Speeches by Collinge.

“I want to ask about nuclear’s role in the overall electricity mix. For context, my constituency hosts Heysham 1 and 2 nuclear power stations. I think that that is helpful context. According to the Government and others, nuclear is the only proven low-carbon technology that is capable of supplying baseload energy. Steph…”

“As a member of the all-party parliamentary group for fair elections, I very much welcome the independent review into foreign financial interference in our democracy. Does the Secretary of State share my concern about the inadequate oversight of foreign donations, particularly moneys funnelled through cryptocurrency, an…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. It was interesting to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland Central (Lewis Atkinson) about the experience of smaller hobby sites and their concerns about the Online Safety Act. I am sure that Ofcom and the Government will listen to those. The On…”

“My hon. Friend has been talking about the dangers that children are exposed to. Does she believe that parents are equipped to talk to their children about these dangers? Is there more we can do to support parents to have frank conversations with their children about the risks of sharing images and talking to people onl…”

“We have talked about marginal pricing, and people talk about the price of electricity being pegged to gas. I think most of my constituents do not understand what that means. I will hand it to Susie but someone else might want to chip in. Can you very quickly and simply explain what marginal pricing is or what being peg…”

“I want to clarify something. Have I understood this correctly? You are saying that, in the long term—this is going back a couple of paragraphs, as it were—it may be wise to maintain the ability to burn gas even if we do not. Would this still be true if we had a much wider nuclear power base, including with the newer te…”

“We are talking about the design of the wholesale market. Are there any comments on what changes you might like to see and, if so, could these changes impact quickly on the market or is it long term as we were talking about before? Are there any other comments you would like to make?”

“I will direct this to Michael Grubb. Does this system of marginal pricing make it easier or harder to lower bills—which I think we all agree is a good thing—and if generators are getting the same price regardless of what it costs to generate does that make sense? Are there different ways of doing it?”

“I want to clarify something. Have I understood this correctly? You are saying that, in the long term—this is going back a couple of paragraphs, as it were—it may be wise to maintain the ability to burn gas even if we do not. Would this still be true if we had a much wider nuclear power base, including with the newer te…”

“We are talking about the design of the wholesale market. Are there any comments on what changes you might like to see and, if so, could these changes impact quickly on the market or is it long term as we were talking about before? Are there any other comments you would like to make?”

“I will direct this to Michael Grubb. Does this system of marginal pricing make it easier or harder to lower bills—which I think we all agree is a good thing—and if generators are getting the same price regardless of what it costs to generate does that make sense? Are there different ways of doing it?”

“We have talked about marginal pricing, and people talk about the price of electricity being pegged to gas. I think most of my constituents do not understand what that means. I will hand it to Susie but someone else might want to chip in. Can you very quickly and simply explain what marginal pricing is or what being peg…”

“I am very concerned that flu has hit hard and hit early this year. Hospital bed occupancy for flu is more than 50% higher than it was this time last year and resident doctors are central to tackling that. I have to admit to being very shocked that the BMA turned down an offer that would allow it to postpone next week’s…”

“Is there any way of making science exciting?”

“I will move on, then, to the trusted voices and the less trusted voices. How do we ensure that politicians and scientists, who are by definition nerds—don’t laugh; you all are—focus on that and that very clear messaging and policy? Is there the infrastructure for science and thinking about science communications in par…”

“Yes, I would like to pick up the role of scientists in communicating what is happening with the climate and potential solutions. It is a two-part question. First I would like to know what you all think the role of scientists is in the discussion around the energy transition, but I would also like to get your thoughts o…”

“Thank you. That is very helpful.”

“You might want to comment on this. I am also interested in the transition. We have talked so far about the science of climate change but then there is the whole conversation about the transition. Can we talk about that?”

“Briefly, I am interested in the use of nature in urban spaces. We often talk about nature in the countryside, and I have a lot of agricultural land in my constituency, but I am interested in how we can build climate positive nature solutions into urban environments. My experience of talking to my constituents is the as…”

“We have covered some of this already so my first bit, hopefully, will be brief in reply. A lot of the discussion today and more widely in this space has been around greener choices and individual behaviour. I would perhaps say that there has been too much emphasis on that in the environmental movement. It is quite inte…”