Speeches by Edwards.

“There is such a significant number, though, that the discrepancy suggests that the system does not quite work. The sub-postmasters have been very clear that there is a huge conflict if the person who is determining the amount of compensation to be paid out is the person who has perpetrated the entire scandal. I think t…”

“I want to come back to what you mentioned earlier about ethics and about the journey that you were saying that Fujitsu is currently going through in the UK, surrounding what we might call a deficit of ethics in the scandal that we are discussing. The accounting profession has a set of standards and principles, and to b…”

“Some of the data that we have seen shows almost a tenfold difference between the HSS redress what the HSSA has concluded should have been the correct redress—say, from £100,000 to £1 million. Given that we have about 13% left of those cases that still need to be dealt with, would it not make more sense to have a differ…”

“So you are not going to take it on at all?”

“You are happy for now. That is good. I guess the point is that there is movement, but perhaps we would like to see some much more ambitious targets. I just wondered if you had any thoughts on that. The current target is by 2030, so even that is a bit snail’s pace.”

“Debbie, if you wanted to add anything there, please do, and then I want to come back and ask about the role of public finance institutions, which we are starting to touch on.”

“That is very helpful. I have one more point on either the British Business Bank or any other institution that you have had some experience of. It has increased its target for equity finance for female entrepreneurs from 2% to 10%. Obviously, that feels like quite a lot, but it is not that much, is it?”

“Jordan, what is the best practice you have seen? What would you like to see brought to more prominence for people?”

“Thank you so much for setting the scene because that has been really helpful, as is the fact that we are able to have more of a conversation at the moment about those priorities. What are some of the positive things that you are seeing at the grassroots? What are those shoots that are going to help women-led businesses…”

“That is great. Finally, how are you ensuring that that is spread across the country? How are you going to be measuring whether that pipeline and that level of prospectus are meeting the objectives that we need to see across constituencies and across our different regions and nations, for that matter?”

“If I could just pick up on this issue around the pipeline, the Government need to be managing and incentivising this and working on it with different Departments. For example, I met with Border to Coast, who is one of the local government pension schemes. Once they have consolidated, they are probably going to be the l…”

“If we have an issue with the speed, how are we going to move that along? What does that look like? If we look at other more successful pension ecosystems, it has taken them 20 years to get to this point. We are potentially on a very long-term path. The Sterling 20 is a good initiative that was announced at the regional…”

“I have been quite interested in the conversation that we have had so far because I am not sure it has reflected a lot of the conversations that we have had with businesses up and down the country. I want to move on to the focus that this Government are having, rightly, on pension investment and where that money is. I a…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“My constituents have also raised concerns, particularly around cyber-security. One of my constituents was told by the DWP that they were defrauding the child benefit system when they were not, because they had had data stolen. I am concerned that our Government systems need to be far better, so that if such a thing hap…”

“Picking up on some of what we have been talking about, I will start, Josh, with your view, because you indicated this earlier. What are the main problems for you as an SME trying to access the skills you need, whether that is across the system or actually just the workforce? Can you give us some colour?”

“It is the Tamworth Tap. They have done brilliantly well. They have used heritage as their USP. They are right in the town centre and they are right on a high street. However, they are not immune. They have talked to me about many of the issues that we have just talked about. My biggest bugbear, which the Committee and …”

“Jon, you also gave an example of where you have amalgamated, so do you have any thoughts to share on that point as well?”

“I will give you a minor positive note before we go back into the gloom. My constituency had the best pub in the country in 2023 and 2024. They are going for it for a third time, so I am rooting for them.”

“That is really positive to hear. I guess the next question would be that, if we can shorten, curtail and get that right to get some of the churn going, which is what needs to happen, we also need to retain people and train them to the next skill level. As you say, there will be heritage buildings and complex, different…”