Contributions
1,483 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDWater Companies: PollutionMy noble friend is absolutely right to raise this. One of the problems is that water coming off roofs and driveways—absolutely clean water—goes into the same sewerage system. To…02 Nov 2022HANSARDWater Companies: PollutionI am very pleased to make the noble Baroness’s day by saying that we have increased a thousandfold, from £250,000 to £250 million, the upper limit on which water companies can be…02 Nov 2022HANSARDWater Companies: PollutionMy noble friend raises a very important point. The chalk streams strategy, written by Charles Rangeley-Wilson, whom I suspect was my noble friend’s constituent, is a brilliant…02 Nov 2022HANSARDWater Companies: PollutionWe are seeing precisely that. There has been a £56 billion investment in infrastructure, the biggest investment in real terms that the industry has ever seen. Further to the…02 Nov 2022HANSARDWater Companies: PollutionThe noble Baroness raises a very severe problem. We rightly hold water companies to account, but they are only part of the problem. Phosphates from the poultry industry have…02 Nov 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsWe will be publishing these targets and they will be very much linked to the areas we consulted on: halting the decline of species by 2030; reducing exposure to PM2.5, benefiting…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsMy Lords, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement I laid on 28 October, we will continue to work at pace to lay draft statutory instruments as soon as practicable. Our…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsThe Dasgupta review was extraordinary in so many ways: first, because it was the first piece of work on the economics of biodiversity commissioned by a finance department in any…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsOne reason why we will be publishing these targets later than we would have liked, and later than the Act required, is that we had over 180,000 responses to our consultation. It…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsMy Lords, I think there is a collective clunk of realisation of what it would actually take to replace that. That legislation was created for an environment that goes from the…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsEvery department could do with more resources. As I said at the beginning, the Government regret not being able to hit this target. Perhaps we were overambitious in thinking it…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsAs the noble Duke knows, the Environment Act places several duties on government and water companies to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows. The Government have now…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsI would say to the noble Viscount the words “over pay and grade”, but I do appreciate the point he makes.31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsI am grateful to my noble friend for his kind words. I share his and other noble Lords’ disappointment that we have not been able to fulfil the perhaps over-ambitious target date…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsI entirely accept that point. I would be treating your Lordships with disrespect if I did not mention the elephant in the room: a bit of mid-air turbulence in recent weeks, which…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsThat would be an absolutely extraordinary thing to do. The United Kingdom is a global leader on the environment. We are one of the leaders of the High Ambition Coalition, which is…31 Oct 2022HANSARDEnvironmental TargetsNo, that is not what we are saying at all. Most of the protections we have are written into law in the Climate Change Act, the Environment Act and many other provisions that no…31 Oct 2022HANSARDGrowth Plan 2022I firmly believe that the two are not mutually exclusive. I was talking to an organisation called the Nature Friendly Farming Network, which, on one farm, is producing more food…25 Oct 2022HANSARDGrowth Plan 2022The noble Lord is absolutely correct. Reputable businesses—whether they are in farming, food production or any other sector—like good regulation because it means that they are not…25 Oct 2022HANSARDGrowth Plan 2022The greatest crisis in the food industry, indeed in the economy, in recent years has been Covid. What we managed to prove through that was that the supply chain of food to people…25 Oct 2022