Speeches by Tufnell.

“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?”

“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?”

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

“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—”

“Part of understanding what maintenance needs to be done is that you have to monitor what is happening in the first place. The DWI also set out that there was not enough monitoring going on at the Pembury works, particularly around optimising that coagulation process. There was no continuous temperature monitoring, and …”

“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—”

“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?”

“Your own report says that you do not.”

“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?”

“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…”

“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.”

“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—”

“Part of understanding what maintenance needs to be done is that you have to monitor what is happening in the first place. The DWI also set out that there was not enough monitoring going on at the Pembury works, particularly around optimising that coagulation process. There was no continuous temperature monitoring, and …”

“But it is not, in your report.”

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

“But it is not, in your report.”

“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.”

“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?”

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