Speeches by Murray.

“You talked about the public interest, and the public are a key stakeholder. There are obviously certain groups among the public where trust in policing is low, whether that is women, following the Sarah Everard and other scandals, or the black and other ethnic minority communities. In some parts of the country, trust i…”

“Thank you. HMI has a vast range of stakeholders. Often, they are organisations that are in the public eye and are involved in controversies. Some of the biggest controversies of recent years have involved a lot of the stakeholders that you will be dealing with. Can you tell us about your experience of dealing with and …”

“Is that a problem?”

“I think you are saying—and I agree—that the trust deficit in policing is different from that in fire and rescue. Do you think there is a trust deficit in fire and rescue? Are there some issues there you would want to inspect?”

“You mentioned increasing the ethical use of AI in policing. There are obviously a lot of examples of where that could be really powerful, but a lot of people have concerns about it, which are quite well founded and even come from the people who support the use of AI in policing. We have seen evidence from the Maccabi T…”

“That leads on to my next question. The inspectorate is an inspectorate; it is not a regulator. It does not have the powers to compel forces to respond and change how they behave. What approach would you take if forces did not respond constructively to the recommendations you make?”

“That is good to know. Your predecessor noted that the budget had been held steady at £25 million for the past five years and had called for a £13 million increase, which is 50%. I appreciate you saying that you have not got your feet under the desk, but do you think you can do the job on a budget that is not increasing…”

“Let us talk about the organisation, its workforce and resources. Funding is limited across the public sphere. How are you going to make the money allocated to you go as far as possible for the public and the inspectorate?”

“You admirably walked through that question, but the Home Secretary might still expect a request for more funding. Four fifths of the inspectorate’s money goes on staff, a number of whom are seconded from the police forces and fire and rescue authorities. Do you have a view on what proportion of the inspectorate’s staff…”

“The inspectorate has four strategic objectives: being proactive, focusing on outcomes, driving sustainable improvement and promoting smarter systems. Do you think those are the right objectives for the organisation? I won’t lie: when I read them, I thought they could apply to almost any organisation in the world. What …”

“Thank you. You are joining the inspectorate from the College of Policing—two organisations that have not always seen eye to eye, it is fair to say. Does that create a conflict of interest?”

“We always forget that people lose their lives in the channel—including last year, tragically, a young girl of four and a young man of 16 who had just tried to phone his parents. Does the Home Secretary agree that anyone with any humanitarian beliefs at all should be doing everything they can to stop cross-channel boats…”

“rose—”

“”

“It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. and learned Member for Fareham and Waterlooville (Suella Braverman), who was the author of the mess that we are discussing clearing up; I am sure she will look forward to sharing her comments with Count Binface soon enough. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Regist…”

“The Home Secretary is being very generous. The purpose of the Bill is to make the system more swift, but I am surprised to see that there is no component of mandatory reconsideration included in it. As we have seen in the Department for Work and Pensions, that has really made the system faster. We had a broadly similar…”

“indicated assent.”

“The Chair of the Home Affairs Committee and I were in northern France together. Does she share my impression from that trip that the scale and complexity of the operations the French Government were undertaking was quite astonishing? Will she join me in welcoming the new iteration of the Sandhurst treaty? This may be s…”

“rose—”

“I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. There is some scepticism among the public about refugees, but despite the fact that twice as many people came to this country from Ukraine as crossed in small boats, there has been no public outcry and there is no public unrest. Does the Mini…”