Food: Food Banks

Debate between Lord De Mauley and Lord Lucas

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lucas (Con)]

Does my noble friend not take comfort from the fact that there are poor people in Richmond, that we do not live in a segregated society, and that we are not wasting all the food that is in danger of going out of date but are finding a good place for it to go? What would the party opposite do—abolish food banks and send the food to landfill?

[Lord De Mauley]

My Lords, my noble friend makes a fair point. I am not going to accept his invitation to suggest what the party opposite might or might not do.

Horsemeat and Food Fraud

Debate between Lord De Mauley and Lord Lucas

Monday 11th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

My Lords, what is important is that consumers know what they are buying and that labelling is done properly and honestly. Retailers are responsible for both the safety and the correct labelling of the products that they are selling, which is why government work with industry to maintain confidence in the food chain. All systems of standards and quality control depend to some extent on a certain amount of self-regulation and due diligence. While the Government have a role in checking and monitoring industry, particularly where there are public health issues, non-regulatory approaches and agreements can be just as effective and achieved faster than legislation. This can be seen in our approach over recent days, where the Government and industry have come together with the joint aim of maintaining consumer confidence in the food chain.

[Lord Lucas]

My Lords, in a city where you can get an extraordinary variety of meats such as crocodile, kangaroo and ostrich—not to mention snails, fish lips and other exotics—does my noble friend not feel that all this fuss about eating a bit of horse is seriously contaminated with bull?

[Lord De Mauley]

My Lords, I am not sure how to answer that, save to say that I, like my noble friend, enjoy a good variety in my diet.

Localism Bill

Debate between Lord De Mauley and Lord Lucas

Thursday 14th July 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

That the House do now again resolve itself into Committee

[Lord Lucas]

My Lords, according to the programme we are supposed to conclude the Committee stage of this Bill on Wednesday after one further day’s debate. That does not seem to be a realistic prospect. I would like to make good progress with the Bill and the House has the flexibility to do better than that and to give itself some additional time. We could hoof the Education Bill out of the Moses Room on Monday. We could perhaps use the Moses Room on Tuesday or put the Finance Bill into the Moses Room and use the Chamber on Tuesday. We could sit on Thursday. There seem to be a number of options available to enable us to complete the Committee stage of the Bill before we rise. I very much hope that the Government will be able to tell us which of them they propose to use. One way or another, we are not going to complete it unless we do something.