Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Joe Powell Excerpts
Tuesday 3rd September 2024

(3 months, 2 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
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Rachel Reeves Portrait Rachel Reeves
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The black hole we inherited was £22 billion. We announced in the statement on 29 July £5.5 billion of savings to reduce the size of that black hole, but the hon. Gentleman can see there is still work to be done and we will be setting out further measures in the Budget on 30 October to get a grip of the public finances.

Joe Powell Portrait Joe Powell (Kensington and Bayswater) (Lab)
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A forthcoming Transparency International report has identified 28 contracts worth £4.1 billion that were awarded to parties with direct political connections to the Conservative party, so can the Chancellor update us on the progress in appointing the covid corruption commissioner and whether they will take evidence from corruption campaigners such as Transparency International?

Darren Jones Portrait Darren Jones
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We are appointing a fixed-term covid fraud commissioner through an open competition that is now running as of this morning. The commissioner will make sure everything is done to return money owed to the taxpayer. It will report to the Chancellor, working with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and will report to Parliament in due course.