Speeches by Dixon.

“One of the reasons for more demand for residential care is the lack of foster care placements. I realise that not every foster care placement is suitable, but it appears that there is some decline in foster carers. Joe, what do you think the challenges are? Why are we losing foster carers, and how could we turn that ar…”

“Bradford council is an area with low property values, so quite a lot of councils commission out-of-area placements in that area. As you are representing the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Rachael, could you say a little about the challenges of safeguarding children who are placed out of area?”

“I think just under half of children are placed more than 20 miles away from their original family home. Joe, I wonder whether, as a deputy to the Children’s Commissioner, you might say a bit about the impact on children of being placed far from home.”

“These are specifically under schemes including ECO4. I think the problem is that they were caught out between your remedies coming in and their experiencing the faulty installations.”

“It is pleasing to hear that you have already written to those who have had internal wall insulation, and that you intend to do the same for those with external wall insulation and carry out other publicity. As I mentioned in the first panel, I have a number of constituents who had cavity wall insulation fitted under EC…”

“I am just trying to get to the scale, really. Had something been done better and earlier, it could have prevented many thousands and thousands of households from having work that is now going to cost thousands more for remediation. This is just to get the scale of the failure to identify this early enough. I want to pr…”

“Can I press you on that? It is all with hindsight, but I think you have agreed that this should have been known earlier and there should have been better information sharing. But from getting this scheme up and running, there was knowledge somewhere in the system—from early indications, which are yet to be shared with …”

“If every one of those checks found that there were problems—because the later audits found that there were in 98%—that surely showed a pattern. Even if there were just a dozen checks done in those early days of July 2022, when this scheme was getting up and running, if the pattern showed that pretty much every one of t…”

“You have been around housing and energy for a lot of your career. These issues, more generally, were widely known even before this scheme started. These were quite complicated things to do and, if they were not done well, they could lead to damp and mould. I am a layperson, and that is something that we know, particula…”

“I think you heard the previous panel, where we were led to believe that there were already concerns being raised in late 2022. Looking at the timeline in figure 5 on page 27 of the NAO Report, it does not seem that this problem was properly gripped or anything really done about it until late 2024. Why did it take so lo…”

“Is that just for the audit?”

“Could you write to the Committee, please, and tell us what you have communicated with consumers to make sure they are not susceptible to further exploitation and fraud?”

“Have you already communicated with consumers so that they do not become susceptible to these no win, no fee lawyers? Do they know to hold out and wait?”

“I really want to push on the point of the liabilities. You say you did not know about the problems, but certainly some dubious law firms did, because they were knocking house to house in areas like mine and finding people who had faulty cavity insulation, and they have then gone bust because there has been countersuing…”

“We have had Companies House in before, and I have to say I wasn’t very confident that they had the data to prevent phoenixing. How are you working with Companies House to track these businesses?”

“Yes, that is what I am asking you about. I am saying that they are popping up elsewhere.”

“I am not sure that that will give much comfort, particularly given the 25-year guarantee and the £20,000 limit that is supposed to be in place. We know that quite a lot of these retrofitting businesses do not have the insurance themselves, and they have not got appropriate cover for these liabilities. Many of them are …”

“I am going to keep it very short, and I will address my questions to Mr Ayers. As constituency MPs, we all have many households who have had these problems with both external wall insulation and cavity wall insulation. It was shoddy work, and they are sitting there in cold and damp homes. They are now being told that t…”

“As a member of the Public Accounts Committee I have been appalled at the failure of the previous Government to tackle the backlog in the courts, delaying justice for victims of domestic abuse and sexual abuse. I thank the Minister for her unwavering commitment to repairing the justice system that we inherited for victi…”

“13. What steps his Department is taking through the criminal justice system to help tackle violence against women and girls.”