Speeches by Egan.

“I suspect that having the legal clout helps with this, but is it easy getting buy-in, because you are working across different Departments?”

“Thank you. Moving on to the role of the Older People’s Commissioner, the obvious question is what difference you think the role has made in Wales.”

“It is interesting, because in England it is much more devolved around local authorities and you see really big variations.”

“Are some areas doing it better than others?”

“I have some questions about the role of the Older People’s Commissioner, but first, Faye, I have a quick follow-up to Jo’s question about your work to get older people who are able to leave hospital home. Do you see a big difference between different localities in Wales?”

“Thank you very much.”

“Rhian, you have called for more meaningful equality impact assessments and age-proofing of policy proposals. Would you like to see any changes in how the DWP assesses the impact of its policies? Are there any particular policies that would benefit from that kind of review?”

“This morning, the Work and Pensions Committee was at the Welsh Assembly, where we heard from Wales’s Older People’s Commissioner as part of our pensioner poverty review. I was impressed that Wales has a role with real legal clout. From what we heard, it is making a difference for older people in Wales. Do Ministers agr…”

“UNISON and USDAW.”

“In terms of the universal services that are available, what difference would a universal service at a jobcentre that anybody could access make to the people you work with?”

“I will build on that as a question because I am keen to ask about availability of English lessons. It is particularly relevant, as Sam and Liz, you talked about working with a lot of foreign nationals. We were out on that jobcentre that Frank was talking about in Manchester, a fantastic visit. A lot of the customers at…”

“We will all be doing it for our questions.”

“Have you seen good examples of the availability of English lessons? That six months where people will not have anything when they have come, that is the time when someone should be put into full-time English lessons.”

“Is there anyone in that space that is doing a particularly good job that we might want to look to?”

“Are there any organisations out there, voluntary groups, that are doing this work in certain parts of the country?”

“Do you work with a lot of people who will not be speaking English?”

“I would like to express my gratitude and welcome this news today. Two new nurseries will be opening in Bristol North East, the Tynings school in Staple Hill and Avanti Gardens in Fishponds, both areas that have lots of young families but not enough nursery provision. Can the Secretary of State reassure other families i…”

“Q4. Yesterday, the Work and Pensions Committee visited Manchester, where we saw the power of devolution in action, in this case helping people to find work. With just 5 percentage points separating Labour and Conservative candidates at the last mayoral election, does the Prime Minister agree that to get the maximum adv…”

“Thank you. It would be interesting to get a link to Beeline to see it.”

“Your observations are interesting because very few will have that Westminster experience and then be able to get into the mayoral model. In terms of the Government getting the balance right in local flexibility, then there must be an element of national accountability.”