Thomas Mackintosh
Consultation reports

Angela Patrick asks Kemi Badenoch to clarify what she previously meant by the “government machine”, which she blames for the slow pace of the financial compensation system for subpostmasters.

Badenoch says: “It’s all the procedures, decisions, consultations, reviews, presentations, all those things that need to be done to evidence the decisions.

“In my opinion, no one wanted to stop compensation; there were people, rightly so, who wanted to make sure the money was worth it.

“But as there are more and more checks and balances, more and more accountability, more and more rules and regulations, these things have an impact and tend to slow down processes when all you want to do is get money out.”

Patrick asks who is responsible for fixing the so-called “government machine” if it is deemed “broken.”

Badenoch says it must be acknowledged that it is broken and that this is not a view shared by the new Labor government.

She says the reforms “need to be reviewed,” without specifying who or what would be responsible for doing so.