Speeches by Grady.

“On de-escalation, obviously you are having discussions with G7 Finance Ministers. Do I have it right that there is a limited amount that Finance Ministers can do to de-escalate, and that sits with the Foreign Office and the Prime Minister? I am just picking away at what the Treasury can actually do to help de-escalate …”

“Just a quick question from me on the electricity generator levy. Of course, a lot more electricity is now fixed price under CfDs and the like, so presumably, all other things being equal, it would raise less than it did before when there was more merchant capacity. At the same time, we arguably want to see more investm…”

“The root cause of this issue in Britain is our excessive reliance on gas. That is why consumers in Glasgow East pay much more for their energy. The Conservatives had an offshore wind auction with no bids and an onshore wind moratorium, and the SNP is against any new nuclear power stations. Does my right hon. Friend the…”

“I was wondering whether, more generally, the market is competitive and functioning well. Is it functioning well if the outcome is that poorer people in effect—low-income households—pay a lot more for motor insurance? Is that a good, well-functioning outcome?”

“I have a family member who works at Nationwide building society, and there is an account with Lloyds.”

“Briefly, you are just commencing that discussion, and it must therefore follow that you have not yet identified the outputs or how you will measure them, because you are still at the diagnosis and investigation stage.”

“It is a convenient point to raise this, actually. It would be helpful if you both wrote to the Committee to set out what your organisations are doing for digital inclusion. Mr Singh, as chair of the digital inclusion and access to banking sub-committee, how are you going to set about monitoring and testing what activit…”

“Thank you very much. That is enough from me, Dame Meg.”

“Yes.”

“Does anyone have anything to add?”

“Okay. Mr Noakes?”

“Let me approach the question in a slightly different way, with reference to my seat. Virgin Money in Baillieston is keeping its branch open. I am disappointed that the Bank of Scotland is closing its branch in Garrowhill, but this points to a wider question. We have to accept that there is a cohort of customers who wil…”

“Mr Singh?”

“But to be clear, there is a group of customers—we have heard evidence on this in previous inquiries—who will never in a month of Sundays get online. Some of them might well be people who are digitally confident and then become less digitally confident as they get older, as my father did, for instance. So it is about th…”

“I will quickly follow up on that topic, because it is something that I pursue as a constituency MP. You have spoken to Surviving Economic Abuse, Mr Singh. In the social landlord sector, DAHA provides external assurances to social landlords about whether they are doing the best by victims of economic abuse. Specifically…”

“Moving on to online and offline exclusion, realistically, there are some people who will never be able to use online banking for all sorts of reasons. Those are most likely to be more expensive customers to serve. Is serving those customers commercially sustainable in the long run for your organisations?”

“In the interests of time, I wonder whether each of you could come back to the Committee in writing on this: what do you think the top five drivers have been of premium price inflation for motor insurance?”

“I am asking a simple question: in the long run, is it commercially sustainable for Lloyds group to serve that 5% well?”

“The motor taskforce says that the market is competitive and well-functioning, but is it functioning well for low-income households? According to research by Fairer Finance and Bristol University, they can end up paying almost £400 a year more. That is a significant poverty premium. Perhaps we can go to Ms Audhlam-Gardi…”

“I welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to reducing Government debt, the 95,000 children in Scotland being lifted out of poverty and the revival of Glasgow’s military shipyards, where we will build Labour boats, which, unlike SNP boats, will work and have real windows. Does the Chancellor agree that it is a disgrace that…”