Speeches by Glen.

“I must say that it is reassuring to see you in the same role after I left office two and a half years ago. That takes me back to one of my original questions, which I meant to ask and did not. Can you just say something about the retention of your staff and how long people stay there? Do you have enough people in the r…”

“Can I ask you one further question, building on what the Chair said? It is on this issue of who makes what decisions. You will recall that I, as the Economic Secretary, was involved in quite a complicated case, dealing with an appeal from a large bank. I felt that that was quite a responsibility. I remember seeing thre…”

“Can I just turn to the issue of Russia and the implementation of sanctions on Russia? The annual review for 2022-23 says that there have been penalties of £45,000. That does not seem very much, when you think about the intent at a political level and what the public’s expectations were. I just wondered how you characte…”

“Behaviours shift, even if fines are not levied. That is what you are saying.”

“That trajectory seems a large amount of time. The public want to see things happen. As a Minister, one was always facing that tension. Is there anything that could be done or any powers that you do not have that you think would help you, to speed that process up and get to fines on more individuals more quickly? Throug…”

“There is an imminent change of presidency in the US. There is a lot of speculation over what that would mean, but how do you see the relationship you have with OFAC—your big brother, if you like—evolving? What assessment have you made, Mr Thomson, of how that might evolve under a new President?”

“I think that you can influence things significantly.”

“That is unlikely to change. Do you think it should change? I understand that that happens in other jurisdictions.”

“First of all, I would like to thank Mr Thomson and Mr Watts in particular for the support you gave me when I was Economic Secretary up until July 2022. Can I start by focusing on resources? We had many discussions back then about how small your team was. It seems that, from what you have said, it is gone up to 150; it …”

“Do you know what it is, roughly?”

“I welcome the Secretary of State’s ambition in many of the areas she has set out, and particularly the “Geep Britain Working” initiative. As a Parliament, we must come to terms with the obesity and mental health crises, so I welcome what she is doing with the Secretary of State for Health. May I bring to the Secretary …”

“When you get the fines, it does not add to your organisation, does it?”

“You think there could be more.”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. I also acknowledge the enormous work done by Philip Duffy in the Environment Agency. He came down to visit my constituents in Britford in the first quarter of this year and made an enormous impact. In addition to the £30 million, for which the people of Salisbury are ve…”

“Everyone in the House welcomes high ambitions for our country, but given the complexity of delivering against the ambitious targets that the Prime Minister set out, there will be apprehensiveness about other countries going down the track at a different pace, which will have implications for our economy. May I draw his…”

“Following the Budget, Matthew Clover, from Salisbury Orthodontics, wrote to me. He said: “The recent Budget will hit dental care across this constituency. Dental practices are small businesses…The cumulative changes to National Insurance and the National Minimum Wage will add tens of thousands to the wage bills of a ty…”

“I get that, but it is a policy decision that has kept rolling over. Should the default setting not be that it will be rolled over rather than the other way around?”

“There is an impression out there that the Government will have to make a choice between them. We know that the instincts of the new President are perhaps to see things in more of a binary fashion about the direction that the UK Government wish to go in. We are trying to draw out where that hard moment actually crystall…”

“Can I push you? I agree with what you have said. We have spoken a lot when I was a Minister.”

“I respect that, but people will be looking to you for wisdom on the relative choices that a Government face. We are in a situation where you referred to the implications of Brexit in your speech last Thursday evening and the Government have stated their objective to reset that relationship too. There will be trade-offs…”