Speeches by Stephenson.

“How much taxpayers’ money in total—I do not need it to be itemised—is being spent on this prison every year for no prisoners to be in those cells?”

“But you are doing all sorts of work on it as well.”

“I was going to ask the same question. There are some very big numbers here. What is the all-in cost per year to keep this prison empty? I think our constituents would be horrified to learn that we are paying all this money for an empty prison. I understand the context, the reasons and the background, but what is the al…”

“I will not take up too much time. I just want to ask a few questions about the risk register and the entry of this on the risk register back in 2021, and then lead into how much money is being spent on cyber-risk and the adequacy of that. It is good to hear that this was on the risk register in 2021. I think it has bee…”

“To be clear, this was before the breach.”

“It helped you identify it, as well.”

“Earlier in the session, someone mentioned £32 million having been spent since it was added to the risk register. I think that relates to the numbers that you just ran through—it’s not doubling up, right?”

“So it’s additional.”

“Clement, I do not know if you want to say some final words on that point before I close my questions.”

“My final question is for Rachel. To come back to private finance for a moment, successful financial products are underpinned by confidence, clarity and certainty around the public policy framework. What additional certainty is required to unlock—I will use that because I cannot think of another one—private finance so t…”

“Recognising that all countries are at a different place and in a different space, and recognising the UK as at the leading edge, is there anything further the UK needs to do specifically to improve clarity?”

“Interesting. From a COP30 perspective, do you want the UK Government to go into COP30 looking to achieve these things?”

“While you are online, I was quite interested in the things that you were talking about earlier in answer to Sarah Gibson’s questions about the levies—“polluter pays”, premium flyers—and perhaps introducing taxes on oil and gas to fund just transition. Would you mind unpacking that a little more for us and describing wh…”

“Interesting. I do not know if our other stakeholders have any comments. Maybe Tom?”

“I will ask some questions about the finance road map. All witnesses this afternoon have highlighted the importance of unlocking private finance. I might ask all of you to comment if you want to, but how can COP30 help mobilise private finance? Would you like to start, Rachel?”

“It is clear that Scottish Labour and this Government do not care and do not understand our rural communities. If we have no farmers, there is no food. Will the Minister listen to the voices of rural Scots, NFU Scotland and communities up and down this country, and ask the Chancellor to rethink this ruinous inheritance …”

“6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to inheritance tax relief on Scotland’s agricultural sector.”

“Last week, I met one of my constituents, Tracey Hanson, in Parliament to honour the 10-year anniversary of the tragic loss of her son Josh, who was murdered in an unprovoked knife attack in Hillingdon, west London, in October 2015. We spoke about the tireless work that she has put into campaigning for victims’ rights, …”

“I think that the justification for not changing that approach over many years has been an argument about finality of sentence, and giving the offenders that finality. I do not think that stacks up today; we need to afford victims more rights and more sensitivity within the system. New clause 12 is total common sense, a…”

“There is a difference between talking with other countries and doing a deal. I know that those on the Opposition Front Bench who formed part of the previous Government were not going to do this deal. They may have been talking, but as we have heard, there was going to be no agreement. I thank the hon. Member for his in…”