Speeches by Coghlan.

“Even though in 2010 there were 1.6 million special needs children and there are 1.7 million now?”

“Are you worried at all that the scrapping of Sure Start, with all the evidence that early intervention is very effective in terms of childhood outcomes, combined with the education reforms that, absolutely right, raised educational standards as a whole, but had an increased focus on test taking, may have harmed the chi…”

“I want to ask the same question to you, Mr Osborne. I am particularly interested in the decision to dismantle Sure Start, if you could cover that in your answer.”

“Do you have any regrets about the policies that you implemented in coalition? Are there things you would advise the Chancellor to do differently?”

“You made a very interesting point about the lack of projects to invest in. Given the negative real interest rates you experienced at the time, was that a key missed opportunity to invest, or was it more a lack of projects?”

“Mr Osborne, do you think the Government have the right approach to public investment? Should they be increasing it or putting it in different areas?”

“Given what you have just said, and what you said earlier about US productivity greatly increasing relative to the UK and Europe, do you think the lack of public investment under the coalition was part of that issue?”

“I guess at the moment the jury is very much out on those professional bodies. In 2026, it will have been 10 years since the Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation was established. Are any changes needed to OFSI and HM Treasury’s financial sanctions implementation powers?”

“I hope the Minister will consider these points.”

“A new consolidated UK sanctions list will go live in January 2026. What preparations has the Treasury made for potential disruption to firms’ sanctions screening?”

“Does the Minister agree with my view, as a former fund manager, that it is categorically not the Government’s job to call the stock market? If professional fund managers cannot get it right, there is no way the Government can. Surely the answer is to advise consumers when they are making investment decisions to invest …”

“But Parjinder Basra, the chair of the regulatory board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales—for full disclosure, I am a former member—said that this change would “increase the regulatory burden and costs to firms, making business growth more challenging”. No accountancy or legal stakeholder wh…”

“In October, the Treasury announced that all professional body anti-money laundering supervisors will be subsumed into the FCA. How long will that transition take? Are you concerned that it will further overstretch the FCA?”

“The Chancellor knows that I agree with her that the use of public research and development is one of the most effective levers for economic growth, but it will not significantly increase over the entire five-year spending review period. If the Government are serious about economic growth, they must find a way to increa…”

“I fully agree with the USO, but in some postcodes in my constituency 20% of first-class mail is delivered late. In Buckland, there is no mail service at all when the postlady is on holiday. Does the hon. Member agree that the Government must work with Royal Mail to improve service?”

“Where I am going with this is, should and could the Treasury be making the case that if you intervened early, that would reduce debt to GDP over the long run? Therefore, one should be going to the OBR and taking into account not just the up-front costs of these interventions but the impact on future GDP, and also going…”

“The overall cost of what it is right now.”

“My colleague Helen Hayes MP, who is Chair of the Education Committee, has a particular interest in this area. Under today’s SEND system, an 11-year-old may end up leaving school for perhaps two years because they do not get support until they are expelled, and there are 1,800 children in Surrey in that situation right …”

“We all hope desperately for a just peace in Gaza. I served alongside the Minister as a diplomat in the middle east and as a soldier. Given that, I particularly welcome the proposed international security force, but it is essential that such a force includes troops from Arab countries and possibly from western countries…”

“Professor Stewart, it is sometimes said that policies to reduce child poverty pay for themselves. As an example, I think particularly of the work of Nobel laureate James Heckman, who modelled out the economic metrics of early intervention and how they are exponentially more effective. Can you justify some of these inte…”