Speeches by Benn.

“I do not think that is a fair characterisation at all of what the Government have been doing. I set out in answer to the first question put to me today the steps the Government have taken to assist in terms of resources. But nothing—nothing—takes away from the responsibility that the Northern Ireland Executive have wit…”

“The 40% of time when the Executive has not been functioning guarantees that there will be no progress on what we have been discussing for the last 10 minutes. That is very clear indeed. Notwithstanding the challenges of operating a mandatory power-sharing system, in the end this is about political choices that the Exec…”

“There is always co-operation, because the key to being successful in countering terrorist and criminal threats, organised crime groups and paramilitarism is that all of the agencies have a part to play—all of them work together and exchange information so that they can be the most effective in trying to deal with all o…”

“In my recent meetings with party leaders, including you, reform was one thing that we talked about. The point I am making is that, first, periods with no Executive mean that these questions are absolutely not going to be addressed; they will be left untouched. In my view there is absolutely no reason why, even with the…”

“It is not really going to impact the way in which the PSNI operates. It is bringing together functions in a new body to more effectively deal with the challenges that policing faces right across the country, but it will not impact the way in which the PSNI, security agencies and others deal with the terrorist threat in…”

“To look at the books relating to all areas of Northern Ireland Executive expenditure.”

“She will report in August, and then the two Governments will have to consider that when we know what she has reported on and what recommendations she has brought forward—I will look at those extremely seriously.”

“There have indeed been discussions, and I have discussed it on a number of occasions when all those concerned with security and reducing harm to the public meet together in Northern Ireland. The Justice Minister and I rotate the chairing of that. The Government have found £8 million to fund the last year of the EPPOC p…”

“It is Treasury officials.”

“I was going to come on to make that point. I do accept that point. There is a need to ensure that officers in Northern Ireland are armed because of the nature of the historic threat and the fact that there are still those who would wish to do them very serious harm. The fact that it is now three years since there was l…”

“Perhaps I could take this opportunity to praise the courage, dedication and service of those who serve in the PSNI. I have had the privilege of meeting a number of officers, sadly mainly in circumstances where they have been on the receiving end of petrol bombs, or sticks and stones in dealing with some of the disorder…”

“It is getting money for counter-terrorism, but it comes via a different route, which is the additional security funding.”

“I am right.”

“As I was trying to explain to the Committee, it is not a budget allocation. There are two separate things here. There is the budget, which is set in the spending reviews and the figures are published, and what is called the cash requirement, which is the money that is actually transferred to the account. Someone listen…”

“Absolutely.”

“But it comes out at around £19 per head.”

“I hope my maths was right—I did the calculation the other day, where I took the £37.8 million and divided it by the population of Northern Ireland, and I took the £1.2 billion and divided it by the population of England and Wales, and the funding per head came out as basically the same.”

“If I may add one point, there is an example of the issue you alluded to at the beginning of your question, Ms Eastwood, about the different Government Departments. The report by the inquiry on how covid was dealt with and what Lady Justice Hallett had to say had lessons for all parts of the United Kingdom—all. But I th…”

“I think it is covered by the ASF.”

“Is that the £1.2 billion?”