National Security and Investment Bill (First sitting)

Sam Tarry Excerpts

Committee stage & Committee Debate: 1st sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 24th November 2020 Public Bill Committees

[The Chair]

We have two minutes left for anyone who wants to get a quick question in.

[Sam Tarry (Ilford South) (Lab)]

Q It is an honour to serve under you, Mr Twigg. We have focused mainly on China. Thinking about regimes we could put in place to govern all this as we work through the Bill, do you think there could be exemptions—a bit like the US has done for potential allies? Could we have almost a graded system, so we can build relationships quicker and faster with those we want to support, or do you think that would be a bad idea?

Sir Richard Dearlove: You are talking about allied countries?

[Sam Tarry]

Obviously, if you are involved in global universities, for example, there will be some countries that we want to keep a much better relationship with, and whose students our intelligence services will have to monitor less.

Sir Richard Dearlove: There is definitely a graded difference in, let us say, our burgeoning relationship with India, but India can also raise some strategic security concerns for us. It has not always been entirely friendly, and bear in mind that it has quite a sophisticated weapons programme of its own. However, it would be wrong to treat India in the same way as you treat China; I agree that there is a gradation of treatment.

[The Chair]

That brings us to the end of the time allotted for the Committee to ask questions. On behalf of the Committee, I thank our witness very much for his time.

Before we finish, I want to read a message out to Members. I would appreciate it if Members did their best to arrive in the room a few minutes before this afternoon’s sitting starts at 2 pm, to ensure we can be seated in a socially distanced manner so that everybody remains safe.