Oral Answers to Questions

Alistair Carmichael Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

I can assure my hon. Friend that we look at these issues in the round. He mentions charge point infrastructure. Only this week, I had a roundtable with the main operators of charge point infrastructure, as well as a meeting with the car manufacturers. We have held a review of the ZEV mandate, on which we consulted this summer. The Chancellor has set out the Government’s intention to respond to that by Christmas, so that we can provide certainty to everyone who is contributing to the EV transition.

[Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD)]

The decision in July to abandon plans for changes to the remuneration of coastguards was widely welcomed, but that was over three months ago. Coastguards around the coastline tell me that there has been radio silence in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency since then. There are a number of whistleblowing complaints about the senior executive team that have simply not been addressed. When will we hear what the Government will do to fix our coastguards?

[Keir Mather]

I thank the right hon. Member for his work in representing the coastguard service in his constituency and across the country. I reassure him that work progressed over the summer both on questions relating to backdated liabilities and on future workforce arrangements as they apply to His Majesty’s Coastguard. I hope to have more to say in the future, but I will maintain my obligation to keep him and hon. Members across the House updated as closely as I can on developments as they unfold.