Environmental Policies: Timeliness and Effectiveness
Debate between Lord Benyon and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage(10 months ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
On behalf of my noble friend Lady Hayman of Ullock, and with her permission, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in her name on the Order Paper.
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Benyon) (Con)
My Lords, I refer the House to my entry in the register. The Government are committed to leaving the environment in a better state than we found it. Following the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023, we have stepped up our action, including announcing our multimillion-pound species survival fund and 34 landscape recovery scheme projects. Our annual reports on the 25-year environment plan and the outcome indicator framework assess our actions to improve the environment. The next annual report will be published this summer.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
My Lords, it is ironic that some noble Lords who would like to have participated in this Question, including my noble friend Lady Hayman of Ullock, will be unable to do so due to disruption caused by the ninth named storm of this winter. As we adjust to a world where extreme weather events are more frequent and other effects of climate change are more apparent, there can be little surprise that Dame Glenys Stacey has warned that the Government
“needs to speed up, scale up and make sure its plans stack up”.
The positive picture painted by the Minister bears little resemblance to the OEP’s report from last week, which found that UK environmental ambitions are “largely off track”. Does the Minister accept the finding that while the Government may be good at announcing major initiatives, they are less effective at developing and delivering them?