Speeches by Grady.

“Q I have a question for Christianna, Beatrice and Charlotte. To bring this to life, I am a Scottish MP, so if I am building a set of offshore wind farms in the north of Scotland, I also need to build transmission infrastructure from Scotland down to England. The holdouts of this involve connection queues, planning dela…”

“Until the general election I, too, was a solicitor and I had a practice for many years in the energy sector.”

“I welcome the steps that the Government are taking to strengthen co-operation with the Scottish Government, to cut waste and inefficiency and to ensure that Ministers take responsibility for public services. This is an important area for potential co-operation and dialogue, because, in Scotland, we currently have more …”

“15. What steps he is taking to strengthen co-operation with the devolved Governments.”

“Q I have a quick final question. We need huge investment in infrastructure in the United Kingdom. The capital for that is international, so we need to attract international investors to fund this investment. In your professional view, does the Bill make us more attractive or less attractive to international investors? …”

“Q It is great to have three very experienced councillors before the Committee. We have heard evidence today, including from two former special advisers to No. 10 under the last Government, that the Bill will help with energy security and energy costs, driving forward housing and getting jobs and significant investment.…”

“Q So this Bill, which speeds up planning and consent for transmission and generation infrastructure, is really important for Scotland’s coastal communities. That must follow, mustn’t it? Beatrice Filkin: Yes. Christianna Logan: Investment in things like ports infrastructure comes directly as a result of the investment …”

“Yes. Beatrice Filkin: Absolutely. We see this in terms of not only the build process, but the operations of these pieces of infrastructure.”

“Q I want to ask about coastal Scotland, and I declare an interest: my granddad and several of my cousins were trawlermen in Scotland. Offshore wind represents a big opportunity in Scotland for coastal communities and harbours, which have suffered economic decline over the years. Have I got that right? Beatrice Filkin: …”

“Q Charlotte, some of the projects you are doing rely on Scottish infrastructure. Is it the same in England: more jobs, more activity? Charlotte Mitchell: Yes, more jobs and more activity. Picking up on the point about consenting, we have similar yet different challenges in England and Wales. As you note, the Bill looks…”

“On the other side of this, of course, are the providers. The evidence we have had is that the major banks and a lot of the big ISA providers do not provide LISAs. Neither do some of the big building societies, so it is a pretty small pool of providers that provide this product. Why do you think that is? Is it because t…”

“I also have a quick question for the Minister. We have heard evidence that the withdrawal charge is causing hardship. We have also heard evidence that the property price cap should potentially be increased. If the withdrawal charge was changed or the property price cap was increased, that would have a public finance im…”

“Will it be able to make the leap to whether people are using it in the most tax-efficient way?”

“One of the things you are emphasising, Minister, is the fact that long-term saving in equities is better for people and gives them more comfortable retirements and later lives. That is backed up by evidence from people such as Dimson, Marsh and Staunton. If I was a new retail investor, I would turn on the news and I wo…”

“I hope we are not going to have to disclose all our birthdays in this Committee. This question may be for Ms Webster. Will that HMRC study cover the following points? First of all, are people using the LISA appropriately from a tax point of view? You get a 20% bonus. In Scotland, if you are earning over £27,492 a year,…”

“Will the HMRC study address specifically whether people are making appropriate investment choices? As the Minister has explained correctly, the best way to invest over the long term is in equities and not in cash. Will it cover that point specifically?”

“This is a follow-up question for the Minister. This is quite an important point, because only about 6% of eligible people have opened up a LISA. It is really important that people save more for their retirement. That is what the data shows. We have a real problem coming down the train tracks. It is really important tha…”

“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. At Prime Minister’s questions earlier, the Leader of the Opposition said that Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader “was whipping his MSPs to get male rapists into women’s prisons”. That is categorically and utterly untrue. Scottish Labour MSPs repeatedly called for the Scot…”

“Well, I’m afraid we can’t. We inherited a fairly small headroom. If you moved rapidly to increase the headroom, as opposed to taking the trade-offs that you have taken, what would that mean for tax rises in our already stretched public services? I am mindful that there is a vote, so I suspect Dame Meg would like us bot…”

“Finally, the real way out of this is economic growth, is it not? That is what we need much, much more of. Are you satisfied that the regulators and others in Britain are moving fast enough to deregulate to get the growth that we need, or do you want greater and faster progress?”