Lords
Proceedings
8 June 2026
8 contributions
South East Water: Disruption of Supply
The Government established the Water Delivery Taskforce last spring to ensure that we have sufficient water supplies and wastewater capacity to support the Government’s ambitions and the country as a whole. Having sufficient water supply is absolutely critical for the country, and is something that …
I do not think there is anybody in this House who would disagree that the water industry needs a serious shake-up. That is one reason why we brought in, as a priority, the Water (Special Measures) Bill when we came into power in the previous Session, and it is why a priority for this Session is the …
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
3 June 2026
11 contributions
Access to Nature Green Paper
My Lords, the Government recognise the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and well-being. We are committed to improving responsible access to nature, and this year we launched the first of our nine new national river walks, the Mersey Valley Way in the north-west of E…
The noble Baroness is absolutely right: one of the things that it is really important for us to do as a Government is get children out into nature. We know that, if you get out in nature at a young age, you are more likely to continue to do so during your life, and we know how good it is for people’…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
18 May 2026
13 contributions
EU-UK SPS Agreement: Food-related Standards
My Lords, as part of the SPS agreement, the EU has accepted that there will need to be a number of areas where we need to retain our own rules. The details of those are subject to negotiation, but we have been clear about the importance of being able to support the use of new and innovative technolo…
Of course, while the negotiations are ongoing—there are regular meetings, and it is reaching an intensive phase—I am afraid I cannot give any detail at all. However, as I said before, as a sovereign country we need to choose to align where it is in our national interest, but at the same time we need…
+11 more contributions in this session
Lords
Statutory Instrument
27 April 2026
3 contributions
Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) (England) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I declare an interest as I am in receipt of delinked payments. This instrument sets the reductions that will apply to delinked payments in England for the years 2026 and 2027. In doing so, it delivers our commitment to phase out these subsidies by the end of the seven-year agricultural tra…
My Lords, I first draw the House’s attention to my registered interests as a farmer and landowner who is also in receipt of delinked and other government payments. I am very grateful to the Government Chief Whip for moving this debate to a civilised time this evening; I think that is much appreciate…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
27 April 2026
3 contributions
Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2026
My Lords, these regulations were laid in draft before the House on 19 March 2026. They reflect the Government’s commitment to securing strong outcomes for nature recovery while supporting sustainable economic growth, as outlined in the Corry review. The regulations are a practical example of that ap…
I thank the Minister for presenting this statutory instrument with her usual clarity and purpose as we race towards the end of this Session. Everyone should be able to enjoy our natural environment. We have a duty to ensure that future generations inherit a world defined by biodiversity, not decline…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
11 contributions
Sustainable Farming Incentive: Flood Prevention and Drought Resilience
My Lords, I welcome that Answer and the information. I also welcome the department’s recently published independent report on flourishing uplands, which highlights graphically the tensions between farmers and environmentalists. It makes no economic sense at all for productive farmland to be flooded …
My Lords, will the Government consider adopting the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management’s recommendation requiring large corporates to disclose climate-related and nature-related risks in their supply chains, and to align that with the UK’s sustainability disclosure requireme…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
22 April 2026
11 contributions
Plastic Pollution Reduction
I thank the Minister very much—a lot of that is very encouraging, but at the moment only 9% of plastic waste is ever recycled. The majority is incinerated, landfilled or exported to other countries with weak regulation. The industry treats the plastic packaging tax as a routine cost. So can the Mini…
My Lords, is the Minister aware that eight out of 10 of the top councils for recycling in England are led by the Liberal Democrats? Would it surprise her to learn that Green-led councils are not even in the top 20? Mid Suffolk, the Greens’ only majority council, comes in at 162, and when they contro…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
11 contributions
Farming Road Map
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her Answer. The land use framework sets out a strategic vision for how land can deliver for food, climate and nature. In that respect, will the farming road map set out a clear, multi-year funding trajectory and timetable for the implementation of E…
My Lords, will the Government ensure, as urged by the National Trust, that the Farming and Food Partnership Board includes at least one environmental landowner or NGO, so that the road map, when published, will have been shaped by a wide range of stakeholders in farming policy and will deliver for p…
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
9 contributions
Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling
I thank the Minister for that response. She will know that bottom trawling is a hugely destructive fishing practice that causes widespread, severe and often irreversible environmental damage to our marine ecosystems. I would like to push the Minister a bit more on the response to the consultation; i…
Is the Minister confident that the Government can justify calling these marine protected areas when bottom trawling is still permitted in 90% of them, resulting in 20,000 hours of suspected bottom trawl fishing last year? An outright ban would mean that there is no need to monitor that. We are still…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
13 April 2026
4 contributions
Conservation of Habitats and Species (Offshore Wind) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2026
My Lords, these regulations were laid before the House on 26 February.
