Speeches by Dollimore.

“The Minister will be aware that in a number of places in Sussex and Kent—including in your Sussex Weald constituency, Madam Deputy Speaker—people are still without water as a result of the power outages that occurred during the storm. The power supply to waterworks is interrupted briefly, but then the water supply goes…”

“When we are building the new homes that we desperately need, it is important that we think about playgrounds and access to play. I have just audited all the playgrounds in Hastings and Rye. I found that many parents and children have to walk for over 20 minutes to get to a playground, particularly in new build estates,…”

“My constituency was affected by the water outage over the Christmas period, and I thank the Minister for her support over that period—for keeping me updated, and for briefing the water company. I really feel for the people who are experiencing these outages. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has been tr…”

“I really welcome the return of Erasmus and the opportunity for young people in Hastings and Rye to study and train in Europe again. As a coastal town, we also want to see the return of our closest link with our European neighbours through bringing back international trains to Ashford International, which this Labour Go…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) for bringing forward this urgent question. As the Minister knows from her visit to my constituency last week, millions of plastic beads recently washed up there. After initially denying any involvement, Southern Water has admitted that it was responsible…”

“David, is there anything you wanted to add?”

“It is a very common misconception in Government that all coastal communities care about is fishing. We have many more challenges than that, which colleagues will come on to later. On the point about DEFRA’s responsibilities, the Committee’s understanding was that coastal communities sat with DEFRA. Has it moved recentl…”

“Moving on to another specific case, you may know that we have had Thames Water before the Committee several times—the second time because they had misled the Committee the first time. We have been diving quite deeply into all the issues at Thames Water, and there is a lot of concern about whether Thames Water’s credito…”

“Moving on more broadly to the water industry, we have conducted an investigation, which we have reported on, and the Government will be responding to that report in due course. When the water Minister came before our Committee, she suggested that the upcoming White Paper on reform of the water industry—which responds t…”

“So that is rural. What about coastal?”

“And it is right that Southern Water, as the polluter, pays for any damage that they have done with this pollution incident?”

“So the boss of Southern Water should not be taking a bonus?”

“Yes. Thank you, Secretary of State. We on this Committee are looking at the role that DEFRA plays in supporting coastal and rural communities and we have several inquiries coming up on that basis. DEFRA of course has a cross-Government role to ensure that rural and coastal communities can benefit from economic growth. …”

“A company performing in this way, committing such an incident, should not be giving bonuses to their top bosses, should it?”

“This kind of incident is completely unacceptable.”

“Secretary of State, I want to ask you about the Government’s work to clean up the water industry and I want to start with a major incident that has been unfolding over the weekend in my constituency. Last week I became aware of reports that small, black plastic beads were washing up on our beaches, particularly prevale…”

“I want to come back on the earlier discussion we had about coastal communities and where responsibility sits. You said it was under Minister Fahnbulleh, but we have checked. She has responsibilities for communities as a whole, specifically social cohesion and faith groups, but she does not have coastal communities list…”

“You will be familiar with the situation where Thames Water was called back because it was found to have been trying to circumvent the Government’s ban on bonuses by calling them “retention payments” for the senior leadership of Thames Water, instead of calling them “bonuses”. When this came out at the Committee, the th…”

“Is there a broad view on whether they should be let off fines and penalties?”

“I share the view of Members across the House that the crisis in Sudan is simply not getting enough focus from the world. I thank the Minister for his leadership in this area. The situation in Sudan is absolutely horrendous. In last week’s attack on the maternity hospital in El Fasher, almost 500 civilians were killed. …”