Speeches by Alexander.

“As I recollect, I wrote to the Committee on 23 September and since you took evidence on this subject earlier in the year, phase 2 of the spending review has come into force. This includes an additional £2.9 billion per year on average through the operation of the Barnett formula that I have already referenced earlier i…”

“I would be very happy to write to you.”

“I can assure you that I am both alive to and grateful for the work of this Committee. I am conscious of the report and, as you can imagine, ahead of this Committee had the opportunity to make myself familiar with the terms and recommendations of the report. I can give you the undertaking that I will make sure that the …”

“I am in a position where I answer the questions that you put to me.”

“I had a fair sense that I would be asked about things like EFI college funding, given the situation that we are in at the moment. I had a fair idea that we would probably talk about independence, because that tends to be what the SNP talks about a lot, but I am very happy to answer any questions that any Committee memb…”

“You will appreciate that for any Select Committee—and I have done a number of them over many years—I ask the Department to provide me with a detailed briefing across a whole range of issues. It will not come as a great surprise that my awareness of the Committee’s reports was quite high up my list of what I was going t…”

“Respectfully, the First Minister claims a lot and is pursuing what I regard as a core vote strategy with independence supporters.”

“The character of the visit is determinative of the funding. The key difference in the visit that took place to Scotland in the summer is that in previous visits it followed a formal UK Government request and invitation to the visiting President of the United States that triggered the established funding principles. The…”

“I think there is a risk you are adding two and two together and getting about 27 and not four. Respectfully, what would have been churlish would have been—given the very explicit request of the Scottish Government that there should be a devolved fund in Scotland and that they should operate that fund—if that had been r…”

“It is allocated under the Barnett formula, which is the established formula for how devolved areas of expenditure are allocated. As Kirsty says, it reflects the general approach that is taken across the UK.”

“I have huge respect and admiration for Torcuil. He is a good friend as well as a very esteemed colleague. Torcuil is perfectly entitled to make the case he chooses on behalf of the Western Isles. He brooks no quarter in advancing what he judges is the right approach. It will not be the first time that Torcuil has said …”

“The request was made by the Scottish Government to have a discrete Scottish fund and there is an established formula that once those funds are established, funds are allocated.”

“Excuse me, I am not blaming Scotland.”

“The decisions on the design and structure of the fund took place prior to my appointment as Secretary of State. My understanding was that there was contact with officials at that time but that preceded my arrival in the Department. On the established formula that was used, there is a commonality in the approach on agri…”

“As I say, we were in a position where the Scottish Government were not co-operating on the common frameworks programme. The UK is not the only actor on this stage. In that sense we require and genuinely hope to have the engagement of the Welsh Government, the Northern Irish Executive, and indeed the Scottish Government…”

“There is a lot of work under way at the moment on the common frameworks that I was describing. We were in a position prior to the review where there had not been the level of engagement by the Scottish Government in particular. My sense was they were waiting to see what had emerged. I checked via my officials earlier t…”

“I am coming to your point. On the welding centre, we stepped in because the Scottish Government were not willing to recognise that in the very dangerous Euro-Atlantic security environment and the global situations that we find ourselves in, the responsible course is to support our industries to be able to defend oursel…”

“John is a good friend as well as a colleague and I will leave him to opine on China. On the conduct of the Scottish Government, in my capacity as Secretary of State for Scotland I was in Greenwich doing a defence roundtable a couple of weeks ago, and if you listen to Scottish business, they were deeply perplexed by the…”

“It is inherent in the nature of parliamentary democracy that even if you legislate you are vulnerable to subsequent Parliaments legislating in a different way, so I am not sure that provides a greater degree of assurance. Secondly, I think there was an urgency for Scottish businesses. I was very mindful of Scotland’s i…”

“I have many responsibilities as the Secretary of State for Scotland but speaking on behalf of the White House is not one of them. They are entitled to their own characterisation of the President’s visit and it is perfectly reasonable that they do so. As I say, the basis on which the response was offered by the UK Gover…”