Speeches by Newbury.

“I saw a post from my hon. Friend on Facebook earlier today about this very matter. I know that he is fighting very hard on that on behalf of his constituents. I hope that my integrated care board listens to the concerns of my constituents, and I hope that that is reflected in Coventry and Warwickshire and that he can g…”

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you in the Chair, Ms Furniss. I will focus most of my speech on Rugeley Trent Valley station, which is of interest to my constituents, particularly those in Rugeley and Brereton, even though it is technically just over the border in the constituency of my hon. Friend t…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the plethora of issues we have at Rugeley Trent Valley, which are not restricted to the footbridge. Coming in and out of the station, travellers are met with a national speed limit rural road with very poor visibility from both sides, so the problems at the station are plentiful.…”

“I thank my colleague from Staffordshire for backing up my point. We all have examples in our constituencies of where powers are urgently needed and where they could make a massive difference if the council gets its act together, as my hon. Friend says, and gets on with it. He knows that rural parts of our constituencie…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Sam Carling) for securing this vital debate and for his thoughtful speech, and I extend that to other hon. Members who have spoken in the debate, too. It is an important opportunity for us to consider an issue that sits at the intersection of the food we …”

“The hon. Member is absolutely right that we need to be careful how labelling will affect imported goods and therefore what the consumer sees in the supermarket. My take is that, if we educate consumers on the labelling for our standards and, if those labels are absent, what the implications might be for imported produc…”

“My hon. Friend is speaking with real expertise and personal experience. As the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee mentioned, we had the chance to visit Brixham, where we heard at first hand that Government funding for fleets has often been focused on keeping old vessels in service, some of which…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend, but I also point out that there will inevitably be some producers who want to produce to higher standards than the minimum, particularly in this country. They should be fairly recognised and rewarded for that, so there will always be the need for a clear and transparent labelling system. Ge…”

“I welcome the White Paper because customers right across the country have been failed by their water company, and all too often, when turning to Ofwat for support and to hold executives to account, they have been met with bureaucracy and a weak response. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the creation of a new co…”

“It is a pleasure to speak with you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) for securing this debate and giving those in positions of power in our water industry a chance to hear hard truths and take accountability. Although the state of the industry and…”

“The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful speech on behalf of his constituents. Last year, it emerged that Thames Water was planning an enormous additional compensation package under the guise of a management retention plan. After being grilled by those of us on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and an u…”

“Some have said that we should treat farms like any other business and that, if they cannot cope in the harsh world of the global market, then—sorry—they are going to have to go under. You are saying quite clearly that we should treat them differently; that there is inherent value in preserving our own food production a…”

“Lastly, we know that at the moment it is our dairy farmers who are at the sharp end of global price fluctuations. I know that your farm is beef, sheep and arable, so I will not ask you to comment on the specifics of that. However, many have noted that, when we had basic payments, they helped somewhat to level out some …”

“Absolutely. As you will have seen, at the Oxford farming conference the Secretary of State announced that the first round of the revised SFI will be for small farms only. That is in an effort to tackle the imbalance in who is getting the lion’s share of the previous round of allocations. What challenges do you think th…”

“I think it is fair to say that we have seen, since the closure of the SFI, with the farms that were not able to get into it, what happens when we do not have an effective scheme: losses for farm profitability and nature. That underscores a lot of the points that you are making. Some of the more ambitious schemes, such …”

“They are too scared.”

“You have recommended that some elements of agri-environment schemes should be linked back to food production. You referenced earlier the push-back that some of your recommendations have had, and I think it is fair to say that is one of them—for example, I know it was something that you were asked about on “Farming Toda…”

“We have been talking about complexity, particularly for small farms, around the capacity within Defra to do this. Do you think there would be the capacity to deliver that new model, alongside a potentially very different SFI as well, all coming this year? Do you think that is something that other Departments will have …”

“Thank you very much, Baroness Batters, for coming to speak to us, and thank you for your review, which I think is a genuinely useful blueprint, particularly for us, as Back Benchers, to hold the Government to account. Thank you very much for all your work. As you said earlier, England’s transition from basic payments t…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. As all hon. Members here will know, throughout October and November our inboxes and DMs fill up with messages from constituents sharing their concerns about fireworks and to what extent they should be controlled, so I welcome the chance to discuss that today. …”