Speeches by Kane.

“I will interrupt, because when you say “Scotland”, you almost certainly mean the A9 or the corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is a problem I see when I look at the map. I am learning this from a regional perspective in England: the areas you are talking about are so big that sometimes it masks variations within…”

“So you can give me an assurance that you are talking to each other and there is an international conversation going on as well.”

“I get that you were talking about off-street parking, but we heard that there are differences in on-street parking. When you talk about properties that you cannot park outside, in my head, straightaway, that is a town centre street with terraced houses, whereas I live on an estate in my constituency where there is not …”

“I notice when I look at this from an English perspective, as a Scottish MP, that the approach taken in England is different from the approach taken in Scotland. I say with a wry smile that the problems and challenges that come from our constituents seem very similar, regardless of the approach. What are you learning fr…”

“I wish you a merry Christmas, Mr Speaker, and a happy Hogmanay when it comes. My constituency is home to the rural community of Balquhidder, where, since 2018, community volunteers have laid more than 36 km of fibre cable to provide the community with a high-speed internet connection years ahead of when a commercial op…”

“Can I take you on to the next steps? You have the track 1 project—your first one was announced this week—you have your track 1 expansion projects, and then you have your track 2 projects. I want to start with all of them. How confident are you that the track 1 projects will go operational by 2027? How confident are you…”

“You now have the first contract, and you have said that you are “developing” departmental oversight. Where are you in that process?”

“Can you speak to the knock-on effect on the expansion and the track 2 projects? What are you thinking for the timeline, based on where we are after this week’s announcement?”

“Can I talk to you about the assessment of value for money? I know we have touched on it, and Oliver mentioned it in his questions. First-of-a-kind projects make it very difficult to judge value for money, but you have said that the projects will be subject to an assessment of value for money. You are now moving forward…”

“Thank you. How are you weighting your five targets in relation to, for example, the first one, which we have had this week? How are you approaching the weighting of these five criteria?”

“Well done for bringing that out from your mind! Thank you for that. When you are looking at the value-for-money evaluation, what impact does being a first-of-a-kind project have in all this? It is always easier to do an economic impact assessment in 30 years’ time, when we have got lots of these under our belts. How ar…”

“Not going ahead with a project is obviously a consideration as well. Could you talk about that? How does that factor into your thinking?”

“I suppose there is always a case when you are talking about a theoretical future contract that you will say, “None of these tests have been met.” You have obviously had good news this week that you are moving forward with one. Could you talk about getting that over the finish line? How did you find looking at these fiv…”

“My instinct is that judging the economic benefit is easier to be theoretical about in terms of the deliverability. You have now got your five tests, you have got one project over the line, so what are your reflections on the tests themselves and how easy it was to say: “Yes, we are quite happy with this. We are going t…”

“Everybody goes on about value for money, whether we are investing in the right places and whether we should be taking this money and putting in offshore wind and other things. You come back with, “We have to do this. This is part of the mix.” How are you ensuring that this money, particularly in this area of the indust…”

“I have been learning about this over the past few weeks, and there is a real push to say, “Well, this money could be better spent somewhere else. It could go on other projects.” For me, the most defendable line is, “No, no, we have to do it in areas that we can’t decarbonise in other ways.” As we go forward, you will c…”

“Will you talk to the pressure? My assumption is there is a lot of pressure to divert this into other areas. Are you finding that is a factor? There is a great deal of people saying, “No, do this”—”

“I was going to ask more about where you are in developing the oversight and how it is going, but I wonder if it might be better as a note. Do you want me to ask about that now, Chair?”

“If you would just indulge me on one question, I think you said that you are now the only accounting officer in the Department, but there were two before.”

“Right, so there is a proper procedure that you will follow, and you will resist the urge to speed it up in order to draw a line under this matter.”