Lords
Committee Stage
7 July 2026
Justification Decision (Generation of Power by the RR SMR) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for this statutory instrument following the Government’s consultation on the application for the Rolls-Royce small modular reactor. The decision obviously confirms that the small modular reactor is justified in principle, and we support that. This is an encour…
Lords
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Farming Road Map and Profitability Review
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Statement, the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, for her excellent review on farming profitability, and my noble friend Lady Rock, who is in her place, for the Rock report, which also seems to have been carefully read by the Government. I draw the House’s attention…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Food Security
My Lords, I refer the House to my registered interests as a farmer and landowner. Farming in England is struggling, with globally high employment and environmental costs, while selling at prices set in international commodity markets by lower-cost regions of the world. Despite the dedication of our …
Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Waste Management Carriers: Regulation
My Lords, these new powers for the EA have been described by the Government as “police-style powers”. Given that this is about enforcing the law and the EA has failed to do so, has the Minister considered that the police themselves would be more effective in enforcement if they were given that respo…
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2026
Hares: Close Season
My Lords, hare populations vary dramatically around our country, and the breeding season can be for most of the year. Can the Minister clarify that she will ensure that hares can still be controlled where appropriate? I declare an interest as the owner of land where hare populations need encourageme…
Lords
Proceedings
23 June 2026
Legal Protections for Ancient Trees
My Lords, there is a greater problem in incentivising land managers to plant enough of the right trees to protect our watercourses, promote nature recovery, sequester carbon and increase our timber self-sufficiency from the current 27%. Properly planned planting that complies with UK forestry standa…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
23 June 2026
Carbon Budget Order 2026
My Lords, I will address carbon pricing in the UK, its unfortunate consequences for policy-making, and its devastating results for the public purse and the future of our economy. This confusion is embedded in these instruments, so I speak in support of my noble friend’s amendment. I refer the House …
Lords
Proceedings
18 June 2026
2 contributions
Livestock Grazing on Dartmoor National Park
I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and declare my interests as a commons owner and non-grazing grazier on Dartmoor.
My Lords, the latest ELMS agreements require a 50% reduction in grazing effort on the moor to be compliant, and that follows a historic 50% reduction. So I believe that the 75% figure is correct if farmers want to access the funds available. Natural England may not have been targeting the ponies on …
Lords
Proceedings
17 June 2026
Thames Water
My Lords, I thank the Minister for answering on this Statement in your Lordships’ House. Thames Water has scandalised our country while asking its customers to pay more for less. For the sake of customers and taxpayers, we now need stability, not uncertainty. This Statement has not announced any cha…
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Environment Act 2021 Targets
My Lords, I refer the House to my registered interests as a farmer and landowner. When in government, we passed the Environment Act, but Governments alone cannot fund all nature restoration. What steps are being taken within Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Minister’s department to en…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 June 2026
Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing forward these regulations. I refer the Grand Committee to my interest as a landowner. To confirm my noble friend Lady McIntosh’s comments, I am a victim of illegal waste disposal on a daily basis. I have also experienced a licenced waste haulier illegally …
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
World Ocean Day
My Lords, it is all very well that the Government are celebrating World Ocean Day and have passed the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Act, but this Government have surrendered 40% of our national fishing rights for the next 12 years to the EU. French vessels are the largest bottom trawlers…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
27 April 2026
3 contributions
Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) (England) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I would like to support my noble friend and challenge the Government on how they are going to spend the money they are going to allocate. While I can understand the wish to have a transition, it is right that it has to be done at a sensible pace. The really big disappointment of the farmin…
My Lords, my maiden speech in 2019 was on the impact of Brexit on food and agricultural produce, with a focus consistent with my interests as a Devon farmer on the Devon cream tea. It is fitting that my final words are on matters agricultural and the delinked payments regulations—the final decouplin…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Committee Stage
27 April 2026
Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2026
My Lords, I thank noble Lords both for making some important points about the legislation before us and for contributing to the debate.
As I set out earlier, these regulations are designed to modernise an important regulatory framework so that it works effectively for the UK, supports legitimate tr…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 April 2026
Plastic Pollution Reduction
I am sure the noble Lord is aware that plastic waste exports are subject to pretty strict rules that are set out in existing legislation, but it is important that we continue to review this because we need to make sure that we improve the way we manage our waste and our recycling. Our focus is on en…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Farming Road Map
One of the things we are actively working on at the moment is how to implement many of the recommendations that the farming profitability review by the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, suggested. We have brought some things in, and it is really important that we look at her clear, independent advice. I…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling
I am sure the noble Lord will not be surprised to hear that I am not able to divulge any of the detail of the current negotiations on the EU reset. Those of us who are involved in that reset process are extremely aware of the sensitivities around fishing, the type of fishing and the fishing gear bei…
Lords
Oral Questions
18 March 2026
Trail-hunting
It is also important to stress that, if there is a law, people should obey it.
Lords
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Sustainable Farming Incentive: Small Farms
The Farming Minister has spent a long time looking at the different options to try to target the types of farm and types of productivity that she wants to increase. The noble Lord is absolutely correct that the management payment has been removed. That was done to increase the amount of budget that …
Lords
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
PFAS
The simple answer is that we are carrying out a lot of stakeholder engagement. We are working very closely with industry and business. As I said, the textiles industry is moving that way voluntarily. We need to work with other sections of industry in the private sector to encourage them to do so, be…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 March 2026
British Farming: Competitiveness
It is important to say that the UK values its relationship with the Mercosur countries and we are committed to identifying ways to continue to strengthen our trade relations. We are not currently negotiating a free trade agreement with Mercosur, but our trade strategy is clear that we will consider …
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
Forest-Risk Commodities
We have ambitious tree-planting proposals, including planting three new national forests—one has already begun and two are well on the way—because it is important that we increase tree coverage. We are also looking at how we can better protect the forests we already have, particularly our ancient wo…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 February 2026
Global Biodiversity Loss and National Security
I thank the noble Lord for mentioning the TNFD, because it is very important. We are continuing to fund the Green Finance Institute to progress market capacity building and uptake through the TNFD UK consultation group. That is evolving to include a pilot programme on integrated nature transition pl…