Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Reynolds Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Kane (Stirling and Strathallan) (Lab)]

24. What steps he has taken to support economic growth in Scotland.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

Last year, we provided the Scottish Government with a record spending review settlement, and last week at the Budget, we gave the Scottish Government a further £600 million through Barnett consequentials. We also announced £18 million for a UK advanced chip design academy led by Edinburgh University, £6 million to support the expansion of Glasgow’s Scottish event campus and £10 million of co-funding, with the Scottish Government, for two defence technical excellence colleges.

[Patricia Ferguson]

I thank the Minister for that answer. I very much welcome the extra investment coming to my home city of Glasgow, and I am sure Glasgow will make good use of it. Overall, I welcome the record funding that this Labour Government have delivered for Scotland. Does the Minister agree that the SNP Government should now drop the gimmicks, end the excuses and prioritise making Scotland’s public services fit for the future?

[Emma Reynolds]

I agree with my hon. Friend. As she says, at the Budget we gave the Scottish Government an additional £600 million through Barnett consequentials on top of a record spending review settlement. Now we need the SNP Government to act to improve public services in Scotland with that money.

[Chris Kane]

Small and medium-sized family businesses in the retail sector create jobs on our high streets and keep money circulating locally. In my constituency, these businesses include Pembertons sewing machines, the Radio Music Store in Bannockburn, Michael More the butcher in Cambusbarron and countless others. I welcome the Chancellor’s Budget support for high streets in England, including the two-year, real-terms business rates freeze. Does the Minister agree that Scottish businesses deserve the same, that the SNP should match this freeze in its Scottish Budget and that failure to do so would mean thousands of Scottish businesses missing out on much-needed relief?

[Emma Reynolds]

As my hon. Friend says, the Chancellor last week froze business rates in real terms for high street businesses, and has taken 70,000 small businesses on the high street in England out of paying business rates altogether. We have given the devolved Government in Scotland the Barnett consequentials for that, and I urge them to follow our lead.

[Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)]

Economic growth in the north-east of Scotland and our green transition rely on the carbon capture and storage project at Peterhead. Would the Minister make clear what assessment the UK Government have made of whether it will still go ahead, given their massive cuts to the project?

[Emma Reynolds]

I reassure the hon. Lady that we continue to support the Acorn project. The initial grant funding that this Government are providing until the end of 2026 remains in place, and we are exploring delivery through private investment and Government loans or equity investments in the future.

[David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) (Con)]

Can the Minister clarify the extent to which the data centre covenant announced in the Budget will apply in Scotland? She will be aware that there are some very significant applications in Scotland, not least in my own constituency, and that clarity is very important.

[Emma Reynolds]

I thank the right hon. Member for his question, and suggest I write to him to set that out in more detail.

[Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Reform)]

6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of levels of Government borrowing on the economy.

--- Later in debate ---

[Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)]

T3. Before the Budget, I wrote to the Chancellor to flag that many of the challenges facing the Ministry of Justice were rooted in long-term financial pressures. Austerity saw justice spending cut by a third, and although the Government have increased funding, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that an additional £3.6 billion would be needed if we were to return to pre-austerity spending per person. Will the Treasury work with the Justice Secretary to ensure that our justice system is properly funded and that future crises are prevented?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

Can I take this opportunity to congratulate my hon. Friend on her election as Chair of the Justice Committee? As she rightly says, we inherited a prison system at breaking point after 14 years of Tory mismanagement. At the spending review, we significantly increased the funding for the Ministry of Justice, with an additional £550 million for probation, £450 million for courts and £7 billion for prison places. We have already delivered 3,000 new places through the largest prison building programme since the Victorian era. I will continue to work with the Justice Secretary on the issues mentioned by my hon. Friend.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

--- Later in debate ---

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

New financial modelling on the Government’s proposals for an asylum camp at MOD Bicester site A, which affects many of my villages, shows that the per night, per person cost is two-and-a-half times that of the equivalent hotels. If it is cost control the Chancellor is after, surely he will tell the Home Secretary not to proceed with that plan.

[Emma Reynolds]

We were left a terrible legacy by the Conservative party, and we have cut £1 billion from asylum costs during the time we have been in power.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

One way to achieve growth in postcode PA1 is to revitalise our high street, and the best way to do that is to back the redevelopment of the Paisley centre, which lies at the heart of it. This is a shovel-ready project that received planning permission nearly four years ago and has the potential to bring 330 jobs to our community. The previous Chancellor promised me she would help. Will my right hon. Friend agree to meet me to see how we can get this project moving?

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

The Government have said that they wish to join the EU’s internal energy market, which will involve a payment to the EU for the privilege. When will the Government say how much that policy will cost British taxpayers?

[Emma Reynolds]

The hon. Gentleman will know that an EU summit is coming up on 20 November, and we are still negotiating with the EU. We are putting right the botched Brexit that we inherited from the Conservative party, which put frictions at our border and increased costs for farmers, family businesses and others.

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

While the Government look to boost economic growth in Cumbria, businesses in the county are frustrated at losing staff to Sellafield and the wider nuclear sector, not just engineers and project managers, but business administrators, trades people, nurses and teachers. Will the Secretary of State consider a review of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s social impact duties under the Energy Act 2004, and its impact on the growth and diversity of the wider Cumbria economy?

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)]

The Treasury Committee’s recent report on student loan repayments said that the Government have a “moral obligation” to reverse their decision to freeze the threshold at which student loans are repaid. Will the Chancellor set out his timeline for when he will end the repayment threshold freeze?

[Emma Reynolds]

I remind the hon. Lady of her party’s role in trebling tuition fees when it was in coalition with the Conservatives. We have helped this year by capping interest rates at 6% for plan 2 and 3 loans, and from the academic year 2028-29, we will reintroduce targeted maintenance grants to support students from low-income households.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Gateshead South) (Lab)]

I am sure that the Chancellor is always open to new ways to save money. New modelling suggests that universal access to fracture liaison and prevention services could save £606 million over five years, with the investment paying for itself within two years. Will the Chancellor encourage the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that its promise of universal access to fracture liaison services by 2030 is backed by a funded delivery plan?

[Emma Reynolds]

I will ensure that my hon. Friend gets a meeting with the relevant health Minister. More broadly, the Chancellor announced last week that in the spending review next year, we will set out a new preventative departmental expenditure limit spending category to get ahead of problems before they get more expensive, because we recognise that preventing problems before they arise is a good use of taxpayers’ money.

[Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Restore Britain)]

We spend hundreds of billions of pounds on debt interest, migrant accommodation, foreign aid, public sector fraud, benefits for foreigners and, let us not forget, the healthy indolent. We are leaving a record tax burden and a shameful £3 trillion of national debt to our children and our grandchildren. Let me say this in a way that even Members on the Labour Front Bench understand: we are bankrupt. My question to the Chancellor is this: is bankrupting Britain a consequence of Government policy, or is it now the actual objective?