Speeches by Norris.

“My view is that those organisations have known everything they have needed to know at the times that they have needed to know them, and I note from both councils, the direct impact on themselves about what they are expected to do operationally, is very little. I do accept the secondary impacts such as freedom of inform…”

“Am I wrong? As you have heard me say to Committee members, I am reflecting very strongly in all aspects of my engagement with Crowborough, and I appreciate exactly the spirit of why you asked that question. Is it wrong?”

“Yes. There are clearly significant differences with regards to cost. Value is more than the pound per night. Value is the ability to make the things stand up safely. Value is the impact of the Royal Hotel in Hull. I think of the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk. I think of the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham, near to where I …”

“I know that that knocked around. That is nothing that I ever said in those conversations. I would not routinely do that at any part of our estate because clearly there is a cohesion risk around doing that. Do you think that is wrong, Mr Maguire? Am I wrong in doing that?”

“We do not have, certainly in my time in the Home Office, many comparable decisions but, yes, absolutely, this was totally the right decision.”

“Yes, we believe it is the right thing to do. I appreciate—”

“Yes, we have to be careful. Again, I make no criticism of certainly the individuals that I engage with from Wealden district council, who engage with me always in good faith, but you would expect, Mr Maguire, with any big organisation or anyone at all, we are cautious about information when it being the right informati…”

“This is an important operational decision that takes into account the safety of staff, the local community and service users. We know it is our experience because we have a big supported population and we are well used to how they move around the system that there is a lot of interest in it, not always interest that is…”

“The advice that is given to previous Ministers has firewalls. We know what announcements were made and perhaps decisions not taken, but I cannot tell you for definite what previous Ministers considered.”

“Yes, that is right.”

“We have spent £60,000 on the site so far.”

“I can speak only for our Government, but we announced it soon after my arrival at the Home Office and so you can be assured that it is been uppermost in our thoughts.”

“We have spent £60,000. That is right, Andrew?”

“That was a planning assumption. Again, from the correspondence, you have seen the date by which we started to have those conversations and it quickly became clear that this would be a problem.”

“It is the things I have said. It is the ability to operationalise them. It is their size. It is their availability. The MOD offered us Crowborough because it was not using it. Those types of things go into that equation and would do going forwards.”

“We did not think that it would be an issue in this way.”

“I would not be in a position to talk about what sites might be looked at in the future for the reasons I have discussed. It is important that the right information enters the public domain at the right time, but we are mindful. We have now the experience of this type of work in Scotland. Yes, of course, that is uppermo…”

“As I say, there are not routinely hotels of that size. Again, I have to say that the nature of the provision is different, too, and so it behoves a slightly different categorisation.”

“It absolutely is because, as you say, the responsibilities that are devolved and planning legislation impacting against housing legislation has meant that we are in the current position that we are in. Yes, it is different.”

“No.”