Speeches by Chowns.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I will focus my comments on areas where I think we can achieve a degree of cross-party agreement. I have already heard agreement that farmers are the stewards of the land. We can agree that farming is a diverse sector, and farmers as a group are very diverse…”

“Thank you. Is there anything that you would like to add, Mr Carter?”

“You are saying that SFI is working pretty well but would you agree that there is significant scope for some tweaking so that they are operating more long term, tying landowners into longer-term agreements.?”

“I welcome the Secretary of State’s warm words about improving affordable housing availability. Does she agree that the affordability of housing is closely related to the bills that people have to pay—energy bills in particular? Will she ensure that all new social housing from this stage forward is built to the highest …”

“Could I ask about two specific policy levers? In the news today some parts of the industry are putting pressure on the Government in relation to the zero-emission vehicle mandate, which your report makes very clear is a very important policy lever. Would you care to make any comment on that particular policy? The secon…”

“We will follow up with some of those specific sectors. I would like to dig in particularly to the surface transport sector. There is any number of telling graphs, but one of them is on page 22 of your report, which shows that surface transport is the biggest sector, the most problematic sector. It has been the stickies…”

“Thank you. It is good to meet both of you. You publish a lot of very useful reports—thank you for your July 2024 report to Parliament on progress on emissions reduction. I would like to start by inviting you to summarise how the picture has changed since your June 2023 report, perhaps over the last 12 to 15 months. How…”

“I have a couple of questions. The first one follows on a bit from the comment about the inclusion of aviation and shipping, recognising that the UK has made relatively good progress in reducing territorial emissions, but much less good progress in reducing consumption-based emissions. Should we be thinking about the im…”

“This weekend, residents in my constituency were flooded yet again. The same thing happened only five weeks ago, and after that event I met people at my surgery who showed me footage of floodwater spewing out of their toilet into the downstairs area, and of their sodden houses. I met more than 100 residents in the villa…”

“The ICC, the world’s highest criminal court, has “reasonable grounds” to allege that the Israeli leaders are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The other world court, the International Court of Justice, has found that there is “plausible” risk that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians and t…”

“First of all, I thank the Leader of the House for mentioning Ask Her to Stand Day. Despite the progress that has been made on women’s representation in politics, it is shocking that we are still not where we should be in terms of having a 50:50 Parliament and full representation at all levels. It has already been menti…”

“Time is running out at COP29 and the clock is ticking on the climate crisis. I welcome the leadership shown by the Prime Minister in attending COP29 and setting ambitious targets for the UK. The need to agree a global finance goal is vital, and making progress in Baku is clearly challenging. Will he assure me that he i…”

“In the statement on bus services on Monday, I asked the Secretary of State about extending concessionary travel to children and young people. Her response was to suggest that MPs should talk to our individual local authorities about this, but that is not the approach that we take to concessionary travel for pensioners.…”

“I have a few follow-ups. Perhaps I will throw them out and you can pick up the ones that you want to pick up on. First, on the point about the very vague definition of grey belts, I am concerned about this idea of limited contribution to green belts. “Limited” is an extremely flexible word. Do you have a suggestion for…”

“I have a few follow-ups. Perhaps I will throw them out and you can pick up the ones that you want to pick up on. First, on the point about the very vague definition of grey belts, I am concerned about this idea of limited contribution to green belts. “Limited” is an extremely flexible word. Do you have a suggestion for…”

“I want to ask about the concerns around the NPPF reforms and their impact on the green belt. To what extent do you think that the proposed reforms achieve an effective balance between the demand for new housing and protection of the green belt, and what mechanisms could help achieve balance? Is there a proposal to real…”

“I want to ask about the concerns around the NPPF reforms and their impact on the green belt. To what extent do you think that the proposed reforms achieve an effective balance between the demand for new housing and protection of the green belt, and what mechanisms could help achieve balance? Is there a proposal to real…”

“I welcome the statement, and I particularly welcome the change in funding mechanisms—the move away from hoop-jumping, jam-jar funding to something that takes proper account of local needs; I hope very much that it will take proper account of rurality. However, I want to ask about another issue. Pensioners get free bus …”

“I warmly welcome today’s statement. The Secretary of State is right that it is long overdue, and that early intervention is key. Too many children in this country are in care because they and their families did not get the support and help that they needed, when they needed it. She referenced the report led by the hon.…”

“8. What steps he plans to take to support nature-friendly farming.”