Speeches by Maynard.

“Amendment 13 is about volume. It would add volume to the list in clause 3, which includes “the location of the emergency overflow…when the discharge began…when the discharge ended.” The Liberal Democrats seek to add the volume of discharge to that list, and that is common sense. As many Members have said, we want to kn…”

“We are here for another week or so. I take the point about apples and pears, but if the information is already in DEFRA’s hands, would it be helpful, if DEFRA can move fast enough—I do not know whether that is possible—to have a little grid circulated to Committee members about storm and emergency installation periods,…”

“I will just express disappointment. The Bill currently sets a deadline of six months, which is not exactly a moment in time; six months is a long time to get something done. I respect what the new Government are doing by trying to go after the bonuses and hold people to account, but to take a step back and say, “Actual…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I will keep this short. I am looking forward to the factsheet, but the Minister will note that new clause 25 focuses on overflows, not emergencies or storms. Frankly, it does not make much difference to a bug, a bunny or a bather whether they get whacked by an emergency overflow or a storm overflow—they are still getti…”

“The Minister said from 2025, which is great, but over what timeline? Is that the Library’s 10 years, or is that another timeline?”

“Does that mean the beginning or the end of Q2?”

“Perhaps, since I am standing, I will make the other two points I want to make. We have touched on Government amendment 2 already, but I think it is important. I was very pleased to see the wording coming in about bonuses. Proposed new section 35B(3) of the Water Industry Act 1991 says: “Rules made for the purposes of i…”

“I have a question for you, Mr Vickers. This is my first Bill Committee and I am trying to understand how everything works. There are six amendments to clause 1, and our task is to do line-by-line scrutiny. My ambition is to understand why the Government support or reject each of those amendments. At the moment, in our …”

“First, it is up to each individual to sign up or not; they do so of their own free will. Secondly, this is standard insurance which almost all boards have in the UK and internationally nowadays, which protects board members. It would not be specifically for those board members; it would be for all board members. To say…”

“It is fairly standard on boards today to have directors and officers insurance; indeed, all board members have it. What is the problem with the new people also having D&O insurance?”

“The hon. Gentleman said that 100% of outflows are monitored, but I am afraid that is not correct. In fact, 100% of the 14,000 storm outflows are monitored—he did not mention storm—but 7,000 emergency overflows are not currently monitored. On the other aspect that he just mentioned, Ofwat was entirely devoid of looking …”

“I rise to explain amendment 22. On 11 July, the Environment Secretary issued a press release on the reform of the water industry that stated: “Water companies will place customers and the environment at the heart of their objectives. Companies have agreed to change their ‘Articles of Association’—the rules governing ea…”

“I am interrupting, but I disagree that you are doing the best you can. You are not. You are not giving us straight answers.”

“In Xinjiang, are you running proactively on cotton, tomatoes and whatever else that that comes out of Xinjiang at scale?”

“I have a question about the instances in your wholly-owned restaurants versus your franchise restaurants. Presumably you look and compare at where these cases come up. Is there a pattern across your restaurants and your franchise restaurants? Do you have fewer cases in your own restaurants or is there no pattern? What …”

“Sticking with that—I am sure you have you have got visibility globally—are you saying that quantitatively there is no material difference between your wholly-owned restaurants and your franchises? I am sure that you have looked at that in detail. Are there no trends to speak of?”

“What is Tesco’s approach to sourcing product from Xinjiang in China now?”

“Okay. Obviously, you all know very well about the “Panorama” programme, Antonio Petti, shell companies and all this. What surprises me is this. Take the product coming out of Xinjiang, things like cotton, tomatoes, the well-known products. The “Panorama” programme used an origin verification firm to look at the tomatoe…”

“I completely agree again but what I am trying to understand is, say for cotton or tomatoes, whether you are running a systematic process for all of your cotton products or all of your tomato products, by default, not to get a perfect answer, because I understand you will not get a perfect answer, but to raise your leve…”