Speeches by Crichton.

“That works at scale, but, as you said, a lot of the construction industry consists of small and medium-sized enterprises. Can they be expected to take the risk of taking somebody on and training them up?”

“That was going to be my question as well. Is there a way round this? Are there examples?”

“Name them and praise them.”

“Sue, you have anticipated my question about what role trade unions could play in pathways into work. Earlier on, you mentioned that it was also a question of resource. I presume that that is resource in the FE sector—that is, in the college sector?”

“Encouragingly, I saw that approach at Harland and Wolff in Belfast just the other week, with welders teaching apprentices full time. That is their job, basically. I have also seen it at Arnish. Hinkley Point is always cited as the example of how to do it, but we have heard evidence from other people that there is no cl…”

“A quick point that we might not have teased out in other evidence is that the skills gap goes deeper than FE colleges and industry—it goes back to the education curriculum. Any thoughts on that?”

“Thank you both for coming in. Tom, I was fascinated to hear what you said about on-site skills hubs, and I wondered whether they are run by the industry or by colleges of further education. What kind of collaboration do you see between the two, and is it sufficient?”

“That works at scale, but, as you said, a lot of the construction industry consists of small and medium-sized enterprises. Can they be expected to take the risk of taking somebody on and training them up?”

“That was going to be my question as well. Is there a way round this? Are there examples?”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate, to which I am largely sympathetic, even as a member of the British Museum. He speaks of a win-win, for which the Lewis chessmen are a template. One of the most iconic parts of the British Museum’s collection, they were found in Uig in Lewis, in my constituency, in 18…”

“My local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar/Western Isles council is fast approaching its 50th anniversary. Formed in 1975, it brought together the many islands that make up Na h-Eileanan an Iar and gave the Outer Hebrides a unified identity. My father served as a councillor, and my brother currently serves; they are…”

“Mary, I take on board what you said as well, about community energy projects reaching further into people’s lives than just supplying electricity. I have seen that in my own constituency, with all kinds of welfare, food and warm home grants that are available through community energy schemes. You raised the example of …”

“I have one quick question. Thank you all for coming in and apologies for moving the Committee on to the stage where I make a statement and ask you to agree with it. From what you said, Afsheen, about having to ping pong and reinvent the wheel every time you apply with a different local authority, what you said, Alistai…”

“The holy grail here is that I look out my window on to my community-owned wind farm that is supplying me with cheap electricity, but we cannot get there. How do we get there? What are the restrictions? How could we get a simplified local supply system?”

“If that does not happen, are there other things that could happen? Should consumers or communities be rewarded for balancing supply and demand locally?”

“It is a way to win.”

“As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, to what extent do you think community-owned renewable energy projects should be exempted from green levies, so people do not pay twice? They are paying into green levies, and then they are paying again when they are using green energy. Stephen, you had answered, but…”

“Thank you all for coming in, for bearing with us while we were away and for your passionate support of community energy. The statements you made prove why we wanted to have this investigation in the first place. Stephen, you gave some very disturbing evidence about the abuse of levies and exemptions, and I just wondere…”

“You sound excited about sustainable aviation fuel. PetroChina is one of your big shareholders.”

“Thank you, gentlemen, for coming in. To clarify, you seem to indicate that emergency responders and shared services—will they be covered by the 18-month deal?”