Speeches by Gemmell.

“We heard from the Chief Minister about the impending UK-Gibraltar concordat. Can you update us on the state of play on the UK Government’s side?”

“If Gibraltar asked the UK to take steps under the treaty to initiate a dispute that would be detrimental to our relations with Spain or the EU, for example, how would the Government balance the demands from Gibraltar with the UK’s interests?”

“Have you had that commitment?”

“Have you received the commitment you wanted from the UK Government that it will terminate the treaty if so requested by the Government of Gibraltar, and that it will not terminate it against your wishes?”

“Are you ready to publish now, or are those negotiations ongoing?”

“Thank you for joining us, Chief Minister. What has caused the continued delay in the negotiation and publication of the UK-Gibraltar concordat? Is it just bandwidth issues at the FCDO, or are there substantive issues that you are still dealing with?”

“If Gibraltar asked the UK to take steps under the treaty to initiate a dispute that would be detrimental to our relations with Spain or the EU, for example, how would the Government balance the demands from Gibraltar with the UK’s interests?”

“We heard from the Chief Minister about the impending UK-Gibraltar concordat. Can you update us on the state of play on the UK Government’s side?”

“Are there any areas where the Government should have gone further in giving you a role in overseeing the implementation of the treaty?”

“Have you had that commitment?”

“Have you received the commitment you wanted from the UK Government that it will terminate the treaty if so requested by the Government of Gibraltar, and that it will not terminate it against your wishes?”

“Are you ready to publish now, or are those negotiations ongoing?”

“Looking at the foreign interference offence, since the law has changed do you think platforms are taking this offence seriously? What changes have you seen to their behaviour and activity?”

“The Chair has outlined our serious concerns about hostile Iranian activity seeking to undermine Scottish democracy, particularly in the debate on Scottish independence. The Rycroft Review said there was nothing in the public domain that would allow the general public to understand whether the Iranian effects are down t…”

“What are the top risk factors that they have set out? What are the risk factors that you are most concerned about?”

“Do you have an idea of the type of spend and resource that platforms are putting into monitoring and assessing this risk?”

“Do you have a sense of the total Government spending or allocation on monitoring or responding to foreign interference threats? Could you share that with us in writing?”

“That would be helpful. With what you have seen so far, do you have concerns about the operationalisation of the foreign interference offence?”

“On your ideas about further user empowerment, what do you think about ungeotagged content or content where users cannot find out the location of the sender or the originator of a message? What more can we do about that?”

“Do you feel, at the moment, that you are in a position where you need to review the foreign interference offence? This Committee is concerned about its workability in practice, particularly in establishing that the action was instructed by a foreign actor. Do you feel there is a need to review the offence right now and…”