Universal Credit

Debate between Nick de Bois and Mark Hoban

Wednesday 6th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Nick de Bois]

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to make that point.

[Mr Hoban]

rose—

[Nick de Bois]

I will give way to the Minister, who no doubt will want to answer the right hon. Gentleman’s point, in a moment. I do not want us to set a tone that will undermine our overall goal, but of course if the shadow Secretary of State has concerns, he should raise them. I am sure the Minister is keen to answer them.

[Mr Hoban]

The shadow Secretary of State has been touting this story for months. [Interruption.] No, it has been longer than that. The last outing was in today’s Guardian. I want to make it clear that nobody has walked off the project; all the contractors are in place and the project is on schedule to be delivered at the end of April. Now, if he thinks the idea is good in theory, it is about time he supported it. It is working and the contractors are in place, doing the job and ensuring that the pilots will be up and running at the end of April.

[Nick de Bois]

I am glad to have spirited into being some Front-Bench dialogue.

Financial Services Bill

Debate between Nick de Bois and Mark Hoban

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

I ask the hon. Lady just to hold her horses for a moment. This is about the third time we have discussed this matter and she may want to engage in the debate later, but we need to understand the function of the market. The previous Government—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie) says that we are still making the wrong decisions, but our predecessors in government examined this issue of the cost of credit and concluded that price caps worked against the interests of consumers. This Government have, following the parliamentary debates on the matter, commissioned research to examine the impact of a cap on the total cost of credit. We should look at the research, understand what remedies are being proposed and follow that through. One of the advantages of moving the cost of the regulation of consumer credit away from the OFT to the FCA is that the FCA has a greater range of tools and can make a wider range of interventions than the more narrowly focused solutions of the OFT.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

Does the Minister understand that the sense of concern is heightened by the fact that although the research is welcome, as yet there is no sense of urgency or indication of when it might become available? I would be grateful if he could suggest when we might see the fruits of that research.