Speeches by Gardiner.

“Some repairs have been done at the Wembley Brook and nobody can say who has actually done them. We know it is TfL, but it will not own up to it.”

“The Government always come out with these figures, “Because we are doing this, we will protect this many more properties,” but it is not a net figure. They do not say, “In the UK as a whole, 52,000 more properties will be protected,” because it does not take account of those properties that have now come into flood ris…”

“Does that not mean that you should be going for soft green engineering rather than concrete and steel wherever possible?”

“Just on that, Mr Duffy, neither you nor local authorities actually have the power to find out who is responsible for those flood defences and who owns them. Would it be helpful to have a recommendation from this Committee that gave you and local authorities the authority, the power, to know who actually has those?”

“Is that why the Public Accounts Committee said that you need to talk about the number of people and the number of houses that are actually affected here? Otherwise, you give us a gobbet statistic, “52,000 properties will be better protected as a result of what we are doing,” but 100,000 people might now be in greater d…”

“Why do we still, 15 years on, not have a unified framework to clarify the responsibilities for managing all sources of flooding, as the Pitt review called for? We still heard from all the witnesses that came before this Committee that it is a fragmented system with no overall responsibility and that is a huge part of t…”

“I think that Members on the Government Benches appreciate the concessions that the Minister has already made. When he is talking about whether measures will be put in primary legislation, he must understand that Members will not be able to amend things if they are not in primary legislation. That is a key concern when …”

“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the work that she has put into the changes that have been made to the Bill. She spoke of cost shunting—the way that cuts in one area have forced people to claim in other areas, and those costs have risen. Does she not therefore think that it is important that the Government address t…”

“Two questions to the Deputy Prime Minister today, at Prime Minister’s question time, related to the ongoing health issues caused to military personnel from the nuclear testing back in the 1950s. I am conscious that they are talking about huge compensation payments there. Do you think it might be sensible for this Commi…”

“My goodness! We have established from what you have said that this is pretty toxic and long-lasting stuff.”

“Given that the EU is seeking to apply the essential use concept to regulation, how should critical and necessary use in industry be determined? In a sense, as I asked earlier, what is essential use, and how do we weigh up the competing interests? Is there a framework for that, or should we be recommending that there is…”

“What could the UK learn from the EU’s safe and sustainable design framework? How can we avoid regrettable substitution? I know these are used as technical terms, but, Professor Depledge, can you put them in layman’s language for us?”

“Thank you very much.”

“Given that the EU is seeking to apply the essential use concept to regulation, how should critical and necessary use in industry be determined? In a sense, as I asked earlier, what is essential use, and how do we weigh up the competing interests? Is there a framework for that, or should we be recommending that there is…”

“I want to return to the bloodletting that you mentioned earlier in the town of Bentham. I notice that some chap called Orlando Bloom recently paid £10,000 to have his blood purified from microplastics and PFAS. Picking up on what you said about specific professions, given we know that the aqueous film forming foams—or …”

“I thought we had UK REACH, and that we regulated our chemicals. That was one of the most important things that we did after Brexit: we imported the REACH regulations into the UK. Dr Cloy talked about new chemicals being produced and the sub-groups that have been restricted, but I understand that no sub-groups have been…”

“You are all indicating that you want to speak. Let’s bring in Linsey Cottrell.”

“My goodness! We have established from what you have said that this is pretty toxic and long-lasting stuff.”

“If we are going to give exemptions for something that is so persistent and so toxic, it comes down to a definition of what is essential. We managed, in a previous phase of human life on this planet, to do without these chemicals, so in what sense are they essential? Now you have all stopped putting your hands up—Dr Clo…”

“What is the risk to human health here? We have not quantified that yet in this discussion. We have said that there are risks, and Professor Depledge has said that PFAS are pretty much omnipresent in us, but what are the potential risks, Dr Cloy?”