Speeches by Smith.

“With respect to the shadow Minister, I have to say as someone who ran peacemaking programmes in Northern Ireland and who did a master’s dissertation on the South African truth and reconciliation commission that, sadly, the legacy Act came nowhere near replicating that. Does the Secretary of State agree that as we take …”

“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), whose comments on community energy I will come to in a moment. It is a real honour to speak in this debate on the Loyal Address on behalf of my constituents in North Northumberland, where the electricity grid is owned by Warren Buffett, the water syst…”

“Good morning. You all have a role in your various organisations in standing up for consumers, making sure that they have the right information, and addressing fuel poverty. Noyona, you were starting to talk about the heating oil supply industry in Northern Ireland. We heard from the Northern Ireland Oil Federation this…”

“That is the poverty premium, is it not?”

“Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you very much for coming. Most of my questions will probably be to David, but I am happy to hear also from the other gents. Robin mentioned the particular impact that this issue is having in Northern Ireland, which is obviously why we are discussing it, and the reliance of Northern Irelan…”

“That is helpful, David. In somewhere such as Northumberland, it is 30%, so it is significantly higher. It is particularly impactful in Northern Ireland. I have one final question before we move on, because I am sure we are going to get on to talking about some of the structural and strategic issues. You are saying that…”

“Good morning. You all have a role in your various organisations in standing up for consumers, making sure that they have the right information, and addressing fuel poverty. Noyona, you were starting to talk about the heating oil supply industry in Northern Ireland. We heard from the Northern Ireland Oil Federation this…”

“That is the poverty premium, is it not?”

“My second and final question is quite a specific thing. What we have seen is that energy for everyone, generally, over the last few years, but especially heating oil, is very volatile. It spikes up, especially in relation to these crises, but also even when there are not these international crises. It is much more chop…”

“That is an important area for further exploration, but I will leave it there.”

“My second and final question is quite a specific thing. What we have seen is that energy for everyone, generally, over the last few years, but especially heating oil, is very volatile. It spikes up, especially in relation to these crises, but also even when there are not these international crises. It is much more chop…”

“That is helpful, David. In somewhere such as Northumberland, it is 30%, so it is significantly higher. It is particularly impactful in Northern Ireland. I have one final question before we move on, because I am sure we are going to get on to talking about some of the structural and strategic issues. You are saying that…”

“Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you very much for coming. Most of my questions will probably be to David, but I am happy to hear also from the other gents. Robin mentioned the particular impact that this issue is having in Northern Ireland, which is obviously why we are discussing it, and the reliance of Northern Irelan…”

“I warmly welcome the Minister’s statement. For many years it has seemed to me that while our European partners have been able to have significant sovereign procurement programmes, we have so often tied ourselves up in knots and been unable to do the same. My hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) s…”

“That is an important area for further exploration, but I will leave it there.”

“Just to finish, in that sense—and you have partly answered some of this—what role do you see the board having, or do you envisage, such that another breach could not happen again? What is your role, in relation to PSNI itself, in ensuring that this could never happen again?”

“Sorry to interrupt, Sinead. As you await those recommendations—and bear in mind that the breach itself was late 2023—do you feel you have the confidence, or not, that it is still technically possible for such a breach to happen again? I understand that clearly this is an operational issue and, at the Policing Board, yo…”

“Why?”

“To acknowledge the point on legacy that Brendan was making, that other police forces are not required to pay for historical legacy issues, this may be a slightly unfair question, but the conversation seems to go round in circles. The national Government give increasing devolution settlements overall to Northern Ireland…”

“Good morning to everyone. It seems like 2023 was a particularly difficult year for the PSNI and the Policing Board. One key issue that made national headlines across the UK was the data breach published at the end of 2023. I suppose the simple question is whether you are confident that PSNI has now implemented the nece…”