Speeches by Alexander.

“The decisions on the design and structure of the fund took place prior to my appointment as Secretary of State. My understanding was that there was contact with officials at that time but that preceded my arrival in the Department. On the established formula that was used, there is a commonality in the approach on agri…”

“As I say, we were in a position where the Scottish Government were not co-operating on the common frameworks programme. The UK is not the only actor on this stage. In that sense we require and genuinely hope to have the engagement of the Welsh Government, the Northern Irish Executive, and indeed the Scottish Government…”

“I tend to find that Ministers once assuming office are entirely in favour of ministerial continuity and I adhere to that maxim, definitely.”

“There is a lot of work under way at the moment on the common frameworks that I was describing. We were in a position prior to the review where there had not been the level of engagement by the Scottish Government in particular. My sense was they were waiting to see what had emerged. I checked via my officials earlier t…”

“I am coming to your point. On the welding centre, we stepped in because the Scottish Government were not willing to recognise that in the very dangerous Euro-Atlantic security environment and the global situations that we find ourselves in, the responsible course is to support our industries to be able to defend oursel…”

“John is a good friend as well as a colleague and I will leave him to opine on China. On the conduct of the Scottish Government, in my capacity as Secretary of State for Scotland I was in Greenwich doing a defence roundtable a couple of weeks ago, and if you listen to Scottish business, they were deeply perplexed by the…”

“It is inherent in the nature of parliamentary democracy that even if you legislate you are vulnerable to subsequent Parliaments legislating in a different way, so I am not sure that provides a greater degree of assurance. Secondly, I think there was an urgency for Scottish businesses. I was very mindful of Scotland’s i…”

“I was too polite to make the observation.”

“The most salient example of that probably is I understand I am the first Secretary of State for Scotland to have travelled abroad with the Prime Minister to make the case for Scottish business and Scottish jobs. Shortly on taking office I travelled with the Prime Minister and more than 100 businesses and vice-chancello…”

“We certainly with earnest endeavour sought to do so and, you are right, I led the Internal Market Act review. Let us start with the policy and then come to the process. How do you balance—as someone deeply committed to devolution—the policy space for decision making under a devolved framework of power, with the reality…”

“Sure.”

“I do not have the exact number of hotels in Scotland, but as I say, the bulk of the asylum seekers presently in Scotland are housed in Glasgow in a range of accommodation.”

“Yes.”

“There is a formal process, which I am sure Fiona can speak to, for annual reports and the standard work that is undertaken. We have a governance structure involving non-executive directors and others, but in that sense I have been very much reading myself into the brief in the last few weeks. That has afforded me the o…”

“There are now fewer hotels than there were. The peak under our predecessors was about 400 asylum hotels and that is now down to about 200. We have returned about 35,000 people with no right to be in the United Kingdom, but essentially the processing under our predecessors simply collapsed. In that sense of course we ne…”

“You will appreciate that for any Select Committee—and I have done a number of them over many years—I ask the Department to provide me with a detailed briefing across a whole range of issues. It will not come as a great surprise that my awareness of the Committee’s reports was quite high up my list of what I was going t…”

“First, thank you for the question. Let me deal with the question in two ways. First, on the process of engagement, I spoke to colleagues in my own party in a highlands and islands conference at the weekend and was able to share with them some of the information on what contact the UK Government had. Given the sensitivi…”

“I had a fair sense that I would be asked about things like EFI college funding, given the situation that we are in at the moment. I had a fair idea that we would probably talk about independence, because that tends to be what the SNP talks about a lot, but I am very happy to answer any questions that any Committee memb…”

“I am in a position where I answer the questions that you put to me.”

“I can assure you that I am both alive to and grateful for the work of this Committee. I am conscious of the report and, as you can imagine, ahead of this Committee had the opportunity to make myself familiar with the terms and recommendations of the report. I can give you the undertaking that I will make sure that the …”