Speeches by Carling.

“I recognise what my right hon. Friend has said. In fact, I carefully drafted this speech to avoid attacking Wolverhampton in any way, because I recognise that the reasons for this situation are complex. That goes to my next point: overstretched councils cannot monitor conditions, let alone enforce them, for drivers ope…”

“I strongly support this Bill and was proud to serve on the Committee. The Bill will deliver an enormous transfer of power out of this place and into our local communities. As a former councillor, I know that trusting local representatives to make decisions about local services and issues leads to much stronger outcomes…”

“I am glad that those governance arrangements work, but they sound like a nightmare based on hearing that information. Would the hon. Member not agree again that under one unitary council, there can be much more strategic oversight of such a situation? If local residents are not happy with the way that is being managed,…”

“I used to be a councillor in an authority that had area committees, and we ended up scrapping them because they were not really doing a good job. Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that mandating particular governance arrangements of that sort and at that level within councils in legislation undermines the principle of …”

“My hon. Friend is speaking eloquently about the length of time people have been lobbying for this power. I felt that when I was a councillor. Does he agree that the right to request in this Bill will help mayors to identify these issues, and provide a pathway for them to request such powers much more quickly?”

“The shadow Chancellor has spent a lot of time in his speech talking about what people have said and done. I wonder if I could remind him that just a month ago he said that if he were in the Chancellor’s position, he would raise income tax. How does he square that with the speech he is currently giving?”

“You have started to cover this off a little bit, but I want to explore a little bit more detail around the function of codes that the new body will have. Sir Peter, I am led to understand that you have expressed some concerns about the new function for the EIC to advise on codes. Can you outline in a bit more detail ab…”

“Moving on to the broader public setting of all this, how do you think the EIC can effectively carry out its functions to engage and inform the wider public on the values, rules and oversight mechanisms that govern standards in public life?”

“Must Farm is just outside my constituency, in the constituency of the right hon. Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay), who I am very pleased to see here. It provides great support for people in Stanground in my area. Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming its contribution to the broader area and explo…”

“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair today, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) for securing this debate. HMOs can work for some people, such as students. With the average house price now more than 7.5 times the average salary, compared with the ’80s when it was three times, HMOs a…”

“Was it reviewed by the date?”

“How do they respond to that?”

“Can any of you think of examples of where a new Government or ministerial priority has run counter to what you feel your role is? The answer may be no. It would be a good thing if the answer is no, to be honest.”

“Are they reviewed often enough? We heard an example quite recently—it was the Civil Service Commission—where theirs had been set up in 2010. It was originally supposed to be reviewed every three years, and it has just been changed for the first time this year. Is that a common picture, or do we see these documents more…”

“That makes sense. There is a little late, and then there is 10 years. There is a slight difference there.”

“Mr Smith, in the written evidence of your organisation you suggested that the quality of oversight from sponsor Departments can vary. In what ways did you mean by that?”

“Thank you, that is helpful. On a broader governance point—I direct this to Ms McCaffrey and Mr Smith—how effective are the framework documents in setting out the relationship with sponsor Departments?”

“That is useful.”

“Those are useful comments. We did a separate inquiry into the ONS where we found a disconnect, particularly with bodies that produce statistics, sometimes between accountability versus independence and how to square that balance. Others might come on to that subject. I have a few small and bitty questions, so if you fe…”

“That makes a lot of sense. I was going to ask about churn being a problem; are you able to give a picture of what good oversight looks like from your perspective?”