Speeches by Grady.

“Dame Colette or Ms Oakes might be willing to help me with some questions on geopolitical tensions. Paragraph 2.2 of the report, under “Geopolitical and global fragmentation risks”, says, “Heightened geopolitical tensions pose a significant risk to financial stability”. Has this become more or less predictable since Nov…”

“Out of interest, how does the Bank go about assessing this? It has become a lot more unpredictable and there is probably a fairly short supply of true experts in this field. How does the Bank assess this risk?”

“That is a very important thread, Dame Colette, and my colleague, Mr Glen, will pick up on some of those themes in a moment. With this ever more complicated background, how does the Bank keep under review whether it is assessing these risks in the right way or whether there are better ways of assessing these risks?”

“Would you be able to shed any light on why this has not been acted on?”

“Do you have any form of timetable that takes you to, say, completing the work at the end of 2025 and the Minister making a decision in January 2026, or am I being a little bit impatient?”

“When we listen to the discussion we have had this morning, there are a number of concerns that have been expressed to this Committee. One is national security and resilience and whether cash is important for that, and that is something that is reflected internationally as well. The second concern is that there is a sig…”

“Was the modelling the second chapter?”

“That makes sense, as our point might be that you are not planning for this to happen. One final question is that the Equality Act forbids indirect discrimination. That is when an organisation has a way of working that has a worse impact on disabled people compared to other people. The other thing it requires is that on…”

“You obviously have the financials and strategy with committees and sub-committees. When will the committees complete their work, and when will the Government come to a decision as to next steps?”

“I should declare that before entering the House, I advised, as a competition lawyer, on various CMA matters, including investigations and panels. Some of the criticisms from Conservative Members seem half a world away, to channel Oasis, from both the topic in question and economic reality. Will the Minister confirm tha…”

“rose—”

“Value for money in public spending is important to my constituents, who work hard for their money. In Scotland, under the Scottish National party, we have higher rates of income tax for anyone earning more than £29,000. The Government in Edinburgh and the UK Government that we have just finished with have indulged in s…”

“That is very helpful, because you see, Minister, the NAO report also talks about the cohort of businesses. Once you get below £30,000, you are talking about genuinely small businesses that maybe will need additional support. At 3.31, the report said that HMRC expects there will be an increase in additional needs, but H…”

“Finally, in June 2023, paragraph 21 of the NAO report says, “Each announcement”—this is on MTD—“has set an ambitious timeframe for delivery, with several aspects of the MTD programme to be delivered in parallel”. It goes on to say “The repeated delays and rephasing of MTD has undermined its credibility and increased it…”

“I have a couple of crisp follow-ups from that. Another theme in the National Audit Office report is properly taking into account the burdens on businesses of introducing a digital requirement. In simple terms, the National Audit Office found that HMRC had not, in its cost‑benefit analysis, properly accounted for that a…”

“On that, I think that there are bands of businesses, are there not? This next stage does not apply to businesses with a turnover of under £30,000. Do I have that right?”

“On that, paragraph 2.17 of the same report notes that the initial new VAT registration service did not require people to prove their address, which of course, among other things, led to thousands of people getting letters to companies at their addresses that did not exist. I do not want to appear facetious, but, if I w…”

“I take from that that the focus is more on making it easy to report your tax and pay tax, and better tax records, so cutting out those mistakes you mentioned earlier on tax.”

“Coming back to Making Tax Digital and digital confidence, you will be aware that one of the things you have inherited is Making Tax Digital. The National Audit Office looked at it in 2023, reporting in June 2023. One aspect that is being canvassed as a benefit for Making Tax Digital is that it will enable customers bet…”

“I suppose what that legal assessment might engage, for example, is the fact that we have a change here and a Minister who is now chairing an NDPB, as I understand it. Self-evidently, you have someone wearing two hats in that role, which are quite different. That may—I do not know; I am speculating—engage a range of leg…”