Speeches by Lamb.

“Just building on the points set out there, is it recognised that potential exclusion from future Government contracts might act as an incentive for companies to maintain their current contracts at a sufficiently high level?”

“This is my last question. For many, many years, across the public sector we have hidden behind EU procurement regulations as a barrier preventing us from doing things that might rationally be seen as common-sense approaches. Given that the Government sets its own rules for how it procures these things and for how contr…”

“I was a local government leader for many years, and I was told that for one reason or another I could not take legal action against people, or that regulations were too restrictive. The moment I started forcing officers to start taking action, I noticed a significant improvement in performance, and we consistently won …”

“I very much welcome, as I am sure do most of colleagues on the Labour Benches, the Government’s actions so far on commonhold and leasehold, and I look forward to their further steps. Today, I would like to speak to the issue of property management agents, particularly in the context of unadopted estates. As with so man…”

“Of course, the goal is to ensure that we do not require the scrutiny process to step in when things go wrong. Could the role played by central Government be improved in this process? If so, how?”

“I suspect that any Minister who has been called before this Committee in the last two years would struggle to believe that they were getting an easy hearing.”

“If these structures already exist and we already undertake some measure of oversight of these recommendations, as we are doing today, people may question whether Parliament is currently proving itself functional and looking at recommendations of inquiries. There is always the question of whether partisan interest inter…”

“Building on the response to the last question, other organisations have suggested a national oversight mechanism instead of the Select Committee as a means for overseeing recommendations made by Select Committees. Do you have any views on that as a solution?”

“I thank the Chancellor for her response. With the constantly growing evidence base behind it, wellbeing economics offers Governments an increasingly sophisticated means of supplementing conventional economics in decision making. It reveals that big-ticket items very often offer little wellbeing benefit to our constitue…”

“6. Whether she plans to update the Treasury Green Book supplementary guidance on wellbeing. [R]”

“The SIC report highlighted how interim reports have been used by inquiries to give chairs a chance to monitor the Government’s response. What is your view on this practice?”

“Once compensation has been delivered, and in terms of ending that process, are we looking at a period of considering in the round how that worked?”

“When should scrutiny of the implementation of an inquiry’s recommendations begin and end? It feels as if there are objections almost from the start.”

“The inquiry said that in terms of any future statutory inquiry, PACAC should accept the role of reviewing the Government’s timetable for considering recommendations. Do you have any views on how the Committee could achieve that?”

“When do you think Committees such as this one should start considering how recommendations are being implemented? When do you think that process of scrutiny should end?”

“The bit where we can give you some grace is on the point around the current legal position that you are dealing with. Sam has consulted the legislation and given an interpretation of it. I am prepared to accept that maybe there is more to it. If the commission is aware of the problems and restrictions on its current re…”

“So in the view of the Charity Commission, this person would have been fit to serve on a children’s charity dealing with vulnerable children, despite the fact that they had made this request that was clearly wrong?”

“On that point, I entered this room thinking I knew what the purpose of the commission was, and now I think it just maintains a database online, as far as I can tell. There was no attempt whatsoever to protect the public interest or the interests of people who are vulnerable who are in the charge of these charities. On …”

“That is a very good point. Thank you. At this point, is there any evidence of action being taken by the Government to resolve the issues?”

“Mr Madden, the Government have changed the title of the Independent Adviser and increased its ability to initiate inquiries. In practice, what effect do you believe these changes have had?”