Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Scotland Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Greatrex Excerpts
Wednesday 9th March 2011

(13 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Michael Moore Portrait Michael Moore
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I commend my hon. Friend for his efforts to locate the green investment bank in Edinburgh. I welcomed the opportunity to meet him and the hon. Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) recently to discuss that very issue. I and other Ministers look forward to hearing further details on the proposal in the near future.

Tom Greatrex Portrait Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)
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When I asked the Secretary of State about the green investment bank in October, he said that he would make the best possible case for its location in Scotland, yet his Department has been forced to concede under freedom of information that he has had no correspondence with Department of Energy and Climate Change Ministers on the issue and that there are no notes of meetings with them about it. How is he actually pressing the case rather than just dealing in rhetoric?

Michael Moore Portrait Michael Moore
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I am aware of the hon. Gentleman’s commitment to freedom of information, and I am delighted to say that, as he knows from his time in the Scotland Office, those are not the only ways in which Ministers meet. I have had many conversations with the Secretaries of State for Energy and Climate Change and for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Deputy Prime Minister and others on the issue. Like the hon. Gentleman, I hope that my colleagues will support the case for the bank coming to Scotland.