entirely the Government; it is nothing to do with the Speaker. Even though we routinely say, “With permission, Mr Speaker”, that is a courtesy. The Government of the day decide which statements are happening.”

“I’ve never been accused of being pure, Chair.”

“As I say, these are expectations, in any case. As I say, there is no need to get into a semantic argument about it. And we are making judgments about how that is done, when it is done, and about what is “the most important”, what is “first”, and what is “in session”. These are all things that we are having to consider.”

“It is not, actually. For statements, it is not the Speaker—”

“Not that section of “Erskine May”.”

“The resolution of the House isn’t—”

“I do, because we also produce for Ministers a guide to making legislation and a guide to Parliament, and they set out a clear process by which Ministers should consider these things and the steps they should take. As I say, that also involves making sure that Ministers table written ministerial statements as well, beca…”

“The resolution of the House is a broader—I don’t know whether you have seen paragraph 11.40, but it is worth having a look at the resolution of the House which makes clear about truthfulness, correcting the record, misleading Parliament and so on, disclosure of information and being forthcoming. It is not the same word…”

“It’s not for me; it’s for the Prime Minister to decide if he wants to reopen the Ministerial Code. You generally do updates to the Ministerial Code once a Parliament—either once at the beginning of a Parliament or when a new Prime Minister is coming in and they have their own particular views about that. We did update …”

“No. With tuition fees, there was an unauthorised leak, which was investigated and which was about 20 minutes before. The statement had already been advertised and agreed, and that was being made to the House first. Budget statements are always made to the House. Since time immemorial, Governments have, for various reas…”

“It’s not my document.”

“These are trade-offs, as we have been saying. There is perhaps a difference to some degree between everyday announcements, news management and amplifying your message, and big important Government documents and big important announcements. Personally I think the House of Commons is a much tougher crowd than a media pre…”

“Budget statements—”

“I always think that one of the hardest jobs in Parliament is for the Leader of the Opposition to respond to the Budget. It is effectively an announcement to the House first and a statement, because there nearly always is some big thing; rabbits out of the hat are what people call them. The Red Book and all the detail, …”

“The guidance—the guide to Parliament that is produced by my office and goes to Ministers—is that statements being given should be given to the Opposition spokespeople, for example. This is not a document, but a statement of any given kind. It should be given to the Opposition spokespeople and the Speaker at least 45 mi…”

“Planning reforms were as well. Tuition fees was made to the House first.”