Speeches by Hall.

“5. What steps he is taking to encourage investment in businesses.”

“In Warrington, Platform is transforming the former Unilever site where Surf and Persil were once produced into a next-generation modular data centre that will provide the capacity, resilience and connectivity needed to power the UK’s AI revolution. From Persil to pixels, Platform is taking a brownfield industrial site …”

“According to NHS data, while the number of people waiting for an autism assessment is levelling out, the time they are waiting is rocketing; the average wait time is 200 days more than it was a year ago. In order to reduce waiting times, integrated care boards should follow the NHS England national framework and operat…”

“I suppose the faster you can do it, the more you can benefit from and utilise a lot of the AI. A lot of the legacy systems, as we said before, and data are not usable at the moment. You said that there is a road map, and that is great, but we really need to focus on having those milestones to work towards rather than a…”

“One of the issues I hear about is that a lot of the information is very siloed at the moment—it is based in the Department and not cross-departmental. Is that going to be changed down the line? It would obviously cut down a lot of time, for instance.”

“You must be working towards something, though. You must have an ambition as to when this needs to fit together.”

“It is not just sharing; it is capture and collection. It is the whole thing.”

“Realistically, how long will those improvements take?”

“That is what needs to be monitored. I fear that that has not been monitored in the past, or not as closely as it could have been, and that is why we are at this point.”

“To carry on with my favourite topic—legacy systems—what practical improvements are needed in data capture and collection, Bonnie and Andrew?”

“With a culture change this significant, having that wraparound support is going to be absolutely critical.”

“And if things are not quite going the way that had been planned, I guess you also have that financial support—that knowledge—to say, “Let’s sit down again and look at how things can be done a little bit differently and tweak them.” Is that how you are actively doing it? Rather than coming up with a plan and then disapp…”

“Yes.”

“In terms of helping to persuade Departments to provide support, how do you foresee that happening?”

“Me again. I want to look at the finance role. We have already established that the finance role is incredibly important in supporting Departments and ensuring that they take the issues that we have discussed today seriously. Andrew, my question to you is: what support do those delivering services within Departments nee…”

“Thank you, Chair. I want to focus a bit more on the benefits of understanding the costs of services. We know that identifying the drivers of the costs gives us the basis for understanding the full cost of the services. With that in mind, and looking at how we realise those benefits, what are the quick wins to give a se…”

“Is setting productivity targets, for instance, something that you foresee that support doing, focusing people’s minds? Also, this is a big culture change for Departments. Having that financial expertise, do you foresee that being a challenge—a barrier—or is it possible? It is a big thing to change.”

“Will it be monitored quite closely?”

“Sorry to interrupt—it is great that the information is going to be disseminated, but lots of information is disseminated. Where is the accountability? How do we know that people are actively listening and acting on this?”

“Again, it comes down to support of the Departments. You have mentioned the work going on with the legacy systems, but will there be a hands-on level of support for all the Departments going through these processes? Will you ask them, “Have you considered this area or this area?” and provide that support?”