Speeches by Coghlan.

“Eight months ago, in my maiden speech to Parliament, I said that Fiona Laskaris would succeed in changing the law that prevented her from saving her autistic son, Christopher, from murder. I am here today to honour that commitment. We are on the cusp of changing the law. We have got this far thanks to the National Auti…”

“I thank my hon. Friend. As he knows, in my maiden speech eight months ago I pledged that Fiona Laskaris would succeed in changing the law that had prevented her from saving her autistic son, Christopher, from murder. Fiona is here today. Despite pleading for years, she was never able to obtain a mental capacity assessm…”

“Mr Otudeko, there is a very high percentage of firms using AI in the insurance sector—apparently 95% according to the Bank of England. What makes the insurance sector so well placed to adopt it?”

“We have also received evidence that fintech firms are quicker to adopt compared to traditional firms because they are more agile, they have fewer legacy systems, and they have a culture of innovation. In your experience would you agree with that?”

“Presumably it is the point where you can probably no longer be competitive in the insurance sector unless you use AI?”

“Thanks so much for coming in this afternoon. We are all very worried about the UK productivity crisis in particular. Ms Mackintosh, how confident are you that AI will boost the productivity of financial services?”

“In financial services?”

“Do you know how long those productivity gains are likely to take to materialise?”

“Should we expect generative AI to be a major step change on that?”

“Are you expecting any particular breakthroughs or I presume it is quite hard to forecast?”

“Chancellor, I was very pleased to see in the spring statement, as you know, the focus on defence R&D to boost output and economic growth. Do you think that investment in defence can have a greater impact on growth than in other sectors?”

“Excellent. Do you think that the MOD—given the billions it has wasted on Ajax, for example, with years of delays—is really the most credible vehicle to deliver the economic boost we need, and the extra defence spending?”

“You have just spoken about our allies. Would you consider, say, a customs union on defence procurement as one way of increasing our defence output?”

“On the aid cut that you mentioned, by definition, surely we will see increases in infant mortality or disease outbreaks in developing countries from halting the programmes that we were previously funding.”

“It is easy to envisage that the path to 3% could, by necessity, happen sooner rather than later if international security conditions deteriorate further. Have you given any thought to how the UK will potentially fund that?”

“So no significant bounce back.”

“I fully understand the issues you are talking about in forecasting productivity in the long run, and it seems entirely reasonable to me, but chart 2.4 shows you are forecasting a big bounce back in 2026. I acknowledge the issues, and my understanding is that part of that is just bringing productivity back to its long t…”

“Mr Johnson, how will the poorest economies be impacted by the cuts in aid, especially alongside what the US and other countries are doing?”

“Do you think that the spending on defence is sufficient to turn the UK into a “defence industrial superpower”, as the Chancellor would like?”

“In total factor productivity. That seems quite brave given that productivity fell last year.”