Speeches by Murray.

“I don’t think so. The challenge for us as a Scotland Office is to make sure that other Departments have in their spending reviews what we want in Scotland. For example—just for the benefit of the Committee—the £750 million for the supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, which Minister McNeill launched on the day …”

“At the election we inherited an economy that was in complete and utter chaos. Public finances were in chaos, with an industrial crisis across Scotland and the rest of the UK. We had to make some pretty tough decisions to stabilise that, by filling the £22 billion black hole, by stabilising the—”

“We had to raise taxes in order to be able to invest in our public services and the economy. The Budget in October put £40 billion extra into our public services because they were on their knees—whether it be the NHS, education, transport or infrastructure—and £100 billion is going into capital investment. That had to b…”

“We are working very hard to try to get all these projects over the line as quickly as possible. The spending review was part of that process, of course, and the hydrogen allocation round was part of that process. We were over the moon that so many projects came forward and at the disproportionately high level of Scotti…”

“No.”

“Scotland has punched above its weight in terms of the hydrogen sector. In the call for projects to come forward for the funding, there are 11 UK projects, eight of which have been shortlisted in Scotland. There is a £2 billion package on the table. The shortlist for the second hydrogen allocation round has been announc…”

“Again, it is not finger in the air because this Government have made a huge commitment to hydrogen both in the spending review and in the Budget. Again, I can give that 100% reassurance that the Government are working at pace to get to a position where we can fund these projects and get hydrogen up and running as quick…”

“Let me go back to Acorn. You can talk down the Acorn project if you wish to do so—”

“Well, wages are up more in the last 10 months than they have been in the last 10 years. Therefore, there is more money in people’s pockets. That is what we promised we would do at the election. The number one thing for businesses is to make sure that the public has more disposable income, and that is what we are determ…”

“I am astonished that that is your second question and you have mentioned independence twice.”

“The key thing that businesses told us at the election is they want stability, they want credibility, and they want investment in the economy. That is what we have delivered. That takes money to do. I have yet to hear a proposal that suggests that we take that £25 billion out of the economy and suggests what we replace …”

“The big question is about affordability and readiness. That is what this money is for: to get it to a stage where it can be looked at as a final investment decision. There is no doubt the Acorn project has many fantastic attributes: it has the St Fergus terminal, it has the pipelines, it has Grangemouth, it has the inf…”

“I am the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South and Secretary of State for Scotland.”

“Viking has been funded in the same way for development funding and through the same pot. It was a £350 million pot. I will check the figure for you, but they are both being given the development funding to get to final investment decision. I would not want one project to be over the other; I am just highlighting the fa…”

“You used the word “demoted”. It has not been demoted; there has always been a track 1 and a track 2 process. Track 1 has been fully funded; it went through approvals because it has its readiness. Track 2—although it is not necessarily a track 2, and it has always been said to Acorn that it was right behind, and next in…”

“That was a decision that was made by the previous Government. It came down to the fact that the heavy industries in the cluster around the track 1 projects were a much readier source of carbon than the Acorn project itself. Despite the fact that Acorn had the infrastructure, it did not necessarily have the level and vo…”

“To highlight, the Glasgow chamber of commerce has recently been to Shanghai. The interim director of the Scotland Office accompanied them to try to get some big projects over the line. We are all looking for measurables, but some things need a nudge from Government to get them over the line. Hopefully, we will get some…”

“I do not recognise that because this is comparing estimates rather than actuals. If we look at the actuals, there is £4.9 billion—£1.5 billion in the previous financial part year and £3.4 billion extra in this financial year. There is £9.1 billion extra across the spending review period, which is the next three years. …”

“I do not want to spend any time at this Committee talking about global instability because everyone knows that is the case. Maybe I could just use that as the first sentence to segue into the fact that from a Scotland Office perspective, all that is incredibly important. We have seen the increase in defence spending an…”

“There is a drive for efficiencies in the sense of what the Government have been trying to do through the spending reviews, and to shift the day-to-day spending from administration of Government Departments to frontline priorities in terms of programme budgets. That has not been different in the Scotland Office. Brand S…”