Speeches by Kirkham.

“Last year, you told the EAC that you were not doing a good enough job of protecting the environment. Since then, the Office for Environmental Protection has shown that many environmental indicators are on the decline and environmental laws are not actually being adhered to. Do you think we are heading into a culture of…”

“I suppose it was not just water; there were also some goals for clean air, maximising resources and minimising waste.”

“I have a specific question but it goes to the issues that you are talking about in relation to permitting. We have a bit of a crisis in Cornwall at the moment with septic tank waste. I have a company—lots of them actually—that have been moving it hundreds of miles to take it to South West Water treatment works. It has …”

“Do you think it would help if there were more inspections and more obvious standards for those inspections going forward? Because there have not been those ad hoc inspections.”

“How is the balance?”

“Just a last question. There has been some criticism of the EA for being reluctant to publish inspections data and maybe opaquer and slower to respond to FOIs. What is the reason for this and is it being tackled? There have been some reports that employees have been frightened about publishing this data. How are you tac…”

“I just wanted to ask a little about the Shoreline Management Plan because I come from Falmouth, which has four beaches, two of which are treated very differently from the other two in the Shoreline Management Plan, and it is just that recognition that the economic impact of that could be vast to some places. The counci…”

“I welcome this fund. The Cornish fishing fleet, which has suffered, has put together a joined-up proposal for our part of the fund, so I would be grateful if the Minister could look at that. The proposal talks about front-loading the investment, multi-year project funding, science and research, and data collection abou…”

“Q3. The number of households in Cornwall in temporary accommodation has increased by 265% in five years, so I am delighted that this Labour Government are investing £39 billion in social and affordable housing. In Cornwall we are developing a strategy to provide housing at sites such as Pydar in my constituency, which …”

“Yes, so you have obviously expended resource on doing that as well.”

“You do not know, I suppose, whether anything in the future will relate to us, so you could miss out.”

“We have lost access to some of the digital systems the EU had, such as the rapid alert system for food and feed. That has obviously created challenges for you. Could you explain to us what those are and how you have managed to address them?”

“There is a lot to do. Someone else will ask you about that. We are thinking that there might be an agreement in 2027, so there is a lot to do quite quickly. I was going to ask before that about your current relationship with EU counterparts, such as the European Food Safety Authority. Has that changed over time? Where …”

“How many people, roughly, do you think you have had to take on to deal with that?”

“I wanted to ask about your changing relationship with the EU. Since we left the EU, you have taken on a number of other responsibilities and roles and have been assisting with some of the risk assessments for free trade agreements as well. How successfully do you feel you have been able to take on these new roles. Do y…”

“My constituents’ baby, Bran Tunnicliffe, sadly died last year. His parents shared their experience with me, and described the wait for a coroner’s report as a lottery that depends on which hospital, pathologist and coroner is involved. I know that there is a shortage of pathologists in the UK. Will the Secretary of Sta…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Mainstream schools in my constituency are taking steps to provide their own inclusive, in-house SEND provision. Penair secondary school has been creating a forest school on its land, and some of my heads have expressed their desire to create area resource base units in their schools. Does the Minister agree that such t…”

“My constituency is lucky to have good school libraries such as the one at King Charles school, run by talented librarians like Emma Seager, who can get anyone reading. They also provide calm, supervised spaces for students. I was delighted to hear the Chancellor’s commitment at our conference to having a library in eve…”

“Will the right hon. Member give way?”