Speeches by Arthur.

“I thank my hon. Friend for her forensic analysis of our Budget. Will she take an intervention from the Leader of the Opposition, so that she can apologise for that awful policy and its impact?”

“Of course, if the hon. Gentleman takes the time to read our manifesto, which we were elected on in Scotland, he will see that that promise was to be met at the end of this Parliament, so we are actually ahead of schedule. I am sure he welcomes that, just like he welcomes the extra £500 million in cash and £300 million …”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“This debate is a chance to speak honestly about the pressures, expectations and challenges that too many men carry alone and in silence. My hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) exemplified all that in his speech, and I thank him for it. Across my constituency, there are organisations large and small …”

“I have two very quick follow-ups. There are two perspectives on what is happening just now. I think I am guilty of focusing on wheelchair-accessible vehicles but accessible transport in terms of taxis and Ubers and so on is much bigger than that. My first leading question is: do you think that this is something that pr…”

“I think this was covered earlier to some extent by Emma’s comments about wheelchair-accessible vehicles. My question was whether you think we should mandate these in local authorities. I think you already said yes to that earlier, but I guess it is about how we do that. First, do you have some idea in mind of what prop…”

“Very quickly, James, before I was elected here last year I was a councillor in Edinburgh and I sat on the committee that dealt with taxi drivers. I thought that the flow of information between the police and the local authorities was very good and the police were quite precautionary in their approach. They would tell t…”

“Very quickly, Emma, the point you made about a national driver database was quite interesting. You were saying that a driver in one area in your system could be blocked but then appear elsewhere, and you wanted clarity on that. You must undertake some background checks on your drivers, and you must know the national in…”

“That is a good point, because there could be quite serious allegations against a driver, and you are saying there could be a delay. It is a good point.”

“I find this interesting because in Edinburgh we do not have cross-border hiring and everybody seems quite happy, to be honest. We have drivers who often live quite far outside Edinburgh, but they are licensed to operate in Edinburgh. I think drivers from outside Edinburgh can bring rides in, but we do not have people l…”

“I do not hear friends and colleagues telling me they find it difficult to get taxis anywhere.”

“Yes.”

“I live in suburbia; I am proud to do so.”

“You do not know if earnings are going up or down in relation to inflation, including waiting time.”

“Kimberly, I am picking on you but I think others have made the same point. You talked about the lack of incentives and training for drivers of accessible vehicles, but you could provide those incentives and training if you wanted to—as a company.”

“Black cab companies are able to operate at a profit in the most part, as I understand, with accessible vehicles, but for some reason you are saying that your business model is not compatible with that. Is it not that you are hammering down prices and disabled people are paying the price for that? I am looking at you bu…”

“Thanks for making the point about video, Saskia. I am now kicking myself for not asking this in the previous session where video and audio recording came up. I do not want to lead you too much in your answer, but what access arrangements do you want around that recorded data? If you have a taxi or an Uber where you are…”

“You could choose to have more accessible vehicles in your fleet and that would come at a cost to all riders. That is just the way it would work. I am picking on you, which is unfair—”

“Emma, if I was to call an Uber, how likely is it to be a wheelchair-accessible vehicle?”

“Is it more than 5% likely, more than 50% likely, more than 1% likely?”