Speeches by Downie.

“To be honest, that would be my larger concern. A large attack on one thing is easier to spot. It is much easier to assign blame, frankly, and it would have larger global consequences. Small distributed attacks may not immediately look like an attack.”

“I absolutely accept that.”

“That does not really help if there are two retailers that are essentially controlling the prices in an area.”

“If the Government came to you now and said, “We will look for ways to allow you to grow production in the North sea quickly if you guarantee a UK price?”, what would you or your members likely say to that?”

“And why?”

“I absolutely accept that.”

“Just on CBAM, I had a meeting this week with farmers who were similarly concerned about that. Have you had cross-industry or cross-sectoral discussions around CBAM to engage with the Treasury on that issue more broadly?”

“Does the Minister agree one reason we need to see lower energy bills in Scotland—and that has been blocked—is the SNP’s ideological objection to nuclear power? I recently received a written answer from the Minister for Energy regarding a study by GB Energy to assess Scotland’s full potential for nuclear power. Will the…”

“The hon. Gentleman talks about the North sea industry and ideology. What were his views when his Government were in coalition with the Green party, which wilfully wanted to destroy those jobs immediately overnight because of ideology? Did he support that Government coalition?”

“T6. Last week I met pupils from Pittencrieff primary school, Dollar academy and Queen Anne high school in my constituency to talk about how to keep them safe online. They were very much in favour of some restrictions to make sure that they were safe on social media but were very cautious of age-based bans. Will the Sec…”

“Do you think those controls or the process by which that is decided up to this point has been strong enough to prevent technology from elsewhere perhaps being in our energy system without us being fully aware of the implications of that? Or do you think that it needs to be tightened further for these kinds of projects …”

“In relation to that, and to go back to where we started in the beginning, when we are talking about the new technology that is being used, how are we making sure that we are protecting supply chains and materials that are used? I am particularly thinking of any technological aspects and components that are manufactured…”

“You would envisage that being paid through bills rather than general taxation, which has been a theme we have talked about a lot this afternoon.”

“What options is the Department exploring for where the costs of those very large-scale projects—beneficial though they are—might be borne?”

“I was in Edinburgh.”

“Picking up on some of what Polly was talking about, what impact on bills can we expect from carbon capture storage, long-duration energy storage or hydrogen projects in the future?”

“Is one of your options to maintain the price cap at a level? If prices look to be extending far higher after this monitoring period, would “whatever support is needed” mean holding that down? I understand your point about assurance, but people want to know what kind of support, and in what areas, they can expect the Go…”

“On my other question, when you say, “whatever support is needed”, what are you looking to achieve? What is the aim of a Government saying that they will do whatever is needed?”

“Finally, relating to that, we are now in a context where we are seeing price rises and energy debt become a problem for all of our constituents. Prices grew by around 9% in 2025 alone. In your introduction you talked about the Government providing whatever support is needed. The Chair tried to press you a little bit on…”

“Given the complexity of the system, is it not about trying to explain to the public how it works in a better way?”