Contributions
612 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDE-scooters and E-bikes: Battery FiresThat is a very far-reaching question. I will be delighted to write to the noble Lord on it.27 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureMy Lords, as the Prime Minister has made clear, we will continue to work constructively with the Scottish Government in tackling all the shared challenges that we face. However,…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureThe Scottish Government will argue that every area of legislation they are putting forward is within the devolution settlement. We sometimes disagree with that, and where we…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureI thank my noble friend for his helpful contribution there. The reality is that Scotland is the best-funded part of the United Kingdom; for every £100 spent in England, £125 is…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureI thank the noble Lord for his tenacity on this subject, because I have now been in post for 18 months and this is the sixth Question I have answered for the noble Lord, Lord…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureI thank my noble friend for that question. In the Scotland Act, the devolution settlement is actually very simple. You can put it on one piece of A4; on the left you have devolved…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureAgain, this is an issue of there being no SNP representative in this House. It is a bit like playing “Hamlet” without the prince; there is nobody here to put the Scottish…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureThe response to that question given by the head of the Civil Service in Scotland, JP Marks, was that he is entirely impartial and is there to do the bidding of the party in power,…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScottish Government: ExpenditureThe chief executive of Circularity Scotland said that the Scotland DRS could work very well without glass. We recommend that we all work together to put in a unitary scheme,…06 Jun 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterI thank my noble friend for that. Some 60% of Scotland’s trade is with the rest of the United Kingdom, 20% is with the EU and 20% is international. We talk to businesses…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterThat is exactly the point that Kate Forbes was putting across. To take the nationalist movement so far, Alex Salmond moved it from 30% to 45%, and he was entitled to say that his…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterI thank my noble friend for bringing attention to one of the key reserved areas that makes the United Kingdom strong—that is, defence. That is another situation where we are…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterIt is an interesting quirk of history brought up by the noble Lord, but it demonstrates the diversity of this country and the great strength that we have. We must again…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterI thank the noble Lord for that very succinct agenda item, and that is exactly what is going to be addressed. The people of Scotland have two Governments, the UK Government and…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterThe noble Lord is right to call on the Scottish Government to focus on the people’s priorities. That came across very strongly in the SNP election, where it turned out that, as…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterI thank my noble friend for raising this topic, which is talked about a lot north of the border. It is a running saga that needs to be concluded. My understanding is that…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterI thank the noble Baroness for that. The issue we have is that those are both Scottish Bills. The great thing about devolution is that the Scottish Government are empowered to…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterI thank the noble Lord, but I violently disagree with that—or maybe not violently, but I certainly disagree with it. Devolution gives Scotland the most amount of government…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScotland: Meeting with New First MinisterFirst, I offer my congratulations to Humza Yousaf on his appointment as First Minister of Scotland, having won the SNP leadership contest on a very close 52%-48% result with Kate…29 Mar 2023HANSARDScottish Government: Ultra Vires ExpenditureThe devolution settlement was put in place in this House long before I arrived, and the machinery of government was set up in the devolution Act. It does not allow the UK…09 Mar 2023