Speeches by Osborne.

“Okay. I will move on to contingency around supplier risks in particular. Looking at Atos, and financial and other organisations—you are moving to multiple platforms—is supplier risk, or mitigation of supplier risk, a concern for you?”

“On risk, it says in paragraph 20 that you have introduced a new risk management framework. With the issues of supplier risk that we have just mentioned and the programme risks that I started with, do you feel that the risk management framework that you have introduced is cogent enough to pick up on some of those elemen…”

“I appreciate that clarity. You have admitted that you are at the interventionist end. Do you think that the organisation accepts that it is at the interventionist end? Does the public understand that, given we are where we are, there is a systemic issue that needs to be identified within the risk profile of the organis…”

“To come back on that last point about why I ask the question, let me give you an example. If £1 billion was given by DWP to Ernst & Young over the course of the year, but £800 million of that is for audit and only £200 million is consultancy, the actual amount of money going out the door to an external provider to enga…”

“The reason I ask is because, if you do not have that information, how do you know what is consultancy versus audit? I will give you an example. Take forensic accounting, for instance. They are providing accounting services, but they could give advice in terms of how to restructure a business to ensure that you do not h…”

“I have two questions. In responding to my colleague’s question earlier, you mentioned something like a naughty list. I would be very keen to see the detail of which Departments are currently on course to reduce consultancy fees versus those that you perhaps have challenged. Could you provide this Committee with more in…”

“That is really encouraging to hear.”

“That is really helpful data. We would love to see that more. That level of analysis shows you that state-funded special schools and independent schools are taking a significant chunk of the budget, and therefore interventions possibly need to be targeted at those particular schools. If I may, I will move on to the seco…”

“I just have one last question, if I may. This question is about any future risk. At present, school transport is provided from the age of five to 16. It is also provided for 19-plus as a statutory requirement. Is there a risk that at some point we might get challenged as a Department on why you are not providing transp…”

“That is perfectly fine. Thank you for clarifying that. In terms of my questions, I am going to look particularly at cost and demand drivers. Figure 4 in the report indicates the demand driver, for those in the audience. It clearly shows that SEND from 0 to 16 has doubled from 2015 to 2023, and it is similar for 16 to 1…”

“I also accept that there will be likely higher costs for SEND students attending specialist schools because they potentially have greater need requirements. I am just interested to see whether that is a particular area where we are seeing a dramatic increase over time. If that is the case, measures may need to be speci…”

“Could I ask that we perhaps have that data? That might be useful for us.”

“In 1.21 on page 19, it says, “Available data show that 143 of the 153 local authorities”, and then in paragraph 28 in appendix 1 it says that 115 have responded.”

“In some ways, you have answered some of the questions that I have, which is brilliant. You are exactly correct. The market pressures have been highlighted in 2.20 to 2.22. There is a shortage of drivers, rising costs around transport operators, licensing restrictions and so on. You might have the answer to my next ques…”

“Just on that, Geoffrey, in 1.21 it says, “Available data show that 143 of the 153 local authorities with a duty to provide home to school transport have increased real terms spending on home to school transport over the past eight years”. If there is a duty to provide the data, I am assuming that only 115 responded to …”

“May I join colleagues across the House in saying that our thoughts are with the family of Sarah Everard? I also thank Lady Elish for her inquiry and the part 2 report published today. The Public Accounts Committee recently conducted an inquiry that looked at the National Audit Office report on policing around the count…”

“This Budget is about aspiration and investing in the future potential of the British people, from the health service to our small businesses to our high streets. It is about supporting infrastructure and development, whether in airports, roads or power generation. While we are on the topic of astrology, black holes hav…”

“Thank you for that answer. That was very comprehensive. Lastly, this programme relies on the three elements that you mentioned earlier, James. Recruitment is one of them, which I will not touch on, but the other two are process optimisation, which I have just discussed, and policy changes. I have referenced figure 14 p…”

“At 2.11 in the Report, it says that “staff we spoke to felt that a high number of system changes, coupled with staff shortages, has made it difficult to create the space to make meaningful improvements”. It continues, “In 2023-24, HMPPS estimated there were around 100 new national proposals to change probation processe…”

“I will put the question back to you. With the volume of change that you are expecting over 18 months, the deflection of service personnel on to change initiatives—I think that is what is being suggested in the Report—might mean that their time is being utilised on change when they are at capacity with flow, if that mak…”