Speeches by Milne.

“In my constituency of Horsham, I have been asked to support a woman left in limbo regarding the trial of her ex-partner on a domestic abuse charge. When she was finally given a date, the trial was pulled as a result of an administrative error as she sat waiting in the courtroom. A new date was set for a whole year late…”

“14. What steps she is taking to tackle the backlog in the courts.”

“I have great respect for the experience and intelligence of the Ministers behind the Bill, but what we have left in front of us today is no more than a clumsy salvage operation. How on earth did we end up here? The Government say that the cost of disability benefit is spiralling out of control. They say there is no opt…”

“We owe a huge debt of thanks to the whole of the world war two generation, but I would like to pay special tribute to a remarkable local hero from my constituency, Jack Dark, the last surviving member of the Pathfinder squadron. The Pathfinders played a crucial role in world war two, flying ahead of bomber formations t…”

“Needs first not Treasury first. It feels like you are saying Treasury first.”

“One last question. We have also been told that the bigger problem is not so much the disparity between the standard allowance and UC health as the inadequacy of the standard allowance, and we have talked a bit about that already. The Bill requires the Secretary of State to increase the standard allowance by at least th…”

“Following up on an answer you gave in the House a couple of days ago to my question, as far as PIP claimants specifically are concerned, so excluding the wider UC claimant base, do you agree that there will be far more net losers than net gainers by the changes you are making? I mean the current claimants of PIP and al…”

“So it is a correct statement that there will be far more net losers than net gainers?”

“The Bill just published provides for a rebalancing of UC rates that you set out in the Green Paper, and it includes a significant reduction for new claimants after 2026. The justification is that it will incentivise people to find work, but we have been told that it may have the opposite effect and that has happened in…”

“Is there not a case for arguing that if you press down on one benefit it simply in the end comes up in another benefit? That is why the overall level of benefits has remained quite constant over a long time, as Debbie said at the start, and that this is likely to happen again. People were driven into PIP because they l…”

“Nothing particularly for today. As part of the review, are you considering what changes need to be made specifically to reflect the PIP assessment’s future role? It can be the means by which eligibility for UC health will be determined.”

“That is what you said, yes.”

“Good morning. You recently launched a PIP review. Can you give us a progress report, an update, and perhaps any ideas about the line of thought that you are minded to take, and ideas that you might follow?”

“You have said that the incapacity benefit system focuses too much on what people cannot do rather than what they can do, and that is one reason you are looking at removing the work capability assessment. However, the same could be said or is true of the PIP assessment process at the moment. Are you looking at how the P…”

“What is happening in Gaza is hard enough to watch, but if we are to prevent the west bank from going the same way in a few years’ time, we must act today. Does the Minister agree that recognising the principle of a Palestinian state, without making any judgment for the moment on its borders, is the strongest and most e…”

“13. What assessment he has made of the potential merits of recognising the state of Palestine.”

“In her March Green Paper, the Secretary of State promised to provide an additional £1 billion in funding to help benefit claimants back into work, but only £400 million has actually been allocated, and even that will not come until 2028-29. We have heard some talk of efficiency savings, which is practically the definit…”

“Recently I met Kathryn from my constituency who had to give up a £90,000-a-year job in order to care for her husband. With 150,000 carers set to lose their allowance due to PIP eligibility reforms, some of our country’s most hard-pressed households face losing £8,000 a year. Will the Minister confirm that even if the w…”

“Thank you for your succinct answers. You have enabled me to be in two places at once.”

“The Renters’ Rights Bill will come into force later this year. It will have a big impact on relationships between benefit claimants and landlords. I am interested to know what you think the impacts might be, the pros and cons. Perhaps if we start off with the landlords’ view, Ben.”