Speeches by Roca.

“I was in Bristol recently at the National Armaments Director Group, the renamed defence Government support group, and I was glad to hear that it is doing more on SMEs. Maybe the Government Front Bench will comment more on that later, but it is right to recognise that SMEs are crucial and that, in the hon. Gentleman’s a…”

“I have spoken in this Chamber at some length about defence and the urgency of rearmament, and I was proud to join the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) and Field Marshal Lord Richards in creating the all-party parliamentary group on rearmament. Before I turn to what the Government are doing about defence re…”

“Because it is so evident that what the hon. Member is participating in this afternoon is partly political. In fact, he is partaking in a particularly dishonourable act in doing this in such a partisan way. To carry on with the case that I was making, I do not believe that what has been presented meets the bar that I ju…”

“I think that my colleague might explore the 2030 targets a bit more with you in a moment. Looking at independence again, for me there are two aspects here that are important. I very much welcomed what you did at the National Trust around equality and diversity. You got some flak on that from elements of the press, but …”

“I will finish this point; I might then give way if I am feeling generous. That conduct was so grave that it resulted in a damning report, which I think the Leader of the Opposition abstained on, rather than voting in favour of it. Of course, that is quite aside from the fact that it also involved a criminal conviction.…”

“Thank you, Dame Helen. You will know that our predecessors on previous Parliament Committees were concerned about the governance model of the OEP—it being a ministerial appointment, so independence is very important to us. It is also very critical at this stage because of the clash or certainly the competing priorities…”

“No, I am going to make some progress. At most, what we are dealing with is an argument about, as I said, a deeply flawed appointment, a deeply flawed process and the judgments around it. Those are matters for political debate, for scrutiny and for challenge across the Chamber, but they are not in themselves grounds for…”

“The appointment of Mandelson was a profoundly flawed process; it was also a profoundly flawed choice—it was the wrong choice. I think of the victims of Epstein; I also think of Alistair Darling, who was a fine, committed public servant, and what he would be thinking today. This afternoon, we are being asked to make sev…”

“The Minister will have recognised the strength of feeling on both sides of the House about wanting to see the defence investment plan published as soon as possible, and I hope Treasury Ministers will share that understanding. I believe that history is important. When Russia annexed the Crimea, we saw no meaningful incr…”

“I take that point, and it is an important point. But two of you today have talked about the extra £100 million from the CMA’s redeterminations. Am I right in remembering that, when you asked about this in January, you felt you needed £300 million of investment? Are you satisfied with £100 million, or do you still feel …”

“Mr Train, lack of interconnectivity, historically low levels of mains replacements and other issues have been flagged as affecting resilience at South East Water. In your view, why was greater resilience not a priority in earlier price reviews?”

“Part of remedying what has happened is people having confidence. Your customers clearly do not have confidence, as has been expressed by the leader of Kent County Council and seven local Members of Parliament, and this Committee has made its concerns very clear. Why is not the confidence of your customers an important …”

“The Committee recognises the points you make about regulation; Mr Hinton made those points in January as well, and welcomed the IWC’s recommendations. However, I do not think you can completely hide behind the regulatory framework. A core part of your business should be an understanding that in terms of infrastructure,…”

“In fact, you received one of the largest increases in revenue overall, so hopefully customers in the region should be seeing improvements in the future. Can I ask about the issues I mentioned at the beginning? Ofwat found problems with the upkeep of treatment works, trunk mains, boreholes and reservoirs, and said that …”

“Can I say that I am short of time; I have to go bother a Minister about something else in my constituency. My question was that Ofwat says you failed to make a robust case for funding or had already received funding to invest in resilience in previous price reviews. How do you respond to the suggestion that you are not…”

“Ofwat said that for at least 10 years you failed to ensure service reservoirs were adequately and regularly inspected, and that you failed to maintain trunk mains by undertaking sufficient preventative maintenance. It is interesting that since 2017, by your own papers, you have rated the risk of trunk main failure as h…”

“So even after work, even after mitigation, something would remain high risk?”

“I feel like we are wading through treacle here. You have not answered my colleague’s original question, which is, what would it take for a change in leadership? You have had an outage that affected tens of thousands of people. Another outage that affected tens of thousands of people. A proposed fine because 286,000 cus…”

“I feel like we are wading through treacle here. You have not answered my colleague’s original question, which is, what would it take for a change in leadership? You have had an outage that affected tens of thousands of people. Another outage that affected tens of thousands of people. A proposed fine because 286,000 cus…”

“Part of remedying what has happened is people having confidence. Your customers clearly do not have confidence, as has been expressed by the leader of Kent County Council and seven local Members of Parliament, and this Committee has made its concerns very clear. Why is not the confidence of your customers an important …”