Speeches by Wilson.

“One other way of improving the situation, of course, is to look at the whole picture. The EA is not the only body that has flood defences under its control. What collaboration do you have with other flood defence agencies—whether it is local authorities or whatever it happens to be—in ensuring that we get the best valu…”

“Mr Duffy, you have probably touched on this in one of the answers you gave to the Chairman, but you mentioned the need to change the balance between the capital spend and the revenue spend to maintain the structures we have now. Does that mean that you need your funding from the Government to change from capital to rev…”

“Is there a full register of all of the anti-flood assets across all of the various bodies? If not, is there any work being done to achieve that?”

“That improves the situation, I suppose, for people where there are already flood defences, but they need to be strengthened or maintained or whatever. What does that do to your programme for the people who have no flood defence at present and have been promised flood defences? If there is that shift, what kind of cuts …”

“Is there a full register of all of the anti-flood assets across all of the various bodies? If not, is there any work being done to achieve that?”

“I realise that time is up, but there are questions about the Online Safety Act, which we had high hopes for. Maybe we do not have time for responses but if I put the questions, you could come back on them. First, the Act is now in place and phase 1 requirements are with you; what actions have you taken to comply with t…”

“Is the implication of that post not, “Here is someone who should finish up the same way as David Amess did”? That is the conclusion I would take from that.”

“As an addition to that, even if those comments are not reported, what filter do you have to identify them? Why should this be the responsibility of the MP?”

“Mr Duffy, you have probably touched on this in one of the answers you gave to the Chairman, but you mentioned the need to change the balance between the capital spend and the revenue spend to maintain the structures we have now. Does that mean that you need your funding from the Government to change from capital to rev…”

“One other way of improving the situation, of course, is to look at the whole picture. The EA is not the only body that has flood defences under its control. What collaboration do you have with other flood defence agencies—whether it is local authorities or whatever it happens to be—in ensuring that we get the best valu…”

“That improves the situation, I suppose, for people where there are already flood defences, but they need to be strengthened or maintained or whatever. What does that do to your programme for the people who have no flood defence at present and have been promised flood defences? If there is that shift, what kind of cuts …”

“I also welcome Sir Wyn’s report. It reminds us of the cynical, dishonest and illegal behaviour of Post Office and Fujitsu officials, who caused so much misery to so many people who were doing an honest job and were wrongly accused. The Minister rightly said that he is determined to move on and get redress for those vic…”

“To follow on from Mr Betts’ last question, I think this is the point he was trying to get at. This isn’t just an offence against an MP or someone who is standing to be an MP. It is an offence against the whole democratic system; the whole point is to try to disrupt the electoral process. In a case like that, what power…”

“May I just follow up on that, please?”

“It does depend on the priority that the CPS give—if it states, “We believe it is essential to have the courts sitting quickly.” The point I was trying to get at is whether there is anything that can be done to ensure that, for events in an election, it is not just left to the discretion of the CPS, and there is clear g…”

“We saw examples last summer, and examples recently in Northern Ireland, in which the incident happens one night and the perpetrators are in court the next day, or the day after. What steps need to be taken to ensure that that rapidity of justice occurs during an election campaign? Maybe you could run us through the pro…”

“A lot of the abuse is designed either to damage candidates during an election campaign or to deter them. I have witnessed that with some of the female candidates in my own party in Northern Ireland: the abuse is designed to deter them and others from going out canvassing. It is important that the law and the process sh…”

“By their very nature, many of the offences will be against an MP, although that may be the conduit for disrupting the electoral system. While we are not wanting to have, as you suggested, special offences for particular individuals, the two things are intertwined—the MP is the victim because of the attack on the system…”

“It does depend on the priority that the CPS give—if it states, “We believe it is essential to have the courts sitting quickly.” The point I was trying to get at is whether there is anything that can be done to ensure that, for events in an election, it is not just left to the discretion of the CPS, and there is clear g…”

“We saw examples last summer, and examples recently in Northern Ireland, in which the incident happens one night and the perpetrators are in court the next day, or the day after. What steps need to be taken to ensure that that rapidity of justice occurs during an election campaign? Maybe you could run us through the pro…”