Speeches by Crichton.

“And what you are all saying is that there is a human value to that, as well as an economic value.”

“Just two more questions, because you mentioned young people and their uncertainty going into this sphere. We have men aged 45 to 60, a really vulnerable group for suicide and mental health crises, and the domestic side of that, of course, is that these men’s partners are literally single-parent families because they ar…”

“You mean the workers and not just the components?”

“Paul, when we think of skills training and college we think of young people, but do we have a demographic problem here with people who have been in the industry for some time, who have come up against that wall of redundancy and simply do not reskill themselves or just walk away from the workforce altogether? Is that p…”

“I want to talk about the human impact with you, Donna, but I have two quick pick-ups on what Russell and Richard said. Russell, you spoke about the supply chain going away, and we will not be able to recreate it if the skills are not there. Should we be seeing the North Sea supply chain as a question of national securi…”

“I want to ask Dr Grant about training for this. Is the college sector resourced for that?”

“You mean the workers and not just the components?”

“Going and not coming back.”

“Did Aberdeen itself do enough to prepare for this?”

“Richard, in terms of the workforce going abroad, do they stay abroad? Do they come home? Does the wealth stay here? When people go to work offshore, do they still come home to Aberdeen or come home to Scotland? Or do we see that workforce exporting itself?”

“I thank the right hon. Member for that intervention. I hear him and I hope Ministers hear him as well. In that transition, we on the west coast and he in the Northern Isles have a privileged vantage point. We look eastwards to the North sea and the jobs and fortunes that it has provided to our islands, and we look west…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) for securing this important debate. I also congratulate the hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Douglas Lumsden) on his recent win. Of course, his was not the only big win in Scotland in recent times. In Na…”

“What is the profile of those workers? Do you have young workers? Are there young members?”

“I asked about the winners. There are going to be losers as well because ports will compete, will they not?”

“Claire, this directly affects all your members. Thanks for highlighting the gas network. We talk about offshore jobs and of course there are thousands of onshore jobs as well in that gas network, the future of which we do not know, but there is a potential future in nuclear. Are these transferable skills that could go …”

“I know that, but you would let the rest go tomorrow, wouldn’t you?”

“Are the Government recognising this situation? Is the industry recognising the situation? Is support coming from anywhere?”

“Why can’t we do both? Why can’t we maximise renewables and maximise extraction of oil and gas?”

“I have only two more questions, and I can anticipate the next one. Where is the North sea workforce going? When I meet them at airports, they are going to Taiwan, south-east Asia, or the Caribbean.”

“Same kind of job, same kind of skills, same kind of supply chain?”