Speeches by Sullivan.

“Last Saturday, Blackburn United’s 2009 team played in the inspiresport Scottish Youth cup final against Dundee United’s 2009s at Falkirk stadium. The Blackburn team have gone from strength to strength this season, culminating in a fantastic win to bring home the cup. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulati…”

“I share the horror at this despicable act of terrorism inflicted on 26 innocent people, many of whom were on holiday—one young man was on his honeymoon. My condolences are with all those affected. The ripples are widespread and felt by the global Indian community, including my constituents in Winchburgh. They have rais…”

“Beira’s Place is a sexual violence support service run by women, for women. It opened in 2022 in response to the need for single-sex counselling services for survivors of violence against women and girls in the Edinburgh and the Lothians area, including West Lothian, which covers a large part of my constituency. Can we…”

“This is for you, Rosie, and you touched on it in an earlier answer where you mentioned the need for flexibility. How do you think regulation could be further shaped to enhance the UK’s attractiveness to international space launch customers?”

“In this Committee’s visit to Norway fairly recently, and speaking to a number of companies, it was clear that the Norwegian Government perhaps have a greater appetite for risk. We heard earlier that failure in this area, in the space sector, is not what we would traditionally perceive failure to be. It is not a catastr…”

“To some extent, you have co-production with industry that allows you to better understand their needs, but it will also hopefully build in the flexibility and responsiveness that is required.”

“Following on from that, what legislative changes might enable you to offer better support to companies?”

“Finally, has the CAA’s approach contributed to Scotland having a competitive edge in attracting European launch providers such as Rocket Factory Augsburg for their first launches?”

“Thank you, Minister, for that full answer. Just for absolute clarity, because this is a question that has been raised time and again, the responsibility for cross-departmental co-ordination lies with yourself. Would that be correct?”

“Everything stops at your door?”

“That is fantastic. Just to be clear, is the Department for Education involved in that as well, because we heard earlier about the skills shortage?”

“Continuing that theme, Matthew, could you tell me how the Government plan to address the potential need for additional Government funding? We have heard from companies such as Lockheed Martin, who have stated that they and their partners have already doubled their contributions to the original match-funded grant for th…”

“Matthew, what steps will be taken to confirm the level of additional funding that is required, and how will that be managed? Sorry, you are getting all the difficult questions.”

“What about in general?”

“To go back to this skills gap, it would be remiss of me, given that we have a panel of academics, not to mention that there is something of a crisis within higher education, and further education to some degree, in relation to funding. Do you think there has to be a greater cognisance from both Scottish and UK Governme…”

“I guess I was really picking up on the point made by you, Professor Macdonald, about having to turn students away. We are hearing across different industries that there are skills shortages. In our other inquiries, we are hearing the exact same thing. There seems to me to potentially be an issue in the pipeline, but if…”

“I mean in terms of the first orbital launch.”

“Following on from the last question, what do you see as the main obstacles that each country faces? How do you think their strategies differ in trying to overcome those obstacles?”

“What obstacles do you think Scotland faces?”

“Good morning. It has been very clear to me, particularly in recent months, that the challenges faced by universities across the UK are broadly the same. We have heard that the Scottish and Welsh Governments are providing extra funding for struggling institutions. In the case of Scotland, the Scottish Government have ma…”