Speeches by Gardiner.

“The good news is that 185 apartments around Wembley Stadium in my constituency are ready to be occupied. The bad news is that nobody can move into them, because the Building Safety Regulator has sat on its gateway 2 applications for six months and its gateway 3 applications for two months. We have a housing shortage. C…”

“Thank you for that. Let me try to get us down to more specifics. You have mentioned sustainability. Earlier today, I sent through to you at your Department copies of three letters that I sent. One was to the Financial Conduct Authority asking them to investigate whether KPMG had complied with their reporting and disclo…”

“With age I have learned that you take your opportunities when they present themselves. I want to take the opportunity to thank you for your amazing championing of climate action over the past 20 years. You probably feel a “but” coming.”

“There isn’t one. I want to ask you, though, to outline for us the process that needs to be gone through before your Department can take a decision about future subsidy to Drax Power Ltd.”

“Secretary of State, you said in your opening remarks that you felt like an old stager; I guess that makes me an ancient stager.”

“Indeed. E3G have said that Drax biomass is not needed to reach clean power by 2030.”

“I wanted to get it on the record because I wanted to be sure that you would respond to all of it—perhaps to some of it in writing.”

“The Government have said that by June, they intend to ratify the agreement on biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions, more commonly known as the global oceans treaty. They have also said quite correctly, and highly unusually, that before they do so, they intend to take steps to put in place the measures to implemen…”

“Professor Barnes, I will try to pick up what you have said and something that Professor Webb said earlier. Under the interstate dispute settlement procedures, do any of our treaty commitments—by that I do not just mean marine treaties—enable a company or a commercial interest to take the UK to court under an ISDS proce…”

“It would not be a state taking a state to court; it would be a potential investor, as I understand it, taking the state to court. This has been done in a number of areas, and one of the most regularly cited is over tobacco legislation to outlaw or restrict tobacco sales within a country, which has then prompted compani…”

“Therefore, would it be something that you might see this Committee making a recommendation about in terms of restricting the way that we allow ISDS mechanisms to be incorporated in treaties that we conclude?”

“Thank you very much. Sorry to interrupt.”

“Is it not ratified by the United States?”

“They are more likely to take it from people like yourself than they are from people like us.”

“Can I ask you to focus on the strategies that we could take, and with specific reference to the ones that I have mentioned, in terms of protecting our MPAs?”

“Certainly, natural capital is something that this Committee is desperately interested in, and it would be very good to have that from you. I would like to ask you to turn your attention to the management strategies that could ensure that our MPAs were more than paper parks, and that they were actually adequately protec…”

“Absolutely. You are here as scientists. That is why you are here, and that is what we respect. Thank you. WWF published its ocean report saying that the potential impact of climate change on the oceans amounted to $8.4 trillion. Is that a figure that you recognise? Are there other ways that you would like to express th…”

“Could I say that you would agree that one of the recommendations that this Committee might profitably make would be for the Government to adopt a whole-site approach to marine protected areas, rather than simply looking at specific features?”

“Let me try a different tack, because I am trying to get some meaty recommendations out of you. Let us look at the likely impacts of climate change on the features in our MPAs. Let me start with a preliminary question. Do you consider as a scientist that looking at our MPAs from the point of view of their features, rath…”

“Let us talk about those. I am sorry, but we have limited time, and I am keen that we press on to some of the recommendations that you would like to see this Committee make in its report to Government, because that is what our session today is all about. You mentioned earlier in your response to one of my colleagues tha…”