Speeches by Hoare.

“I have two questions to the Minister, if I may. I welcome the retreat from this Bill and this deal, which ill served the taxpayer and our national interest. First, are the Government now officially withdrawing the Bill, rather than merely pausing its passage through Parliament? Secondly, the Minister was very clear ear…”

“I take that point, but it is a no.”

“In trying to deliver what, laudably, the chief was saying just a moment ago about the need for greater stability to plan, what kind of uncertainty and disruption does it provide to the planning of policing, recruitment and indeed investment in kit and everything else, when there is this very ad hoc, “Put in a bid and s…”

“Just pausing there, walk us through this. In our report we will be making recommendations to Government. Is the rubric by which a request for ASF is made by you broadly the same? Notwithstanding inflation pressures and so on, are the sums requested virtually the same for virtually the same sort of things, year on year?”

“It is a no.”

“Are you able to tell us what sort of timeframe that has been going on for?”

“Just in the interests of time, I just want to explore this point. Has there been a time when an application for ASF has been made and 100% of the request has not been awarded? You may need to write to us on this.”

“I appreciate the need to sustain it, but, in your assessment, is it sufficient?”

“Maybe a note on that would be helpful, Chair. You will probably see where I am trying to land my question. This is an annual thing; it is not an extraordinary once-in-a-decade event. Surely, there has to be a better way of doing it to release your time, your colleagues’ time and indeed the time of those at Treasury fro…”

“Although it is a tick-box exercise in many respects, can you give us a handle on how long it takes you to prepare the business case? How long does it take the Treasury to analyse it before they pick up the telephone and go, “Ka-ching, you have got X”?”

“Chief Constable, Sir George Hamilton described the allocation of additional security funding when he gave evidence to us as being both “untidy” and “disjointed”. It requires regular business cases being made back to Treasury to ensure funding is continued. The Committee would be interested to hear about your experience…”

“As a former elections policy Minister and member of the defending democracy taskforce, may I thank the Secretary of State for launching this inquiry? I also thank Philip Rycroft for his work; it was a pleasure to give evidence to him during that process. I welcome the spirit in which the Secretary of State has brought …”

“I have one final question—ACC Beck has referenced this—about the inclusion of extreme right-wing and Islamist terrorism. A “yes”, “no” or “unsure” answer might suffice. Is the increased funding in the present spending review period sufficient to cover this new and evolving remit?”

“Yes, please.”

““Moderate” goes up because the vigilance is not there to keep it at “moderate”. “Moderate” does not happen by accident.”

“Is that a no?”

“I will come on to that directly.”

“Yes, I take your point.”

“The £474,000 awarded to Dorset council last week as part of the Chancellor’s announcement is welcome, but I must tell her that it really will not touch the sides; more will need to be done to support rural communities. Unwillingly and unwittingly, the Government will be profiteering through a massive hike in VAT and du…”

“Mine is 440.”