My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply. Notwithstanding the work that the Government have done on this and the plans that they have put in place, the Office for Environmental Protection has concerns. It reported back in January:
“Government needs to speed up and scale up its efforts …
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the answers he has given so far. I want to ask a question about service personnel retention; I declare an interest as the father of a soldier. The defence investment plan primarily addresses equipment, procurement and investment in research. However, one of the gre…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, to stand on behalf of these Benches in support of the Motion from the noble Baroness the Lord Privy Seal and to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, on his appointment.
It is also a pleasure to thank, on behalf of these Benc…
My Lords, I welcome this Statement and join the Chancellor speaking in the other place in paying tribute to our Armed Forces. In particular, I welcome support for those families and households hardest hit; however, I share the concern of the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, for small businesses, and ext…
My Lords, peatland restoration provides multiple benefits. It improves flood resilience by slowing water leaving the uplands and significantly reducing peak flows. Peatlands make up the UK’s largest extent of semi-natural habitat, so action to restore them makes an important contribution to deliveri…
I thank the right reverend Prelate for his questions and for claiming that inherited responsibility. He is absolutely right about the importance of peatlands. They have been referred to as the UK’s rainforest. They store vast amounts of carbon, regulate water flow and support biodiversity. Restorati…
My Lords, as other Members of the House have done, I pay tribute to His Majesty’s Armed Forces. As the father of a soldier, I am acutely aware of what the families at Akrotiri in Cyprus are going through at the moment. I am sure they are being well supported by chaplains in the Armed Forces, just as…
I am beginning to wish I lived in Norfolk so that I could come—it is a long way from Cumbria. I reassure the right reverend Prelate that one of the things we have been working much harder on in Defra, as we develop policies and then manage and oversee them, is working with other departments where th…
I will repeat what I have said, and emphasise that the national inclusion standards cover all areas. We need to have universal approaches as well as the tools and approaches to identify and respond to the needs. Of course, dyscalculia is an important consideration, as are all the other conditions ou…
My Lords, I support Amendment 370 in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay and Lord Blencathra. Across this nation, war memorials, often raised by public subscription of pennies here and tuppences there, stand to hold memories of those who gave their lives—sons and daughters, b…
As I said earlier, that will be a matter for the noble Baroness, Lady Casey. But I have every confidence that all the groups the right reverend Prelate referred to will be included, not least because the noble Baroness and the secretariat have already met, travelled widely and had many conversations…
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich, to thank very sincerely the noble Lord, Lord Oates, for securing this important debate and essentially to say that I agree with pretty well everything that has been said. The noble Lord, Lord Oates, set out …
Our recently published Energising Britain plan sets out how we will work with communities so that everyone can benefit from our clean energy superpower mission. It highlights how we are already engaging people and local organisations to design and deliver climate and nature policies that reflect peo…
The Energising Britain plan, among many other things, sets out ways in which local communities and faith groups can play a central role not just in the clean energy superpower mission but on the road to net zero. In my experience, working with local communities, covenants and faith groups in various…
My Lords, I support Amendments 6, 8 and 10. I pay tribute to the Minister for the commitment that she is giving to the Bill. It is absolutely right that we align ourselves with the treaty and are able to be participants at the first Conference of the Parties. I thank her for the thoroughness with wh…
My Lords, I support Amendments 17 and 309A, proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Beith, and so ably explained by the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser. I declare an interest, in that my wife is a GP and a medical examiner—so the Bill has had much discussion at home.
Having spent 10 years living in Northumber…
My Lords, we on these Benches and many other noble Lords have challenged the necessity for Part 3 throughout the Bill’s passage through your Lordships’ House. The Government have made a number of amendments, which have improved the Bill, to reintroduce nature protections and give more comfort on the…
My Lords, I am very grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate, but I want also to give a general statement of thanks to everybody who has engaged with this Bill. We have discussed a huge variety of topics and gone through some very technical issues. I have been very grateful fo…
I thank the right reverend Prelate for his question. There are regular assessments of all this. As I said, the NSTA publishes data on its website highlighting flaring, venting and methane performance of different assets. We are well aware of the issues and are keeping on top of them. If there are an…
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 94, and I thank the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, and the noble Baroness, Lady Willis of Summertown, for their support. I am most grateful to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, who has just spoken so powerfully about her am…
My Lords, I thank all who have contributed to this important debate and the Minister for her response. However, I am not convinced by her arguments; we cannot wait for a water reform Bill and have these arguments again at that stage. Amendment 94 seeks to protect chalk streams, this precious habitat…
I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question. The work of that trust is very well regarded. I will consider further what we might do with police commissioners to help support its activities and write to him.
My Lords, I start by declaring an interest: I still live in Suffolk and probably within a mile—perhaps even 500 metres—of where a substation is proposed to be built. The area of the country that I used to represent in the other place is likely, within 10 to 15 years, to accommodate about 30% of the …
I reassure the right reverend Prelate that compliance with international humanitarian law is exactly what we are urging on all parties, and we will continue to do so. It is very sad that, when missiles are fired off indiscriminately, it is inevitable that civilians will suffer. That should not be th…
The right reverend Prelate raises an important point. All the navigation authorities have different set-ups, corporate structures and funding patterns. He raises the framework agreement; I will certainly take that issue back to colleagues in Defra to better understand the progress of that agreement.
My Lords, I support Amendments 3 and 5 in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, and the noble Earl, Lord Minto. I am also very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, for the way in which he has engaged with us on the Bill and, in particular listened well in the scrutiny stages.
These amen…