Speeches by Taylor.

“Moving on to digital ID, because Liberal Democrats like to talk about this sort of thing, why are you the Minister responsible for the digital ID project?”

“There is general agreement that there is very little public understanding of this process. While it is not necessary that you have a column every week in a broadsheet newspaper explaining what the mission boards have been doing, has it been a mistake not to give more detailed explanation of how the sausage is being mad…”

“Has the composition of those boards changed since inception and, if so, how?”

“Just to use the NHS as an example of the mission board, the mission is, “Build an NHS fit for the future.” The mission board there seems relatively straightforward on the interpretation or how that is delivered through the milestones and the first steps. In addition to departmental governance, what has that provided? I…”

“Moving on slightly to mission boards, you referred to them in one of your previous answers. How active have they been across the piece up to this point?”

“To evolve the question, parliamentary scrutiny is at the old-fashioned departmental level. When we are trying to align that with the first steps, the milestones, the foundations, or the overall delivery of the missions, do the changes made or does the structure at the moment make that scrutiny more difficult, or is it …”

“Forgive me for trying to play that back. Rather than looking at the progress of the steps that are being taken to achieve your milestones, that is now back up at the mission level to broadly test the temperature of the culture and the teamworking, rather than checking how many of the 6,500 new teachers you have deliver…”

“I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Sebastien Lai, whom I and a number of colleagues met earlier, and who has shown courage and fortitude throughout this process. Ever since the verdict was announced I have been inundated with the concerns of Hongkongers in my constituency about what this might mean…”

“I thank the Minister for coming to the Chamber to clear up concerns following the statements by the Home Secretary yesterday. The Met police are expected by March 2026 to have 2,508 fewer officers than they had at the time of the May 2024 election. Fewer officers means more space for men to commit crimes against women …”

“Will the right hon. Member give way?”

“It is a pleasure to contribute to this debate. Together, the 100 smallest carbon-emitting countries represent more carbon emissions than China on its own, so if all those smaller-emitting countries make their own contribution it can make a bigger contribution to cuts than China. Does the right hon. Member not agree tha…”

“I completely agree. That is why we are talking about a transition. It may well bring shivers to the hon. Member’s spine to talk about transitions, but it is critical that we talk about them in a reasonable and sensible way, and about how we look forward to the future rather than to the past. Reform’s approach is equall…”

“I know that the hon. Member has a lot of knowledge on this issue. I think that looking at all the options that maintain capability is critical. What might come out of this is an ask for this Minister— or potentially the aviation Minister, the hon. Member for Selby (Keir Mather)—to sit down with our APPG, in which there…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Western. I thank the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) for securing this important debate, and all the Members who have spoken for their contributions. I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the future of aviation…”

“I wanted to come in on your raising of the question of a veto. Under the previous Government, there was the incredibly concerning case of a rogue Prime Minister overriding the advice of the security services to appoint a peer who had been identified as a risk. The lack of a veto at that point meant that the appointment…”

“So you feel you have resolved that issue?”

“I would just like to come back again. We are in unprecedented times. We have various concerns over foreign influence on our politics. Both financially and individually, we have an incredibly challenging international political environment. We are up to three years away from the next general election, where we may see a…”

“I hope you would take away from this session that we are concerned that that has not happened, and I would hope that in the report we can reflect that in no uncertain terms. There seems to be a real gap there, but to be fair, you go on in your evidence to talk about the statutory basis that that may require. In terms o…”

“Looking back on the report published in October 2023 following the recommending of your appointment, and in your evidence it says, “I would search for a way to avoid the situation where a PM insists on an appointment thought to be unsuitable by HOLAC.” It sounds like you have very much stopped that search and are perfe…”

“To come back on that point, would not the prospect of a veto being given based on, in this example, security services’ advice, dissuade a Prime Minister from taking that course of action in the first place? We can point directly to an example where this occurred and that check did not happen. Ultimately, in my view, th…”