Speeches by Norris.

“It is the position of the Home Office that we strongly believe that large sites have a role to play in the profound responsibility of accommodating some 97,500 people at the moment, who are by definition vulnerable, and that each space causes a degree of cohesion and impact on local communities. We believe large sites …”

“There is a lot in that. The appeals piece is a result of reducing the backlog in initial decisions that was built up by the previous Government stopping making decisions. That, of course, had to be done. We have had significant success in doing so. That has created a backlog in appeals. As I said earlier, we are workin…”

“We have clawed back £74 million across profit share and service credits. That relates to the previous financial year—the one before, but done in the previous financial year. We are starting the process of interrogating other contracts to see what might be done there, too, but it is an important part of the work we are …”

“The commitment, as you heard in the previous session, is for a year. That is how long the MOD has given it to us.”

“Granted that I have come in late in this journey, Wethersfield is different to what it was at the beginning. We have learnt a lot from that experience and our management is in line with that. We have now been at that for a few months and we believe that has stood up and done what we were seeking for it to do.”

“This is difficult because it is trying to make significant changes to huge contracts that are a long way down their lifespan. We would always want to look at KPIs and make changes there. We have to do that in consultation and in bilateral agreement with our contractors. We have not made that change. I am not saying we …”

“No. As I say, this is part of our theory of change on reducing demand. We are doing lots of other things in this space and you will see lots more to come. We have made improvements on other aspects with quicker and better decision making, removing more people with no right to be here. That all takes pressure off, too. …”

“I am Alex Norris. I am a Member of Parliament for Nottingham North and Kimberley, and I am the Minister for Border Security and Asylum at the Home Office.”

“Absolutely, yes.”

“We are intending to implement that in the next couple of months. It has to be something that we get right. I think it has been a traditional gap for the Department. I think I accepted that in a previous answer about not having enough focus on sub-contractors. We do accept that. It needs to be a framework that is effect…”

“This is a live conversation at the moment, and you will know that we did open expressions of interest for local authority pilots. I want to be clear with the Committee. I believe that the end state for the next contract and where that gets us to is a much more mixed economy. I am an avowed municipalist. Virtually no as…”

“That is something in consideration. In many cases, that could be the local authority stock being managed at arm’s length by a company. I do think there would be value in a more mixed economy. Holding financial benefits locally is a better way of winning consent in the public as well, so I think there is something in th…”

“This is an important point I said just before you returned, Ms Reid, that the large site does not contribute to the service user demand plan number. I appreciate, and colleagues have raised, that that is a challenge. As we do more, we will hold that under review. The basis for that is that dispersed accommodation is in…”

“That was not the decision we took, no.”

“No, no, that is not my view. I cannot say more strongly than I have said earlier in the Committee. I want local authority involvement in future contracts. I think that will be the process, rather than the pilot process, by which that activity takes place. I want local authorities involved in this. I think that is a str…”

“It depends on how quickly we can stand them up because it takes a little while to get some learning from that. As I say, I think the longer answer is a fuller involvement in local authorities rather than piecemeal.”

“No. As I say, we are where we are with the contract. We are on a journey to a new contracting arrangement, but this worked within that process.”

“It is small numbers, single-figure numbers.”

“No, no. Those who have expressed interest and want to stay the distance, I will stay the distance with.”

“No, it would not have been tendered because it was in the geography under which the accommodation contracts are at the moment. It is within Clearsprings’ region.”