Speeches by Murray.

“My question is: are you adjusting in light of the developing political reality in France?”

“You mentioned the Passport Office and I just want to pick up on that because my view—I do not know if you would agree with this—is that 10 or so years ago the Passport Office was in a real disaster zone. People were missing their holidays; it was on the front page of the newspapers. It has completely turned around and …”

“I just want to come back to the point that Robbie was making around targets and having clear, identifiable targets. One really frustrating thing when you read National Audit Office reports—or even our own inquiry reports—into the Home Office is that sort of catchphrase, “Lessons will be learned.” That is like the defin…”

“I will allow you one.”

“I want to ask a bit about the new announcements on asylum accommodation and the move to large sites. A couple of years ago, the Home Office tried large sites and the National Audit Office’s report into it was utterly damning. It was a catastrophic failure of public procurement. How are you going to ensure that you do n…”

“Do you think restructuring the senior team is sufficient to address the challenges?”

“That is very interesting, thank you. In terms of accountability, can you give us some more detail? What would it look like to have proper accountability for senior officials in the Home Office? What kind of things would happen that currently do not?”

“Thank you, and thank you all for coming in. The Home Secretary has said that “The Home Office is not yet fit for purpose, and has been set up for failure.” Why do you think she said that? Do you agree? What are the drivers of the dysfunction that she has identified?”

“Are you saying that, up until now, nobody at DG level was held accountable for asylum accommodation in hotels?”

“There were no metrics that they were being judged on? That has not happened until now?”

“Depending on the outcome of that, you would or would not ask for ministerial direction?”

“We have had a lot of Home Secretaries over the last 10 years. How much does political churn impact the officials’ ability to do their jobs?”

“When it was Northeye and Bibby Stockholm—the name of the other one has slipped my mind—civil servants did not ask for ministerial direction to go ahead with it. The Public Accounts Committee inquiry looked into why that was. Will you now be asking for ministerial direction for the large sites? Are you anticipating doin…”

“As the representative of central Edinburgh, I can tell you that we have a growing population from bits of Scotland, the UK and internationally—that bears out in my experience. I want to pick up on Joani’s point about the different levers that Government have to reduce migration. You said that net migration should proba…”

“Is that going to be fixed by e-gates, ID and things like that?”

“That brings me to my next question. Do you agree with the OBR’s methodology of just treating migrants all the same?”

“Sticking with the proposal on indefinite leave to remain, am I correct in thinking that there is not much distinction at all between indefinite leave to remain and citizenship? The only one would be voting, and if you are a Commonwealth migrant, even that does not make a difference. So the system does not draw any dist…”

“I want to ask some questions about the role of the MAC but, to stick on the topic of the labour market evidence group, can you talk me through how your teeth are going to work? Will it just be that sectors that do not submit a good enough plan do not get to recruit, so they must improve their plan before they can recru…”

“No, I have a final question, so let us save that time for the last one. What should we as a Committee be thinking about as we scrutinise Ministers on that?”

“You touched on that point about seasonal workers versus investment in technology, machinery, fields and stuff. More broadly, what is your view on how migration—seasonal migration, but also general migration—has affected the UK’s productivity challenge? I know that is a huge question.”