Speeches by McEvoy.

“If you have more, please feel free to be candid.”

“Following on from the Chair’s point about your imminent departure as CEO, seeing as you are not involved in the recruitment process, you can be a little more candid because it is probably your last appearance in front of the Committee in this role. What would you say to your successor is the single most important thing…”

“My hon. Friend is giving a passionate speech about our region. Does he agree that although lots of people would like to contribute, for too long the workplace has not been disability-friendly? My experience as a trade unionist is of seeing time and again people who really needed support and wanted to be in work being m…”

“In theory, that new model means that some Departments could start making more of an income on those loans and transactions, and that might mitigate some of the other concerns that the Departments might have in the spending review?”

“On the housing point, as you have brought it up, what is the benefit of using this for housing, apart from getting it over the line? Obviously, the housing demand is huge and we have the 1.5 million target. How did the decision get made on this for housing?”

“Moving on to public sector net financial liabilities, or PSNFL—there has been some debate in the Committee about how we pronounce that. In the spending review you state that the new approach will allow for a further £9.6 billion in additional financial transactions, such as loans and equity investments. Can you outline…”

“That all sounds great, but obviously in the past some deals have been done that have not worked out as value for money for the taxpayer. We have had a couple of conversations about the National Wealth Fund and its risk appetite—it needs to de-risk these projects, so there will be some losses to the taxpayer. What is th…”

“Mr Smewing, I would like to turn to PuFins, which we really enjoy. What scope is there for a better deal for devolution and the combined authorities with these PuFins?”

“How much control will the Treasury have over the PuFins, and how much can the Treasury dictate that something needs to speed up a transaction to deliver a mission? How much of a political decision can be made? What checks will there be from your point of view?”

“I have a follow-up question on the new guidelines. How will we value things that do not just have monetary value, and how transparent will the guidelines be? Do you have any ideas about what sort of things might be included? That is where value-based decisions and the difference to people’s lives will be made, so I won…”

“We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”

“With your position, how much scope is there for some of these PuFins to be based in Darlington?”

“I have a very quick question on the Office for Value for Money reports, and the choice of the two reports. I love the Office for Value for Money and think it does a great job, but I am interested in why it was limited to only these two reports on this fixed-term contract when, as we are hearing from the Committee today…”

“I am interested in the devolution focus in the spending review. That is great news for areas like mine—Darlington and the north-east. Everybody outside London was cheering you on when we heard the devolution agenda. What are the key differences between the last Government’s devolution agenda and this Government’s appro…”

“That would be great, because I know having social value in public procurement was an attempt to do this, but it was not weighted high enough, and it was too broad a definition.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for being so generous with his time. He is making an excellent speech in Armed Forces Week. Does he agree that the important incentives for joining the forces include not just pride in the country but a secure career afterwards? Does he also agree that the work the Government are doing to ensure …”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech on this crucial issue. Does he agree that the system used to apply to join the armed forces is outdated and often cumbersome? I am very happy to say that a constituent of mine has successfully been able to submit an application, but this was after finding that she did not ge…”

“What does my hon. Friend think are the causes of the drop in recruitment in our area? I frequently speak to veterans and the aftercare for people coming out of the forces has been really poor. Does he agree that the Labour Government have an opportunity to show not only that we are proud of people when they are serving…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his interesting outline of the differences in what is going on in Northern Ireland. On his point about good things happening, does he agree that this Government have taken direct action in their first year, with the Armed Forces Commissioner, to tackle some of the institutional problems that…”

“As it is fresh in my mind, I wanted to mention that I was recently at park run in Darlington where two young men won in record time—unbelievably, intimidatingly quickly—and it turned out that they were armed forces personnel who were stationed at Catterick. They were great adverts for the health benefits and discipline…”