Speeches by Glen.

“Can I intervene quickly there? Your board members who were recruited explicitly with the functional expertise of a lifetime of skills outside of local government or city government, I would have thought you would agree, would be better equipped and would have more experience to give the technical expertise on that than…”

“My right hon. Friend is making a very clear case. Of course, there is massive agreement in the room. Does he recognise that with the uncertainty about the land use framework and the Government’s interventions and intentions on development of the work that we did on ELMS—the environmental land management scheme—farmers …”

“I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I welcome the Government’s ambition in this space, but one area of significant challenge to many tech companies that I have observed and invested in over 20 years has been the ecosystem of investment in the UK. May I urge the Secr…”

“When the Chancellor set the envelope for spending for this Parliament, and said to the Treasury Committee on 6 November that she would not come back for more tax increases or more borrowing, that was based on her assumptions about the cost of borrowing. Those are manifestly in significant doubt, to look at it in the mo…”

“I too had a number of representations from constituents who were concerned about the purpose behind these changes. What additional information do they elicit to the local authority when a proper education is being received? Does my hon. Friend agree that some clarity is required there, otherwise it just seems an unnece…”

“I would love to see a consensus evolve on social care. I welcome the Secretary of State’s appointment of Louise Casey and the talk about the balance between the individual family and the state. However, in every fiscal event that I was part of in the Treasury, more money was put into the NHS, so I respectfully ask the …”

“The £13 million investment in the Salisbury river park scheme is a fantastic intervention, but I urge the Minister to continue working with the Environment Agency to find mechanisms with which parishes can work collaboratively with it to develop smaller schemes. Beyond the crisis management that she and the Environment…”

“Last year I visited the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton project in Loddington. May I commend the contribution that it can make to defining sustainable intensification of agricultural food production? Perhaps it would be a suitable place for a DEFRA ministerial away day early in the new year, to help wit…”

“In the City of London, one of the big remaining challenges is to ensure that the maximum number of people from the widest socioeconomic backgrounds can get into that industry. Recently, I met people from Progress Together. Vincent Keaveny, a recent Lord Mayor of the City of London, has made massive progress to understa…”

“You could apply for one?”

“I would like to build on what Dame Harriet said, in terms of the transparency around costs and the apparent lack of regulatory oversight over those costs, versus what I believe you have said, which is that in the short term you want the regulators to take a more active role in scrutinising that and so on. But is there …”

“I know this is delicate, but can we just get to the heart of what is going wrong with the Payment Systems Regulator’s oversight here? Can you tell us what is happening that is not suiting the sort of market realities that your members see, Mr Lowman?”

“What is impeding it from taking actions that suit your members and your interests?”

“Does anyone else have anything to say about this? No. Earlier, Mr Wilson talked about the range of behaviours in different parts of the country, and mentioned the northern urban thing. I do not use cash at my market in Salisbury, and I wondered about the whole use of cards as actually driving up activity. In a populati…”

“Thank you for your answers.”

“Can we turn to the sufficiency of the electronic infrastructure that underpins payments? Mr Lowman, could I ask you how your members feel about the stability of those payments, and whether they have confidence in it?”

“Mr Borkett, if the Post Office goes offline, what happens? Do you have good contingency arrangements in place? I should imagine people would want some reassurance from you.”

“Thank you. May I turn to Ms Aspin, in terms of the familiarity you have through the negotiation of USDAW with larger retailers? Presumably that is reliant on electronic systems for customers to be able to pay for things. Do you have any concerns around the durability of the electronic infrastructure?”

“Thank you. I have one final question for anyone to respond to. Several years ago, Sweden moved very quickly to cashlessness but has now pulled back from that, and you see France and Spain mandating the use of cash. Despite surveys showing what the public think, we have not mandated that cash use in the UK. What do you …”

“Yes.”