Speeches by Kane.

“Rosie or Will, what do you think has caused the local audit crisis?”

“This is a question for the permanent secretary. The disclaimer on the accounts puts a question mark over the value of them in the mind of non-accountants, so straightaway you have a perception problem with regard to the disclaimer. Could you give us your views on what this criticism does to the value of the Whole of Go…”

“No, you cannot give us a cast-iron guarantee, and I do not think we would ask for a cast-iron guarantee. We are trying to get an assurance. Language is important for assurance, but I do take the point that you cannot give a cast-iron guarantee.”

“It is the word “hope” that causes the issue.”

“Okay. I think that in last year’s Committee appearance, permanent secretary, the Chair talked about the difference between hope and surety. Is your opinion that we are still hopeful that we are going to do this? Or do you have that assurance that you think we are now beyond that and we are better than hope—we actually …”

“So the forecasting of how long you will need this additional funding in your forward planning are the same as what you are telling us.”

“I remember that in my time in local government, in respect of the prudent approach, it was always politicians who tried to be the least prudent, and then it was officers and then the accountants. The accountants are always the ones who are most prudent. In terms of your financial forecasting as a Department for how lon…”

“Until you fix it, will it be that more moneys are required to help with the audit fees?”

“The Chair has just given you feedback, which leads me on to my next question. All MPs could probably give you feedback. You may want to write to us on this, rather than go into depth just now, but I am keen to understand how you are continuing to engage with MPs to get their feedback. Accountants tend to speak a very s…”

“I remember my postgraduate business course at the University of Stirling, where we did an accountancy module. I always recall my lecturer saying, “I’ve got you for 10 weeks. I can’t teach you how to do accounts, but I can teach you how to ask your accountant questions.” That has always stuck with me, because this is an…”

“Are you confident we are going to fix it?”

“Does the Minister agree that alongside the triple lock, the most important thing for women pensioners in Scotland is fixing our NHS, and that the SNP Government must act urgently to ensure that vulnerable Scots do not face what even the SNP Health Secretary has described as unacceptable waits for treatment?”

“I want to move on to the user experience of chargepoints, and improving that experience, with specific reference to the work that you have already done to identify some of the problems and put in place regulations to address them, which is welcome. Now you have them, how will you make sure that they are working as you …”

“Somebody might have reversed a van too close to a chargepoint, or somebody might have put something in the road. We all hear stories of wheelchair users having experiences that we are horrified by. Enforcing probably needs an even clearer lens. I just seek assurance that I am unlikely to read again of a foreseeable pro…”

“Can I go into the geographic spread a little bit, please? A well-functioning network will need charging points spread out everywhere, so across the UK and within the regions of the UK—it is not just regional spread; it is within the regions themselves. I think you started to touch on this when Nesil asked a question ea…”

“I am the MP for Stirling, so I am going to talk about Scotland, although I know we are here more to talk about England. When I look at figure 4 in the Report and see the figure for Scotland of 103 per 100,000, I know that in my constituency it is 208 per 100,000, and that there is a massive range within that figure. Wh…”

“In terms of the number of 300,000 or greater, you are going to have to determine what is a suitable number of chargepoints for rural areas, to give that confidence in the network. You could quite easily achieve the 300,000 in the London area alone, if you were going by areas of early adoption. You could get to the poin…”

“In my local authority, the chap who does this is David Hopper, and he is really on top of his brief, but not all local authorities are created equal, so how will you ensure that they have the wherewithal to push this out on an even spread? I imagine—and I can see this from looking at the different numbers per 100,000 i…”

“I notice when I look at this from an English perspective, as a Scottish MP, that the approach taken in England is different from the approach taken in Scotland. I say with a wry smile that the problems and challenges that come from our constituents seem very similar, regardless of the approach. What are you learning fr…”

“I will interrupt, because when you say “Scotland”, you almost certainly mean the A9 or the corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is a problem I see when I look at the map. I am learning this from a regional perspective in England: the areas you are talking about are so big that sometimes it masks variations within…”