Speeches by Prinsley.

“You have partially touched on my next question, which is about the impact that the widespread adoption of digital ID could have on crime reduction and particularly on fraud.”

“I want to move on to another thing that is very topical. A lot of people have said that a mandatory digital ID would help with our immigration system. Do you believe that to be the case?”

“You have reflected what I was going to ask. It seems to me that you are not opposed to a voluntary digital ID system for this country that people can opt into, provided it has certain safeguards about how the data was distributed and used. If we were to create a voluntary opt-in digital ID service for the British peopl…”

“I have a background in the health service as a surgeon. I am interested in how the digital ID might link to the health record—you were talking about that just now. It seems that if we could allow people ownership of their own health record, and that was held digitally, that would give people agency over their own healt…”

“On the first panel, we heard about many of the advantages of digital ID; on this one, we have been well apprised of the problems—you have been very successful with that venture. If people could be made to see the advantages for themselves, as individuals, my guess is that, with the appropriate safeguards, adoption woul…”

“Could you see it being an app, for instance?”

“Finally, if the Government are to do this for the British people, how do they sell this as politically acceptable? We have received thousands of submissions, most of which, as you correctly predicted, were in opposition to anything remotely like this. I think many of us can see the huge advantages of this system in all…”

“I have two more bits to my questioning. One is about international models. There are plenty of countries where this is happening. What would be a good example that this country could learn from?”

“A surveillance society problem.”

“In my constituency, I recently visited an inspirational charity called Restore, which provides vital refuge for women fleeing domestic abuse. When I spoke with the dedicated staff there, I was concerned to learn that victims of domestic abuse in rural areas such as parts of my constituency are only half as likely to re…”

“4. What steps she is taking to help increase prosecution rates in cases of violence against women and girls.”

“Sergeant Archie Schlapobersky, of the 12th Field Squadron of the South African Corps attached to the British 8th Army, fought at Monte Cassino, the bloody battle for Italy. Nearly 12,000 of his fellow South African soldiers—all volunteers—did not survive world war two. Archie became a farmer in Swaziland after the war,…”

“Can I just make a quick point about digital ID? We have been talking about digital ID as if this is some sort of panacea for dealing with the problem of illegal employment and some immigration difficulties. I would like us, and I do not know if you agree, to sell the idea of digital ID as a much wider benefit to the po…”

“My impression is that the British people are bewildered about why this is so difficult. They cannot understand why a country which is an island, has a navy, a court system, and has a well-recognised system of processing people has been so terrible at this. I am encouraged that the Home Secretary is going to make a new …”

“I absolutely believe that you are. One thing that is obvious is the number of people who are stuck in the appeals system; this is moving on to a slightly different thing. According to the document I was given, we had 7,500 people in the appeals system in June 2023 and by March 2025 we had 51,000 people stuck in the app…”

“That is great. The question then is: what do you expect the time scale to be for this boat problem to improve spectacularly? It is the single biggest political difficulty that many of us experience, and has a political importance quite out of proportion to the actual number of people who are arriving, which I calculate…”

“So what you are telling me is you arrived, you took a little look at this, and then you changed something. That is right, is it not?”

“This is a section on border security. The first question is: why did you commission a review of the Border Security Command so soon after its establishment? Were you concerned that it was not delivering results? How are you measuring the Command’s success and by when do you expect the Command to achieve a significant r…”

“Thank you very much; I have enjoyed listening this afternoon. I come from the medical world, and the point you have just made about performance is absolutely crucial. We have a system in the hospitals where we pay people to come to work, but we do not really observe what it is they actually do. We certainly do not pay …”

“The point about the Passport Office is really well made because it is obvious to us and to the population that the passport situation has been transformed. You send off for your passport on Thursday and it comes back on Monday morning. New passport; fantastic. We would all love to see the performance of all the other b…”