Speeches by Carling.

“Fine. So the particular problem occurred in August 2023, but you must have been able to see it coming. There was the long-term decline, and I think the board were very much—”

“They were aware of that. But the point they specifically made in September was that they were not aware of the recent fall. How do we reconcile that?”

“Fine. Just to clarify, I asked whether it was a case of the board not being proactive enough or not being informed of the problem. Was it the former?”

“I just want to come in very briefly, having now found those December 2022 meeting minutes. There is a mention of the survey response rate in them. Under a larger item about the TLFS and an update on that project, there is one sentence that says, “Labour market statistics have declined in quality over recent years follo…”

“Very briefly, was it meeting those three things? Was it setting strategy?”

“That is helpful. I am going to put my first question to you again, if I may, because although you covered content that is useful, it did not quite hit the first question I asked. Can you outline a little more what you think the role of the board is and whether it has been effective? I suppose, from what you have just b…”

“Thank you. That is all really helpful context. I actually asked Ed Humpherson, when we had him in front of the Committee, whether he thought the board ought to be split between the two organisations. Interestingly, he had the opposite perspective. One of the questions I was going to ask you was, “Isn’t it a governance …”

“More broadly on the governance and the board, can you outline your perspective on the role of the board a little more and give us a sense of whether you think they discharged their function effectively during your time in office?”

“May I move on to a couple of broader questions on the board, unless there is anything more specific on that point?”

“Okay. The board chair said to us in a previous session that he made the point to you that he should have seen it, but did not. Your reply, as he put it, was, “Look, you’ve seen it now and we’ve acted on it.” Do you regret that approach?”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Does the Minister agree that developing the defence industry in Huntingdonshire will unlock local growth and prosperity? Can he outline how we will support skills development to ensure my constituents can access these opportunities?”

“Last week, I visited RAF Wyton in Huntingdonshire, which employs many of my constituents. Under the new cyber and specialist operations command, Wyton provides a critical part of our defence intelligence, and the plans to expand the work of the base will provide significant career opportunities for my constituents in n…”

“7. What steps he is taking to improve skills in the defence sector.”

“In January, the sewer on Church Street in Northborough, a village in my constituency, collapsed. After several attempts by Anglian Water, it still has not been fixed eight months later. This means a risk of contamination, and because of road closures, it is causing huge potholes on surrounding roads. Householders on Ch…”

“Thank you very much, Chairman. Thank you to everyone for giving me the opportunity to present this application. I have a fairly rural constituency with a significant number of farmers in it, and I am regularly approached by that community about the impact of import standards on their business. What I mean by that, esse…”

“A variety of things. As I say, the key thing is to stress to the Government, going forward with trade deals, that this is something that matters a lot to our constituents and to the country more broadly, particularly those farming communities who we really need to show that we are supporting. It gives us an opportunity…”

“I don’t think there is any dispute that that’s fine, because the House isn’t sitting; that’s how things need to work, realistically. To conclude, in the light of all these factors that you have to balance, and this Ministerial Code which is quite clear in what it says, and may be quite difficult to balance sometimes, t…”

“A lot of my planned questions were about whether the code needs to change, but a lot of people have dipped into that as we have gone through, so if you think you have already answered anything I ask, please just say so.”

“That is useful. On the point about giving Members appropriate time to scrutinise documents before their question, I personally find that to be the most important factor. I would rather have it the day before—that would be the situation if it were up to me—so that I could come with a properly informed question to the Mi…”

“I am just making the point generally. There is probably a diversity of views on this, and it is difficult to ascertain exactly what the best way forward is.”