Speeches by Western.

“Good afternoon. We pick up that businesses are not so good at monitoring or mitigating state-based threats. I wondered whether you agree with that and whether you are prepared to give examples of good practice or bad practice.”

“Q3. The UK automotive sector faces major challenges, and Trump’s tariffs are the latest crisis to hit the industry. Investment and jobs are now on the line, from Mini to McLaren, Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover and many others. Will the Prime Minister continue to make those companies’ case in his talks with the US regi…”

“Andy, it is nice to see you. I have not seen your northern arc proposals. Will cohesion in the north be delivered better through better transport infrastructure between the cities in the north than by having HS2 go up to Manchester, for example? Is it more important that you have connectivity across your northern arc o…”

“On skills, have LSIPs worked?”

“As you may be aware, one of the first things that the Committee did after it was formed last December was to do a tour of the UK. I am afraid we did not get to the north-east, but maybe that is something we can do in the future. We did go to Manchester and we did spend some time in London, Scotland, Wales and other reg…”

“On the previous point you were making, Mr Flint, you were saying that the private sector had been less interested, giving that example of liquid air. It sounds fantastic. I am aware of that kind of thing, but the private sector is not interested in the longer term, in terms of the return that it was going to be making.…”

“I am very much playing second fiddle to Alberto on this. In 2019 I held an Adjournment debate on the issue of a particular sand and gravel quarry that was being proposed a couple of hundred metres south of a village. What I spoke to, as I did subsequently in 2022 or 2023 in a ten-minute rule Bill, was the proximity of …”

“Can I make a comment on that? This is something that I discussed at length previously. There are modern methods of construction that have less environmental impact, and they can be cheaper as well, so these are things that should be considered. In fact, the Chair and I were on the Housing, Communities and Local Governm…”

“We were recently in Japan and we saw evidence of a particular approach, where they were actively encouraging innovative start-up businesses to come to Japan and look at developing their idea there in Japan. This included start-up businesses from Israel and Canada that were looking to scale. Japan was actively looking t…”

“I am sorry; I had to pop out, so I missed some of the evidence you were giving. You may have heard the previous session, but I am really interested to know what your thoughts are about the financial side of innovation, not simply about government funding and the allocation to innovation. We were talking about scale-ups…”

“It was simply the risk. I thought it was also the duration of payback.”

“I am sure that everyone in the House is concerned about the use of public money. In my constituency, a council is employing leaf blowers to blow leaves around a redundant car park, and a county council has spent £11 million on levelling a field for a school playing field and £16 million on a bridge to nowhere, so may w…”

“What is your view, Rob Salter-Church?”

“Could you unpack that?”

“Are you encouraged by what you have heard so far? As you say, over the decades we have been great with innovation and great with original thinking, whether that is materials or new products such as lithium-ion batteries, but we never see it through. Stephen, you have been around for a little while.”

“Are you excited or are you enthused by how well that is coming together now?”

“On that point, Professor Greenwood was talking about the pilot manufacturing stage between £10 million and £50 million. That was where the big gap in funding was. My question was going to be around what Stephen Phipson was coming on to. What happens in Germany or Japan that is so different? We have just come back from …”

“They are putting it all into nurseries and things like that.”

“In terms of the EU and its position, I just want to be clear on what you think about the EU agreeing with China minimum pricing levels for EVs, as opposed to tariffs. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is it workable? That is what the EU is talking about.”

“We have heard repeatedly this afternoon about how the UK is good at innovating, with lots of inventiveness in this country, but not very good at scaling up or going to manufacture, and so on. How well placed are we for these new technologies that you have been talking about, whether it be EV, solid-state battery develo…”