Speeches by Smith.

“My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I agree absolutely. I want my constituents to trust that the people pumping their water, providing their power, connecting them to the wider world and making their steel have their interests at heart. I want them to get jobs in businesses that serve the common good, not internatio…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones) for securing this debate. I declare an interest as the recently appointed UK special envoy for freedom of religion or belief. In the three months for which I have been in the role, it …”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his warm welcome. I agree that any human rights violation should be treated the same, no matter what religion or belief someone has. I will come on to the broader connection between rights. There is no country in the world that is a perfectly free society on the one hand, but just happens…”

“On the point of road safety, after the previous Conservative Government singularly failed to dual the A1 in my constituency, attention must now turn to the safety of that road. Will the Secretary of State and the Roads Minister join me in my constituency to hear the conversations I have been having with National Highwa…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his strong statement in defence of parliamentary democracy. Does he agree that transparency and accessibility are key to parliamentary democracy, and that obstructing the visit of two elected representatives of an allied nation can only raise troubling questions about the current health of Is…”

“I thank the right hon. Member for securing this debate on an important subject. Given the challenges that we have heard about, especially for those in rural areas such as my constituency, does the right hon. Member agree that it might be prudent in the switchover for at least one copper wire line to be left at a commun…”

“Thank you for coming in today. It is nice to see some of you again. Thinking about the ICRIR, one of the core elements of the original model was conditional immunity for people coming to it with information. Those provisions have now been deemed incompatible with the ECHR. How would you envisage participation by, and t…”

“I will ask a final question, which is open to everyone. In that context—feel free to agree or disagree with Sandra—is the alignment of the goal of reconciliation and a quasi-judicial process helpful? Should the two things have anything to do with each other?”

“I am mindful of the time that we are taking here. I will ask the next question, but feel free to chip in on the previous ones. We wanted to ask about reconciliation being the principal objective of ICRIR. What is your view on that, especially when the commission says it does not have a definition of reconciliation? Ala…”

“I want to move on to the next question, but just quickly on that, can we have a realistic expectation that a Kenova-type approach, for example, would uncover hundreds of the unsolved or unknown-about acts of violence that happened during the troubles? Is that realistic? If you pick a number, in terms of the number of p…”

“Could I piggyback off that point, Sandra? Is there an elephant in the room? You just talked about the state’s records and resources. A charitable look at it would say that paramilitaries did not keep those kinds of records, or, if they did, they are not comparable with what the state might have kept. We keep talking ab…”

“On the burden of expectation around additional paperwork and so on, how easy is it for businesses to understand which new or updated EU regulations are likely to apply in Northern Ireland? Nichola, you mentioned a regulatory divergence register, and the Federation of Small Businesses NI has suggested an office for regu…”

“Do you think this is especially the case for smaller businesses, such as the crafting businesses we just heard about? I recognise, Neil and Nichola, that you represent larger entities. Should the burden for the divergence and communication about that fall more heavily, and proactively, on statutory bodies, to make sure…”

“Before we move on, are there any other policy or sectoral areas that you are most concerned about, in respect of divergence?”

“We have really got into the weeds, as I expected we might in this session. There is a great deal of detail here, so maybe we could step back slightly. Are there particular policy areas or sectors in which divergence between GB and NI laws might have a significant impact? As you think about the whole framework, what are…”

“So the deforestation regulations are a particular concern. Are there any other areas where you are especially concerned about the impact? I get that there is a general concern.”

“I thank the right hon. Member for securing this important debate on such a moving subject. I, too, was very honoured to go with him and other members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to visit SEFF in Fermanagh last week, and it was profoundly moving. Does he agree with me that, as part of dealing with this leg…”

“I rise to support the Bill, much of which is fulfilling Labour’s mission to make our streets safer by dealing with what sometimes is called low-level criminality but, in reality, are crimes that make people feel unsafe in their own community. Whether shoplifting, public drug and alcohol abuse, online harms or antisocia…”

“Given the horrifying events in Syria over the weekend, does my hon. Friend agree that the time for warm words from the Syrian Government on protecting minorities has passed, and that actions to safeguard religious minorities such as Alawites and Christians are required? If so, what more can the United Kingdom do to pro…”

“I may be pre-empting some questions I have later, but just on your last reflection there, Ms Kilpatrick, it seems to me that in a lot of this discussion people are talking past each other. It is not just in this conversation today, but in many of the other sessions that we have had and the various approaches. Feel free…”