Speeches by Roca.

“Mr Train, lack of interconnectivity, historically low levels of mains replacements and other issues have been flagged as affecting resilience at South East Water. In your view, why was greater resilience not a priority in earlier price reviews?”

“So even after work, even after mitigation, something would remain high risk?”

“I feel like we are wading through treacle here. You have not answered my colleague’s original question, which is, what would it take for a change in leadership? You have had an outage that affected tens of thousands of people. Another outage that affected tens of thousands of people. A proposed fine because 286,000 cus…”

“Can I say that I am short of time; I have to go bother a Minister about something else in my constituency. My question was that Ofwat says you failed to make a robust case for funding or had already received funding to invest in resilience in previous price reviews. How do you respond to the suggestion that you are not…”

“The Committee recognises the points you make about regulation; Mr Hinton made those points in January as well, and welcomed the IWC’s recommendations. However, I do not think you can completely hide behind the regulatory framework. A core part of your business should be an understanding that in terms of infrastructure,…”

“Part of remedying what has happened is people having confidence. Your customers clearly do not have confidence, as has been expressed by the leader of Kent County Council and seven local Members of Parliament, and this Committee has made its concerns very clear. Why is not the confidence of your customers an important …”

“I feel like we are wading through treacle here. You have not answered my colleague’s original question, which is, what would it take for a change in leadership? You have had an outage that affected tens of thousands of people. Another outage that affected tens of thousands of people. A proposed fine because 286,000 cus…”

“The Minister is making an important point. The economics of higher education are actually quite complicated; there is a great deal of cross-subsidy, with the humanities and the arts effectively supporting science, medicine and engineering courses and so on. Does the Minister agree that we should be worried that the Opp…”

“Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Dan Blackman and in thanking all others at the Silklife church food bank, along with the other food banks and community groups across Macclesfield, including Cre8 and the CORE pantry, for their extraordinary dedication in supporting people who face food poverty? As…”

“I put on record that I chair the all-party parliamentary group on Spain. I congratulate the Government on this significant agreement. Can the Minister confirm that it provides additional safeguards to Gibraltar’s sovereignty, while creating new economic opportunities? I think he was alluding to that with the airport. I…”

“It is an uncomfortable truth that England now has the most expensive public university system in the world. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has told us that, while the taxpayer underwrites 45% of its cost, students and graduates cover 55%, which represents a profound shift in how we fund higher education in this count…”

“Q I was reading the ICO’s response in December, as this legislation was proceeding, and it talks a little about having clarity around secondary legislation, the Secretary of State’s powers and the definition of “significant impact”. What are your concerns about the secondary legislation, or what you would like to make …”

“Q I, too, put on the record that I am a member of the IPAC caucus in this Parliament. Thank you for speaking to us today. May I turn the conversation a little on its head? We have been talking about national security and the threat from China and others. You were an activist in Hong Kong and made a great deal of effort…”

“Q From the other perspective—I am thinking about a UK Government in the future overreaching—do you think there is any risk from this legislation? Chung Ching Kwong: It is always a double-edged sword when it comes to regulating against threats. The more that the Secretary of State or the Government are allowed to go int…”

“Q Is there anything that you would have preferred to see in the primary legislation, or do you think secondary legislation affords industry and Government flexibility? Ian Hulme: There is a balance to be struck. When something is written on the face of the Bill and things change—and we know that this is a fast-moving s…”

“Q The Committee heard this morning about the public sector’s level of technical debt. This Bill is important in terms of safeguarding essential services, but we heard that an important factor—notwithstanding this Bill—is tackling the enormous number of legacy systems. How do you see us running the two in parallel? Kani…”

“Sorry, Chair, I don’t have a question.”

“Q This question is mainly for Jen. Your colleague Jamie MacColl has made a series of forthright comments about the Bill and compared it to NIS2. How does the Bill compare to legislation worldwide? Jen Ellis: As a starting point, I will clarify that I am a fellow at RUSI. I work closely with Jamie, but I do not work for…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel) for securing this debate and the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), who made some very powerful points about parallels with the Baltic states that I completely agree with. I think all Members in attendance are absolut…”

“I disagree with the hon. Member, because the two situations do have parallels. In the South China sea, people are challenging Chinese sovereignty, and it has been proved not to have standing in international courts. At the moment, ambiguity is starting to arrive in our position over the Chagos islands. This treaty woul…”