Speeches by Riddell-Carpenter.

“Should we be concerned that with that underspend, investment is not happening to the critical infrastructure?”

“My final question, Chair. Ofwat’s final determination in the PR24 provided an expenditure allowance of £3.8 billion, which I believe was £94 million less than you had asked for, less than you had hoped for. I appreciate that is £1.5 billion more than the previous PR cycle. How can you achieve your targets? Importantly,…”

“What did you not get?”

“I want to revisit the point around the Priority Services Register. Are we right in saying that you are one of the worst performers in terms of reaching the target set by Ofwat?”

“I understand that, and your customers will welcome that news, but I am questioning the decision making. You knew that your Priority Services Register was not up to scratch, and you knew as an organisation that it would not have been a complete register, yet you made the decision to only supply 44 households with bottle…”

“If that were to happen again, would you put aside the failures of your Priority Services Register, and would you commit to making sure that households receive bottled water and water stations, and not rely on data that was not sufficient to make appropriate decisions?”

“It went from days down to—”

“Would you do the same exercise again of writing to DEFRA with your feedback from the Hungarian outbreak? Not to give you all the credit—”

“It sounds like that feedback is clearly valued, and I am sure there are still lessons to be learned from the most recent outbreak.”

“Would you be able to share your feedback from the Hungarian outbreak with us as a Committee? We have had detailed feedback from others as well about the Germany outbreak.”

“Thank you. Sally, on broader plant disease outbreaks, what is your assessment of some of the most recent responses to disease and plant outbreaks?”

“You say you are attempting to feed that back, but you are not finding it easy to.”

“That is interesting. Nigel, would you like to add anything on that from your perspective?”

“I put on record my strong support for the Bill. I want to focus much of my contribution today on two aspects—nature recovery and electricity infrastructure. Net zero and nature are two sides of the same coin, and it would be a coin with no value if we had one without the other. The proposed environmental delivery plans…”

“I wonder if the hon. Gentleman rolls out that line to every Member. I am actually talking about the SSSIs and the energy infrastructure, rather than housing. The sites that I speak of—the SSSIs and the natural landscapes—are not only recognised by but critical for this Government if we are to deliver on our ambitions t…”

“T5. Will the Minister provide an update on the JobsPlus pilot and what assessment has been given to its future roll-out, including widening it to include Suffolk Coastal?”

“My hon. Friend is making an incredibly important point, with which many across the Chamber will agree. The statistics are particularly stark for women from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds; they are even more likely to be dismissed.”

“I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for bringing forward this important Bill. I thank the many other Members from across the House who have contributed so movingly today, and my constituents who reached out to me to share their views. I will try to keep my contribution bri…”

“I will continue, if I may. We need to look properly, and with real scrutiny, at the supermarkets. Those practices need to change. We cannot allow farmers to bear the brunt of this system, while others in the supply chain benefit so disproportionately. I want to address the issue of APR. Many, many farmers have raised t…”

“I want to start my contribution today by picking up where I left off this morning in my question to the Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders). At the heart of the problem facing farming and profitability is an unfair supply chain. …”