Environment Bill

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, my interests are in the register; my family’s interests as farmers, landowners and growers of bulbs and other horticultural crops are, I think, known to most noble Lords. In my early days, I was much involved in various agricultural organisations—I am a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farmers and the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. But, more to the point, nearly 10 years ago now I was a Minister at Defra, handling environmental matters in this House, alongside my noble friend Lord Benyon, who was at that time a Member in another place. I think that he and I would agree that Defra and the Government have made much progress in moving the environment up the priority list over these 10 years. Indeed, the passion of the Minister, my noble friend Lord Goldsmith, in presenting the Bill, bears witness to that fact.

The Bill is about our lives on and our relationship with the planet that sustains us. Whether we are talking about climate change, the marine environment or other material issues such as food security, food quality or animal welfare, if we are to be successful, the Bill requires us to use a combination of science, engineering, skill and technology. It is part of a suite of Bills produced by Defra covering agriculture and fisheries.

I know there has been considerable impatience with the deferment of this Bill for consideration in the House of Commons. However, the Bill has benefited from the long period of scrutiny that it has received there. It has had the opportunity of discussion away from the Chamber and the presentation of amendments that have been accepted by the Government. This big, landmark Bill arrives here with full Explanatory Notes and, indeed, the impact assessment referred to earlier by my noble friend Lord Blencathra. All this means that its course through this House will be very well informed, but I have little doubt that it will receive considerable discussion here; the speeches have given evidence of that.

I belong to a group, including many who have spoken today, who are privileged to have lived the majority of their lives working in the countryside. The countryside is an important resource for the whole nation. I want to speak on behalf of all those who share that privilege and responsibility. Our discussions are bound to centre around the effective function of the office for environmental protection, which has been mentioned by several noble Lords. The operation of environmental improvement plans—on air pollution, water quality, water management—will be integral to the progress of the Bill. The noble Lord, Lord Framlingham, talked about trees in towns, woodlands and forests. We have talked about biodiversity, or nature, as my noble friend Lord Blencathra would prefer, and we know what this means. We have lost a great deal of biodiversity and nature in this country, and we need to engineer its return.

One thing I am rather disappointed has not been discussed is the sense of local space for all matters concerning local government, which is a delivery agency for much of what we require in environmental conservation. This applies to all government bodies, and government centrally too: finding local places for action is the most important and effective way of delivering, because the environment is about place if nothing else. I mentioned the privilege and responsibility of being entrusted with the small corner of the environment that is our farm. The ELM scheme set up by the Agriculture Act relies on trusting the farmer and the landowner. The noble Earl, Lord Devon, made clear that he believed we must provide for local governance of many of the environmental changes.

I spoke earlier about following the science. It tells us not just what to do, but how to do it while measuring, monitoring and recording the consequences of these actions; and so it is with the Bill. We need to rely on the science; that dynamic is reflected in its framework structure, and I make no apology for that. Through the Bill, we are embarking on a journey that affects the future of the planet and, as I said, we need the ability to re-evaluate in the light of experience. We as legislators should maintain this flexibility in the structure of the Bill.

Noble Lords have rightly pointed out that a huge degree of secondary legislation will hang on the Bill, but that provides us with the flexibility that the Bill needs to be effective. I am afraid that I disagree with the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, on this matter and think that the Bill will work better with effective secondary legislation. My noble friend Lord Blencathra, chairman of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, made clear how welcome it is to see that so many of the statutory instruments in the Bill are of the affirmative procedure.

My contribution to Second Reading is not based on issues—not that issues do not matter or that they will not come up during the progress of the Bill in this House—but is as a generalist in welcoming the Bill for the opportunity that it gives us, the world and the time that we live in.

Environment Bill

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 21st June 2021 Lords Chamber

So we need to make the Bill a lot better, and indeed we talked about that in our debate on the first group of amendments. This group of amendments is where we start to concretely see how we can make the Bill larger and stronger. Amendments in this group have some serious force and detail behind them. I do not necessarily expect the Minister to respond in detail to everything I have said today but, in terms of nitrogen, I hope that the Government will see the arguments coming from all sides of the House, in particular from the noble Lord’s own side, that soil quality has to be there. We need to greatly improve the Bill and this group gives us some really important ways to do it.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, I see this as a key grouping and I intend to speak to Amendment 10, moved so ably by my noble friend Lord Randall of Uxbridge. It is ironic that we are debating this issue on the day of the summer solstice. However, I am an enthusiast for the Bill, and I think I share that with the previous speaker—although perhaps she is more prone to amending the Bill than I would be. I want to see the Bill on the statute book and, from past experience, I am averse to yet another approach to lists. Dream or not, they do not appeal to me, so it must be really something to get me to seek a change in a Bill.

