Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

David Linden Excerpts
Thursday 23rd September 2021

(2 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lindsay Hoyle Portrait Mr Speaker
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I call Marco Longhi. Not here.

David Linden Portrait David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)
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We know that one policy decision that the UK Government have taken, albeit an unsustainable and undemocratic one, is that Scotland should not have a say in its constitutional future. We also know that, for example, the UK Government are spending huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on research into public attitudes towards the Union. If the UK Government have taken the decision not to have a referendum, we know that it is because the polling suggests that support for independence is up. Why will the Minister not publish that polling information and be honest with the public?

Steve Barclay Portrait Steve Barclay
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I would have thought that, when talking about data, we would have been talking about the fiscal support that has been offered to Scotland, about the way in which the Scottish Government’s powers have not been used and about how we can get better delivery from the Scottish Government in areas such as education and drugs policy, where the data are absolutely chronic at the moment. I would hope that the Scottish Government will welcome the data strategy, as it will ensure that policy making is informed by good quality data and focused on good outcomes.