Speeches by Taylor.

“The Iranian regime is abhorrent. It has oppressed its people for decades, murdering protesters and activists, and it is no friend of ours. Its attacks on civilian shipping risk a global crisis, yet Donald Trump’s escalation and the US’s poorly targeted attacks have put civilians and our friends in the Gulf at huge risk…”

“I visited Croydon Crown court a few weeks ago with the Bar Council and listened to some of its members. It was clearer than ever that the demands of jury trials are not what is leaving victims waiting years for justice. The real question is how we get the most urgent cases listed, prioritised and heard fast to deliver …”

“You spoke previously about deploying all the resources at your disposal to fix the mechanics—to fix the engine, as you have explained it—and then start to churn through the backlog. What is the size of the resource you have deployed: how many people is it, and how much does that cost?”

“If you want to get through the backlog, you put more people on it. You fix the engine. You have described it as a backlog problem. If you wanted to fix that, you could put more people on it, but that would cost you more.”

“I think we have asked this question already, and you declined to answer it, so can I request that you write to us and explain how much you expect it to cost in total to return the service to acceptable levels? When we are doing a post-mortem and looking at similar projects in future, there may be lessons learned that w…”

“We can see from the NAO Report that the number of staff deployed by MyCSP was previously somewhere in the region of 450 through to December 2024. Did you underestimate the resource it would require to administrate this? Is that fundamentally where you have fallen down, first with the engine not working and secondly by …”

“But the backlog will be fixed with surge teams—”

“May I take this opportunity to congratulate the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who last week took the decision to take her Department and herself off Twitter—or X, or whatever it is called these days? We talk about online misinformation and malign foreign influence, so it is worth remembering that Twi…”

“The report finds structural issues within police forces, with fragmented and inconsistent systems that do not make the most of our police talent. If an officer sees cronyism, nepotism and abuse of power around them, they will not have their future career at the top of their mind or trying to break through that system. …”

“Q10. On Monday, with colleagues, I wrote to the Health Minister following the news that women’s health and maternity services may be relocated away from St Helier hospital due to building safety concerns. Yesterday we heard Baroness Amos’s review state: “Poorly maintained buildings…affect how safe people feel, how effe…”

“In the infected blood inquiry, the Cabinet Office had oversight of the compensation authority and funding. Is it enough to address the concerns about independence and departmental conflicts of interest?”

“In a way. It is more about the fact that the centre of Government—the Cabinet Office—has that role and, I guess, the broader question of whether that approach of having central Government playing a bigger role in the oversight and funding of inquiries was effective. Could that be a model that is used more broadly in in…”

“Are there any downsides to this approach? Do you lose any skills or any particular relevant departmental knowledge by having that oversight come from the Cabinet Office?”

“I was contacted by a constituent who had received one of these letters earlier this week. The offender in question was a vile monster responsible for decades of sexual abuse, and he was sentenced to 30 years for 31 counts of sexual assault, rape and processing indecent images. He has served less than five years. Can th…”

“Do you see it as part of your role to actively check in on recruitment processes when they are not running to time, or is it about setting up the structures and having the right people in place to oversee those processes?”

“Thank you for joining us this morning in the heat. Coming from the private sector, you have probably got quite an insight into what barriers are stopping or impeding the best people taking up public appointments. What do you think some of those are?”

“Before we move on, what particular experience from your work in the private sector do you think would be helpful in this new role? What have you seen in the private sector that works well and that you can implement to try to attract better people and make sure that things are done in a timely way?”

“You speak about awareness, and we have acknowledged that that is one of the challenges. One of the other things that has been picked up is timeliness—the length of time that appointment processes take to complete. There is now an expectation that a process should be completed in three or four months. How would you addr…”

“On the first of those, about general awareness, what are some of the things that you can do in your role to make that a little more transparent, so that there is an appetite for people to engage in the process, feel that it is worth their time and believe there may well be a positive outcome at the end of it?”

“I was recently contacted by a constituent whose daughter was diagnosed with SMA type 1 at five months old and, in her own words, five months too late. Her child is now two and needs a wheelchair. She cannot sit or stand unaided. She depends on specialist equipment and multiple weekly visits and appointments. That is no…”