Point of Order

Glenda Jackson Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Kilburn) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. [Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I will take the hon. Lady’s point of order, but her voice deserves to be fully heard, so I shall pause for a moment.

[Glenda Jackson]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is a genuine request for information. On Monday, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions appeared in front of our Select Committee. Our questioning was, in the main, about the slowness of the roll-out of universal credit and what seems to be gross misspending of public money. In response to my highly respected colleague, the Chair of our Select Committee, the Secretary of State replied, in the first instance:

“With respect, I do not have to tell the Committee everything that is happening in the Department”.

Later, he said:

“With respect, Chairman, I do not think this Committee can run the Department.”

Both replies—no surprises there, Mr Speaker—were, in my opinion, as ill-mannered as they were ill-informed, because it is my understanding that the duty laid on a Select Committee by the House of Commons is to scrutinise the working of the relevant Department. I would therefore be grateful for your advice on to whom I should go or whether there is a relevant committee to whose attention I should draw my concerns, to clarify the situation and, I hope, impose on the Secretary of State the reality of his responsibilities.