Speeches by Benn.

“I do not accept that argument.”

“I am not sure that I accept the premise of the question because the source of the information that the open-book exercise will be looking at is held by the Northern Ireland Executive today and was held by them last week and last year. There is nothing in there that should come as a surprise to the Executive. I do not a…”

“The information that will come out of the open-book exercise is information that the Government and the Treasury will have that we do not have currently. None of it should come as any surprise to the Executive; it is the Executive’s information. It is the information about the budgets that are held in the different Dep…”

“The aim is to try to conclude it by the end of this month, but we will have to see how it goes.”

“I am not sure that I quite understand the question because this is about sharing—”

“I have given a commitment to the House. We said that we needed to wait for the outcome of the Thompson case, which we had, I think, in December. The Government are currently considering the implications of that for the formal request that has been made to me by Operation Kenova and echoed in the report that you publish…”

“I did not say that.”

“The choice of the Executive if they decide not to put any more money into the economic inactivity programmes would be their choice. It is not just down to the Government.”

“I am not going to give a date today, because, as I hope you will know, I will never make a promise that I am not certain of keeping. Just bear with us.”

“Well, there was the spending review settlement. The funding for the local growth funds came out of MHCLG’s pot. That is what happened. If you look at the rest of the United Kingdom, a lot of money is going into Pride in Place. We had to negotiate to say that, “We don’t want Pride in Place in Northern Ireland; we want t…”

“Matthew is going to respond and then I will come in.”

“The decision was taken for the reasons that I have identified. I add that when the spending review settlement came through for MHCLG, we managed to get out of it for Northern Ireland the continuation in cash terms of the funding that was available previously. Whereas MHCLG saw a reduction, Northern Ireland, Scotland an…”

“Not at all. It was a welcome diversion.”

“Look, we have a problem, and the question is, what are we going to do about the problem? I must be frank with the Committee: the 70:30 split is not going to change. As you would expect, as Ministers representing the interests of Northern Ireland, we have done our job. It not going to change.”

“We have met them already. We are meeting them again tomorrow.”

“As the hon. Member will be aware, the Government announced that the allowance for 100% rate relief will be increased from £1 million to £2.5 million. That means that a couple will now be able to pass on up to £5 million tax-free between them, on top of the existing allowances such as the nil-rate band. The president of…”

“The figures are based on the assessment that there are particular requirements for the Scottish islands in terms of services, access to essential care and so on. That is why that exemption has been applied for Scotland. The impact of this measure on trade between GB and Northern Ireland will be very small in light of t…”

“I met the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action and CO3 last week to talk about this matter. It is a difficult situation because of how capital and resources have been allocated through the local growth fund. Of the £12 million of available resource funding, we agreed with the Executive that £3 million would go…”

“The Government are supporting Northern Ireland through the four city deals, the local innovation partnerships fund, an enhanced investment zone and greater economic stability. Economic activity in Northern Ireland increased by 2.9% over the year to quarter 3, and it has the lowest unemployment in the UK.”

“I certainly agree with my hon. Friend. All parts of the United Kingdom derive strength and benefit from being part of that Union. We can see in the figures I quoted a moment ago the benefit being obtained in Northern Ireland in terms of how the economy is doing.”