Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 5th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

We have launched a consultation on putting clean air zones in place across the country. This is the first ever national network of clean air zones, which will help to address our target of getting to compliance by 2020 in other cities and by 2025 in London. We are working closely with the Mayor to make sure that we introduce the ultra-low emission zones to help deliver that.

[Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

Is it not the case that 27 out of 28 member states in Europe are non-compliant with the air quality directive? Does my right hon. Friend see this proliferation of clean air zones as one very good way in which the UK could comply with those standards?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. I know that she did a lot of work on this when she was Secretary of State. Our plans have been modelled and will achieve compliance by 2020 in cities outside London and by 2025 in London. Of course we need to work at a European level to make sure that we have real driving conditions reflected in the tests and that we have a coherent framework that reflects both air quality and car tests. There is still some way to go on that front.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 10th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that it is vital that we have superfast broadband across rural areas, including Cumbria, and I note that in Barrow-in-Furness it should be available to 96% of properties by early 2018. The Government’s digital taskforce, of which I am a member, is looking at how we connect those final properties and ensure that everyone has access to this vital service.

[Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

The Churches are keen to offer their buildings to help address better rural broadband provision. Would the Secretary of State be willing to convene a roundtable of interested dioceses and suppliers to share the findings of the rural superfast broadband pilots?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I would be extremely keen to discuss that with my right hon. Friend. In fact, I recently visited a church in Feltwell in my constituency that has linked up to superfast broadband and offers services to the local community in the church, which I think is a fantastic model.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 12th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: pollinators are vital for our £100 billion food and farming industry, and are estimated to be worth £430 million to our economy in services alone. That is why we launched the national pollinator strategy, which will include a wild pollinator and wildlife element in the new countryside stewardship scheme. That means that farmers will have a strong incentive to help pollinators on their land.

[Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

I am pleased to see that Network Rail has joined the Government’s strategy on pollinators, but is my right hon. Friend aware that its practice of removing all vegetation along the railway embankments destroys the habitats of bees and pollinators, and no assurances have been given to my constituents in Hampton-in-Arden that there will be an offset for this biodiversity loss?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank my right hon. Friend for making that point. It is good news that Network Rail, the Highways Agency and other major organisations, including the National Trust, have signed up to the pollinator strategy, and I am certainly very happy to take up that specific point with Network Rail, because major landowners can do so much to make sure that areas are available for pollinators to thrive.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 29th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The Chair of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh) has ingeniously invented the concept of dairy pork. We are grateful to her for doing so.

[Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

Pork exports have shown the way to opening new markets—cheese being a good example of that too. We could do more still at home with public procurement, which would help pork producers and especially our milk producers.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank my right hon. Friend for all the work she did in this area when she was Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. We launched the Bonfield report last summer, which is all about making it easier for our schools and hospitals to buy British. It opens up £400 million- worth of new markets for our farmers, and by 2017 all Government Departments are committed to sourcing locally. Of course, DEFRA has led the way: we now serve British bacon in our canteen, rather than the Danish bacon that used to be served.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 9th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Spelman]

I am very happy to inform the right hon. Gentleman that I have attended every single one of the economic affairs Cabinet committees. The structure of the Cabinet committee is about to be changed, so there will be a sub-committee of the Departments that have the most dealings with Europe. DEFRA, with 80% of its business determined at a European level, is one of those.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

T2. Could the Secretary of State outline plans to reduce the number of organisations carrying out farm visits and inspections, which in south-west Norfolk includes Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Rural Payments Agency, as that places both a burden on farmers and a cost on the Exchequer?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 24th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

19. What plans she has to review the (a) functions and (b) accountability of the Environment Agency.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman)]

In the Queen’s Speech, the Government announced their intention to bring forward a Bill to reform public bodies. DEFRA is carrying out a critical examination of the number and cost of its arm’s length bodies. The Environment Agency is being considered as part of that review.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank the Secretary of State for her answer. I am worried about the bureaucratic and remote nature of the Environment Agency’s processes, specifically on the flooding of the A1101 at Welney and flood defences at Wiggenhall St Germans. Will she tell us how local communities can hold the Environment Agency’s functions further to account and make it more responsive?

[Mrs Spelman]

One assurance I can give about unnecessary bureaucracy is that every one of the arm’s length bodies with which DEFRA does business will be subject to the three tests applied to arm’s length bodies across Government. They are: does it perform a technical function; does it need to be politically impartial; and does it act independently and transparently to establish the facts? The Environment Agency will be subject to those criteria.

I shall certainly take up my hon. Friend’s concerns about flooding. She has made it clear on her website and in a number of interventions how anxious she is to ensure that her constituents are protected from flooding. I shall impress that upon the Environment Agency.