Speeches by Cane.

“You talk about the sponsorship teams knowing the ALB and what it does, and understanding that. Do you see any issues with people staying long enough to build up such experience, or with a good handover when new people come into the team?”

“Earlier, you said that Departments take the management of their ALBs very seriously, but you also touched on the importance of the framework giving them access to information that allows them to do that. In practice, therefore, how seriously do you think they are taking the oversight of their public bodies?”

“Is anything in place to have a cyclical review of the frameworks?”

“That would be useful, thank you. What does good oversight from the sponsor team look like?”

“Yes. You are asking the team to have quite a range of competencies, experience and understanding of the ALBs. Do you think that the sponsor teams are clear about that, and do they have the resources to do it?”

“In addition to lots of ALBs all doing different things, a range of them have not only their framework agreement, which is their governance from the sponsor Department, but another structure that gives them another set of governance—for example, they might be a registered company or charity, or have been set up by Parli…”

“Yes. I trained as an auditor and there was always a permanent file, so you had a back history that you could go to. I often wonder if something like that would be useful to have.”

“What tools do Ministers have to influence how the ALBs are run? And how mindful are the ALBs themselves of what the Minister wants?”

“Yes. I think you have already answered that it does vary between Departments. We have also touched on the oversight from the centre. There are now guidelines, but is anyone taking an overview of whether they are being followed? Should that be the Cabinet Office or do we wait for an audit report to see if it is being fo…”

“The Venerable Bede first wrote of the “Isle of Eels” back in the 8th century. He explained that the Isle of Ely is known as such because it was surrounded by water, with an abundance of eels, but these eels do not spend their whole life in Ely or, indeed, in the UK. The biological story behind eels is a quite remarkabl…”

“You touched on the fact that you are not sure all consultant lobbying is actually required to register under the current rules. Of those that are required, how confident are you that they are all registering?”

“Is that partly why you wrote to all the former MPs, to try to avoid that?”

“You think it is the reputation that is more important?”

“With things like the Bribery Act, if somebody tries to bribe you, you are meant to report it. Is there anything that says that if somebody tries to lobby you, you should check they are on the register and, if not, you should report it?”

“When you find a breach, your maximum fine is £7,500 which, frankly for a lot of lobby firms, is very little. Is that sufficient to deter people?”

“You touched earlier on the fact that the register of lobbyists and the transparency register both had very thin evidence and it was therefore difficult to cross-reference them when you were trying to do investigative work to identify any breaches. You talked about how long it took: do you have enough resources in the t…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the petitioners and my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for leading this important debate. We all know from our inboxes that the system is not working and that change is necessary. It is incumbent on all of us to fix the situat…”

“Continuing with transparency, what balance do you envisage between your role in applying the legislation as it stands and, as you have touched on, advocating for ways to improve it?”

“Earlier on, in answers to the Chair, you said that you were pragmatic and that you would apply flexibility. Do you think that there is any room for applying flexibility to improve transparency?”

“Where do you see the place of the Registrar in the wider ethics and standards landscape?”