Speeches by Moore.

“Absolutely. She was a predecessor of mine representing Keighley. To show the stark reality that we face across the Bradford district, let me just take you through a timeline of events. In July 2021, Bradford safeguarding partnership rejects a full inquiry, arguing that the limited review that they carried out based on …”

“But it approved it in the end.”

“You mentioned that when you did the Telford inquiry, the survivors or the representatives and those who helped with feeding into the inquiry were advocating for those statutory powers to be awarded throughout—even up until the point of the report concluding, I think you mentioned.”

“Who knows, whether or not the award of statutory powers makes a difference to your conclusion, because they were not awarded, but the point here is the disenfranchisement of trust by victims and survivors in how open and transparent the inquiry is and how organisations or individuals are held to account as a result of …”

“Finally for me, going back to the Bradford district, where concerns have been raised absolutely consistently but—dare I say—ignored or even considered to be not too much of an issue by those in power at a local level, we end up in a scenario where there is an unwillingness for a local inquiry to take place. If we conti…”

“I will continue campaigning.”

“Can I just take you back to the timeline that you kindly went through? Thank you for your ability to keep going back to try to get answers and some clarity from the Home Office. It seems to me that the Home Secretary was almost pushed into a position of making some announcements in January to illustrate that the Govern…”

“Up until today’s point, then, given that your name has been referenced not only on the floor of the House but in other communication that has been put out by the Government, do you feel used as part of this process so far?”

“Do you have faith that there will be a local audit or inquiry into the other four areas where it has been indicated there will be?”

“Based on the process since January when that statement was given in the House, do you have confidence that the other inquiries will actually come into existence?”

“That is absolutely the point: it causes huge concern to many farming businesses because they are not able to forecast what financial investment will go into the business, whether from delinked payments or any sustainable farming incentive scheme that they were hoping to enter.”

“The reality is that we cannot, because of the Government’s announcement of dramatic reductions to the delinked payments that many farming businesses relied on. The explanatory note itself states that the reductions for 2025 will result in “increased demand from farmers for the Environmental Land Management schemes”, bu…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. That is why an impact assessment is so important if we are to consider this piece of legislation. Not only are farmers facing the collective economic impact of a dramatic reduction in delinked payments, but they are now faced with being unable to receive sustainable farming …”

“Okay, thank you, Mr Twigg. As the Committee debates this delegated legislation, I would like to take us back to why we are where we are, in the sense of being in year 5 of a seven-year transition period. This direction was positively set out by the previous Administration as we moved from the common agricultural policy…”

“On a point of order, Mr Twigg. Before I start my speech, I would like to go back to the comments that I made earlier. With the motion now having been moved, I seek your guidance on how we can consider these regulations without any financial impact assessment having been undertaken.”

“Further to that point of order, Mr Twigg. Can utilisation of the rules of this House bring a closure motion before the Committee. If we do not have before us the information needed to consider properly this legislation’s impact on many farming businesses, is a mechanism available to me to move a closure motion, so that…”

“On a point of order, Mr Twigg. I seek your guidance. The Minister has just said that no economic impact assessment has been carried out on the draft legislation that we are considering. He noted that previous impact assessments were done under the Agriculture Act passed in a previous Parliament, but that was a signific…”

“I just want to make it clear that we did not indicate dropping the delinked payments at the speed at which the Government are doing it—in the fifth year of the seven years of transition. That is the clear difference and the reason why we are debating this piece of legislation today.”

“That is my point. This weekend I will visit farmers in Northumberland, who have contacted me to make the point that some of our cross-border farming operations will have access to very different subsidy schemes and environmental payment schemes north of the border and south of the border. Has the Minister has considere…”

“Will the Minister give way?”