Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mel Stride

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Far too many excessively noisy private conversations are taking place. Let us have a bit of order for Mr Mel Stride.

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

T2. My right hon. Friend will know that the Public and Commercial Services Union, which stood up with such militancy against his pension reforms, has discovered that it has a £65 million black hole in its own pension scheme. Does he agree that the union should spend more time looking after its members and less time politicising Government reforms?

[Mr Maude]

All organisations that run a pension scheme have to live in the real world. I am sure that the leadership of the PCS will take pleasure in the fact that its members in the civil service continue to enjoy a pension scheme that is significantly better than the one that the PCS offers to its own staff.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mel Stride

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

There is no plan to change the basic rules of accountability, in the sense that there is a permanent, politically impartial civil service. However, there is a view, which I believe is shared right across the House, particularly by those who were Ministers in the previous Government, that responsiveness and effectiveness need to increase. That view is shared by the leadership of the civil service. One thing we are trying to do, through the civil service reform plan, is to respond to some of the frustrations expressed by civil servants themselves. They get very frustrated with the bureaucracy and the hierarchical nature of the service, as it is currently run.

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

13. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his bold and imaginative reforms of the civil service, particularly the mutualisation of the civil service pension scheme. May I press him to look at other areas of the civil service where that successful approach may be adopted?

[Mr Maude]

The movement towards mutualisation of public services is very powerful and is being looked at by other Governments, as well as our own. It is powerful because it enables entrepreneurial leaders in the public sector, of whom there are many, to take control of the services, innovate, do things differently and drive out cost. It is a powerful means of driving efficiency, for the taxpayer and for the user.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mel Stride

Wednesday 7th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

As Minister for the Cabinet Office, I am responsible for the public sector Efficiency and Reform Group, civil service issues, industrial relations, strategy in the public sector, Government transparency, civil contingencies, the civil society and cyber-security.

[Mel Stride]

Okehampton, in my constituency, has recently seen unemployment treble virtually overnight, although the figure has now decreased dramatically due to local action. It is holding a very important event this week, “Okehampton Works”, bringing together public, private and voluntary organisations to focus on employment, which is an important step towards the big society locally. Will my right hon. Friend join me in visiting Okehampton to meet, and learn from, those who have pioneered that important initiative?

[Mr Maude]

I should be delighted for either myself or the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd), to join my hon. Friend in Okehampton to discuss those very issues. There is a huge amount that can be done.