Speeches by Davies.

“The whole point here is that businesses, the country and people need flexibility. The whole country runs on choice and flexibility, and if there are unnecessary restrictions that harm economic activity and prevent young people from entering the workforce when they want to, that is clearly not a good thing for our count…”

“The facts are there for all to see. As I was saying, it is vital that we support the business community, and that includes small businesses. So often the narrative is about large multinationals, but it is SMEs and small business owners who drive our country forward and employ people across the country, especially young…”

“Time and again, we in the Opposition try to make the point that it is not the result of any one particular policy; it is the overall environment. We do not, as a state or as a Government, create jobs; it is businesses that create jobs, and they need to know that the Government are behind them. They need to know that th…”

“I will always agree on the need for financial literacy, but the point we are making today is that we believe in work—work as a route out of poverty, work as a way to increase the prosperity of this country—and we are highlighting the red tape that is now strangling businesses and preventing them from hiring young worke…”

“In a written answer to me last month, the Government revealed that the Army is conducting a review of its reserve basic training. I believe that this was the first time that was disclosed to this House. Will the Secretary of State commit to putting the terms of reference for that review in the Library of the House, and…”

“Our most critical supply chains are those that are directly linked to our national security. From autonomous vehicles to blast protection, British small and medium-sized enterprises are the vital link in the supply chain, ensuring that our armed forces have the capabilities to face down our adversaries. The Government …”

“I just want an answer! Defence SMEs have said that the delay of the defence investment plan caused great uncertainty and disruption to the sector. In addition, they are completely confused by this Government’s endless offices, initiatives and quangos. Will the Minister commit—if he is still in position in a few weeks’ …”

“I am grateful for that very comprehensive answer to a very different question—less of an answer, more of an interpretive dance.”

“It is a pleasure to serve on the Committee and to see you in the Chair, Mr Efford, and of course to see the Minister. I refer Committee members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, particularly my prior career in asset management, which involves some of the structures we are debating today. I th…”

“Let me build on that, because I think you make a very good point on the issue about fixed payments versus tiers and tariffs. My reflection, particularly after watching the evidence session, is that—obviously—different claimants will have different views about how they want to be treated. Some will want to be heard, hav…”

“They are for up to the end of the financial year.”

“Shall I come on to Windrush? Obviously, I had the opportunity to review the scheme when I came into the Department. When I stand back—the NAO Report set this out very clearly—the original mistake was opening the scheme before the case-working capacity was stood up. Right from the start, you understandably had an initia…”

“On the first point, about the scope and scale of the Post Office schemes, what surprised me when I came into the role in 2023 was the lack of grip on the data in the Post Office, which partly reflected the problems with the underlying Horizon scheme—the IT platform. Their ability to produce accurate estimates of the sc…”

“Claimants should be able to get redress within an acceptable timeframe, and obviously 1,200 days sounds completely unacceptable. I dug into specific cases; I am cautious about how much individual detail we can reveal in a public forum, but as I touched on, the longest cases will typically—not always, but typically—be w…”

“I am Gareth Davies. I am permanent secretary at the Home Office, and I have been here for six weeks. Prior to that, I was in the Department for Business and Trade, where I was permanent secretary and responsible for the Post Office redress schemes with Carl.”

“I will give you a couple of reflections from my time being responsible before I pass to Carl. As the report set out, these schemes are trying to do three things. They are trying to provide accurate redress for the individuals, so there is something about being specific; do it with a sense of speed and pace, given the i…”

“The first thing to say is that you do not rebuild trust overnight. There has been a catastrophic failure of the state here, so we need to make ourselves trustworthy. That is the first point. What is really important about these sorts of schemes is that the risk, when we start looking at metrics and performance data, is…”

“Yes, totally. The people who are applying to these schemes have suffered an incredible wrong—a horrific wrong. Quite rightly, we are not trustworthy in their eyes because of the failings of the state over those years. Large backlogs at early points just compound the sense of not taking this seriously. We have needed to…”

“I do not want to give you false assurances. I do not have a plan in place in terms of timelines and deadlines, but yes, I want to come back to you on exactly what we are doing. I see this not as a once-and-done thing; this is changing the way in which the Department needs to operate and the way in which officials think…”

“I have heard similar concerns about the level of transparency in the system. I think it is fair to say that when the scheme was initially set up it was, as I mentioned, a bit of a black box: you would put your application in and, because of capacity issues in the team, it would often take over five months before the in…”