Speeches by Murray.

“Devolution works best when both Governments work together. That is quite clear. However, market-sensitive information has to be given at the time it has to be given. For the Budget, for example, the Chief Secretary and I met with Shona Robison via Zoom. We went through the entire Budget with her about two hours, maybe …”

“If you would not mind my saying so, our relationship with the First Minister, the Deputy First Minister and indeed the Scottish Government are probably slightly better than your own at this point in time. We have worked very closely together. In the way in which the fiscal statements work, there is a lot of market-sens…”

“Success is about delivery. I can give you an example. Our GB Energy mission, which is one of the key missions of the Labour Government in getting to clean power by 2030, can only be achieved through both Governments working together. Of course, devolved and reserved issues are involved, whether, say, in consenting or p…”

“Good morning and congratulations on your chairmanship of this Committee. It is very much welcomed. Congratulations, also, to everyone on the Committee. I know that elections, on the Labour side anyway, were very hard fought. It is nice that you have the Committee up and running and it is a great delight to be here in m…”

“There are no plans to fill it, no.”

“The primary role of the Scotland Office is to uphold the constitutional settlement, and the constitutional settlement contains section 35, as it contains all the other sections that are in the Act, is a relatively obvious thing to say. However, I suppose the direct answer to that question is that Minister McNeill and I…”

“The number they have come up with is probably accurate, but it does not include all the factors. A number that you come up with depends on the question you ask, and the question that has been asked has been analysed on the basis that it does not include the major impact on pensioners’ income which is the triple lock, t…”

“Tens of thousands of pensioners have got themselves onto pension credit because of the massive increase in the advertising and the efforts that have been done by DWP. That is not included in those figures as an example, so I am loth to comment on public policy on the basis of a figure that I deem to be not showing an a…”

“Thank you for the question. Just for the record, Chair, we have met twice previously. It is the third meeting that we have struggled to get back into the diary. This is a key part of what GB Energy has to achieve because the way to unlock the future of energy in the Scottish context is to unlock that community benefit …”

“I think I am familiar with the report that the DWP produced yesterday. Was that the—”

“For the benefit of the Committee, the analysis that DWP has done did not include the triple lock. It did not include the Household Support Fund and did not include the massive increase of uptake of pension credit. So I would challenge the figures on that in terms of the overall analysis because one of the key things th…”

“The reason that I do not have a figure to give you on that basis is because the 100,000 does not include the other stuff that the Government are doing. I would not like fear-mongering that people are being pushed into poverty without having the actual figures. If it does not include the triple lock, which is worth that…”

“If I can respond to that.”

“Obviously, the decision to means test the winter fuel payment in Scotland was made by your Government as well in terms of the Scottish Government’s position. On that basis, I think that if we are going to look at figures and analyse figures properly, particularly in terms of the baseline for poverty or other socioecono…”

“—some of the major public policy issues that this Government have already put in place, the triple lock, the Household Support Fund and the massive increases in pension credit. If you don’t include those figures, you end up in a situation where you are dealing with a baseline that is incorrect and, therefore, could end…”

“I think GB Energy is one of the best policies in our manifesto. It was really important for the legislation to be one of the first pieces of legislation into Parliament. Hopefully, it will be one of the first pieces of legislation out. I am disappointed that the Member who will actually host GB Energy did not back it a…”

“Ultimately, the size of GB Energy as an organisation is very much comparable with other bodies, probably 200 to 300. I would hope they will be headquartered in Aberdeen but of course they will have to be based across the country. We have heard from Mr MacDonald, who represents some of the most rural communities in Scot…”

“The Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Gillian Martin, and Minister Shanks have worked very closely together. The Secretary of State, Ed Miliband, has also been working very closely with the Scottish Government. One of the five missions of the UK Labour Government is to deliver that clean power by 2030, but all of that work…”

“There are active discussions. Maybe Laurence at an official level could tell us what the format of those perhaps are, but the key thing here is that these are joint priorities. The Scottish Government also have very ambitious climate change targets, obviously they have been diluted somewhat. We have to deliver this. Th…”

“It is a great question, and it has been the No. 1 issue that has been on our to do list since within hours of taking office in terms of the issues at Grangemouth. I think it is important at the start to separate the two issues out. There is the Grangemouth Refinery and there is the Grangemouth site. In answering your q…”