"Many hon. Members, regardless of political party, have made much of continuing that engagement with young people and getting access to our schools in order to discuss with our young people who are about to be 16 the relevance of politics to their lives. We have seen an awakening among …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. He touched on the need for broadband in small businesses. Especially in rural communities, we are seeing the difficulties of getting that high broadband speed. Does he feel, as I do, that that excludes a lot of small firms from bidding …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman mentioned Europe and the European strategy to exclude others and source products and services more locally. How does he feel about the playing of the green procurement card, which seems to be natural across Europe? Should we adopt that strategy and say that, in the spirit of …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies, for what I believe is the first time. I again congratulate the hon. Member for South Antrim (Dr McCrea) on securing this very interesting debate on public procurement—having heard myself say that, I may need to get out more …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"I accept the hon. Gentleman’s point, but if procurement does one thing, it should be to get the most for what is spent. Monitoring whether we get jobs, especially apprenticeships, out of procurement would not be too difficult. The local council in my area has done that for many contracts. …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"The right hon. Gentleman makes a good point: this is about local people seeing real value for money and getting opportunities.
Many small businesses do not bid, because they feel unable to compete with the larger suppliers and to offer lower costs. There is also the issue of understanding contracts …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. Does he agree that it is wholly worrying that someone of Mr Ashley’s background, employment and business practice is moving into the highly delicate area of Scottish football, especially with a football team that is having difficulties at the moment?..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I am delighted to have secured this debate, although a longer debate would have given other Members an opportunity to contribute. My constituents are not the only ones to have had problems with fuel pricing, and other Members might …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, which I will emphasise later in my speech. We need to focus on that issue as much as on competition.
Not all the independent retailers that closed were small fuel outlets; in my area many were owned by well-known oil companies such as …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. We have seen that in the energy market, too. The blame is always placed on the wholesaler, but the problem is that we do not have evidence to substantiate whether that is where the blame should lie. I will go on to ask …..." Iain McKenzie - View Speech