David Duguid: Does my hon. Friend agree that the new AUKUS partnership will not only help keep our people safe by preserving security and stability in the Indo-Pacific but will also help deliver this Government’s ambitions to level-up across the whole United Kingdom, including through the creation of hundreds of jobs in Scotland?
David Duguid: Scotland clearly has a lot to offer towards our net zero objectives—not least its high-quality wind! Can my hon. Friend confirm that the Acorn carbon capture and storage and hydrogen project is still very much part of the UK Government’s plans for our overall carbon capture, utilisation and storage strategy and our net zero objectives?
David Duguid: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to freeze or lower excise duties on whisky.
David Duguid: Given the escalation and “more forceful” language—I think that those are the words used—coming not from the French fishing industry, which we are kind of used to by now, but from the French Government, can my right hon. Friend confirm that the licensing process currently under dispute is entirely in line not just with the UK Fisheries Act 2020, but with the trade and co-operation...
David Duguid: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to support small independent breweries in Scotland.
David Duguid: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many military personnel deployments there have been in Scotland to assist the Scottish Health and Scottish Ambulance Services, by local authority area.
David Duguid: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost of deploying of military personnel to assist the Scottish Health and Scottish Ambulance Service during the covid-19 outbreak.
David Duguid: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many premises in Banff and Buchan constituency are not connected to superfast broadband.
David Duguid: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the geographical coverage of (a) 4G and (b) 5G mobile data in Banff and Buchan constituency.
David Duguid: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he plans to accept bids for a freeport in the northeast of Scotland.
David Duguid: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate she has made of the economic value of the lifting of the ban on British lamb imports to the US for (a) Scotland and (b) Banff and Buchan.
David Duguid: What steps her Department has taken to help increase global export opportunities for British farmers.
David Duguid: On behalf of my constituent, Irene Fowlie, may I thank the Department, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for its help in facilitating the export of high-quality pedigree Essie Suffolk sheep to Georgia earlier this year? May I ask my right hon. Friend, whom I welcome to her new role, how we can improve access to new export routes for other high-quality...
David Duguid: I repeat my thanks to the Minister for his commitment yesterday to meet with me later this week to discuss the evaluation criteria in more detail, particularly as they refer to the Acorn Project. As he referred to earlier, the Prime Minister said in his written statement yesterday that “The UK Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan established a commitment to deploy CCUS in a minimum of two...
David Duguid: rose—
David Duguid: rose—
David Duguid: On behalf of Cornwall—no, I rise to speak on behalf of my constituency of Banff and Buchan, to which I shall turn in a moment. First, I thank my right hon. Friend the Minister for his visit last week to Aberdeen, where he expressed the Government’s ongoing and continuous support for the oil and gas sector and its valuable role in the energy transition to net zero. The North sea transition...
David Duguid: I welcome my right hon. Friend and the other new BEIS Ministers to their places. Perhaps uncharacteristically, I agree with the hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn) in backing the Acorn project, which is in my constituency of Banff and Buchan. The hon. Gentleman and other SNP Members often like to talk about the Scottish Government’s recent commitment to £500 million of support...
David Duguid: It is absolutely right that we continue on our energy transition to net zero. I welcome the Government’s ongoing commitment to increasing renewable and low-carbon capacity across the UK, not least in the form of carbon capture and storage, for example, as proposed by the Acorn Project at St Fergus in my constituency, where, at the moment at least, about 30% of the UK’s gas comes ashore....
David Duguid: First, I associate myself with the remarks made by both Opposition Front Benchers on the relatively good-natured nature of this debate. It is fair to say that across the House and across the country, we share an ambition to deliver on the targets we have set. We may debate how we do that from time to time, but we all share that ambition. I also congratulate and thank the hon. Member for...