Speeches by Roca.

“Overall, the structure of the water industry is something that is quite a lively public debate as well. We saw big increases in bills after privatisation. Then they flatlined in real terms, and now we look to be going through another period of significant real-terms increases. The sector has £60 billion of debt. It has…”

“Stepping back, the public will see the Windermere issue. They will see their bills going up. They will see, as I say, average overall performance and only meeting half of the KPIs. Between the two of you, you are being paid over £2.5 million. There is a cultural issue, is there not?”

“Turning to dividend yields of about 4.1%, return on regulated equity of 8.4%, and shareholder return of nearly 15%, are these justified when performance overall is judged as average and you are meeting only half of your KPIs?”

“Do you think that, overall, the industry might have an issue with excessive remuneration? I am conscious that the Prime Minister is on £165,000, and you are on eight times that. Is there an overall cultural issue with remuneration being too high?”

“In terms of the measures that are being used for the bonus and the long-term incentive, clean rivers is one. Is that not something that you would be doing in terms of your base pay? It is not something that you should be receiving a bonus for. It should be, basically, what you are delivering.”

“Despite the astonishing 10 days we have had, and we should be under no illusion that they have been astonishing, there has been reassurance to be found in the Government’s steadfast commitment to Ukraine and the leadership they have been showing. The Foreign Secretary alluded earlier to Vladimir Putin’s penchant for ly…”

“It is not shared at all.”

“Is the intelligence not shared with you, Lucy?”

“You did do intelligence a long time ago. Do you think that it is a failure that intelligence is held at DEFRA level and is not shared with partners?”

“Your background, David, is in customs. Originally you started as a customs officer. Customs used to do investigations.”

“Can I ask about prosecutions? How many people are pursued and prosecuted?”

“Even in recent years, there has been a sharp decline in the number of seizures.”

“You cannot comment.”

“It will be a briefing that we have had. I suspect those are national figures. That decline is quite substantial in and of itself. I was looking at an NAO report from 2003, where there were 15,800 seizures in that year. The trend over the last 20 years has been significantly downwards. Can you comment on why that is?”

“In terms of the stats on seizures, there were 5,500 in 2015-16 and then 2,000 in the latest recorded year. Are those seizures nationally or seizures at Dover?”

“I have a briefing here saying that data shows a general trend towards fewer individual seizures, with 5,500 in 2015 and 2,000 in the latest recorded year. Will that have been at Dover or are those national figures? I do not know if you recognise those figures.”

“More than 5,000 people are employed at AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield campus, producing world-class medicines and contributing £1.8 billion in GVA and 1% of total UK exports. AstraZeneca has confirmed to me that the Speke decision does not impact Macclesfield, a site that it is committed to. Will the Minister confirm that …”

“I thank those who secured this debate on a really important issue. I hope all of us here are committed to the fundamental principle that we should have a functioning, representative democracy; and that elections should reflect the will of the people, and endow this place with the democratic legitimacy to make laws and …”

“It was before?”

“Can I follow directly on that question, Chair? Based on your modelling of the productivity improvements needed—and there was a suggestion in the report that one in nine farms would need to make productivity gains of 10%, which is quite significant—how many farms realistically might not be able to make the improvements …”