Natural England: Gamebird Release Licensing

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord Harlech

Tuesday 21st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In so doing, I declare my farming and land management interests as set out in the register.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, Natural England is the licensing authority for most wildlife management issues in England and has the necessary delegated powers to grant game bird release licences on behalf of the Secretary of State. It has the required expertise, experience and technical management to fully assess the potential impacts of game bird releases, including direct access to specialists in this area.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the Minister for her hat-trick of Answers. The former Prime Minister promised to cut quangos and end regulators running riot. Instead, we have more of them, and Natural England has just been found by the High Court to have acted irrationally and beyond its powers. Wales is now heading down the same road, with Natural Resources Wales pursuing a licensing regime that risks ignoring the conservation case for shooting altogether. Does the Minister accept that unaccountable quangos are out of control on both sides of the border? When will the Government match their rhetoric with action?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Dan Corry did a review of the different arm’s-length bodies in Defra. That report has gone to the board. I have been at meetings where it has been discussed. We are actively looking at how we can make the arm’s-length bodies in Defra much more efficient.

Farming Road Map and Profitability Review

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord Harlech

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I disagree with that. In fact, I think the opposite. When we have met industry sectors, whether pigs, cattle or whatever—particularly in Northern Ireland, interestingly enough—we have found that they really see the benefit in the opening up of markets by us working closer with the EU. A lot of the trade restrictions, the paperwork and the bureaucracy will go. We lost, I think, 40% of our trading opportunities with Brexit, but this is an opportunity to have more trade and support for our farming industries.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my farm management interests as set out in the register. I would be interested to hear more from the Minister about more direct and clear support, helping farmers to access markets that are close to them; that is, public buildings and organisations. How can we prioritise local British farmers getting their produce into local schools, hospitals and that sort of thing?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I do not have time to find the exact page, but I know that somewhere in this lovely document is a whole section on procurement and trying to achieve exactly what the noble Lord is talking about. We have talked about the importance of “buy British”—all Governments do that—but we need to look at how to make that happen. I urge the noble Lord to read that section; if he has not, it is great. I see that he has it in front of him—excellent. He is right: this is critical. If we are going to become more sustainable for the future, we need to look at how we support our farmers through public procurement.

British Farming: Competitiveness

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord Harlech

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, this Government are backing British farmers to create a productive, profitable and sustainable future for farming. We will always consider whether overseas produce has an unfair advantage and any impact that it may have. Where necessary, we will be prepared to use the full range of powers at our disposal to protect our most sensitive sectors. We will set out our wider plans to boost farming profitability and long-term viability later this year.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply. UK food self-sufficiency has fallen below 65%. Britain increasingly relies on volatile international markets while holding its own farmers to higher standards than most of our trading partners. The Batters review was unequivocal that food security is national security, so, yes or no, will the Government commit to treating agriculture as a sensitive sector in all future trade negotiations and ensure that no future trade deal allows imports produced to lower welfare or environmental standards to undercut British farmers?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

We have been very clear when working on our trading agreements with other countries that our standards are sacrosanct. We will not allow deals that undermine the standards that we have in this country. We are investing £11.8 billion in the farming budget over this Parliament, so we are absolutely serious about building our farming road map and responding positively to the Farming Profitability Review from the noble Baroness, Lady Batters. It is really important that any products that are produced to different environmental or animal welfare standards can be placed on the UK market only if they comply with the strict requirements that we put in place.

Wild Camping

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord Harlech

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I think that that would be a matter for the police and the Home Office.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my farming and land management interests in Wales. Last year, mountain rescue services in England and Wales were called out to an incident every single day; in Scotland, they were called out more than 1,000 times during the year. Can we—pardon the pun—proceed with caution on any scope to widen public access in our national parks?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I hear what the noble Lord says. I have friends in mountain rescue. I bumped into one of them at the weekend; they had been particularly busy. The important thing is that the people who call out mountain rescue are often completely and utterly ill equipped for what they are doing. That seems the biggest problem. Mountain rescue is there to help people who get into trouble. If you have fallen and broken your ankle or there is a particular problem, that is absolutely what it is there for, in the same way as any other emergency service. To be blunt, the people who try to climb mountains in flip-flops and without proper maps—we have had this in Cumbria, believe it or not—are the ones who really need our attention, shall we say.