Contributions
1,690 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)On a point of order, Mr Gray. I welcome everyone back; it is very nice to see them. My point of order concerns the explanatory notes on foreign agent registration. It is customary…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)Also, a commitment was given on the Floor of the House on Second Reading that those notes would indeed be introduced. There is no real reason why those explanatory notes could not…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Fourteenth sitting)I thank the Minister. This issue is not going to go away, so we need to have further discussions. The Law Commission’s recommendations seem to have been ignored, and I think…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)I sympathise with what the Government are trying to do, and I think my hon. Friend the Member for Garston and Halewood does too, but I am never in favour of putting things on the…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)Yes, but the Minister knows that there are many countries in the world that, although they are not comparable with Russia, would also cause economic harm but are not in the higher…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Fourteenth sitting)The Minister needs to clarify—he can do so in writing, if he wants—whether that Bill is going through. It has been stayed, has it not? It has been pulled, so it will not even go…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)If the Minister wants to come here and just read his speech to us, that is fine, but that is not what scrutiny is. I am fully supportive of the proposals under tier 1, but I find…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)I agree with the Minister, but he has a problem. He and I have dealt with the Foreign Office and other diplomatic entities over many years: he knows that the pressure that the…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)If I am the CEO of a company and the Government put my company on the list, surely that will get out anyway. I would have to report it to my shareholders or board, so I am not…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)This baffles me, as it does the hon. Member for Dundee East. Tier 2 registration will not be private, will it? The order will have to be moved to put them on the list in the first…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)Will the Minister give way?18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)How does the Minister define “foreign power control”? What would be the evidential test? I have heard him argue, for example, that all Chinese companies are ultimately under the…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)Not for the first time.18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)I don’t think I have.18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)I appreciate that it is difficult to identify control, but how would we get around the situation of a Russian oligarch who is clearly under the influence of the Kremlin, but whose…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)Yes, but if I headed a French company—I am not suggesting that we use this power against the French for one minute—and had shareholders, surely I would have to tell them, and…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)These are sensible proposals to give our law enforcement agencies the powers they require, but I would like clarification about definitions. The Minister referred to a bank, and…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Fourteenth sitting)On a point of order, Mr Gray. I think it would be remiss not to thank the two previous Ministers—18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)I appreciate that in terms of overseas bank accounts, but there has been a lot of controversy about individual using overseas territories. If the Minister does not know the…18 Oct 2022HANSARDNational Security Bill (Thirteenth sitting)So, really, what we are enacting in this legislation will have to be dovetailed with the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. The issue around Scottish limited…18 Oct 2022