Speeches by Edwards.

“10. What progress she has made on implementing the waste crime action plan.”

“I really welcome the three-pronged strategy in the Government’s waste crime action plan—focused on prevention, enforcement and remediation—and I welcome the small number of recent and really significant illegal waste sites, which the Minister mentioned, that will be assessed for clearance. Will the Minister, however, o…”

“We heard earlier from the Minister, who described a sort of AI-driven data approach that you had pitched as part of your successful bid. To what extent are the problems that we are talking about in terms of the technical challenges coming from that AI-driven solution that you proposed?”

“I think we all agree that it is completely unacceptable that that has had to happen. When are you going to be able to recover that £12.5 million from Capita? Is it being given in stages? Is it at the end of the financial year? When will that cost be given back to the Government?”

“You do not have any real internal timeframes that you are working to try and meet for those cases and that we can understand as MPs—is it just as soon as you can?”

“On how you are prioritising your resources, how are you mitigating the risk that other services that you need to provide are not falling over in the meantime?”

“I have a final question. We heard that, despite the surge team and despite all the extra resources that the Government have had to give Capita so that it can attempt to improve its service, we still have cases where escalation mechanisms are not working, and still have a growing backlog. Especially given that you are e…”

“Thank you, everybody, for coming in. We talked a little bit about the surge team’s work; I think it is about 140 people who have been deployed by the Cabinet Office or the Government to address the failure of Capita’s performance and inability to administer the pension scheme to the standard that we and our constituent…”

“In terms of all the services that you are undertaking and have talked through this afternoon, which are most at risk of failing again?”

“That is to the end of the financial year, so until April 2027. Is that when you expect everything to be sorted, so people can go back to doing their day jobs, or do you expect that additional ongoing resources may be needed?”

“That is helpful to know, but, getting back to the surge capabilities, do you have capability within your current headcount in the Cabinet Office or elsewhere to increase that number of 140 people?”

“On the escalated cases, what is the SLA if you have an escalated case? Among my constituents, there is somebody suffering from cancer and somebody suffering real financial hardship, and they do not know how they are going to pay their bills. They have been telling me that it is a four-to-five standard waiting time for …”

“There is an issue around being able to track how much you are improving, particularly on those cases that are really material to people’s circumstances. If you are not setting a timeframe that within two weeks it will be dealt with—half of what non-urgent cases would be expecting—and measuring it, it becomes very diffi…”

“I thank the Minister for his comments about Grenfell. I welcome the legislation that the Government have introduced to lower the voting age to 16, and to make it easier for people to register to vote, but has he considered the benefits for increased participation in elections of adding a “none of the above” option on a…”

“Sownd Certification is the UK’s first accreditation for spaces that are audio-inclusive and comfortable for neurodivergent people, spaces such as Oscar Acoustics innovation centre in my constituency. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the benefits of incorporating measurable acoustic performance and audio-inclusivity…”

“T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.”

“7. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of acoustic design requirements for workplaces in the planning system.”

“Q3. Flexible and co-working spaces play an important role in regenerating town centres such as mine in Rochester and Strood. They bring more people to our high streets to spend money in our local shops and support our local economies. But recent case law has put that under threat, with Valuation Office Agency assessmen…”

“Q3. Flexible and co-working spaces play an important role in regenerating town centres such as mine in Rochester and Strood. They bring more people to our high streets to spend money in our local shops and support our local economies. But recent case law has put that under threat, with Valuation Office Agency assessmen…”

“What other remedies were you considering? You ended up going with the nuclear option, as it was described earlier—the JR.”