Speeches by Lamont.

“Just to be clear, so the applicant would have an early conversation with you, and if you had alarm bells ringing you would say, “Don’t even apply for this”, so they do not even go into the system?”

“That is quite a good segue into my next question: are you aware of former Ministers who have accepted jobs and just decided to ignore your advisory Committee, and do you think you have sufficient sanctions to address that?”

“I want to go back to one of Charlotte’s points. I think you responded that the rules needed to be modernised in some way or updated and refreshed. Are there any other comparisons? Are there any other democracies or countries where you have looked at the system and thought that would work quite well here, or that is som…”

“Is that because they do not understand the rules, or they are just chancing their arm?”

“Has the extra caseload that was generated by the general election now been cleared, or are there still former Ministers whose applications are being considered?”

“Does the process need to be tweaked to allow those easier cases you deal with to be fast-tracked, or not dealt with by your former Committee?”

“How much was it last year, in that immediate period after the election?”

“Good morning, Lord Pickles. Two former Ministers have raised concerns about how long it has taken to get the advisory Committee to give clearance, and that sometimes results in financial hardship for them. Do you accept that criticism?”

“I will speak to the amendments relating to compulsory purchase powers, and to my new clause 128. I note that much of the Bill and most of the clauses will not affect Scotland, but, unusually for a planning Bill, there are components that do affect it. Before I talk about the detail of my concerns about compulsory purch…”

“My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and I agree with him. I am sure he will speak to those points further when he contributes later. We should be protecting the market value and not doing anything to interfere with the market—not least because if my new clause were accepted, it would improve the community benefit …”

“I share my right hon. Friend’s concerns. Ultimately, this is about choices. The choice that this Government and the Scottish Government are making is whether we protect our natural environment, and the rural communities that have sustained food production for many years, or turn them into an industrial wasteland. The c…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does he agree that one of the flaws of the Bill, which his amendments attempt to address, is that it overreaches not only in attacking property rights in this country and interfering with the market, but in taking away key aspects of democratic accountability? That is why s…”

“T4. Oxton in my constituency has a newly refurbished community shop, and it exists thanks to the hard work of local volunteers. The Plunkett impact report highlights how community-owned shops are at the centre of the local economy. What are the Government doing to support the ownership of community shops?”

“A shocking 75% of Scottish pensioners said that they were left cold in their home last winter. Does the Minister agree that the Scottish Government must use the additional funding from today’s announcement to ensure that pensioners in Scotland receive the same amount of winter fuel payment as they did under the previou…”

“I should declare an interest: I learned to swim in Seamill in the hon. Lady’s constituency. Does she agree that there is a particular challenge in Scotland because the Scottish Government are underfunding local authorities, which makes it much harder for councils to support swimming pools in the way they might want to?”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and he is being very generous with his time. My constituency has six swimming pools. Much has been made of the health benefits, but does my hon. Friend agree that, for those of us who represent coastal communities or constituencies with large rivers, being able to swim is a…”

“The previous Conservative Government had a dedicated Minister of State for veterans sitting at the Cabinet table, but that job was taken away by the new Administration. How are the interests of veterans in Scotland being raised in Cabinet under the new Government?”

“I rise to present this petition from my constituents in the Scottish Borders to the House of Commons. It calls on LINK to set up a banking hub for Selkirk and Eyemouth. I want to record my thanks to the many local residents who have signed this petition. The petition states: The petition of the residents of Berwickshir…”

“T2. On Saturday, 1,200 illegal migrants poured into the United Kingdom by small boat. Many gave spurious reasons to stay here, so when will the Government repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 for immigration cases and take back control of our borders?”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member for his response, but the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has said that we “can and must” uphold the “rights, the freedoms, the spaces for women as sex-based rights”. I am therefore extremely concerned to hear reports that the House of Commons is not following the EHRC int…”