Speeches by Dean.

“I am not sure I have fully kept up with all the cuckooing there.”

“Professor Lawrence, I was struck earlier when you talked about the data monopolies of the largest tech firms. I have a statistic here: 90% of UK banks rely on AI from Google, Microsoft and Amazon. They obviously have a huge amount of power. If companies emerge, they tend to acquire them. DeepMind is an example of that …”

“My question was what your criteria would be for assessing why those were strong candidates. Would there be other sectors that you would rule out, potentially because it might put off other investors, and you are trying to crowd in capital? Can you explain in which scenarios you would want to go for the equity option, a…”

“We asked other panellists earlier about the differences between British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund. Is it clear to you which one you should be going to? Do you think that the National Wealth Fund is the right fit for you?”

“We had quite a discussion about equity during the first panel. You do not fear that it would put off private investors? Do you think that it is a good way for the Government to make an investment?”

“I am thinking about how the National Wealth Fund could provide you with capital. There are lots of different options out there—we have talked about guarantees and equity stakes. Is there any preferred method for you, or are you open-minded?”

“Of course, the National Wealth Fund is also looking at meeting the Government’s own objectives. Do you think there will be alignment with what you are trying to do as well?”

“Dr Turner, I will turn to you now, and we will play back some of those questions to you as well, but in your evidence you spoke about private investors sometimes being reluctant to invest in infrastructure in your industry because of the uncertain market conditions. Can you explain to us how the National Wealth Fund mi…”

“I was going to ask a question about PuFIns—I am not sure if anyone else has come across this term; we discovered it recently to describe public financial institutions. I do not know if you are familiar with it. My question is more about the confusion between the different ones we have. The National Wealth Fund and the …”

“My question was what your criteria would be for assessing why those were strong candidates. Would there be other sectors that you would rule out, potentially because it might put off other investors, and you are trying to crowd in capital? Can you explain in which scenarios you would want to go for the equity option, a…”

“I think that the public would understand well that they should share in the profits. I guess the push-back would be, “Why wouldn’t you do that on every project?”, because you would presumably want to go for a different type of investment option according to the project. Can you explain to us in which cases an equity po…”

“Mr Kumar, you have written some interesting things about the National Wealth Fund being encouraged to take up more equity positions. Could you expand on why you think it should do that?”

“I know we said to be cautious about the Canadian example, but I also have something here that says it has been criticised for deploying its capital too slowly. Does anyone have anything to say to that point?”

“That is fine. Is what I am hearing that, perhaps because it is such a nascent institution and it needs to build up a track record, the fund should be slightly more cautious, although not too cautious, because you do not want to crowd out private sector investment? Going straight away for a very risky approach could set…”

“Professor Lee, if I can come to you first. I was interested when you talked about the Canadian experience. They seem to have a much higher risk appetite. The National Wealth Fund has set a target to make a positive return for the Exchequer, and we have been discussing in Committee, in previous sittings, whether that is…”

“You mentioned that the Government sometimes need to be clear about what in their calculation is dependent on the framework and what are just political decisions. The example that springs to mind is the announcements on transport infrastructure, in which there seemed to be nothing for London this time. There may be high…”

“Dr Tetlow, my question is about the Green Book review that happened alongside the spending review. Commentators sometimes criticise the “Treasury brain” in a derogatory way, and often point a finger at the Green Book as being part of the problem. It seems, on the surface, that the review was trying to address a lot of …”

“I suspect that also applies to the carers themselves, who might be withdrawing from the workforce to take on caring responsibilities.”

“Ms Miller, you talked about social care. Obviously, the reforms have been pushed down the track, and it seems like we are not going to get major changes in that area for a number of years yet. To what extent will that stop the NHS getting back on its feet?”

“Does a 2% fall in health R&D spending make you fear that we might be missing out on some opportunities for R&D gain? For instance, lots of people in my inbox talk about AI-related innovations that they think they can implement in the NHS, whether in appointment-booking systems or in other processes, to create efficienc…”