Speeches by Cooper.

“As a former journalist, I salute the Secretary of State’s ambition to leave no one behind, but as the hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) pointed out, the death of terrestrial television risks leaving a lot of people in remote and rural Scotland behind. My constituency has a lot of notspots, and terrestrial television …”

“That would be the opportunity to not only give these bodies teeth but to actually make sure that they use them. Wayne, can I come to you on that point? You were talking about e-bike batteries. Do you think this is the answer to stop them from going on sale in the UK and bursting into flames in the middle of the night i…”

“There has been mention of the Product Regulation and Metrology Act, or PRAM. It is clear that you have concerns about the pace. The consultation on that closed today but, if I can take you back to July last year, the then Product Safety Minister, Justin Madders, said, “By giving regulators the teeth to clamp down on un…”

“Mr Weber—very quickly because time is against us—you are happy, again, to operate different standards from the bricks-and-mortar stores that we have in the UK. If I buy something from a shop here and it goes horribly wrong, I can walk back into that shop—I have protections; I can speak to trading standards. If I buy so…”

“When Justin Madders—who is on the Committee with us—was the Product Safety Minister, he said he hoped that Government legislation would “establish a level playing field and mean online marketplaces are held to the same high standards as bricks and mortar shops.” That is clearly not the case; there is obviously a gap or…”

“But that is not much help, is it? For instance, toys would not appear to be—prima facie—a high risk, but if a child ends up choking on something that is made unsafely, it is no use saying, “Oh, we’ll react now. We’ll no longer deal with those terrible people.” Should you not be more proactive on this front?”

“I am not talking about a specific incident. I am talking in general. If a Chinese company says to you, “We’ve a machine that runs on 220 volts”, do you test that against 220 volts and say, “Yes, you have told us exactly what that product does”? In fact, the UK consumer is going to plug it into the wall and get a much h…”

“David, I will just come to you very quickly as you are at the front end of a lot of this. What is the situation abroad? Do you think the Government need more powers when it comes to holding overseas businesses to account? We can do so much in the UK, but how do we reach out beyond our own borders?”

“You are an enormous business. How much testing are you doing? How many hundreds of products go through your warehouse? How many are you testing?”

“Of course; it was fantastic. But we might want our money back on PRAM. What are your concerns about PRAM? The consultation is out there now; it is going to take more time. I know you are worried about that timescale, but it is going to take more time until that comes back. What do you think about what is laid out in th…”

“As I say, it sounds fantastic, but what is the reality on the ground? The input is great; the standard procedure is great. But if that applies to only one in 100 products, it is slightly less great, so numbers would be most helpful.”

“Mr Klenner, you say that Temu tests the products. What standards does it apply? Does it apply different standards in different countries? Does it use British standards in Britain and German standards in Germany? How does that work?”

“That comes back to my point: if a company in China makes something that runs on a different voltage to the UK, it may declare that to you. How do you test that? Do you test it against the electricity that is going to run through it in the UK or the electricity that is going to run through it in Europe? This country has…”

“Do you have any details on the scale of this operation? It is phenomenal. There are laboratories testing things that go through the warehouses; it sounds absolutely fantastic.”

“In January, I wrote to the Home Secretary because a whistleblower suggested that Border Force lacked sufficient personnel to cover night sailings from Belfast and Larne to Cairnryan, the main port in my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway. We have heard today that much more focus is also needed on the clearly unlocke…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. At first blush, the draft Scotland Act 1998 (Increase in Borrowing Limits) Order 2026 is, as outlined by the Secretary of State—we are honoured to have him with us, and it is the second time I have seen him today, which is twice more than the First Minister has…”

“In January, I wrote to the Home Secretary because a whistleblower suggested that Border Force lacked sufficient personnel to cover night sailings from Belfast and Larne to Cairnryan, the main port in my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway. We have heard today that much more focus is also needed on the clearly unlocke…”

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“This is a difficult question. Something like £1.25 of public money is spent in Scotland compared to £1 in England. There is tension there within that settlement. That money reflects the difficulties that Scotland faces. Delivering public services in Scotland is difficult because of geography and also because of demogra…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for a very important question. The GDP deflator is incredibly complex, as are all these matters. We talk about cross-Government working here, and I think there is a genuine attempt by this Government, as there was by the previous Government, to maximise the money available. The system is comp…”