Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I do not know the detail of what is happening in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, but I would like to hear more about it. We have made strong efforts in this area, and we must trumpet the fact that we are world leaders in combating climate change. As he knows, we will be hosting COP26, and I would be happy to take him offline, as it were, and pursue this conversation further.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

16. Decarbonising transport will be crucial if we are to meet our net-zero targets, but the cost of electric vehicles remains high. What more can be done to ensure that that cost comes down and is within reach for the majority of people in our country?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

Plenty has been done, and I commend my hon. Friend and welcome him back to his seat after a hard-fought campaign. He will know that through the Treasury and the £400 million fund, we are extending the provision of charging facilities for electric vehicles—that issue is the single reason that prevents people from buying EVs. Manufacturers are clear about our intentions and our 2040 target for the full roll-out of EVs. We are looking to bring that target forward, and the cost curve is coming down.

A Green Industrial Revolution

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con)]

I fully accept that mankind is changing the earth’s climate. I have always worried about how we are altering the air we breathe, but I feel our actions are now turning the weather. I realise that climate is cyclical; there was a little ice age from late medieval times until the 1850s or thereabouts, and the Thames froze over and ice fairs were held. I also believe that when I was a little boy, not very long ago, it was much colder in the winter—that might just be in my mind, but I felt it was more icy. There is too much evidence of ferocious world weather nowadays for us to ignore what is happening.

Health is definitely being affected too. For instance, according to Bromley Council health people, in one recent year there were 60 deaths across the six wards in my constituency because of long-term exposure to polluted air. I agree that we have started to tackle the problem, and we have had some success: carbon emissions have, apparently, been reduced by 25% in the past 10 years, and that is great; and all coal-fired generating stations will be gone in the United Kingdom by 2025. It is also really good news that we are the world leader in offshore power generation. We have increased renewable energy generation sixfold in the past 10 years. In 2018, renewable sources of electricity generation supplied 33% of our electricity needs, which is up from 6.9% in 2010. This is all good news. More and more people are buying and using cars powered by electricity, but they are damn expensive. By 2040, diesel and petrol cars should be almost off our roads, so it seems the future for our vehicles will be electricity, but let us not forget hydrogen, which is another source that can be harnessed to run vehicles. A heck of a lot of investigation as to how that can happen is being undertaken by the car companies.

Of course, our Government have a major part to play in reducing carbon emissions, and we have too; on 27 June last year, Parliament amended the Climate Change Act 2008 to include the commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. That is excellent news. Some say—I accept this—that we could get there earlier, and let us hope that that is the case, but at least we have a target. It would be superb if could get there as soon as possible. If we want to get to zero carbon emissions very fast, we have to accept the penalties: giving up our cars, diesel and petrol; travelling only by public transport; stopping flying off to exotic locations in aeroplanes; and changing our central heating systems.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent point, and he alights on the issue of changing our heating systems. Does he agree that we need to incentivise, within the tax structure, the building of ground-source heat pumps and air-source heat pumps to ensure that they can replace traditional fossil fuel systems and get our carbon emissions down?

[Bob Stewart]

I certainly do, and I want it to happen in my house as soon as possible.

We are decarbonising our economy faster, apparently, than any other G20 country, and we have reduced our emissions by 29% in the past decade, but here is the point: every breath we take is full of something called particulates, which, to be honest, I did not know much about until recently. These particulates—particularly something called particulate matter 2.5—are about 200 times smaller than a grain of sand, so they just float through the air and go into our lungs. They pass into our bloodstream and end up somewhere in our brain, or any of our other organs. I am told—of course, I am no expert, and I suspect that very few of us in the House are experts—that this causes illness and death. Having looked at the January 2019 report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, I understand that only 12% of particulate matter comes from vehicles.

Government Plan for Net Zero Emissions

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2019 Westminster Hall

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) for her brilliant speech. I take pride in the fact that the United Kingdom is the first developed nation to commit to net zero emissions, and wherever we in this House sit on the political spectrum, we can take a measure of quiet pride in that achievement. It is critical to show leadership, because although in this place we rightly focus on what we do as a nation, it is what happens in other parts of the world—particularly China—that will make or break global efforts on this issue.

Consider the Paris climate accord. Emissions in the UK peaked in 1990 and are now 42% lower, but China’s emissions are forecast to peak in 2030. That matters because China produces something like 25 times more emissions than the United Kingdom. We must show leadership so that we can try to impress on nations such as China—it produces more emissions than the United States and Europe combined—that it is in its interests to take those critical steps as responsible global citizens.

