Speeches by Maguire.

“So it is not just a front?”

“You mentioned that the reporting of crimes has changed in recent years. Have you seen any major changes in trends or shifts over the last 10 years in these types of crimes? Given the questions we had last time, I am thinking particularly about the rise of online retail.”

“I want to quickly follow up on Paul Kohler’s question first, if I may. Lee, you mentioned that when financial institutions freeze accounts, these businesses cannot operate any more. Do you find barriers to that happening? It seems incredible to me that we have these cash-intensive businesses, and I know lots of them us…”

“You mentioned illicit goods. What kinds of things are you talking about? You mentioned cigarettes. Were illegal drugs also hidden in that case of the toilet system, for example?”

“I commend my hon. Friend on an excellent speech. Some of my residents still travel to their NHS dentist clinic in Nottinghamshire, which is a more than 500-mile round trip from Cornwall. Does my hon. Friend agree that Cornwall integrated care board needs to sort out its underspend? This year, there was a £1.2 million u…”

“If you suspect a business of being engaged in these types of criminal activity but it is not within the remit of trading standards—I am not quite clear where the boundary would be for where it goes beyond trading standards—what would you do at that point?”

“Away from trading standards, might other bodies be enabling that kind of activity? I mentioned solicitors and others with professional bodies. Presumably serious and organised crime relies on those services, like everyone else does, to start a business, take on a lease and do everything else that is needed to open a ba…”

“But what issues have you found? You said earlier that you see a massive difference once those accounts are frozen in that they literally cannot engage in illicit activities any more. Where is the disconnect? Why is that not happening even before you get involved—and certainly once you do get involved and tell the banks…”

“This is probably not something for this session, but it seems incredible when you think of the financing arrangements that would need to go into a lease on a new property and the legal obligations. We know that solicitors are bound by high standards from the SRA. It is amazing to think that these business premises just…”

“I did not quite catch what you mentioned earlier. Was it that organised crime is worth £12 billion, £1 billion of which is on the high street?”

“I am keen to ask about the impact of this type of retail crime on local communities, given your background with Wiltshire police and experience in the south-west, particularly in rural communities. Without getting political, there is less density of policing in rural towns and villages than there is somewhere like the …”

“Thank you all for coming in and giving up your time to speak to us today. It is much appreciated. By way of background, what types of serious and organised crime linked to high street shops are you seeing?”

“The hon. Member is giving an impassioned speech about areas that are underserved by rail connections. My constituency is one such areas—it does not have a single mainline station, despite being the largest constituency by land in Cornwall. Unfortunately, the North Cornwall railway was a victim of the Beeching cuts. Wil…”

“Earlier than less than one day—”

“A final question on that point: do you think that the larger sites model is a deterrent then, versus the hotel model? Is that the value that you are incurring?”

“Is it standard process for the Home Office to give less than a day’s latest to the local authority concerned?”

“I have one final question, but before we move on from the communication aspect, when were the police told, ahead of this decision?”

“Isn’t the fact that the backlog is still so high the reason that we have to accommodate those asylum seekers in the first place? What is it that the Government are doing to drive down that backlog, and what investment is being made to do that?”

“Did the Home Office previously commit to giving the local authority and local partners seven days’ notice of the asylum seekers’ arrival? Is that not something that you recognise?”

“Sorry?”