Speeches by Anderson.

“I, too, reference my registered interests: my visit to COP28, and my visit last week to Copenhagen to study green heating systems, which is very relevant to the answer that you just gave—I saw what can be done. I will ask a question about finance regulation, but first I will ask Clement a question about aid cuts. On th…”

“How important are water, sanitation and hygiene in this, as one of the places where it joins? Does that come out in conversations enough?”

“I agree; health is really important and not talked about enough. Relating that to what you were saying earlier about the power of the missions that we have and the work that the FCDO can do on this, how joined-up do you think the FCDO is in this regard? How strong is their health team? For example, with their water, sa…”

“Professor Watts, I have some more questions about health. You mentioned the Belém health action plan. What is Wellcome doing to engage on that? Is it lobbying at national level? Is it in developing countries? Is it working with the FCDO? How are you working on that, and what do you hope to see as a result?”

“I, too, reference my registered interests: my visit to COP28, and my visit last week to Copenhagen to study green heating systems, which is very relevant to the answer that you just gave—I saw what can be done. I will ask a question about finance regulation, but first I will ask Clement a question about aid cuts. On th…”

“There is a climate crisis and a debt crisis. Are they brought together at all? Or do they happen separately and are only brought together in country budgets, when people say, “We would like to do all this adaptation financing, but we can’t because we have the debt crisis”? Do you see COP30 as somewhere where those conv…”

“Clement, is the UK’s governance of the finance sector on climate and nature and the mandatory transition plans more important than aid?”

“Can I ask one more question?”

“In the first part of the question, you listed some places where projects are being cut. Climate and nature is meant to be one of the priorities being kept, even though other parts are being reduced. Is that what you are seeing on the ground or do you think projects are being cut?”

“How important are water, sanitation and hygiene in this, as one of the places where it joins? Does that come out in conversations enough?”

“We agree with you as a Committee that our thoughts are with the Epstein victims in all of this, as the background. Sir Olly, could you set out the normal process that the FCDO uses to appoint an ambassador?”

“The question that could be asked in the panel interviews, and that would be asked in vetting, is: “Is there anything that you know of in your background that would bring the Government into disrepute?” Would that be asked in the interview panel, or would it be saved for the vetting or the due diligence process?”

“In general, in which part of those processes would the personal associations come up?”

“So in that detailed interview—and in the one with the referees as well, I presume. That could be where it came out, too.”

“But in general.”

“In general, what is the end product of all that vetting? Does it all get put into one report? Who receives that report?”

“Is that decision taken by Sir Olly or by you? As you hand over the report, do you have the recommendation, and then Sir Olly says yes?”

“It is hard, having read the new document, to see what the changes are because I have not read the old document, but there is a process in here for a fireside chat. In a direct ministerial appointment in tier 1, if at a certain stage concerns are raised, there is the provision that “In reaching a decision, the Minister,…”

“Did the fireside chat part of it come up in Lord Mandelson’s appointment, and if it did, what part did it happen in?”

“I think we can all conclude that the system failed, so we are now trying to look at whether we can trust the system in future, considering the changes and what went wrong along the way. The part of the system I want to look at, one last time, is the part between the appointment and starting work, and then everything be…”