Speeches by Sullivan.

“Ricky, you touched on the pilots. How will the pilot sites evaluate the impact of Ofcom’s proposals in remote and rural communities?”

“Can you give us an idea of the metrics that you are using to measure the pilots’ successes or otherwise?”

“I do appreciate, Ricky, you said that you did not want to provide a running commentary, but I am going to ask you if you are able to share any key learnings from the pilots to date.”

“If you are unable to share any of them with us today, I have to ask you when the conclusions of the pilots are likely to be published.”

“Would summer be a fair—”

“That narrows it down slightly. Thank you very much.”

“I thank the Minister for coming to the House for the statement and the announcement of sanctions. We have all watched with horror the scenes of desperate people trying to access food—the most basic thing that we need to survive. While we can understand why our constituents have a sense of hopelessness, we should not ha…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing forward this debate. Does she agree that pimping websites are facilitating sex trafficking of women, making it easier for traffickers and organised crime groups to profit from the dehumanising, violence, exploitation and trade of vulnerable women?”

“Will the Minister commit himself again to working with local government and devolved Administrations to increase the number of people receiving pension credit, so that pensioners on the lowest incomes do not lose out but receive the support that they need?”

“I thank the Minister for his statement, which I know will be greatly welcomed by my constituents. Over 14 years, we became used to a Government who did not listen and did not change course when circumstances changed, so I for one am grateful for a Labour Government who do so. While there was an uptick in pension credit…”

“Can I also ask how significant East Lothian’s proximity to Edinburgh has been in driving its economic success, compared with other measures that might have been introduced by the council?”

“Can I ask for detail on what other measures the council has taken and how they compare with some of the work coming out of the city region deal?”

“There are a number of initiatives going on within the council as well as those.”

“Picking up on the point you made about ensuring that the skills agenda is across the region, do you think there is a danger perhaps with the city deals that a lot of the money can be swallowed up by the large cities rather than spread across the geographical area?”

“For the purposes of transparency, I was a signatory to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland city region deal in my former capacity as depute leader, West Lothian Council.”

“I will pick up on a couple of points you made, Altany. Do you view the rollout of digital connectivity as a potential key enabler and facilitator to attract more businesses into rural areas? As you say, we do not want our rural area to become a commuter area, purely taking people out of the area into cities where they …”

“We will now turn to city and regional growth deals. I will ask all of you how effective you think these are in delivering benefits to the areas that are most in need?”

“This is a question for Norman Hampshire. You have already touched on population growth in Edinburgh overspilling into the East Lothian area. You mentioned how a lot of local residents feel somewhat disadvantaged from that due to the increasing pressure on services. How are you supporting disadvantaged residents to ensu…”

“To clarify, has that project come from the city region deal?”

“That being the case, I will move on to my next question. What do you see as being the limitations of local and regional funding initiatives, and how do you think they could be improved? You have mentioned multi-year funding because one-year funding does not allow you to plan ahead and does not allow you to perhaps take…”