Speeches by Reed.

“I don’t want the full table, but who should we look to?”

“We had clocked this internally as a problem before the Committee approached us about it, and I recognise what Becky is saying there. We became concerned about the quality of replies, and then I think we put in place too much checking to try to make sure that the quality was always high, and that checking created a bott…”

“That would be—I refer back to the comments I made earlier—particularly since the letter that the Chair sent in April. We did change some of the processes at the end of last year, but I think the over-checking probably added to the bottleneck. We have a different system now. We are tracking much more closely. I am recei…”

“Okay. The Home Office is in the same building, so—”

“That is particularly true at particular times of the year. Once the weather starts to improve, people are going out more and they discover that a local beauty spot is horrifically polluted. They then contact the MP, among other things, and the MP puts the questions to us. We are dealing with that, but probably not mana…”

“It is more with the policy teams. We only have a very small central processing team. We have put in place more senior management, and I will let Becky come in in a moment, because she knows a lot more of the detail than I do, but we have a relatively small team receiving the PQs, which are distributed to the policy tea…”

“I recognise the stat, but I have not been in any other Department, so I do not have anything to compare it with. Becky, do you think there is anything structural that would lead to that?”

“I am very in favour of self-service in that sense. That is a very good point. The Department’s IT is quite poor. We have lacked investment in IT over many years. I think we are the second worst in Government for digitising things. Just in this one Department, we inherited over 300 different websites when we came in. If…”

“I thank the right hon. Lady for securing this urgent question. I want to begin by making clear that Thames Water remains stable, and the Government are carefully monitoring the situation. Customers can be assured that there will be no disruption to water supply. Thames Water is a commercial entity currently engaged in …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. We are prepared for every eventuality, as I have outlined, and we will take whatever action is necessary to ensure the continuing supply of water to customers in the Thames Water region and elsewhere.”

“I thank the hon. Member for his question. There is a procedure to be followed for special administration, and we stand ready should that be required, in this case or any other case involving the regulated industries. He may have had a chance today to look at the interim report, on which Sir Jon Cunliffe is inviting com…”

“There remains a market-led solution on the table, and we expect Thames Water to follow through with the process to ensure it is able to fix the problems it is currently facing.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I reassure him that the Government stand ready for any eventuality and will take action as required. We are not looking at nationalisation because it would cost over £100 billion of public money, which would have to be taken away from other public services, such as the national …”

“Yes, I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. I share her anger at the fact that bill rises were so high this year, but that is because the Conservative party did not take the necessary action to ensure that the water system was properly maintained. As anyone who has ever owned or lived in a house will know, if people s…”

“I am grateful to the shadow Secretary of State for making it clear to the House that she does not understand the principles of private sector investment, and neither is it particularly clever to stand at the Opposition Dispatch Box and make up figures to attack. This Government stand ready for all eventualities, but I …”

“The point is that there is a market-led solution on the table and I expect Thames Water to follow through on that.”

“I thank my hon. Friend, and indeed neighbour, for his question, and I know what a strong water champion he is on behalf of his constituents. His constituents, much like everybody else’s, will now benefit from increased compensation when there are failures. I agree with him that one of the problems we inherited from the…”

“The problems that my hon. Friend points to are to do with a lack of investment throughout the entire period of the previous Government, so I was delighted that just before Christmas we secured a commitment to £104 billion of private sector investment. That is the single biggest investment in our water sector in its ent…”

“I respectfully point out to the hon. Gentleman that Reform cares so much about the problems facing our water system that it did not mention it even once in its general election manifesto. What he is proposing—nationalising the water sector—would cost in excess of £100 billion, which is money that Reform would have to t…”

“As I said to the hon. Lady’s constituent, I would be happy to visit if my diary allows. In any case, I would be very happy to ensure she gets a meeting with the Minister for Water to discuss her concerns around Teddington.”