Points of Order

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 1:56 pm on 7 December 2022.

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Photo of Grant Shapps Grant Shapps The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 1:56, 7 December 2022

Further to that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am very much aware of the hardships being caused by a lack of power and utilities in Ukraine. We have three Ukrainians who live in our home and still work online with Ukraine. They have been explaining that it is very difficult to work with people in Ukraine because half the time their equipment is down and they cannot get access to the workplaces and data. So I know the problems are very acute. I also know that the UK led the global community when we were asked previously and we provided generators; we were the first country in the world to do so in significant numbers. I believe that almost 1,000 generators were supplied to Ukraine at the time.

My right hon. Friend Mr Francois will be interested to know that I was speaking to the Ukrainian ambassador just last night about this issue, and I regularly speak to Oleksandr Kubrakov who is, in part, in charge of energy and infrastructure in Ukraine. I will be taking those conversations forward. My right hon. Friend was absolutely right to raise this issue. The way that Putin is now prosecuting this war, going after civilian infrastructure, is illegal and indefensible.

On the Lawn Tennis Association, which is not quite in my area, that fine is, of course, absolutely outrageous.

Deputy Speaker

The Deputy speaker is in charge of proceedings of the House of Commons in the absence of the Speaker.

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