Contributions
1,483 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Herbert for his contributions to today’s proceedings and earlier debates on the Bill. I have previously addressed at length a number of the…13 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsThere is a threshold for access to the scheme, but it is designed to ensure that we are reaching as many small farmers as possible. As I said earlier, many do not receive any…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsI am grateful to my noble friend for the chance to clarify my remarks made to her last month with regard to the Tenant Farmers Association. The TFA provides a constructive…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsI am grateful to the noble Baroness for allowing me the opportunity to say: yes, precisely. We monitor farm incomes carefully and have data going back many years. The current area…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsMy Lords, I declare my farming interests as set out in the register. We will reinvest money saved by reducing direct payments—initially applying smaller reductions for farmers…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsThe noble Lord is absolutely right to raise this. At Defra, we chair the small abattoirs working group, which brings together industry representatives. I recently visited a…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsI say to the noble Lord and the creators of that delicious cheese that there is no reduction in support. We have ring-fenced the amount of money that goes into the basic payments…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsThe right reverend Prelate is absolutely right to raise this. I speak with some experience, as a regular victim of such crime. Like everyone, I would like to see greater measures…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsThe county farm structure is very attractive to me and my fellow Ministers, and there are certainly discussions on trying to expand it. We are also trying to make sure that those…09 Dec 2021HANSARDFuture Farming Programme: Small FarmsI am grateful to my noble friend. We are working really hard to resolve some issues that predate the changes that we are making. Countryside Stewardship, for example, has had this…09 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]I am grateful to noble Lords for the opportunity to discuss and explain the interaction of the Bill, and the animal sentience committee, with important policy matters related to…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]I will make sure that every single person who applies for the committee has the necessary expertise, whatever background they come from. We will be looking for a range of people,…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]I hope I can reassure my noble friend that science and good scientific evidence is at the heart of decision-making and that is why we need the right advice for Ministers—so, yes.…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]That is good to know. I am very grateful. However, I differ from him entirely if he thinks—which I do not think he really does—that the Government, of whom I am proud to be part,…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]My Lords, it has been a fascinating debate. I do not want to detain the House, but I was very entertained by my noble friend Lord Moylan’s trips down the gradations of sentience…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]No, I do not include the noble Lord, Lord Robathan. Both Houses lack the kind of expert rigour that we need in decision-making. I thank my noble friend Lord Moylan for his…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]I thank your Lordships for amendments, and I hope that I can provide some reassurance on the points made. I start with Amendment 9, in the name of my noble friend Lord Ridley,…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]Let us deal with the second question first, then I will see if I can remember the first. A future Government can bring in legislation, if they have a big enough majority to get it…06 Dec 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL]If, as my noble friend suggests, we put details in the Bill that incorporated the types of people who had to be on the committee, and then if, for example, someone were off sick…06 Dec 2021