Speeches by Edwards.

“Rochester and Strood, positioned between London and mainland Europe, is well placed to help drive the UK’s AI economy. We have: several net zero energy projects ready to go, with further plans for a data centre and battery storage; a council that is already using AI and which created an AI accelerator programme to supp…”

“7. What progress he has made on setting up AI growth zones across the country.”

“Do you have any idea, and are you able to tell us, when you may intend to reach that second phase? Nick Thomas-Symonds: The first step is the hereditary peers Bill, which we want to get on to the statute book in this parliamentary Session. We will then turn to how we take the second stage forward. However, the manifest…”

“Finally, what should the role of the Lords be? Nick Thomas-Symonds: I think what the Lords brings to our democracy is that more considered form of scrutiny—the ability to ask the House of Commons to think again. The Parliament Act 1911 says a great deal about reform of this area that was originally thought to be tempor…”

“On the economic growth priority that you mentioned, there have been reports in the press that some Ministers consider that services will be one of the most difficult areas of negotiation, but I am very conscious that that is one of our huge strengths. I think 80% of Britain’s economy is based on services. Could you tal…”

“Do you expect that the Government will be able to implement all the manifesto commitments in this area during their term? Nick Thomas-Symonds: That depends upon the progress we can make in the upper House. It is not entirely within my control.”

“Financial services are hugely important to economic growth as well. I appreciate you might not necessarily be able to outline what you are looking to see in a negotiated agreement, but can you talk a bit more about what discussions you have had with City figures and what industry wants to see from the EU-UK research? N…”

“The Government have made some manifesto commitments in respect of House of Lords reform, and some of my colleagues will pick up on the specifics of that. We are interested in your views about the strengths and weaknesses of the current House of Lords. Nick Thomas-Symonds: That is a very good opening question. I do appr…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“That would be useful, thank you. I am certainly aware that over the last decade, if not longer, your business has quite rightly pivoted towards parcels, which is the more profitable part of the business. How do you ensure that letters are not being sidelined or forgotten about, which obviously is particularly important…”

“If you had more notice of elections and a better timetable for postal votes from your perspective, would you be looking to recruit extra staff in the way that you do for Christmas seasonal work, or do you feel confident that the existing staff levels are able to cope with local and general elections?”

“I worked for the Communication Workers Union for three years as the lead postal researcher and received a donation from them for the last general election.”

“Like a lot of MPs, I visited my mail centre in the lead-up to Christmas and saw a really efficient operation and lots of hard-working staff and management, which was great. But like a lot of MPs, I have some issues with constituents reporting non-delivery of post, largely in the Strood area in my constituency. That vis…”

“Do you know offhand how many of those fix-it teams needed to be dispatched during the general election?”

“The cyber risks and the data risks are much earlier in the process.”

“That is helpful to know, because we often think that it is very efficient in terms of cost and time to run them all at the same time, but it poses other challenges that we need to consider. We have talked a little about the various data systems—the national ones and the more local ones. To what extent are you confident…”

“Have there been any discussions about the Government acting as a printer of last resort?”

“I have a few questions on resilience, but first I would like to pick up on some earlier comments about the capacity issues with the printers. Have you had discussions with Government about those concerns, and are you aware of any contingency measures being in place if there was a catastrophic failure of a printer?”

“You would not be looking to have additional casuals, particularly in the delivery offices, to make sure that you are meeting your targets.”

“Looking forward to the future challenges, particularly around resilience, what are your thoughts about how we can best deal with extending the franchise? The current Government have a commitment to extend the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds, and there is a lot of change happening at the local authority level through d…”