Speeches by Carling.

“If that is available, that would be really helpful. No worries if it is not. Does anyone have any anecdotal thoughts on the extent to which we are seeing senior officers having to deal with abuse from councillors?”

“Sorry, no; as in the level of abuse that senior officers and chief execs are getting. Did you get any sense of how much of it is public access versus councillors causing that?”

“First to you, Kim. We have seen a SOLACE survey that highlighted how 81% of chief executives and senior officers in local authorities experienced abuse or intimidation in the previous year. Do you have any sense of what level of that came from councillors versus the general public?”

“That is really useful. It chimes with some experiences I am having locally at the moment, where we have a councillor who has published the work addresses of another councillor and encouraged a lot of personal vitriol in my authority, which is really difficult. It is interesting hearing that point you have made around t…”

“That is helpful. I guess that sounds almost like sentencing guidelines, maybe.”

“I just wanted to say that in terms of the suspension or dismissal of councillors that the Chair mentioned, or preventing from standing in future elections, is it made easier, in your view, if there is a time limit on it? I am just looking here at the Government response from November 2025 to the most recent consultatio…”

“Does it work, or does it need to change?”

“I would like to move into the online space a little now. Matt, in written evidence you have raised the issue of how much political activity is happening online, and we have mentioned it a little today, and how that interacts with the standards system. Are you able to give us a bit of clarity on what aspects of politica…”

“That is really helpful. We are having a lot of these issues locally in terms of particular situations as well, so I very much appreciate that. Iain, I particularly value that point around the training because with the Government bringing in a minimum code of conduct across councils, that problem may well intensify in t…”

“Is it not?”

“That is really useful. The point about timeliness resonates with me. I did some work with the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, which took seven years, and then I think the recommendations were released on the day Liz Truss resigned, so that did not quite go to plan in terms of the news cycle.”

“I was taking it more from the kind of procedural angle of whether it creates questions about the House of Lords’ powers.”

“I have a few questions on public inquiries and the landscape in that respect. There have been some changes to the public inquiry system, including the change to the ministerial code, requiring Cabinet Office and Prime Minister input before new inquiries are launched. You have previously said that the Government were co…”

“I do recognise that.”

“Okay, fair enough.”

“Following on from Charlotte’s questions around the hereditary peers Bill and the delays to it, I want to ask briefly about the terminally ill adults Bill, which is obviously a private Member’s Bill currently in the House of Lords. Regardless of people’s positions on that particular piece of legislation, there are ongoi…”

“So it is more of a backstop power, just in case something unforeseen happens.”

“That is helpful. I do not know whether there will be tension between a particular Department being scrutinised by this Committee and its usual Committee, or how that would work, but I think that is a useful reflection. Under section 14 of the Inquiries Act, Ministers have the power to close an inquiry following consult…”

“I have had dialogue with them, but it is just about the broader point on when those changes happen and how we track that.”

“On transparency—I appreciate that this is a particular example, and I am not asking you to comment on it—I am working on an issue on which the Home Office, and indeed the Prime Minister, have committed repeatedly to implementing a particular recommendation: recommendation 13 from the independent inquiry into child sexu…”