Speeches by Newbury.

“T5. My constituent Paul Dadge was iconically photographed rescuing a badly burned survivor of the 7/7 bombings. What thanks did Paul get? His phone was hacked by a newspaper looking for stories. Twelve years on from the Leveson inquiry, most national papers are still in the Independent Press Standards Organisation, a c…”

“The announcement of a new school-based nursery at the Heath Hayes primary academy in my Cannock Chase constituency is very welcome, and shows that this Labour Government are keeping their promises and delivering for parents and children. As capacity is very stretched at Heath Hayes, this capital investment is very welc…”

“What we are hearing from a lot of farmers is that they feel like it is a real David and Goliath situation with the supermarkets, right? They do not feel that they have enough backing on their side to give them the voice to stand up to bad practices, essentially. That is a massive part of the concerns around fairness in…”

“Yes, thank you, Chair. The Groceries Code Adjudicator obviously exists to uphold standards in the supply chain and to tackle bad practices such as changing supply agreements retrospectively, late payments, and stopping or significantly cutting the volume of goods being sold without a genuine commercial reason and reaso…”

“That is useful for us to know and maybe something for us to pick up. We have heard from some farmers—this was featured a “Countryfile” episode on Sunday—that they are afraid to complain about breaches in the code for fear of being delisted and therefore losing their income. That is despite the fact that the adjudicator…”

“Often farmers feel that they are still identifiable, so the call from the sector is for a more proactive adjudicator, which would enable these things to be looked into in the round, without people needing to effectively stick their neck out and risk their income. I hope that is something that the Government are going t…”

“Another point of debate in the sector is the scope of the adjudicator. Currently it only covers the big players with turnovers of a £1 billion or more. There are lots of views on this, but evidence that we and previous Committees have had clearly suggests that there is merit in the Government lowering the threshold to …”

“That is what I wanted to come on to really with my final question. As you said, while the code covers most retailers, there are several individual players who also have got a direct relationship with farmers, aside from retailers, but who are outside the remit of the adjudicator currently—in particular, the food servic…”

“Thank you; I appreciate that. A lot of us feel that when we are trying to raise this, it very much affects DEFRA and DEFRA’s functions, but it sits with the DBT, as you said. The DBT keeps saying it is a matter for the CMA but, as I said, I do not think the CMA are going to be making major decisions around a potential …”

“I, too, thank the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) for raising this matter. I declare that I am an adoptive parent and a foster carer. My family is currently accessing post-adoption support, with a view to potentially applying for therapy. I have also had fellow adoptive parents in my constituency get in touc…”

“If we do not have the capacity, we are reducing the number of checks that we are doing. That is just a natural consequence of that resourcing issue.”

“We visited Dover. More than half our trade is coming through the short straits. One of the things they were keen to mention to us was the lack of operation at Bastion Point, which was commissioned at a cost of £22 million. It has never operated. We went up and saw Bastion Point. We were told by the Port Health Authorit…”

“Staffing seems to be a core issue around the capacity question. We know Dover Port Health Authority, for example, has the ability only to do 20% coverage. Most of the time, goods are going through unchecked. What are your thoughts on that? Is there potential for that resourcing issue to be resolved? Are we really looki…”

“The 20% is Dover Port Health Authority, but clearly there are challenges on the APHA side as well.”

“Yes, that is certainly something we heard last week. We also talked about the fact that when a non-compliant load is found, often it is cleared. A voluntary declaration is made; the goods are surrendered; and the driver goes off. They probably often go back, get more and see whether they can get through again. I totall…”

“It is interesting to hear there is that much variance because we are being told that it is a risk-based system. You would expect that the numbers being stopped would be fairly consistent. From one day to the next, the risk is not going to increase that much. The content of what is being imported into the country is not…”

“As we know, Ofwat examines many areas of water companies’ operations, and Yorkshire Water’s financial resilience has concerned Ofwat for a number of years now. Why do you think the regulator has cause for concern, and what are you doing to improve that financial position?”

“Yorkshire Water is privately owned by several overseas investors. It is financed under a whole business securitisation model which I think anybody would look at and call complex. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of that particular model?”

“Previously, Ofwat has investigated Yorkshire Water for the misuse of intercompany loans. They went as far as reprimanding you for making loans within this complex business structure without their consent, as was required. Do you understand why Ofwat and your customers would have been concerned by that?”

“Are you on track to meet that target in two years’ time?”