Speeches by Lamb.

“The premise of individual ministerial responsibility is that Ministers are responsible for everything that happens in their Department, regardless of whether or not they are directly involved.”

“So the convention that Ministers are not only responsible for their own actions but those undertaken by those underneath them in the structure no longer remains a part of the UK constitution?”

“There may be the odd example. They stand out as outliers for precisely that reason. This is still viewed as being a basic part of a ministerial role in our constitution. As the constitutional affairs Committee, it is challenging to see how it applies when we can point to any number of examples where we would have thoug…”

“I will drop my hypothetical. This is as much depth as we are going to manage.”

“The premise is that ultimately, regardless of whether or not a Minister is aware of something that is happening within their Department, they are still accountable for it and have to take responsibility?”

“In terms of that time limit, you said that where someone is making consistent efforts to make a difference, very often you will encourage people to try to make sure they use the full process available before coming to the PHSO in order to reduce the burden on you. However, if 12 months really is the timeline, maybe we …”

“It is maybe a public awareness campaign as well.”

“Exploring that further, in terms of the guidance itself, do you set out the reasons why the 12-month time limit makes sense—as you have just done here—and make the circumstances in which discretion may be exercised very clear?”

“You do; great.”

“Just on that last point—while accepting that there is likely to be a sampling issue as people will be more inclined to respond if they are upset—in the survey the overwhelming majority of respondents waited very long periods of time for their cases to be concluded. I am wondering if the perception difference might have…”

“I am really just inquiring as to whether there might be a methodological explanation for the difference in terms of timings, but I fully accept the point around meticulousness. Turning to my actual question, during the course of our inquiry, issues with interpretation and communication of the 12-month time limit for ac…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. This issue has been on my radar for a very long time. I used to be the leader of the local authority in Crawley, and we have been aware for many years that the capacity limitations that are coming on the line will be so severe that they will gum up the entire n…”

“The Government are to be commended for the largest ever investment in police technology, including facial recognition to catch serious offenders, and a drone squad to crack down on waste crime. However, the rules around admissibility of some high-tech evidence, such as the six-month crime rule, are holding back enforce…”

“Under the current system, regardless of how much pressure is brought to bear on the Government, if the Government are determined not to have an inquiry, nothing can be done to force them to have one, outside perhaps a judicial review into that decision. Do you think that there is any answer to that problem?”

“9. What assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing greater use of evidence from automated enforcement technology in trials.”

“Given your experience, would you suggest the use of those Henry VIII powers again? Would existing legislation enable the Government to do that?”

“That suggests that we need a fairly long period of preparation before kicking off a process of trying to rationalise arm’s length bodies.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. Local government is an area of great interest to me. I did my master’s dissertation on models for English devolution; I have worked at the UK’s leading think-tank on devolution; for 17 years I worked as an adviser to local authorities, and I have served in …”

“What sort of challenges do you envisage they are going to face trying to head in this direction?”

“Much like yourself, the Government have indicated that they would like to see a number of arm’s length bodies closed. They have already announced several, of course, with NHS England being by far the most significant.”