Speeches by Yang.

“What a shame.”

“I seek a quick clarification on Ms McEvoy’s question. On protecting the most severely disabled, is that package meant to buffer the universal credit reforms or the PIP reforms?”

“So it is addressed to those who, under the new rules, would be eligible for PIP, but might be losing some universal credit?”

“I have a question about getting people back into work, since expanding the capacity of the economy across all regions is a really important mission for this Government. I am a bit concerned about the data in the ONS labour force survey, as the Committee has quite thoroughly covered. I am glad to see the Cabinet Office …”

“In its outlook, the OBR explained that much of the £500 you mentioned comes from imputed rent, which it describes as “what homeowners would receive if they rented out their home.” That makes the boost less tangible for households because it is an imputed measure rather than a cash in your pocket measure. I appreciate t…”

“What is your central estimate of sickness-related inactivity, given the difficulty you describe in getting precise numbers?”

“It is less work for your colleagues.”

“I have a question about the institutional framework that the OBR and the Treasury operate within. There have been numerous proposals in the media over the last few weeks about doing things such as changing the number of fiscal outlooks, or OBR outlooks a year, or adding other organisations that would make forecasts—for…”

“It is clear that there is a problem, but it is unclear where the problem lies and what the actual trend is—is that the correct summary of what you are saying, Mr Johnson?”

“It just seems to me that the picture of the underlying data is complex and often quite vague. Is that correct?”

“Mr Johnson, whose statistics do you prefer: the Resolution Foundation’s or the IFS’s?”

“We will go on to the reforms later, but as a final question on the data, does anyone on the panel have any confidence in the sickness-related inactivity data? How much can we track the underlying increase or otherwise in sickness-related inactivity?”

“Does that mean that you think that the UK is not an outlier in terms of inactivity, and that that is a problem for the Government to address, or do you have a different opinion about that?”

“We heard earlier from the OBR about concerns about the labour force survey. It is an issue we have raised with the ONS as a Committee. I wanted to start by asking Ruth Curtice to describe the different modelling the Resolution Foundation has done, which in your central estimate finds no net increase in activity from 20…”

“Just to summarise, you are planning to bring in the forecasts related to the employment support package, which was not scored this time, in the autumn, and also relate it to the behavioural changes and other parts of the welfare packages, which did not come in sufficient detail this time? Is that broadly right?”

“You mentioned that some of those costings were incomplete or some of the analysis was incomplete. Could you go into a bit more detail about what was lacking? What would you have needed to make a better or fuller forecast?”

“When you talk to the Department responsible, does that mean a conversation between you and DWP, or is it the Treasury in this case?”

“On the question of welfare reforms, I note that in the preface, you have written that “details of the policy package were sent to us very late in the process, and late notice of changes and incomplete analysis hampered our ability to reflect these measures in our forecasts.” To begin with, I want to ask about the timel…”

“But not about the underlying ill health trend itself? You mentioned there is a rise in claimants and self-reporting of it.”

“I have a specific question about one part of the inactivity data. Mr Hughes, how confident are you that there has been a rise in inactivity linked to ill health?”