Speeches by Roca.

“Sarah, could I pick up on the budget issue? Geoff, before coming here I was looking—you have had a flat budget settlement this year, a flat budget settlement from the Scottish Government the year before and a flat budget settlement the year before that and the year before that. Are you into your fourth year of flat cas…”

“I am just trying to think. We will not automatically be realigning with the EU thresholds on this. It depends on that risk assessment.”

“You have good collaboration with industry on these points. There are concerns about the new EU thresholds around mycotoxin contamination levels, particularly with regard to oat producers. I have oat producers in my county, Cheshire. I know that in Scotland it is a big issue as well. What were the findings from your joi…”

“There has been a degree of divergence since we left the European Union, particularly around inputs, feed additives, pesticide residues and toxin levels in food and animal feed. What do you both anticipate some of the challenges will be as we realign UK regulations?”

“In a remarkable policy environment that is changing all the time, you are facing real-terms cuts.”

“Thank you, that will reassure people. On that final point, it is a great target to halve pollution by 2030, and we have seen plans involving nearly £10 billion worth of investment which will help us get there. I do not mean to be negative, but I suppose there is a degree of cynicism from us here because getting to that…”

“I suppose the public will want reassurance that, in the process of streamlining and making those regulations coherent in the way the Commission recommends, we do not have any slippage in targets, they do not become less ambitious, and that the OEP is involved as well in helping to frame them.”

“Moving on, the Commission’s reports also called for a form of self-monitoring by water companies, which we found particularly worrying. Our report specifically called for clearer standards, clearer monitoring, and better links with citizen scientists; some amazing scientists among the public in Windermere, Bournemouth …”

“When you done that comparative analysis between our report and the Cunliffe report, and where Cunliffe was silent on this and we were not, you were minded to look at what we have proposed in a positive light?”

“I just want to tangentially shoehorn in a constituency matter. In my constituency we have Poynton Pool, which is classed as a reservoir under the Reservoirs Act. It has not flooded in 200 years but an inspection means that there are works required to make it safe. The Act understandably has very stringent timelines, bu…”

“Minister, you mentioned that you would look at some previous sessions where we have heard about horrendous pollution issues in which the water industry have been involved. Many of our constituents are really concerned about the ongoing issues of pollution in our waterways and in our rivers. The Commission called for re…”

“It has been a long afternoon, but I should say from the start that I genuinely believe that the motivation of all of us is the national interest of the United Kingdom. Whatever differences of opinion there might be, I think it is important that we try to avoid hyperbole in this matter and think coolly and calmly about …”

“T8. In Macclesfield we are lucky to have a thriving life sciences sector. At AstraZeneca, we have 5,000 people employed in well-paid jobs across the pharmaceutical value chain. What are the Treasury and the Government doing to ensure that we take advantage of the innovation we produce here in the UK for the benefit of …”

“I believe that the hon. Member has had quite a lot of turns today, and I have been waiting a long time without intervening, so I will proceed. If we allowed a vacuum to be created, it would be filled by China or others in a region that is vital to our security. I will come back to China in a moment, because what China …”

“I will not. I experienced the right hon. Gentleman defending the hereditary principle last week, and I do not think I have the strength in me this week to listen to another argument. The final test was on costs and obligations. Again, Ministers have talked powerfully about the deal being less than 0.2% of the defence b…”

“No, I am afraid that I will not. In closing, I believe that the three tests have been met: the treaty meets our national security requirements, it has the backing of our allies, and it comes at a reasonable cost. It would be very dangerous for us to dither or delay any longer in view of the potential threat to that bas…”

“I thank the hon. Member for raising that important aspect. We should all be honest that, as was put powerfully by my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb), our country’s history with the Chagossians has been very poor—if we look at some of the diplomatic cables from the 1960s, we see that disgraceful language…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Thank God.”

“Q10. I com-mend the Prime Minister on his work to tackle the arbitrary detention of British citizens abroad and warmly welcome the creation of a special envoy. He will know of the anguish of the families of Jimmy Lai, Ryan Cornelius, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Jagtar Singh Johal and others. Can the Prime Minister tell us when…”