Oliver Heald: ...on the Back Benches—well done to him. May I also thank everybody else? I thank the Doorkeepers for their work in keeping the Committee running smoothly; Hansard for reporting; the Bill team, Penny Cotton and Kellie Smith; the Bill team lawyers; David Howarth, the Bill Manager; and the large number of officials for all the briefing sessions and assistance during the Committee stage. I...
Oliver Heald: I will make the point that what the hon. Gentleman has said reminded me of everything that is wrong about Labour. If we look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves. The Bill will save £300 million over a 10-year period. That is not insubstantial. He may have noticed that some of the measures are small, but there are a lot of them, and the overall effect is to deregulate. We are...
Oliver Heald: ...were going to take from the flat and said that they would not take it immediately if she paid them £200. Her grandmother, who was visiting, paid on her behalf, even though that woman did not owe a penny.
Oliver Heald: ...were not explained." The right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron) has described that as "a scam from day one." He is a former senior NUM official, and he said: "The NUM has not put a penny into fighting these cases". There is no justification for unions not to be properly regulated. The Minister acknowledged that trade unions have abused their position. She said: "I know of and...
Oliver Heald: ...he loves, but when it comes down to it, Raleys the solicitors has been done by the Law Society. That was the finding. But the trade union, the NUM, received £10 million, and it has not given a penny back. So who will regulate the union? That is the point. It is all very well to say, “It is only a few trade unions,” but it is only a few solicitors. We still regulate all them, because...
Oliver Heald: ...a surge of claims. I also think that it would be bad to undermine the existing arrangements, with that tracery of small bodies across the country that are providing advice services already. Every penny that is spent on the new quango and its work, including the salary of the chairman and other appointments, will be taken out of the budgets of the organisations that are already doing the...
Oliver Heald: ...and about Parliament having the tools it needs to hold the Prime Minister and his Government to account. It is important that we take parliamentary procedure seriously. It is by cutting the pennies that make up the pounds that this Government have devalued the currency of Parliament. I want to congratulate the Chairman of the Procedure Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield...
Oliver Heald: When the hon. Gentleman says that politicians say only a quarter of what they mean, does that apply to his penny extra on income tax?
Oliver Heald: ...more efficient and improving. Recently, the agency collected four times as much as in 1994—a 55 per cent. increase on the previous year; 80 per cent. of assessments were accurate to the nearest penny; and 98 per cent. of payments were passed on within 10 days. We should recognise the progress that has been made. Some hon. Members were saying that the agency is worse than it was, but it...
Oliver Heald: ...would change in a very different way. Perhaps he would like to give his advice to Labour Front Benchers. As it would cost £1.7 billion to implement the upratings that he wants—equivalent to a penny on income tax—perhaps Labour Front Benchers will tell us whether this is the latest move in the Labour party's abandonment of sensible economic policy.
Oliver Heald: ...my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security against benefit fraud. In targeting benefits on the poorest pensioners, every pound counts and it is right that we should use every penny that we can for proper purposes. We should welcome the response that the fraud campaign has had, not just from the general public, but from newspapers such as The Sun, which, through its...
Oliver Heald: ...of the CSA is right, and much of the practice of it has been successful. One has only to see the figures announced in the report today to realise that 28,000 fathers who were not paying a penny and were not easily traceable have been traced, which is an achievement. Finally, on the way in which some of the groups opposing the CSA behave, I have no criticism of those in my...