Speeches by Lamont.

“Mrs Harris, you will be relieved to hear that I will not take the remaining hour to conclude the debate. I thank the petitioners; I thank the Petitions Committee for facilitating the debate; and I thank the 104,000 people who signed the petition. I suspect those people will be a little surprised by the lack of balance …”

“Research shows that 91% of farmers see poor mental health as the industry’s biggest hidden issue. Last year, Kelso farmer Neil Stewart very sadly took his own life. His friends and family have since raised over £80,000 for RSABI, which provides support for people working in farming. Will the Leader of the House join me…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech about banking services in Hertfordshire, but I want to make a broader point about the criteria for allowing banking hubs. To be fair to the Minister, she has engaged well with me, too, but surely the point has come for Government intervention, to try to persuade—or tell—Link…”

“In addition to some customers not being comfortable using digital, some are unable to do so because they do not have broadband. I am sure the hon. Lady’s constituency is like mine. For some communities, if the bank branch has gone, using the banking app is not possible because the broadband capability is not there.”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I have had similar challenges in my constituency in the Scottish Borders. Like him, I have been campaigning for banking hubs—in Selkirk and Eyemouth. Indeed, I presented a petition in the House of Commons a few weeks ago. The banking hub we have in Jedburgh is working very …”

“7. If she will take steps to stop the use of smartphones in schools.”

“T4. Scottish education was once the envy of the world, but under the SNP it is being destroyed. Data shows that a quarter of 11-year-olds in Scotland are not achieving expected literacy levels. Does the Minister agree that the SNP needs to drop its weird obsessions and get back to the basics of sorting out Scotland’s e…”

“Mobile phones in classrooms are linked to disruptive and violent behaviour. Does the Minister agree that mobile phones should be banned in all schools so that children are focused on their education, not glued to Instagram and TikTok?”

“It is common ridings and festival season in the Scottish Borders, a spectacular and ancient tradition dating back to the battle of Flodden in 1513, bringing together each of the Borders communities to celebrate, so may we have a debate on the importance of the Scottish Borders common ridings and festivals? Will the Lea…”

“I want to go back to one of Charlotte’s points. I think you responded that the rules needed to be modernised in some way or updated and refreshed. Are there any other comparisons? Are there any other democracies or countries where you have looked at the system and thought that would work quite well here, or that is som…”

“That is quite a good segue into my next question: are you aware of former Ministers who have accepted jobs and just decided to ignore your advisory Committee, and do you think you have sufficient sanctions to address that?”

“Does the process need to be tweaked to allow those easier cases you deal with to be fast-tracked, or not dealt with by your former Committee?”

“Good morning, Lord Pickles. Two former Ministers have raised concerns about how long it has taken to get the advisory Committee to give clearance, and that sometimes results in financial hardship for them. Do you accept that criticism?”

“How much was it last year, in that immediate period after the election?”

“You referenced earlier a spike in the caseload after the election last year, was it 370?”

“Looking at how you might adjust the system, of that 370, what proportion needed a deep dive because of the potential conflict and how many do you think should have been waved through?”

“Just to be clear, so the applicant would have an early conversation with you, and if you had alarm bells ringing you would say, “Don’t even apply for this”, so they do not even go into the system?”

“Has the extra caseload that was generated by the general election now been cleared, or are there still former Ministers whose applications are being considered?”

“Is that because they do not understand the rules, or they are just chancing their arm?”

“I will speak to the amendments relating to compulsory purchase powers, and to my new clause 128. I note that much of the Bill and most of the clauses will not affect Scotland, but, unusually for a planning Bill, there are components that do affect it. Before I talk about the detail of my concerns about compulsory purch…”