Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Bryant Excerpts
Wednesday 18th January 2017

(7 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Chris Bryant Portrait Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
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Q3. If she will visit the Rhondda.

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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I always enjoy my visits to Wales, and I hope to visit Wales in the future.

Chris Bryant Portrait Chris Bryant
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That is not quite an answer to whether she will visit the Rhondda. I hope she will; I am happy to accommodate her—I can do bacon and eggs. More importantly, I could take her to see the best brass band in the world, the Cory band, or, for that matter, I could take her to the local food bank, based in the closed-down Conservative club. Since 2010, the Government have closed the local courts, tax office, Department for Work and Pensions office and driving centre, and now they intend to close all the tax offices in Wales and centralise them in Cardiff. We in the valleys feel ignored by the Government. May I beg her to change direction and start putting Government offices in the small towns, villages and valleys of this country?

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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The last time I looked, Cardiff was actually in Wales—the hon. Gentleman says we are taking offices out of Wales and putting them in Cardiff. The whole point of what Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is doing is to move from outdated offices to large, modern regional centres, which will make it possible to modernise its ways of working, make tax collection more efficient and actually improve its customer service.

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