Speeches by Tufnell.

“In terms of the concentration of supermarket power, you have nine major retailers accounting for 94.5% of all retail food in the UK. The starter for 10 is whether that helps or harms the resilience piece that we have been talking about, particularly during geopolitical shocks.”

“We had the Groceries Code Adjudicator in, and there has been a rise from 30% to 32% in terms of suppliers reporting a code issue with supermarket retailers. We had Mark White in, who said there was a need to remind retailers that compliance is important, thinking about the teeth and the need to enforce.”

“Are you concerned that manufacturers are going to be forced to absorb more of those costs because of the fact that you have that inherent power imbalance, and because of the fact that there are nine and they dominate nearly 95% of the market?”

“Yes, and obviously farmers are going to be even more price takers in those relationships below the manufacturers. Can I come back to the retailers though? We mentioned that the nine figure versus Europe, maybe that slightly higher figure and level of competition—albeit more in an oligopoly sense—still means that the UK…”

“We have a memorandum of understanding between the OEP and the Interim Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales and Environmental Standards Scotland. In 2024 the OEP launched the investigation into special protected areas in England and Northern Ireland, and we have seen similar investigations launched in Scotland an…”

“Can I ask about the effectiveness of the OEP in Northern Ireland? You have the requirement of at least one board member to represent Northern Ireland, but I think that is the only provision that explicitly states how the OEP is meant to operate in Northern Ireland.”

“They have given evidence to the Committee about how the majority of cases are considered individually—there is an individual nature, is what I think they suggested to the Committee. Do you think that hinders looking at the system as a whole and thinking about the systemic issues that are going on in respect of IPFR?”

“My question is not about travel; it is about the process to access those services. I take your point about travel and accommodation, but do you think that is solely the reason why we are seeing these cases? Are there processes involved in accessing services, which have been flagged to you as chief executive of the orga…”

“Do you think they are doing that?”

“Can I quickly ask Alyson a question? In respect of the evidence you have just given to Ben, how have you been able to feed into the Welsh joint commissioning committee? Have you been able to feed those patient experiences of delays, frustrations and gaps into the committee?”

“I represent Pembrokeshire, so we are also within Hywel Dda. I have had constituents contact me about cancer treatment not being available in Wales, about having to be referred to England, and about the difficulties in accessing that treatment in England. I had a constituent who died, unfortunately, as a result of the d…”

“So in your view, it is a matter of accommodation and travel. And you do not think there are systemic failings in the processes involved in how patients, such as those in Pembrokeshire or Carmarthenshire, access those specialist services in England.”

“Alyson, can I check that you have been feeding all the concerns that you have raised, and the frustrations that you have heard in feedback from your patients, into the health boards and the commissioning committee, and are you satisfied that those concerns are being heard and action is being taken?”

“Finally, moving forward, what would you like to see from the joint committee? What would you like to see them improve?”

“You warned Amazon, but then why did it take you 12 months from that warning to launch the investigation?”

“Why do you think Amazon is performing so poorly in respect of your surveys?”

“If you go into some of the details about the business model that Amazon is operating and you think, for example, of the lack of access to the resources to discuss, mitigate or resolve issues that suppliers are having, or you think about their short and strict delivery requirements, that is a very unique type of busines…”

“Do you think you have enough teeth to go up against an organisation such as Amazon?”

“Do you think you have enough teeth to go up against an organisation such as Amazon?”

“Amazon for example, has consistently performed poorly in your surveys and shown little improvement. Have you launched an investigation?”