Speeches by Kane.

“Simon, can I ask you a quick question? You mentioned a few minutes ago that when you are engaging with local authorities, it is definitely not as early as they would like, and I suspect that there is a bit of tension when you do. When you say that it is definitely not as early as they would like, do you think there is …”

“As a Scottish MP, I am always interested in how we talk about taking ownership of this when there are devolved nations involved. Perhaps this is more of a question for Simon than for Josh. How are you ensuring that the joined-up approach—the joint ownership of the problem that we heard Jo talk about with justice—is UK-…”

“Giving them more money to employ people to do the reporting burden. The reporting burden is left to be delivered by an increasingly dwindling number of people who can deliver it. You could fund the reporting burden itself with additional people. Could you not do that?”

“I will move on. We have the costs of dealing with people when they are going through the system, but when they have left the system and have had a response, how are you ensuring that local authorities have adequate information and resources to manage the impact on homelessness in their areas of people being granted asy…”

“Thank you for that, Chair. My question is specifically about immigration—”

“Why is it that the burden always has to rest with local authorities? Why can the burden not rest with you to get that information? In terms of what is happening with education, language support, integration services and social care—the Report goes into this—you used the language “reporting burden,” but the burden rests…”

“The question is this. In effect, you are giving them something to do—to deal with the asylum system—but you do not understand how much it is costing them to deliver all the associated services. You think you have an idea, and you have a broad idea. But, as the Report says, when you start interrogating that, you realise…”

“I am not necessarily saying that they will get additional grants. I am looking for assurance and I am not quite getting it. You are pushing this, and the Chair wants to move on, so let me try one last time. Do you think that the Home Office, and indeed all of this joined-up approach that you are trying to look at, shou…”

“My experience of working in local government is that national Government are very good at placing burdens and responsibilities on local government, but not at following that up with the resources to deliver on those burdens. The disconnect between what you are asking them to do and what you are giving them the funding …”

“There is a disproportionate number of people arriving in Glasgow to present their homelessness claims, compared with other local authorities in the UK. Are you looking at Glasgow and Scottish cities to ensure you are giving them additional resources to offset the difference in legislation, which is perfectly permissibl…”

“Josh, can I ask you a couple of questions? Paragraph 1.13 in the NAO Report says, “Actual spending by local authorities on supporting people seeking asylum is poorly understood.” Again, with my former council leader hat on, I think that is a very good and accurate statement. What are you doing to improve the visibility…”

“Sometimes they can get surprised. They can get very late notice. It isn’t just not quite as early as they would like it; it is sometimes incredibly late in the process when they get knowledge of it.”

“Do you think that you are?”

“Then it would put the burden back on you, and not on local authorities. I am just trying to investigate why we are not looking at that.”

“Does the Secretary of State agree that yesterday’s SNP budget, which metes out another round of civic vandalism to local authority budgets, demonstrates a failure to understand that economic growth is built from the ground up and requires well-funded local authorities delivering schools, infrastructure and clean, safe …”

“14. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support economic growth in Scotland.”

“Thank you, Chair, but I was just going to make a general observation, which I think is going to get picked up shortly. With what I am hearing from this panel on data collection, and what I heard from the previous panel, it is almost like we are talking about two different subjects. That is just an observation, and I wi…”

“Good morning, everyone. I am looking at paragraph 13 of the NAO Report, which identifies four main causes of the programme not progressing as intended. It states that several Government bodies, including the IPA, the Cabinet Office, the Government Internal Audit Agency and the Treasury, concluded that “NS&I had a weak …”

“Very quickly, James, could you expand on the different steps of this interventionist model? What step are you at and what information do you need to decide whether to escalate further or de-escalate?”

“I accept that those are the conclusions you reached, but what I am trying to get at is what assessments or analysis you undertook that led you to reach these conclusions? I am trying to get a sense of the depth that you went into to make sure that your decisions were underpinned by robust evidence.”