What should we do? First, there is new technology, and secondly there is old technology. On the former, if the Minister has not read it already, I commend to him the “Mission Possible” report, which considers how technology can help with those hard-to-abate sectors. That includes specific technological solutions, such as electric drivetrains for heavy transport, or reducing the cost of electrolysis so that we can produce hydrogen at an industrial level. There are already solutions on the shelf that we should consider.

The Government are getting behind other technologies. They have invested around £400 million in charging infrastructure, and there is onshore wind, carbon capture and storage and so on, but let us not neglect old technology. The best piece of technology, which absorbs carbon in a way that is inoffensive and off the shelf is, of course, the tree. Let us therefore take the opportunity to plant trees and lean into our targets.

The hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) made a point about cycling and walking. After the second world war, there was a similar situation in the Netherlands with roads that crowded out cycles. In the 1970s a decision was taken to reverse that—there is no unwritten rule that people in the Netherlands should all cycle; that decision was made by the Government. We could do similar things in this country, certainly in places such as Cheltenham, which is flat and easy to cycle around. We must lean into such suggestions and ensure that we have sustainable transport. With old technologies, new technologies, and global leadership we can get this done.

International Climate Action

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Thursday 26th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

I think the hon. Lady will be delighted to hear about the Ayrton fund, which provides £1 billion for that transition from fossil fuels—including, as I have said, kerosene lamps, coal-fired stoves and so on—to solar power for cooking, heating and lighting. This is a genuine opportunity for developing economies to transition early.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

British carbon emissions are down by 42% on 1990 levels, which is a fantastic achievement, but we are responsible for just 1% of global emissions, and emissions overall are rising. What can the international community do to ensure that polluters such as India and China, which are responsible for nearly 30% of global emissions, clean up their act?

[Andrea Leadsom]

It is absolutely clear that this has to be a global effort. The UK, as my hon. Friend rightly points out, is responsible for a small proportion of global emissions, and those emissions continue to rise. It is incumbent on us all to follow the instruction of the Paris climate change agreements and for the United Kingdom to provide encouragement and do everything we can to lead the way.

Climate Change

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Monday 24th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

I absolutely agree. No one can regard this as somebody else’s challenge, and that goes for the private sector as well as the public sector. Everyone will have to realign their expectations in the light of this commitment because it is genuinely groundbreaking. It is easy to underestimate the significance of what we are gathered to legislate for. This is a world-leading initiative by a developed nation. It is a profound statement of our commitment to a cleaner and greener world.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Clarke]

I will, but I promise not to take more than my allotted time.

[Alex Chalk]

My hon. Friend has campaigned so vigorously on this issue. He is right to say that this is world-leading legislation and that the UK is taking the lead, but does he agree that China, whose carbon emissions are something like 25 times that of the UK, really needs to play its part?

[Mr Clarke]

I do. That is not a counsel of despair. In many ways, we are setting a powerful example that other countries will be inspired to follow. By legislating for net zero, we start to create some of the economic opportunities that other countries will, in turn, be keen to seize. We can set a powerful moral and economic example for other countries to follow. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for his kind words. He, too, has fought long and hard to make this happen, and I thank him for that.

On the economic opportunity, I will briefly bang the drum for carbon capture and storage. The CCC is absolutely clear in its report that we need to deliver CCS—[Interruption.] Contrary to what the hon. Member for Dundee West (Chris Law) said from a sedentary position, the Government are now taking CCS as an integral part of their green industrial strategy. We need to make sure that we get a number of clusters rolled out as quickly as possible, and one of those should be Teesside. I praise the work of the Teesside Collective, which is a pioneering group of industrial companies, all of whom want to see this happen, not least because there are certain industries such as steel, cement, plastics and fertilisers that emit CO₂ as an inextricable part of their production techniques. Even if we fully decarbonised our energy mix, those sectors would still need CCS to avoid contributing to our carbon emissions.

Finally, this is a wonderful example of how the UK can take a moral lead in the world after Brexit, and I praise how we are fighting to deliver the COP 26, alongside Italy, as part of our efforts. If we secure that, I hope we will make the drive for net zero an integral part of our prospectus for the conference.

Net Zero Emissions Target

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I am always strongly supportive of the NFU and its work to make food and farming not only sustainable but a source of prosperity for this country. The hon. Lady is absolutely right that there are challenges and opportunities in how we use land. Across the Government, and I hope across this House, we can work together to make sure those opportunities are reaped and applied so that we can benefit from them in this country and export them around the world.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

This is hugely welcome. A legal commitment to net zero will help to preserve our planet while encouraging the kind of tech and innovation that we can export around the world. It is hugely welcome in Cheltenham, too.

