Speeches by Newbury.

“Clearly, there are a lot of opportunities for a new Act, but the Chair always reminds us that the law of unintended consequences is never far away. So what might be the unintended consequences of reforming the Act? What are the pitfalls that we need to avoid before this comes in front of the House of Commons?”

“Would that include vaccination as well?”

“You have touched there, Tim, on the benefits for the wider veterinary workforce. There has been lots of talk, for example, around protections for the role of veterinary nurse, but what other benefits do you think that the Act needs to have for that wider workforce, which has clearly evolved an awful lot since 1966?”

“Any other thoughts on priorities for the new Act?”

“In the meantime, then, are there practical steps that the Government can take to address some of the most urgent issues in the profession? What are those things that we can just get on with, without the need for a new Act?”

“Yes, absolutely. That point around the current Act being too restrictive and the need to change that with the new Act was one unintended consequence that I thought of, because clearly we need this legislation to be able to flex a little, as you said, over the next 60 years, so that we do not find ourselves in exactly t…”

“Yes, thank you. The original Act, as we know, will be 60 years old this November. Unsurprisingly, the chief vet, the Food Standards Agency and the British Veterinary Association are all calling for a new Act. The Government clearly agree because, as you know, DEFRA launched a consultation back in January setting out th…”

“22. What recent progress he has made on improving parental rights at work.”

“I completely agree with the hon. Lady. Allyship across many different characteristics is essential, but I have always felt that anything that men can do to echo and raise up the voices of women is incredibly powerful. We should take that seriously and not shy away from it in debates such as this one, where we may perha…”

“It is a pleasure to speak in today’s phenomenal debate marking International Women’s Day, alongside so many remarkable women from across this House, including the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Hannah Spencer), who gave an inspiring maiden speech. Although she is no longer in her place, I particularly thank her for…”

“Having heard that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will soon decide on the next round of Pride in Place funding, I would like to plug my constituency. It is my honour to represent proud communities, but many, like Chadsmoor and the Rugeley Springfields estate, were hit hard by austerity, which …”

“Many of us on the Labour Benches have long argued for a boost to paternity leave, which is one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government, but one group being let down badly is self-employed dads. Just one in six of them take leave after their children are born, and it is unpaid leave, meaning that they…”

“Phil from Brereton told me that his wife’s jury service letter arrived too late for her to defer; Colin from Brereton had a hospital letter that arrived three days after the appointment; and Michael from Rugeley waited weeks for a new debit card. Those were first-class letters, so planned reforms to the universal servi…”

“You mentioned that from a Government perspective the funding picture is quite constrained. Getting those multiple different benefits from nature restoration, which you alluded to earlier, Tony, is more important than ever. Do you think that, a couple of years in, BNG is showing signs that it is assisting other environm…”

“How is that being measured? How are you quantifying it, and how will it be published?”

“That segues on to my final question. As Sarah mentioned earlier, council planning departments are clearly very stretched. They are struggling not only to recruit and retain planners but with the need for deep technical knowledge around things such as BNG; that risks creating a postcode lottery where some local authorit…”

“Does it worry you that you cannot quantify those wider benefits, given that BNG is being looked at as something that could be stripped out of park planning reforms?”

“This is what worries me. As you mentioned, some local authorities are doing really good work and have the infrastructure. My local planning authority does not have an ecologist; we share staffing structures with a neighbouring council that does, so one ecologist is covering an area of around 350,000 people. The other l…”

“We have heard that there has probably been more on-site provision than expected, so the market for units has perhaps not been quite as buoyant as initial estimates suggested. I would say that is a good thing because it means more developers are, as you said, creating those benefits closer to home, but do you think that…”

“Another topic that has generated a lot of discussion is the environmental land management schemes, not least because of the closure of the sustainable farming incentive. One silver lining we have seen is that DEFRA has had a chance to redesign the SFI and hopefully make it simpler and better integrated with other natur…”