Speeches by McKinnell.

“The other side of that frustration is the frustration of the experience that customers have while that is going on. Helen, what incentives are in place to make sure that companies are minimising supply interruptions and maintaining the quality of the water network?”

“Who will meet the cost of those penalties? The concern is that cost is then just passed back to the ratepayer or the taxpayer.”

“I thank the Secretary of State for this statement, acknowledging the real harm that social media is causing for children. As a former Schools Minister, I know how welcome these announcements will be for teachers and parents, who are contacting us in droves. However, as she knows, time is of the essence. All the time we…”

“Just listening to the opening comments from Simon and Jo, there does seem to be great store set by the new asylum group and what it will be able to achieve. It would be really helpful to understand in a bit more detail what that group’s specific role and responsibilities are. How big a group are we talking about? What …”

“Yes, but it is hard to understand exactly what this group is going to do. Rannia, can you explain?”

“That is really helpful. Q12        [1]Mr Betts: I think this question is probably to Jo Farrar, but you will no doubt tell me if that is the right person to go to. There have been a lot of concerns about the efforts to reduce the number of people in the asylum system, particularly at …”

“I am hoping that Rannia will be able to paint a clearer picture, because it sounds like a whole Government Department from what you have just described.”

“That is really helpful; thank you. That created a clearer picture, but clearly there are big challenges for the Home Office, which makes up the vast majority of the group. The job of co-ordinating with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is really important and one of t…”

“Will the road map, which you said is to be published shortly, have clear accountabilities within it and clear timelines and timeframes for when we are going to see the changes coming to fruition?”

“In overseeing this from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, do you feel you have the means and the levers to get the maximum impact across Government Departments?”

“Okay. That does seem small compared to other parts of Government.”

“I want to follow up on the conversation about targets. If I am not mistaken, I think you were going to say what the current target is. Are you able to share with us what the current target across Government is?”

“What is the timeframe for seeing some of the results? What has been projected?”

“That is helpful, because there is a concern that it does not seem to have been derived in a particularly sophisticated way, but as you say, it is to make the case for broader investment in these facilities. That then begs the question: what is the plan now for improving the use of data analytics to combat fraud and err…”

“That’s okay; that is really helpful. Thank you. I want to ask specifically about the £6 billion figure that the Government Digital Service is hoping—perhaps believing—can be saved by using data analytics to tackle some of the fraud and waste that we see. The figure itself does not appear to have been derived from very …”

“The challenge could be that it is under ambitious, rather than over ambitious.”

“Thank you for what you have said so far, but I have to say that it all feels rather intangible at the moment. There is clearly no road map yet, no actual plan, no actual timeline and no actual targets that we have any visibility on. From the PSFA’s perspective, what more do you need to see and what more should the Gove…”

“To make sure that I have covered the full panel, what do you need from the Public Sector Fraud Authority or, indeed, the Treasury to make that happen?”

“That does not really touch on error and fraud, though.”

“I meant on an annual basis. Given that at the moment it is only set out on an annual basis, and since there is no public vision on whether those targets are being met or not, the following year’s target could be revised down rather than up. Is that the thinking behind it—to leave scope?”