El Niño
Debate between Lord Katz and Lord Harris of Haringey(3Â weeks, 4Â days ago)
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Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)
My Lords, I refer to my interest in the register as chair of the National Preparedness Commission. I recall that I asked a very similar Question to my noble friend’s a couple of months ago. I am slightly disconcerted by the assumption that this will somehow not have an impact on food supplies, because directly and indirectly it will. The most likely outcome of the enhanced El Niño—the once-in-a-millennium event that we are now being told it may be—is that far more extreme storms will affect us. My noble friend the Minister has responded very much on behalf of Defra, but I wonder what other departments are doing to prepare the sectors that they are concerned about. How will they withstand and respond to what may be extremely severe weather conditions?
Lord Katz (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for his question and for all his work on national preparedness. To be clear, I am not saying that there will not be any impact on supply chains but, on wider food security, we can at the moment have greater certainly around the evidence that there will be an impact. He raised a very important point about cross-government preparedness for the consequences of wetter weather and flooding. Activities are currently under way. The national flood response centre will be stood up for a testing exercise very shortly. The Floods Resilience Taskforce, which is across departments, government, and local, regional and devolved national Governments, is preparing an assessment of flooding risk and preparedness. It will meet in October to discuss those plans. I also note that Flood Action Week begins next month on 12 October and it coincides with national resilience week, which will help combine the importance of these messages.
Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address Motion
Debate between Lord Katz and Lord Harris of Haringey(6Â months, 2Â weeks ago)
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Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)
My Lords, we have time to hear from both Benches. Let us go to the Labour Benches first and then the Conservative Benches.
Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)
My Lords, this is not the first political appointment to an ambassadorship, including that in Washington, which has not been without controversy. But would the Minister confirm that there are some circumstances in which it is appropriate for there to be a political appointment, rather than one which is selected from Civil Service ranks, provided it is quite clear that that is the responsibility of the Ministers making the appointment?
Secondly, could she confirm that it is quite common for organisations that are facing what may seem quite unreasonable severance requests from individuals to make a judgment about what the cost is of fighting those arrangements and to reach a balanced decision?
In the circumstances where people are criticising the nature of some of the material being published and trying to read too much into it, is it not the case—as Bismarck said, if you ever like laws or sausages, never watch either being made—that this minute inspection, which quite properly the Opposition have demanded should be released, will reveal the imperfections of any process in government, or indeed anywhere else?
English Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling and Dredging
Debate between Lord Katz and Lord Harris of Haringey
Lord Katz (Lab)
At the risk of repeating myself, we are not undertaking a blanket ban, because it is important that we can support fishing and other marine activity where it is not damaging marine ecosystems. One of the reasons that we are having the consultation is to understand the detail of it, but there are some MPAs that are not about fishing activity but other protection. We are looking in a proactive way to understand how best to protect water column activity, for instance, as well as to ensure that our seabeds are protected. I will not be drawn any further on the timetable, but we are clear about the importance of proceeding at pace while taking the fishing industry, marine conservation organisations and the wider community along with us. The Wildlife Trusts called the Secretary of State’s announcement the other day a “great step forward”. Oceana UK said it was a
“golden opportunity to safeguard these vital marine sanctuaries”,
and, frankly, I agree with them.
Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)
My Lords, I do not think there has been a Labour questioner so far on this. I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for his responses on this, but can I ask—I refer to my interest as chair of the National Preparedness Commission—to what extent the security position is also being factored into these discussions? Quite clearly, damage to undersea cables and pipelines is a serious problem and bottom trawling will not help.
Lord Katz (Lab)
My noble friend is absolutely right, and this is why we are serious about taking action in this area. When it comes to national security or promoting biodiversity and protecting our marine environment, we want to work with all stakeholders to get this right. I would be very interested to hear the views of the National Preparedness Commission and other such authorities in understanding the impact of bottom trawling on this important kind of national infrastructure.