Commons
Oral Questions
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
9 July 2026
Pig Farmers
A crucial way to support pig farmers is ensuring healthy pigs, and that requires strong biosecurity and stopping illegal meat imports. When I asked DEFRA about those imports, it said that data are now not available, but alarmingly, Dover Port Health Authority reported seizing 14.2 tonnes of illegal …
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 June 2026
2 contributions
Fly-tipping: Residential Areas
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) for bringing us this important debate. We have heard many contributions about the impact on local pride, sense of belonging and importantly mental health, but…
I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. We have heard great contributions from across the House today.
Let me turn to some of the figures, which speak for themselves. Councils in England dealt with 1.26 million incidents of fly-tipping in 2024-25. That was a 9% increase on the previous year,…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
16 June 2026
2 contributions
Draft Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Vickers. I thank the Minister for introducing the draft regulations to the Committee.
It is good to see the Government building on the progress made by the previous Conservative Government, who laid the foundation for digital waste t…
I am very proud of the previous Conservative Government passing the landmark Environment Act. We consulted and brought forward measures to tackle waste crime, and I am very pleased that the Labour Government have taken the baton forward and are enacting some of the measures that we started.
Sadly, …
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
15 June 2026
Topical Questions
Outrageously, today the Government have stripped Epping Forest district council of the sole local right to determine major planning applications. That means that my constituents will have major planning decisions taken by central Government and not by our local council. Epping Forest district is lar…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
11 June 2026
2 contributions
Transport Services: Epping Forest
14. What steps her Department is taking to improve transport services in Epping Forest constituency.
My constituents face many transport issues. We Central line users endure delays, overcrowding and graffiti. Meanwhile, residents in Waltham Abbey have no access to the tube at all and have been left with a limited bus network since Transport for London withdrew services. Young people are unable to g…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
9 June 2026
3 contributions
Draft Marine Licensing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment etc.) Order 2026
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I thank the Minister for explaining this statutory instrument. It is very appropriate that we are considering it on the day after World Oceans Day.
On our precious planet, we are blessed to have oceans and seas rich in biodiversity.…
It is good that you are carrying on with the good work.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
8 June 2026
Water Companies
Labour came into government promising major reform of England’s water sector, but progress so far has been slow. The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 was largely a rebadging of many Conservative reforms. During its passage, we tabled many sensible amendments, including ones to ringfence funding fro…
Commons
Oral Questions
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
4 June 2026
UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement
As more and more fishermen and fisherwomen in Scotland and across the UK are struggling to keep their businesses afloat due to soaring fuel costs, they are marking the one-year anniversary of the Government selling our fishing industry down the river in their negotiations with the EU. Twelve years o…
Commons
Proceedings
3 June 2026
South East Water: Disruption of Supply
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Herne Bay and Sandwich (Sir Roger Gale). I thank the Minister for her approach and engagement on this vital issue.
It is deeply regrettable that we are here yet again with unacceptable outages from Sou…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
3 June 2026
2 contributions
Draft Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2026
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I thank the Minister for bringing forward this important statutory instrument. At a time when the Government have imposed significant new costs and burdens on businesses via their damaging economic policies, His Majesty’s loyal Opp…
The Minister is talking about low risk and high risk, and I welcome her comments. Can she give categoric reassurances that the Department and all the enforcement agencies can actually flip to make sure that we can clamp down and change and classify something as high risk if it was classified as low …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 April 2026
Synthetic Chemicals
As shadow DEFRA Minister, I congratulate and thank the Chair of the Committee and his cross-party Environmental Audit Committee for this excellent and timely report. As he has said, PFAS—these forever chemicals—are hugely damaging to the environment and pose significant risks to human health, animal…
Commons
Debate
21 April 2026
Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment
We have heard a lot from Labour Members today about process, but will the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister please tell my constituents, the House and the country why on earth the Prime Minister appointed Peter Mandelson to be ambassador to the United States?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 March 2026
Coastal Erosion
I congratulate the hon. Member on her powerful contribution, and also congratulate the cross-party EFRA Committee on its thoughtful and thought-provoking report. Coastal communities are at the frontline of adverse weather events and the negative effects of climate change, and the report highlighted …
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 March 2026
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Craniocervical Instability
I thank the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for securing this important debate. I apologise, Ms Furniss, that I was not in the Chamber for the beginning of it; my shadow ministerial role in relation to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs meant that I had to be in the …
Commons
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
EU-UK Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement: Negotiations
Stakeholders have expressed alarm about the fact that the Government’s guidance for businesses on the UK-EU SPS agreement, published last week, has legislation in scope on the use of hormones, including bovine somatotrophin, in livestock. The use of growth-promoting hormones for livestock and of bov…
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
Student Loans
I have been contacted by many students in Epping Forest who are deeply concerned about their future debt and by many graduates who are worried about ballooning debt on these plan 2 loans. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Labour Government have an opportunity to step in and relieve the pressu…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Environmental Protection and Biodiversity
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate the hon. Member for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) on securing this important debate. We have heard many powerful contributions from across the Chamber.
As the Member of Parliament for Epping Forest, I re…
Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966
I declare a professional and personal interest as a veterinary surgeon and a fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. I welcome the fact that the Government have launched a consultation to reform the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966. This necessary and long-overdue reform can deliver signific…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
4 February 2026
Engagements
Q8. For months, our communities in Epping have been deeply distressed by the Bell hotel reopening as an asylum hotel. My thoughts remain with the victims of the sexual assaults, including the 14-year-old Epping schoolgirl whose trauma was compounded by the mistaken release of the offender from priso…
Commons
Proceedings
22 January 2026
2 contributions
Agricultural Sector: Import Standards
I start by thanking the hon. Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Sam Carling) for securing this debate and opening it so excellently. It has offered Members from across the House the opportunity to discuss an issue that is central to our national interests and our values. The speeches we have hear…
I thank my hon. Friend for his very kind intervention. He proudly stands up for that important institution, which I know the Minister has visited, as has the Minister in the other place. It is important that, cross-party, we support something that is so critical to our national security.
As we have…
Commons
Debate
22 January 2026
2 contributions
Fishing Industry
I congratulate my friend the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), the Chair of the EFRA Select Committee, on securing this vital debate. I have a huge amount of respect for him, given his expertise in, and dedication to, these and other important areas.
We have heard many cont…
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. When requests like this come in, we have to take a very logical view across the United Kingdom and the UK Government have to be strong in their deliberations, because we have to make sure that our waters are protected.
The Leader of the Opposition expli…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
Water (Special Measures) Act 2025: Enforcement
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan, and to speak in this important debate on the enforcement of the Water (Special Measures) Act. I thank the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) for securing this debate and for his opening remarks. We have hea…
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 January 2026
Sale of Fireworks
My hon. Friend is making a powerful statement about the impact on animals. I thank the petitioners in Epping Forest who have signed the petition, including the Redwings Horse Sanctuary, which triggered this debate and has its Ada Cole stables in my constituency. As a veterinary surgeon, sadly I have…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 January 2026
2 contributions
Primary Care in Epping Forest: House Building Targets
11. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Government’s house building targets on the availability of primary care services in Epping Forest constituency.
As my constituency neighbour, the Health Secretary will be aware that Chigwell parish has no GP surgery of its own, requiring many of my constituents to travel to his constituency to access primary care. Given the Government’s top-down housing targets, what assurances can the Health Secretary provid…
Commons
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Water Supplies: East Grinstead
May I, from this side of the House, offer my sincere condolences to the Minister and her family for their sad loss?
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting the urgent question from my hon. Friend the Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies). The shortage of water supplies in Sussex and Kent…