Speeches by Smith.

“Jack, you have touched on it with your vision of utopia already. Is there anything more that you think could be done better?”

“To be fair, that makes sense of things. One issue I currently have is a bus thing, where the bus has been stopped and completely cut off a community, but that is a different bus company, so maybe that is why. That is helpful, thank you.”

“Thank you. Keith, what are your comments, please?”

“This is a very live issue for me. I have two bits of casework going on at different ends of my constituency, with some significant delays and obstructions and a six-month-long lack of buses, so it is good to be able to ask you these questions this morning. What is your assessment of how well street works are managed to…”

“Emma, do you want to go first, please?”

“Thank you. I have a bit of a yes/no answer question. There is room for a slight bit of extension, although I am conscious of the time. Is the system for managing street works too complex? If so, how could it be made simpler and less of an administrative burden?”

“I want to ask a very brief question. On the point you have just made, it struck me that obviously there has to be a saving to the taxpayer as well if there is the ability to use the same works to do all of the jobs in one go rather than everybody re-laying tarmac, breaking it up and re-laying tarmac. There are environm…”

“I thank the Minister for that reassurance and for outlining that there are further abilities to recover funds. Particularly in recoveries from organisations, does that include the seizure of assets should that be necessary? A lot of organisations might be asset rich but cash poor. If we seek to retrieve money on behalf…”

“I have a few requests for clarification about this group of clauses. The point that my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire made about clause 63 and wanting to avoid double jeopardy makes complete sense, but it raises a question—forgive me if this is covered somewhere else, perhaps in other l…”

“I could probably have intervened on my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, but he was in full flow at the time and I did not want to put him off. I have a clarification question on the meaning of the bank. Is the Minister looking to ensure that things such as the National Savings and Invest…”

“I have some queries about clause 17 and the provisions on recovery from bank accounts. My comments apply to clause 38 as well, but I will speak specifically to clause 17. Earlier, the Minister mentioned that some of the powers for direct deductions and deductions from earnings are used more widely across the DWP, parti…”

“Further to a similar online petition that is approaching 1,000 signatures, I present this petition of over 100 constituents from Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo who rely on Newton Ferrers pharmacy, which is owned and run by Esi Kumurdzi. My constituents are deeply concerned about the future of this vital pharmacy, which i…”

“I thank the Minister for those points, but I seek a bit more clarification. There are references to “the Minister” in clause 3, and I want to be clear about this, because we talked a lot about the code of practice during the evidence session on Tuesday. Is the Minister saying that the code of practice will have referen…”

“Does my right hon. Friend agree that the myriad Labour attacks on family businesses will have a huge impact on businesses like Vospers vehicle franchise in my constituency? Founded in 1946, it employs 600 people but faces a £1.4 million increase in national insurance contributions and a future business property relief …”

“Of the 500 or so that the Minister has just explained will have to pay inheritance tax, does he have any idea what number are small businesses, compared with the large estates that he seeks to challenge in the legislation?”

“In the same vein, I am a member of Plymouth city council.”

“Q This question is on a slightly different tack. One of the powers in the Bill would disqualify a debtor from holding a driving licence. Is that likely to be an effective tool in getting people to engage and comply? Also, do you think the amount of time that that is for is long enough? It does not feel very long to me,…”

“Q Who should be consulted about putting together that code of conduct, or code of practice? Should the detail and the code of practice be included in the Bill? Anna Hall: We can talk about who should be consulted. Debt advice organisations and consumer groups are important, because they will be the ones that interact w…”

“Q If you have been in the room, you will have heard a lot about the code of practice already. The Bill requires the Secretary of State to lay before Parliament a code of practice on the new recovery powers. What would you like to see in that code of conduct? Anna Hall: A lot of the operational detail of how the powers …”

“Q I am particularly interested in the work that the NHS serious fraud team is already doing. What specific challenges do you currently face in investigating fraud and recovering money that the Bill will help? Do you think there are gaps in what is being proposed that could be tweaked or amended? Alex Rothwell: If we ta…”