Speeches by Egan.

“Interesting. Do you feel that, as policymakers, we have all the information that we need to understand these trends?”

“We have heard some evidence from the first panel. I would like to get your views on how you would describe the trends in decision making on discretionary payments and what has been driving them. We have seen, despite higher inflation in recent years, improved scheme funding levels. We have heard that against the eviden…”

“We have touched on some of these already. I was going to ask how you would describe the respective roles of employers and trustees in the decision making, just to make that clear for the panel, and how that has changed over time. I was also going to ask about the impact, but that is clear from the chart that you have p…”

“Q Christopher, a number of us are on the Work and Pensions Committee and we know that one of many big issues is people coming up to retirement and being prepared—even knowing how much they have got to take into retirement. How do you see this Bill—you have talked through some of the challenges—helping people to prepare…”

“So do I.”

“Q I would like to move us on to the aspects of the Bill that place a duty on schemes to offer members default retirement products. We touched on it a bit this morning. What do you think they could look like? Sophia Singleton: I might start on this because I think that the Bill should not set out what the product looks …”

“13. What steps is she taking to support young people into employment, education or training in Bristol North East constituency.”

“That is fantastic to hear. Will the Secretary of State set out the practical impact of the west of England youth guarantee trailblazer so far? Assuming that it is positive, will she confirm plans to back it up with more investment, in order to support our young people in the Bristol area?”

“We asked the last panel about discretionary housing payments and the household support fund. What are your thoughts about those funds being brought together? How important are those funds for the local authorities that you see? Also, they are spent and used differently in different places as they have a discretionary a…”

“I want to ask about the increasing numbers of HMOs in some areas, and how that could be linked to the freezing of LHA. We are seeing it in Bristol, but I remember from my time in Lewisham where you would get landlords converting a house into one-bed flats in a cheaper part of London but were able to charge one-bed LHA …”

“A painful lesson of Israeli and, indeed, Jewish history is that when someone says that they want to destroy them, we must believe them. The Iranian regime has made its intentions to destroy Israel clear for decades now. We will all be familiar with the term “never again”, which came out of the concentration camps of Eu…”

“This is not one to comment on now, but work coaches were reporting to us, on actively learning English, that they feel they did not have the tools at their disposal—they were technically there but not being used—around trying to make sure that people do. My next question is about the role of local government. When I wa…”

“I welcome and am grateful for the appreciation of and focus on work coaches, in particular, and around jobcentres. When I became an MP and did visits to my local jobcentre, I got the sense of how they had not been heard and low morale is. I am looking forward to going back; hopefully that is filtering through. I want t…”

“The right approach is so important. It will need to be mindful of variation in performance. As with anything, whether it is local government or when things are devolved—we see this currently where programmes have been devolved—you get a difference in performance, so it is about taking on and looking carefully at those …”

“You have answered my next question.”

“It is what we need to guard against. You said, data security still need local discretion and the risks of everything landing on the household support fund. Anything else you would add to that? To what extent would sharing information from priority services registers help?”

“I was going to ask a question about to what extent energy companies have the data that they need to target pensioners. Based on the comments you have already put, it is not just energy companies, local authorities and energy networks were mentioned as well. Are there any others? Then where should they be getting data? …”

“I have a couple of questions on Sure Start. You have covered much of it, but Naomi, I was really interested when you talked about the reciprocal agreement with Sure Start users. I want to ask about the importance of local input. My background is local government so when I think of that I think of speaking to the counci…”

“Damien Egan. I represent Bristol North East.”

“I have a couple of questions on Sure Start. You have covered much of it, but Naomi, I was really interested when you talked about the reciprocal agreement with Sure Start users. I want to ask about the importance of local input. My background is local government so when I think of that I think of speaking to the counci…”