Speeches by Hoare.

“Your belief?”

“So to be clear, you are not aware of third sector organisations providing clinical services that would be in breach of the Act because they were not registered?”

“Okay. You have added that caveat. Let me remind you of the questions I have asked you. Are you aware, or were you aware, of third sector organisations providing clinical services in breach of the Act, irrespective of its outdatedness or complexity? The Act is the Act, unless it is reviewed or revoked. Were you aware of…”

“Notwithstanding your heavy head cold, chief executive, this one is directed at you. We have been informed of alleged instances of third sector organisations providing clinical services in breach of the Care Standards Act 2000, due to a failure to register with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales. Are you aware of these conce…”

“I am not questioning that.”

“It sounds as if it is quite hard, notwithstanding possibly the best personal relationships on a professional level, to try to identify what is best, what good looks like, what cost-efficient looks like and what efficient looks like, as it is done board by board. Is that fair? It is not a criticism, but it is a reflecti…”

“The Committee has been told in written evidence that prison healthcare in Wales is “very disjointed”. I am tempted to say, not as a criticism, that your answers have understandably indicated that to be a true statement. Do you share the assessment that it is disjointed, and would you support bringing all prison healthc…”

“Okay. We will look forward to receiving some sort of written submission on that. Thank you.”

“Do you think that is a data gap that might be worth filling?”

“So those figures exist, but you do not have them to hand, which is perfectly fine—or is it that those figures do not exist?”

“I suppose Ms Thomas, and perhaps Rhys Jones may have a word or two on that.”

“None of us will have been surprised to hear from Ms Thomas about the issues of mental health and substance abuse and dependency. Those stark statistics stand out when comparing the non-prison and prison populations. Can we drill into those issues a little? It may well be that you need to provide an answer in writing. H…”

“I share the hon. Gentleman’s view on European co-operation. Does he agree that it would be more than helpful—particularly in the face of Russian aggression, and of the American retraction from European defence that he mentions—if the French Government took another look at how the United Kingdom could be involved in a s…”

“Do you see a role for your position? I see the role of a commissioner as twofold: first, to represent a constituency of interest, but also to report back, inform and “educate” that constituency of interest; it is a two-way street. Do you see your role as commissioner as being to try to help—as I caveated, I am not a la…”

“Is there a commonality view on the panel? I rather detect that there is. It would be useful—picking up on Mr McVey’s point—to capture the fact that it is hard to see how one could meaningfully cover those constituencies of interest with a cap of seven.”

“Thank you for that answer, and thank you for what you are doing.”

“There is obviously the risk of duplication of work and effort. Is there the potential of duplication of people? You have mentioned that there will be between three and seven, but if you have one group of people involved in your commission who meet the criteria and the skillset, it is not going to be the biggest of pond…”

“I hope I was clear: I was not suggesting that you had.”

“Can I just ask for your thoughts on this aspect? I will caveat it: I am not a lawyer. I sometimes become concerned when I hear people saying it is vexatious—I am slightly picking up the point that Ms Hanna was just making. I think most people understand that there are a number of hurdles that any potential case has to …”

“I am not sure that this is particularly fruitful, given the time.”