Speeches by Hoare.

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“Thank you.”

“I echo the Minister in thanking Rebecca Hilsenrath for the work she has done in stepping into an interim role and fulfilling that job with great distinction. I also thank the Prime Minister and the wider Cabinet Office for the speed with which they responded to the recommendation from the interview panel, which I had t…”

“I do my best.”

“Within that, do you see a role for S4C—and indeed for yourself as Chair, if confirmed—in ensuring that by the end of your term in office we see more people speaking Welsh and watching S4C comfortably? What priority do you see for assisting Welsh language education as part of your role as Chair?”

“Taking on board the minimum time requirements of your other roles, we are all very conscious of the scale of the task at hand, as you said in your answers. Notwithstanding your other non-S4C commitments, are you able to undertake that you would take on no further non-S4C time obligations?”

“Ms Evans, good afternoon. Given the recent history of S4C, to which you have alluded in earlier answers, a “steady the ship” approach might be seen as the dominant priority, and possibly even as the benchmark for success. You have also intimated that you see much wider demands. Could you set out for us your other prior…”

“I attended one of the primary schools in Cardiff that taught Welsh for a year, and then South Glamorgan county council described it as a dead or dying language and it was ended, so I share your celebration of the renaissance of Welsh education. You will have assessed S4C’s current strategic priorities. Some of those wi…”

“It also surely affects things such as property prices, and things such as the confidence of local businesses to invest if they are not entirely persuaded that as much as possible is being done, pro tem, to provide maximum security.”

“My next question is to Ms Elgar and Mr Collins. Mr Collins, in answer to the Chair’s question—forgive me if I have got the wrong end of the stick—you sounded slightly spiritually antipathetic towards the private sector, if I can put it that way. You have expressed concerns about the potential for private companies to e…”

“With respect, my question was about the selling of coal waste as well as extraction. It was not just on the extraction point.”

“Let us just tease that out for a moment, if we may. If the pressure to achieve the clean-up required an element of private sector involvement and private sector-generated funds, is that a ditch in which the whole process should die?”

“Can you flesh those out?”

“Could I ask you, Mr Banton, and indeed you, Ms De Longhi, for a word or two on your assessment of how dangerous opencast mines that have not been restored fully are?”

“Ms Elgar, what are your thoughts on that?”

“They go hand in hand, do they not?”

“Just on that point—and this is not a criticism—given the correct tightness of the regulatory environment in which companies now operate within the sector across the United Kingdom, although there may be motivations to be unscrupulous, the actual opportunity to operate in an unscrupulous way is surely now, at scale, nar…”

“That does not make them unscrupulous, does it? They are seeking your permission. That does not make them unscrupulous.”

“Yes, I am sure the Committee was aware of that. Let me just ask you about local authorities, which are great receptacles of expertise and local knowledge. How do you assess their expertise and capacity to undertake coal tip remediation? Could we possibly have just one answer to that, given time? Can anybody give a defi…”

“You would want us to warn against the slopey shoulders of the centre, either Westminster or Cardiff, passporting these duties off to local councils?”