Speeches by Powell.

“As a near constituency neighbour of my hon. Friend, I am well aware of Meadow Mill and all the trauma and difficulties suffered by residents during the recent flooding. Many other colleagues’ constituencies were affected, too. This Government inherited really poor flood defence systems, which is why we have put in plac…”

“I, too, am sure that the whole House will welcome the developments between Israel and Gaza over the past hours and days, with a long-overdue ceasefire and the release of hostages now looking like a real possibility, although that is still to be confirmed. This will hopefully now lead to much-needed aid getting in,usb t…”

“The business for the week commencing 20 January includes: Monday 20 January—General debate on the impact of food and diet on obesity, followed by a general debate on financial education. The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee. Tuesday 21 January—Remaining stages of the Armed …”

“Like you, I always try not to use the phrase “second jobs”. It is not my preferred phrase. We are all aware, as Members of Parliament, that the reputation of MPs is very low. It has been getting lower over time and has not improved. That has certainly not been helped by a number of very high-profile cases over the last…”

“Well, I think you make a really good point. If you canvas the public, they probably all want us to do the job of an MP for no pay, using up all our time and probably living in a dustbin while we are doing it. That would maybe satisfy the public appetite. I totally get your point. Some people think that we should do an …”

“Absolutely. Thank you very much for having me today—thank you, Alberto, and all members of the Committee. I know that all the lay members, and you, Alberto, have served on the Committee for a long time, and I welcome all the new members of the Committee. The Committee often does work that is not necessarily appreciated…”

“Right. I think these things are a balance. This is not a year dot thing. That is the point I want to make. This Committee has led the way over the last few years in refining those rules, but I do think there is a case for doing that further.”

“That is always the balance to be struck. I personally feel that rules are our friend in these situations, as they help to guide our activity. We have seen over time in the past that there was a scandal or an occurrence and then a clamour to tighten the rule after the fact, which catches people out retrospectively, so I…”

“I do, and it is building on the very good work that has happened over the last few years in addressing some of the issues and in response to previous incidents.”

“As I say, we have had some very top-level initial discussions. I am really hoping that the detail of that will be considered by this Committee, and so we would not consider that further. The focus on media appearances, speeches and so on is partly because they remain as one of the exemptions for paid roles. We were str…”

“Under the rules around paid advocacy—”

“Well, in paid employment where you were giving policy advice, so if you had a contract of employment with a health company where you were giving policy advice, that would no longer be—”

“No, you are confusing two things I said. You would no longer be able to give health policy advice. If you had a paid contract of employment, you would no longer be able to give advice about the passing of legislation or how Parliament works; that would no longer be permitted, but it was until recently. It is now no lon…”

“Obviously you would have to declare when contributing to any debate, or anything else, that you were also a doctor or a nurse or had a family business or whatever. We are not going to say that we can completely rule out any sort of problems by just doing a complete blanket ban. I really do not think that is in everybod…”

“My principal concern is not actually the media. I think is that is just one area. It is partly because we had three exemptions to the previous rules, and two of those exemptions we have now taken out. Whether that is appropriate does need exploring. The perception of the media, in writing up my views, is that I am inte…”

“So would I—it’s cold.”

“It is.”

“There were three principles that the Commissioner suggested as a starting point. One was around that conflict of attention, which I think was actually my phrase initially that he has taken and put into that. The second was around a conflict of interest, which we have mentioned. The third is about whether someone can re…”

“They are difficult, and obviously the move is a move away from that. I think somebody not too far from where you are talking about was planning on holding both positions, but the public outcry was such that they then decided not to do that. Look, I am a Minister as well as a Member of Parliament, and you could argue th…”

“I think by keeping in close conversation. The Modernisation Committee is looking at a specific recommendation that came out of the Kernaghan review into the ICGS, which was published just before the election. Many of those recommendations are either for this Committee, for the House Commission or for others to consider…”