"I have to say that this is one of the areas of concern that I pick up constantly. I am assured that work is in progress to ensure that we have a telephone that we can pick up and put a call through on, and it will work...." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"Perhaps I should be formal and say that the Companion is very clear about asking supplementary questions that do not engage the main Question. However, I will say on this occasion in good will that I spent 10 minutes with the Yeoman Usher this morning looking at the door, ensuring …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"My Lords, I thank noble Lords who are coming off committees for their work. I also place on record my considerable thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Newby, whose term as Leader of the Liberal Democrats ends on Thursday. I am most grateful for his significant contribution to committee work, …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"My Lords, this is a very serious matter. As I have said before, the backdrop to this is that the Murphy review, as validated by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, found that the West Front and this part of the Palace had considerable vulnerabilities. The director of …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"My Lords, it is unacceptable that the Peers’ Entrance does not operate as it should. The commission has directed urgent work to resolve this. The commission agreed an exception to release the costs of the work at Peers’ Entrance, particularly as much of the cost relates to building and infrastructure …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"I will need to take some of that away so that I get the precise answer. To deal with the noble Lord’s first question, one of the areas I think we have not been good at—by we, I mean the administration, candidly—is project delivery capability. One of the reasons it …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"The noble Lord makes a very valid point; this is something that has troubled me for some time. On the particular matter of the Peers’ Entrance, the project business case has undergone a process of standard professional scrutiny. The clerks of both Houses ultimately scrutinised and approved those costs following …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech
"My Lords, again I have to preface this with what the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, said. I am not directly responsible for all this. My understanding is that the cost originally was £6.1 million. There were changes because of planned patterns of work and technical issues. One of the particular …..." Lord Gardiner of Kimble - View Speech