Speeches by Murray.

“Would you say that the role of the ICIBI is to measure and inspect the operational functionality of the Home Office, or is it also to measure the gap between the political objectives and what we are being told the Home Office will achieve, and the reality on the ground? Another way of putting that question would be to …”

“Could I ask a little bit about the context in which the ICIBI operates and the wider immigration and border security challenges that the Home Office faces? What would you say are the greatest risks that the Home Office faces right now, first on immigration and secondly on border security?”

“The public would expect you to act independently of the interests of Ministers. If you saw something such as serious immigration crime or drug smuggling through the border and Ministers refused to do anything about that, would it not ultimately harm the office of the ICIBI and all your staff, who are on the frontline i…”

“Can I follow up on that very quickly? If you want to work with the Home Office in advance of publishing the recommendations on their implementability to ensure that they are all implemented, is the risk that the Home Office will only agree to things that it was already going to do anyway? How are you ever going to push…”

“Why keep that conversation internal? If you publish it, we can see and then the rest of society and our constituents can hold us to account for it not happening. A conversation between you and a DG is not the most robust way of ensuring that the Home Office changes, surely, given the huge ecosystem that exists around t…”

“This is politics.”

“I understand the point about all working towards the same broad objectives, but what if the obstacle is competence? What if the obstacle is that the Home Office is not competently achieving it? What if the willingness is there, but not the capacity?”

“For example, if it had not been very clearly articulated by the Home Office at the outset of a new process, you would not think that it was implicit in your job description to consider whether this could turn into another Windrush.”

“Do you live within commuting distance of the London office?”

“You would be expecting to inspect the UK borders and immigration without being resident in the UK.”

“Are you resident in the UK?”

“To be clear, I mean outside the Home Office.”

“Is “independent” not a key word in your title?”

“If you need clarification, you accept there is a lack of clarity at the moment. Should the operating model that you have just described also apply to other chief inspectors? For example, if the chief inspector of constabulary sees police brutality, should they get clearance from Home Office Ministers before they tell t…”

“I am pleased we are having this debate today, as the measures proposed in the Bill are long, long overdue. Anyone can see that confidence in the immigration and border security system broke down under the previous Government, when hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money was wasted on hare-brained schemes, te…”

“rose—”

“Of course, the issue is that Scotland is not the same everywhere. My community in Edinburgh and East Lothian is seeing its population grow, while other parts are seeing their population decline. The reason is Scotland’s labour market and economy. Even when we had access to 300 million people as an EU member, with net m…”

“Let us be clear: Palestinian land belongs to the Palestinians, and any implication that they should be forced from it should be unequivocally condemned. Individual Palestinians are routinely forced from their land by illegal settlement building in the west bank. Will the Minister join me in unequivocally condemning ill…”

“I think it would not apply to those people, so absolutely, that is great. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority is being folded into the fair work agency under the Employment Rights Act, or Bill—I’m getting ahead of myself. Given that that organisation will have a huge number of responsibilities, including sick pa…”

“Thank you both for coming to the Committee again. I want to ask some questions about staffing. Sir Matthew, you have been permanent secretary for five years. Home Office spending is now 86% more than it was five years ago, and 53% more in real terms: it is £2.9 billion. However, in asylum support, resettlement and acco…”