Contributions
1,571 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandMy Lords, the UK has a resilient food supply chain. The preparations we were required to make in the event of a no-deal exit from the EU ensured that the UK made preparations that…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandThe noble Lord makes an important point. The department that I am representing is working closely with the Home Office to ensure we have the labour we need to pick and collect the…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandMy Lords, I am aware of the study the noble Lord cites, but I do not pretend to be an expert in this area. The Government’s view is that the proposed policy to inhibit, for…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandMy Lords, I first acknowledge the work that went into that report. It was a brilliant piece of work and I am grateful to the team behind it, not least Mr Dimbleby. I hope, as I…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandThe noble Baroness is right that there has been year-on-year food price inflation, with rises of 6.7% in April, up from 5.9% in March. She mentioned supermarkets, and Defra has…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandThere has been a lot of talk about self-sufficiency, so I looked into this to see what changes there have been in recent years. We have a high degree of food security in the UK:…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandI understand, and the Government accept, the data limitations in monitoring food security. From April 2021, we introduced a set of questions to the Family Resources Survey to…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandI thank the noble Lord for his comments, and he is right: tackling poverty in all forms is a key priority for this and any Government. The Chancellor recently announced a new £15…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandMy Lords, food prices are driven by many factors, including agricultural and manufacturing costs. We take food insecurity seriously, monitoring household spending on food closely…07 Jun 2022HANSARDFood Insecurity: EnglandMy noble friend makes a good point, and I refer him to my previous answer.07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceMy Lords, we have given £74 million to support the Ukrainian Government’s day-to-day spending. We have given a £100 million three-year package to reform energy supply and to…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceMy Lords, alongside our allies and partners, we are supporting Ukraine to defend itself against Russia. We have committed £1.3 billion so far in military support for Ukraine. As…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceMy Lords, it certainly is the case that Russia, and in particular Vladimir Putin, has used hunger as one of the weapons in his war against Ukraine, with effects not just for…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceOn the second point, I am afraid I cannot answer; it is not for me to discuss future policy in relation to sanctions. However, there have been a number of assessments of the…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceMy Lords, the UK position has not changed. We have been providing support continuously since the beginning of this grim episode. I think it is true to say that we are the second…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceI believe that the EU and the UK are completely aligned on this issue. Yesterday, the Prime Minister spoke to President Zelensky, and freeing up Ukraine’s grain supplies was top…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceMy Lords, I acknowledge that I did not directly answer my noble friend’s question, but that is partly because it is very hard to answer. There are any number of international…07 Jun 2022HANSARDUkraine: International ConferenceMy Lords, the UK Government have been at the heart of the international response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We have played a prominent part in international…07 Jun 2022HANSARDInternational Development StrategyThe noble Lord is right that the UK is currently doing all it can to encourage donor countries to increase the finance they make available for climate change and nature, with some…06 Jun 2022HANSARDInternational Development StrategyAll the allocations will be published in due course, but I can tell the noble Lord that a very large percentage of Commonwealth members are small island developing states. We…06 Jun 2022