Speeches by Murray.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I thank the hon. Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan) for securing a debate on a question that will shape every community in this country, including mine. I will try to focus on topics that have not been covered, including infrastructure. In my Mid Dunbartonshi…”

“In your opinion, if the second-language speaking community is growing, will that help to promote the vernacular by making sure that the media—you mentioned the media earlier—are still present? Can that larger audience for that media help support the vernacular?”

“Professor Ó Giollagáin—I hope I have not said that completely wrong—the latest census shows an increase in the number of people with Gaelic language skills. What is the main reason driving that increase?”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend on business rates. I have heard repeatedly from businesses in Mid Dunbartonshire that they are unable to afford to hire young people and give them their first experience of work, or that they have had to cut their hours due to rising costs. At the same time that they are being hit…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) for securing this debate. Local businesses are the heart and soul of our communities. The independent café, the family butcher and the local hardware shop create jobs, pay taxes and invest in our communities.…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that we need more powers to make sure that the playing field is fair for local businesses in our town centres. Finally, I ask the Government not to continue loading costs on businesses that hold our town centres together. I ask them to review business rates, cut VAT for hospitalit…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) for securing this debate, and for all her work to raise the profile of these childhood conditions. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee for selecting this topic for debate. As she said, my hon. Friend first raised PANS/PANDAS in…”

“You have just been speaking about what I would like to ask about, which is scale. We are currently encouraging more people to go into engineering. We are looking at the MOD working with Skills Development Scotland, and progress has been made in that sense. Given the strategic defence review’s identification of a growin…”

“Especially as we are talking about young people.”

“Minister, we heard you talk about procurement earlier in relation to SMEs, and you talk about the single source contract regulation change up to a value of £25 million. In our discussions with SMEs we heard that slow payments from the MOD can leave them waiting years to be paid after winning contracts. What causes that…”

“ADS Scotland told us that block orders can improve efficiency, reduce overall cost, and better support the supply chain, which would feed in to this financial precariousness that they feel. Should the MOD place larger orders, despite higher upfront costs, to realise these benefits for the SMEs?”

“We are still seeing skills gaps so would a review of that process be helpful to make sure that the growth in skills training is targeted?”

“What we need to aim for is a system where our constituents feel properly represented and that their vote counts. The parties that want Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom won a majority of the votes at 56.7%, but a minority of the seats. As a litmus test, that result shows little change from the result of the 2014…”

“We have now passed the Scottish elections, and this is something that the Scottish Government has known about. Is there any way that we can ensure this happens more quickly? Can this be pushed forward any faster?”

“It is a pleasure to speak under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) for securing this debate. The House of Commons Library has called the 2024 general election the least proportional election in British history. Labour won 411 seats out of 650—almost two thirds o…”

“I think you have all touched on this, but I am interested to hear your opinions on the key issues in reliance on the current ferry services and what improvements are needed. What improvements are needed to ensure that ferry services meet the needs of the island communities?”

“If the fixed links were introduced, and Councillor Lyall has highlighted one of the issues that might crop up, is there still a role for the ferries in the regions?”

“Do you think there is a possibility that having the fixed links will increase pressure on ferry services in the areas where the ferries are still operating?”

“Is public transport in your calculations? You say public transport is currently going on ferries. If it were to go over a bridge or through a tunnel, is it adequate or is that another area that needs to be invested in?”

“I would like to talk about CalMac’s customer feedback. Mr Mackison, the latest data shows that CalMac failed to hit all its customer feedback KPIs. What are the main reasons for that?”