Speeches by Darling.

“Thank you for coming today. The Chair has already touched on this. We have this deadline of October 2026 for the ecosystem of these dashboards to be fully up and running. Are there any costs that have not been foreseen? Are we confident that this is all in line for the costs? I also wanted to understand, as far as the …”

“Thank you. I would like to particularly focus on Pension Wise for this last question. Oliver Morley, we have recently corresponded, so thank you for your helpful correspondence on this. While there is clear, demonstrable evidence that Pension Wise is well received, how can you drive greater cut-through? What I am fearf…”

“In the oral evidence, Professor Levi highlighted some powers regarding asset freezing that the police have had since 2017. I would welcome the Minister’s reflections on whether these powers could have a significant impact in this area of the law—in particular, whether they would apply to international organisations, an…”

“I rise to speak about clause 20 in particular. Liberal Democrats are heartened by clause 18, which clearly says that if there is another account the money could be drawn from, that will be utilised. However, we are particularly concerned about coercive and controlling relationships. In my 30 years serving the people of…”

“I ask the Minister to reflect on how speedily the Bill is going through Parliament. As we heard from the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, financial institutions are not clear about the impact on or the cost to them. When we legislate in haste, challenges will often come out of the woodwork in the l…”

“The Liberal Democrats support this Conservative amendment. I will not go over the arguments again, as they have been well put. Some clauses talk about safeguards. It is about the culture of the organisation, making sure that individuals have professional curiosity and how to foster that within the organisation. Profess…”

“I am pleased that the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire has been reading my notes—I wish to speak about future-proofing, too. The current incumbent of the White House is a clear fan of cryptocurrency, so we are looking at that element of our financial world potentially growing very much faster and do…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Sir Desmond. The hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire has ably laid out a number of concerns, and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response. I know from my time serving my community in Torbay that when people are in a tough place,…”

“Torbay is the premier resort in the United Kingdom, but behind our palm trees and Victorian villas is the most deprived council in the west of England, so it is a truly welcome that Torbay is one of these 75 neighbourhoods. Sadly, we have had a pregnant pause while the new Government walked through the wreckage of the …”

“I echo many of the concerns raised by the shadow Minister. There are serious issues with giving a blank cheque to banks to undertake certain activities. How are they planning to calculate what their cost is? Is it purely the direct cost of that activity, or are they able to ladle into that some of their central costs? …”

“The Minister referred to a review process; it would be really helpful if the Committee could be aware of how long that process is likely to take.”

“I can add very little to what the shadow Minister said. Again, I am broadly sympathetic on the need to have these safeguards in the legislation, and on not knowing what the practice notes are. We are very much in the dark, so that does give us cause for concern.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Lewell-Buck. I am pleased that you already see that we will become the official Opposition by the next general election, as long as the right hon. Member for North West Essex (Mrs Badenoch) continues. The Liberal Democrats would like to state clearly that fraud is …”

“Perhaps the word that the shadow Minister used most was “reasonableness”. In our strange political world in recent months, the question of what is reasonable in our society has changed significantly following the change of President in the United States. What normal society would expect is “reasonable” of an elected of…”

“I welcome that reassurance from the Minister, which we will take onboard.”

“I concur about the safeguarding of individuals. While there may be an independent reviewer or chair, the challenge, for me, is who appoints them. If it ends up being the Minister who appoints the chair, how independent will they be? Given what we are seeing elsewhere in the world, how do we ensure that we build a struc…”

“I will not take up all that time because I know that time is pressing. First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers) on obtaining this extremely important debate. The issue has been well debated so far. I will focus on antisocial behaviour and its impact, with communities feeling unsafe to go o…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I concur with what the hon. Member for Gordon and Buchan, my colleague to my right—in more ways than one—shared just now.”

“I will just put out the three areas that I want to explore. Given that the true scale of death and serious harm, including suicide, is not clear for those who engage with the Department, who are of working age and who claim benefit, how could you better collect that data? I would welcome your thoughts, Minister, on whe…”

“I will cover both areas in one hit because I know we are really limited for time, but thank you so much for giving up your time so generously today, all of you. First of all, one of my favourite hobby horses is trauma informed, and from written evidence, there is clearly an unpicking of trauma informed at a policy leve…”