Public Accounts Committee

Meg demands answers on the Government's plan for schools returning in January

I challenged the top civil servant at the Department for Education over the plans for schools returning in January.

I was astounded that the day before schools broke up for the holiday, the most senior education civil servant could not reveal any details whatsoever as no decision had yet been taken.

The Government’s now rushed out further details, but schools have had no time to prepare. This is not good enough. I’ll continuing making the point to ministers and pressing the Government to involve school representatives in these decisions.

Meg leads a PAC hearing on Covid contracts and PPE supply

Tomorrow at 10am, I'll be questioning officials from the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, UNISON, and Care England on how effective the Government was in supplying their frontline health and social care workers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch the full hearing from 10am by clicking here.

Meg leads a PAC hearing on Further Education funding

Many FE colleges are struggling financially, with concerns raised by the National Audit Office and Ofsted about the resulting impact on students' education.

This Thursday at 10am, the Public Accounts Committee will be challenging officials from the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency on how they'll support colleges to retrain and reskill people for the post-COVID jobs market.

Click here to watch the hearing in full.

Meg questions Government officials over sourcing ventilators for the COVID-19 crisis

Today at 2:30pm, I'll be questioning Government officials over the Ventilator Challenge. This was the attempt by Government to procure medical ventilators at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.

I'll be asking:

- Was there value for taxpayers' money?

- Did it work to equip our NHS for the first COVID-19 peak?

- Is the NHS now prepared for a second wave?

Watch live by clicking here.

Public Accounts Committee report: Progress in remediating dangerous cladding

The Public Accounts Committee has today published a report on the Government's Progress in remediating dangerous cladding.

Three years after the Grenfell Tower disaster in which 72 people lost their lives, only a third (155 out of 455) of high-rise buildings with Grenfell-style flammable cladding due to be fixed by now have had their cladding replaced with a safe alternative.

Government never considered the economic impacts of a pandemic

The Public Accounts Committee published a report on the Government’s response and preparedness for the pandemic. I was astounded that the most senior civil servant (Permanent Secretary) at the Treasury, Tom Scholar, conceded that the economic implications of a pandemic were not considered during pandemic preparations in 2016.

Failure to plan is planning to fail. Read the full report here.

Introduction to the Public Accounts Committee

As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee it's my job to make sure the Government spends our money wisely and strategically.

See me explain my role and click here to find out more about the committee's work.

Support Local Authorities Sorting Out Universal Credit

As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, I’ve been raising concerns about the roll-out of Universal Credit.

Local authorities are spending millions cleaning up the Government’s Universal Credit mess.

What’s different about this defence review?

As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, I've repeatedly raised concerns over Ministry of Defence spending. See our most recent report by clicking here.

Today I again challenged the Government over its plans for yet another defence review.

Probation reform

The Government has announced that the management of all offenders will be transferred to the National Probation Service. This comes just five years after Chris Grayling introduced a programme of privatisation whilst Secretary of State for Justice.

The Public Accounts Committee, which I chair has repeatedly highlighted the flaws in the privatisation model, the management of the contracts and the lack of resilience.

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