Speeches by Lowe.

“That is quite important, because it might be her intention but they need to understand how to deliver against that intention. It is all very well to have intentions, but you are asking museums and galleries to try to deliver against a ministerial wish list, and it is not clear how you are going to judge them. You need …”

“All of that, I am afraid, is arbitrary spend. It is not necessary, is it?”

“But it includes the wretched gates to keep the public out.”

“Chairman, Elaine has given us an answer on the line.”

“Finally—before the Chairman cuts me off—given my knowledge of the DWP and HMRC, I think they are now both structurally flawed. You’ve got to do a lot from a governance point of view and from a cultural point of view to change the way they operate. Figure 4 in the Report deals with DWP, the Department for Education and …”

“But 37 consecutive years suggests that that is not working. Do you need to do something different?”

“It must have cost tens of millions to do all the wretched gates that hold me up coming out of Parliament now. Who actually signed off on that?”

“Should I have asked James, maybe?”

“My question is for Andrew, I think. I see that you are a passionate Newcastle supporter. It is a great, passionate football club—love it. I also see that you have spent 23 years in the civil service, and you have worked in two of the worst-performing Departments: the DWP and HMRC. I think I am right in saying that the …”

“The gates you put on the outside—who signed all that off?”

“I do not know if you saw that Anna wanted to ask a question. I do not want to take over the Chair, Geoffrey; it just seemed germane.”

“I know, Geoffrey, but if you take £1.5 million a week, by the crude maths that I employ, that is £75 million. What did it cost, Geoffrey—£46 million? There is a large slug if that is included.”

“I am not going to go on. The only other question I have is about RAAC and asbestosis. If it needs to be dealt with, it has to be dealt with, particularly RAAC. How much is that likely to cost us? That I see as a necessity purchase rather than an arbitrary purchase.”

“For failure to deliver accounts on time.”

“Lastly, on the £1.5 million a week that you are spending on what I think you called refurb—”

“How many public sector employees have been fired for failure?”

“Shouldn’t it be the same?”

“I am with Anna on this: we need to know what we are deciding on, and I do not think anybody is quite clear on that. A lot needs to be done before this can be sold effectively to MPs and Members of the House of Lords—I assume they have to agree to it as well. I am a new boy; I was elected in ’24 and I have not been on t…”

“I think, Philip, you have been at the coalface doing this yourself, so my question—we have been over this before in a previous meeting—is because in the private sector there are quite severe penalties if people do not file their accounts within a statutory period. I think we have identified that that is not the case fo…”

“How much are you factoring in AI, which is, in all likelihood, going to reduce the number of staff that MPs need rather than increase it? There will likely be less demand for offices and accommodation, and more opportunity to use technology. Is that being factored into the equation?”