Select Committee
Parliament

The NAO's Comptroller and Auditor General Amyas Morse supports the committee and now asks if it is actually possible to demonstrate a link between the programme and subsequent programmes.

"That," says Melanie Dawes "is the six million dollar question."

She acknowledges that it is very hard to prove beyond statistical doubt that the programme did lead to improvements.

Many in the City of London assume that passporting - which allows them to sell their services throughout the EU with a UK licence - is "a goner", says the chair of the committee, Andrew Tyrie.

The Chancellor is asked if he agrees, and his answer is: "No I don't think we should take anything off the table".

The government is aware that financial services' first preference is to keep passporting. But, Mr Hammond adds, it's also aware of the difficulties. 

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Gavin Newlands compares the government's "shambolic" reaction to the Brexit vote to TV satire The Thick of It. 

It would be "laughable, if the consequences of Tory Brexit were not quite so serious", he says.

He mentions comments from minister Priti Patel at the weekend that the UK should not make committments ahead of Brexit negotiations because you wouldn't "show your cards" before playing poker. EU citizens in the UK "are not playing cards", he says.

House of Lords
Parliament

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno asks about government action to settle unaccompanied children from refugee camps in Calais.

Lord Roberts says there are approximately "1,020 unaccompanied children" in the camps, of which just 14 have already been accepted to the UK.

He urges the government to consider the remainder for resettlement, telling the House: "We can't surely leave any children open to exploitation, hunger and homelessness."

Home Office Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford responds that there are approximately 1,300 children in the camps, and around one-third are eligible to come to the UK.

Labour's Lord Dubs, who has campaigned for the UK to accept unaccompanied refugee children, says he can do something he hasn't done before: welcome the government's progress.

Is the possibility of foreign banks moving operations out of the City to Europe a major threat, or is a bigger threat from Singapore, Tokyo and New York?

Mr Hammond says that quite a large proportion of operations in the City are marginally profitable, so if they became unprofitable they would be repatriated, in the case of US banks for example, to New York.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Kennedy of Cradley asks the second question, on the government's priorities for the United Kingdom’s international development aid budget.

She accuses the UK government of a "dogmatic approach" and of "using the aid budget to promote private healthcare services in developing countries".

She asks how this contributes to achieving universal healthcare provision.

For the government, Baroness Mobarik says technical assistance provided by the UK can help the "whole health system" in a developing country.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

The Chancellor is asked whether the government is indifferent to the "plight" of financial services

He says the government is "acutely aware" of the reality that financial services is the UK's single largest sector and adds that it "plays a very important role in our external current account balance."

Mark Broad
Business producer

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Brexit supporter, says the chancellor has been treated "unfairly" in the press with suggestions that he is slowing down the process.

Mr Hammond is not a "remoaner", he says - referring to people who are unhappy that the UK voted to leave the EU.

Instead, the chancellor is trying to embrace the benefits of Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg says. 

Mr Hammond says he hopes the committee will be in "violent agreement" with him about the best way for the UK to get the best Brexit deal.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative and Brexit supporter David TC Davies "says there's very little in this motion that I would disagree with, except for the word 'should'".

The SNP's motion calls for all EU nationals to retain their current rights "should the UK exit the EU".

He says "the rest of the motion is absolutely fine" but the SNP's suggestion that Brexit may not actually happen may be enough to lead him to vote against it.

Elmar Brok, who chairs the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, says the UK will have to negotiate its divorce agreement before its future relationship.

Two Scottish government ministers travel to Brussels for discussions with MEPs on Scotland's place in Europe following the Brexit vote.

House of Lords
Parliament

Questions begin as Conservative peer Baroness Gardner of Parkes asks what the government is doing "to address the impact on long-term residential rental properties in London of the deregulation of short-term letting last year".

The government announced the changes in May 2015, ending a requirement that London residents seek planning permission to rent their homes for a few weeks, such as via Airbnb.

"The government supports the shared economy in housing," says Communities Minister Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth.

Baroness Gardner, who is a landlord and a critic of some short-terms lettings, says there are situations in which "10 people are routinely occupying one bedroom flats" for short term holiday lets, when this is not allowed in the lease.

Lord Bourne attempt to reassure her, and crossbench peer Baroness Boothroyd, saying some problems are covered by existing penalties, such as for nuisance.

Mr Hammond says the Treasury is looking at the implications of World Trade Organisation tariffs on the UK economy, should the UK go for what is known as a "hard Brexit".

He says "it bites differently" on different areas of the UK economy, and that the Treasury is analysing the benefits and costs of different courses of action. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Louise Casey apologises for going down a slight tangent  - "I'm digressing. I'm in therapeutic mode. It's been a rough few days".

Meg Hillier reassures her that the Public Accounts Committee is great therapy 

"Tell us all."

"Uncertainty is the big challenge," Philip Hammond says of the upcoming Brexit negotiations.

The chancellor says he's spoken to financial services firms, and they have suggested a "transition period" to adjust from the current situation to the eventual outcome. 

He repeats that the government won't have a "running commentary" on whether it will pursue this, because it would undermine its negotiating position. 

But the industry's concern has "been noted, of course".

Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Select Committee
Parliament

Meg Hillier asks Louise Casey if she is disappointed by the evaluation and media coverage.

She replies that the behaviour by those who produced the report had been "unedifying".

She explains that she doesn't want this to be "a personal thing" but accuses the report authors of failing to put any of the caveats of their report in the public domain. 

Defending the programme, she adds that no one disputes that 16,000 families who had had problems "now have less problems".