Speeches by Western.

“How do you think the Government should balance the need for national security protections while also fostering the emerging technology sector?”

“I am interested to hear your views on the current threats to critical national infrastructure and whether these challenges have become harder to respond to.”

“Correct me if I am wrong, but Spain and Portugal have a large amount of renewable energy in their mix already, but they had a power outage that affected about half of their network. Do you think that could happen here?”

“Henrik Pedersen?”

“The same applies to the North sea gas pipelines. They are vulnerable; you can have attacks on those as well. I want to understand your views on state actors and state threats to our port system. How could they bring about a closure of ports, for example, and what tools or security would you have in place?”

“Kevin Craven, can I ask your view and the view of ADS? What do you think about the threats out there—whether they be state actors or grey actors on behalf of states—and the resilience and monitoring in the defence and aerospace sector?”

“That reminds me of the lithium-ion battery, which of course was invented in Oxford, wasn’t it?”

“It was Oxford!”

“Do you think your members are well plugged in to the various agencies to help them in their protection—say against cyber-attacks?”

“Mike King, do you have anything to add?”

“What type of magnet?”

“One of you mentioned the Inflation Reduction Act—that massive intervention. Can we learn from any other country’s approach? I was looking through some briefing notes on the Japanese Organisation for Metals and Energy Security. Does the UK have anything similar? I do not think we do, but maybe you can tell me differentl…”

“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, which I chair, is responsible for examining cross-cutting issues of national security. You will appreciate that the UK faces a great range of external threats and internal challenges around resilience and the choices it makes …”

“I rise to present a petition on behalf of the residents of the little village of Radford Semele. Locally, a separate petition has been signed by over 440 residents with regard to the proposed development of a 213 acre, 49.99 MW solar farm on their doorstep, just outside the village. The petitioners’ concerns are about …”

“Things should have been clear at the outset when Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli Defence Minister, said that Israel will “eliminate everything”. Some 18 months and 52,000 deaths later, Israel Katz, also a Defence Minister in Israel, stated that blocking aid was being used to “pressure” Hamas, making starvation an open…”

“I will, if I may, start by encouraging you, Madam Deputy Speaker, to imagine being in your own home and unable to eat with your family, unable to leave food for even a minute without your kitchen being swarmed with flies, and unable to sleep in your own bed without flies landing on your face. Imagine flies everywhere, …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her comprehensive response. The frustration is that, after two years, there is real fatigue among the community about the district council, the Environment Agency and environmental health not listening and taking this problem seriously, so I do not think that we can just complete online forms…”

“I thank the hon. Member—I will call him my hon. Friend—for his intervention. The council does have a role, and I will come on to that in more depth. It has tried to get involved and understand the nature of the problem, and to exercise certain powers, but this is where national Government, particularly the Environment …”

“If I could just drill into it for a moment, you will know very well that the automotive industry was very frustrated by DFT being in a very entrenched position. Who is the arbiter in that case and how can we make these Departments work better across Government? Is it more of a role for the Cabinet Office or is it simpl…”

“Secretary of State, you were talking earlier about better cross-Government, interdepartmental working. Some of the important sectors, like the automotive industry, have been very concerned about the disjointed regulations holding them back. Of course, you will be more than aware of the issues between your Department an…”