Again, I do not wish to pre-empt the review that is taking place. We are looking at what the reasons are. The growth has occurred over the last three to four years. That might well be to do with the situation of instability in places such as Syria and Afghanistan, but use of that route has increased…
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 271 and 272. In response to the Minister, one way of quickening these procedures, and getting rid of the risk of a Member speaking for a long time while withdrawing an amendment, is actually for the Government to accept a few of the amendments. Altogether, I t…
I am sorry, I will not take up the time of the House, but there is a precedent in this House, in that the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, during the passage of the climate change Act in 2006, at one point threw his papers away and said not quite “Damn it”, but that he was going to agree to this one, despit…
My Lords, this is the first time I have had the opportunity to congratulate the Minister on surviving the Defra ministerial massacre. I am absolutely delighted and hope she enjoins all her female colleagues in her attempts to improve the environment.
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 178, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, and indeed the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, for their support. This amendment concerns local plans. As we all know, when it comes to planning, local plans are really the infrastructure, the plumbin…
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 185J, which is on the GDPR, the general data protection regulation, which I am sure we all have to deal with on the internet every day when we make an inquiry on anything. It is around the issue of transparency versus data regulation. As we have talked about be…
I remind the Committee that I am chair of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Nature Partnership, but I am also a director of Wessex Development and Investments Limited, a development company, so I am on both sides of planning and nature issues.
This is a probing amendment but quite a specific…
My Lords, I will be very brief. To be honest, the enforcement regime is not the right balance at the moment that the Minister suggested. I think there is a real concern about the confidence that those that receive planning permissions apply them properly, and that those who do not feel that they are…
My Lords, I want to make two brief points. I was delighted to add my name to the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, because it includes community gardens and allotments.
My first point is that I agree about allotments. Down in Cornwall, I have been involved in growing schemes,…
My Lords, I am sorry, but the past does matter. It is incredible to me that the party in opposition filled up 400 hotels with asylum seekers, did not think ahead about these issues and then complains about it once the horse has bolted. That is pretty shameful and I think the culpability is on my rig…
That was a somewhat desperate contribution—seriously so.
My Lords, as I have said, the discussions are only just beginning, and we will set out more details, including with respect to our other trade obligations. I assure the noble Lord that we will do everything we can to remove a lot of the red tape that was introduced, quite unnecessarily, when we left…
My Lords, like many Members in the Committee, when I read the list in my noble friend’s Amendment 77 I was absolutely incredulous that we are in the position where planning permissions still have to be given for that scale of change to our electricity distribution system. It is incredible. I hope th…
Following on from the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, can the Minister give us some idea of a timetable for this, given that there is total unanimity that we are not in a sensible position and we need growth and to move this whole proposition forward? The consultation is about to end. Will we ge…
My Lords, I have not heard many Front-Bench Statements from the Opposition as sad, inaccurate and negative as the one that we have heard this evening. I find it incredible. I hear no solutions whatever. It is a symptom of a party that has completely lost its way and feels under threat from another p…
I am going to ask the question. Can we find a way to define 30 by 30 land that includes ELMS, for instance, that makes that target attainable? At the moment, I believe it is impossible.
My Lords, like my noble friend, I was rather surprised by the tone of the Official Opposition, given the billions of pounds wasted on HS2 just to provide a shuttle—a high-speed shuttle, admittedly—between a north London suburb and Birmingham. What a waste of time and national resource that was.
I v…
As the noble Lord is aware, I will be taking forward Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and I very much look forward to working with the House on that part of it. I understand that amendments are being discussed at present, and I am sure that we will see those in due course.
My Lords, I declare my interests as a director of a family company that holds a little farmland and has occasionally done small-scale development. I am also the recipient of three party wall notices in the past three years.
We all recognise the need for more homes. While the Bill aims to speed up t…
My Lords, no assessment has been made by the Government, as responsibility for operational matters on inland waterways rests with the relevant navigation authority. This includes dealing with derelict or sunken boats and their removal, and any risk to the environment or to navigation. Navigation aut…
My Lords, the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency, the two principal navigation authorities, publish guidance on licensing and registration, and ownership is traced via these licensing and registration systems. Navigation authorities work hard to ensure that licence evasion rates are …
My Lords, the Government are committed to decarbonising transport in support of our national missions to kick-start economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower, and public transport must of course play its part. The Department for Transport is overhauling public transport services and…
I thank the noble Lord for his question. As he will be aware, the previous Government consulted on an end date for the sale of diesel buses back in spring 2022. As he referred to, we are currently legislating in the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill to accelerate bus decarbonisation. We will be placing a re…
My Lords, it is important that, as we go forward with our ambitious target to build 1.5 million homes, we take care of the environment at the same time. Natural England’s role in that, which the noble Lord points to, is key in developing the plans that will protect nature as we build those homes. I …
My Lords, the Government have a key meeting coming up with the European Union and, as part of the trade and co-operation agreement, there is, next year, a revision of the energy relationship. With regard to the resilience of our national electricity and energy systems, what do the Government expect …
My Lords, I will speak in favour of this order. I thank the Minister for outlining its purpose.
The Liberal Democrats have always championed renewable energy. For too long, this country has suffered from the failures of the previous Conservative Government to invest in clean power and to insulate o…
We are saying that we want to make sure that we have consent in the local community and robust oversight, and that the order does not undermine democratic principles. That is what we are trying to do, and we also do not want to disregard the voices of local communities. That is the essence of our th…
What lessons has the Minister’s department learned from looking at our competitors, particularly in Europe, which seems to manage this aspect of its energy markets rather better? What lessons have we learned from across the channel?
The noble Lord is absolutely right to point out issues in relation to water, water leakages and the performance of water companies. He will know that the Government are engaged in considerable discussions about the future of the industry. I have noted that the Committee on Climate Change in its repo…