Speeches by Reynolds.

“That is quite a detailed question.”

“Ideally, we would not have too much, because it would just add to the load. Obviously, we are developing our guidance—it is not just regulation and legislation—and the EU is doing the same. We have had this discussion since Brexit. It is moving on both sides.”

“That is the stat that I was looking for, thank you.”

“Thank you very much for the question. Let me make some broader points, and then I will turn to Emily. Obviously, the EU reset as a whole is a cross-Governmental effort. I am a member of the Cabinet Sub-Committee, the Europe Committee. As I said in my opening for the Department, it is a big priority because SPS is obvio…”

“Thank you.”

“I can come back to you on the particular statistic, but the statistic I have here is from the recycling industry itself. There will be other broader benefits as well.”

“As I said the conversations that I have had with this industry and that Minister Mary Creagh is having are that the regulatory certainty is going to allow them to invest more. I do not know the particular circumstances of the sites that you are talking about but having introduced legislation that we are now bringing in…”

“I want to compliment my Minister, Mary Creagh, for grasping this so energetically. As you know, within six months of being in Government we passed legislation to introduce packaging Extended Producer Responsibility, the deposit return scheme and simpler recycling. We have already done a lot. We are now implementing tho…”

“With respect, that is not something that is entirely within the Government’s control.”

“Well, it is for food production and meeting environmental targets and as Emily Miles said those things go hand in hand. Unless you have good soil health, good pollination, good biodiversity, you are not going to get the food production. Those things go hand in hand. Equally, there is also a market out there. We are not…”

“Yes, I understand that. The point that I was making was that the previous Government when we came out of the European Union decided that we would move away from basic payments. That is something that we agree with, however at the moment 50% of our farmland is supported by some form of the farming budget coming out of D…”

“As I said—”

“We cannot control the whole market.”

“No.”

“No.”

“I think it was a decision of the last Government when Labour were in Opposition that we supported that we would move away from basic payments.”

“I do not recognise the figure.”

“Sure, and with biodiversity net gain there are I think some small farms that are benefiting from some of these credits as I understand it.”

“There is an exciting read-across here from my previous job in Treasury, which is when I went to the Regional Investment Summit recently. I saw some of my previous stakeholders in some of the banks and some of the insurers as well. They are quite interested in some of the nature credit markets. I would love to be in a p…”

“The tax changes are what they are and I am not responsible for taxation policy. But what I am responsible for is ensuring that we give farmers as much support as we possibly can to become more profitable and for the sector to grow. I will continue to work on the things that are in my control and the Treasury decides on…”