Speeches by Murray.

“I welcome this Government’s focus on the urgency of the climate crisis, and I know that many climate activists in my constituency will as well, because the evidence is unequivocal: only sustained reductions in greenhouse gases will slow global warming and the only way to that it is to accelerate the transition to net z…”

“As the Home Secretary points out, we did not have small boat crossings 10 years ago, but we left the EU without incorporating a returns agreement into the withdrawal agreement. On a point of clarification, can the Home Secretary confirm that it is completely unprecedented for an EU country to allow returns from outwith…”

“Last summer was the hottest on record and this summer may be even hotter still. The world faces a climate crisis. To tackle that, we need to move fast to net zero, and Scotland’s energy sector will be crucial in this country’s achieving that. To do that, we need to encourage—not discourage—investment, and we cannot was…”

“Can I just come in on that point? I hear what you are saying there, but do you accept that your service provision has been very variable? You say you are a referral service, but you are not doing that in some situations. People who are victims of torture are referred to you and then do not get emails back for weeks. Th…”

“What is the management fee, sorry? Talk me through that. Caroline O’Connor: Within the contract, there is an element that is a set amount each month and that is only changed by indexation, regardless of the number of people in the system or transactions you undertake. The variable cost is for issues reported, advice an…”

“Yes, sorry. My final question is on the value of the contract over the course of it. One of the things that we are looking at here is that the asylum costs have gone up hugely throughout these contracts: they cost the taxpayer £2 million a day. The value of your contract has gone from £229 million to £385 million, I th…”

“Okay, but the quantitative measures you do miss quite frequently. Your KPI data was inadequate in 2021 and in 2022, and you were found to be consistently failing to answer phone calls within contractual timeframes, even when they were relaxed. Do you accept that you are failing on the quantitative measures? Caroline O’…”

“Thank you very much. What we are talking about here is possibly one of the most vulnerable groups you can get. These are people who are far from home in an unfamiliar environment. Potentially, a lot of them are proven to be refugees fleeing violence. Are you confident that your scaling up provided the necessary service…”

“Thank you very much. Can I just draw the Committee’s attention to my declaration of interest and the support that my office receives from RAMP? Thank you very much for coming in. The contract was set up in 2019 and a lot of things happened in the interim that were not anticipated. Could you talk about what those challe…”

“Your argument about the variability is that it is other people’s fault, not yours?”

“The hon. Gentleman and I have debated this issue a lot. I was not debating whether citizenship is a good or a bad thing—I fully believe it is a good thing. My point was that citizens do not get many more rights and entitlements in Britain today than people who are settled. We could have a wider debate about whether tha…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Ms Butler. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman) on securing this really important debate. Before we begin, I declare an interest: my office receives support from the Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project, or RAMP…”

“My final question is going back to the very beginning point about the spending review. There is a lot of new work for the Home Office here. Are you confident you have the resources to deliver on what we are committing to?”

“I can imagine, thank you.”

“Thank you. The issue is, as we move slowly, there are still victims out there being abused. It is not about survivors actually; it is about current victims.”

“The initial position was that we did not want a national inquiry. Then Louise Casey published her report yesterday and the position has changed to having a national inquiry. When you look at the timeline in this report of how many supposed interventions we have had in this country that have not led to action, my concer…”

“When we had Louise Casey in this morning, I asked her which of those 12 recommendations she thinks can be implemented swiftly, and when we bring Ministers back in six months’ time, they will be able to say, “Yes, we have implemented those.” She said all 12. Do you accept that?”

“Will you commit to coming back in six months and telling us that all 12 have been implemented?”

“Can I ask a question about this target of having violence against women and girls, which I obviously completely support? Is there not a paradox where as you put more effort into this, actually reporting will go up and more things will come? Do you accept that?”

“How do you plan to deal with that because it could have implications on public trust?”