Speeches by Reader.

“Your role and your Department’s role is to provide certainty to the market. We heard repeatedly about the delays in announcing your position on REMA; they even led the Committee to write a letter to you. What have you learned from that process? Clearly we heard from businesses that they were not going to invest in cont…”

“You have led me on well to my next question. When Chris Stark came in, we questioned him on mission control and maturity of the organisation, and he was very honest about the fact that he did not have in place the governance, the commercial and the project control capabilities. You had got some great thinkers and strat…”

“Do you think it is clear in the Government who owns the net zero strategy?”

“Thank you, Chair. You have nudged me. The advice given by the Committee is often founded on complex modelling. Through your answers, you have shown a particularly good understanding of the outputs and the headlines, but how do you make sure that when you interrogate technical assumptions in the work of the Committee, i…”

“My last question, what is your approach going to be to deal with the quite strong lobbying you are going to get, particularly from vested organisations? We experience it on the Committee, and I imagine you are going to experience it to an even greater extent from right across the spectrum in the net zero world.”

“Thank you. In your opinion, should the Committee be highlighting gaps that exist in Government delivery, particularly between Departments?”

“I recognise what you may do in the future, but can you give us examples of what you have done?”

“We talked before about how the seventh carbon budget covers DFT and MHCLG. Is it the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero who owns it or actually is this not owned higher up given the importance?”

“Why do you think that is?”

“I am just trying to piece together the responses to Blake and Pippa’s questions. Blake was asking about challenging the Government and you were clear that you were going to, but in response to Pippa you said you were more of an adviser than getting stuck in with Departments. Where do you see your role? Are you there to…”

“That is the Committee. What about your role? What are you going to be doing?”

“Yes. My colleagues will probably explore that in more detail, but I will ask one more follow-up on it now. What is the way of getting across the truth about this and ensuring people are convinced on it?”

“Do you choose to offset when you fly?”

“Who do you think owns it?”

“So, in answer to my question, the example there is you as a delegate in Paris, did you say?”

“Could you give us an example from your career where you have challenged the Government or a major funder on the narrative and how you went about that?”

“I will come to my question. Talk me through your 100-day plan, the first 100 days of your appointment. What are the key things you will be focusing on? What are you going to deliver in that first three months?”

“Shouldn’t you know that by now, given your experience and the roles you have had?”

“Last week, the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee heard from Make UK and representatives from the chemical, petrochemical, steel and ceramics industries that closer alignment and collaboration with the EU on energy pricing is critical to reducing bills. That is also recognised in the Government’s industrial strateg…”

“I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for leading us through the report. It is right that sometimes Select Committees pose more of a challenge to Government. In this case, I think it is right to call out that, while the Department is doing great things and working at pace, we need to ensure that everything is joine…”