"My Lords, I worked at No. 10 some 20 years ago, when the decision was made in principle to build a national high-speed rail network in the UK. As we know, that network now goes just from Birmingham to Euston, is not yet open and is 140 miles long. At …..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"My Lords, we would all wish Jaguar Land Rover to succeed, but does the Minister recognise that more than that of any other country in the G7, the UK economy is now overwhelmingly focused on high-value services, which give the economy nine times what the manufacturing sector currently does?..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"I think we all share the sympathy that the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, has identified SMEs need. There are 5.7 million SMEs in the UK and many of them—indeed, most of them—will purchase what are relatively complex platforms. The noble Lord, Lord Londesborough, is extremely experienced in the SME sector; …..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"I, too, support the amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Harding, as I do all the amendments previously discussed. By definition, a near miss means a severe threat narrowly avoided that would have had substantial consequences if it had not been avoided. The interesting thing is that everyone tells me …..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"My Lords, I strongly support the drift of both amendments spoken to by the noble Baronesses, Lady Kidron and Lady Ludford. As I said the other day, I have sat on many boards with many distinguished people that contained a variety of experience in many jurisdictions, but I have not …..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"Let me just say, very briefly, that, as I made clear earlier in the week, the scope of the Bill is far too narrow. I suggested and will continue to suggest that we have to extend the definition of essential services. I remind all noble Lords, despite all the things …..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"Can I ask the Minister to comment on another point that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, raised? Why should this not apply to the higher reaches of government? I ask the Minister specifically: what is her view of 607,000 records being stolen, just weeks ago, from the Department for Education?..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"Before the Minister sits down, I ask her to reflect, at the end of our second day in Committee, that the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, has mentioned more than once that he would like to see a national cyber security strategy, but is not the takeaway from these two days …..." Lord Birt - View Speech
"My Lords, these amendments are highly pertinent. We simply must ensure that non-UK providers of services in this sector are firmly and wholly within the scope of the Bill—they are only partly in scope. For noble Lords who were not at Second Reading, I read out a coruscating report by …..." Lord Birt - View Speech