Speeches by Western.

“Just to pick up on that, it is great to hear that the Secretary of State is obsessed about energy prices. We had a series of business roundtables across the country and businesses, irrespective of their size, are really concerned about energy prices, but also are clearly concerned by the increase in national insurance …”

“Just briefly, what systems do we use across Government for procurement and finance? Do you use SAP-based systems? Is it similar to that? Is it standardised?”

“Andrew New, what is your view?”

“Just to move along, we were in Belfast last week and we visited the Harland and Wolff shipyard, which you may know, Andrew, was taken over by Navantia. We also learned that Navantia is in actual fact owned by the Spanish Government. In the referendum on leaving the EU, it was claimed that leaving would liberate us from…”

“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…”

“I call the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.”

“I call Alex Sobel to wind up.”

“Martin McElwain, do you have any comments from the legal perspective?”

“Mike Reid, do you have any comments?”

“Can I just ask one further question to that? That is about dual use technologies. How good are we, or are these Departments, in identifying or recognising there could be a dual use to a new technology, in your experience, Mr Reid?”

“Yes.”

“Regarding Marks & Spencer, that was not a state threat, but let us say that it was. They would be very capable of doing something like that. Do you think that there should be an awareness given to food supply as a critical infrastructure?”

“Good afternoon. We pick up that businesses are not so good at monitoring or mitigating state-based threats. I wondered whether you agree with that and whether you are prepared to give examples of good practice or bad practice.”

“On the point of the private sector, so the attacks on Marks & Spencer that I think you were referring to earlier, would Estonia and its whole-of-society approach be likely to have been more resilient to such attacks?”

“This is maybe one for you, Catherine, given your previous role. It is around Estonia. When Estonia was attacked, what happened? I am trying to think of the timings and whether it was a member of NATO at the time. What actions did it take across Government and society, so the whole-of-society approach? How did it go abo…”

“A few years ago, there was that attack on TalkTalk. I think that the headline was more about data and how much data was stolen from TalkTalk. Do your clients view this still as an issue about data, or are they viewing this as, “What is the potential disruption of any such attack?””

“It was about disruption. As we have just seen in the last 10 days or so, there has been significant disruption. That has actually had a huge cost in terms of share price.”

“Helen, do you have any other views, maybe linked to share price manipulation or other questionable activity that state actors might play a part in?”

“It is striking, is it not? There was stuff about the rumours of attacks, threats or planned assassination of senior executives in a particular German defence company. Do you think that that is a real thing that is understood in this country?”

“Do you think a Chinese-owned nuclear power station would have been a good idea?”