Speeches by McEvoy.

“On implementation, would the Minister give clarity about the watermark for re-consultation and the point of delay of implementing the children’s codes under the Act? Amendments could be made to the children’s codes and I do not think they would trigger an automatic re-consultation with platforms. Could the Minister ela…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I pay tribute to the right hon. and learned Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) for his exceptional work and for his collegiate approach to this issue. In the interests of time, I will dive straight into the detail of what Ofcom is at ris…”

“That is absolutely right; I am grateful to the hon. Member for his intervention. It is important that we strike the right balance. For a long time, we have been behind on protecting children online. It is time now to use the Online Safety Act 2023 and the upcoming children’s codes to get it right the first time. We do …”

“I fully support what my hon. Friend says. Lots of parents in Darlington have said that although the default setting may be that children cannot access chat rooms on games or a more violent version of a game—because it is not just the phones and devices, but what they are accessing on those devices that really matters—t…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) and the petitioner for bringing this vital debate. Since being elected to this place in July, I have spoken about children’s safety online several times, including in thi…”

“A final one from me on that. On the jobs created, I am always interested in the double counting of jobs and whether it is an existing job or a gig. If you are a construction worker, you work in gigs. You do six months on the site and then you go to another gig, but that is the same person doing that same job. I am inte…”

“That is brilliant. Obviously, this is the Treasury Committee, but with the wider Darlington Economic Campus, outsourcing the facilities management staff is a cause for concern. When you outsource facilities management staff, they do not have the same terms and conditions as the civil servant staff who are here. I wonde…”

“Thank you. Here we are today at the Darlington Economic Campus, a flagship of devolution from Whitehall to the regions outside London. The Chancellor says that it is her second office and the second base of the Treasury. Could you give us some indications of what success looks like for this for this project?”

“Thank you for that answer. It is clearly a source of great pride for you and the Government more widely. I just wanted to probe a bit into the recruitment of the people who are working here. Can you tell us a bit about the breakdown of where they are from?”

“That’s great. You said that about 85% were recruited from the region. Is that the north-east? Can you give a bit more clarity on that?”

“So do you think it would be fair to say that this is really the northern hub of the civil service in the country?”

“I do not want to jump the gun, but is the ambition to have representation from the senior levels of every Department in Darlington when you open the Brunswick site?”

“The spending review certainly suggests that.”

“You mentioned the crucial word growth there. Can you give us a little bit of an outline of the impact the Darlington Economic Campus has on growth in our town?”

“Is there a plan to align those terms and conditions for the facilities staff at the DEC with the civil service terms and conditions?”

“Great. When those decisions are being made on the new expansion and the new property, has any thought gone into ensuring that the jobs in every tier of the new opportunities are good, skilled, well-paid jobs?”

“I am very glad to hear that, given the power of public procurement as a lever for growth.”

“Mr Smewing, I just wanted to take you back to the challenge panel of experts. You said that some Departments had not got them yet. How many Departments do not have challenge panel experts set up, and is that a cause for concern, given the timeframe that we are looking at?”

“On the National Wealth Fund investments, we were previously talking about the scrutiny of public departmental spending. Through what lens of value for money should we look at the National Wealth Fund? Are we applying the same value for money tests on these investments? How are we testing the impact socially on the area…”

“When you are thinking about the National Wealth Fund and the success stories, have you got any examples of the projects that are particularly good for value for money, or that you are particularly proud of as a Department?”