Speeches by McAllister.

“Is that Norwegian contract not good news for SMEs? I think there is a statistic that over 100 SMEs are supported by the two yards on the Clyde at Govan and Scotstoun. Some of them are in my West Dunbartonshire constituency.”

“Some £20 million of the UK Government’s defence industry skills package will be directed towards skills initiatives in the devolved nations—Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. How should Scotland’s share of that money be spent?”

“I did want to ask about that, so we will move on. Further education is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, but R&D is not. Do you support the introduction of defence technical excellence colleges in Scotland?”

“Can I ask both of you how effective UK Government measures have been in tackling the skills shortages in Scotland’s defence sector?”

“In preparing for this e-petition debate, I clicked on the House of Commons Library service, which invites Members to look at a Government tracker produced by the registered charity and independent fact-checking organisation Full Fact. Did the hon. Member click on that and look at its findings in relation to the 86 pled…”

“Last month, I visited Portnellan farm in my West Dunbartonshire constituency. I received a very warm and courteous welcome from husband and wife farmers David and Freda and their son Chris. The Scott-Parks run their family farm and were keen for me to hear and see at first hand the challenges that they face in ensuring…”

“The Minister advised in his statement that consular cases of British citizens detained abroad are at the heart of the work of the Foreign Office, and he provided an update on some of those cases. My West Dunbartonshire constituent Jagtar Singh Johal has remained arbitrarily detained in India for more than eight years; …”

“Do you see the UK Government’s announcement today on Grangemouth being one of those opportunities?”

“Do you see no synergy between the two?”

“If you have no concerns about your other plants, is it just then the ethylene production operation that has the challenging environmental and economic challenges that you have described?”

“Would today’s UK Government announcement in Grangemouth not then fly in the face of that? That announcement today would appear to have protected 500 high-value jobs, securing the supply chain, and preserving that industrial capability. In Scotland, it is a £120 million investment, and as I understand it, that is ethyle…”

“You are in the industry and I am not, but I guess that would have taken months and months of discussions, meetings and negotiations involving the Minister, Johnny Reynolds, Jim Ratcliffe and others—I am guessing—to allow them to reach the stage where they made that announcement today.”

“Can you tell the Committee this morning what is happening with it?”

“What does that mean?”

“The line you seem to be adopting this morning very much is that this is all the UK Government’s fault in relation to their policy, rather than any bad decisions on the part of ExxonMobil. I have noticed that you said that you invested up to £270 million of capital on the site, but you are still operating at a loss of £…”

“What type of interventions would you like to see both Governments offering? What type of support do you think they should be offering right now?”

“We might be asking you that, because you have been in discussions with the UK Government since April, have you not?”

“Mr Greenwood, as I understand it, ExxonMobil began discussing Mossmorran’s future with the UK Government in April, and you have explained to the Committee the nature of those discussions. The Scottish Government were reportedly not informed until November of this year, according to the Scottish Government. Can I ask, w…”

“Last year’s then, sorry.”

“Do you have any idea?”