Civil Service Impartiality Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Civil Service Impartiality

Mark Pawsey Excerpts
Monday 6th March 2023

(1 year, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.

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Lindsay Hoyle Portrait Mr Speaker
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Sorry, sit down. You don’t judge me. You just lost it completely.

Mark Pawsey Portrait Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)
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The only saving grace for colleagues in any honest, fair and unbiased investigation is the senior civil service. In the light of the appointment by the Labour leader of a senior civil servant who has been involved in many investigations of colleagues, does my right hon. Friend agree that if the process looks like a rotting, stinking fish, smells like a rotting, stinking fish and tastes like a rotting, stinking fish, chances are it is a rotten, stinking fish?

Jeremy Quin Portrait Jeremy Quin
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My hon. Friend has expressed his view in his own style. He knows me and will know that my style is to say I am going to await the conclusions that come out of the factual inquiry we are going through now—but he has made his point, as ever.