This Government are committed to delivering the clean power mission, which is central to strengthening the UK’s energy security, lowering household energy bills and driving long term economic growth. Crucially, clean power is on…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for setting out the statutory instrument. There is no doubt that climate change is an existential threat that demands urgent and transformative action. The soaring temperatures, floods and rising sea levels that we see are not distant warnings but present realities aff…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
18 March 2026
9 contributions
Trail-hunting
I thank the Minister for her response and I hope that the consultation will be a fair one. The Hunting Act was the result of 700 hours of debate, and it was what hunting opponents wanted. Hunts adapted and adopted trail-hunting, which is what supporters of the ban said that they should do. A recent …
My Lords, my family, on our farm, has not allowed fox-hunting across that land for well over 40 years. However, as a student, I occasionally used to run cross-country with a piece of rope and a scented rag, and was pursued by hounds. I can assure the House that no animals were harmed in that process…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
9 contributions
Sustainable Farming Incentive: Small Farms
I thank the Minister for her reply. Given that farm units of the size that she has mentioned are generally viewed as uneconomic and unviable in purely agricultural terms, I ask, if I may, two questions. First, given that the Government used 140 hectares as the size of the average family farm when ma…
My Lords, how will the Government ensure that the definition of a small farm within the SFI recognises the contribution of smaller, diversified family farms to nature recovery and local food production? How will the Government avoid favouring larger land holdings that may find it easier to access th…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
10 contributions
PFAS
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her response. PFAS are considered to be harmful to the environment, and by the time we collect enough evidence that a substance is harmful, it is too late—it is prevalent in the environment and costly to clean up, if that is even possible. Consideri…
My Lords, will the Minister look carefully to the forthcoming water Bill and the conclusions and recommendations of the Cunliffe report as to how we can remove these very dangerous products from our water courses, our rivers and the sea?
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
9 contributions
British Farming: Competitiveness
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply. UK food self-sufficiency has fallen below 65%. Britain increasingly relies on volatile international markets while holding its own farmers to higher standards than most of our trading partners. The Batters review was unequivocal that food securi…
My Lords, the way to help with this significant issue would be the Government achieving their own manifesto promise of getting at least 50% of food supply to the public sector produced by British food producers. Can the Minister share with us what is preventing the Government achieving that with som…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
9 contributions
Forest-Risk Commodities
My Lords, the national security assessment, which the Government still refuse to publish in full, has been leaked in full to ITV News. It states that nature loss, including deforestation, is already slowing UK growth and productivity and could leave annual GDP 12% lower by 2030 than it would otherwi…
My Lords, I imagine that the Minister is aware that the Government have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Indonesia, which is a substantial producer of palm oil and palm oil products. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that Indonesian palm oil products exported …
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
23 February 2026
11 contributions
Global Biodiversity Loss and National Security
My Lords, a nature security assessment was initially withheld and then only partially released following an FoI request. Given the gravity of its findings for biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and our future national security, will the Government now publish the report in full? What policy respo…
Does the Minister agree that farmers are probably best placed to regard the future of nature and to safeguard our biosecurity and ecosystem? Will she carefully consider the damage that could be done, particularly to livestock farmers, from some of the proposals in the animal welfare strategy, which …
+9 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
9 contributions
Changing Weather Patterns and Floods
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her Answer, which clearly illustrates that the Government see the urgent nature of climate change mitigations. On changing weather patterns, which are characterised by persistent rain during the winter period and drought during the summer period, wh…
My Lords, it is not just the question of flooding. The increased rainfall will lead to increased run-offs and will put increased pressure on combined sewage systems, which will lead to excess pollution being poured into our seas and rivers, which is already at an unacceptably high level. This is a p…
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
10 contributions
Animal Welfare Strategy: Rural Communities
My Lords, Hunter by name, but not by nature. I am from the countryside and remain so. I startled my community by giving up meat decades ago, having read an early, in-depth investigation into food production. Standards have been greatly raised since then, and I applaud the Government in taking these …
My Lords, has the Minister considered the future of foxhounds if trail hunting is to be banned? This a very real concern of those who live in the countryside.
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
10 contributions
Construction Industry: Timber
My Lords, this country imports 73% of the timber we need for construction, despite having one of the best climates in the world for growing softwoods. Natural England and the Forestry Commission have jointly expressed dismay that only 10% of our tree-planting over the last 10 years has been a produc…
My Lords, can my noble friend confirm that there is distinct reticence among the very big housebuilders to use anything that is not bricks and cement? What are the Government doing to encourage more prefabricated buildings with timber, as the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra mentioned, so that the cost o…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
29 January 2026
12 contributions
Water Companies: Fines
My Lords, it is shameful that water companies, with nearly 1,200 criminal convictions, are permitted to negotiate the amount and timing of fines. Some will not pay the headline-grabbing fines announced in 2024 until 2030, while others will not pay any of the announced fines. No statement to that eff…
Can the Minister say whether the directors are paying these fines, as opposed to the consumers, and if not, why not?
+10 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
28 January 2026
9 contributions
Yorkshire: Sustainable Water Management Solutions
I thank the Minister for her response. Noble Lords will be aware of the increased frequency and severity of flood events across the UK in recent years. Communities I serve in South Yorkshire are up to one-third more likely to experience flooding than the national average. Public First estimated last…
My Lords, does the Minister agree—
+7 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
26 January 2026
8 contributions
Water White Paper
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their interest and their questions on the water White Paper, which we published and laid in Parliament on 20 January. The White Paper outlines how we will work together with water companies, investors, communities and the environment to transform our water system fo…
I thank the noble Duke for his broad support for the White Paper. He has been a champion of improving the situation with our water systems.
He asked about the new regulator. We intend to make formal appointments to the board of the new water regulator at the earliest opportunity. We want to get cra…
+6 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
8 contributions
Large-scale Waste Crime
My Lords, organised waste crime is out of control, and there seems to be a reluctance to expose its true scale. In the five weeks since the Environment and Climate Change Committee’s report, more illegal waste sites were discovered than were previously known to the Environment Agency. Will the Minis…
My Lords, fly-tipping is a blight to farmers across the country, with over 80% reporting to the Environment Agency that they are impacted by small-scale tipping and over 20% by large-scale offences. Ultimate responsibility lies not only with criminals but with householders who do not pay adequately …
+6 more contributions in this session