Speeches by Western.

“Can you illustrate that with which Departments?”

“I am interested. We were talking about British Steel in the previous session, but touched on nuclear power stations as well. To what extent do you think the Government are good in working across Government Departments to assist with or promote these sorts of opportunities, but also in ensuring that these investments ar…”

“Catherine was talking about agility in Estonia. Do you think that we have that agility across Departments?”

“The events of recent weeks around British Steel highlighted that there are all sorts of challenges in a Government. I am talking about silo working and the need to work collaboratively across Departments. It was evident that there could have been differences of opinion, maybe in the past when the deal with Jingye happe…”

“Q3. The UK automotive sector faces major challenges, and Trump’s tariffs are the latest crisis to hit the industry. Investment and jobs are now on the line, from Mini to McLaren, Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover and many others. Will the Prime Minister continue to make those companies’ case in his talks with the US regi…”

“We were recently in Japan and we saw evidence of a particular approach, where they were actively encouraging innovative start-up businesses to come to Japan and look at developing their idea there in Japan. This included start-up businesses from Israel and Canada that were looking to scale. Japan was actively looking t…”

“I am very much playing second fiddle to Alberto on this. In 2019 I held an Adjournment debate on the issue of a particular sand and gravel quarry that was being proposed a couple of hundred metres south of a village. What I spoke to, as I did subsequently in 2022 or 2023 in a ten-minute rule Bill, was the proximity of …”

“Can I make a comment on that? This is something that I discussed at length previously. There are modern methods of construction that have less environmental impact, and they can be cheaper as well, so these are things that should be considered. In fact, the Chair and I were on the Housing, Communities and Local Governm…”

“I am sorry; I had to pop out, so I missed some of the evidence you were giving. You may have heard the previous session, but I am really interested to know what your thoughts are about the financial side of innovation, not simply about government funding and the allocation to innovation. We were talking about scale-ups…”

“It was simply the risk. I thought it was also the duration of payback.”

“On the previous point you were making, Mr Flint, you were saying that the private sector had been less interested, giving that example of liquid air. It sounds fantastic. I am aware of that kind of thing, but the private sector is not interested in the longer term, in terms of the return that it was going to be making.…”

“Andy, it is nice to see you. I have not seen your northern arc proposals. Will cohesion in the north be delivered better through better transport infrastructure between the cities in the north than by having HS2 go up to Manchester, for example? Is it more important that you have connectivity across your northern arc o…”

“On skills, have LSIPs worked?”

“As you may be aware, one of the first things that the Committee did after it was formed last December was to do a tour of the UK. I am afraid we did not get to the north-east, but maybe that is something we can do in the future. We did go to Manchester and we did spend some time in London, Scotland, Wales and other reg…”

“I am sure that everyone in the House is concerned about the use of public money. In my constituency, a council is employing leaf blowers to blow leaves around a redundant car park, and a county council has spent £11 million on levelling a field for a school playing field and £16 million on a bridge to nowhere, so may w…”

“Stephen Phipson, can I pick up on the point that the Chair was making in terms of the SMEs? You were saying that for smaller businesses, which are much more hand-to-mouth, there will be a much more immediate impact. To what extent is DBT being agile enough in supporting those businesses?”

“How long do you think that plan should be? If it is too short, how long should it be?”

“Have the Government adopted that plan?”

“That is what the Winser report is, is it not?”

“Towards the end of the answer you were saying “10 years plus”. Would you like to see something that is 10 or 15 years and that actually helps National Grid scale up, get the skills, get the staff, get the trained personnel, but also, as we talked about the steel industry before, get the pylons produced, get the cables …”