I congratulate the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State on their decisive and historic leadership on this issue. What is the plan to ensure that other countries face up to their responsibilities, too?

[Greg Clark]

I commend my hon. Friend for his well-supported Climate Change (Net Zero UK Carbon Account) Bill and for his fantastic speech in support of it, in which he urged us in this direction. It is a source of great pleasure to me that we can meet his ambitions.

We will have an early opportunity to advance this cause with our international partners and with all countries around the world if, as I hope, we succeed in hosting the next conference of the parties, which takes place next year.

National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Tuesday 4th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Kelly Tolhurst]

Yes.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Naming and shaming is one tool, but does the Minister agree that one of the most powerful tools to increase incomes is to reduce the amount of tax paid by people on low pay? Like me, does she take pride in the fact that instead of people having to pay tax on earnings of above around £6,000, as was the case in 2010, the figure is now closer to £12,000—adding hundreds of pounds to people’s incomes?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

Absolutely, and this Government have made great ground in that regard. This is not about grabbing headlines. It is about ensuring that workers get the pay to which they are entitled, which is why we have doubled the enforcement budget and are collecting more arrears than ever before. There were more than 3,000 successful investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the last year alone. I want that budget to be spent effectively on catching more employers who are underpaying the minimum wage.

Young Carers Support

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Tuesday 12th February 2019 Westminster Hall

[Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen. I echo the sentiments already expressed in both interventions and speeches, including the excellent speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield). If I may say so, responsibility for the questions he posed to the Minister does not sit only in the Department for Education but across Government. If we are serious about this issue, the need to break out of those silos, and perhaps to have a cross-departmental take on all this, is really important.

I will speak principally on the excellent and enormously positive work done in Blackpool, often by our carers centre, which is of long standing. I have had the privilege to work with the centre over my 22 years as the local Member of Parliament, and particularly with its young carers. Over the past 12 months, the centre has supported 666 young carers. Let us bear in mind that this is—I will not say that it is the tip of the iceberg—certainly not the actual number of young people caring for a parent or family member in Blackpool. Various surveys over the years have suggested that the figure is anything between 2,000 and 3,000, which gives some sense of the scale of it.

The other thing about Blackpool, which is also an issue for many inner-city areas and other seaside and coastal communities, is the degree of double transience—of families coming into the town and of people moving within the town, often because of family break-ups or economic hardship. That means that the ability of people who need care to latch on to a local community is much reduced on what it might be in other parts of the country, which puts even more pressure on the work of those young carers.

Nevertheless, the good news from Blackpool is that there has been tremendous progress in the last few years. I have been privileged and very proud to be part of that. In 2016 we all got a little bit of BBC showbiz dust sprinkled on us, because the BBC’s “DIY SOS” programme, which some hon. Members may be familiar with, descended on Blackpool to transform a building, Blenheim House—which is in the constituency of my parliamentary neighbour, the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard), but which serves the whole of Blackpool—into a young carers centre. Literally hundreds and hundreds of volunteers came from across the community, and I, along with some of my councillor colleagues, lent my hod, as it were, by clearing rubble and doing general labouring tasks in the morning. I also pay tribute to the Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust—the local charity and local business that provided the property and has supported the centre very strongly ever since. It is invidious, when one thinks about the work that is done by young carers and the carers associations that support them, to single out lots of individuals, but I do particularly want to single out Michelle Smith, who has done extraordinary things with the centre and everything that has been taken forward from it.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman is paying fitting tribute to the organisations in his constituency. Will he join me in recognising the work of volunteers, particularly the volunteers who assist in my constituency, Gloucestershire Young Carers, because it is their contribution that means that the work can reach so much further and change so many more lives?

UN Climate Change Conference: Government Response

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Westminster Hall

[Anna McMorrin]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. I hope that the Government will consider that very seriously. The lack of leadership from those with responsibility to prevent suffering from climate change, I believe, is shameful. This Tory Government have done little to show that they are serious. We have sat back and allowed other nations to water down our multilateral commitments, and Governments to kick the can down the road and push any concrete decisions on countries cutting emissions to 2020.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

I entirely agree with the hon. Lady, but of course all nations, including this one, must do their bit to meet climate change. It is also important, however, not to run this country down. Is it not right to say that coal production and use is rising in India, Russia and Vietnam, but this country will phase it out by 2024? Is that not something to celebrate?

