Speeches by Edwards.

“So you have only had an introductory meeting with the current Minister. How regularly do you anticipate meeting that Minister?”

“A final question from me. Hypothetically, if you had concerns about the performance of the national statistician, is it your understanding that you would have the power as chair to remove them?”

“You have previously expressed concerns about the way in which the Cabinet Office fails to appoint non-executive directors. Am I right in thinking that there has not been a risk and assurance NED on the board since May 2024?”

“That is helpful. Obviously it is appropriate to have somebody independent come in, but what was your view as chair? It would certainly be my understanding that you would be able to gauge cultural and performance issues yourself through your discussions, particularly in board. What were your views around those particula…”

“Some things that you have been discussing raised concerns about people in the senior leadership team at the time and perhaps the effectiveness of the board and the sub-committees—particularly the risk committee—underneath it. We have had a couple of reviews—the Devereux Review is one—of the ONS recently, but neither ha…”

“Over the last five or six years that we are looking at here, would you say that the management information that you were receiving was painting an overly rosy picture and that that did not enable you as a board to tackle some early warning signs that things were starting to go wrong?”

“Just on the management information point that you made, something that we have heard is that the papers that were going to the board were quite thin and repetitive. Would you agree with that assessment?”

“I will direct a question to Sir Robert Chote. Given the problems that we have been discussing this morning already—some of which have been described as systemic—do you think that you as chair and the UKSA board have been effective in your oversight of ONS?”

“Just a final question from me if I may. Obviously I want to look forward, but would you agree that those sustained failures that we have seen under the ONS also represent a failure in the board’s oversight?”

“Do you think the self-regulatory system has worked for civil servants, and do you have any comment on how effective the Cabinet Office has been in making sure there is a broad understanding about the system in Whitehall?”

“A final question from me, Chair. Just thinking back to the Greensill scandal, for instance, obviously some of the criticism levelled at David Cameron was after the two-year period. Do you think the two-year period is appropriate, or should it be reviewed?”

“You alluded earlier to the Government’s commitment to establish an ethics and integrity commission and maybe that you are not entirely convinced by that approach. I wonder if you could expand on that, and particularly where you see ACoBA sitting within the framework that the new Government are pursuing.”

“Thank you, that is helpful. Government are about priorities and about getting the desired outcomes. Would it be safe to say then that in your view, rather than establishing the commission, the Government should be focused on getting those outcomes, some of which you have discussed today, by other avenues, i.e. not prim…”

“I am just going back to John’s questions around workload. Back in 2020 when you had your pre-appointment hearing, you discussed the various success metrics by which you would judge your term. You had a number of those, but one was about the system becoming more self-regulatory in that people would not be applying for p…”

“I have been contacted by constituents who are concerned by media comments over the last week that suggest that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill may render sites of special scientific interest protections meaningless. Will the Secretary of State clarify the Bill’s position on this and outline what protections there …”

“I welcome today’s Second Reading of the Bill. I would like to focus on one aspect of the legislation: the removal of autism and learning disability from the definition of mental disorder under section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983. I recently visited a wonderful local charity, the Challenging Behaviour Foundation. It…”

“A recent Public Accounts Committee inquiry found that the Government still have substantial gaps in their understanding of how resilient their IT estate is to cyber-attack. It was really helpful to hear from the Minister about the work that is ongoing, but in the light of this very serious incident, will she and all De…”

“T9. Next week I will be visiting the site of a proposed project in my constituency that will create the only new interconnector between Great Britain and France, which can be built and operational by 2030, to help deliver the Government’s clean power mission. Ahead of the proposed UK-France summit this summer, will the…”

“Q12. The previous Government failed to properly support further and adult education over the past 14 years. In contrast, the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to technical qualifications has been encouraging. Last year’s Budget provided a welcome boost to some parts of the sector, but need and demand are outstrippin…”

“The invest in women taskforce aims to drive investment in female-powered businesses at every stage. That includes putting more money in the hands of female investors, as we know that women back women. Does the Minister agree that one solution to tackling the gender disparity in investment decision-making roles is to se…”