Speeches by Cane.

“Yes, I do. We heard at the beginning about the gentleman who is terminally ill and not yet receiving regular payments, and about some widows who are not receiving them. Why are they having to come up with the magic words to ask for a loan? Why don’t you automatically offer them a loan?”

“I am not suggesting there would be a policy, but it is a behaviour that has been found on lots of other KPIs.”

“Going back to an earlier question, are you worried about the risk that people may self-score? For instance, they might say, “Oh, it’s only a two, I won’t send it in.” If that happens, you lose your data collection.”

“So they would get feedback that they had influenced a positive change to the system?”

“When you talked about the scoring, I noticed that you started with two things that are very much about the complainant—the impact it has on them, and whether it is influenced by any protected characteristics—and yet you call it a public value model. Do you think that is a good name, or do you think it might imply that …”

“Could changing the criteria based on demand lead to a perception of unfairness? Is it right to say that, if I brought you a case now that was a score four you would look at it, but if I brought you the same case in six months’ time and you did not have the extra resource, then you would not?”

“You have talked about how you communicate with complainants. When a caseworker decides not to take a complaint forward, how much detail do they give the complainants as to how they arrived at the scoring?”

“You mention the new Independent Public Advocate. What role might they play, or is it too early to judge?”

“Why not?”

“So the referral method would need those bodies to come together of their own volition, as it were, and decide whereas, if it were going through the Select Committee, this Committee would probably invite the relevant bodies to come and give evidence. Their concerns would then be on the public record and then this Commit…”

“Would they recommend it to the Minister individually, or would they all have to agree to recommend it?”

“The Infected Blood Inquiry report recommends that if it appears to this Committee that there is sufficient concern to justify a public inquiry, we could recommend that there be one to an appropriate Minister. How impactful would that process be?”

“Whoever is deciding whether to have a public inquiry.”

“How do we get a mechanism that could judge that the bar of sufficient concern has been met?”

“If you do not think that that would be very impactful, what other mechanisms might be? I think you mentioned a referral method—how might that work?”

“This is perhaps a question mainly for Rosanna. There are often calls for a public inquiry and sometimes those are, frankly, more about pushing the item up the agenda, getting it heard and making sure that people are aware of the issue, so how would we put in place something that can actually tell the difference and ens…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) on securing this important debate. The delivery of quality rural healthcare has been neglected for too long. After years of chronic underfunding, and a pandemic from which many areas have not f…”

“They are being told, when they ring up, to try again in mid-to-late March.”

“Thank you. On the wonderful portal, I think you said there are 120,000 people who still could not access it because of a specific issue; how certain are you that it is just that number, and that it is just that issue? I got a lot of complaints early on, and I still have someone who cannot access it.”

“Okay. I must pick up on the idea that it will be the end of June when everything is dealt with, and the implication that people waiting for transfer values and information for divorces are less urgent. Actually, if you have changed jobs you have a limited period in which you can transfer your pension, so you need to un…”