Speeches by Kane.

“I am worried that we are not approaching that with the same laser-like focus.”

“Transparency of reporting has been a big part of this hearing. That is important. The PAC is about transparency of money, so you have to remember that reporting to Parliament is a big part of this Committee, but you have to report the money transparently. There is no way for you to do that within this scheme, as far as…”

“When will it be fixed?”

“I was going to ask you about cyber and flying instructors, but perhaps I am going to try to bring it all together in one question. There seems to be a disconnect, in my mind. There is a laser-like focus on delivery for the actual operational weapon, once it is up and running, but there is almost an acceptance of factor…”

“Yes, I am going to cover that. One of the things that paragraph 2.4 says is that you miscalculated the number of engineers you needed in the first place. While you have talked about the overall engineering shortfall and some of the reasons behind it, there is another factor as well, which is the miscalculation. Can you…”

“Air Chief Marshal, I want to talk about the personnel associated with the F-35. I want to ask you about engineers, cyber professionals, pilots and qualified flying instructors, but let us start with the engineers. At paragraph 2.3 of the NAO Report, it says, “Shortages of suitably qualified engineers represent the bigg…”

“Two years ago, you would have known that you would be here and that one of the questions you would be asked by the Public Accounts Committee would be, “Can we delve into the weeds of the money here to make sure that we know what it cost and that the money has been spent appropriately?” You have been here many times bef…”

“We are going to have to take your word for that now, because we cannot then investigate it by looking at the costs separately. You have managed to keep this secret for two years. Could you not have found a way to account for this separately, knowing that, once the super-injunction was lifted, this Committee, among othe…”

“Can I ask about how you accounted for the costs of this, given that you have not accounted for them separately? Why did you not account for the costs in a manner that would allow you to separately identify the costs specifically associated with this Afghan response route from other areas?”

“I am not good with spreadsheets—I am more Microsoft Word than Microsoft Excel—so I am going to ask what I would call some “daft laddie” questions here. It strikes me that what I heard you say was that the individual who sent the email had no idea that there was an embedded something in the spreadsheet. Then you said th…”

“Before I was elected, I was a beekeeper—I do not have as much time to do it now. Can you tell me how your ongoing response to animal disease outbreaks is affecting your ability to deal with risks to honey bees, such as Asian hornets?”

“How much of a difference does instant access versus next day access make?”

“Before I ask my question, we do not have time to get into this—the Chair will rightly move me on—but I have a comment, because it is a frustration for me that we talk about doing things differently. You made the comment about Scotland procuring a different ear tag. Devolution was meant to allow us to make our own choic…”

“Paragraph 1.5 of the NAO Report says: “On leaving the European Union (EU), the UK lost access to the Animal Diseases Information System”. Christine, to what extent, if any, has losing access to the EU surveillance information made it harder to spot disease risks early?”

“If APHA is moving to a risk-based approach, will that get out of kilter with local authorities, which tend to do things by the book as the book is written, if they can?”

“I am heartened to hear that local authorities have the capacity to step up if there is an outbreak, but given that we are talking about the surveillance in particular, can we just concentrate on that? In local authorities, as in many services, if you are constantly in crisis mode, you will deal with the crisis; you wil…”

“Paragraph 13 of the NAO Report talks about partners, including local authorities. It says, “Defra and APHA also told us there is a mixed picture at local level in how well local authorities are discharging their duties, most often because animal diseases are competing with other priorities and statutory responsibilitie…”

“I take the point that you are new, that you are putting new systems and that there is change coming, but maybe you can speak to the disconnect between setting a target of which you are in complete control and not meeting it. I would expect that you would want to meet any targets you set. What is happening to mean that …”

“I would like to talk about surveillance activities. Paragraph 2.9 of the Report says, “In recent years, some key surveillance activities have reduced or are not taking place as planned”, and some corporate key performance targets have been missed—for example, visiting animal markets and inspecting animal by-products. R…”

“It has always been there?”