Speeches by Mullane.

“My final question is on the importance of safeguards when they start rolling this out. I was quite alarmed by what you said earlier about the Home Office not really answering. If they are not responding to what is already going wrong, do you think we can be confident that, when they roll this out, they will put the nec…”

“You have painted a picture, which I find personally quite worrying, of holding meetings and forums. I am not knocking what you are doing—I think it is really good that you are holding the forums and trying to sort these problems out—but the scale of it feels huge, and I find it quite worrying that the Home Office does …”

“You have both painted a very good picture of what is wrong and the impact on people trying to navigate their way around the system and use it. What do you think the impact is on employers? You spoke about a woman in a high-powered role at a bank being let go. What other impacts are there on employers?”

“Are the Government possibly thinking that the planned contribution system might help with integration, social cohesion and being a part of the community in the areas you live in? Is it embedded into that?”

“Do any other members of the panel have thoughts on the fairness of it being retrospective?”

“We had a trade union day where care workers were invited in to meet MPs, and what came over very strongly was that many care workers are sponsored. If you have a rogue employer, to put it mildly, they more or less say to care workers, “Well, if you don’t like it, go.” Putting aside the sense of fairness, a lot of care …”

“Finally, do you think some transitional protections should be put in place, and if you do, for whom and for how long?”

“Do you think any groups will be particularly disadvantaged?”

“I am the Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham, and since this measure was announced, my inbox has been full. Nicolas, is it usual for the Home Office to make changes of this kind to an existing immigration route? In the emails that have been coming in, the sense of fairness is the big issue. Do you think it is…”

“You fund the 28 areas at greatest risk. Is that monitored? Touching on what Dame Sara said in her evidence earlier about social cohesion, are you monitoring that in those 28 greatest at-risk areas?”

“Minister, the Committee had a visit to the National Crime Agency. As you were saying, they are doing outstanding work. What really struck us that day was the sheer scale and complexity of what they are dealing with online that would not meet the Prevent criteria. We spoke a lot about Prevent earlier, but, as the Chair …”

“It is acknowledged that this is something that Prevent cannot do because it is doing enough, so we do not want to go back over Prevent. I won’t share with you what we spoke about, but very loosely, a lot of the behaviour and what was happening was absolutely terrifying— there were safeguarding issues, safety issues and…”

“What about France and other parts of Europe? You do not see any—”

“Apart from anything you have mentioned, are there any other models of co-operation that you think would help us?”

“We have had a presentation, and we were told the one-in, one-out deal with France was a trial to see how it goes. What level of returns do you think are going to be needed to have the massive deterrent effect people are hoping for?”

“Could I ask you a question as the non-politicians in the room? One of you mentioned that the public are obviously not happy with the boats. That is rolling on, and they are all a bit baffled. Do you think the decision to consider this policy is a result of the boats, and do you think it would be successful?”

“Today, as this House continues to debate last week’s Labour Budget, we turn a spotlight on investment and renewal. Thankfully, we have moved on since the Liz Truss Budget—we are no longer talking about growing pies. This Labour Government are in the business of growing the economy, which has gone up by 1.5% this year, …”

“Okay. Simon Foster, as an outsider to the SAG, do you have confidence after listening to this today that SAGs are free of political influence?”

“Did the SAG put pressure on you to exclude them? Would you say that is a fair question?”

“The Chair just alluded to, and you answered the question about, who was there—councillors; MPs—who you would speak to, and that kind of thing. How would you know that there was not pressure?”