Speeches by Davies.

“The responsibility for that balance is with MHCLG, which is responsible for building. The central, joint team between my Department and the Treasury will provide advice, guidance and challenge to that process. For me, you do not get sustainable growth by threatening or risking life and limb in that way. That is why we …”

“Yes.”

“That is a very good question. There are two ways in which we do this. I might bring Caleb in on the consumer side. On businesses, underpinning the industrial strategy are eight sectors that we think will drive growth over the next 10 years. Each of those sectors has a sector council, which is normally chaired jointly w…”

“Sorry, can I just quickly come in at the end? David has very helpfully flagged that I got something wrong—apologies, Chair and Committee members. You asked how we are assuring ourselves that the targets for individual Departments are right, when they come back with administrative savings. However, it will be done not b…”

“I am sure we will be bringing it back then.”

“To build on what Jess said, there are different ways in which you can tackle this. The key point that you highlighted, Ms Dixon, is the complexity of this compared with how it can look—it can look very sensible from a Whitehall perspective, but you have to turn this around. I was very struck by the comments made today …”

“My pleasure, Chair. My name is Gareth Davies. I am the permanent secretary at the Department for Business and Trade and was appointed in January 2023.”

“That is definitely a risk. The main way in which we are focused there is through the use of things such as the sector councils, where we get some of the largest investors around the table with Ministers so that they can give feedback about what is making a difference and what is not. The feedback from what is happening…”

“Yes, I am very happy to. Of course, we will crystallise a lot of this in the update that we have planned for before the summer recess.”

“Can I just bring that to life by referring to the decisions that the Government have made on the minimum wage? Increasing the minimum wage is a policy decision for Ministers. They said that they wanted to focus on the cost of administering the minimum wage—not the transfer from businesses to workers. That is what we me…”

“They will be audited by the individual Departments’ auditors.”

“This is the key point, Chair. The target is effectively top down, informed by previous exercises and where Ministers are with what they want to do on the costs of administrative burdens for administrating regulations. On the assurance process—will it all add up to the 25%? —we can assure ourselves through what we are g…”

“We are working our way through the strategic steers, and the growth guidance will be issued regulator by regulator, so that I am making it specific. What we have to do is break down the top-level success—GDP—into what that means specifically for the individual regulator. Again, let me take the example of the CAA. You r…”

“I will bring in David as he runs the unit.”

“No; building safety is completely outwith this, because of all the concerns, which you touched on earlier, with Grenfell.”

“How do we work our way through this? With individual regulators we will set a strategic steer, which is over the course of the Parliament. Then, more tangibly, we will have an at least annual—normally biannual—meeting of the Minister and the key regulator, and annual growth goals that set out specific things they need …”

“No. What we are doing and working on—”

“We all want innovative British companies not just to start up in Britain, but to scale up in Britain, too. I welcome the Minister’s previous comments, and actually his enthusiasm, for our most innovative companies. However, he will know that the Chancellor’s decision to cut venture capital trust rate relief will be ver…”

“I am grateful to the Minister for that answer, but I asked specifically about VCT rate relief. The last time that rate relief was cut, under the last Labour Government, fundraising was cut by two thirds and it took a decade for that to recover in the sector. Specifically on VCT rate relief, which has been cut from 30% …”

“The Government’s strategic defence review rightly highlighted the important role of reservists across the country. I am very proud that Grantham’s Prince William of Gloucester barracks trains around 70% of all Army reservists in the country. Can we have a debate on the Government’s decision to close down Grantham’s bar…”