Speeches by Carling.

“I can. I was pulling together a mix of different quotations; I can find the longer ones if you would prefer, Chair.”

“Happily. The charity chair sent the victim repeated messages saying that she is “nothing”, asked her for sexually explicit photos of her twin sister from now and from when she was “young”, called her a “serf”, and, in one case, tried to video-call her seven times at 4.30 in the morning.”

“He is still active.”

“I have the Charities Act up here. Section 181A prescribes three conditions to disqualify a person, all of which must be met. First, “the person is unfit to be a charity trustee or trustee for a charity”—yes. Secondly, “making the order is desirable in the public interest”—yes. Then, thirdly, at least one of six more de…”

“Yes, but his wife is.”

“The law does not require someone to remain a charity trustee for you to take action against them. Even if he had stepped down, surely it would still be the commission’s role to say, “Look, this person is a menace. Clearly, we need to disqualify this person. We cannot just accept the fact that they have gone.” He could …”

“I do not think I can get any further with this line of questioning, Chair.”

“I accept that the commission has been advocating for changes to policy on a number of areas on this. I take a lot of interest in this policy area, so I know that the commission has been working on it. I also think the commission has not been anywhere near proactive enough in relation to certain powers that you have, as…”

“With respect, that does not answer my question. In this case, there were ongoing concerns and the case was closed. Mr Holdsworth, you recently made comments around how the decisions of the police and others supersede yours as the regulator in relation to how serious someone’s conduct is. Yet we still have not heard whe…”

“Does the right hon. Lady not recognise that action and a ban will not necessarily be the same thing? This is a really nuanced policy area. Quite recently, there was a huge online joint letter published by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Molly Rose Foundation, the Internet Watch Found…”

“My hon. Friend is citing some shocking evidence, and I will be sure to listen to the Committee session later. On her comments about Meta not believing that its platforms are addictive, does she agree that the problem goes more broadly than just children? Lots of adults have issues with social media addiction, and a soc…”

“Do we have a sense of when the Public Office (Accountability) Bill will complete its passage through Parliament?”

“Sorry, I was quoting. The EIC has been tasked with examining “current concerns about the standards of conduct of all public office holders, and report annually to the Prime Minister on the health of standards in public life”.”

“I have a couple of questions on what you said there. You mentioned the EIC not taking on casework. What is your perspective on the risk that potentially without that direct exposure to the issues that are coming up within the standards regime daily the EIC could have a bit of a limited perspective on some issues, and t…”

“Again, I am following up on what has been discussed around the lobbying landscape. I appreciate waiting for the responses to a lot of the work the EIC is doing, but at the moment do the Government have a particular view on the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists and whether that has the powers it needs, or …”

“It is useful to know that work is going on. The EIC has been tasked with examining “current concerns about standards of conduct of all public office holders, and report annually to the Prime Minister on the health of standards in public life”, which will be done in the form of an annual letter, which we discussed a lit…”

“That is a useful way of looking at that. Of course the EIC has also been tasked with advising public authorities on the development of clear codes of conduct that will complement the new requirement from the Public Office (Accountability) Bill. What is the Government’s vision for how the EIC will carry out that respons…”

“On that topic of the network it has, the EIC is currently running an inquiry into the UK’s ombudsman sector and its different strands. When you were setting up the EIC, was it the Government’s intention for it to have that broader remit and look at public service effectiveness and efficiency as well as integrity? Is th…”

“That is a useful perspective. I noticed on the EIC website that the terms of reference that set it up are very short, but also very broad. I suppose that gives you a lot of space. Do you think that gives you the flexibility to examine different issues or does it create a problem in focus?”

“On those inquiries, given the status that we have just talked about and the EIC’s positioning, how are you able to make sure that recommendations are implemented? What mechanisms are available to the EIC to follow up, to track progress, and to challenge where the Government are not implementing recommendations? Where a…”