Speeches by Munt.

“Thank you. Do you agree with the findings of Chris Henley’s review?”

“Where else did you consider placing your office, because, clearly, there is a difficulty with being in the centre of Birmingham or wherever you are? Where else did you think about putting your office? Government operates all over the country in all sorts of places. If you cannot get people to come to the office, why do…”

“I always have more questions, Chair.”

“Forgive me, I just want to pick up on this business of perceived independence. We have already heard this afternoon about how the previous chair held several positions at that business school in Fontainebleau that you attended. She was also chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission. Certainly, if I was inside a pri…”

“I am just amazed. Sorry, Sarah, if you do not mind—”

“Okay, and you did not think it was strange, bearing in mind all the work that you had put in over many years, that suddenly this popped up. The comment was made to me that, having had a 7.5% pay rise, you then received a bonus in the order of £8,000 to £9,000, possibly £10,000—I don’t have the accurate figure—a month b…”

“Okay. Can you remember what sum of money you were paid?”

“Really?”

“What might have provoked those payments?”

“You said you did not receive bonuses generally.”

“Unusual?”

“Okay, fine. Have you ever received a bonus?”

“While we are talking about caring for people and working conditions, I wondered if I might just ask you this. You receive bonuses, I presume, every year. You don’t?”

“Thank you.”

“So what you are saying to me is that the recommendation Chris Henley made about every case—all cases that related to the possibility of where there were DNA opportunities that might need to be looked at again—is in train, because you have adopted all his recommendations, and that is happening.”

“And others.”

“What is the trigger for that? Clearly there has been a big problem in the past, hasn’t there, if no one recognises the importance of somebody who is in prison saying, “I wasn’t there,” and you have DNA evidence? We have several cases, have we not, where the DNA evidence for the person who has been convicted was not evi…”

“Okay, that is fine. Thank you very much indeed. What of other scientific expertise? You said that you have changed the way that you operate, so how often do you employ forensic experts and specialists?”

“Everybody is trained already.”

“Is that three times a year, or whatever you said—”