Speeches by Payne.

“I suppose what I was probing, before moving on to my substantive questions, is that there has been this reprieve announced by the Secretary of State in relation to BTECs. I understand that some of these are ministerial decisions and policy decisions. You will know that there is noise in the sector about the future of t…”

“I am completely aware of the incident, what action Ofqual took and why it took it. My broader point was just about how you try to ensure, if you can, a mitigation against that being repeated, because, clearly, Ofqual touched on, as you said, not-fit-for-purpose questions, inadequate training for assessors and a wide ra…”

“That is a helpful segue. The permanent secretary and yourself, Ms Grant, touched on the second phase. Just in terms of the second phase, I have a question around why the second-phase contracts are so much more expensive than the first-phase contracts, which is drawn out in the NAO Report and you will recognise. I do no…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for making that powerful argument on behalf of her Derby North constituents. Having a Conservative-run county council is something we have in common, and in less than a month’s time, the residents of our respective constituencies will have a chance to turn the page on that failure and elect Labou…”

“Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this evening’s debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for being here to respond to the debate. As my constituency neighbour, I know he is as passionate about Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and the east midlands as I am. I refer hon. Members to my entry i…”

“My hon. Friend is a good friend and a powerful advocate for his constituents. He is right that devolution in the east midlands needs to go further and faster, because areas such as Greater Manchester and the west midlands are much further ahead on their journey. Giving the East Midlands mayoral authority trailblazer st…”

“I thank the hon. Member for sharing his view with me, but I must say that it is not a view we share in the east midlands. We have a partnership approach with our Labour Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward, working with brilliant local Labour councils. I would have a slight degree of sympathy for him if he had not b…”

“The hon. Gentleman is right to pay testament to the Chancellor and the Labour Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward, for unlocking nearly £1 billion in growth and investment from the freeport at East Midlands airport. He knows Northern Ireland politics far better than I do, but I think my hon. Friend on the Treasury …”

“I have a follow-up for Tony and Iain. You touched, Iain, on the exceptional financial support regime. I think there have been 42 councils since 2020-21 that have been in need of exceptional financial support in terms of a capitalisation order. What else do you think the Government should be doing immediately to support…”

“Returning to the point about local government reorganisation, do you think there is a risk that this becomes a huge distraction? So we are instructing local government to reorganise, but actually, people know that potentially by the end of this Parliament many of the existing councils are still going to be in place. I …”

“I have a question for Nico, if I may. I think I am right in saying that, if you take just the year ’23-24, revenue spend for local government across the board was £72.8 billion. How do you ensure value for money? There are still significant challenges for councils across the country: the numbers of looked-after childre…”

“Are you satisfied that the Department is getting value for money in the spend that it is making across local government?”

“On the revenue streams available to local councils, 2013-14 was the last time that the indices for the funding formula were properly reviewed; 1991-92 was the last time there was a revaluation in terms of council tax. Business rates reform is long overdue and has been called for by the sector for an awfully long time, …”

“But it is unlikely that we will see a complete overhaul of those indices of the funding formula by—”

“Do you think, Sarah, that the sector can expect by the time of the spending review, or at least the next provisional local government finance settlement, a complete overhaul of those indices of the funding formula that have not been reviewed since 2013-14? I will just speak from the viewpoint of my own local authority,…”

“Pete, I put this to you as a practitioner in local government. The reforms that Clive has just touched on include the strengthening of the standards and conduct codes, the local audit system overhaul, and local finance reform in terms of the finance system itself; now, local government reorganisation has been thrown in…”

“I am a member of Gedling borough council and, until May, of Nottinghamshire county council. I am a vice-president of the Local Government Association and a member of a number of trade unions that represent staff in local government. They are in my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.”

“We have recently seen record investment in the NHS to try to shift away from treatment to prevention. I am interested in the panel’s views on what the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Treasury, working together, should be doing to help local government shift more to prevention, at the same …”

“It would be helpful to see some examples.”

“Could you perhaps write to us and share some examples?”