Speeches by Olney.

“Ms Shanmugalingam, we have talked a bit about the gaps in the chargepoint infrastructure. What are the remaining significant challenges to overcoming those? What are the biggest issues you are dealing with in order to fill in the gaps?”

“What is the challenge in addressing the remaining cold spots?”

“I was pleased to hear what the Secretary of State said about vaccine roll-out, particularly of the RSV vaccine. I am even more pleased that my constituents in Richmond Park are diligent in taking up all vaccines, but they have been puzzled to find that the RSV vaccine is limited to those between 75 and 79 years of age.…”

“Well, I would say that actually there are many other Opposition parties apart from the Conservatives. Obviously, it is entirely up to the Conservatives what their particular views are on this, but this would be a great opportunity for them. I understand that it is Conservative party policy to defend first past the post…”

“I am here to represent Lisa Smart because she was unable to make it, but also because, as Alex has mentioned, I had my ten-minute rule Bill before Christmas. As Alex said, there is a lot of interest in this particular topic right across the House. That is against the backdrop of an election that saw quite a poor turnou…”

“UK exports to China currently represent less than 10% of the UK’s total exports, whereas our exports to the EU represent over 40%, demonstrating the greater opportunities that trading with the EU makes available to our small and medium enterprises. Will the Chancellor commit to talking four times as much to our Europea…”

“I am humbled to take part in this debate. I do not have my own personal testimony to offer, but the issue of violence against women and girls has become very evident to me in my years as an MP through my constituency surgeries. First, I have learned how hard it is for women to get away and, once an abuser has them in t…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that collecting data is so important in really getting to grips with the issue?”

“I am fortunate enough to have a large community of Hongkongers in my constituency, who are extremely welcome, but they often speak to me about the limitations imposed on them by the conditions of the BNO visa under which they have arrived in this country. They cannot gain full access to healthcare, education or employm…”

“I am going to express a bit of scepticism, if I may. If I was one of your commercial partners and I was listening to you today saying how you need to reset, how HS2, as an organisation, took on too many of the project risks at the beginning, and how you need to bear down on costs, I would be thinking, “Why should I? Wh…”

“To continue on Euston, Mr Over, there is continued uncertainty for local residents around the future of the Euston development, which it seems from your previous answers is projected to continue for quite some time. It is obviously having a very negative effect on local businesses that might be trying to find investmen…”

“Dame Bernadette, the decommissioning costs so far have been £2.2 billion—I think that is correct—or that is the loss that has been reported to date. Can you perhaps give some reflection on how the costs have got to that level and what lessons the Department might have learned from the decommissioning work that it has c…”

“The question is more about the lessons learned. I mean, the costs are the costs. Obviously, they were not costs that were planned at the start of the project, because you planned to finish it, but what are the lessons that have been learned by the Department?”

“I appreciate that I am getting slightly hypothetical here, but if in future you find yourself in the position of needing to assess the costs of stopping a programme versus the costs of continuing it, what lessons from stopping phase 2 will you be able to apply?”

“So, given that the £45 billion to £66 billion spread is in 2019 prices, we can expect to see that shift upwards, can we?”

“Can I pin you down on that? Do you think that when the spending review happens is when you will finally start to use 2025 numbers, as they will be then?”

“Something else that the Committee finds unsatisfactory is the fact that the £45 billion to £66 billion spread is still being expressed in 2019 prices.”

“Not just for HS2, but for any project?”

“I was coming to that, because the Report makes it clear that the need to keep annual spending under a certain limit has actually increased overall cost. Will your case to the Treasury be that you need an overall spend limit rather than these annual limits?”

“To be clear, I mean that because you are saying that the Treasury is involved every step of the way, once you have reached agreement you expect it to be quite soon after that that Treasury will sign off on the budget.”