Speeches by Aquarone.

“Thanks for the various elucidating comments about the characteristics or features of the investment pipeline that we have been talking about—the timescales and what is in and out of scope at what stage. I want to come back to something you said, Noel, about the rolling stock question and track and train at GBR level. S…”

“My new clause 7 would ensure that, alongside the creation of a digital verification framework, there would be a right to use non-digital ID. Digital exclusion is a major challenge for many communities around the country, including in North Norfolk. Part of the answer is to improve digital education and bring those numb…”

“As a one-time producer of a British-made film, I am proud that North Norfolk has been the backdrop for many great films, including “Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa”. It is no wonder that President Trump would want to dissuade such a film from coming to America, as Steve Coogan himself has said that “the only person on Earth…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I refer Members to my entry in the register of interests as a serving Norfolk county councillor. Across all the areas that the DSG exists to support, Norfolk is struggling. Early years settings in North Norfolk are under mounting pressures from the national ins…”

“Yes, absolutely, and most people would accept that the inherent conflict there is satisfied by the sustenance of disruption in the interests of connectivity, but not poor quality of work. We are clearly talking about a broad spectrum of operators here. What I am particularly interested in is the regulatory floor that i…”

“It strikes me that telecoms operators in particular are not waiting for two years to see what the impact of legislation and regulation is on their business model. They are making quite assertive commercial decisions. Far be it from me to cynically suggest that any of them are gaming the system commercially in order to …”

“Thank you for clarifying.”

“It is resource. That is what they have told us. They tell us that they can wait a long time for companies to repair the defects themselves. When they end up in a situation where the utility company is not repairing the defect, they just do not have the resource to go in, do it, and reclaim the cost. That is a whole oth…”

“You have delicately summed up the issue about local authorities’ definition of communication, which ought to be about whether the message is being received, not whether it has been sent. On the point about relationships between utilities companies and local authorities, I would just ask you for some comment on this sli…”

“Forgive me, but there is no penalty in that. It is a few hundred quid if you add everything together. The cost of finding this workforce in a scarce market and making sure that the quality is good in the first place is outweighed, or underweighed, by the small penalty. Even if you go all the way through the escalator, …”

“So you are satisfied with the current enforcement of poor reinstatement. You think that that is good for now.”

“Can I just come in very briefly on that? Just to be clear, though, we are talking about the costs if things do not go the way that they should. In an ideal world, there would be no cost to pass on to the consumer, because the threat of the cost in a competitive market would mean that they did get it right first time. L…”

“The one thing that seems very ingenious about the new regime is that it inspects higher-performing operators less frequently. If you get it right, you are going to get lower fees in that regard.”

“Families in Holt have been promised for years a new primary school to replace the current building, which is too old and too small to cater for this growing market town. However, the Conservative-led county council has broken promises and dithered and delayed, pointing to minor fluctuations in the birth rate as a pathe…”

“4. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of data by Government Departments.”

“I am glad the Minister mentioned the Government’s state of digital government review and its fairly excoriating conclusions. It is clear that the public sector is not using data well enough. It detailed the challenges, barriers and reluctance in getting the best out of the data available to Departments—some cannot even…”

“I am deeply concerned by the ongoing conflict in Sudan and in particular the sexual violence that was brought to light so shockingly by the hon. Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald). When the Minister next engages with his counterparts in South Sudan, will he raise the case of Dr Ding Col Dau Ding? He travelled f…”

“When will the road safety strategy be published? We have been waiting for it for some time, but you have had other priorities. Can you give us a date?”

“Can I press you on one of the many points that the Chair raised about the cost of the driving test? I am conscious that it is pretty unpopular for politicians to suggest that Government should put up their prices, but, with regard to the behaviour that you alluded to about booking earlier, I have learned anecdotally fr…”

“Me again—sorry. The Committee is very interested in your Department’s submission to the spending review. When it comes to your organisational structure, in particular staffing resource, now seems a good opportunity to reflect on what job the Department is trying to do—in particular with big decisions on rail and buses—…”