However, light pollution is a real contamination of our environment. My noble friend drew the attention of the House to the briefing from Buglife, which I too have read, but it is there for us all to see. Light pollution affects not only human health, animal health and bird health; it affects insect health—not only how they function but how they can act as pollinators. There are serious environmental consequences of light pollution. I believe that Amendment 10 picks up on the need for the Bill to allow the Government and local government to set standards, to measure, to monitor and, if necessary, to control, avoid and reduce light pollution.

I must declare my interest in that I am a founding member and vice-chairman of the APPG for Dark Skies. The group was inaugurated by the noble Lord, Lord Rees of Ludlow, and my honourable friend Andrew Griffiths in another place.

There has been a revolution in lighting: you get a lot of lumens for your buck nowadays. Lighting, properly used, is a good thing. It helps us with road safety and street safety, and with personal and property security. All these things benefit from lighting. But, living in a fenland landscape, I can say that bright lights over a porch doorway from a mile away are not a pretty sight. Lighting installed incorrectly and used inappropriately is a menace.

Closer to home, there is a new development that provides a strong focus for the need to control light pollution. Noble Lords will know what I am involved in intensive horticulture, and I am familiar with Westland, in the area of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which glows in the night sky as it produces crops. Nearer to home, I am familiar with the Chichester plain, which also has an extensive glass area under lighting. We are now looking at vertical farming, and that after all poses many of the same challenges.

I believe that by putting this amendment in the Bill, we will have regard for this issue. If we are not going to lose the magic of the night sky, we need to do so. Last night, I watched the programme by Brian Cox on the magic of the heavens. They are a fascinating thing and our birthright. It would be a tragedy if by carelessness we lost this for humankind. I support the amendment.

[Lord Rooker (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I am delighted to follow the noble Lord, Lord Taylor. I put my name on this group only because I want to support Amendment 10. I will not repeat a lot of what the experts said, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Randall of Uxbridge.

Before I say anything about Amendment 10, I want to advise the Minister. In the previous debate, I referred to the preparation of legislation report in 1975. I advise his office to look at the 2013 government report from parliamentary counsel, When Laws Become Too Complex. He does not have to read it all, but it makes a couple of good points about why laws become complex and why Bills have grown: because every group you can think of wants its bit in the Bill. We know it is a competitive arrangement out there from the kind of briefs we get. We get multiple briefs these days, with maybe 20 groups joined together to save us getting 20 separate ones. We need to be very wary.

The idea is to get the Bill and get some action. That is probably more important. The average size of a Bill in 2009—there is obviously some delay here because I take this from the 2013 report—was 98 pages. This Bill is more than twice the average size of a Bill in those days. It already has a huge number of issues that have been planted there by what I will call pressure groups. I am not being critical, by the way, because I agree with many of the speeches that I have heard this afternoon, but I would rather have the Bill and some action than delays to get the holy grail—it will not work.

On light pollution, I was one of those who always approved of permanent summer time—we never managed to get it through—because I think it would be a good idea. I realise there is a problem; the Scots do not want it. It is one of those issues, but I am in favour of it.

The fact of the matter is that presently the Government’s planning guidance, which I think was updated in November 2019, gives advice and guidance but no action. It talks about the common causes of complaints to local authorities. We all know about domestic, shops, exterior security and insensitively positioned decorative lighting. I live—looking out of the window—in Shropshire. I live in the middle of Ludlow, so it is not completely light free, even at night. One or two buildings leave on their security lights, there is street lighting, and even the railways. But the fact of the matter is that looking at the night sky is difficult anywhere in England these days. I also saw the programme with Professor Brian Cox last night. They could not have taken those photographs of 13 billion light-years away with the kind of pollution we have here.

It is the kind of lighting. No action is being taken on the Government’s guidance—I do not think that local authorities do anything on white light sources or filtering out the blue and ultraviolet light. That can be a problem for some people, and not just people. As the noble Lord, Lord Randall, said, the guidance is only for people and does not take account of the billions of creatures we share this planet with. They are being lost because of light pollution. There is a strong case for putting this amendment in the Bill so that we can get some action.