Richard Thomson (Gordon) (SNP)

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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq.

The Scottish National party is happy to support the regulations but with a note of caution. If we allow a company to continue to trade in the circumstances outlined, we must be mindful of the potential impact that may have down the line on the cash flow of other companies that are not protected and may find their own position weakened. It is also important to recognise the limitations of the insolvency Act, because of itself it does very little to support indebted firms to insulate themselves from the impact of rising prices elsewhere in the economy, particularly in the months ahead. It is certainly no substitute in economic terms for the stimulation of overall aggregate demand and finding ways to reduce business outgoings in other ways.

I will be brief because there is a much, much bigger economic event happening later today, and I am certain that there are at least one or two dots and commas that have not been pre-trailed to the press that we will all be desperate to find out about. I wait in hope rather than in any great expectation, but we will see what develops. What the Chancellor should be doing is delivering the full £350 billion of coronavirus business interruption loan scheme support to the businesses that need it. That needs to happen. For those businesses that are in genuine difficulty those loans should be converted to grants. If the Chancellor does that this afternoon, he may find that the measures in the regulations before us this morning will be needed much less frequently than they might otherwise be in the months ahead. But those months are bound to be extremely difficult on a number of fronts for families, individuals and businesses.