Speeches by Kirkham.

“Was that planned in advance, though? Did they know that they were going to be doing that? That is an emergency response that needs to be planned, isn’t it?”

“Something else that the borough council told us was that the centre of town was pretty much left to them. They were providing the toilets and bottled water around the town centre. That is quite a big gap. How did that happen?”

“It is so important that in an incident like this you have a clockwork plan that cannot fail like that?”

“Yes, and so that people can lift it, open it and use it. To go back to the water stations, there were problems, I understand, with them being overcrowded, closing early and people struggling to get into them rather than their being accessible. What have you learned from that about the water stations that you picked and…”

“The other thing that came up, considering that these were vulnerable, elderly or ill people, was that sometimes when water was delivered, a 12kg pack of big bottles of water was stuck on their doorstep, which was something they could not access. That is something that you need to consider for next time. How come that h…”

“That is the problem, isn’t it—some of them just won’t be able to.”

“Did they have to apply to go on that, or was that people on social tariffs? How did you check that people were not left off that?”

“You said there were 5,000 customers who were vulnerable on this list, so how many of those had to wait more than 12 hours for that water supply?”

“I was coming on to the vulnerable households and how you identified them. Did they have to come to you? How did you work out who was vulnerable and needed that delivery?”

“So the council had to do it. How long did that take?”

“How long did it take for the first walk-in water station within Tunbridge Wells to be opened?”

“Tonbridge is not Tunbridge Wells though, is it?”

“Good morning and thank you for coming. I used to live in Tunbridge Wells, in a previous life, so I know the area a little bit, from a long time ago. The borough council told us that it took a day for the bottled-water station to be opened, and that it was in Tonbridge, which is a different town and quite difficult to g…”

“Henry has covered pretty much all that I wanted to ask. There is just one small thing about the weaknesses in the supply chain. I was reading about the availability of sodium hypochlorite to disinfect drinking water. Do you see the availability of these things in the supply chain as a weakness? Do you think that needs …”

“So it would be a bit more complicated than that. Thank you.”

“It could be considered almost a national security issue, then.”

“I welcome this sensible compromise and point out that the £800 million put into the environmental land management scheme in 2023-24 will become £2 billion by 2028-29, along with the sustainable farming incentive being reintroduced in April, the land use framework and the farming road map. Does the Minister agree that t…”

“T5. Merry Christmas to everybody in the Chamber and beyond. I was very proud to stand on a manifesto that committed to end cruel practices such as puppy smuggling and to phase out animal testing and ban fur imports. Is the Secretary of State able to update the House with a little more detail on the progress of the anim…”

“You talked about the science that they are doing down in Cornwall, and I wondered whether you had considered whether the coastal growth fund could be used in areas like that in the future. Also, when we have new catch opportunities, such as the bass ones, if we are talking about bringing young people into fishing, is t…”

“There are some very good schemes out there. It is just about supporting them and allowing them to grow.”