Speeches by Murray.

“Are you saying that, up until now, nobody at DG level was held accountable for asylum accommodation in hotels?”

“There were no metrics that they were being judged on? That has not happened until now?”

“I will allow you one.”

“Do you think restructuring the senior team is sufficient to address the challenges?”

“Going back to the one in, one out deal very briefly for one second, one of my concerns is that two of the big interventions that we need to crack the small boats issue are the maritime law change in France and the one in, one out deal being scaled up. There are obviously political challenges in France at the moment. Ho…”

“Thank you, and thank you all for coming in. The Home Secretary has said that “The Home Office is not yet fit for purpose, and has been set up for failure.” Why do you think she said that? Do you agree? What are the drivers of the dysfunction that she has identified?”

“I want to ask a bit about the new announcements on asylum accommodation and the move to large sites. A couple of years ago, the Home Office tried large sites and the National Audit Office’s report into it was utterly damning. It was a catastrophic failure of public procurement. How are you going to ensure that you do n…”

“Could you explain the structures in slightly more detail?”

“That is good, thank you. I want to come on to the hotel accommodation contracts with the three providers. You will have seen our report that the break clause is coming up next year. What is the current thinking in senior levels at the Home Office on the break clause?”

“When it was Northeye and Bibby Stockholm—the name of the other one has slipped my mind—civil servants did not ask for ministerial direction to go ahead with it. The Public Accounts Committee inquiry looked into why that was. Will you now be asking for ministerial direction for the large sites? Are you anticipating doin…”

“Depending on the outcome of that, you would or would not ask for ministerial direction?”

“Do you think it is possible to come out of hotels in the current contract structure? The problem is that subprime contracting has led you into these hotels. Is it possible to exit them and stay in the contract?”

“That is really positive to hear. If Ministers are of a view that they should exit these contracts, is the Home Office in a position to deliver that and put in place alternative provision of asylum accommodation from the moment the break clause comes into force?”

“The subtext of my question and what I am trying to drive at is how real is the break clause? It is written in a contract but if a Minister asks you to trigger it, will you say that it is not possible to put in place an alternative set of arrangements? You are locked into it unless you want an absolutely catastrophic al…”

“I just want to come in on profit clawbacks from the asylum accommodation providers. When they came to see us a couple of months ago, you had not clawed back any of the money from them. I understand that £74 million in excess profits has now been clawed back, which is more than the £45 million we thought they owed you, …”

“Is that going to be fixed by e-gates, ID and things like that?”

“As the representative of central Edinburgh, I can tell you that we have a growing population from bits of Scotland, the UK and internationally—that bears out in my experience. I want to pick up on Joani’s point about the different levers that Government have to reduce migration. You said that net migration should proba…”

“You touched on that point about seasonal workers versus investment in technology, machinery, fields and stuff. More broadly, what is your view on how migration—seasonal migration, but also general migration—has affected the UK’s productivity challenge? I know that is a huge question.”

“That brings me to my next question. Do you agree with the OBR’s methodology of just treating migrants all the same?”

“No, I have a final question, so let us save that time for the last one. What should we as a Committee be thinking about as we scrutinise Ministers on that?”