Speeches by Reed.

“There is a lot of additional work being pushed towards Ofwat. Could the Minister confirm whether Ofwat has the internal capacity to meet that workload? If not, is there a ringfenced budget in DEFRA to allow Ofwat to employ more people?”

“We talk about citizen scientists and the hard work they have to do to uncover what is going on within the data. We are talking about putting lots of different monitors on lots of infrastructure up and down the country, which is going to spew out lots of different information that is going to be quite hard to dig into. …”

“I want to raise one minor point. Public confidence in us restoring our water systems is the reason we are here, scrutinising this Bill. Feargal Sharkey—a main campaigner who many people up and down the country listen to—recently wrote an article saying that no water boss would ever go to prison as a result of this legi…”

“I agree with many of the hon. Lady’s points. Many of our constituents are feeling the same effects, but does she not agree that the reason why the Bill has been introduced so quickly in this Parliament with so few new ideas in it is that most of the work was done by the previous Government?”

“Can I push you on a date?”

“Moving on from the last Government to the new Government, are those priorities quite different? Are there quite significant changes that you are going to have to make to put those points across?”

“Nick, Sir Philip and Corin, thank you very much for being with us today. I join the Chair in congratulating you and thanking you for your many decades of service to our country. I would like to start high level and then dive into detail. It is fair to say that, in recent years, the UK doing international development ha…”

“If I am being completely honest, I think that this is part of the problem. I completely understand all the arguments you are making, and I agree with many of them, but I am sure that many people on the Committee have had the same problem knocking on doors. Because there is not that short, snappy answer of why we are sp…”

“Linked very closely to that, and one for Corin, what will your priorities be going into the spending review negotiations?”

“I will ask a similar question to the ones I asked the FCDO officials. Development has become quite contentious now in the UK. The issue is that we dive straight into the priorities without outlining the high-level view of why we are doing this in the first place. It is very difficult to then communicate to the UK publi…”

“Moving on from the last Government to the new Government, are those priorities quite different? Are there quite significant changes that you are going to have to make to put those points across?”

“I will push back very slightly on that. I am sure, as I have said before, that many, many MPs here will have those same conversations with their constituents. That narrative is changing very rapidly. When you look at things that are happening in the UK, such as the cost of living crisis where people are worried about t…”

“That is what I am looking for at the moment, Minister.”

“But it will be this year.”

“Minister, thank you for being so generous with your time. The last wave of questions will focus on the oceans. The Government have committed to ratifying the global ocean treaty, but when do they plan to do this?”

“Can I push you on a date?”

“Broadly, will it be this half or the next half of the year?”

“Nick, Sir Philip and Corin, thank you very much for being with us today. I join the Chair in congratulating you and thanking you for your many decades of service to our country. I would like to start high level and then dive into detail. It is fair to say that, in recent years, the UK doing international development ha…”

“If I am being completely honest, I think that this is part of the problem. I completely understand all the arguments you are making, and I agree with many of them, but I am sure that many people on the Committee have had the same problem knocking on doors. Because there is not that short, snappy answer of why we are sp…”

“Linked very closely to that, and one for Corin, what will your priorities be going into the spending review negotiations?”