Speeches by Alexander.

“I would be very happy to write to you.”

“Notwithstanding the fact that we are proud of that record, it is worth recognising there are occasions where, at the request of different Governments, last minute changes are required. For example, on the Bus Services Act the Scottish Government made a late-stage request to extend non-zero emission bus provisions to al…”

“You are absolutely right to recognise that on occasion the nature of the demands of the legislative scrutiny and parliamentary timetables means that short notice consideration is sometimes unavoidable. I feel that we have had a pretty effective record on LCMs to date of securing those consents, and that stands in a gre…”

“First, let me pay tribute to my predecessor, Ian Murray, and the work that he and Kirsty did during the first 14 or 15 months of this UK Government. On arriving in the Department I said I was keen to build on the priorities that had been set by the outgoing Secretary of State. In relation to Brand Scotland, in my previ…”

“As I recollect, I wrote to the Committee on 23 September and since you took evidence on this subject earlier in the year, phase 2 of the spending review has come into force. This includes an additional £2.9 billion per year on average through the operation of the Barnett formula that I have already referenced earlier i…”

“I will try to keep it to our responsibility but also to recognise the severity and seriousness of what you describe. Again, without breaching Cabinet confidentiality, we were discussing yesterday the youth strategy, which is predominantly focused on England given a lot of the areas of youth policy are devolved in Scotl…”

“Obviously we are very mindful of the imminent elections in the spring. I can assure you that is part of my thinking and I will make sure that is in the consciousness of the Cabinet Office as well.”

“For the 831 young people not getting jobs in Ayrshire College, respectfully, it is pretty doom and gloom right now. If your attitude is that that is the best we can do in Scotland, and we should be somehow applauding the conduct of the Scottish Government, respectfully I take a very different view. I think the Scottish…”

“Let me offer the assurance that we are in touch with DWP. I was part of the Cabinet conversation with Pat yesterday on a range of related issues. I would also want to pay tribute to the work that you have done in bringing this issue of young people being denied those opportunities in Ayrshire to my attention. I do not …”

“We have been engaging with the Scottish Government and other devolved governments on a draft MOU since July this year. The devolved governments are presently considering this draft and engagement has been positive. The intention is to have something agreed and published soon. I am afraid that is very careful Whitehall …”

“I should probably declare that I am a very good friend of Torsten Bell, the former director of the Resolution Foundation who is now doing important work for us in the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions that we have just been discussing. It is right to recognise that the Resolution Foundation has done imp…”

“I will say yes to that. I was in the Cabinet yesterday and, without breaching Cabinet confidentiality, Pat—who is a very good friend and former colleague of mine in Edinburgh University Labour Club and knows Scotland back to front—was talking about the challenge that we face in youth unemployment and there are parallel…”

“You are absolutely right: it is a shocking indictment of the last 20 years in Scotland that one in six of our young people find themselves in that position. We are certainly not aligned in our thinking relating to EFI colleges because we fundamentally think that Scotland deserves better than a 20% cut in EFI colleges i…”

“Yes, let me try and then I would be quite keen to bring Fiona in given she has joined us from DESNZ and is across a lot of these issues, to our great benefit. First, Michael may hide behind pillars when he sees you, but he is also incredibly complimentary about your pullovers, as I remember. Given the serious subjects …”

“If you look at the polling ranking, it is significantly lower than issues around cost of living, criminal justice and a range of other issues. We can have an argument about the psephology but equally it is clear that when that question was put to the Scottish people there was a clear and overwhelming majority for stayi…”

“Look at the salience of independence relative to, for example, the state of the health service that your party has left after 20 years in power.”

“It is right to recognise the Ayrshire deal is behind its planned spending schedule. That is why Kirsty has taken a direct interest in it and will talk to the Scottish Government to see what we can do.”

“The focus of the Department in the last few weeks since I have arrived—and Kirsty has been doing great work on this—is, first, get Pride in Place up and running because that is a significant additional contribution from the UK Government to make sure the place-based support is available and, secondly, continue with oth…”

“I find the othering implicit in your question not only inaccurate but offensive, because one of the points that was established in 2014 is that the flag does not belong to one political party. Patriotism does not belong to one political party. I would argue the reason that my side of the referendum argument prevailed w…”

“Chair, with your permission given Kirsteen mentioned the Edinburgh and South East Scotland city region deal, I should probably keep myself safe. I was a member of the court of the University of Edinburgh in the years immediately preceding my election. As Edinburgh was also a beneficiary of that deal, I should put that …”