Speeches by Gardiner.

“I have asked very specific questions and, with respect, you are not giving me very specific answers.”

“I did not feel that we got real clarity from what you said. You explained that, as part of the DCO, you employed consultants and they prepared the scheme and established the criteria for the planting. You then said why it had gone wrong. You did not say whether the experts whom you involved got it wrong. Did they not u…”

“They do not even have permits.”

“Given that we have to write a report with recommendations to Government, should we recommend that there is greater enforcement of those periodic reviews of permits by the new super-environment agency that is going to emerge after Cunliffe?”

“My point was that, because of the transactional nature of it, they are less likely to go for that option.”

“It does not facilitate the natural woodland regeneration, does it?”

“It has been said that BNG does not sufficiently incentivise the restoration or improvement of ancient woodland. The BNG is a transactional process and therefore may favour simple solutions, such as planting hundreds of saplings. Is that a fundamental flaw in BNG right at the beginning?”

“Mr Martin, is there anything you would like to add about the way in which this is being delivered?”

“It is interesting. I was with the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management last night and it was saying that it was more than a fifth; they can access expertise, but in terms of the designated skills base within the organisation it is only a third. Of course, if you are pulling it in from the outside…”

“Tell me this. What resource or skills base do the local planning authorities have in order to ensure that all those conditions, which you and Mr Martin have outlined are critical to the establishment and growth through that first five-year period, when they are vulnerable, to maturity, are met? What resources do the pl…”

“Sorry; I do not want to cut you off but I want to understand. Is it because they are not actually doing what they said they were going to do in the first place, or is it that they tried to do it, but did it unsuccessfully? What is actually going on here? Is it sleight of hand, or just failure?”

“So 47% of the ecological mitigations were missing.”

“Yes, I have seen that. Very good. Let me turn to Ms Hillier. I wanted to find out why it is that the delivery rates for BNG are so poor. We have heard that developers are failing to deliver on their commitments. I want to ask you why that is happening. Is it that they are sowing things incorrectly? Is it, as we have he…”

“But you are taking the seedlings from it and growing some from that.”

“It was my favourite tree in the entire world.”

“I know.”

“Absolutely, Chair. We are talking about trees dying. Mr Martin, why could you not keep the stone pine alive at Kew?”

“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for what has been a lifetime of work protecting women and girls. I welcome what she has said about updating the ethnicity data, which will enable the public debate to take place on the basis of data and fact rather than the prejudice and scaremongering of which she has spoken, but does s…”

“It has come to my attention that in government, the job of Home Secretary does not always attract the greatest thanks, so I want to thank my right hon. Friend for the response that she and her Department have given to the letter from 100 colleagues about the Gaza students, and for what she said this afternoon about con…”

“Perhaps you can say more about Natural England’s capacity.”