Speeches by Hatton.

“It is on this subject, but to move it forward. As Paul has very eloquently put forward, the previous report by this Committee looked at the poor management of large accommodation sites, which led to unacceptable levels of waste of public money. The recommendations in that report were accepted, so I have some simple que…”

“With that in mind, can you reassure the Committee that large accommodation sites will not be procured before that engagement with stakeholders takes place? Otherwise, we will have incidents like HMP Northeye, where the building was riddled with asbestos, or the Bibby Stockholm barge, where the infrastructure of the bar…”

“Finally on that point, can you make it clear to the Committee what measures the Home Office is taking to engage with a much broader range of stakeholders, so that some of the failures of the past on safeguarding, health and fire risks are not repeated? Again, those were mistakes we saw in the case of the Bibby Stockhol…”

“My concern there, Simon, is that, as the previous Public Accounts Committee Report said, there was a culture where things moved very quickly, key controls and processes were abandoned, and therefore value for the taxpayer was not paramount. It sounds as if that culture has not changed.”

“Where we have come from was the idea of the limited engagement tactics. Again, without trying to sound like a broken record, I return to the example of the Bibby Stockholm barge in my constituency, where those tactics were in play. We saw an almost immediate breakdown of relations between the Home Office, Dorset counci…”

“You do accept, Simon, the delay in the implementation of the recommendations put forward by this Committee?”

“But the NAO and this Committee found that it was more expensive than other forms of accommodation, so I do not know how it could be successful.”

“To build on the points just made by the Chair, in 2023 this Committee recommended that the Home Office move to much more meaningful engagement with local councils, so that they have a say in the use of accommodation in their areas. My understanding is that doing that—implementing the Committee’s recommendation—has been…”

“Not quite: it was evacuated because it was a serious fire risk and legionella was detected on board.”

“I don’t think I would use the word “successful”. I would say it was a complete waste of public money.”

“There has been an NAO Report that looked at this, and it showed that large sites proved to be more expensive per head than hotels. Surely that is now influencing your thinking and the work you do.”

“Yes.”

“You can understand, and this is my final point on this, my concern and the concern of many other members of this Committee that, when you have pursued large accommodation sites—such as the £15.4 million spend at Northeye in Bexhill-on-Sea, and the £34.8 million squandered on the Bibby Stockholm barge—the litany of mist…”

“On that point about engagement with local councils, how has there been a significant improvement in ways of working from where we were perhaps two or three years ago?”

“Have you sold it?”

“Okay. Finally—this might be one for Josh, as well as Simon—can you outline in a bit more detail how we are going to increase the supply of dispersed accommodation to include local councils? That way, they can start to make the right kinds of decisions about their spending, so that they are not just looking for quick fi…”

“A rush to move on is not very reassuring.”

“Secondly, another large accommodation site that we spent some time looking at in that previous Public Accounts Committee report was the Bibby Stockholm barge. Some £34.8 million was spent running that barge. Can you offer cast-iron guarantees to my constituents, who have had to put up with that barge, that the industri…”

“So you do not think that those mistakes will be repeated.”

“I have been campaigning to restore the rheumatology clinic at Swanage community hospital and the chemotherapy clinic at Wareham community hospital. Both of those clinics were closed despite good health outcomes and high levels of patient satisfaction, and local NHS bosses agreed that they were successful clinics before…”