Speeches by Phillips.

“Me personally, when was the last conversation? I met with the Secretary of State for Education—”

“No. The response is the same response that the previous Government gave to that recommendation: the Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet Minister for Children.”

“With the Department for Education on IICSA?”

“A lot.”

“Yes.”

“We have pots of money that work together, for example, the DAPOs, where we run something together. Other than Government Departments giving part of their budget to somebody else to get it out of the door, which I will take; if any Government Departments want to give me any of their money, I will have it.”

“The Home Office will collect the data and some will be based on data that can already be collected. What we have been doing in the last 10 months is an analytical sprint on exactly what data already exists and what data might need to be collected without treading on the toes of the strategy. It is work that has gone in…”

“No. I was chomping at the bit when the previous panel was speaking.”

“That is totally fine.”

“I am not normally an evasive sort but as the Chair referred to in the previous evidence session—and bearing in mind our CSR was last week, although it seems like years ago—we are due to publish our violence against women and girls strategy before the summer, and I find myself in the uncomfortable position of potentiall…”

“Yes, sorry. I do not want to lie.”

“That is good. I do not like to be evasive. My main problem in this role is always, am I allowed to say something?”

“I feel like I might say this quite a lot. Obviously, much of what you are undertaking is based on the work of the NAO, and obviously it is very easy for me to say, “Because this is not under my watch,” which is the first thing I would say. It is quite difficult for me to comment on the underspend that you are referring…”

“We are not talking about G4S; we are talking about organisations that sometimes have 20 people who work there, and the person who was doing the role might go on maternity leave. The spending of money in this particular space will have some flex in it. Personally, I would always seek to have as little underspend as is h…”

“Do you have a particular recommendation?”

“Probably more than they would like. I am only joking. Quite a lot. Gisela’s phrasing was that there was a lot of change last year. Obviously, the big change was there was an election, and so getting to grips over the last year of exactly what money goes out of the door and the detail of doing zero-based reviews as requ…”

“Yes. I get regular updates, and obviously in the writing of the violence against women and girls strategy, that detail is for ever present in my mind.”

“Nobody would deny that I will always want more money. Every single Government Department will always want more money than it gets. Maybe Defence is having a good week, but I am sure it would say the same. What effect do I think it will have? Fundamentally, I would say the Home Office has a focus on violence against wom…”

“Yes, I totally accept that.”

“I totally accept that, and if you take the example of Operation Soteria, which was being spoken about in the previous evidence session, Clare is saying that it has increased by 43%. The incidences of rape in that community has not increased; we have just found it. Of course, in any data, I expect to see increases in re…”