Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Lamont and Nick Thomas-Symonds

Thursday 25th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)]

My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for her constituency and for this particular cause. What she has said today has been heard very clearly.

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

T5.   Yesterday, I asked the Prime Minister to launch an inquiry into the Peter Murrell scandal, because the SNP Government in Scotland refuse to do so. The High Court judge said that Murrell’s crimes were “not particularly sophisticated”, demolishing any suggestion that he somehow deceived everyone in the SNP. The people of Scotland deserve to know what John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon knew and when they knew it, so will the Government set up an inquiry so that we can get to the truth of this matter?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Lamont and Nick Thomas-Symonds

Thursday 5th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

T2.   Thousands of former public sector workers are facing delays to their pension payments. Both MyCSP and Capita have catastrophically failed as the administrators of these pension funds, but the real failure is the Cabinet Office’s inability to negotiate contracts that include financial sanctions, in order to drive up performance. What will the Minister do to sort this out?

[The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)]

Both contracts that the hon. Gentleman refers to were negotiated by the previous Government; he might want to reflect on that. In both those contracts, we are reserving our contractual rights. The Cabinet Office has already withheld payments from Capita for not meeting particular milestones, so the hon. Gentleman can rest assured that we will use every lever in these contracts to enforce them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Lamont and Nick Thomas-Symonds

Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

I will certainly pay tribute to Alan and to the work of all campaigners over decades. I am restless for progress, and I will support the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to deliver compensation as quickly as possible. On fast-tracking for specific claimants, last week IBCA set out details of how it is prioritising claims from infected people nearing the end of their life.

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

What direct discussions has the Minister had with people in Scotland who have been impacted by the infected blood scandal about the slow pace of compensation payments?

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

In the course of the work I have done, I have not only spoken to groups in Scotland, but engaged with the Scottish Government’s Health Minister on this matter. On the pace of the payments, IBCA has taken a test-and-learn approach, which allows it to deal with a sample of the cases and then subsequently to scale up. IBCA is operationally independent, but I stand ready to provide all the support I can to speed up the payments.