Speeches by Bool.

“Every one of us in this Chamber, and generations of MPs before us, want to help and improve the lives of our constituents. That is why this debate is so important, and we really have to tackle it. The issues with welfare go back generations. We talk about the welfare state as we know it now, coming in after the second …”

“EKA Ltd in my constituency is a supplier to Ministry of Defence service recovery vehicles that have to be deployed with our tanks, but an issue that it and other service personnel have highlighted is the absence of the provision of robust spare parts in the event of a breakdown or damage. The Government are spending mi…”

“I welcome the Minister to her place. The impact of the changes to IHT goes far beyond just farmers. Last month, a Pembrokeshire farm gathered 57 businesses from vets, machinery dealerships, and milk processors, to electricians and fencing companies, employing almost 11,000 people. Almost half of those were totally reli…”

“1. What discussions she has had with farmers in Wales on the potential impact of planned changes to inheritance tax relief on the agricultural sector.”

“Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point and I really wish that the Government would be able to find that, but unfortunately, given the current Chancellor, I do not think that will be a possibility. The Government should be creating an environment for people to thrive; they should not be fixing pe…”

“They say an Englishman’s home is his castle—the place he feels safe and has control of, a place with a sense of permanence. In today’s world, though, we have younger people stuck at the gatehouse, renting, unable to break through into property ownership; and we have older generations locked inside the castle towers, un…”

“You very proudly stated that the actual number of inspections is going from about 3,000 up to 6,000.”

“What do you do to follow up on that where the farm is noncompliant? What process do you have?”

“But as you also identified, there are over 105,000 farms, so is this really enough and what more can you do? Because resources are tight and if you are having to go back and do these reinspections as well, are you actually going to be able to do more?”

“Some questions are coming on to that further so I will leave that for the moment. You also mentioned sludge. I just wanted to ask you about how you assess pollution risks from sludge and do you think reform is needed?”

“On that point, as you just flagged, in ’23-’24 the report said 42% of farms that were inspected were noncompliant. That would perhaps suggest that this advice-led approach is not working.”

“I will make some progress. Labour Members sneer when we talk about living within their means. That is something that every single constituent of ours has to do. They have to make those tough decisions not to spend at certain points, or to save, or to work harder, but this Government do not even follow the principles th…”

“We also know that agriculture is a leading cause of water pollution but understand that this is a particularly complex area for farmers because there are lots of regulations: over 150 pieces. At the outset, you touched on the fact that the Environment Agency takes this advice-led approach, it is with dedicated teams an…”

“As a type 1 diabetic, I am very conscious about sugar contents and things. There is sometimes but not always a benefit in knowing the level of sugar in a drink. I know that the amount of sugar in some fizzy drinks has changed. That has been a normal diabetics’ go-to and suddenly it does not have the same effect. The po…”

“How much is it affecting your future look at the moment? For example, are you delaying the market authorisation of novel foods in anticipation or just carrying on business as normal?”

“I wanted to explore your point a little bit further, Geoff, about being prepared for the implementation of this SPS agreement with the EU. We have just been, as was mentioned, out meeting various different counterparts, and there is definitely ambition to have a mandate agreed by the end of this year and to try to get …”

“On rare moments, Members on both sides of the House come to the Chamber with the same question on their minds: how did it get to this? The Prime Minister is proud of his record as Director of Public Prosecutions and of his skill to prosecute, interrogate and investigate—skills that are absent here. He will also be more…”

“When the Minister consults on those powers, will he include the agricultural sector? With seasonal work, there is a big concern that employers will not necessarily have time to provide a notice period as the weather changes. On behalf of all our farmers, I ask him to consider that.”

“The Conservatives raised the issue of a national statutory inquiry in January. The Government attempted to block our calls for an inquiry until they were forced into a U-turn in June. On 2 September, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), said, “thi…”

“The Minister agreed with my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) that industrial collaboration between the UK and Poland is an important part of our relationship. A key part of that is primarily focused on ground-based air defence, and these events surely underline why that is critical to us and o…”