Speeches by Mundell.

“That is very important. I was very disappointed, because there was a proposal for the development of a UK Government campus in Greater Glasgow—a new building. When the Committee was in Glasgow, the feedback to us was that Abercrombie House requires significant upgrading for all—particularly higher—levels of work to be …”

“Who do you think will drive that change? My view is that what is happening in the UK is just reactive. It is not that we have decided that there is a better way to do this, which helpfully costs less; we have just decided that we want to spend less money. Looking internationally, the US have a very clear agenda to focu…”

“Do you think there will be any strategic alignment?”

“Gideon, how should the Government be balancing the bilateral funding allocated through centrally managed programmes, versus funds being spent by in-country teams?”

“It is entirely consistent with Minister Malhotra’s response to the ODA Westminster Hall debate, when she did not set out any clear strategic objectives. In my view, it is obviously the former.”

“The Secretary of State will be aware that since the law change, the number of children who have received NHS prescriptions for medical cannabis for severe epilepsy has been pitifully low. Families and campaigners believe that part of the reason is that the Home Office still has large responsibility for those products. …”

“I was very pleased that the Prime Minister mentioned Sudan; we cannot be blind to Russia’s malign interest there or across the Sahel. What discussions has he had with Prime Minister Modi about his approach to Russian oil and what appear to be his overly friendly social media posts towards President Putin?”

“Order. If we stick to about seven minutes each, everybody can get in.”

“But primarily in Bracknell Forest.”

“Order. I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called. It is clear that we need a three-minute time limit if we are to get everybody in, but I cannot guarantee that we will.”

“With apologies to other Members who wished to speak, I now call the Lib Dem spokesperson.”

“Order. I should say that interventions on the spokespeople will not lead to them having any additional time.”

“Tessa Munt, you have one minute to wind up the debate.”

“We have heard that involving local actors in the early stages of programme design makes programmes’ implementation more effective. What institutional changes are needed to ensure that the FCDO does that when designing its programmes?”

“By the UK.”

“Twelve per cent of ODA programmes have gender equality as a principal focus, which still falls short of the FCDO’s aim of 80%. How effectively has gender equality mainstreaming been implemented?”

“I very much welcome the Foreign Secretary’s proactive statement, and I hope that will be the pattern of engagement with Parliament going forward. In addition to the horrendous atrocities that she and others have detailed, the World Food Programme has identified that 700,000 people face catastrophic hunger conditions in…”

“Why do you think that is not happening? Interestingly, we heard in a previous inquiry that, for example, rather than approach Kew Gardens about work it was doing, Government Departments were inclined to get a consultant or some other intermediary involved, who was then paid to ask those very questions, and the third pa…”

“I will speak to Lords amendment 28, which was introduced in the other place but relates specifically to my constituency. The Eskdalemuir seismic array, which is near the village of Eskdalemuir in my constituency, is a seismological monitoring station established to detect seismic signals from nuclear explosions. To a g…”

“I have long been a champion of the BBC as a UK national institution, but at the last charter review I raised my concern about the prevalence of a metropolitan elite at the heart of the BBC—not just at UK level but in Scotland—who do not always convey that they understand or indeed respect rural or older constituents su…”