Speeches by Alexander.

“First, let me pay tribute to my predecessor, Ian Murray, and the work that he and Kirsty did during the first 14 or 15 months of this UK Government. On arriving in the Department I said I was keen to build on the priorities that had been set by the outgoing Secretary of State. In relation to Brand Scotland, in my previ…”

“Thank you for the opportunity to appear relatively early in my tenure. Let me set out the priorities as I see them for the Scotland Office. The first is working with Departments across Whitehall to maximise opportunities in key economic sectors such as defence, energy, life sciences, financial services, and food and dr…”

“Well, the conversations continue. We are in an enviable position as a UK Government in having secured the first trade deal of any country in the world with the United States. Secondly, it is right to recognise that the former human rights lawyer, the Prime Minister of the country, Kier Starmer, has formed a somewhat im…”

“Immense, and again you do not need to take my word for it. Ask the Scotch Whisky Association and it will confirm that given it is the largest whisky market by volume, there are huge opportunities. Probably the single statistic that I can give you that is most illustrative of this is when I was travelling with the Prime…”

“Given that I was in the Department for Business and Trade as a Minister when we published the industrial strategy, unsurprisingly my answer is yes. It is inherent in the IS-8 that there will always be industries or particular companies that say, “Do we have the prominence that we deserve?” I hope in the answer I was ab…”

“I am always open to how we can ensure that Scotland’s voice is heard effectively. I recollect phoning one of those stakeholders from my constituency in East Lothian on a Friday evening and listening to the claim that somehow Scotland’s voice was not being heard on the industrial strategy unless a particular organisatio…”

“Thank you for that observation. I was in two different pubs in my constituency last Friday, but that might be misinterpreted. I visited the Longniddry Inn to hear directly about some of the concerns that you described, and then subsequently The Law hotel, North Berwick where, thankfully, we have seen a significant inwa…”

“The other point I will add is that it is critical for rural Scotland, but also the contribution that tourism has made to Glasgow and, critically, Edinburgh has been transformative. Tourism and hospitality is central not just to our thinking about rural Scotland and some of the fragile economies and challenges that are …”

“The deals are in flight at the moment, so I will defer to Kirsty on some of the work that she has been doing over the last year on this.”

“Chair, with your permission given Kirsteen mentioned the Edinburgh and South East Scotland city region deal, I should probably keep myself safe. I was a member of the court of the University of Edinburgh in the years immediately preceding my election. As Edinburgh was also a beneficiary of that deal, I should put that …”

“The focus of the Department in the last few weeks since I have arrived—and Kirsty has been doing great work on this—is, first, get Pride in Place up and running because that is a significant additional contribution from the UK Government to make sure the place-based support is available and, secondly, continue with oth…”

“It is right to recognise the Ayrshire deal is behind its planned spending schedule. That is why Kirsty has taken a direct interest in it and will talk to the Scottish Government to see what we can do.”

“Yes, let me try and then I would be quite keen to bring Fiona in given she has joined us from DESNZ and is across a lot of these issues, to our great benefit. First, Michael may hide behind pillars when he sees you, but he is also incredibly complimentary about your pullovers, as I remember. Given the serious subjects …”

“You are absolutely right: it is a shocking indictment of the last 20 years in Scotland that one in six of our young people find themselves in that position. We are certainly not aligned in our thinking relating to EFI colleges because we fundamentally think that Scotland deserves better than a 20% cut in EFI colleges i…”

“I will say yes to that. I was in the Cabinet yesterday and, without breaching Cabinet confidentiality, Pat—who is a very good friend and former colleague of mine in Edinburgh University Labour Club and knows Scotland back to front—was talking about the challenge that we face in youth unemployment and there are parallel…”

“Thank you for the opportunity to appear in front of the Committee. I am Douglas Alexander. I have been in post for a few weeks as the Secretary of State for Scotland. I will ask my official and ministerial colleague to introduce themselves.”

“I should probably declare that I am a very good friend of Torsten Bell, the former director of the Resolution Foundation who is now doing important work for us in the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions that we have just been discussing. It is right to recognise that the Resolution Foundation has done imp…”

“Let me offer the assurance that we are in touch with DWP. I was part of the Cabinet conversation with Pat yesterday on a range of related issues. I would also want to pay tribute to the work that you have done in bringing this issue of young people being denied those opportunities in Ayrshire to my attention. I do not …”

“For the 831 young people not getting jobs in Ayrshire College, respectfully, it is pretty doom and gloom right now. If your attitude is that that is the best we can do in Scotland, and we should be somehow applauding the conduct of the Scottish Government, respectfully I take a very different view. I think the Scottish…”

“I will try to keep it to our responsibility but also to recognise the severity and seriousness of what you describe. Again, without breaching Cabinet confidentiality, we were discussing yesterday the youth strategy, which is predominantly focused on England given a lot of the areas of youth policy are devolved in Scotl…”