Simon Hoare

I, too, welcome the First Secretary of State to her place—it is great to see her back on the Treasury Bench. I also welcome the creation of the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The right hon. Lady is absolutely right that in a centralised system it was the most underpowered organisation imaginable, and it needed some turbocharging. I hope that the First Secretary will agree that rewiring has to be a process, not an event. The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will remember the great fanfare with which mission-led government was talked about a couple of years ago, before it died a rather slow, lamentable death. Can she assure us that she has both the personal energy and commitment to see this through to the end, as well as the support and resources around her in order to achieve it? I echo the call from my hon. Friend the shadow Minister about the importance of looking at quangos and arm’s length bodies, particularly within the devolution and decision-making space, because too many of them have got out of control. I also echo the point about outsourcing, because outsourcing takes away a lot of agency from local communities and individuals, and that needs to be looked at with some urgency.