Speeches by Turner.

“Laura, picking up on the theme about the engagement work that you are undertaking at the moment, in your current role do you have the scope to engage with the sector beyond that group of three which meets regularly? If so, what does that programme of engagement look like?”

“On the operational side, is there a close relationship at the moment between shadow GBR, albeit in its very early form, and operators? I am particularly thinking about DFT direct operations. Clearly, that will be a very important part of the early work of GBR once it is on a statutory footing. How integrated are you ab…”

“Finally, Laura, you spoke about ensuring accountability to the Secretary of State and having scrutiny around this programme of work. The Government have been quite clear that shadow GBR is not a public body in its own right. I am curious to tease out, if we can, what those accountability mechanisms look like. It is ver…”

“Thank you. I must say, given the importance of this particular policy area, that I find it a little surprising to hear that detailed records are not being kept at the moment, but perhaps we will get to that point.”

“I have a couple of follow-up questions. Minister, you said that there will come a point during the passage of the legislation when it is possible to recruit. Would it be possible for the Committee to have an explanation in writing of what the barrier is? When the old shadow Strategic Rail Authority was created—I accept…”

“All of us who support this policy agenda would still recognise that there are success stories to be drawn from London Overground, Merseyrail and some historical examples of how regionalisation worked under the British Rail days. I want to ask about where disputes might arise. We all hope that most problems could be res…”

“On the principle that anything that can happen will happen, would you accept that there needs to be some dispute resolution mechanism even if it is of a last resort?”

“Will the hon. Member acknowledge that the CST said it is the right time to take school support staff pay out from under the local authority umbrella, and that its concern was that a ceiling would be set on school support staff pay? It has been clarified in the Employment Rights Bill Committee that that is not the case;…”

“In the seconds available to me, I cannot do justice to the cases I have heard of pupils and parents who are stuck in the system. Ten years on from the passing of the Children and Families Act 2014, it is time to look at where the current system is failing. Local authorities had additional responsibilities loaded on to …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) on her very capable speech introducing the debate. I speak today in recognition of the strength of the representations that I have received from constituents; I thank all …”

“Thank you, Sir Christopher. All good things must come to an end, and sadly that includes this Committee. I echo the thanks given by the Minister to the workers—to everyone who has supported the Committee—and I thank our Front Benchers, who have done a sterling job and from time to time gently and appropriately warded u…”

“Do you think that our ability to project that contribution to economic growth, particularly when we are comparing different modes, is sufficiently well developed, or is there further work on the modelling that the Departments and the Treasury should be doing? Sir John Armitt: That is a good one. We are not short of mod…”

“All models are wrong, but some models are useful.”

“A number of major transport projects are currently under review. As you know, it has been claimed that some of those projects were not sufficiently taken to maturity of design, costed or funded, on which you may or may not wish to comment. As we await the outcomes of that review, how do you think the Government should …”

“One common criticism of Government transport planning is that strategic decisions across modes are not always well integrated with one another—for example, investment in rail and road—and those decisions do not always have a clear relationship with Government’s wider strategic objectives, whether that is regional rebal…”

“I want to ask a follow-up question about connectivity within the midlands. We started to get on to this topic in answer to the previous question. The infrastructure progress review said that there was a particular lack of rail journeys within the midlands, east to west. Following the cancellation of the eastern leg, wh…”

“May I invite the Secretary of State to respond to the following statement that was shared by the Union of Jewish Students while she was on her feet? “We support the changes brought forward by the Secretary of State. She has listened to the concerns we and others raised and has taken action. The result is that the Act w…”

“I echo the Secretary of State’s comments and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill) on recognising the endeavours of health and care staff during last week’s extremely difficult critical incidents, and I also recognise the effect of contingency planning that had taken place, inclu…”

“I am very grateful. Having listened to what the hon. Gentleman has had to say, I am still unclear what problem in the real world he is seeking to solve. From experience of working in trade unions, it is clear that the new clause would block a trade union member who was negotiating to save a company or reach an agreemen…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”