Speeches by Tufnell.

“Is there a power in this country that you feel you have to adhere to? You dispute the judges; you do not take seriously what the Prime Minister says; you do not take seriously what the Secretary of State says. You seem to hold Parliament— What power in this country do you feel that you, as a company, can adhere to?”

“The DWI recommended better response systems in respect of your control rooms in 2018, 2022 and 2023, but even in April ’24 you still had not taken up any of those recommendations.”

“The DWI recommended better response systems in respect of your control rooms in 2018, 2022 and 2023, but even in April ’24 you still had not taken up any of those recommendations.”

“Hold on a second, because you say that, but in the report you talk about gaps in operation. This is not just a gap, is it? You are not doing over half of what you are meant to be doing.”

“I will start with the maintenance and monitoring. Mr Hinton, you gave an answer to my colleague just now about the need for more advanced problem solving, but what is striking when you look at the DWI report is about the basics. It sets out that routine maintenance was just not being undertaken. Seven of 13 scheduled s…”

“It is quite concerning because, Mr Train, I think you have set out in correspondence that this is in line with industry standards in terms of staffing—”

“This was in terms of your response systems.”

“Let us talk about being asleep at the wheel, shall we? The DWI set out what you were doing in the control room. It is only manned Monday to Friday during the day, and there is no one there otherwise to monitor issues and nothing to see the emerging problems. Do you not think that is being asleep at the wheel?”

“You have touched on risk, and in your reports there was no structured mechanism for how to capture or escalate risks from the operators during site interviews, so that presumably was incredibly concerning to you?”

“But it is flagged in your own report that you have got a reactive and distinctive approach to safety; so it is not part of your—”

“You did not do a jar testing until 28 November.”

“You told the Chair that you have been in post since 2022, and obviously your role is to hold the executive to account. Are you concerned that safety was not one of the company’s values, or is not one of the company’s values?”

“You talk about risk, and the regulator is there to manage that risk and hold you to account. The DWI found that you did not carry out any jar testing in October, despite there being a requirement under regulatory notice to do so, and that the original coagulant should have worked had the optimisation process been follo…”

“The reason why I am pushing this point is that the report talks about groupthink. As the chair and non-executive directors, it is your responsibility to guard against that; it is concerning that you do not seem to be doing your job properly.”

“But it is flagged in your own report that you have got a reactive and distinctive approach to safety; so it is not part of your—”

“In terms of the culture of the organisation that you oversee, and the scrutiny and accountability, are you not concerned that you have been in post for over two years and you have never thought that maybe safety should be part of the organisational thinking?”

“But it is not, in your report.”

“Is there a power in this country that you feel you have to adhere to? You dispute the judges; you do not take seriously what the Prime Minister says; you do not take seriously what the Secretary of State says. You seem to hold Parliament— What power in this country do you feel that you, as a company, can adhere to?”

“The report says that on-site visits and interviews were observed where best practice was not implemented. So why were you learning from best practice with Severn Trent, but not doing that internally?”

““Nothing to see here, guv; it’s all fine.””