Speeches by Murray.

“Obviously, we have seen asylum numbers surge in recent years and the Home Office has had to respond: you have had to stand up hotels all over the country at very short notice, and to—as you would put it—try these innovative, pathfinder approaches. Would you say that the Home Office has been operating in an emergency fr…”

“Is one of the lessons to review that?”

“You would be comfortable working with Clearsprings and purchasing from Brockwell in future? You would not rule them out as future contractors, as you move on to smaller sites, for example.”

“Which you said no to. Later, you decided to purchase the site for £14 million—significantly more than Brockwell paid for it. Purchasing rather than leasing would obviously be a one-off cost, rather than an ongoing cost, but would mean that you took on board all those costs and risks that ultimately led to its failure. …”

“In response to the hon. Member for Dundee Central, the shadow Minister struggled to come up with a concrete example of a business that might be in the situation he is describing, with very small margins and staff costs not meeting the demand. I can think of two examples from my experience before coming here and from my…”

“Q May I ask about the evidence we heard about industrial relations, both from representatives of business and from the many trade unions that we have heard from? How do you see this Bill affecting industrial relations in Britain, and what do you think will be the long-term impact of that on the economy? Justin Madders:…”

“Q Could you say more about the impact of the current system of zero-hours contracts on the individual and, more broadly, on the wider economy and the labour market? I am thinking about poor retention, disengagement and the impact on the benefits bill. How does that system affect the economy currently? Nye Cominetti: Th…”

“What about worker retention? That was the other question—”

“Q Margaret, I have a question for you, specifically about the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. It strikes me that a lot of our discussion is about things like zero-hours contracts and wage enforcement, but the GLAA deals with a different set of labour market challenges: the excluded or isolated groups, such as s…”

“1. What steps he is taking to help support innovation in Northern Ireland.”

“My constituency in Edinburgh has two universities, both of which do excellent work with our counterparts in Northern Ireland. Can the Minister tell us how the Government are working with universities to support innovation in Northern Ireland?”

“Q I am an MP from Edinburgh, and obviously that is a university city; it is a city with a lot of tourism and hotels and hospitality, and we also have the festivals in August, so we see a lot of this kind of stuff. Looking around my constituency, I can see a real difference in how employers treat their staff, some of wh…”

“I refer Members to my declaration of interests and to my membership of Unison and Community trade unions. Examination of Witnesses Allen Simpson and Neil Carberry gave evidence.”

“Q I am particularly interested in how migration has affected the labour market. I know the construction industry has seen a lot of it, and there has certainly been a big public perception—whether it is true in reality is up for debate—that sectors that saw high levels of migration over the past 10 or 15 years also saw …”

“I also refer to my declaration of interests. I am a member of the Unison and Community trade unions.”

“Q The point was about the perception that that is the case. Do you think that measures such as this will help combat that perception? Alasdair Reisner: It cannot hurt to have measures that make the world of work in the construction industry more attractive to try to defeat that perception, but there are much bigger fac…”

“Communities across the country are badly affected when local banks, such as the Bank of Scotland branch on Portobello High Street, close. Such closures have a huge impact on those who are digitally excluded and on access to cash. Communities are told that they can bank at the local post office, but we are finding that …”

“Despite being its capital, my home city of Edinburgh is, per head, the lowest-funded local authority in Scotland owing to the austerity inflicted on us by the Scottish National party in Holyrood, which means that great projects such as The Ripple face closure. Now that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Sc…”

“I congratulate the right hon. Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson) on securing this urgent question on a matter that the Home Affairs Committee is looking at, but I am astonished that he wants to draw attention to the Conservatives’ legacy in this area. In 2019-20, the Home Office was spe…”

“In the five years before the election, I worked on preventing human trafficking in Scotland, including with many of the victims who came on small boat crossings. They have gone through the most appalling abuse that chills the soul. Does the Minister agree that public money is far better spent on smashing the gangs and …”