Speeches by Taylor.

“Let us not get into the whole ONS conversation again, but thank you. You have answered the questions that I had.”

“You mentioned very briefly the powers or the practice that you have to highlight both poor use and, in this case, positive use. Do you have sufficient powers, audience or visibility to jockey on the rest to see that best practice and to see where positive trust is being generated by those behaviours?”

“T10. Children’s cancer services are due to move from the Royal Marsden to the Evelina hospital next year. Concerns have been raised with me about the provision of a teaching space for children undergoing cancer treatment and its provision in the new plans. Will the Minister meet with me to discuss that transition and c…”

“Do you have any examples of good practice, where an organisation or a particular use of statistics has built trust? While we want to stop undermining trust with poor use of statistics, where have you seen that improved and done in a positive way?”

“Ed, you mentioned at the end there the study that suggested that people do not feel like democratic institutions are serving their value. We are all watching the news, and the fact that we are being broadcast suggests that people might be screaming at their televisions and talking about the very obvious major cases tha…”

“We have talked about—you have used the quote already, because it is quite a good one—how statistics are the lifeblood of democratic debate, and the misuse of statistics results in an erosion of trust, not just in Government but also in all of politics. Do you have any examples of how that has been manifested in electio…”

“Just picking up a couple of things, Ed, you have given me one in your last sentence there. John, first of all, you talked about the independence of the Electoral Commission and the importance of that. If that is re-established and given much greater importance, is there an opportunity for the Electoral Commission to re…”

“I thank the Minister—I am not sure whether I do thank him—but I want to push back gently on that, and I would be interested in his response. Does not the fact that we have had 15 years since Andrew resigned in disgrace and it did not come before Parliament demonstrate that there is such a reluctance, or is it a true mi…”

“Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. You will have to forgive me for dancing around to aid my pained back. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” That quote from 1887 is of the British historian Lord Acton, and its explains how power in its most essential form inevitably corrupts. Today we are dis…”

“rose—”

“Do you have any examples of good practice, where an organisation or a particular use of statistics has built trust? While we want to stop undermining trust with poor use of statistics, where have you seen that improved and done in a positive way?”

“I hope this intervention adds to my hon. Friend’s point. Does she find it ironic that the only person who has been imprisoned as part of the Epstein scandal is a woman?”

“Let us not get into the whole ONS conversation again, but thank you. You have answered the questions that I had.”

“We have talked about—you have used the quote already, because it is quite a good one—how statistics are the lifeblood of democratic debate, and the misuse of statistics results in an erosion of trust, not just in Government but also in all of politics. Do you have any examples of how that has been manifested in electio…”

“You mentioned very briefly the powers or the practice that you have to highlight both poor use and, in this case, positive use. Do you have sufficient powers, audience or visibility to jockey on the rest to see that best practice and to see where positive trust is being generated by those behaviours?”

“The Minister mentions additional flexibility. Within that does she include allowing what I think are five inner-London boroughs, including Wandsworth, to increase their council tax by up to 10% without a referendum? Is that the additional flexibility that she mentions?”

“It is, as always, a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for securing this important debate at an opportune time. “The streets of London are paved with gold”—or so the saying from the tale of Dick Whittington goes. But of course the poin…”

“I welcome the tone of the hon. Member’s comment at the end there. I will use the examples of Lambeth and Southwark. When we pull out the contributions from council tax and look only at the money that is coming from central Government, over the next three years, Lambeth residents will have £75 per capita removed from th…”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”