Speeches by Newbury.

“In the interest of time, I will not. Although I respect the concerns that have led many to sign the petition, I urge colleagues to reflect on the consequences of the course of action it proposes. Cancelling research does not resolve uncertainty, but entrenches it. In doing so, it risks leaving vulnerable young people w…”

“Would that include vaccination as well?”

“You have touched there, Tim, on the benefits for the wider veterinary workforce. There has been lots of talk, for example, around protections for the role of veterinary nurse, but what other benefits do you think that the Act needs to have for that wider workforce, which has clearly evolved an awful lot since 1966?”

“Any other thoughts on priorities for the new Act?”

“Yes, thank you. The original Act, as we know, will be 60 years old this November. Unsurprisingly, the chief vet, the Food Standards Agency and the British Veterinary Association are all calling for a new Act. The Government clearly agree because, as you know, DEFRA launched a consultation back in January setting out th…”

“In the meantime, then, are there practical steps that the Government can take to address some of the most urgent issues in the profession? What are those things that we can just get on with, without the need for a new Act?”

“Yes, absolutely. That point around the current Act being too restrictive and the need to change that with the new Act was one unintended consequence that I thought of, because clearly we need this legislation to be able to flex a little, as you said, over the next 60 years, so that we do not find ourselves in exactly t…”

“Clearly, there are a lot of opportunities for a new Act, but the Chair always reminds us that the law of unintended consequences is never far away. So what might be the unintended consequences of reforming the Act? What are the pitfalls that we need to avoid before this comes in front of the House of Commons?”

“22. What recent progress he has made on improving parental rights at work.”

“I completely agree with the hon. Lady. Allyship across many different characteristics is essential, but I have always felt that anything that men can do to echo and raise up the voices of women is incredibly powerful. We should take that seriously and not shy away from it in debates such as this one, where we may perha…”

“It is a pleasure to speak in today’s phenomenal debate marking International Women’s Day, alongside so many remarkable women from across this House, including the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Hannah Spencer), who gave an inspiring maiden speech. Although she is no longer in her place, I particularly thank her for…”

“Having heard that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will soon decide on the next round of Pride in Place funding, I would like to plug my constituency. It is my honour to represent proud communities, but many, like Chadsmoor and the Rugeley Springfields estate, were hit hard by austerity, which …”

“Many of us on the Labour Benches have long argued for a boost to paternity leave, which is one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government, but one group being let down badly is self-employed dads. Just one in six of them take leave after their children are born, and it is unpaid leave, meaning that they…”

“Phil from Brereton told me that his wife’s jury service letter arrived too late for her to defer; Colin from Brereton had a hospital letter that arrived three days after the appointment; and Michael from Rugeley waited weeks for a new debit card. Those were first-class letters, so planned reforms to the universal servi…”

“Does it worry you that you cannot quantify those wider benefits, given that BNG is being looked at as something that could be stripped out of park planning reforms?”

“That is promising. Just to get a bit technical: BNG units can be created on land that is in agri-environment schemes, but only if they provide further habitat enhancements. We have heard it is extremely difficult to do that in practice, for example because the payments made under ELMS or countryside stewardship are not…”

“We have heard that a lot of Landscape Recovery money is going to quite large landowners, and that in some cases tenant farmers are being pushed out of that conversation and the benefits of that. What are you doing to address that, so that you are not just working with the larger landowners such as the National Trust—ju…”

“You mentioned that from a Government perspective the funding picture is quite constrained. Getting those multiple different benefits from nature restoration, which you alluded to earlier, Tony, is more important than ever. Do you think that, a couple of years in, BNG is showing signs that it is assisting other environm…”

“How is that being measured? How are you quantifying it, and how will it be published?”

“This is what worries me. As you mentioned, some local authorities are doing really good work and have the infrastructure. My local planning authority does not have an ecologist; we share staffing structures with a neighbouring council that does, so one ecologist is covering an area of around 350,000 people. The other l…”