Speeches by Blackman.

“Will the Minister agree to consider the timescale of the consultation outcomes so that people have the earliest possible notice, in advance of next year’s budgets, if possible?”

“I absolutely agree, and my hon. Friend would expect me to talk about the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University in my constituency. Along with North East Scotland college, they have been doing really important work as part of the Aberdeen city deal and the energy transition zone to ensure that we have skil…”

“We have a huge amount of work to do, particularly with young people. When I talked to Developing the Young Workforce North East recently, I was heartened to hear that a significant number of young people in north-east Scotland still want to go into engineering, which is incredibly important, whether that is in fabricat…”

“I had concerns about the windfall tax in the first place. I thought that a windfall tax should be applied, but that it should have applied across the board to all those companies that made significant profits during covid, whether that was supermarkets, Amazon or oil and gas companies. Singling out the oil and gas indu…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered transitional support for North Sea oil and gas workers. I appreciate the chance to have this debate, Sir Desmond, because this is an incredibly important time for the oil and gas industry and those employed in and around oil and gas. I will lay out the context and where we …”

“I appreciate the Minister’s words about reducing the temperature. An awful lot of people are hurting a huge amount this week as a result of the announcement. I appreciate the commitment to reduce the temperature and hope that everybody will sign up to that. The SNP welcomes the clarity offered on the definition in the …”

“I have a quick question for Becca about reaching people, particularly candidates. If returning officers had to get everybody’s email addresses, and a data-sharing agreement were in place between them and the Electoral Commission, or them and yourselves, so that you could basically email every single candidate in one go…”

“On the point the hon. and learned Gentleman is making about enfranchisement and the fact that he wishes this Parliament to be in control of the powers that it has, does he agree that it would be sensible for the UK Government to ensure that, where powers are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, for example, they seek c…”

“I wonder if the Minister can ask his friend, the hon. Member for Makerfield (Josh Simons), to get in touch with me about how he managed to find out where the 5,000 pensioners are that he was able to write to. I have tried to get that information so I can write to pensioners and tell them about pension credit, but it ha…”

“Aberdeen mosque and Islamic centre in my constituency was vandalised while worshippers were inside. I am pleased that the local community came together and helped with the clean-up. The University of Glasgow has published a report that says that one in three Muslim students are victims of Islamophobic abuse. Does the M…”

“I start by acknowledging the clear impact that I have had on the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward). I am not sure why or how I have had that impact, but it was clear that she was drastically upset at me, despite the fact that I had been sitting quietly throughout the debate until that point. I wi…”

“Has the Secretary of State ever been diagnosed with depression? I have—I have been in a situation where just getting up in the morning, having a shower and brushing your teeth feels like the biggest fight. Does she think that putting people who have been diagnosed with a mental health condition through more reassessmen…”

“Can the Minister reassure people who have had an amputation or have schizophrenia, terminal cancer or uncontrolled epilepsy that tomorrow’s announcements will not mean a cut in their social security?”

“Just quickly, on the SIA operatives at surgeries, would you be able to do a refresh by sending out to MPs what they are for, so we have an understanding of what we are asking of them and what they are supposed to be doing? I get one for surgeries, but I probably don’t know what they would do in the event of any problem…”

“My question is about some of the legislative frameworks for this. When people are released on undertakings and they are going to appear in court at some point in the future, can you ensure that there is consistency in the conditions that are placed on them—for example, they should not be allowed to approach the MP or t…”

“Can you actually do anything though? Once you identify that individual who is flying under the radar with lots of different things to different MPs, is there anything you can actually do?”

“In many, many ways!”

“Just quickly, on the SIA operatives at surgeries, would you be able to do a refresh by sending out to MPs what they are for, so we have an understanding of what we are asking of them and what they are supposed to be doing? I get one for surgeries, but I probably don’t know what they would do in the event of any problem…”

“I will go very quickly. The Operation Bridger documents do not really take into account that Scotland has a different jurisdiction, and the law was totally different, so it is not just different thresholds but different laws. Some of them apply across the UK, like the Representation of the People Act, but some of the o…”

“Do you know which of us have got kids, for example? Surely, or possibly, that makes a difference to some of the security that we would be provided with. Things like that might help you make better decisions about how to help us.”