Speeches by Sullivan.

“I would like to ask a question very briefly on that last point. As you will be aware, Scottish students do not have to pay tuition fees in Scotland. While I think everyone appreciates the importance of international students, do you believe that there is an overreliance on income from international students by Scottish…”

“I am very mindful of time, so I will ask this very quickly. If the Government do not step in with emergency funding, what alternative legislative and regulatory measures should the Government and the Office for Students take to help struggling institutions?”

“Good morning. It has been very clear to me, particularly in recent months, that the challenges faced by universities across the UK are broadly the same. We have heard that the Scottish and Welsh Governments are providing extra funding for struggling institutions. In the case of Scotland, the Scottish Government have ma…”

“I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate, because the state of our roads is absolutely critical for safe travel, transportation and logistics, particularly in communities that rely on the road network. As a former councillor, I greatly welcome the Government’s provision of £1.6 billion for road maintenance in …”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but it will be no surprise to him that I cannot agree with him, given the years of massive underfunding that former Conservative Governments inflicted on councils across England. We have had years and years of chronic underfunding of local services, so I know that the £1.6 …”

“I thank the Minister for his statement. I applaud the dignity with which my hon. Friends have responded, and the solidarity from many Members of different parties. I commend the statement made by my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), who spoke so powerfully about the importance and impac…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement and for his efforts and those of his team thus far. I also welcome the fact that there will be engagement with businesses on the potential for retaliatory action—that input is vital. While the UK has the lowest rate of reciprocal tariffs, that will be cold comfort to the m…”

“Last month, Whitburn Band, from a former mining town in my constituency, won the Scottish brass band championships for the third time in four years. The band will represent Scotland at the national brass band championships in London, and at the European brass band championships next year. Will the Leader of the House j…”

“Okay. You have probably answered this question, perhaps on my earlier question. How could the employment gap have been avoided or minimised? I expect that may be through starting Project Willow five years ago at least.”

“Okay. We are now in the position where we have nine proposed projects, some more expensive than others and some have longer lead times than others. That leads me to ask whether this should have happened years ago, because it feels to me as if it should have. Were there any conversations around this type of project when…”

“Sure.”

“I appreciate that. Thank you. Can you tell me what you think the barriers are to implementing Project Willow’s proposed projects?”

“Thank you. I appreciate that we now have a road map of sorts and that there is clarity and ambition there. However, there are still people concerned about their jobs, concerned about their communities and concerned about the gap between the closure of the refinery and moving forward with some of the projects in Willow,…”

“My final question at this juncture is: who is in charge of the site’s future and how confident are you that they will act on Project Willow’s recommendations?”

“And your confidence?”

“Thank you, it is a very brief one. We have touched upon the view of the unions, in particular Unite, that there could be SAF production up and running in Grangemouth in a very short time. There have also been suggestions that the existing infrastructure on the refinery site could be repurposed for that. Do you disagree…”

“I absolutely take that on board. I want to focus on the infrastructure point, because you said it would take six, seven or eight years of engineering. I think Unite’s position is that you have existing infrastructure that could be repurposed in a much shorter timeframe. Could you give your view on that?”

“I will go back to my earlier line of questioning. Everyone welcomes the delivery of Project Willow and we are eagerly looking to the next steps progressing, hopefully at pace, but there must be regret that this did not happen five years ago when you first mooted the idea to UK and Scottish Governments at that time, bec…”

“Is there an expectation? Perhaps that might be a question for you, Anu.”

“Therefore, we are still a while away.”