Speeches by Milne.

“I will put this question first to you, Fabian. I know you are a great advocate of data-led solutions. Do you believe that the DWP has the capabilities, data and processes to assess the impact of policies effectively before they are introduced?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I, too, thank the hon. Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) and the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) for bringing this important industry to the attention of the House. The latest figures tell us that just 17% of buses used in the UK …”

“On that point, I declare my support for Horsham district council’s work. It confirmed to me last year that it is examining the cost of exempting military compensation payments from all locally means-tested benefits. Does the hon. Member agree that in the spirit of the armed forces covenant, military compensation paymen…”

“In my constituency of Horsham we already see the positives that play-based education can bring, with organisations such as Woods for Learning, which is a forest school catering for children with special educational needs and other children. The effectiveness is clear enough. Would my hon. Friend agree that the time has…”

“Do you have a prospective date when we might actually see the finished plan?”

“Do you believe that it would lead to a different Action Plan from the one you would have otherwise?”

“I appreciate that it is a big problem and there are a lot of things going on, but with this specific Action Plan it has been more than a year since it was first announced, so it is a very long time. What is it exactly? Why was it needed to be paused at all as a result of the legal action brought by WASPI? Why would it …”

“Lots of—”

“Good morning. We have had some correspondence with the PHSO, which expressed the serious concerns it has with the Department about DWP’s delay in implementing the Action Plan following the State Pension age investigation and the overall lack of communication of DWP with the ombudsman. This is very concerning since the …”

“I am joking about names but in a way it is important because the way we name things affects the way people look at it. Fraud and error, overall people hear the word “fraud” and not the “error” and the fact that it is the Department is a cause for a lot of it but they just hear that one big fat number and attribute the …”

“Lastly, what assurance can you give us or can you offer that removing unfulfilled eligibility from the auditor’s qualified regularity opinion will not lead to complacency about the claimants receiving less? In other words, park it in a different box and you do not have to explain it.”

“I very much agree that trust overall in DWP is one of the big issues but that is wider than this particular area.”

“We need a different name for it.”

“Do you find people are not proactively making the claim out of ignorance or out of fear that they might be reviewed in the wrong direction? What are you finding?”

“Were you selecting them in some fashion or was that a random test?”

“Last year claimants received £4.9 billion less than they were eligible for; £1.2 billion of that was due to official error and £3.7 billion due to unfulfilled eligibility or, in other words, they did not claim as much as they were legally entitled to. The media is always way more interested in the fraud and error rathe…”

“We do hope that the ombudsman can give us more favourable accounts of proceedings in the future, but thank you.”

“I am sorry for interrupting the hon. Member. Education, health and care plans are not supposed to depend on or require a formal diagnosis of ADHD but, in practice, that is how local authorities apply them. Families are far more likely to be challenged by the local authority if they do not have that diagnosis but, in my…”

“I will add another name to the catalogue of water company disasters: Southern Water. In Rudgwick in my Horsham constituency, residents have complained for almost 20 years about effluent backing up into bathrooms, footpaths covered in soiled loo paper and having to keep children and pets indoors. Yet over the last decad…”

“For the second year running, Conservative-run West Sussex county council has applied to cancel local elections, in which the Conservatives face wipeout. Their excuse is that it would be too hard to organise, but it is the seven district and borough councils that run the elections, not the county council, so will the Mi…”