Business of the House Debate

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Department: Leader of the House

Business of the House

Lord Watts Excerpts
Thursday 19th December 2013

(10 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Lansley Portrait Mr Lansley
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I suggest to my hon. Friend that, given the widespread interest among Members in the roll-out of broadband across the country, this may be a subject that he and other Members collectively wish to approach the Backbench Business Committee about? I thought last week’s announcements were very positive. With Connecting Cambridgeshire, in my constituency, we are looking forward to having 98% superfast broadband coverage by the end of 2015, and that is very encouraging.

Lord Watts Portrait Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)
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May we have an urgent statement on Government secrecy, given that they are still refusing to release the document they commissioned on food banks, that they will not give any information on the financial position of the NHS trusts, and that they are refusing to release the Shrewsbury documents, citing “national security”? What happened to transparency?

Lord Lansley Portrait Mr Lansley
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This is the most open and transparent Government ever. We are publishing more data about more of the activities of government than has ever been the case. We are not only publishing what is available, but, increasingly, we are making sure that we genuinely audit the outcomes of what we are doing and publish those results.