Speeches by Cane.

“By proactive, do you mean looking to take up things that are not necessarily related to an individual case?”

“Good morning. Thank you for being willing to take on what I agree is a really important role. Following on from some of the questioning so far, you are effectively taking over with an interim extra year on the corporate plan, and that is already under way. Do you think that the three strategic objectives in that are th…”

“As you know, it is a hybrid organisation that has two offices and there is also working from home. Where do you think that you are most likely to work most of the time?”

“How do you think you will split that, roughly?”

“Who do you think are the PHSO’s key stakeholders?”

“As you say, it is quite a wide range. How would you go about constructively engaging with them?”

“You touched on this with your answer, picking on the infected blood group. What other aspects of previous roles have equipped you to deal with this wide range of stakeholders?”

“The most recent survey showed that only 48% of people were satisfied with the service they had from the ombudsman. How do you plan to go about improving that perception?”

“Do you think that some of it might be to do with how the PHSO communicates with people?”

“Some, indeed many, of the people who use the services can feel let down. First, they feel let down by the organisation that they are complaining about, and then sometimes by the PHSO. I do not think that any of your previous roles have involved engaging with service users who might be vulnerable. How do you think you w…”

“Beyond training, how will you support and monitor to ensure that those vulnerable people are being served well?”

“Many of our hospitals are crumbling, but even those that appear sound may contain hidden dangers, notably asbestos. Last week I met a constituent who is suffering from mesothelioma, contracted from asbestos. He was very concerned that so many of our hospitals and other public buildings still have asbestos within them, …”

“T3. Cambridgeshire’s rural crime action team is successful, but it does not have the resources to be available 24/7. Indeed, it was not available during the recent hare coursing incursion into my constituency of Ely and East Cambridgeshire. What assessment has the Minister made of ensuring the 24/7 availability of rura…”

“The voter ID was introduced to tackle electoral fraud. What evidence is there that electoral fraud has been reduced?”

“I am pleased to hear about the initiatives around protecting candidates, but I am not entirely sure that they are directly relevant to trust in our politics. They are relevant to participation and they are important, but I am not sure that they are relevant to trust. What is concerning me is that, as you say, there are…”

“We know that at the last election a minimum of 16,000 people were excluded. The Electoral Commission tells us the figures are significantly higher because there are people who simply did not even try. And yet I think, if I am right in remembering, the number of charges for personation was 34. What are the criteria you …”

“You are looking at the impact on voters and whether or not they were able to vote, and it is good to hear that. However, I have not heard anything about the impact on electoral fraud—which was why it was introduced in the first place—and how that is being measured, and I have not heard what your criteria are for judgin…”

“There are no criteria that you have pre-set against which you are going to do these judgments?”

“In the Government’s response to the Commission’s report, you say that public trust has been undermined. Could you outline how it has been undermined and explain how significant a crisis it is for the UK’s political system?”

“What resource are you going to put into doing all those things, a lot of which people would say have been happening for some time? What resource are you going to put in to ensure that those things are happening and that it does improve trust?”