Speeches by Bryant.

“And we are improving it. I think there are further areas where, on the back of our business conduct review, we may want to align ourselves more closely with the EU and, for that matter, other countries. I think that, as I said earlier, we need to do more in relation to anti-competitive practices around the world. But w…”

“Go on, Kate—I am still thinking about the last answer I gave.”

“Okay. I think it has teeth. But anyway—”

“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…”

“Yes.”

“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…”

“It is not for the UK exporter.”

“Obviously the US is a mixture of processes, because you have Congress and then you have the Administration. Trying to make all that work in harmony is an important part of what we are doing. I am not aware of us being behind Congress on any particular pieces of legislation, but, again, it is a Foreign Office responsibi…”

“Can I pick a year? I am very reluctant to give a timetable, unless the Foreign Office has a timetable in mind.”

“Can I say two things about that?”

“I cannot remember where we are going on that. Where are we going on that? That is for the Foreign Office, I think.”

“Just to explain, HMRC has responsibility for any goods that cross in or out of the border, hence why HMRC is here. OFSI is also Treasury, OTSI is us in DBT, and sanctions policy lies with the Foreign Office.”

“It is sort of the equivalent of the diversion that we are trying to tackle, where we sell something from the UK to a third country and it then goes into Russia—there is another version, just as is there is with oil; that is why we are taking action on crude oil that is refined in other countries, which will similarly b…”

“We are not—we have removed 99.6% of all imports. I can try to find out what the 0.4% is, if you want, but we have been about as comprehensive as possible. I have heard the comments made in previous debates about us relying on Russian oil and gas, but that is simply not the case.”

“Pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs.”

“Because it is effectively declaring our impotence in some regard, and it would also imply that we think we should sanction in this area but are choosing not to. I think it is an odd request, if I am honest.”

“We moved in October and December without the Americans, but with the EU.”

“I am not going to produce a list of things that we are not sanctioning—I think that would be a complete own goal.”