Speeches by Hinchliff.

“Would anyone else on the panel like to comment on the changes in planning policy and whether they will put any additional ancient woodland at risk?”

“That is good to hear. This is in the context of planning policy, which has experienced quite significant upheaval—some might say deregulation. Do you have any concerns that the changes in planning policy will put more ancient woodland at risk?”

“DEFRA recently published a review of the implementation of the planning protections afforded to ancient woodland in the NPPF and found that, “Almost half of applications were approved without a proper assessment of possible loss or deterioration and without mitigation measures in place to avoid negative impacts” to the…”

“My questions relate primarily to planning policy protection. I will focus on you, Dr Weatherall, but if other members of the panel want to come in please feel free. We recently had a debate in Westminster Hall about the value of our woodlands, and many people there spoke about how great our ancient woodlands are. There…”

“So, you are still happy with GDP, primarily.”

“Do you think that GDP is the right measure to be focusing on in your goal of having prosperity and nature hand in hand?”

“Secretary of State, I have a philosophical question. Given that you came into your current role from a previous role in the Treasury, I thought it would be interesting to know whether you agree with the Dasgupta review: “Our unsustainable engagement with nature is endangering the prosperity of current and future genera…”

“Is there anything in relation to the NPPF? Are you having similar conversations in relation to the draft NPPF?”

“I will try again on that point. When we had the outgoing chair of the Office for Environmental Protection here in January, I asked about her assessment of the impact of accepting all the recommendations of the Fingleton review, applying it more widely to infrastructure schemes, as suggested by the Prime Minister, and t…”

“The point is why the decision was made in relation to the JNCC advice, specifically on the Habitats Regulations, since that has been raised. Obviously, there have been substantial concerns about the proposed attack, effectively, on the Habitats Regulations put forward in the Fingleton review, and crucially on the major…”

“Quinquennial, their five-yearly report on species protection, updating which species are protected under the Wildlife Act 1981. The Government’s response was to say, “Thank you, but we are not doing it”.”

“I think many across the environmental sector would certainly recognise the characterisation. I think many would say that the problem we have with our current system is not that protections are too strong; it is that they are too weak, and there is not enough protection. Moving on to a specific point, did your Departmen…”

“Secretary of State, as we have already heard, the UK’s national biodiversity targets are largely off track. Do you think that repeated drives for deregulating environmental protections in planning policy make hitting those targets harder?”

“Over the last 25 years, companies that have donated tens of millions of pounds to political parties have been granted Government contracts worth more than £60 billion. It is pretty obvious to the public that these cosy, influential and lucrative relationships appear to be the precise opposite of high standards in publi…”

“4. What steps he is taking to uphold standards in Government.”

“Mr Gilruth, I am also grasping for an opportunity to end on a positive note here. It seemed to me that there was agreement that, broadly, where possible, we want to see the water table rising on deep peat and returning to blanket bog. You have set out that you believe that there is scientific evidence that vegetation b…”

“I am going to continue along a similar line of conversation. You have made it fairly clear from your initial comments that you do not agree with the Government when they say they believe they have reached a consensus that burning vegetation on blanket bogs is damaging to peatland formation.”

“Brilliant. That was the point I wanted to come to. Thank you for your note to the Committee earlier raising some of your concerns about that. You highlighted statements by the EU, G7, US and Scottish Government. I have looked at those. The EU, G7 and US talk about controlled burning generically but do not mention peatl…”

“Thank you, Mr Gilruth. Your frustration is clear. If I perhaps naively try one further time, the International Union for Conservation of Nature UK Peatland Programme says that it has undertaken a detailed review of the evidence, which concludes that wet peatlands are less prone to wildfires, and that healthy peatlands …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her support for the red lines campaign. She is absolutely right about what makes life worth living. Investing in our country, strengthening standards and restoring our natural world will do far more to improve the lives of ordinary people than a short-sighted race to the bottom. That is the L…”