Oral Answers to Questions

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

I am sure that, like the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) and myself, the Secretary of State for Scotland is watching with bated breath for the latest Scottish Budget. After 17 years of incompetence, people are looking for change in Scotland, and the Labour party is promising it. Will the Secretary of State follow the initiative of his Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, in saying he will reinstate the winter fuel allowance and make representations to the Prime Minister to reconsider other policies, such as the national insurance changes, which are creating instability and uncertainty for the Scottish economy?

[Ian Murray]

I have a lot of respect for the hon. Lady, but this is another instance where the Opposition parties in this Chamber want all the benefits of the Budget, but they do not want to be able to pay for it. We have announced the largest settlement for Scotland in devolution’s history: £47.7 billion, which is £4.9 billion extra. The Chancellor delivered £4.9 billion extra in Barnett consequentials alone from this Dispatch Box during the Budget—the SNP voted against it, but will spend it today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

As the Secretary of State knows, I recently had the opportunity to visit California with the Scottish Affairs Committee to look at how that state has created an environment that encourages new space projects. In Scotland, we have a unique opportunity, not least because of developments in Glasgow, but also because the University of Edinburgh is already well respected and part of the programmes at Stanford, New York University, Columbia and NASA. What will the Government do to encourage the creation of that sort of environment in Scotland, and will the University of Edinburgh, given its reputation, be central to that?

[Ian Murray]

Scotland will be central to the space sector, and I very much welcome the question. We will fully back the space sector, as I said to the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone). The Minister for Science has been to the UK Space Agency’s new office in Edinburgh, and the Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms has met Orbex. I have met Orbex and been to Unst in Shetland to visit the spaceport up there. We will fully back this; of course, its potential reaches to infinity and beyond.

Draft Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (Disability Assistance) (Consequential Modifications) Order 2024

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 General Committees

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

I welcome the remarks of the Secretary of State and the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, and I confirm that the Liberal Democrats also welcome the order. The changes should ensure that the pension age disability payment is recognised in UK law, so that no one loses out and no new loopholes are created. It is critical to ensure that the new system is a success, given the long delays that we have seen for many people in Scotland. Although there have been improvements for many in recent years, people have had to wait for months in some cases for adult disability benefit claims to be processed—last year, the figures were depressing.

With today’s order, we hope that we can move forward and that there will be improvements in the system. With the pilots forthcoming, we hope that we can have a successful system in Scotland and the co-operation that the Secretary of State mentioned.

Oral Answers to Questions

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State and welcome him to his place. I associate myself with his earlier remarks, particularly about Scotland’s Olympians and Paralympians. I was delighted to hear the recognition in his first answer of the role that our universities will play in a new industrial strategy, which is going to be vital in Scotland, particularly in the light of the recent admissions about the mess that the Scottish National party has made of our economy in Scotland. That is why I was baffled to see the UK Government cutting £800 million from a supercomputer project at the University of Edinburgh that has the potential to support research on drug discovery, climate change and advanced engineering. What discussions did the Secretary of State have with the Chancellor of the Exchequer about the impact of that?

[Ian Murray]

As the hon. Lady will know, the Chancellor of the Exchequer did a full audit of Government spending in the first weekend that she was in office, and found a £22 billion black hole. The exascale computer that she talks about was announced by two previous Prime Ministers and two previous Chancellors, and indeed was in the Budget in the early part of this year, but no money was allocated and therefore the project has been paused, pending both the Budget on 30 October and the spending review next year.