Contributions
973 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Seventh sitting)It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I know that there was quite a bit of discussion in an earlier sitting, which I was unable to attend, about the…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Seventh sitting)It is easy to see that there will be circumstances where “as soon as reasonably practicable” becomes a very open-ended time limit—or non-time limit—indeed. Given that so much of…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Seventh sitting)I note that subsection (2) lists some exceptions, many of which are framed in terms of regulations of the European Parliament and the European Council. Let me ask the Minister two…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Eighth sitting)I fear that the hon. Gentleman is taking the definition of proportionality into a context very different from what is mentioned here in the Bill, because this is not about whether…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Seventh sitting)I agree that the sensible starting point is that, if a major transaction has not complied with legal requirements, it did not happen. As the shadow Minister outlined in her…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Eighth sitting)A brief question: is it the Government’s intention to allow for witnesses to attend virtually, if it is unreasonable for them to attend physically at the Department, or the…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Eighth sitting)I certainly would not seek to oppose this clause, but will the Minister go into a bit more detail about how it works in practice? What if a notice is served on somebody who is not…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Eighth sitting)I am grateful to the Minister for that clarification. As I say, I fully understand what the Government are attempting to achieve. I would expect that, in those circumstances, the…03 Dec 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Eighth sitting)I think I understand what the amendment is intended to achieve, but is not the hon. Gentleman concerned about the danger of almost explicitly building in a recognition that the…03 Dec 2020HANSARD Agricultural Transition PlanMoran Taing, Mr Deputy Speaker, agus Latha Noamh Anndra sona dhuibh. A happy St Andrews Day to you. I recently met Fife and Kinross representatives of NFU, Scotland. They already…30 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q So you are suggesting we need to block any purchase of a sensitive asset from a company whose ultimate controlling partner is registered in a tax-haven type regime overseas.…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q To be clear, you mentioned in your answer the need to regulate foreign-registered companies from certain types of acquisitions. Does that also apply to UK-registered companies,…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Good afternoon, Mr Butler. You highlighted the problem of identifying the fact that an acquiring party may have hostile intent towards us if we do not know who is really in…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q You were suggesting earlier that the definition of the national security interest needs to be widened to include other national interests such as the strategic economic…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q But what about once you get to the point where you follow the beneficial ownership and find that it is a company registered somewhere offshore, where the identities of the…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Finally, going back to the acquisition of companies, although it could also be relevant to the acquisition of properties, a key factor is going to be the identity of the person…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q I see from the profile that we have been given that you have considerable experience in land transaction—the legalities of land transactions—as well as company law and so on.…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Fourth sitting)Q One important distinction is that while companies legislation is almost entirely reserved to the UK Parliament, a lot of legislative authority for land registration is devolved…26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Third sitting)To be fair, there is nothing to stop MPs from asking questions about international security, but the chances of us ever getting an answer may be somewhat less.26 Nov 2020HANSARDNational Security and Investment Bill (Third sitting)Q Good afternoon, Professor Martin. As part of the provisions for transparency and parliamentary oversight of the way the powers in the Bill would be used, the Bill would require…26 Nov 2020