Speeches by Zeichner.

“Absolutely I understand why it matters, and it goes to the heart of my and the Secretary of State’s vision for the future: that farmers’ farms are successful businesses. But I also would not want to unfairly criticise other parts of the food chain, whether it be the food manufacturers or the retailers that, in my view,…”

“Again, I would say this can be raised as part of the current review that is going on. Alongside that, we have the new regulations that are coming in that deal with the Agricultural Supply Code Adjudicator. But I hear the point about the wider issues, and I am certainly happy to look at that if evidence comes from your …”

“Not necessarily; we have very efficient producers in our country.”

“You carry on, Mike.”

“I refute the idea that there is not a joined-up approach across Government. I have been really impressed by the marine spatial prioritisation programme that we are undertaking; that is working with a number of different Government Departments. I totally understand why people in the fishing sector are anxious, and I am …”

“As always with data, you need to understand the context it is within.”

“To reprise the pollack answer, I will let Mike do pollack.”

“I understand the point you are making. What I would just gently say is there is a fairly clear legal system around labelling, and labelling should not be inaccurate. Where it is inaccurate, there is a legal issue. But we are, as you rightly say, looking very closely at the whole issue of labelling and it should always …”

“I am not sure I quite follow the question, but basically it is obviously a market-driven system, so it depends essentially on the relationships within the sector. I am perfectly happy to pay tribute to the Chair and his predecessors for intervening in this a decade ago, introducing the Groceries Code Adjudicator and GS…”

“It does not tell the whole story, because we are working, as I say, within the legislative framework that was agreed by Parliament under the Fisheries Act. Our task is to make those judgments.”

“That is one of the legacy European Union schemes; we are currently looking at what we would do to replace that. We are in conversation with people on that, but it was a legacy scheme that came to an end.”

“To tax and subsidies?”

“We want to look closely to make sure it provides good value for money. Obviously, decisions that devolved Governments make are their decisions, we do not always take the same decisions.”

“That is the purpose of having a review: that you look at it.”

“There is unhappiness, clearly, within the agricultural sector about the way they are sometimes treated. But I would not want to characterise the food system as being anything other than actually, overall, successful. We do have a successful food system in this country. I am trying to choose my words carefully here beca…”

“I suspect that I am going to answer in a similar way on a number of these questions. Some of these issues fall far more within the Department for Business and Trade remit, and that is who the GCA actually is accountable to. But my understanding is the Competition and Markets Authority did do an investigation into super…”

“Whenever you have a situation where there is a strong level of power, there is always the possibility that that is hard for others who are price takers, essentially.”

“Well, two things. As I say, it is actually directly a DBT responsibility, but my understanding is that there is a current review under way, the fourth statutory review, which began on 20 March 2025. I am told that Ministers in the DBT are still finalising the exact arrangements for the review, but it is in line with th…”

“As the Minister responsible, I am absolutely determined that we defend the UK fishing industry.”

“What I can tell you is that we are absolutely determined to stand up for the UK fishing industry. The fishing industry has been let down before; we do not intend to let that happen again.”