Speeches by Dyke.

“Who authorised that statement on the bad batch?”

“Okay. There seems to have been a period of time during the incident when there was simply no communication coming from South East Water. There was certainly no consistent voice during the crisis; various different executives were being put up, which did not really inspire confidence. There was not a clear narrative aro…”

“You have a team of scientists to do that. You did not need to get stuck into that piece of work.”

“What date?”

“Why did you choose not to do any media during the incident?”

“You have been criticised for not being visible in a CEO role—there is only one of you doing that role—and for not communicating with consumers about the developing situation. Why did you choose to take that approach and not be the public-facing person of the organisation as a chief executive? It seems that you battened…”

“You have a team of scientists to do that. You did not need to get stuck into that piece of work.”

“Are your customers not the heart of the issue?”

“You have been criticised for not being visible in a CEO role—there is only one of you doing that role—and for not communicating with consumers about the developing situation. Why did you choose to take that approach and not be the public-facing person of the organisation as a chief executive? It seems that you battened…”

“There is only one chief executive in the organisation.”

“There is only one chief executive in the organisation.”

“Okay, but there is a team of scientists doing it.”

“Okay, but there is a team of scientists doing it.”

“So you didn’t think your team had enough expertise in it, and you felt that you had to oversee that element?”

“It really should not have taken over a year for the pleas of thousands of farmers to be heard, and for the Government to finally concede their mistake and change the disastrous family farm tax. However, it is clear that they still simply do not understand the industry. Many farms in Glastonbury and Somerton are run by …”

“Rural life, particularly for those in farming communities, is more typically based on traditional roles, which can often see women marginalised in their role within the family and, sadly, more likely to be victims of abuse. Can the Minister assure me that with any new strategy on tackling violence against women and gir…”

“Mandatory method of production labelling on animal-derived products could improve animal welfare and increase UK farm profits by over £46 million annually, but we must make sure that the UK-EU SPS agreement is aligned on standards and quality so that British farmers in Glastonbury and Somerton and across the country ar…”

“One fifth of the UK population live in rural areas. They face unavoidable additional costs, including longer travel times, reduced provider competition and workforce recruitment. Those costs have an impact on every single aspect of local service delivery, but funding formulas fail to adequately recognise rurality, putt…”

“What assessment have you made of the effectiveness of the fair dealing obligations for milk? As we know, a lot of dairy farmers have been left reeling by a couple of quite significant farm-gate milk price drops over the last couple of months. There is potential for the milk price to go down even further. Farmers are al…”

“I have heard from many farmers, my brother being one of them, that the compensation rate of £2,000 per slaughtered cow does not even cover the financial cost of the disruption to their business. Milk prices are being cut. With the compensation being deemed inefficient, Minister, will you look at perhaps conducting a re…”