Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Gordon Banks

Wednesday 19th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

6. What savings have been achieved under the Government's programme of rationalisation and abolition of public bodies to date.

[Gordon Banks (Ochil and South Perthshire) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of the effect on public expenditure of his proposals for non-departmental public bodies.

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

The proposals for reform that I set out in the House last October are the most major change to the public bodies landscape that any Government have made in a generation. They will make a significant contribution to reducing the baseline of Government spending as part of the coalition Government’s deficit reduction plan.

Daylight Saving Bill

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Gordon Banks

Friday 3rd December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Banks]

Irrespective of the length of the trial—two and a half or three years—it is a substantial period that would enable the gathering of a significant amount of information and allow us to make the decision on the basis of information gathered in the UK, not in Indiana or somewhere else, and the decision would be based on the UK in the 21st century.

When I read the official transcript of the recent Adjournment debate on this subject, I was surprised by the strength of personal belief in favour of the change, but I was also impressed by the quieter voices arguing for the status quo. That clearly shows that there are differing viewpoints north and south of the border.

[Mr Bradshaw]

May I congratulate my hon. Friend on, I think, his intention to give the Bill a fair wind? He talks about doubt, but may I commend to him the excellent report by the Policy Studies Institute, published in October, on the impact in Scotland? There has been a lot of discussion about Scotland today, and the report suggests that the benefits for Scotland are even greater than those for the rest of the United Kingdom.

[Gordon Banks]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his intervention. There is a lot of conflicting information and there are many conflicting viewpoints. My suggestion, without giving away too much of my speech at this point, would be that a review could gather a lot of important information that could be well studied and well debated to allow a longer-term decision to be made.