Speeches by Dewhirst.

“My right hon. Friend is absolutely correct. Farming is a lonely existence at times, and farmers have traditionally suffered from mental health difficulties. This policy is making things far worse, and for small family farms it really is devastating. As others in the House have said, tenants have not been taken into acc…”

“The shadow Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), alluded to the presumptive nominee Marco Rubio’s comments that the deal represents a serious threat to US national security. Does the Minister agree?”

“I would like to explore that complex regulatory environment a little bit more. How would you assess the current effectiveness of your working relationship with those other regulators, such as the Environment Agency, Drinking Water Inspectorate, or Natural Resources Wales?”

“Thank you. Lastly for now on this, you say you want to make the water industry national environment programme more transparent. Can you go a little bit further into that? How do you intend to make that happen and what you want to see?”

“If you had a blank piece of paper and you were to start this all over again, what would you change in terms of the regulators, the regulatory environment or the legislation under which you are working?”

“It is a fascinating and interesting subject area and the Environment Agency’s relationship with other agencies in this space is also something that I have no doubt we will be exploring in due course. The structures of the water companies themselves are complex. Does that hinder your work as a regulator? Would there be …”

“I would like to explore that complex regulatory environment a little bit more. How would you assess the current effectiveness of your working relationship with those other regulators, such as the Environment Agency, Drinking Water Inspectorate, or Natural Resources Wales?”

“It is a fascinating and interesting subject area and the Environment Agency’s relationship with other agencies in this space is also something that I have no doubt we will be exploring in due course. The structures of the water companies themselves are complex. Does that hinder your work as a regulator? Would there be …”

“If you had a blank piece of paper and you were to start this all over again, what would you change in terms of the regulators, the regulatory environment or the legislation under which you are working?”

“Thank you. Lastly for now on this, you say you want to make the water industry national environment programme more transparent. Can you go a little bit further into that? How do you intend to make that happen and what you want to see?”

“It is crucial because, as you say, it is countries with African swine flu that are not able to export their meat products at the moment that are being exploited, and this meat is coming into the country. I appreciate that you cannot stop every vehicle without bringing the whole thing to a halt, but anything we can do t…”

“Are they satisfied with the allocation for this year?”

“I think we had the same issue in reverse when the implementation checks came in on the EU side. We had a rocky few months, but it smoothed out in time. I will move on to an area on which I have spent the last two-plus years lobbying the previous Government, around biosecurity on our borders and organised crime, includi…”

“Is it your impression that things are improving? I have heard various anecdotal stories about not just livestock, but plants, flowers and so on.”

“I will try and rattle through this, Chair. I think we would all agree that this area is very important. I will start off with the border target operating model. Can I get your assessment on the implementation of that, particularly around the operations at Sevington?”

“Meat and dairy do not make you short, fat and sick.”

“There was the recent announcement at COP about the 81% reduction in emissions by 2035. The Climate Change Committee said that can be achieved only with a significant reduction in the production of meat and dairy. Has that been taken into account, and is it now part of the long-term food security plan to see a reduction…”

“Would you be willing to alter your course on this?”

“I will rephrase that. What representations have you made on behalf of farming to the Treasury, in relation to these decisions?”

“I absolutely agree, Secretary of State, that listening is very important, but you are in a privileged position to be able to listen and then do something about it. Let’s go back to the beginning of this policy change on property relief. Was this an idea that you presented to the Treasury, or was it something that the T…”