Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Burghart and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Thursday 25th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's processes for scrutinising nominations for honours.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

It looks like the Member who tabled No. 10 is not out of bed.

A validation process is carried out to assess the strength and credibility of each nomination. We protect the integrity of the honours system by carrying out probity checks with a number of Government Departments before the Prime Minister submits names to His Majesty the King for approval.

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[Alex Burghart]

I advise the hon. Gentleman to go back and check the list because, not for the first time in this House, he is wrong.

[Mr Dhesi]

The Prime Minister recently announced an extraordinary round of honours, which many described as lacking integrity and bringing the system into disrepute. It included a donor who had donated £5 million to the Conservative party, and four Conservative MPs loyal to the Prime Minister. In the run-up to a general election that he is widely tipped to lose, what could possibly be the justification for the Prime Minister announcing and recommending a round of honours outside of the traditional King’s birthday list?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. It would have been easier if you had been here for the beginning of the question. Stretching the question is testing my patience and the patience of the Government Front Bench.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Burghart and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Thursday 18th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alex Burghart]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question, but I think it is deeply unfair to suggest that there has been a lack of urgency from the Government. The then Prime Minister announced the inquiry the day after that terrible event, and we have taken huge action to provide compensation for people and to ensure that no qualifying leaseholder living in a building above 11 metres will face the cost of remediation for unsafe cladding. Of course we are eager to get the response from the official inquiry, and we will take action thereafter.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

2. Whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of public procurement processes under covid-19 emergency regulations.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

9. Whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of public procurement processes under covid-19 emergency regulations.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

There are well established procedures in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for handling emergency procurements, which enable the Government to procure lifesaving goods and expertise. We followed those procedures in order to save lives as fast as we could during the worst pandemic in living memory. The Procurement Act 2023, which has just passed both Houses of Parliament, will introduce faster competition processes for emergency buying, reducing the reliance on direct awards while retaining and improving transparency, and the ability to act at pace in situations similar to the covid pandemic.

[Mr Dhesi]

I am deeply saddened by the death of our dear friend Sir Tony Lloyd.

I fear that the Procurement Act will allow for the same horrific waste of taxpayers’ money and the approach to public procurement that we experienced during the pandemic, with friends and donors to the Tory party being given the first bite of the cherry while decent local skilled businesses are increasingly sidelined by the Government’s approach. We saw that in recent analysis from the British Chambers of Commerce. Can the Minister explain why small and medium-sized enterprises are increasingly being sidelined from access to public procurement?

[Alex Burghart]

I have to take issue with a number of the hon. Gentleman’s points. First and foremost, the idea, constantly repeated by Opposition Members, that there was special consideration for individual companies—[Interruption.] It is very important that we go through this yet again. The hon. Gentleman has had answers on this twice in the past year, but I am going to tell him a third time: the simple fact of the matter is that everyone who applied for a contract went through the same process. Very hardworking and professional civil servants made those judgments in uniquely difficult circumstances. Frankly, I am sick of hearing slurs against their good name. [Interruption.]

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[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and the work she has done in this area; I know she has thought about it a great deal. I will be writing to her in due course. It is a complicated area of constitutional law, but we appreciate the position from which she is coming.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

T3. In light of the shocking revelation that only 2% of the tip-offs received by the Government’s covid fraud hotline are being actively pursued, can the Secretary of State explain to an increasingly despairing nation what steps the Government are taking to recover every single penny of that fraudulently claimed taxpayer money?

List of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial Code

Debate between Alex Burghart and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Monday 24th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Alex Burghart]

Like my hon. Friend, I await that publication.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

When the new, latest Prime Minister took charge, he promised integrity, professionalism and accountability, but after yet more sleaze and scandal was exposed by investigative journalists, and just minutes before Prime Minister’s questions, the register of interests was miraculously updated to include shares in Koru Kids which is owned by the Prime Minister’s wife, who would end up benefiting significantly from her husband’s policy changes. So, does the Minister not agree—[Interruption.]

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[Mr Dhesi]

Thank you for that advice, Madam Deputy Speaker. Does the Minister not agree that we now have a Prime Minister who has to be forced—compelled, if not embarrassed—into showing any sort of transparency?

[Alex Burghart]

Absolutely not.