Speeches by Green.

“I declare an interest as a member of the all-party parliamentary group on the loan charge. My colleague said that you are spending £31 million a year on loan charge compliance. To date you have settled only £52 million of a total £1.7 billion tax liability, so how can you give us assurance that the approach you are tak…”

“Thank you.”

“Some of it is out of your hands.”

“Thank you for clarifying that.”

“Is there a wider comms plan beyond writing to them?”

“I may have misheard you. Did you say that you were going to write to all those with unclaimed— John-Paul Marks indicated assent.”

“Back in 2016, HMRC gained legislative powers for your special measures regime. For 10 years, you have had the power to sanction poor behaviour by the worst offenders. Why have you never used those powers?”

“If you identify an issue, who ultimately has the lever to mandate a decision?”

“If you are sharing more data, where does the ultimate responsibility lie for making sure it is unlocked and a solution is found? It sounds quite complicated to me. If you are in a specific arm’s-length body or a Government Department and you have identified a problem with the interdependency with another change program…”

“Are you confident that, if the equivalent of the problems with the ATS presented again, it would be caught sooner and addressed faster?”

“To turn to the governance and management of the different interdependencies, paragraph 18 of the NAO Report states: “Inadequate governance of interdependencies is still hindering clusters’ planning for the value for money and delivery of shared services”. I would like to understand how you are managing your five interd…”

“If there is a problem, what is the route to a decision?”

“Figure 7 on page 31 of the Report shows a host of other Government digital change programmes that also have interdependencies. I am keen to understand what you are doing to ensure that those programmes are compatible with what you are trying to achieve here, because there are so many of them, and the impact of 14 of th…”

“I have a question for Mr Bisson, to understand why the Government do not see Northern Powerhouse Rail as a mega-project. Looking at figure 7 on page 28, it presents most of the characteristics of a mega-project as defined by the Government, so why has this not been designated as such?”

“I am aware that we are pushed for time. May I ask if the Committee can have a note on how that is going to work in practice and how it has been working? The Committee has a real interest in making sure that we do not add additional costs on projects like this.”

“I want to ask the permanent secretary about the nature restoration fund. What impact will it have on large infrastructure projects for which the Department is responsible?”

“But that is a “TBC”: it is an ongoing live conversation. If I turn it on its head, given that you are on the record, what are the risks of not being designated as a mega-project?”

“You have mentioned that it is a programme that will take us into the 2040s. Forgive me, but how will you set it up in such a way that it will survive multiple Parliaments?”

“I am interested in the Thames crossing example that you just gave. I am keen to understand how it will work in practice. I have in mind the bat tunnel. HS2 was really clear that it felt that the nature and biodiversity requirements obligated it to come up with a solution such as a bat tunnel. How will we make sure that…”

“On that, does that mean we are changing the requirements for biodiversity in nature?”