Speeches by Bryant.

“I am grateful, Chair, for your comment that 60% of what the Committee recommended in this area is being adopted by the Government. That is certainly the case. I know there are a couple of areas where we disagree. I wanted to make this offer to the Committee: if you can come up with a specific power that you think we ne…”

“It is not for the UK exporter.”

“On any of the above, or indeed on the patron of the legislation or whether it will be in the King’s Speech. Some of those matters will be for the Leader of the House rather than the Cabinet Office.”

“This is the only time that I am going to do this, but I am afraid that that is a matter for the Cabinet Office, not for me. So far as I am aware, a decision has not yet been made.”

“We have extremely rigorous food standards in the UK, and we are not going to surrender them. Incidentally, that does not just apply in relation to the United States of America. When we were having the conversation in relation to India, there was some question about cheese, and it is exactly the same set of issues. We h…”

“I completely agree. It is one of the things that I have been committed to for a very long time. When I was a Minister in the Foreign Office, I suspended the Turks and Caicos Government because of allegations of corruption there. Oddly enough, I appointed Rob Rinder as the lawyer to deal with it. We, as a Government, ar…”

“I think that both you and I were involved in this debate in 2008, 2009, 2010 and all the way through the 14 years of the other Government. It has been like pulling teeth to try to get all the overseas territories to sign up. In 2010, there was a moment when I thought we might be able to achieve it on the back of the 20…”

“I get all of that, and I am in favour of as much transparency for the public as is possible and achievable, but I do not want to stray too far beyond my certain knowledge.”

“I am making a slightly confused face, because I was about to answer you in relation to beneficial ownership and the overseas territories, which I do know about, but I do not know the problems that there may be in the UK. I am afraid that this is something that I might have to write to you about—all my officials look as…”

“We have two ears and one mouth.”

“Point taken.”

“Anyone who lies to HMRC in a way that affects what tax, duty or tariff they pay is—”

“It is always an offence to lie to HMRC.”

“I apologise—I signed it off, but it has not got to you yet.”

“It might be helpful if we wrote to you to tell you how much that happens.”

“I am afraid that you are not going to get any more out of me, Chair. It is not entirely my area of responsibility. We took a position in DBT that we were going to suspend some of the licences. The Foreign Office had made an adjudication that there was a real risk of Israel not abiding by international humanitarian law,…”

“Not in the coherent way that I think you are asking me to stand up an argument around. Of course, we have heard people make an argument for that to us, and we are not deaf.”

“We could talk about the broader policy on Israel and Gaza at some length, though that is not my particular area of responsibility. Having looked a bit at what Ireland and Spain are trying to do—I think they are really the frontrunners in this—I would say that they are struggling to create legislation that they think wi…”

“I think we need to take concrete steps—obviously in accordance with international law, which is one of the things we have to bear in mind—to counter settlement expansion. The Minister for the Middle East and I are considering how we can best effect that. I do not know whether the Foreign Office wants to say anything mo…”

“Because we are keeping it under constant review.”