[Anna McMorrin]

Yes, we are doing a lot on climate change, but not enough, and we are not showing adequate leadership internationally.

Fireworks: Public Sales

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to be able to say a few words in this debate. The petition is quite stark—it proposes banning the sale of fireworks to the public and limiting displays to licensed venues. There is no doubt that that would mark a significant departure. Wherever one stands in this debate, it is important to recognise that that is potentially quite a draconian step. Parliament should think very carefully before infringing individual liberties excessively.

One cannot take that argument to the extreme—we infringe liberty for perfectly good public policy reasons all the time—but we must recognise that we have to strike a balance between the liberty of the individual and social welfare. It is important to recognise that, were we to follow through entirely with what the petition proposes, we would in effect outlaw individuals having small fireworks displays in their back garden and so on. It is important also to note that such individuals may not have the money to go to a public display. Be that as it may, there is concern that things have moved on to the extent that that balance is now being looked at slightly differently. Let me give an indication of that.

I suggested on Facebook that I would speak in this debate, and I invited people to engage with me. I was astonished by the level of interaction by people in Cheltenham. They argued on both sides of the debate, but one thing shone out. One person suggested that

“firework usage has got completely out of control.”

Someone else indicated that many fireworks were let off in the street, particularly in the town centre, and another person pointed out that they were let off over an extended period. In other words, something appears to have changed in where and the extent to which fireworks are used. That may cause us to look again at the balance we need to strike between individual freedoms and the rights of the wider public.

Let me deal first with the point about where fireworks are let off. As I indicated, someone wrote that they were let off in the town centre. Another person wrote on Facebook:

“In Rowanfield people let off fireworks at all hours of the day and night (several times we had them go off in the middle of the night repeatedly, right above our house). I think there are a few who let the side down but unfortunately it means that I am FOR banning the sale of fireworks to the public. People should be encouraged to go to official events instead.”

Right there we have an individual saying the balance needs to be struck differently. Another person wrote that fireworks had dented the roof of his car. I recognise that those may be the actions of an idiotic few, but there seems to be little doubt that they are growing in number, and that is having a significant impact. The second point, about fireworks being let off over an extended period, has been made already.

The third issue is the impact of fireworks, which other hon. Members touched on. Someone wrote:

“As the owner of four rescue dogs, fireworks are a huge problem.”

We have an animal rescue shelter in Cheltenham, and there are a huge number of rescue dogs in the town.

Another piece of feedback particularly resonated with me. Someone wrote:

“As the wife of a veteran, wholeheartedly support this.”

We must recognise that, increasingly, we have people in our society who may be distressed by fireworks. That ought to be taken into account.

Although I recognise that the Government will have to consider this issue, I also recognise that we need to strike a balance. We should proceed with care. It is not enough—he says, speaking against his own argument—simply to act on the basis of anecdote. If the Government are to act, we have to ensure that there is proper evidence. It is perhaps inevitable that there is more feedback around the firework period. We need a scientific process to establish whether that is simply a spike or a recognised long-term issue—we need an empirically based assessment of whether the problem has got worse.

I invite the Government to look at proceeding incrementally with a calibrated response. They might want to consider whether there are other proportionate measures to address the problem; other hon. Members mentioned some. Should we increase the age at which people can purchase fireworks? It is already 18, but is there a case for increasing it still further? Is there also a case for restricting the use of fireworks—not just their purchase—to certain times of year?

In a free society, we in Parliament should be slow to restrict individual liberties, particularly where there might be an impact on individuals who are not able to attend other fireworks displays, but we should look at the issue none the less. There is a huge number of excellent organised displays in Cheltenham. Other hon. Members mentioned displays in their constituencies. We have Cheltenham Round Table fireworks at the racecourse, which attracts 10,000 people and raises money for the Sue Ryder hospice in Leckhampton and so on. Fairview fireworks party at Cheltenham cricket club raises money for St Vincent’s and St George’s Association. A number of people wrote to say that we should encourage people to attend those displays, so as to put more money in the pockets of local charities that do such invaluable work. That is a powerful argument, which ought to be weighed in the mix.

I invite the Government to recognise that there is a problem, establish its scale on the basis of empirical evidence and consider incremental, proportionate steps to address the problem as they find it to be. If, all those things having been done, there remains a growing issue in our society, the Government will have to look with great care at imposing the kinds of measure set out in the petition. It is certainly my experience that this problem cannot be ignored.