Speeches by Crichton.

“A quick point that we might not have teased out in other evidence is that the skills gap goes deeper than FE colleges and industry—it goes back to the education curriculum. Any thoughts on that?”

“Thank you both for coming in. Tom, I was fascinated to hear what you said about on-site skills hubs, and I wondered whether they are run by the industry or by colleges of further education. What kind of collaboration do you see between the two, and is it sufficient?”

“Encouragingly, I saw that approach at Harland and Wolff in Belfast just the other week, with welders teaching apprentices full time. That is their job, basically. I have also seen it at Arnish. Hinkley Point is always cited as the example of how to do it, but we have heard evidence from other people that there is no cl…”

“That works at scale, but, as you said, a lot of the construction industry consists of small and medium-sized enterprises. Can they be expected to take the risk of taking somebody on and training them up?”

“That was going to be my question as well. Is there a way round this? Are there examples?”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate, to which I am largely sympathetic, even as a member of the British Museum. He speaks of a win-win, for which the Lewis chessmen are a template. One of the most iconic parts of the British Museum’s collection, they were found in Uig in Lewis, in my constituency, in 18…”

“My local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar/Western Isles council is fast approaching its 50th anniversary. Formed in 1975, it brought together the many islands that make up Na h-Eileanan an Iar and gave the Outer Hebrides a unified identity. My father served as a councillor, and my brother currently serves; they are…”

“I have one quick question. Thank you all for coming in and apologies for moving the Committee on to the stage where I make a statement and ask you to agree with it. From what you said, Afsheen, about having to ping pong and reinvent the wheel every time you apply with a different local authority, what you said, Alistai…”

“I see a danger here of Grangemouth being described as the Drax of Scotland where you bring in sustainable materials from somewhere else to create a new fuel.”

“What role could the Government play in getting you to producing SAF?”

“Thank you all for coming in, for bearing with us while we were away and for your passionate support of community energy. The statements you made prove why we wanted to have this investigation in the first place. Stephen, you gave some very disturbing evidence about the abuse of levies and exemptions, and I just wondere…”

“Anu, sustainable aviation fuel is seen as the holy grail for the aviation industry and perhaps for Grangemouth as well. How realistic is it to make fuel from chip fat?”

“You mentioned one of the obstacles was the HEFA cap exemption. That sounds like something to do with cows to me but it might not be.”

“Mary, I take on board what you said as well, about community energy projects reaching further into people’s lives than just supplying electricity. I have seen that in my own constituency, with all kinds of welfare, food and warm home grants that are available through community energy schemes. You raised the example of …”

“The evidence to this Committee from Unite and others was that sustainable aviation fuel, SAF, is where Grangemouth should be heading. They say, “Just go for it”. I know that there is a sequence to go through but do you think that we should accelerate and push harder on it? What is your message to Government on that?”

“It is a way to win.”

“As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, to what extent do you think community-owned renewable energy projects should be exempted from green levies, so people do not pay twice? They are paying into green levies, and then they are paying again when they are using green energy. Stephen, you had answered, but…”

“Thank you all for coming in, for bearing with us while we were away and for your passionate support of community energy. The statements you made prove why we wanted to have this investigation in the first place. Stephen, you gave some very disturbing evidence about the abuse of levies and exemptions, and I just wondere…”

“If that does not happen, are there other things that could happen? Should consumers or communities be rewarded for balancing supply and demand locally?”

“The holy grail here is that I look out my window on to my community-owned wind farm that is supplying me with cheap electricity, but we cannot get there. How do we get there? What are the restrictions? How could we get a simplified local supply system?”