Speeches by Coghlan.

“Thanks so much for coming in this afternoon. We are all very worried about the UK productivity crisis in particular. Ms Mackintosh, how confident are you that AI will boost the productivity of financial services?”

“Excellent. Do you think that the MOD—given the billions it has wasted on Ajax, for example, with years of delays—is really the most credible vehicle to deliver the economic boost we need, and the extra defence spending?”

“Chancellor, I was very pleased to see in the spring statement, as you know, the focus on defence R&D to boost output and economic growth. Do you think that investment in defence can have a greater impact on growth than in other sectors?”

“You have just spoken about our allies. Would you consider, say, a customs union on defence procurement as one way of increasing our defence output?”

“It is easy to envisage that the path to 3% could, by necessity, happen sooner rather than later if international security conditions deteriorate further. Have you given any thought to how the UK will potentially fund that?”

“On the aid cut that you mentioned, by definition, surely we will see increases in infant mortality or disease outbreaks in developing countries from halting the programmes that we were previously funding.”

“I fully understand the issues you are talking about in forecasting productivity in the long run, and it seems entirely reasonable to me, but chart 2.4 shows you are forecasting a big bounce back in 2026. I acknowledge the issues, and my understanding is that part of that is just bringing productivity back to its long t…”

“Mr Johnson, I was struck by something you just said: we are obviously fiscally pretty loose, as you say, and we are running pretty hot in terms of our borrowing capabilities. Is it not slightly extraordinary that we are borrowing money and injecting it into the economy, and yet growth is going down, or is flat? That do…”

“Dr Saleheen, does investment in defence have a more significant positive impact on output and growth than other sectors? Of course, I am thinking about the Chancellor’s focus on using defence spending to boost economic growth and upgrade the long-term GDP forecast in the spring statement.”

“Do you think that the spending on defence is sufficient to turn the UK into a “defence industrial superpower”, as the Chancellor would like?”

“To be slightly more generous to the Government, they announced quite significant increases in both public investment and public R&D. Have you updated your fiscal multipliers and therefore your economic growth as a result of those announcements, and should you?”

“In total factor productivity. That seems quite brave given that productivity fell last year.”

“Because if I am reading chart 2.4 correctly, I think you have about a 0.3% bounce back next year.”

“So no significant bounce back.”

“Mr Johnson, how will the poorest economies be impacted by the cuts in aid, especially alongside what the US and other countries are doing?”

“I declare an interest as an alumnus of London Business School. The Chancellor will recall that in November, when she came to the Treasury Committee, I asked her to look at a London Business School paper on using specific public R&D on defence spending to boost economic growth. I was delighted to hear that the Treas…”

“It might have been the FT that characterised an insider trading risk with this. How do you mitigate that, and is it an unfair characterisation?”

“It sounds to me as though regulatory arbitrage is a significant risk. Of course, the opportunity in this fast-growing market is hugely attractive to the UK, but when Lehman collapsed, one of the biggest issues was that no one knew who the counterparties were. You have done a vast amount of work ever since in the public…”

“Mr Rathi, in a speech in the autumn, you asked whether private markets would be a risk or an opportunity. What opportunities do you see, and to what extent do private markets represent regulatory arbitrage rather than innovation?”

“How does PISCES fit into that? The FT reported that multiple venture capital and private equity investors are unlikely to use it. Is there enough demand for PISCES? Is it not a bit of a contradiction in terms?”