Speeches by Lamb.

“Given that your view is that there is an aberration—you said that, within the restraints that you were operating, you were able to resolve as many of these as you felt able to resolve, and a look through the list suggests that around a quarter were permanently shut down and the rest were merged or retained in some othe…”

“During the reform programme, do you think the process of closing and merging public bodies was handled sufficiently well?”

“How would you define that?”

“There are three areas, and social care is one of them. The finances of upper-tier authorities have been totally compromised, initially by the costs of social care, where we have still not taken decisions all these years after the Dilnot review. We all know that social care is slowly bankrupting councils. Go to any sing…”

“Given your experience, would you suggest the use of those Henry VIII powers again? Would existing legislation enable the Government to do that?”

“Is the hon. Gentleman astounded, as I am, that the majority of that debt is with the public works loan board, which sits underneath the Treasury. Where was the Treasury when that debt was being allowed to accumulate?”

“That suggests that we need a fairly long period of preparation before kicking off a process of trying to rationalise arm’s length bodies.”

“What sort of challenges do you envisage they are going to face trying to head in this direction?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. Local government is an area of great interest to me. I did my master’s dissertation on models for English devolution; I have worked at the UK’s leading think-tank on devolution; for 17 years I worked as an adviser to local authorities, and I have served in …”

“Much like yourself, the Government have indicated that they would like to see a number of arm’s length bodies closed. They have already announced several, of course, with NHS England being by far the most significant.”

“The reform programme was justified in terms of reducing waste and addressing accountability issues. Do you think there is a trade-off between those two areas?”

“That point about the Fulton report was made by someone else at a recent Committee meeting. In terms of specialisms, a number of recent former Ministers have observed that, as was alluded to earlier in this sitting, there are circumstances in which agencies appear to believe that they are the master in areas of policy, …”

“To continue that thought for a moment longer, the UK did experiment with that in the 1960s under George Brown.”

“Does my hon. Friend accept that part of the reason for the difference in defence spending is that those nations’ security is at much more immediate risk than that of the UK? If we are going to maintain a leading role and ensure the security of our people moving forward, we must be honest with our constituents. The real…”

“Nothing, Chair.”

“Mr Humpherson, you have specified that you believe that Ministers should be required to comply with the ministerial code, and not merely be mindful of it. Could you set out your reasons for believing that that should be the case?”

“Mr Humpherson, you have specified that you believe that Ministers should be required to comply with the ministerial code, and not merely be mindful of it. Could you set out your reasons for believing that that should be the case?”

“There are no safeguards in dealing with others. If I was to start spouting off statistics that I had made up or was misquoting, whereas a Minister would be subject to being required to comply with the ministerial code, it does not have a level playing field there for the Government compared to other individuals in publ…”

“Should there be greater regulation in this area for other public officeholders rather than simply Members of the Government?”

“It is the mechanism for ensuring that the statistical part is protected that I am really inquiring about. One of the concerns that this Committee has had, or that some of its members have had, talking to you and to your colleagues in regulatory roles over the last year and a half, has been that it seems that much of ou…”