Speeches by Lamb.

“Are there any other changes that you might make to the system, if you were able?”

“I would be delighted to have a different system in place. In fact, I spent many years as a local authority leader, lobbying the last Government to try to do anything on that front to resolve a system that, frankly, is still Elizabethan in design and in no way reflects the changing nature of local economies. It requires…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I am here replacing another Member. When they told me the subject, I said, “Great! It is the first time I have ever actually known something about the subject.” They said, “For goodness’ sake, don’t let the Whips hear you say that”—such is the time in which …”

“T10. What action are the UK Government taking to support Tamils in seeking justice for past and current injustices?”

“5. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the UK’s membership of the European convention on human rights on the Belfast agreement.”

“Given the chaos around the world that is being experienced by politicians playing fast and loose with international law, it is deeply concerning that Conservative and Reform MPs are speaking so flippantly of the risks of violating the Good Friday agreement by leaving the European convention on human rights. Will the Se…”

“8. What steps his Department is taking to help increase the capacity of major national grid supply points.”

“Despite its rural setting, Crawley’s travel-to-work area has a larger economy than many of the UK’s core cities. Despite that, it has been held back over recent years due to a lack of grid capacity at its major connection point with the national grid, resulting in the loss of several major investments under the previou…”

“I hope we can find a simpler way of doing it, because Government is slow at the best of times, and no doubt we will end up with an arm’s length body in charge of reviewing all this stuff. What is your thinking as to why that has not happened so far? Is there a reluctance from Government to do this because, in some ways…”

“To continue the thread about dealing with overreach and the departure from independence, we recently had an issue where we had to pass new legislation to empower the Justice Secretary to override decisions taken by the Sentencing Council. Whatever your view on that particular decision, it does seem ridiculous that we h…”

“Two Governments later we are still in the same place.”

“I recall your organisation making that argument 15 years ago.”

“Chair, I believe we have covered my question already.”

“Within the pack we have a timetable for appointment. Can I run through a very quick, simple list of questions to put this on the record, given the tone of the last few sets of questions? The campaign for this role began in April 2024. That is correct, is it not?”

“Yes.”

“What changes do you think should be made to ensure investigations such as this one can be carried out in a speedier process, if that is possible with cases of this complexity?”

“In the course of that process no one was interviewed until the end of August. Is that because you were trying to get everything into place before you started interviewing people?”

“The point that you highlighted of an area that was not a technical breach but was still a problem—the process of having a candidate whose application was submitted by invitation, it would appear, after the closure of the process—took place under the last Government. Is that correct?”

“You became aware of this issue in early May and you launched an investigation at the end of May. Given that you have emphasised the speed of public appointments being important, why did the investigation take over five months, and why did it take so long to commission that investigation, having been made aware of the i…”

“Moving on to another area, David Kogan was not appointed in short order following the pre-appointment hearing, as would normally have happened. Do you believe your investigation delayed his appointment?”