Speeches by Taylor.

“I thank the Minister for what is a clear Lib Dem win. I repeat the question from my Front-Bench colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton), on the need for a transparent assessment of the potential economic growth benefits of a customs deal. In three years, we will all be seeking a new mandate…”

“That sounds like all of it.”

“To go back to the previous question in a bit more detail, the suggestion seemed to be that cost was not really a factor or a decision in whether to go forward. It does not seem that there is much of a cost-benefit analysis of whether to proceed. Is that the case?”

“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?”

“I go through that process with my own accounting units on a regular basis. Again, it does not feel like there is really a value for money bit of work being done. Given the complexity and the ongoing cost of the digital ID scheme—I understand the policy aim of digitising the right-to-work question and that it is aimed t…”

“That is fairly straightforward.”

“Is this the boiling frogs?”

“It is implementation versus co-ordination and the strategy of such. As a follow-up, this does not signal digital capability moving back to the Cabinet Office more broadly; this is more about a delivery mechanism for the technology.”

“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?”

“Can you give us an explanation for how that came to be?”

“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…”

“That was a very good answer. I enjoyed that. Just to loop back on the previous section—I thought I understood this, because I did my homework—we had five legacy missions, as they were, from the manifesto from back in the day. We then had an extra one, which was the foundations, and those gave us national security, secu…”

“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 …”

“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…”

“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…”