Results 1-20 of 6,949 for speaker:Margaret Hodge

Backbench Business — New Nuclear Power: Accident and Emergency Departments (7 February 2013)

Margaret Hodge: I congratulate my hon. Friend on managing to save his A and E department, but does he not agree that money should go to where patients are? In my area, north-east London, 132,000 patients currently attend the Queen’s hospital A and E department, and 100,000 attend King George’s hospital A and E. Closing an A and E department that serves more than 100,000 patients is unfair to...

Backbench Business — New Nuclear Power: Accident and Emergency Departments (7 February 2013)

Margaret Hodge: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Backbench Business — New Nuclear Power: Accident and Emergency Departments (7 February 2013)

Margaret Hodge: Does my hon. Friend agree that the care of patients must be at the heart of any changes in the NHS, and not finance? In my part of London, there is a proposal to close the A and E at King George hospital, but it would be madness to do so at a time when Queen’s hospital in Romford has far too many A and E patients and when a Care Quality Commission report has just condemned the quality...

Backbench Business — New Nuclear Power (7 February 2013)

Margaret Hodge: I am sorry to intervene on the hon. Gentleman, and I congratulate him on raising very important issues. For the Public Accounts Committee, issues of transparency and subsidy are hugely important. However, the PAC’s remit is to look at contracts after they have been signed; we cannot take away the job of the Government, which is to decide. We will hold contracts rigorously to account,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (5 December 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I welcome the Government’s commitment to increase their efforts to tackle tax avoidance. Starbucks has now caved in to public pressure and announced that it will review its tax arrangements in the UK, so naming and shaming clearly works. Surely it is time to stop companies engaged in tax avoidance hiding behind taxpayer confidentiality. Will the Prime Minister now commit to publishing...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (24 October 2012)

Margaret Hodge: Jimmy Carr avoided £3.3 million of tax last year, and the Prime Minister said that was morally wrong. Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay and Starbucks have between them avoided nearly £900 million of tax. Will the Prime Minister now take this opportunity to condemn their behaviour as morally wrong?

Backbench Business: Tax Avoidance and Evasion (13 September 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I accept that it is the intention of the Exchequer Secretary to increase compliance activity, but I would like him to address two issues that I raised: first, the fact that HMRC has raised the threshold for taking action on fraud, as a result of which less money will be collected; and secondly that, although he said we needed more highly trained individuals, such training is not taking place,...

Backbench Business: Tax Avoidance and Evasion (13 September 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I, too, congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West and Royton (Mr Meacher) on securing the debate. I welcome the growing public interest in these issues, which is perhaps not reflected in the attendance in the Chamber on a Thursday afternoon. An issue that is sometimes seen as dry and complex and often portrayed as too difficult or obscure for people to get their heads...

Backbench Business: Tax Avoidance and Evasion (13 September 2012)

Margaret Hodge: The Committee tries to look at international comparators, but it does not do enough such work. The right hon. Gentleman’s second point was to be one of my suggestions to the Government, and I agree with him entirely. My final point on transparency is that there is a belief in the country at large that bigger companies are not treated in the same way as small and medium-sized...

Backbench Business: Tax Avoidance and Evasion (13 September 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I accept that entirely and it was not a sensible way of proceeding. I also want to mention the quality of staff in HMRC. When we carried out the Goldman Sachs review, it was worrying to find that so few people at the heart of HMRC who were engaged in those negotiations had what was called a “deep knowledge” of tax. They were up against highly skilled, knowledgeable and...

Energy and Climate Change: Olympics (Security) (12 July 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I join others in congratulating the armed services on identifying personnel so swiftly and thank the 3,000 volunteers who will provide venue security. The Public Accounts Committee has looked at the issue of venue security a number of times. Does the Home Secretary accept that her Department and LOCOG did not identify early enough the numbers that would be sufficient? The contract with G4S...

Business of the House (24 May 2012)

Margaret Hodge: The Leader of the House might have seen an article in The Daily Telegraph today that contained a leak of written evidence that had been given in confidence to the Public Accounts Committee. All the members of my Committee will be extremely distressed at this, as the evidence was very sensitive and the leak could cause damage to those who provided it and to the companies involved. In the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Public Appointees (Tax Arrangements) (23 May 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I welcome the Chief Secretary’s statement and I join him in congratulating David Hencke on the work that he did in uncovering the situation. Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that he and his officials will co-operate with the investigation that my Committee will now undertake on his review? Will the Chief Secretary comment on the fact that HMRC authorised the payment to the Student...

Debate on the Address: Jobs and Growth (17 May 2012)

Margaret Hodge: Today’s debate on jobs and growth is of huge importance not only to the constituents of Redcar but to those in Barking and Dagenham in my constituency. All too often, particularly in this Chamber, people believe that London’s streets are paved with gold, and that there is little poverty or joblessness in the capital. All too often, again in this Chamber, people believe that the...

Debate on the Address: Jobs and Growth (17 May 2012)

Margaret Hodge: I have two points on that. First, it is not good value if people do not get into work, which is the whole purpose of the programme, and, secondly, one in four of those who get into work would have done so anyway without any intervention at all. Given the black box nature of the programme, we will not know whether people have actually been given support. All the indications I have seen suggest...

Debate on the Address: Jobs and Growth (17 May 2012)

Margaret Hodge: We have been looking into the issue of whether short-term or part-time work is being provided. When I tried to meet prime providers locally, they would not tell me how many people had been referred to them, how many people they had got into work or how long those people had been in work. The Government claim to be committed to transparency, but any decent assessment of the Work programme is...

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Ministerial Code (Culture Secretary) (30 April 2012)

Margaret Hodge: On Wednesday, the Secretary of State told this House that the permanent secretary had “agreed”, “authorised” and “approved” the role of Adam Smith. On Thursday, the permanent secretary refused 10 times to confirm to my Committee that that was the case. On Friday, he then wrote to me stating merely that he was “aware and content” with Adam...

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Ministerial Code (Culture Secretary) (30 April 2012)

Margaret Hodge: Both are breaches of the ministerial code, both ride roughshod over the rights of Parliament and surely both need to be properly investigated by the independent adviser.

Written Answers — Health: NHS: Negligence (24 April 2012)

Margaret Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many medical negligence cases for (a) maternity, (b) obstetrics and (c) paediatrics were settled; and how much was paid out in each of the last five financial years by (i) Barking, Havering and Redbridge University hospitals, (ii) Barts and The London, (iii) Newham University Hospital and (iv) Whipps Cross University hospital NHS Trusts; (2)...

Written Answers — Health: Maternity Services: Greater London (27 March 2012)

Margaret Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was paid in compensation in respect of maternity cases by Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in each of the last five years; and how many claims are outstanding.