Speeches by Reynolds.

“We keep that under review, but I think that the rules are clear. The rules are that water bosses who do not perform well should not receive bonuses, and there are criteria that we can—”

“As I said, I expect the regulator to hold the water companies to account, and the regulator is acting on this. That is what we are working towards.”

“Overall, as I said, the statutory duties are safe drinking water and treatment of waste. Those are the two statutory duties.”

“The principal statutory duties are the safe supply of drinking water and treatment of wastewater services. That is a different way of putting it but—”

“With regard to the performance SAR, the bar is high; it has not been used before. We have received representations that the criteria perhaps should be clearer, and that is something that we will keep under review. I do take the point you are making, but whatever the Government do with regard to any water company, we ha…”

“Yes, it concerns me. I do not want us to be in this position in the first place, which is why, in the new legislation we are bringing to Parliament, there will be a performance improvement regime to stop water companies falling into high levels of debt and poor performance in future. No, I would much prefer that that m…”

“We have not set a target. We would like to boost, and we can get into this, but as you will have seen, one of the first things we did in response to the Minette Batters independent farming profitability review is to set up the farming and food partnership board and take forward sector growth plans, which again is anoth…”

“I am sure. I am preaching to the converted here. We are taking that up with the—”

“What are the barriers to growth? There are lots of different barriers to growth, but a big one is planning. We discussed the issue of poultry at the second farming and food partnership board but—”

“That remains to be seen. It is not in the diary for the moment, but we are working closely with MHCLG. By the way, I did discuss this with Steve back in December, before he launched the consultation on the NPPF, which has those permitted development rights in there, which would affect the industry’s ability, essentiall…”

“You are being unfair.”

“Yes, I agree with that.”

“I want to bring down these barriers as much as you do, but we are not in charge of all the levers. I am not trying to blame anybody else. We know that there is significant investment out there waiting to be made, if only the circumstances were better.”

“No.”

“I will start and then hand over to Emily. Thanks for your question and for welcoming the fact that window 1 is for small farms and those without an agreement. The first thing to say, because you mentioned this in your question, is that I promised earlier in the year there would be no sudden unexpected closures. We had …”

“From the autumn, we announced earlier this year that BNG will apply to nationally significant infrastructure projects. You are right to say that there have been other changes as well, but that change to NSIPs will expand the role of BNG.”

“I think we have to see how it develops.”

“You have just come back from New Zealand. I read some of the things, and it would be really interesting to hear more about it. Something that we mentioned in the road map, and that we are very serious about as a Government, is looking at what more we can do in Government to bring down any of the barriers to further str…”

“It will not just be the Department, obviously. We are not suggesting that we would stop doing ELMS or SFI by 2030. It is about setting a direction of travel, about trying to increase the share of the market in these things. You are right that these things are not easy and they are not often quick. However, we expect ov…”

“No, but I can come back to you.”