Speeches by Grady.

“Q This question is for Ms Alexander. A lot of my constituents are driven mad by small pots; they have worked in different jobs and have no idea how much money they have saved for a pension, so please could you outline the benefits of the small pots reforms to people in my constituency, and the practical steps needed to…”

“No. Sophia Singleton: Good. We are positive that this will help, and we are also positive about the timeline for it.”

“Q I apologise: I should say that my wife sits on the committee of the Scottish Government pension scheme. I should disclose that to the Committee. I would like to move on to a slightly different topic: small pots. Ms Singleton, the SPP made supportive comments in its submission about small pots. Would you like to elabo…”

“I explain to my constituents every week how hard the Foreign Secretary and his ministerial team are working in this context, but every day women and children are killed and are starving. What is happening is a moral outrage of the first order. The International Criminal Court is a key pillar of international justice. W…”

“I welcome the independent water commission’s report—it is a serious piece of work. The water companies were privatised with no debt, yet following years of dividends, excessive debt and opaque financial structures, the financial stability of the water sector is a cause of very serious concern. Recommendations 56 to 59 …”

“The reforms are targeted at getting greater investment into British infrastructure and cutting red tape. Does my hon. Friend agree that it was a little bit rum for Opposition parties to criticise our Government for introducing red tape when they voted against the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which creates projects…”

“I suspect you will politely decline the offer to set out some options that the Government could look at to make this more sustainable.”

“The purpose of the OBR is to provide independent supervision of the public finances. But there are some people, including in this place, who say we need to get rid of the OBR altogether. For a reappointment hearing, you might not want to hear that. The outcome of having independent supervision is presumably confidence …”

“In that combination, how material is the pensions element?”

“In 2070, you show 7.7% or so going on pensions and 1.3% going on pensioner benefits, including housing benefits. That gets us to 9% or so of GDP being spent on pensions and pensioner benefits. Is that sustainable?”

“With the decline in DB and people moving to DC, they bear the investment risk. In your report, you identified housing benefit as one factor that is driving up the non-pension benefits bill for pensioners, because home ownership has dropped. Presumably another risk is that, with the switch from DB to DC, people are not …”

“Mr Josephs, let us imagine that you have come with me to meet a bunch of people in their late 20s or early 30s in my constituency to talk about pensions. They are all telling you that you have the state pension, and they are putting a bit into their pension, but the self-employed couple in the corner are not. Could you…”

“At 270% of GDP, 0.8 is probably a little low, isn’t it?”

“Presumably 0.8 is at 100% of GDP.”

“If I have correctly understood the report, in essence what you are saying is, “If public spending and tax continue on the same trajectory, debt goes up significantly, but, look, you’ve got another problem: you’ve lost a big buyer for Government debt.” That is really what you are saying, isn’t it? It becomes unsustainab…”

“Thank you, Professor Miles. Mr Josephs, you have a long-standing interest in this issue. Is there anything you would like to add on the topic of losing the DB buyer of gilts and what that means?”

“I thought it would be worth picking up on the rest of the chapter on debt. Paragraph 2.75 of your report notes that the switch from DB to DC is likely to lead to a permanent drop in domestic purchases of gilts from around 30% of GDP to 15% by 2070. You go on to say that, even at today’s debt levels, you are looking at …”

“I cannot recall saying anything disparaging about Scottish education. I did criticise the Scottish NHS—[Interruption.] Well, the reality is that businesses are absolutely petrified of the way the SNP is dealing with Scottish education. We have insolvent universities and colleges in crisis, and education standards are p…”

“No, I will make some progress. The huge inflation unleashed by the previous Government caused immense misery to my constituents. The interest rate rises made life a misery for hard-working families who had bought their homes in Glasgow East. That is why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is right to f…”

“I will make some progress if I may. Our debt to GDP ratio is almost 100%, and we inherited that from the previous Government. Conservative Members object to tax rises while wanting tax cuts and increases in public spending and objecting to spending cuts. That is not realistic. We know from the disastrous Budget of Liz …”