Speeches by Milne.

“I recently sat in on a careers session in my constituency of Horsham. It was impressive, because there was a sort of private sector vibe; it felt not like an institutional box-ticking exercise, but like they were really trying, as they would for any paying candidate. We would be afraid to lose that. How should the Gove…”

“Ramesh, it is remarkable that you are not sure of your funding past 1 April, which is not very far away. We are looking at the possible merger of Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service. That would be a big organisational change and there are always pros and cons to those. What do you see as the risks of the me…”

“A short career, perhaps. Elizabeth?”

“Do you think that a jobcentre is the right or optimal place to deliver career and employment support, in principle?”

“Careers advisers and work coaches require different skills and approaches. How would you describe these different approaches, and do you think they can be successfully combined in the same place?”

“Finally, I will ask a question I asked a previous panel: how should the Government measure success and therefore, in effect, set targets?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Sir Jeremy. I am again raising concerns about a serious power to make direct deductions from people’s bank accounts. Life does not always come in neat paragraphs; it is messy. I have had a number of letters from constituents in Horsham setting out the kind of err…”

“My colleague has just partially asked my question. While we broadly welcome the clause, we are concerned by the absence of the code of practice. Could the Minister give any indication of the kind of guidance that it might contain? Also, at what stage of the parliamentary process will there be scrutiny of it, given that…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. As my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay said, the amendment is about checks and balances. We appreciate that the Bill has been introduced in the context of the Government’s desire to cut the benefits bill, but the Treasury deeming something to be financiall…”

“In the light of the Minister’s confirmation that this power does refer both to error and fraud, I am all the more concerned. Removing a driving licence can mean the removal of a means of income. It is almost like the old-fashioned debtors’ prison: someone is in debt, so they are put in prison, and then they cannot get …”

“I am uncomfortable with this proposal, because it seems unfair that one group of people should be liable to a punishment and not another. If someone cannot drive or they do not have a car, this punishment means nothing to them, whereas another group who do drive are affected—and some of them very deeply, depending on t…”

“I am simply concerned that there should be some control of, or protection against, excessive charging. In the past, institutions have inflicted disproportionate charges that bear no relation to the actual cost of servicing whatever action had to be remedied. I am therefore seeking confirmation from the Minister that th…”

“The hon. Member raises the issue of the burden on banks; there is also the potential burden on the claimant. Banks sometimes have very large administrative charges, well in excess of the actual costs of whatever it is they do. Can the Minister give any assurance that there is some upper safety limit on excessive chargi…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. It is important for us all in this place to remember that, although we make legislation with the best of intentions, it does not always play out perfectly in practice. As a member of the Work and Pensions Committee, I heard evidence a few days ago from a nu…”

“That was before my time and I was not even in the country, so I am afraid I cannot answer that question. It is very important that we should be pushing take-up, not sending it into reverse. For that reason, I ask the Minister to reconsider the need to include pension credit; that the upside—the amount of money that mig…”

“Do you think if it prompted you to take advice or guidance that that would be sufficient? I know that is not an actual top-up.”

“This is a question for the FCA in particular. With regard to prospective dashboard operators, how much interest have you seen in developing and operating dashboards? What feedback are you getting?”

“What is your impression of when they might deliver, from your conversations?”

“Thank you. Finally, the design standards for dashboards, which are going to be set by the PDP and which dashboard operators must comply with, are going to sit alongside your own rules. Compliance with these standards will be monitored every 12 months by independent auditors. Will you have any role in this layer of regu…”

“We talked a bit earlier about the decision to prioritise the MoneyHelper dashboard. Commercial, private sector dashboards are perhaps some way off. From your point of view, when do you think we can expect to see them?”