Speeches by Murray.

“What are you doing to increase the representation of women, particularly at senior levels in the Home Office?”

“Can I come back to the point about refugees moving on from hotel accommodation? By definition, if someone has moved on from Home Office accommodation, you have recognised that they are a refugee, and there will be vulnerabilities. They are often people with children or with adult social care needs for whom local author…”

“I have a very short question about visas. Some sectors are really affected by Home Office processing times and the requirement for visas. I am thinking particularly of the cultural sector, because I represent central Edinburgh—not only am I the MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, but I am the MP for the Edinburgh Fe…”

“Nothing on the creative sector? You have not done any analysis or engagement with the sector to understand—”

“I want to ask some questions about Border Security Command. Sir Matthew, I noticed you have said previously that it is more of a “convening power”—I think you used the phrase “controlling mind”—rather than operating operationally. What does that mean exactly? What is it actually doing just now? Can you quantify for us …”

“What real-time KPIs are you using to monitor how effective this work is? In the six months since it has been established, have you seen anything moving in those KPIs that has led you to adjust what Border Security Command is doing?”

“Can I also ask about consultancy work and the temporary workforce that you use? The Home Office spent half a billion pounds on its temporary workforce last year, which is roughly a sixth of your staffing budget. Do you think you are over-reliant on a temporary workforce?”

“I would like to move on briefly to e-visas. The Home Office is planning to introduce e-visas but has decided to push that back, which implies that you did not think you were ready for your initial date. How confident are you that, by 1 April, the system will be up and running without flaws?”

“Do we know how many people still need to set up their e-visa account? Do you know that number?”

“I want to ask about the national referral mechanism and devolved decision making for child trafficking cases. I should probably declare an interest: I worked on this before I was elected. It has been going on for four or five years now; what stage of evaluation is it at? Are you thinking about the implications of rolli…”

“I think it would not apply to those people, so absolutely, that is great. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority is being folded into the fair work agency under the Employment Rights Act, or Bill—I’m getting ahead of myself. Given that that organisation will have a huge number of responsibilities, including sick pa…”

“You have just talked about an enormous amount of stuff: Iraq, the western Balkans, France, the European Union, tracking illicit finance and working with the NCA. That is an enormous amount of work to do, and the scale of what you are talking about is massive—there were 36,000 crossings last year and 48 people died cros…”

“Don’t you think it is more than just a bit of an over-reliance? We have looked at Home Office consultancy on Northeye. The National Audit Office said that you put in place arrangements to oversee the work of contracted staff, and because you were given incorrect consultancy advice you had to pay £0.9 million extra. The…”

“Absolutely. My question was not driving at the principle of consultancy in general—I accept that on some occasions it is absolutely appropriate. I was driving more at the times when the Home Office is using temporary staff for consultancy and not getting what it wants for money. We have some clear examples that the Hom…”

“So you are comfortable with the level of performance management that is currently taking place, and you do not think there is a case for toughening that at all.”

“Thank you both for coming to the Committee again. I want to ask some questions about staffing. Sir Matthew, you have been permanent secretary for five years. Home Office spending is now 86% more than it was five years ago, and 53% more in real terms: it is £2.9 billion. However, in asylum support, resettlement and acco…”

“Okay, but why is asylum support, resettlement and accommodation going down against the grain of every other component?”

“So you are getting through the backlog so swiftly that you can take out basically 3,500 staff members?”

“My constituency has some of Britain’s most beautiful beaches, beloved by swimmers and the local community in Portobello and Joppa. Groups like the Porty Water Collective are fighting hard to protect the beaches from sewage overflows and sewage-related debris washing up on them. The UK Government are taking big, importa…”

“I thank the Minister for his unambiguous statement. I had a feeling that he was going to say something along those lines, because I read a similar unambiguous statement from the Home Office in this morning’s newspapers. Therefore, I do not understand how the shadow Home Secretary has struggled to follow the Government’…”