Climate Change: Food Supply Resilience

Lord Teverson Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I am very pleased that the noble Lord thinks the new Secretary of State has made a good start: I agree. It is very encouraging that the new Prime Minister has also been talking about farming, rural businesses and rural communities in a very positive way, understanding that we need to better ensure that rural communities are properly represented across government. Defra takes this very seriously, and we will continue to work with other departments to stress that point.

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, it is essential for domestic food production that we have a healthy population of pollinators, yet our pollinators have declined since the 1980s by a quarter, particularly certain bee species and hoverflies. What are the Government doing about that issue as it applies to the sustainable farming incentive and biodiversity net gain? We must solve this problem for the future.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

One of the things the Government are doing is working to promote more sustainable farming, because sustainable farming will turn this around and make the difference. We must support our pollinators by looking at how we farm and what we spray on our farms. That is why I am very pleased to have recently been given the pesticides brief, and I will be working to see what we can do in that space.

Also, we have threats from non-native invasive species—the yellow-legged hornet is causing all sorts of problems. We are working very hard to tackle that as well, because there are threats from all sides, as the noble Lord says.