Alison Thewliss: If Conservative Members will just calm down for a little minute, I will try to bring them in at some point. I want others to get in to make their speeches—gie’s peace. It is not for the Prime Minister or anybody else in the UK Government to direct how devolved budgets are spent. The Ways and Means resolution ties the money to NHS Scotland, not to our democratically elected Scottish...
Alison Thewliss: The hon. Gentleman has done more talking than listening in this place. It would be useful if he sat down. The spending cuts will have an impact on Barnett consequentials. It would be just like this UK Tory Government to appear to give with one hand while picking Scotland’s pockets with the other. A new Tory poll tax that punishes those on the lowest incomes is being forced upon Scotland by...
Alison Thewliss: If the hon. Gentleman wants to explain that to his constituents, I would be very glad to hear it.
Alison Thewliss: We already spend more per head on the NHS than is spent in England. We already have better services in Scotland than in England. This policy is an entirely regressive form of taxation that does nothing for the hon. Gentleman’s constituents and does nothing for mine.
Alison Thewliss: My hon. Friend speaks the absolute truth. There is a huge contrast between what the Government propose and what is already being delivered in Scotland. Some have said, “What’s your alternative?” Well, fixing England’s social care crisis is not for the SNP to decide, quite frankly. Having heard evidence when I sat on the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government some years...
Alison Thewliss: I will, because we served on the Communities and Local Government Committee together.
Alison Thewliss: The hon. Gentleman should look at the comparative figures in his own constituency. I am not saying for one second, and I would never say, that everything in Scotland is perfect, but we are making good progress on that, and we intend to make more progress. The social care funding announced by the Government may in the end amount to as little as 20% raised by this tax hike, and not even for a...
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many units of living accommodation for MOD staff and families are currently unoccupied.
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs have been created in third sector organisations through the Kickstart scheme in (a) Glasgow, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK as at 2 September 2021.
Alison Thewliss: Mike Cherry of the Federation of Small Businesses has said that these plans unquestionably mean fewer jobs and economic damage and that they are “devastating” for businesses trying to “get back on their feet”. Why is the Prime Minister intent on damaging the very fragile recovery we have had for the past year?
Alison Thewliss: Scottish hospitality and generosity is world-renowned, but could the Minister explain to us why he thinks that Scottish taxpayers should pay for England’s social care crisis?
Alison Thewliss: It would be good if the Minister answered the question, as well. The Prime Minister’s hike in national insurance has been roundly panned, not least by his own Back Benchers and the Chair of the Treasury Committee, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Mel Stride). People in Scotland are already feeling the pain of a decade of Tory austerity cuts and the harms caused by Brexit, with the...
Alison Thewliss: Many of my constituents’ families are still facing difficulties in getting out, including the family of a 17-year-old constituent who made it to the visa application centre in Islamabad only to find that part of their family reunion paperwork had been lost by officials. Others are awaiting DNA tests and tuberculosis paperwork. What will the Foreign Secretary do to address the paperwork...
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to require large private and public companies to produce a scenario analysis on the impacts that climate change will have on their business model and strategy.
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to publish a Heat and Building Strategy.
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department intends to require large (a) private and (b) public companies to make disclosures on Scope 3 emissions.
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to publish further detail on the UK sustainable fund disclosure framework, announced in his Mansion House Speech on 1 July 2021.
Alison Thewliss: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of cross-jurisdictional consistency when the Government implements the UK’s sustainability disclosure requirements.
Alison Thewliss: I wish to speak briefly on a few issues that affect my constituents. First, I heard the intervention earlier from the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty), who asked about the quantum of Barnett consequentials for Wales. The Secretary of State said that the Welsh Government have not devised a scheme for existing consequentials yet. This becomes a bit of a strange...
Alison Thewliss: I would like to pick up where the hon. Member for Worthing West (Sir Peter Bottomley) left off, because I was two months old when Channel 4 began broadcasting. I have grown up with it, and I think it is a fantastic channel. I am incredibly proud that Channel 4 has its creative hub in my constituency, so I stand to support its work, the £200 million that it has spent on Scottish productions...