Speeches by Reed.

“I am Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.”

“You would expect that it would, wouldn’t you? But there should be some kind of flag on it to say that a response is required within a given timeframe, and then that should be chased if the response is not given within that timeframe. Maybe it is structural, but maybe it is also about the systems.”

“It is an interesting question, though. It is a very broad Department. Performance has been poor since 2021-22. In that time—it is only four years—I am the fifth Secretary of State, and it has persisted through all of us. I do wonder whether there is something to do with the structuring of the Department or the nature o…”

“Happily, yes.”

“We will be pen pals, Chair.”

“I hear what you say.”

“Yes, that is helpful; thank you.”

“To add to that, I think it is about the prioritisation that we give it in the Department, because within organisations there is either clarity about what the priority is or there isn’t, and then people will make up their own priorities. By setting up this new team with a director as the head of it and much clearer expe…”

“Fewer questions! What do you think, Becky?”

“Thank you for your comments and question. Becky is now, as a director, in charge of the process and the teams. It now has more senior leadership, which is very important and increases its status within the Department. We are relying on the policy teams to provide the responses, and there is a reduction in numbers overa…”

“I suspect you will get very quick responses to those now.”

“Absolutely. I think that is sensible. You are right that we are not unique in that respect, but we have one of the highest numbers of arm’s length bodies of any Department, and we are a relatively small Department. That is not to make excuses; we need systems that can deal with that better—I agree with you. From the po…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question; I think what he is referring to, in the round, is the failures of the regulatory system and, indeed, the regulators. He will have seen that Sir Jon Cunliffe points to exactly the same problems in his interim report, published today. As we work towards the final report,…”

“As I have said, the Government stand ready for all eventualities, should they be needed.”

“My hon. Friend gives me the opportunity to congratulate Surfers Against Sewage on its fantastic work highlighting the failures of the water sector under the previous Government. I am sure both my hon. Friend and the charity will welcome the 81 criminal investigations we have launched in order to find out where lawbreak…”

“Water is indeed a human right, which is why this Government are taking every step necessary to sort out the broken water system that we inherited from the previous Government.”

“Absolutely; we intend to clear up the mess the previous Government made. The fine that my hon. Friend refers to—indeed, there have been others—is the result of the additional criminal investigations we have launched, which follow on from the additional resources we have given the regulator so that it can investigate wh…”

“As I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware, there are procedures to follow that would require any regulated company to go into special administration. As things stand, Thames Water remains stable and there is a market-led solution on the table. We expect Thames Water to follow through on that.”

“I beg to slightly correct my hon. Friend. Special administration is not nationalisation and nationalisation would cost in excess of £100 billion—money we would have to take away from other public services to hand to the bosses of the water companies who caused this mess in the first place. I do not think taxpayers woul…”

“That is a very interesting proposal. I hope the right hon. Gentleman will suggest it to Sir Jon Cunliffe, who is currently looking at a better way to regulate.”