Speeches by Carling.

“That is useful.”

“Finally from me, we have also been told that there were issues around the UKSA chair being prevented from providing written advice directly to Ministers and that there was some concern around the board’s recommendation to appoint a deputy chair not being taken up until Sir Robert’s resignation forced something to happe…”

“The hon. Lady highlights the problem of residents being charged late payment fees. I have a number of constituents who never received an original letter demanding payment, but who are then charged late payment fees despite not knowing a payment was due. Does she agree with me that the lack of communication is another c…”

“Last month, I raised the case of my constituents in ex-Ministry of Defence housing in Wittering, who face huge backdated gas bills because their supplier will not take them off a Ministry of Defence contract. Things have escalated; TotalEnergies will not engage, and sends only stock replies, telling residents to fill i…”

“I am so pleased that we are taking the time today to debate property service charges in depth. Across my constituency, residents are drowning in soaring bills, deferred maintenance, opaque accounts and a carousel of management companies passing the buck. These charges do not exist in a vacuum; they sit alongside dodgy …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her work on this issue on the Treasury Committee. In my speech, I raised an insurance issue that my constituents have gone to the Financial Ombudsman Service about, but they are having problems about whether it is a FOS issue or a property ombudsman issue, and it is just not very clear. Would…”

“My hon. Friend makes a very useful point. I should have clarified that the figure I gave does not include the private roads that were not supposed to be adopted; it was purely the ones that are having this issue. As my hon. Friend says, councils are in a difficult financial situation. The precarious state of local gove…”

“I am passionate about ensuring that older people in medical settings are not subjected to coercion over their medical decisions. I have recently been contacted by a whistleblower from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who has expressed concern that some of the religious assistants who come in to support patients with their deci…”

“When I was a council cabinet member, I had responsibility for allotments. We are talking about strategic authorities, and the hon. Lady is talking about powers for them. I can see a duty in the new clause; I cannot see how it would help councillors who have responsibility for allotments to improve the situation, and I …”

“I really welcome this Government’s move to restrict the access of abusers to their children, in order to protect them. All too often, however, victims who are members of tightly knit, small religious groups are pressured to interact with their abuser when they get out of prison. Some religious leaders and organisations…”

“I have been thinking about the cost of software licensing in the public sector, because North West Anglia NHS foundation trust is trying to move to an electronic patient record and one of the biggest ongoing costs of that is third-party payments for software. Other trusts are in the same position, as are many schools p…”

“I ran a constitution review for Cambridge city council while I was a councillor there, and we spent a lot of time talking about the committee system versus the cabinet system. Does the hon. Member not agree that what she has just described is an example of really positive culture in a council, which can be had regardle…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) about the delays to the Bill. I served on the Bill Committee more than a year ago now, and since then, so many tenants have experienced no-fault evictions. I encourage the Minister to move as quickly as possible to implement the Bill, so tha…”

“PwC analysis has shown that one in three adults in the UK struggle to access mainstream credit, largely due to poor or just thin credit files. That is causing a huge financial inclusion problem, especially for young people trying to get a mortgage. Will the Minister meet me to discuss ways we can improve that situation…”

“Apologies for my lateness; I was in a Bill Committee meeting.”

“Yes.”

“The Government has indicated that it would like to see a number of public bodies close—most Governments tend to make that indication. Is there any evidence on the effect that abolishing arm’s length bodies and either merging them or bringing their functions into a Department has on the carrying out of those functions?”

“Thank you for that. That is a really helpful perspective. I just want to move on to public body review and closures. Public bodies have been subjected to a whole series of review programmes over the years—tailored reviews, triennial reviews and so on. What effect, if any, have they had on the public bodies landscape?”

“I am back in Bill Committee later today. I have half an hour for lunch.”

“Thank you; that is helpful. We hear anecdotal evidence that sponsor teams are generally becoming a bit more interventionist and are seeking closer monitoring of arm’s length bodies’ day-to-day activities. Does that chime with your perspective? If it does, is that an inherently good or bad thing?”