Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Raynsford Excerpts

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

On this one, my hon. Friend is being unfair. We have a tough migrant cap for migrant workers, and business said how important it was to have intra-company transfers, but only at relatively high salary levels. That is what we put in place and it demonstrates that over time we will be able both to control immigration and to do so in a way that does not damage business.

[Mr Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab)]

Q4. We now know that the Government were made aware of fraud allegations at A4e before the Prime Minister appointed that company’s chairman as his family tsar. As the Prime Minister is in danger of acquiring a reputation for ill-judged personal appointments, will he tell the House what independent checks he believes should be carried out before such appointments are made and whether any such checks were carried out in respect of Emma Harrison?

[The Prime Minister]

First, let me be absolutely clear that I was not aware of any allegations of irregularities when Emma Harrison became an adviser to the Government on troubled families. At the time she was appointed, there were no formal investigations into A4e; there was just the company’s own probe into irregularities. I think that this issue needs to be properly dealt with and I am concerned that subsequent to Emma Harrison’s appointment, information needed to be passed up the line to Ministers more rapidly. I have asked the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to review the guidelines across Government and this particular case. When the right hon. Gentleman talks about the horse having bolted, he might want to put into his question the fact that Emma Harrison was given a CBE by the previous Government and that all the allegations that are being made are into contracts that his Government handed out. A little more transparency about that might be a good thing.