Speeches by Smith.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen) on securing this important debate. Given his experience as a Treasury Minister for many years, it has been a pleasure to hear his thoughts on this issue. My right hon. Friend coul…”

“I mentioned skills as a significant challenge in the defence sector and the additional manufacturing. We have five defence technical excellence colleges opening by the end of next year. How well connected is the Minister’s Department with the Department for Education? Does he have any knowledge of when those colleges w…”

“I am not going to do that. Many businesspeople across my constituency have contacted me to stress how damaging the Bill will be. It seems to be more of an ideological issue on which Opposition Members differ. The red tape, particularly around things like zero-hours contracts, will have a massive impact, but I guess the…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I welcome today’s debate. Plymouth and the surrounding area boast some of the finest examples of British advanced manufacturing. Babcock refits the Royal Navy’s frigates, maintains our nuclear deterrent and assembles the Supacat Jackal armoured vehicles at …”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the current pathway for innovative technology to be licensed is both costly and time consuming, meaning inventions that would help his constituents, such as BeechBand, which uses vibrotactile stimulation to decrease symptoms, face delays in testing and potential introduction, and that we …”

“We might help as individual MPs in terms of connecting people, because there is a huge amount going on—particularly down in the south-west, if I may say so—on decarbonising maritime. If we can help in any way to give you some pointers, or at least introduce you to some people doing some stuff, we would be happy to do t…”

“Given the postponement of the maritime net zero framework at the International Maritime Organisation, what are the Government’s next steps in leading international maritime decarbonisation?”

“What work has been done on securing green shipping corridors?”

“Obviously you have public ownership on one side, which is a big part of the Railways Bill going forward, but we have also seen some really significant private investment in rail in recent months—for example, the £500 million that came from FirstGroup, which I believe you and the Prime Minister both celebrated at Hitach…”

“Just briefly, you mentioned the maritime strategy in your first answer. I have a question here about the maritime strategy. I am just checking we are talking about the same one. Is a new maritime strategy on the way, or are you sticking with Maritime 2050?”

“I am sorry I was late. I was at a FirstPort meeting, which I am sure we all appreciate is just as important. To build on what Alex has said, particularly around ambition and reality, if you are not one of those pilots, not in a franchising position and not a local authority that is yet able to take the benefit of the n…”

“Thinking about the recent landslip in Cumbria, we know that back in July the ORR said that risks to future asset reliability, including from constrained funding, need to be carefully managed. We have seen that, although the area was being maintained in line with industry standards, something is obviously not quite goin…”

“It would be really interesting to see that broken down into what that actually looks like, because one of the challenges we face, particularly with transport things, is that we get these enormous figures of money quoted. To actually know what that looks like on the ground, so to speak, is quite difficult. I will leave …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) on securing this afternoon’s very important debate, and I likewise welcome her constituents to the Chamber. It is clear that we all have the privilege of representing autistic adults and children. T…”

“I seek clarification on those numbers. When I have heard them in the main Chamber during questions and statements, I have wondered whether those people are new members of staff or existing members of staff who have moved into a slightly different role. When we say that there are 1,000—or the other numbers that the Mini…”

“On that, the challenge is you are consulting at the moment, but most of those strategic mayoral authorities do not yet exist. It is important to make sure you are getting the voices of not the big city mayoralties, but the slightly smaller ones that are going to exist, because ultimately, they are going to get delivere…”

“Obviously, one of the things that we have been talking about quite a lot in these inquiries is the challenge that we have around transport manufacturing and manufacturing in other sectors. Obviously, there is a huge push on the industrial strategy. In my constituency down in the south-west, defence is the main hub, so …”

“I begin by echoing the thanks expressed to Members in all parts of the House and in the other place who have contributed to the Bill. In particular, I pay tribute to the excellent work of Baroness Finn, Viscount Younger and Lord Vaux, whose detailed and constructive engagement made the Bill stronger, more balanced and …”

“Just very briefly on that, I hear what you are saying and that sounds like it answers Scott’s question. However, because it is this devolved transport system, are the procurement rules actually going to be telling the devolved areas what they should be doing as well, or is that just an aspiration that it would just be …”