Speeches by Hardy.

“It is a real pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I wish you, and anybody celebrating, a very happy Easter—I hope that it is a peaceful and enjoyable day. I thank the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor) for securing this debate and giving us space and time to discuss this important issue. I hope that…”

“I am pleased by what I believe I have heard: that no reference was made to Ruth Kelly with regard to Thames Water; instead, the comment was solely about her representing Water UK. Further to my point about people who are not here and unable to defend themselves, as a trade unionist I want to talk about the people who w…”

“I completely agree. They are trying to do a good job. I add that it is a good industry to work in; the people in it have long careers and, I might add, excellent trade union representation. I am not sure that I will have complete support from everyone in the room on that point—just when I was doing so well—but I want t…”

“I want to stress that although that is the legal process for entering special administration, that does not mean for one second that we are satisfied with the performance of the company as a whole. But there is a wealth of difference between the court-sanctioned process of going into special administration and the Gove…”

“With respect, I think that we have different interpretations of the truth. We are saying that the company can enter SA if it is insolvent. Thames Water is not at the point of insolvency. My message to the public and to people working in the company is that the company remains stable at the moment; however, as a respons…”

“Perhaps I misunderstood the hon. Member as also saying that she is a defender of, or a spokesperson for, Thames Water. I am happy for him to retract his comment.”

“I am happy to, if the hon. Member wishes to retract his comment.”

“Part of the statement refers to energy policy, so I am conscious as the DEFRA Minister that I am not speaking about DESNZ policy because that would be inappropriate. I hope I have explained what we are trying to do as a new Government, which is looking at prioritisation and making sure we have things in the right place…”

“On marine spatial planning and what we are trying to put where, I hope I have tried to explain the need for a strategic plan on what is going where in our ocean. As we have said, where we put offshore wind, where the MOD is, where cables are, where we dig for aggregates and all these things have evolved over time witho…”

“I work closely with Minister Shanks. The Government’s mission is green energy power. To deliver on that green energy power, he needs offshore wind and that means he needs to put that in the seas and the oceans, which come under my responsibility. We work closely together. We have regular meetings. However, to be clear,…”

“The conversations I tend to have with Minister Shanks are more about how we can ensure the best use of our seas. As I say, I am here talking about the environment. Daniel would be here talking about—”

“If it is an MPA, it is based on features. If it is based on a whole-site approach, it would come under what we would call the highly protected marine areas instead. There are three HPMAs at the moment that are banning pretty much everything that takes place within that area. That is one thing we are looking at. I menti…”

“One thing I was genuinely delighted about was that after we won the election, Prime Minister Starmer recommitted the UK Government to the high level panel for sustainable oceans and he nominated me as chair for that panel. I have met some of the co-chairs of that. This is 15 different countries working together. Becaus…”

“If I had not got rid of my Twitter account, I would have retweeted it myself, too. It goes back to the conversation we were having about when we can get the stage 3 byelaws passed. We are committed to not having bottom trawling in areas that damage the MPAs, especially when they are attached to features that we are try…”

“No. The policy has not changed. The delay is on making sure that I am making the right decision and that I have all the evidence required to make the best decision. I would rather spend a bit longer—a few more months—doing that than make a decision that I regret later on.”

“I am Emma Hardy. I am the Minister for Water and Flooding, but I also have responsibilities for the ocean, chemicals, and pesticides.”

“This is all about our plans to deliver on the Government’s mission for clean power. As you know, one of the most important missions the Government have is to deliver on clean power and one of the things we wanted to look at in terms of marine designation or MPA designation is also whether they are in the right place an…”

“There are different types of marine protected areas. Some were protecting migratory species, seals, harbour porpoises and various others. Some are protecting seabirds. Some are protecting habitats and species and then there are the HPMAs. Different MPAs are there for different reasons. Yes, some of it is about making s…”

“In terms of the marine spatial prioritisation, no, because we have a huge ambition on what we want to deliver on clean energy. This means we will ramp up what we do in terms of offshore wind. It was not done before, under the previous Government, that they had that strategic look at how we use our seas, where we put th…”

“We have not de-designated any MPAs at the moment. That has not happened. We are doing a review to, as I say, make sure they are in the right place for the right feature that they want to protect. As I have mentioned, there are diverse types of marine protected areas, some of them, as I say, protecting seabirds, some pr…”