Next week's committees
No slackening of pace as the Select Committees march towards the Christmas Rising. Quite a number of interesting sessions are on the calendar....
Monday sees the continuation of the , investigating the police search of the Commons office of the Conservative Immigration Spokesman, Damian Green.
Witnesses include the former Clerk of the House of Commons, Sir William McKay. He edited the current edition of Erskine May, the Commons procedural bible, and he drew up the guidelines on what to do when the police come calling. I'm told that if they'd been followed, the whole inquiry would have been unnecessary.
Then the committee turn to the central figure in the whole fandango Jill Pay, the supposedly "bamboozled" Serjeant at Arms. The key issues will be the circumstances in which she allowed the police in, and what she told the then-Speaker, Michael Martin.
(Incidentally, I accidentally teleported this meeting a week forward in time, in last week's committee preview, before eagle-eyed colleagues spotted and removed the mistake - for which apologies).
The continues its investigation into Sure Start Children's Centres, with evidence from local councils and the people running some of the actual centres.
The hears from the Housing Minister John Healey and Sir Bob Kerslake, from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔs and Communities Agency, for its inquiry bearing the gnomic title, Beyond Decent Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔs. This turns out to be about the government's programme to bring all social housing up to a decent standard by 2010, and how it will be maintained. There are real worries about the future of what many see as the best housing improvement programme since the 1970s - money has already been taken out to keep housebuilding going.
The is looking at how effectively the tax system caters for the needs of older taxpayers. Errors occur because many people's tax affairs become more complicated when they reach pension age - perhaps they receive payments from several occupational pension schemes as well as, say, a part-time job - and HMRC's systems do not cope well with their multiple sources of income.
The that, by March 2009, as a result of discrepancies between HMRC's records and tax deducted by employers and pension providers, some 1.5 million older people had overpaid tax by an average of Β£171 (Β£250m in total), and around 500,000 older people had underpaid tax by an average of Β£207 (Β£100m in total). These errors can have a disproportionate effect on older people as their net average annual income of Β£16,000 was around 25% below the national average.
On Tuesday the session to watch will be the follow-up hearing on the operating practices of the pub companies.
They've already published a report criticising the way the industry operated, and they're still waiting for a government response. But despite that they're planning a further look at such issues as the way pub tenancies and leases are granted, and, crucially the way rents are calculated. Witnesses will include the British Beer and Pub Association, the Independent Pub Confederation and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors - and the last group are key figures, because they are in the process of revamping the valuation system which determines the rents charged for particular pubs. A big demonstration of pub landlords and managers, railing at what they say are excessive charges, is planned for Monday...and some of the demonstrators are expected to stay on and attend this hearing.
The will be looking at defence procurement issues again. This time the focus will be on the planned, but much-delayed new "family" of armoured vehicles. This sounds like the usual saga of chopping and changing requirements, leading to increased costs and delayed delivery. In this instance, the focus is on the replacement for the army's elderly and obsolete Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle.
A double-headed session of the will look at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Office's response to terrorist attacks - this includes an assessment of the effectiveness of COBRA (a now out-of-date acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A), the nerve centre for dealing with attacks and crises. The committee listened with interest to criticism of its operations from Andy Hayman, the Met's assistant commissioner who served as Scotland Yard's top anti-terrorism officer until 2007. Also up, Sir Ian Blair, former commissioner of the Met, and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell. The committee is due to visit COBRA itself this week. In the second part of the session it will quiz the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Office Minister Alan Campbell and former drugs tsar Keith Hellawell about the cocaine trade.
Much excitement for Wednesday about the prospect of Boris Johnson appearing before the . His last visit was an ill-tempered affair, culminating in the Mayor announcing he was walking out, because of what he perceived as a political ambush over London's preparedness for the blizzard which hit the metropolis early this year. He didn't quite stalk out, in the end, but the spat was entertaining while it lasted.
This time he'll be giving evidence on the London Underground Public Private Partnership agreements which are supposed to be expanding the capacity of the Tube system. The Transport Secretary Lord Adonis (who makes very regular appearances because he's a peer, and can't be directly questioned by the Commons) helpfully teed up the second coming of Boris. Pondering whether the Tube would be able to cope with vast numbers of tourists lured to London by the Olympics, he said the government had provided Β£40bn - and upgrading the system for 2012 was now a matter for Hizzoner the Mayor.
Much certainly remains to be done as the from the London Assembly Transport Committee, on the cattle-truck conditions at rush hour, makes clear.
The holds the final evidence session on the Future of Local and Regional Media - with local and regional newspapers and TV in sharp decline at the moment. Witnesses will include the ITV Chairman Michael Grade and Michael Jeremy, director of News, current affairs and sport at ITV, who recently oversaw controversial cuts to the broadcaster's regional coverage to reduce costs. They will be followed by SiΓ΄n Simon, DCMS minister, who will be questioned regarding what the department is doing to support local and regional media.
And the Foreign Secretary David Miliband makes his regular pre-EU Council appearance before the . Topics will include the Lisbon Treaty and Copenhagen.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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