Speeches by Lamont.

“I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 725716 relating to the prosecution of Northern Ireland veterans. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Mundell. As a member of the Petitions Committee, I am pleased to fulfil my duty in opening today’s debate and presenting this petition, which has …”

“My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and he highlights the grave concerns that many of us have about how human rights legislation is being applied in ways that were not intended, and that undermine and attack the sovereignty of this place.”

“The hon. Member makes an important point about the supposed unlawful nature of the Act. I do not accept that it is unlawful. Yes, the court said that, but it is up to this Government to appeal. The question is why they dropped that appeal. There is a winnable case to be made, on behalf of the British nation, to uphold …”

“My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. There is no equivalence between a terrorist—somebody who sets out in the morning with murderous intent—and a soldier who is defending democracy and our country. Sadly, we seem to be creating some sort of equivalence, which should not be allowed to happen. Dennis Hutchings was a …”

“The hon. Member makes an excellent point, which I will consider more fully later. In 1998, as the then Prime Minister Tony Blair approached the end of his negotiations on the Good Friday agreement, one final demand was made. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness said that they could not go ahead with the deal—they were fea…”

“T2. Home ownership feels increasingly out of reach for many first-time buyers, particularly for young families who want to remain in the beautiful Scottish Borders. What can the Government do to ensure that house builders deliver more affordable family-sized homes in all parts of the United Kingdom so that local people…”

“As ever, my right hon. Friend makes an excellent point. She is absolutely right that we should be with our veterans 100%, which is what I am hopefully doing during this speech. Veterans are only demanding protection for following orders from high command and from vexatious, politically charged lawsuits. The Government’…”

“I accept that in Northern Ireland the political reaction to the legacy Act is mixed, but it was the decision of this Parliament to enact the Act. The reaction of veterans groups, many of whom are in the room with us today, has been almost universal in its condemnation of the Government’s decision to try to repeal key p…”

“So it has not given up; the funding was taken away from it by management.”

“Is what you are effectively saying that it has been taken off it and there has been a decision at the top of the organisation to defund the human resources department?”

“In terms of funding or personnel?”

“I want to go back to something that has been discussed a little already: your human resources capacity within ONS. To the outside world, do you think it is fit for purpose?”

“Ms Rourke, in response to one of my questions last week, you suggested that there was a redeployment of resources away from areas such as health, population and UK-wide data. Who exactly makes that decision about the redeployment of resources?”

“My last question is do you think the ONS is recoverable? Is it an organisation that is failing to such a serious extent that we should just scrap it and start fresh, start again?”

“Something that alarmed me greatly earlier in this session was that you made reference three or four times to pockets of good practice within the organisation. Does that suggest that the majority of those within the organisation are not meeting that standard of good practice?”

“Do you acknowledge that the previous process failed?”

“The Devereux review criticised ONS’s budget and planning decisions. How can we be sure that ONS is making sensible decisions when it comes to budget planning?”

“So you have no concerns about any of the recruitment process. In terms of the disciplinary processes that are in place and those individuals within the organisation who are perhaps not meeting the standard that you would expect, are you confident that it is meeting that standard that the outside world might expect from…”

“Would you describe it as being robust in terms of how you appoint people? Does the appointment process within ONS meet the standards that any other external organisation would expect its human resources department to be running at, for example, in terms of following due process?”

“T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.”