Contributions
1,244 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceI am glad that my hon. Friend has such a worthy campaign to support his constituents. I will ensure that his request for a meeting goes to the most appropriate Minister, who may…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceI will ask Ministers from other Departments to come back to the hon. Gentleman on the specifics, but he will know that we are very keen to see a restoration of Stormont, and I…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceI am happy to communicate that message strongly to the devolved Administration. I have visited Caithness and seen its remote beauty, but yes, one can only imagine what it would be…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceI very much hear what my hon. Friend says. I know that my colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will have heard likewise. She will have heard what I…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceI have landed at Tingwall airport in a storm in the summer, and that was frightening enough.24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceWe obviously learned a great many lessons from covid. As the hon. Lady will be aware from the documentation that the Government have published over the past couple of years, there…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceI am pleased to have learned something about St Andrews harbour. I am sure that colleagues in other Government Departments, including DLUHC, are considering those issues.…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceNo. One can only imagine what it has felt like in the Shetlands over the past week or so. My sympathies are with the right hon. Gentleman’s constituents. To his point about…24 Jan 2024HANSARDExtreme Weather Events: ResilienceAs the hon. Lady will have heard me say earlier, the Cabinet Office has a co-ordinating role that brings together lead Government Departments and local responders. It would be…24 Jan 2024HANSARDGrenfell Tower InquiryThe Grenfell Tower inquiry is a statutory inquiry established under the Inquiries Act 2005. Under the Act, the drafting of an inquiry’s final report and the timing of that process…18 Jan 2024HANSARDGrenfell Tower InquiryThe hon. Gentleman will have seen, further to what I have just read out, the report that was published in November, in which the chair explained that rule 13 of the inquiry rules…18 Jan 2024HANSARDGrenfell Tower InquiryI thank the hon. Lady for her question, but I think it is deeply unfair to suggest that there has been a lack of urgency from the Government. The then Prime Minister announced the…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: Covid-19There are well established procedures in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for handling emergency procurements, which enable the Government to procure lifesaving goods and…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: Covid-19I have to take issue with a number of the hon. Gentleman’s points. First and foremost, the idea, constantly repeated by Opposition Members, that there was special consideration…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: Covid-19I would be very interested to see the hon. Lady’s evidence. Where there is evidence of fraud, we will of course go after that, as we have done so in a number of high-profile…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: Covid-19I really struggle with that line of questioning. Opposition Members have very short memories. This was the worst pandemic that we have had in over a century. The pressures on…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: SMEsThe Procurement Act 2023 will deliver simpler and more effective public sector procurement, and it will help SMEs secure a greater share of approximately £300 billion of…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: SMEsI thank my right hon. Friend for his question. As he will know, there are clearly defined circumstances in which the Government can exclude companies from bidding for contracts.…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: SMEsI thank my hon. Friend for his question. I know that he will have followed the passage of the Procurement Act 2023 through Parliament closely, as will businesses in his…18 Jan 2024HANSARDPublic Procurement: SMEsThe right hon. Gentleman will have heard what I just said to my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Sir David Davis). I know that, as a lover of due process,…18 Jan 2024