Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on maintaining the triple lock on the state pension.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department decided on the amount of £39.60 per week as standard asylum support payments.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the procurement policies are for the securing of services from private companies for the response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Abena Oppong-Asare: Q Thank you, Chair. Thank you for coming to speak to us. There are four audit firms and one of the allegations is that they are very close to each other and cosy with big companies. What are your thoughts on that? In the Bill, it is not very clear that that has been addressed.
Abena Oppong-Asare: Q The four audit firms: there are concerns that they are very cosy with each other and are very close with the big companies. The Bill does not essentially address that kind of issue. It does not seem very clear to me. Do you have any thoughts on how that could be addressed in the Bill to strengthen it so that there is better transparency and the relationship is less cosy?
Abena Oppong-Asare: Q I want to follow up on that, because I recently read your comments about a new audit regulator in the Financial Times. The proposals gave me the impression that you felt that it would be able to ensure better reporting, and essentially hold the governance authority accountable to Parliament. Are you able to explain further about that?
Abena Oppong-Asare: Thank you, Chair.
Abena Oppong-Asare: Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. I know that you are in favour of the Bill, as it will give you greater agility and flexibility to deal with things. Going back to some of the comments you made earlier about the consultation process, in which you were clearly fully engaged, one of the things I want to find out relates to the consultation discussions, and obviously you have more...
Abena Oppong-Asare: Q Just for clarification, during the consultation period there was no analysis looking, in terms of the additional powers, at how the accountabilities need to be changed. My understanding, from what you have just told me, is that it is very much reliant on the processes you think you have got already, which I have concerns about, if I am honest, because the current processes do not appear to...
Abena Oppong-Asare: Q I put the same question to the other witnesses.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures to prevent infection are in place for children of medically vulnerable parents returning to school.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on financial support for people in receipt of the state pension.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of the findings of the Pension Credit report from Independent Age.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on levels of hunting trophy (a) imports and (b) exports as a result of delays in bringing forward legislative proposals.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many trees have been planted under the Urban Tree Challenge Fund in (a) London and (b) Erith and Thamesmead constituency to date.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on providing support to child refugees made homeless by the recent fires at the Moria refugee camp.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of reinstating the link with mainstream benefits by setting the asylum support rate at 70 percent of universal credit.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the £2.9 billion reduction to the Official Development Assistance budget on faith organisations throughout the world.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in (a) London and (b) Erith and Thamesmead constituency have received funding through the National School Breakfast Programme.
Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department holds on the estimated number of children who will potentially be without a free breakfast once the National School Breakfast Programme ends in March 2021.