Speeches by Taylor.

“T6. What enforcement action is the Environment Agency taking against Viridor, the operator of the Beddington energy recovery facility, due to 18 months of exceedances of daily limits of NOx? Can the Minister also confirm that the permit increase request for the ERF will finally be refused?”

“Thank you, Mr Mundell. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship. I thank the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French) for securing this debate. It is extremely timely, because it is less than a fortnight since I was last in this Chamber debating housing policy—it seems that I am the Liberal Democrats’ ho…”

“Skipping ahead, I invite the Minister to tell us why anyone who cares about solving the housing crisis and protecting local councils in London should vote Labour at the local elections in May, particularly when the only party consistently standing up for those hit hardest by the housing crisis, and for our cash-strappe…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for providing that example of the impact on a specific project, which shows how difficult this will be for our councils. The announced measures will quietly reduce the requirement for affordable homes from 35% to 20%, forcibly slash the community infrastructure levy money, and barely scratch the …”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but I will move on swiftly. In my experience in Sutton we subscribe to the “yify”—“yes, if”—approach that I have spoken about a number of times. We do not need to water down community buy-in. We might need to make it faster and more efficient, but throwing out the baby with…”

“Q7. May I echo the words of the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) of how proud I am to wear the marigold alongside my poppy? Last year, Sadiq Khan was elected London mayor with a promise to keep a police station front counter open in all 32 London boroughs 24 hours a day. Labour has just broken that promise to…”

“Thank you for your time so far. We have had a pretty continuous series of reviews since the bonfire of the quangos and then the tailored review between 2016 and 2020. Could you, one by one, just go through and give an idea of your experience of public body reviews: how you are involved, what criteria are used, and whet…”

“So less Ofsted-ing and more kind of continuous coaching and reviews of how organisations are functioning?”

“In terms of mission-led government, that is the Cabinet Office.”

“Who defines what are core functions and what is part of this new raft of statistics that are needed to understand mission-led government? It is a big thing. Who is defining it?”

“Can I phrase the question differently, to be clear? If a Member of Parliament asks the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate the Office for National Statistics has, do you think that the Cabinet Office should tell that Member of Parliament what estimate the office for National Statistics has?”

“We have heard that the Cabinet Office has been instrumental in the senior appointments of the ONS. We heard in previous sessions that the Cabinet Office is also rewriting ONS’s responses to parliamentary questions—I reference here when an MP recently sought figures from the ONS on public sector headcount, and the Cabin…”

“I will keep on this for now—apologies. Have you replaced data that would potentially have been provided independently by the ONS with internal data that is not independent—that is written by the Cabinet Office or spads?”

“It is. There is a nice segue into our next question, so maybe we can ask that and potentially revisit this.”

“But if the Cabinet Office is responsible for mission-led government, then surely it is.”

“Do those core functions include the specific independent statistics that mission-led government requires?”

“Can I ask this question in a slightly different way, and maybe get a clearer answer? Do you disagree with Sir Ian Diamond’s suggestion that the ONS will not be able to offer support on data related to mission-led funding, harmonised data and much else besides, or do you not think that that is important?”

“It is a pleasure as always to serve under you, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Members for Northampton South (Mike Reader) and for Milton Keynes North (Chris Curtis) on securing this important debate. Eight years ago, London watched on in helpless horror as Grenfell Tower burned. Some 72 lives were lost, families …”

“I have mentioned that the naming of Heathrow as critical national priority infrastructure is vital to ending the disruption to power and systems we have seen over the summer, so I encourage the Government to go forward with that. On the plans for transport to and from the airport and associated road schemes, can the Se…”

“The hon. and gallant Member speaks very strongly about this issue. There may be reticence to support his new clause because of the implications for rehabilitation, but he has spoken about the huge impact on families when a life is taken in that way. Can he give some reassurance about the balance between rehabilitating …”