Speeches by Murray.

“Can I just be clear about what you mean by local? Do you mean the contractors in the hotels, so Serco, Mears or Clearsprings staff?”

“On this equity point, you seem to be saying that the contractors are pursuing the cheapest accommodation they can get and that is leading to distortions. On the other hand, the cost has risen from £18,000 per asylum seeker per year to £41,000 last year. How do you square those two facts, because the costs have utterly …”

“You have talked about vast variability across the asylum system. There are only three accommodation providers. Would you comment on which one you have seen as most effective at safeguarding, or if you see particular problems in particular regions or types of hotels? Do you want to comment on that?”

“As in?”

“I want to focus on safeguarding, not just for children but for the whole asylum population. You have talked a lot about the evidence of very poor safeguarding in hotels as well as about some times when it is effective. How do you explain why you sometimes get good safeguarding but you mainly get poor safeguarding in as…”

“I want to ask a question about when a decision on someone’s case has been made and they have been granted refugee status. Obviously, a lot of these are single men. First of all, the Home Office has extended the move-on period, and I wonder what your views are on that. Secondly, what is the impact on your homelessness p…”

“That is in the eastern region?”

“As we have heard, when Alexis Jay came to the Home Affairs Committee, she told how she had pushed and pushed for the implementation of her long and wide-ranging report, but heard nothing back from the previous Government. I welcome today’s urgent question, because this issue requires an urgency that we did not see from…”

“I put on record my complete sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the Horizon scandal, which is one of the biggest injustices in modern British history. I was extremely concerned in November to hear that Edinburgh City Crown post office, based in the Waverley station complex—the centre of Scotland’s capital—was t…”

“When Alexis Jay appeared before the Home Affairs Committee earlier this year, she was clear that at no point in seven years, under seven Conservative Home Secretaries, did anyone say that her inquiry was either too broad or too narrow, and nobody suggested to her that there needed to be further inquiries beyond what sh…”

“What has happened to our two amazing colleagues —my hon. Friends—is appalling, but it is part of a pattern of behaviour from Israel of disdain for diplomatic relations with allies, disdain for democratic norms and disdain for human life. Does my hon. Friend agree that this pattern is worrying, and will he corresponding…”

“That was going to be my follow-up question, so well done. I am being obvious today.”

“What you have said is really interesting. I have one final question. You say that one of the learnings was that it was people not particularly high in the hierarchy who just refused to tolerate the levels of abuse that they were seeing, and acted. We want to empower them. Do you think imposing a duty to report and a du…”

“Looking again back at Telford, beyond the compulsion of witnesses to give evidence, do you see any value that a duty of candour could have brought in, bearing in mind that a duty of candour is not just a duty to report, but a duty to act?”

“One other proposal that has come out that the Government are planning to legislate on is a duty of candour. This is obviously from Hillsborough, so it is from a different kind of background, but it will have huge implications here. We know from all the evidence in recent years on child sexual exploitation that institut…”

“And to the Chair’s question: retrospectively, do you think these things would have made a difference in Telford had they been in place at the time?”

“One criticism that has come out is that it does not carry a criminal sanction if you fail in your duty, but it will show up on your DBS checks for future jobs around children and vulnerable people. Do you think that is the right level to set the sanction for failure because it would take those people out of the system …”

“You are pre-empting my question there a little. Let me get to the end of it. There is an announcement of making it a statutory aggravating factor. There is also a statutory duty to report child abuse. Obviously, reporting of child abuse is already encouraged. There are a whole host of measures around reducing violence …”

“What would you ask? What if they say to you, “We’re interested in your opinion about how we should take this forward.”?”

“Are there any considerations that you think the audit should cover?”