Speeches by Mundell.

“Bel, I will come to you first. I reinforce the congratulations to you and to The Independent for the work you have done in publicly highlighting the impact of cuts in relation to support for HIV/AIDS. As you know, that will lead to a debate in the House of Commons on the global response to HIV/AIDS, in which some of th…”

“Absolutely. Sarah has her pet views, and I do too, in that I feel strongly that the corporatisation of NGOs led to the break-up of a sort of army of local advocates for aid. If you were at a local event and somebody had read something in the newspaper, somebody who was in the Red Cross cadre, for example, was there to …”

“Obviously, some of it demonstrates that good things happened as well.”

“Absolutely. Sarah has her pet views, and I do too, in that I feel strongly that the corporatisation of NGOs led to the break-up of a sort of army of local advocates for aid. If you were at a local event and somebody had read something in the newspaper, somebody who was in the Red Cross cadre, for example, was there to …”

“That is the big question: what would those mechanisms be?”

“I want to ask about scrutiny, and perhaps then move on to who people would believe. There is scrutiny of the aid budget, and this Committee is a significant part of that. Over the years we have produced numerous worthy and detailed reports. We have the Independent Commission for Aid Impact—although the Government may w…”

“How does that align with the messages that some NGOs give out? If we had spent our afternoon watching daytime television rather than being at this Committee, we would have seen a lot of adverts from NGOs that convey an impression of hopelessness and a suggestion that all this has been done over many years, yet the situ…”

“Bel, I will come to you first. I reinforce the congratulations to you and to The Independent for the work you have done in publicly highlighting the impact of cuts in relation to support for HIV/AIDS. As you know, that will lead to a debate in the House of Commons on the global response to HIV/AIDS, in which some of th…”

“As I have said many times, I represent one of the largest rural constituencies in the United Kingdom, and Eskdalemuir is one of the most rural parts of that constituency. Constituents there remain extremely concerned about BT’s proposal to switch off analogue lines, given that the area has very poor mobile reception an…”

“The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is still under consideration in the Scottish Parliament and has not been passed, contrary to the views of a number of Members of this House. This week, a number of measures had to be removed from the Bill because they were not compliant with the powers of the…”

“I echo the Leader of the House’s Burns night greetings for Sunday. Will he join me, in my position as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on nuclear energy, in congratulating the Nuclear Industry Association and all those in the nuclear industry who ensured the success of the fifth Nuclear Week in Parliament …”

“What are the options: a reduced ICAI or something completely different?”

“Minister, I want to ask about two specific subjects that we have discussed before. One is HIV and the target to eradicate new transmissions globally by 2030. When the APPG met, we acknowledged that you had got what we perceived to be the best possible deal on the Global Fund in all the circumstances that you faced. How…”

“David. I think Brian Mundell is a large-scale haulier in Argyll. I have seen his lorries.”

“Minister, I certainly agree with you. I have spoken out strongly on this. The corporatisation of the NGOs was a real setback, because they lost an army of advocates—individual citizens who could challenge people they met at social events, and in other contexts, on the issue. That has been diminished, and it is very har…”

“Minister, what plans do you have for the resourcing and remit of ICAI going forward?”

“If you were to reduce the resources, how will you ensure that there is ongoing external evaluation and scrutiny? We have heard in previous discussion about getting public support that one of the rods that is used against development is money not being well spent. One of the things that ICAI have been able to do is to p…”

“I am just going to ask you to continue with the UK’s investment in the Child Nutrition Fund, because that is almost the single most effective contribution that we can make.”

“In his statement on 5 January, the Minister referred to the United Arab Emirates’ call then for a ceasefire. What discussions have since taken place with the United Arab Emirates, and is that still its position?”

“In pushing back against the tariffs, will the Foreign Secretary and others make it clear to the US that it is not just the potential imposition of these tariffs, but the bandying about of the threat of tariffs, that is so disruptive and difficult for major British businesses that export to the US, such as those in the …”