Speeches by Thomas.

“I do not have any further questions.”

“I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour; he is far too generous. I was leader of Wychavon district council in south Worcestershire for five years, and we proudly froze council tax for five years consistently without cutting a single service. Local government is lean. It can be run efficiently and effectively without dupin…”

“But specifically in relation to our energy system?”

“I am asking about this Government. This Government have published—”

“Given that acknowledged caution, the sort of topics that Parliament deserves to see the detail on include whether this deal involved commitments not to complain to China about slave labour being used in solar production and commitments to maintain reliance on Chinese supply chains—”

“That is what I have been doing, but you have not answered them, Secretary of State.”

“So why not release the text?”

“That is what I am doing, so why not publish the text of the deal?”

“Secretary of State, you have released the text of deals with other countries. Why is China being treated differently?”

“Substantively, I would like to see the Government release the text of this deal, as Parliament deserves to see it. The Secretary of State can chuckle and laugh and be evasive around the topic, but it is a serious issue.”

“A member of the public did an FOI request on this deal. They received a response that said: “Releasing information on this topic would increase public knowledge about our relations with the Chinese government.” Let’s drill into that a bit. You have said that you will answer questions on this. Do you accept that China i…”

“On the point about banding, can the Minister assure us that there will be consistency applied across regulators so that different events are not differentially penalised depending on the regulatory body? On the question of turnover and the financial penalty, can the Minister elaborate on how the figure was derived?”

“Can the Minister elaborate on how he will ensure that regulators have the capacity to cope with large-scale data reports?”

“I have two points for the Minister to address. First, can he address concerns around whether funds raised will be directly reinvested into improving cyber-security, rather than covering administrative overheads? Secondly, there is no specific reference to turnover thresholds, so how can the Minister be sure that a one-…”

“I have two points for the Minister to address. First, could he clarify whether an organisation would face repercussions if a regulator believed in retrospect that notification should have been provided sooner? Secondly, on customer notification, can the Minister address the concern around striking the right balance bet…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. When introducing new legislation, it is essential that those who fall under its new regulations be clearly identified and given adequate time to prepare for compliance. However, despite the aims of the Bill and the wish to avoid worsening a cyber-attack in…”

“I have much sympathy with the hon. Gentleman’s arguments about the importance of local government, and I believe that it should be within scope of the Bill. Essential services are provided by councils on a day-to-day basis, but local councils are increasingly cash-strapped. Does he share my concern about the burden of …”

“Does the shadow Minister agree that the Government should heed the message of Chris Dimitriadis, the chief global strategy officer at the Information Systems Audit and Control Association? He said: “The era when cyber regulation could focus solely on critical national infrastructure is over. Today, every major employer…”

“Given the blurring of boundary lines between cyber-attacks and financial crime, I can see the compelling reasons why the amendment has been tabled, but does the shadow Minister agree and acknowledge that fraud detection often requires a different skillset from standard network security, so it is important to strike the…”

“The risk and the threat from hostile states is plain to see. Does my hon. Friend have any sympathy for the ten-minute rule Bill that I introduced a few months ago on the Floor of the House? We need to strike a balance between the risk that bureaucratic administration poses to small businesses and the very real risk tha…”