Speeches by Dyke.

“We have had a number of different elements of correspondence from businesses and individuals. One local resident said the biggest thing for him was the communication from the water company: you kept updating every 12 hours, saying, “We’re expecting this to be fixed within 12 hours,” and then it went on and on. These ar…”

“Excuse me for butting in, but as the Committee has already said, there have been a number of incidents over the course of many years now. Surely, lessons should have been learnt during those incidents. Why are we still in a situation here?”

“You got involved in the scientific element of the role.”

“Would you say that your crisis comms and crisis management has been flawed in this incident?”

“I have heard that the MP’s office team were out on the ground feeding that information back, because there was not the correct information going back about the necessary storage of water and how sites were running out. Local councillors were also very much involved on the ground. Thanks to them, perhaps some further di…”

“Looking back on that now, do you feel that that process was smooth, and that accurate information was being processed through?”

“When the contractor was out, what kind of information was being fed back to you? I understand that the information being fed back to you was not what was the reality on the ground. Who did you have out on the ground to deal with the strategic overview of the water?”

“Yes.”

“Turning to water delivery, that is done by a contractor. Is that correct?”

“A number of different people were being put up for—”

“When the crisis back in December hit, what was your first port of call? What did you do?”

“It is interesting that your early communications suggest that the restoration would come back by 2 pm on 1 December, but your internal log showed insufficient storage. Why was that?”

“So an improvement in your crisis comms is required.”

“Some of the information being put out was over-optimistic about the timeframes for restarting the water supply, and that was the case over a number of consecutive days. Then there were messages relating to the boil notices, which were unclear as well. Why was the messaging around the water supply not clearer, timely an…”

“Good morning. David, before you took up senior leadership roles at South East Water, what was your professional background?”

“We have had a number of different elements of correspondence from businesses and individuals. One local resident said the biggest thing for him was the communication from the water company: you kept updating every 12 hours, saying, “We’re expecting this to be fixed within 12 hours,” and then it went on and on. These ar…”

“Excuse me for butting in, but as the Committee has already said, there have been a number of incidents over the course of many years now. Surely, lessons should have been learnt during those incidents. Why are we still in a situation here?”

“Would you say that your crisis comms and crisis management has been flawed in this incident?”

“I have heard that the MP’s office team were out on the ground feeding that information back, because there was not the correct information going back about the necessary storage of water and how sites were running out. Local councillors were also very much involved on the ground. Thanks to them, perhaps some further di…”

“Right. Do you not think that one individual—one key spokesperson, perhaps the chief executive—would have been a better person to put up for those interviews?”