Speeches by Roca.

“I completely agree. As the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) raised earlier, it is the Baltic countries—Poland, Finland, those that have had direct experience of Russian aggression—that are most clear-eyed about the Russian threat. We do not want a wishy-washy peace that does not deliver genu…”

“I add my commendation to the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) for securing this important debate. Hearing the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) speak reminded me of our trip to Ukraine earlier in the year. Thinking of surreal moments, it cannot be mor…”

“Ryan Cornelius, a British citizen, has been unfairly incarcerated in Dubai for the past 17 years. His son was six when he went to prison; he is now 23 years old. Some 150 parliamentarians from both Houses wrote to the Dubai authorities asking for Mr Cornelius’s release on the UAE’s national day—today—to no avail. Can t…”

“In the meantime, are we planning to stop any further divergence?”

“We heard here that when talks and negotiations intensify, devolved Administrations have felt that they were left out in the past. Are you making sure that you do have the structures in place so that even when negotiations become dynamic—as they do—the devolved Administrations are plugged in?”

“How is liaison with the devolved Administrations on SPS going? How is it managed?”

“That is helpful. You will have seen that in our previous sessions we have been looking particularly at dynamic alignment, and the exemption that we are requesting around precision breeding. Food Standards Scotland gave us an example—colleagues, correct me if I get this wrong, because it was a bit of a tongue twister at…”

“Does that programme team support the negotiations as well as the implementation?”

“What are you doing to build capacity in DEFRA, FSS, FSA? How many civil servants in the Department are assigned to supporting the negotiations and preparing to implement the agreement? If you do not have the figures with you, perhaps you could send them to us.”

“You do not own the negotiations, which are led by Nick Thomas-Symonds are they not? I know that there are rumours out of Brussels that there are internal divisions in the debate around the mandate for the negotiations on the EU side, and some talk about it going beyond what was in the common understanding. I know that …”

“Will you publish the assessments so that producers and businesses know how big the divergence is?”

“SPS is generally positive and potentially has massive positive implications for the economy. We do need to say that out loud sometimes, because this is a great achievement. It is timely that we are talking about this today, as the EU working group on the UK—or the European Council working group—is meeting as we speak t…”

“Thank you, Chair, and belated congratulations on your appointment, Minister.”

“You will do your modelling again and then that will help your design of the revised SFI scheme. Thank you.”

“My question is extremely brief, Chair. To clarify on viability, there was obviously the NAO information. Emily, are you saying that there will be new information on viability?”

“Broadly speaking then, you would prefer there not to be any further divergence during the period of the negotiations?”

“Chair, can I ask a quick question? It was your questions about governance at the beginning that piqued my interest. Am I right in saying that the FSA is responsible or accountable to Ministers? Is the FSS responsible to the Scottish Parliament as a non-ministerial agency?”

“What is the situation in Scotland?”

“It is interesting, because that is two or three times now, quite understandably, that you have said that we do not know the details of the agreement yet, but we are talking about it coming in in early 2027, which is round the corner, frankly, in policy terms. Are you worried that the timescales are too ambitious?”

“The public will expect standards to be as high as possible, and that should surely be one of the exemptions. Labelling did not really appear in the food strategy last year. We have diverged quite a bit on labelling policy. It is really important for the public to know where their food is from and how it is produced. Yo…”