Live Commissioners Questions House of Commons

accommodate everyone. Yes, I met him

and others to discuss the challenges

of Northern Ireland border and I can

reassure him the government is fully

appraised of this concern.

We must

move on. Questions to the chairman

of public Accounts Commission and

the member f Houghton and Sunderland

South and the member for Merrydom.

Question 1.

The national audit

office has operated a scheme since

2011, this includes setting targets

to reduce or eliminate waste. It has

implemented steps to minimise the

use of single use plastics, for

example it does not use single use

plastic bottles or cups and

encourages the use of reusable

coffee cups in its cafe.

Encourage

the National Audit Office to be an

exempla in eliminating single use

plastic.

My honourable friend is an

exempla of an assiduous member of

Parliament. I should say in passing

that it is catering team has to deal

with one supplier to collect and

reuse packages so it has changed

from being delivered in cardboard

and single use plastic to reusable

plastic crates instead. Isn't that

marvellous.

No 3.

The chuff

investors groups manages a fund of

£17 billion of which the church

commissioners assets represent 8

billion. The commissioners have

discharged their responsibilities by

voting on issues including executive

renumeration and climate change and

gender disversety, disclose of pay

ratios and the payment of at least

the living wage to staff.

I am

grateful for that apps. Answer. I

would if she set out the approach

the chur commissioners are taking.

This is one of responsibilities and

commissioners will vote against the

chair of a company if they're

assessed as not having made

sufficient progress in addressing

climate change. I'm pleased to share

the good news that at a resolution

file bed ed by the church

commissioners which asked Exxon to

report on how its business model

would help tackle climate change.

Commissioners voted in favour of

that.

We have already had the

honourable lady.

No 4.

The Church of

England signed an accord with the

Government to enable... Yes? Sorry,

Mr Speak -- Mr Speak we are respect.

The Church of England signed an

accord with the Government to enable

churches to improve broadband and

mobile connective, particularly in

rural areas. This sets out how the

church can collaborate to achieve

this.

The tariffs of St Peter's

could help with connectivity in an

area which suffers from lack of

connectivity. Could my honourable

friend give my constituents some

guidance as to guide their way

through the planning system in order

to help them to apply...

Yes the

honourable lady's constituency has

seen a significant improvement in

broadband coverage, currently at

95.5%, up from 19% in 2010. But I

would encourage to get the churches

to contact Church House to find out

how they can avail themselves of

this new opportunity. The church has

in this reached agreed with

broadband providers to provide a

standard contract. I would like to

pay tribute to the Secretary of

State at DCMS and the Parliamentary

under-Secretary at DEFRA for getting

this initiative of working together

to get our rural and urban mobile

knot spots.

I would like to thank my

honourable friend, on international

women's 's day it seems right to

mention a church in my constituency

that is installing

telecommunications in her tower.

What more can my honourable friend

do to encourage others to follow?

My

honourable friend is doing a very

good job of demonstrating to the

whole House the difference that it

can make when we as members of

Parliament make our constituents in

knot spots aware of is in new

agreement. That if members have

churches with tall tower and spires,

these can be used to bounce the

broadband signal into existing knot

spots and the example of the church

that he referred to is to give

encouragement to all and within his

constituency I would encourage to

get those churches to apply too.

I

hear what the the honourable lady

says, will she include in the work

that the church is doing churches

that have been closed, because of

course they are often in the most

rural and isolated areas and it is

sometimes unclear what their status

is. It could be an important way to

use these buildings.

The Church of

England has put its entire assets at

the disposal of the Government. That

includes churches, schools and land

where necessary, because for example

you can beam a signal from a church

spire to the brow of the hill down

into the next village. Those assets

are all bound up in this accord.

