Speeches by Dewhirst.

“Without wishing to disappoint colleagues who have excellent local agricultural shows, the Driffield show is the biggest and best one-day show in the country, and this month it will celebrate its 150th edition. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking all those involved in the Driffield Agricultural Society, bot…”

“Further to the excellent point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper), the Minister will no doubt be aware that Bridlington is the lobster capital of Europe, and therefore any delays at Dover have a serious impact on our vital export market. However, I want to address the wider issue …”

“I am sure the Minister will join me in paying tribute to the team at the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Bridlington, who keep people safe all the way from Northumberland down to Suffolk across 250 miles of coastline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The proposed changes to make CROs unpaid is just one of the pr…”

“For full transparency, I have declared my interests to the Committee: I am a former employee of the National Pig Association, and my cousin is a pig farmer. I was involved in helping to co-design, with DEFRA, the supply chain regulations for the pig industry. That sector is on its knees at the moment, losing £50 a pig.…”

“Would it be helpful to make the case to the Treasury about the fertiliser tax and whether that should be reviewed?”

“I appreciate that you cannot set prices, and that we have to respect that we have a very successful supermarket industry, which makes food cheap, but we are still in that post-world war two agreement. There are subsidies there to keep prices down, aren’t there? However, New Zealand has proved that, if you move away fro…”

“I realise that we are running short of time, so I will move quickly on to wildfires. Do you feel that we have the right strategy in place? Would a national wildfire strategy, similar to the Scottish system, work? We have had the worst year on record last year for wildfires. This is going to become more and more of a pr…”

“Following on from Jenny’s questions, we are both east coast MPs and share exactly the same challenges. Do you feel, Secretary of State, that you are working well enough with MHCLG and local authorities to respond to coastal erosion? The key recommendation in that report was about a national strategy, ensuring that loca…”

“We would appreciate it if you could make representations.”

“Can I make a plea that you could pass that on to the Minister? He must ensure that that conversation is happening. I am sure that it is with officials. DEFRA was very helpful during the last crisis, during covid and everything else, and we were having very regular meetings. One other issue on food security more widely …”

“Thank you, Secretary of State, for coming before the Committee today. The visit to New Zealand was fascinating for many reasons, but one thing that really stood out is how a now unsubsidised agricultural sector is so profitable and so successful. We do not need to get into the full debate about the subsidy side of it t…”

“The Secretary of State seemed to ignore the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins) about the use of land and increasing food production, so I will ask specifically again: how are our farmers expected to increase food production if we are taking 9% of agricultural land o…”

“That is a perfect segue into the next section on rural-urban benefits.”

“We have mentioned how Australia and the United States are much better on public campaigns and public signage. You see the fire risk indicators everywhere in Australia. There is signage all over the roads in the US, in certain states. Should we be doing more given the extreme weather we have faced in recent years?”

“It is very challenging to try to track down any individual who may have caused the fire in the first place. By the time it is finished, and you have dealt with the fire—”

“As for what local authorities could do using the powers they have, is it a case of needing more powers, or is it a simple fact that they are not actually implementing those powers for, say, banning barbecues, and so on?”

“As for what local authorities could do using the powers they have, is it a case of needing more powers, or is it a simple fact that they are not actually implementing those powers for, say, banning barbecues, and so on?”

“We have mentioned how Australia and the United States are much better on public campaigns and public signage. You see the fire risk indicators everywhere in Australia. There is signage all over the roads in the US, in certain states. Should we be doing more given the extreme weather we have faced in recent years?”

“Phil, could you talk about the challenges of identifying the source of fires and how easy it is for the fire services to do that?”

“What is preventing us from building that evidence base now? Is it the challenge of simply physically being able to identify them?”