Speeches by Lamb.

“You were relocating the powers as opposed to the strategy.”

“How would you define that?”

“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.”

“On a point of order, Mr Vickers. Regarding my earlier breach, I just want to apologise to you and to the Chamber for referring to my right hon. Friends the Members for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) and for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves) by their names rather than by their constituencies, and without forewarn…”

“It has been argued that specialist agencies often have better knowledge of their policy area than their sponsor Department. Has that been your observation? If so, how can that knowledge be retained as we do away with some of these structures?”

“While the triennial reviews are gone, you are still supposed to have a tailored review for each arm’s length body within each parliamentary Session, which I suppose, given how short some of them have been, has not necessarily happened. Another three years has passed since your independent report. Are the new tailored r…”

“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 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?”

“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?”

“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.”

“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…”

“This Committee has dealt with various questions around the ministerial code over the last year and a half, including at the request of the Speaker. The ministerial code is, of course, the Prime Minister’s own code that he sets out. It is within his power to modify or enforce it. In order for it to be something that Min…”

“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?”