Speeches by Chope.

“My final question is this. Do you both think that it would be desirable to reintroduce the practice of identifying when a holding answer was given to a named day question?”

“Perhaps I can jog your memory. The question was: “To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards’ review into Labour Together is being assisted by the Propriety and Ethics Team”. On the face of it, that seems a very straightforward question with a yes or no answer.”

“This is one for Alastair: should advanced reactors primarily connect to industrial users through private wire arrangements or be integrated into the national grid?”

“Can I ask you both whether you use named day WPQs in a different way from ordinary WPQs, and what criteria you apply?”

“One of the distinctions between those two sorts of questions is that if you fail to answer a named day question by the specified date, then you provide a holding answer. It always used to be that when you got your final answer, there would be a reference to the date of the holding answer supplied. In a sense that was a…”

“One of the issues at the moment is around AI and the demands that AI imposes upon the electricity grid. Do you think that we should be encouraging AI data centres to be dependent upon advanced nuclear technology, rather than imposing demands upon the existing grid?”

“Eighty-four per cent of the people in Christchurch voted against being forced into a unitary merger with Bournemouth and Poole, and they are still living with the consequences of that merger; a formerly debt-free council is now burdened with enormous debts and inefficiency. This year, the Minister agreed that it could …”

“Can the Secretary of State tell us what the Government are doing to address the problem of number plate fraud? Number plates are being falsely registered to wrong addresses by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, vehicle number plates are being cloned, and false number plates are being used, all of which is contrib…”

“Minister, you heard the evidence about CBAM, and you say that it is all the fault of the Treasury that it cannot get the resources together to do anything by January 2028. Surely, if you feel very strongly, as I think you do, that we need to protect our four remaining refineries and help them compete in global markets,…”

“On the CBAM point, to what extent do you think this is impacting or could impact the financial viability of the four remaining oil refineries?”

“Does the Treasury letter you referred to give any reasons for this, or any prospect that the Treasury recognises the importance of this issue?”

“They said that if two new officials were appointed by the Treasury, they could get back on the timescale. Do you understand that to be correct?”

“Could it take another year or two to get an answer?”

“As the Chair has said, new circumstances provide an opportunity to revisit policies and manifesto commitments. Bearing in mind what is happening in the world, do you think you should renege on your manifesto commitment not to have any more exploration licences in the North sea? That seems rather crazy now, in the light…”

“Could it take another year or two to get an answer?”

“Minister, you heard the evidence about CBAM, and you say that it is all the fault of the Treasury that it cannot get the resources together to do anything by January 2028. Surely, if you feel very strongly, as I think you do, that we need to protect our four remaining refineries and help them compete in global markets,…”

“On the CBAM point, to what extent do you think this is impacting or could impact the financial viability of the four remaining oil refineries?”

“Does the Treasury letter you referred to give any reasons for this, or any prospect that the Treasury recognises the importance of this issue?”

“They said that if two new officials were appointed by the Treasury, they could get back on the timescale. Do you understand that to be correct?”

“As the Chair has said, new circumstances provide an opportunity to revisit policies and manifesto commitments. Bearing in mind what is happening in the world, do you think you should renege on your manifesto commitment not to have any more exploration licences in the North sea? That seems rather crazy now, in the light…”