Speeches by Yang.

“You have not made your own assessment within the Treasury of that fiscal impact.”

“To zoom out a bit on the issue of student loans, for the first time in modern British history young people are expected to be poorer than their parents. I appreciate the mentions that you have made of the changes to maintenance loans, for renters through the Renters’ Rights Act, for example, and to minimum wages for yo…”

“Chancellor, you mentioned the proposed changes to settlement criteria and settlement periods. What modelling has the Treasury done of these proposed changes? Do you think they will impact the fiscal stance significantly?”

“Dr Sen, you last came to speak to the Committee at the start of the Ukraine war, when there was another global energy shock. Is the UK economy in a better position to weather those shocks than it was four years ago? If not, what more do we need to do to change that?”

“But have you made independent assessments of the proposed changes to settlement policy?”

“Turning to the other side of spending—taxation—you have taken measures to narrow the gap between the ways in which wealth is taxed and work is taxed, such as at the last Budget. Looking over the remainder of this Parliament, do you think there is more to be done on narrowing that gap?”

“How does the number of events and forecasts that we have compare with other countries? Do we have more, fewer or about the right amount?”

“The reason I ask is that the Home Office has set out its policy based on arguments about the fiscal impact of the net migration during the Boris Johnson era. I was wondering where that fiscal impact was being calculated, if not the Treasury. Do you have oversight of that?”

“Do you agree with the Chancellor that there should be a higher bar for there to be more fiscal announcements in the spring—that is, that we should aim for one big set of announcements of policy changes per year, in terms of stability? Or does it not make much difference how many events there are?”

“There was a lot of discussion at the autumn Budget about there being too much media speculation and too many measures in the works. We have now had a lot of media criticism after the spring statement that there was not enough news in the statement—that not enough new policies were announced. What is the optimal pace fo…”

“Thank you. We have seen those pressures from parents in our own constituencies as well—definitely.”

“Speaking of tax evasion, there was a manifesto commitment to end the loopholes in the treatment of offshore trusts. Can you speak to the progress on that particular commitment?”

“Chancellor, at the last Budget you made a significant investment in special educational needs of £4 billion per year. You face many different competing pressures from various Departments. Could you outline why you chose SEND as a particular focus for investment and why that was a particular priority for you? Has the im…”

“How will the impact of that spending be spread among other departmental budgets? Will it be general or equally spread? How will it be distributed?”

“I thank the Chancellor for her strong statement and, in particular, for her words on deepening our alliances with our European partners. This is crucial for bringing down the cost of food and for healing the economic self-harm done by the Conservatives. The Bank of England has said that her cuts to energy bills will he…”

“Secondary school students with special educational needs have told me of their struggles with academy trusts in south Reading and Shinfield that have failed to properly prioritise inclusion. Will the Minister set out how the schools White Paper will address that on the part of multi-academy trusts? Will she consider vi…”

“2. What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the system for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.”

“Your heart must have sunk many times.”

“I appreciate that you both said, in response to Mr Glen’s question about the framework, that as technocrats you operate within the framework set by Government, but neither of you currently runs the OBR and neither of you is bound by civil service impartiality. You are free to have political opinions before this Committ…”

“It is about the 10-year horizon. Sir Robert, you mentioned that one of your Chancellors considered asking you to make this change, but the political concern was that they would have to reveal their policy preferences over 10 years. Given that the OBR has a 50-year projection, which involves keeping the current policy d…”