"My Lords, I thank the Minister for agreeing to take questions on yesterday’s Statement.
The Falklands War was won in less than 12 weeks. This Government, however, cannot piece together a paper audit in that time. We have today simply been given a holding statement that more documents will be …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, I declare my interest as a former special adviser and future recipient— I hope in the long-distant future—of a civil service pension. At the heart of this issue are former public servants who are entitled to expect that the Civil Service Pension Scheme would be administered with competence, …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, I begin, as I have previously, by welcoming the progress made by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority and the Government in delivering payments. I commend the diligent work of Sir Brian Langstaff and his team, and all those who contributed to the inquiry and its additional report, which …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing this order. As she has set out, it is a sensible and largely technical measure that would bring the law on ministerial and officeholder salaries in line with the current practice of excluding Permanent Secretary salaries from the calculation of annual salary …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, despite the love of the Civil Service words of “moving at pace”, many of us have had experience of government acting a little more slowly than we would like. To take a whole year to publish a code of practice is pushing that to the limit. Just because …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, does the Minister accept that it is wholly unacceptable for the taxpayer to be picking up the full cost of this scandal while Fujitsu, whose systems were at the heart of the failings, has yet to make any meaningful financial contribution? Can he confirm whether the Government will …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, in discussing this matter we must, as always, keep Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and their families at the forefront of our minds. I pay tribute to the brave women and girls who were abused by him who have spoken out and called for justice.
"My Lords, as the Infected Blood and Grenfell Tower inquiries made clear, having a Civil Service Code is one thing but ensuring that it is properly followed is quite another. Can the Minister therefore set out what specific consequences apply when the code is breached—whether by those in conventional employment …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, the National Audit Office recently examined the cyber threat facing the UK Government and reached some deeply concerning conclusions. It found that 58 critical government IT systems have significant gaps in their cyber resilience and that the Government do not even know how vulnerable at least 228 legacy …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech
"My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing these regulations and for clearly setting out their purpose. As she explained, these regulations amend the Procurement Act 2023 to add the UK-India comprehensive economic and trade agreement to the list of specified international agreements in the Act. In doing so, they …..." Baroness Finn - View Speech