Stewart Hosie: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Owen Thompson) on securing this important debate. I raise the issue of the covid recovery loan scheme, described on the Government’s own website as supporting “access to finance for UK businesses as they grow and recover from the disruption of the covid-19...
Stewart Hosie: I will follow your strictures precisely, Mr Speaker—all my questions are about ministerial offices. Was the former Health Secretary aware, and indeed, was the security officer in his Department aware, of the CCTV camera in his office? Is the Minister aware of similar CCTV cameras in any other ministerial office? Who installs such systems in Ministries and who monitors them and has access to...
Stewart Hosie: I remind Members that we have made some changes to normal practice in order to support the new hybrid arrangements. Members attending physically should clean their spaces before they use them and as they leave the room. Mr Speaker has stated that masks should be worn in Westminster Hall, except when you are speaking.
Stewart Hosie: We have had a couple of late withdrawals so colleagues can now take up to six minutes.
Stewart Hosie: Before I call Kerry McCarthy, I should say that colleagues will be aware that there are around 10 Back Benchers who want to speak. If Members take five minutes each, we will all get on great.
Stewart Hosie: I remind hon. Members that there have been some changes made to the normal practice in order to support new hybrid arrangements. Timings of the debates have been amended to allow technical arrangements to be made for the next debate, so there will be a suspension between each debate. I remind Members participating physically and virtually that they must arrive at the start of the debates in...
Stewart Hosie: In February, I raised with the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster the issue of Wilde Mode, a company in my constituency, and the increases in shipping costs it has had. In the past week or so, it has confirmed that it is still being quoted about €1,000 to ship in from Poland, when pre Brexit it was effectively zero. What concrete action are the Government going to take to resolve these...
Stewart Hosie: Monitoring is fine, but we need action. Let me raise the issue of another business: ATL Turbine Services, which brings into Scotland for repair turbine parts from around Europe and the world. It has told me that its post-Brexit admin costs are now 10 to 15 times greater than they were last year. It cannot use the Revenue’s post-VAT accounting processes. It is encountering significantly more...
Stewart Hosie: Annex B of the ministerial code says it is “important that when a former Minister takes up a particular appointment or employment, there should be no cause for any suspicion of impropriety.” Given that David Cameron worked as an adviser for Greensill Capital and is reported to have share options worth tens of millions of pounds, do the 57 messages to senior officials that we are aware of...
Stewart Hosie: I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss) for securing this important urgent question. We have had PPE contracts awarded to donors and cronies without a robust tender process, NHS contracts awarded to a firm partly owned by the Health Secretary, privileged secret communications between an ex-Prime Minister and the Chancellor, and between James Dyson and the...
Stewart Hosie: In relation to these native adverts regarding the so-called benefits of Brexit, the Advertising Standards Authority says that “Marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such” and that marketers—in this case, the UK Government— “must make clear that advertorials are marketing communications”. Some newspapers do say “Ad features sponsored by the UK Government.”...
Stewart Hosie: There are many examples of what I am talking about, and the Government do not know them. That the Minister does not know is to his shame. Rule 7.2 of the ASA code makes it clear that: “Marketing communications by central…government…are subject to the Code” and rule 3.5 says: “Marketing communications must not materially mislead by omitting the identity of the marketer.” So let me...
Stewart Hosie: As this is a half-hour debate, there is no winding up or summing up. Question put and agreed to. Sitting suspended.
Stewart Hosie: For an equally brief contribution, I call Bim Afolami.
Stewart Hosie: I remind hon. Members that there have been a few changes to normal practice in order to support the new hybrid arrangements. I remind Members participating virtually that they are visible at all times, both to anyone else on the call and us in the Boothroyd Room. Members attending physically should clean their spaces before they use them and as they leave the room. I remind Members that Mr...
Stewart Hosie: For a brief contribution, I call Richard Fuller.
Stewart Hosie: Order. I am afraid the three minutes are up. You can have half a sentence.
Stewart Hosie: I remind hon. Members that there have been some changes to the normal practice in order to support the new hybrid arrangements. The timings of debates have been amended to allow technical arrangements to be made for the next debate. There will be suspensions between debates. I remind Members participating, physically and virtually, that they must arrive for the start of a debate in...
Stewart Hosie: It is a genuine privilege to follow the contribution from the hon. Member for Moray (Douglas Ross), because I believe that in the six minutes or so he spoke for he did not once mention Brexit, nor did he once recognise the difficulties caused by Brexit. We can conclude only that the Tories do not care about the damage that Brexit has caused. Let me start by asking: what do we know about...
Stewart Hosie: Some 94% of contracts awarded before 7 October were, unlawfully, not published in time and, as of late last week, 100 are still not published. Some 58% were awarded without a competitive tendering process. There are conflicts of interest, inadequate documentation, a high-priority crony lane and then the Prime Minister announcing that all of the contracts were, “on the record for everybody...