Speeches by Kohler.

“Let me begin by laying my cards on the table. I am, of course, a liberal and have always supported the right of individuals to choose freely when they want to end their life. I have no religious or philosophical objection to assisted dying, and when the debate on the Bill began, I assumed I would vote in favour of it. …”

“This is the last one; I will.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Giving people a choice when they look on the internet and see how awful their death might be because of the shocking state of palliative care is not a free choice. This is an extraordinary Bill. It has 55 clauses and 38 regulation-making powers, of which five are Henry VIII …”

“I thank the Secretary of State for her speech, and congratulate the Aviation Minister on the Bill. The challenge facing the aviation sector—as with our entire economy—is decarbonisation. Reaching net zero by 2050 is essential, and given the scale of the scientific and technical challenge, it is clear that decarbonising…”

“You said non-performance issues?”

“Thank you for coming. I want to look at the costs of asylum accommodation. Hotels cost 76% of the accommodation costs. We need to cut down on those costs. Sharing rooms is one way of cutting down on the costs. I note that in the House, the Home Secretary, when she was Chair of this Committee, criticised the sharing of …”

“I am not asking for figures.”

“Not divided by cost? It is not a percentage? According to the National Audit Office it is profit divided by cost, and that is important. You are saying it is profit minus cost. Are we talking about cash profits that trigger it, or percentages of profit over cost?”

“It is based on profit over cost. That is the calculation, is it?”

“Are these profit share clauses still based on mark-up exceeding a percentage? Profit divided by cost; is that how they are—”

“You were not there, though, when these invoices were paid. Mr Ridley, do you know why the Home Office processes were not working?”

“Given you were not there at the time—”

“I will come back to Stay Belvedere.”

“I am going to ask about Stay Belvedere later.”

“No; I am addressing that to the Home Office. My last question involves Clearsprings. Before I ask it I want to declare an interest, as I have done previously. I refer participants to my register of interests as one of my donors, Safwan Adam, has an interest in Stay Belvedere Hotels, which is of course a subcontractor o…”

“That is true, although benchmarking still could have been done, in my view, but I have heard your answer—”

“These contracts have been in existence for a number of years. Why have you not used the used the power to benchmark? Why have you not done that? You are going to in the future, so why?”

“The Home Office has a contractual right to benchmark the service. We understand from the National Audit Office that benchmarking has not occurred. Why not? Why have you not benchmarked it against comparators as you can under the contract?”

“Why is that a slow process? Why can that not just be done? Why does that take a while? Why can you just not say that every room that can be shared will be shared?”

“So, without capturing the data, you are confident that the suppliers of accommodation are maximising the efficiency of these rooms?”