Speeches by Reed.

“We have the environmental principles policy statement as well—EPPS—which places a duty on all Ministers to take decisions in line with those principles. My colleague Mary Creagh, the Minister for Nature, is leading work on engaging with other Government Departments as we want to make sure that everybody is aligned towa…”

“There is a board that pulls together all the Departments and focuses them on delivery. That will remain. That becomes a much more purposeful group when there are resources, delivery plans and responsibilities attached to the targets. We are very aware of the importance of this across Government. It is not for one Depar…”

“Resourcing will be a key element of our ability to deliver on those targets, but I am not going to speculate about what will be in the spending review, not least because the decisions have not been taken yet. I will make my case, as will colleagues in other parts of Government. It is not just me as a Secretary of State…”

“No, they are stretch targets, but I want them to be reachable. What we inherited was an EIP that was full of targets that had nobody responsible for delivering them, no resources allocated to them and no delivery plan. I know from my business background as well that if you have targets like that, they are not targets a…”

“You mean on the EIP?”

“Of course you have. If anyone were going to have them, it would be you, Barry. Q26            Alison Griffiths: Thank you, Secretary of State. I was interested in the notion that you want to set targets that are achievable. I come from a business background where w…”

“We have heard the concerns raised by the OEP. I share many of those concerns. The work is not finalised yet, but hopefully by the time I next appear before your Committee, you will have a copy of it in your hand, so you will know the answer to that question. You will be able to hold me and my colleagues to account on d…”

“It makes more sense to publish the refreshed EIP with resources, delivery plans and responsibilities and then have that as the plan for the next five years taking us to 2030, just so that the whole sector has certainty about what we are working towards and how we intend to get there rather than at some point along the …”

“I am very sympathetic to what you have said there. You may have pressed my colleagues on the same point; I know you have had Minister Creagh here as well. We will be making an announcement in due course. It is difficult for me to go further than that, Barry, but I am very sympathetic to the points you have made. I know…”

“I am happy to get you a written response to that one as well. As Sally just said, we are looking at our regulators across the piece. We will have more to say when we have been able to complete that piece of work but, on the specifics you have raised there, we will write back to you.”

“We have restated our commitment to 30 by 30 as well. We recognise the importance of MPAs in achieving those targets.”

“That is right. We have been doing work on that with other Departments, particularly DESNZ. I am going to defer to my colleague.”

“Absolutely. That is why we have been co-producing it with the ENGOs and other stakeholders. If you are looking at the people who have the best experience of what is going on with nature and the environment, they are right up there with them and they have very important views. I wanted to make sure that they were fully …”

“We also want to rationalise the targets to make sure that they are all deliverable and should be in there. So we have not been working on our own; we have been taking an approach based on co-production with the ENGOs in particular, but other stakeholders as well, in looking at the review of the EIP. All of that will fe…”

“I am not going to make the same mistake I made at the EFRA Committee and not bring my colleagues in, so I will just give them some notice that after I have answered your question if they have anything to add to it, they would be most welcome. You will appreciate, I am sure, that I cannot anticipate what we are going to…”

“She is a good chief of her organisation.”

“I cannot anticipate what will come out of the spending review. It is no secret to anybody the very difficult financial circumstances this Government inherited and the difficulty to find resources to increase funding until we have secured growth in the economy. As things stand, in our current business planning we are lo…”

“I do not think it is helpful for me to just add my voice to criticisms. We are not the Opposition now; we are the Government. I want to point to what we are doing and by the time we are in a position to write—as I say I want to do it earlier than we are required to—I want there to be more substantive information about …”

“I share its diagnosis of the failings of the previous Government to be honest. I will have made many of those same points myself at various times.”

“There is quite a lot that came out of the report that we had from the OEP, and we will be giving a full response to that. Part of it would be about better co-ordinating across Government and with stakeholders. Part of what they were reporting on was the period before we were elected. I share many of the criticisms. Man…”