"I beg the noble Lord’s pardon. I had understood from the way he was making his argument that he was involved in the Centre for Social Justice work that led to—..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"It sounds as if the noble Lord is being a bit defensive about the results of the work, but I will move on.
There was a theme in the debate: that all this is doable not just by the DWP, and that is correct. We need to work with local …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister, who, in adversity, has done a splendid job in explaining these regulations. I cannot help but believe that somewhere on the premises there must be a parliamentary sedan chair, which I happily will take one end of until she is better, …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"That is an opportunity perhaps, under an SSAC consideration of the second package of regulations, for affected parents with care and non-resident parents to make submissions to the SSAC scheme later this year. If I understood what the Minister was saying, the Social Security Advisory Committee will undertake a normal …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for repeating the Statement. I concur with her tribute to Patricia Hollis. She was an integral part in the creation of this legislation and delivered a complete masterclass in parliamentary scrutiny in the 2012 committee which I was privileged to share with …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"Does the Minister agree that the timeliness of payments should be a key performance indicator in any respectable social security system? Would she consider contriving a set of statistics broken down to universal credit full service payment areas, comparing the timely payment or otherwise of universal credit against the local …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"My Lords, I whole- heartedly support the suggestion from the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, that we should take the opportunity that has been presented to us by this judgment to look again at bereavement benefits more generally, and I hope that the Minister will undertake to engage constructively in the …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"My Lords, is the Minister satisfied that the reduction in the departmental expenditure limit that the DWP has experienced over the past five to 10 years has not contributed to this error? She has just said that the DWP is now putting 400 staff on the case. I have a …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Drake. She is an expert in these matters and we are fortunate to have her to assist our deliberations. I also support the regulations. Some of us who were involved in the 2017 legislation felt that we …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech
"My Lords, I am absolutely in agreement with the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock. This is a quite extraordinary state of affairs. I have been following social security since 1986. I have never seen such an explicit letter of correction from such a distinguished public servant as the Comptroller and Auditor-General, …..." Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope - View Speech