Oral Answers to Questions

John Cooper Excerpts

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right. Potholes are a real nuisance; if somebody is using their car or van for work and they hit a pothole, they are looking at a bill of several hundred pounds, which for many working families is unbudgeted for. That is why we are handing the West Midlands combined authority an additional £8.6 million to help repair its roads, as part of a record £1.6 billion invested across the country. On top of that, every council must now publish how many potholes it has filled so that we can show that we are making progress and delivering—something that did not happen under the last Government.

[John Cooper (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)]

Q9. When he was Director of Public Prosecutions, I do not think the right hon. and learned Gentleman would have sat comfortably in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Cameron, but incredibly in Scotland, we have a situation in which the head of prosecutions—the Lord Advocate—does sit in Cabinet. This situation has been thrown into sharp focus lately by a police probe into the finances of the SNP, and has been thrown further into focus because, although not personally involved, the Lord Advocate ultimately sits at the head of the investigation into former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who faced potential criminal charges. This situation has been created by the SNP, who will not fix it. Does it sit with this House to amend the situation?

[The Prime Minister]

This is a really important issue, and Labour in Scotland has been clear that it would separate that role. That is the right thing to do, for the reasons that have just been articulated; it is the obvious thing to do, and obviously it is what we do in England and Wales. There have been calls for a review of this issue since 2021, but the SNP has not acted fast on those calls. It really does need to bring forward proposals now to deal with this problem, which has been sitting there for a very long time.