Speeches by Hardy.

“You are absolutely right and as I say, it underpins everything. I am genuinely pleased to still be here because water is so fundamentally important to absolutely everything, and we only realise its fundamental importance when we have had the driest spring since 1893. Water resilience is one of my top priorities and we …”

“I saw that evidence session and it was incredibly worrying that scientists would feel they were being pressured in any way. When I was over in Geneva I met with Richard just to show the support the United Kingdom has for our independent scientific community that is giving its evidence in good faith and that we 100% sta…”

“Yes, absolutely. There are some things that we are looking at changing. One is around water efficiency of your white goods and things like that, and how we are using water more efficiently than we have in the past. We need water-efficiency labelling as well so that if customers are going to buy a new washing machine, t…”

“That is a really interesting point. There are definitely things we can do as a country, and of course Minister Creagh is leading on recycling and circular economy. There are also definitely conversations that can be had with some big companies through the Ellen MacArthur Foundation about actions they can take as well. …”

“You are right, it has been an incredible time: the driest spring in England since 1893 and the hottest June on record. As well as talking about this year, with the way the climate is changing I am making the presumption that this is going to be a more regular thing that happens each summer. In terms of the immediate ac…”

“When temporary use bans—hosepipe bans—come in, I am really keen to communicate and explain why to the people who are having to abide by them. I am not sure that is always communicated well enough in terms of the huge impact the drought has had on farmers, livestock, nature, chalk streams, fish and so on. When we ask pe…”

“Obviously I was not here in 2022, so I might ask David—who was the official in 2022—to answer that one for me.”

“It is not something I have looked at yet, but on a general basis I am quite open for exploring all the different options we have. As I said, how I like to work as a politician is looking for where we can all join together and achieve the same aim, so I am keen for whatever we can do to reduce plastic pollution. That is…”

“We have introduced a new era of accountability. We are resetting, reforming and revolutionising the water sector, putting public health and the environment first and delivering the change rightly demanded by the British people. With the most ambitious targets on sewage water pollution in history, we will halve sewage w…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to be angry about the state in which our rivers, lakes and seas have been left, and I recognise the trouble that a failing water company causes for his constituency. That is why we have committed to resetting, reforming and revolutionising the water sector and why we are establishing …”

“The hon. Lady raises a really important point. Agricultural pollution is incredibly serious, and this Government recognise that. We have updated the DEFRA statutory guidance for the farming rules for water, and I recently hosted a roundtable with farmers, environmental organisations and the water industry to bring the …”

“Unsurprisingly, I could not agree more. I thank my hon. Friend for his work to champion his community here in Parliament. The previous Government oversaw record levels of sewage pollution in our rivers, lakes and seas, but this Government have secured £104 billion of private investment to upgrade crumbling pipes and ha…”

“I commend my hon. Friend for his successful championing of this issue on behalf of his constituents. I know how much it means to his community to have such boats removed. It is an important issue, and I am more than happy to follow up with the Canal & River Trust in order to understand if it needs any additional to…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for her important question, and I share her concern about the risks that microplastics may pose to the environment and human health. That is why we are looking at all sources of pollution that enter our rivers, lakes and seas, but there is obviously more work to be done to improve our understandin…”

“The hon. Lady raises a really interesting point—it is perhaps worrying how interested I am getting in what we can do with manure and human waste to provide organic fertiliser in our country. She has given a brilliant example of what can be done, and I will make sure that the Minister who is responsible for the circular…”

“With the new data we have from the national flood risk assessment, the mapping that the EA has done shows us for the first time the surface water flood risk. Previously it was only looking at risk from sea and from river and so now we have surface water risk. In the evidence we have done on the money that we are puttin…”

“I am happy to go away and see if we can work that out for you because we would have to reset the baseline based on the new mapping and the evidence that we have. Otherwise, you would be comparing apples and pears because we have never before measured the risk of surface water flooding. If you take the surface water flo…”

“Climate adaptation is a feature of the infrastructure strategy and what we are doing for the next 10 years and looking at the impact of climate for everything, which is not just flooding of course but what we do if everything is hotter and various other things. We need to be thinking about where we have our schools. I …”

“Yes, which is why I am saying the evidence that we have had from the Environment Agency is so important. If you are going to set a baseline for how many properties are at risk, that is what it is mapping. What it has done is crucial. As I said, previously that did not include surface water risk. Some people are saying …”

“Hull is a floodplain. In fact, just one tiny part of Hull is not constituted as part of a floodplain. If you build anything in Hull, you are de facto building on a floodplain. There are ways to mitigate that because we would not want to say to the city of Hull or somewhere else, “You can’t have anything ever in your ci…”