Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Public Spending: Value for Money

Tuesday 4 March 2025 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Nesil Caliskan questioned the Minister about waste in public spending under the previous government.
  • Alison Bennett inquired about the financial future of Beacon House, a specialist mental health clinic, and the need for investment in mental health services.
  • Richard Fuller pointed out that public sector productivity has fallen behind pre-pandemic levels and challenged the effectiveness of current working arrangements.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Nesil Caliskan Lab Barking
Parliamentary Procedure
Context

The MP is concerned about the legacy of waste under the previous government, highlighting issues such as poorly procured contracts and schemes with no tangible outcomes.

Question

I thank the Minister for his answer. As a member of the Public Accounts Committee, I see on a weekly basis the waste that existed under the previous Government, from the billions spent on badly procured covid contracts to a Rwanda scheme that delivered nothing. What steps will the Minister be taking to make sure that we deal not only with value for money for the taxpayer, but the legacy of waste under the previous Government?

Answer from Darren Jones (Chief Secretary to the Treasury)

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Not once in 7 years was a zero-based review done, not once did former Conservative Ministers require their Departments to go line-by-line through their budgets, and not once did they think that the responsible thing to do was to go through to check how every pound of taxpayers’ money was spent. The British people were sick to death of that approach to politics, and this Government are taking a fundamentally different approach.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The response did not provide specific actions taken by the Minister to address the legacy of waste from the previous government.

How: Chuntering, Legacy

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Q2 Alison Bennett Lib Dem Mid Sussex
Employment Mental Health
Context

The MP highlights the financial uncertainty facing Beacon House, a specialist mental health clinic in her constituency.

Question

The adoption and special guardianship support fund provides excellent value for money in Mid Sussex for Beacon House, which is a specialist mental health and trauma clinic. Unfortunately, however, the clinic’s financial future is looking uncertain. Does the Minister agree that investing in mental health is always a good idea when it comes to getting people back to work and well again and able to contribute to society? Will the Minister work with the Department for Education to secure future funding for this vital service?

Answer from Darren Jones (Chief Secretary to the Treasury)

I agree entirely that mental health services are in desperate need of investment and support across the country. The evidence is very clear that there are, for example, too many people out of work who would be like to be in work, but who are waiting at home unwell and unable to receive the support and services that they need and deserve. We are going into the spending review negotiations over the coming weeks and months, and we will set out further detail in due course.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The response did not provide a specific timeline or commitment for future funding for Beacon House.

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Q3 Richard Fuller Con North Bedfordshire
Economy
Context

The MP references the Institute of Directors’ findings on public sector productivity and highlights issues such as civil servants working from home or abroad.

Question

Improving public sector productivity was the No.1 ask of Institute of Directors’ businesses trying to weather Storm Rachel, but under Labour, public sector productivity has fallen further behind pre-pandemic levels. The number of civil servants working from home has gone up and, shockingly, as The Daily Telegraph has found, thousands of civil servants are being signed off to work from abroad. Therefore, whether it is on civil servants working their bedrooms or from Benidorm, or on other blockers of public sector productivity, what has the Chief Secretary to the Treasury actually done in his last eight months in office, or is he too comfortable with what the Prime Minister calls “the tepid bath of managed decline”?

Answer from Darren Jones (Chief Secretary to the Treasury)

My No. 1 ask is that he has another go at making better jokes in future. To answer the substance of his question, I agree with him that the state is not productive enough on a whole range of issues. We have an enormous amount of work to do which will become evident through our spending review.

Not addressed: The response did not provide specific actions taken by the Chief Secretary to improve public sector productivity and instead focused on criticizing the questioner's joke.

How: Making Better Jokes

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