Speeches by Mahmood.

“Well, we have taken out of scope of the consultation those who are in care or who have arrived unaccompanied in the country. There were a set of commitments made in the immigration White Paper by my predecessor, Yvette Cooper, on children who have been here for most of their lives and who only at 18 discover that they …”

“I think that’s the job, in a funny way. Sorry to be quite basic about it, but we are designing a new system, and obviously I have to make sure that the Home Office is capable of delivering it, but it is not unusual for us to have rule changes at least twice a year anyway. They are often technical, and they sometimes re…”

“I think what is fair is that a Government and a country should be able to respond to the circumstances that they face. We have two set-piece rule changes every year, usually in April and then in the autumn for immigration rule changes. It is not uncommon for us to change our rules. These are obviously bigger changes, b…”

“No, it is our ability to get people on a plane and get them back to France. We are having claims all the time. On our side, we have had practical and legal hurdles to overcome; on the French side, there are practical hurdles to overcome as well.”

“I think almost every mistake that could have been made has probably been made. The thing I am confident about is that there is a bit more rigour in making sure that we have learned those lessons from what has gone wrong before. It is obviously always tricky to move to a new model and a new design of providing accommoda…”

“There has already been lots of digital transformation at the Home Office, with all the attendant traumas and difficulties that that usually entails, but I do not envisage that these changes are going to break the system, as it were. It will be my job to make sure that that is not what is happening. There are some chang…”

“And we shouldn’t have been in hotels either. Those are policy choices that have been made previously. The difficult factor in what you are saying is more about, as I say, the alternatives and how you transition to a better model for—”

“Look, I think we are just going to have to have a point of disagreement between us, but as I say, I have asked for an independent review of those contracts. It will report to me with findings. We do not need a break clause to get out of hotels, which I know is the thing that has caused the outcry about people profiteer…”

“What you are describing is the core of what the ultimate treaty intended to try to achieve, but to get there, those are much bigger numbers, and they would be challenging both for us and the French. That is why the agreement stops—”

“I know that these contracts have caused quite some consternation among a number of different parliamentarians, and I know that they are of interest to this Committee. Obviously, I inherited these contracts and we are trying to make the best of them. I think that the actual contract management itself has improved, becau…”

“Let me reassure my hon. Friend that we will ensure that the roll-out of all policing powers, including the use of technology, is in line with the race action plan, which we support, and that any measures are stress-tested to ensure that they serve all communities equally. It is our position that the police must always …”

“I can assure the hon. Gentleman that there will be local policing areas within the new regional forces, with neighbourhood policing as the absolute bedrock of those local policing areas. I would not be bringing forward these reforms if I was not absolutely certain that we are absolutely protecting local policing in the…”

“I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for his support, I believe, for at least some of the reforms, particularly those on neighbourhood policing. He is absolutely right: neighbourhood policing is critical and will be bedrock of the new policing model unveiled in the White Paper. We have already made progress on inc…”

“Dear me! I will take no lectures on policing from the Conservatives. They had 14 years in government and delivered no meaningful change beyond decimating neighbourhood policing, introducing the failed experiment of police and crime commissioners, and sweeping away meaningful targets to hold our police forces to account…”

“My hon. Friend is right to say that too many of our police forces are distracted from being able to police their local communities because they are dealing with national level issues, including national issues relating to public order. All those functions will ultimately sit within the new National Police Service, but …”

“I thank the right hon. Member for his contribution and for his service, as well as that of other hon. Members who have served in our police service. I reassure him that, as will be clear when I introduce legislation later in the year, the plan for regional forces will include an absolute focus on local police areas. Lo…”

“My hon. Friend is right. The National Police Service will draw in the national responsibilities of both counter-terror policing and the National Crime Agency. Those two organisations collaborate very effectively, and I pay tribute to their leadership and the way in which they operate alongside one another, but they dup…”

“I bow to the hon. Gentleman’s greater knowledge of House of Commons trivia; I am sure that he has been an excellent member of every pub quiz team that he has ever been a part of. The review will look at how we deliver regional forces, so it will mean a significant reduction in the number of forces. However, it will adv…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I think we could make a lot of progress if we could ensure that the victims’ code was implemented consistently across the country, and I know the Justice Secretary also wishes to make sure there is greater adherence to all the requirements of the code. In the end, policing is a publi…”

“One of the real issues with the Police Scotland reforms was that they were completed within one year. I have made a deliberate decision to phase in these proposals and measures over a number of years—towards the end of this Parliament and into the next. I make no apology for that proposed timeline, because I believe we…”