Speeches by Kane.

“Does the Minister agree that it is only because of the Barnett formula and a Labour Government that Scotland—including communities in Stirling and Strathallan—now has record funding of £50 billion this year, and it is deeply concerning that the SNP Government in Scotland have no clear plan to invest this funding proper…”

“We always have a bit of a laugh about how acronyms make it very difficult for people to understand things. “Section 106” is probably the most insider-language term in Government—and we have a lot of inaccessible terms. When I sat on my local planning panel, I often found that the language that we used meant that commun…”

“To gently push back, I do not agree with your point that the language only matters to civil servants. The more we can make everything we do more accessible to the public, the better it will be for them, so sometimes questioning the terminology we use is important. I would add that, when you have local planning authorit…”

“As a former Scottish local authority leader, I am listening with interest. It is interesting to hear that my colleagues in England and Wales have the same observations and thoughts as we have in Scotland. It is section 106 in England, section 75 in Scotland and, I think, section 76 in Northern Ireland. What conversatio…”

“I am interested that you are talking about the need to look at having more structured forums. That is quite exciting. In terms of recruiting planning officers—in Stirling, it was planning officers and bridge engineers; we could never get bridge engineers, and there were not enough planning officers—there is definitely …”

“I think it is fair to say that, whether it is getting more affordable housing or more GP surgeries, everything we are talking about is eerily familiar to me from Scotland. You have maybe given me a glimmer of the answer to this, but how would you characterise your shared understanding of what is a UK-wide problem—it is…”

“You have talked about bringing everything together, but what new powers and authority will NISTA have to drive improvements? How will you ensure that you are not just moving things into a central pot but you are getting the additional powers that you need to do things?”

“I want to talk about resources. How are you going to ensure that NISTA has the necessary resources and capacity to deliver its scope?”

“Given where you are in the creation of NISTA, what is the confidence that you are expressing based on?”

“Jon, can I just pick up and develop your point on AI for a minute? AI is obviously very exciting and is a major project in itself for Government going forward, but where we are in the development of AI needs a degree of enthusiasm, balanced with a degree of cynicism, just to make sure that it is developing the way it s…”

“Can I ask you about the Green Book, please? It is Nick or possibly David I want to talk to. The spending review says you are going to introduce place-based business cases to bring together the projects needed to achieve the objectives of a particular place. How are the changes to the Green Book going to ensure that pro…”

“AI will reduce the need for certain resources, but there is a need for a resource to evaluate and use the AI, to check that it is interacting with the Departments properly. Do you have the resource to do that? At the stage you are at with NISTA, it is an exciting time to be looking at AI and also evaluating it. You are…”

“My experience of the Green Book is from being a council leader in Stirling before being elected. An observation that I and the senior officers had was that the Green Book approaches to a £20 million project and a £2 billion project seem very similar. It does not seem to be weighted. It is harder for smaller organisatio…”

“Chair, I hope you will forgive me for carrying on a little bit on smaller projects. I know we are talking about big projects. One of the reasons that councils tend not to have that as an internal resource is that they do not need it all the time. They buy it in. There is an economic reason that they buy it in. When it …”

“We talk about mayoralties and the way that we are interacting with those, but we do not have those in Scotland, where I am from. Can I get an assurance that the changes in the Green Book are not predicated on the way that we deal with things in England? You have differences in devolution. I am the one on this Committee…”

“I want to turn to ask you about the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, or NISTA, as we have been referring to it. I know we have referred to it earlier on, but, just to give a very clear statement here, how is NISTA going to improve the delivery of Government’s major projects?”

“For too many people, the belief that intelligence, hard work and perseverance will be rewarded no longer holds true. The ladder of opportunity that once allowed previous generations to climb to a better future is now harder to reach and sometimes even harder to ascend. This is not just a personal frustration; it is a s…”

“T5. United Auctions in my constituency has recently become the UK’s first employee-owned livestock auctioneer. Will the Secretary of State commit to doing more to encourage employee ownership models as a great option for rural businesses that want to thrive, attract new talent and remain rooted in the communities that …”

“The programme launch for this year’s Bloody Scotland—the country’s leading crime writing festival—took place at the Golden Lion hotel in Stirling. It is the 13th annual festival and this year includes events programmed by Scotland’s king of crime writing, Sir Ian Rankin, and takes place on the weekend of 12 to 14 Septe…”

“Q12. In Scotland, over 10,000 children are stuck in temporary accommodation, including many in my constituency. Too many families face soaring rents, long waiting lists and dwindling options. It is just one of so many policy failings—we are all losing count and losing patience—as public confidence in the SNP’s ability …”