Speeches by Kirkham.

“If it turns out that it is not published frequently, would you commit to publishing it more frequently so people can have access to that data?”

“So you could say at any one time, but do you know how frequently that is published?”

“Thank you very much. We had some figures given to us from the BBC from DEFRA, which said, “Over 1.78 million birds have been culled since 5 November 2024.” How frequently do you publish data about the number of birds being culled as a result of avian flu?”

“If it turns out that it is not published frequently, would you commit to publishing it more frequently so people can have access to that data?”

“Just very quickly, what is the status of avian flu in the UK?”

“We understood from earlier evidence that the Port Health Authorities at the border has been physically making those border checks, but it is only there for a few hours a day. The border control police has been there all the time, but of course it has a whole array of things that it needs to check for. Do you think that…”

“Have they specifically been looking at the reporting of incidents?”

“How many times have they been to do that specifically?”

“I wanted to move on to the Windermere events. I understand that there have been a number of spills into Windermere. We have talked a little bit about the release of information. I wanted to talk about the response. One of the BBC investigations said that the incident in February 2024 was not reported to the EA until 13…”

“There is a history of spills into Windermere, is there not? This was only last year, and it had happened in previous years, so why have lessons not been learned? This is a recurring problem.”

“Yes, but you can see why there might be an issue with trust, because releasing sewage into Windermere is something that has happened historically, and it looks, from the ICO investigation, like it has been covered up. You can understand how much more work than ever you would need to do to convince people that you have …”

“I am just trying to get my head around this. Trimpley was set up and then bought by the water company. Essentially, you are given an IOU for £3 billion. You said that the ODIs were not drawn down. Is that £3 billion real? Is there any money in this company? What is that £3 billion?”

“It is probably me.”

“So it is not really £3 billion.”

“We have not heard this before.”

“It is more that there is money in that pot that seems to have been used to pay dividends that could not have been paid.”

“I am just trying to understand something. When you look at the £3.2 million in the round and you think about the fact that water is a monopoly, that it used to be a public sector job and that the Prime Minister gets £167,000 or whatever he gets, it looks incredible. Are you saying that only 25% of your salary is for yo…”

“I am sorry, not South West Water. I am back in yesterday.”

“I am back in Cornwall. Sorry about that.”

“How often does the EA come and do audits on whether the reporting is correct or whether it is looking at the right things?”