Thank you. It is good news that t

Church of England is making their

building available for this, but it

is important that for the historical

artefacts or could be displayed in

small parishes who have dedicated

Royal British Legion facilities and

have historical displays, they could

also be displayed in churches of

Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This new accord regarding Wi-Fi and

mobile coverage will make the

churches a hotspot, not a knot spot

community and may bring people the

benefit of a good signal and thereby

discover the wonderful artefact the

churches offer. While the accord has

been signed with the Church of

England, I know the Government wants

to offer the same opportunity to

other denominations, because the aim

is to get that universal coverage.

Question No 6.

The commission has a

duty to monitor the political fps

rules and secure compliance with

them. The amount spent on compliance

fluctuate and tends to intensify

around electoral events. This

includes creating guidance for

parties and monitoring campaign

activity and checking returns from

parties and the enforcement of the

rules. In the 2017 financial year,

the budget is £2.66 million.

Grateful for that answer. Can I make

the point to her and can she make

the point to the commission on our

behalf that it is all very well

putting these extra compliant costs

on political party, which are

substantial, when they're fully

funded by the taxpayers and parties

have to raise their own finances.

I'm sure officials will have heard

the honourable gentleman's comments.

The commission provides year round

advice and engages with political

parties as the honourable gentleman

is aware from his many meetings with

the commission. I'm sure they would

welcome the opportunity to discuss

any such suggestions with him again.

Following the disgraceful decision

by the Government to keep secret the

source of 425,000 donation to the

Leave campaign by the DUP, meaning

that the public have no idea where

this money came from, what more can

the commission do to make sure we

have transparency in the system.

The

commission welcomes the existing

order that will provide information

about donations and loans received

by parties in Northern Ireland. But

the commission will want to s

transparency going back to 2014.

Charities and academics are warning

the Government that the trials for

compulsory voter ID this May risk

disenfranchising large numbers of

vulnerable people. How will the

commission monitor these pilots

which are a disproportionate

response to the scale of electoral

fraud?

My honourable friend makes an

important point on this and refers

to the pilots that the Government

are carrying out. No one wants to

see any voters turned away, but the

extent to which voters in pilot

areas are unable to vote on 3rd and

May and why will be a key element of

evaluation of pilot scheme and they

will want to hear from any people

that find themselves affected.

Yes

No 7.

The national church

institutions provide advice to

churches and cathedrals about what

funding is available. They can

advice about other funds apart from

landfill, and the new plastic fund

which is also available.

Can I

inform the honourable lady many of

the religious buildings are ignorant

about the money that the trust roles

that comes from landfill tax. If the

churches have a broader community

activity they do qualify. Could that

be better known?

I think the sheer

fact that the honourable gentleman

has made us all aware of this in the

House and that it will be recorded

will be extremely helpful, but I

also wanted to mention apart from

the landfill communities fund, which

is actually spent £106 million since

it was created on the restoration of

places of worship, that the

relatively new plastic tax bags fund

is another source for places of

worship and goes beyond the 10 mile

radius from a landfill site, which

is a constraint on that fund.

You

will be aware we have church

buildings in Scotland and the burden

of maintaining them is onerous for

to churches. Will these churches be

able to apply for similar funding

north of the board sner

rder in? I'm

not responsible for the churches in

Scotland. But I'm prepared to make d

to make inquiries with the church of

Scotland. The Church of England has

many parishebased things to help the

homeless. 3,000 people took shelter

in churches last winter. That was

53% up on the year before and I

expect with the severity of the

winter we have had that number will

increase again.

I was hungry and you

gave me nothing to eat, I was a

stranger and you did not invite me

in... We can't wait until 2027 in

order to see homelessness eliminated

I would like to know how the Church

of England will use its estate to

make sure people have shelter this

year?

The honourable lady reads that

verse which always challenges me,

one day when my maker asked me were

you homeless did you shelter me. The

growing initiative in the church for

night shelter has been remarkable. I

have heard it in the news how often

the church was mentioned as the

place where homeless people could

shelter. I would like to pay tribute

to my former head mistress who

helped set up a night shelter, which

I saw how the church had to be

adapted with a toilet and shower and

how people prepared meals and

volunteers