Speeches by Maynard.

“First, it is up to each individual to sign up or not; they do so of their own free will. Secondly, this is standard insurance which almost all boards have in the UK and internationally nowadays, which protects board members. It would not be specifically for those board members; it would be for all board members. To say…”

“It is fairly standard on boards today to have directors and officers insurance; indeed, all board members have it. What is the problem with the new people also having D&O insurance?”

“The hon. Gentleman said that 100% of outflows are monitored, but I am afraid that is not correct. In fact, 100% of the 14,000 storm outflows are monitored—he did not mention storm—but 7,000 emergency overflows are not currently monitored. On the other aspect that he just mentioned, Ofwat was entirely devoid of looking …”

“I rise to explain amendment 22. On 11 July, the Environment Secretary issued a press release on the reform of the water industry that stated: “Water companies will place customers and the environment at the heart of their objectives. Companies have agreed to change their ‘Articles of Association’—the rules governing ea…”

“What is Tesco’s approach to sourcing product from Xinjiang in China now?”

“Sticking with that—I am sure you have you have got visibility globally—are you saying that quantitatively there is no material difference between your wholly-owned restaurants and your franchises? I am sure that you have looked at that in detail. Are there no trends to speak of?”

“I have a question about the instances in your wholly-owned restaurants versus your franchise restaurants. Presumably you look and compare at where these cases come up. Is there a pattern across your restaurants and your franchise restaurants? Do you have fewer cases in your own restaurants or is there no pattern? What …”

“In Xinjiang, are you running proactively on cotton, tomatoes and whatever else that that comes out of Xinjiang at scale?”

“With respect, I totally agree with everything you say; no question about that, but it is not conclusive. Are you de facto running tests on the obvious products all the time, because, if not, why wouldn’t you be?”

“But there are no particular red lines as to things that, “Within X years we need to get rid of this, this, this and this” that you are focused on?”

“You have a rating from A to E for audit findings. Some of the things at the bottom end of that are dormitories inside factories, child labour and so on. Will you say a little bit about what you would like to see stamped out? What other practices are you looking to get rid of over the next one, two, three years that you…”

“I will park it. I will say that you have not answered to the best of your ability and that you have obfuscated wilfully.”

“Ms Zhu, that is not true. That is simply not true. We have asked you some very, very, very simple questions and you are not giving us straight answers. That, I find, dismisses the point of why we are here today. Do you understand how simple are the questions we are asking you? Do any of your products have cotton from C…”

“I am interrupting, but I disagree that you are doing the best you can. You are not. You are not giving us straight answers.”

“I am asking you whether you think you are being disrespectful by being so blanketly void of answers.”

“Sorry.”

“Guizhou is in West China? Isn’t it in South West China?”

“What about West China? You have mentioned every other point.”

“Yes. Frankly, I do not think you are respecting the Committee at all. On your website I can see about 20 products that are all cotton, which I just searched under “cotton”, and yet you say to our Chair that you cannot state whether SHEIN is selling any products that are made in China that are made of cotton. I find tha…”

“Restricted visas: you were quick out of the gate to flag about the Seasonal Worker Scheme and, whether it is people working in the fields or people working in people’s houses, this is a high-risk area. How would you most like to see that scheme reformed?”