Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 1st February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

We will continue to work with the EU to try to find a long-term solution. Of course, we have to find that solution. Those negotiations are ongoing, and I do not want to pre-empt any of those discussions from the Dispatch Box, but we do recognise that we need a long-term solution to solve this challenge.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

T1.   If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Barclay)]

Since I last updated the House, the Government have been delivering on their plan to back British farmers. We are now seeing an average increase of 10% in our environmental farming payments so that farmers can protect our environment and continue to grow the food that we need. Recent storms have threatened the livelihoods of many farmers, which is why, alongside the wider flood recovery framework, I announced financial support of up to £25,000 for farmers who have suffered uninsurable damage to their land.

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of our environmental improvement plan; I will not repeat the announcements we touched on earlier, Mr Speaker, given your steer on brevity. Finally, it is worth reminding the House that we have passed Second Reading of the Pet Abduction Bill, which introduces stricter sentences for those who steal dogs and cats. Pet abduction causes huge trauma to families and to pets, and we are taking decisive action to address those crimes.

[Mark Menzies]

Flooding has caused repeated damage to homes across rural Fylde. Last week, I held a multi-agency meeting with Fylde’s flood authorities, which updated me on the work carried out since our initial meeting last July. From blocked culverts to overflows from highways and apparently insufficient drainage on newly built estates, the causes are wide-ranging. At the meeting’s conclusion, I asked the agencies to provide a written breakdown of their action plan. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the plan and how his Department can assist?

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 23rd February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

The clean air strategy of 2019 specifically identified indoor air pollution. Ongoing ventilation, and advice on that, is the standard approach. That is true of things such as scented candles and cleaning products. Although the chemicals are changing, a lot of the chief medical officer’s fairly recent report is already contained in the strategy. It is important that we tackle air pollution in all sorts of ways, but the best advice to improve indoor air quality is to keep windows open for five to 10 minutes a day to allow fresh air in. That will significantly help to reduce some of the impacts, and that is needed.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

T2.   I thank Ministers for their continued support on coastal flooding, including the £10 million allocated to upgrade flood defences in Fylde, which is a low-lying, largely flat coastal peninsula, meaning that even inland areas remain vulnerable to flooding. The Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow), visited Fylde and saw that for herself, but will she join me for a further visit to the affected areas, and commit to producing a long-term plan to relieve the issues?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rebecca Pow)]

I very much enjoyed my educational visit to Fylde to understand the benefits of our flood spending. Even in low-lying areas, there are benefits of protecting the businesses, which felt safer. Tourism and active travel on the great embankment had been strengthened. I would be delighted to come back if my diary permits it to see the further work that is being done to get even more out of the funding that the Government have committed to from our £5.2-billion budget.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

We are always open to recommendations, suggestions and proposals from people in all walks of life, whether they are on any type of formal committee or not. The point I was making was that we have our own national food strategy, which is itself running a large engagement process to engage people in many of these ideas. We will of course consider those ideas as we put together future policy.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con) [V]]

In recent years, flooding Ministers have worked with me to deliver the multi-million pound Lytham Dock Road pumping station and the £17.4 million Church Scar sea defences. We now need that same level of focus to address considerable inland flooding in parts of Fylde. Will Ministers meet me to discuss how we tackle that challenge?

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 28th March 2019 Commons Chamber

The right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, was asked—

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

8. What steps the Church of England is taking to mark the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood.

[The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Dame Caroline Spelman)]

There are a number of significant anniversaries this year. It is the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination as priests, the 50th anniversary of women being made readers and the fifth anniversary of women being consecrated as bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury has held a special service at Lambeth Palace to celebrate the anniversary, and events have also been taking place in diocese.

[Mark Menzies]

Throughout 2018, celebrations were rightly held in honour of the centenary of the women’s vote. What plans does the commission have to carry on in that vein for the 25th anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood?

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

Our plans are to pursue our determination to encourage more women into the priesthood. For the record, I share with the House the fact that the number of female clergy is now at a record high: women now make up nearly a third of the 20,000 active clergy. More importantly, there are those in the pipeline: more than half those entering training for the priesthood in 2018 were women.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 13th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am shocked by the Secretary of State’s mother’s observations. I have a vivid imagination, but I find that utterly inconceivable.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

T4. The Secretary of State will be aware that consent has been given for the first horizontal shale gas site at Preston New Road in my constituency. Will she assure me that the Environment Agency will conduct immediate on-the-spot inspections, and that many of them will be unannounced? What powers does the Environment Agency have to close down a site if it finds it to be in breach of regulations?

[Andrea Leadsom]

I am very happy to reassure my hon. Friend that we have a robust regulatory framework in place to ensure that shale exploration is carried out in a safe, sustainable and environmentally sound manner. The Environment Agency can undertake announced and unannounced inspections, and if there is any breach of a permit condition or a serious risk to people or the environment, it can take a number of enforcement actions, including the immediate ceasing of operations.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 14th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Luke Hall (Thornbury and Yate) (Con)]

11. What assessment she has made of the potential effect of the Government’s decision on the level of the fifth carbon budget on investment in the low-carbon economy.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

13. What assessment she has made of the potential effect of the Government’s decision on the level of the fifth carbon budget on investment in the low-carbon economy.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Andrea Leadsom)]

The UK’s system of carbon budgets provides the long-term certainty that businesses need to invest in our low-carbon economy. The Government announced last month that we would accept the advice of the Committee on Climate Change on the level of the fifth carbon budget. That announcement has been widely welcomed by the business community.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrea Leadsom]

As my hon. Friend would expect, we are already busy working on that plan with other Departments, businesses, consumers and civil society. For example, we are already in discussion with the CBI, the Aldersgate Group and Energy UK among others to arrange specific stakeholder events, ensuring that our emissions reduction plan is built from the ground up, with input from a range of stakeholders.

[Mark Menzies]

Westinghouse nuclear fuels is the second largest employer in Fylde and produces nuclear fuel for 15% of the UK’s electricity production. What assurances can the Minister give that this Government will continue to support the UK’s domestic nuclear fuel industry and take us to a low-carbon future?

[Andrea Leadsom]

Nuclear power is a vital part of our work to build a secure, affordable and clean energy system to keep the lights on in the decades ahead. The Westinghouse facility in my hon. Friend’s constituency has a crucial role to play, providing the fuel that powers our nuclear fleet, as well as employment to many in his constituency.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Finally and very briefly, Mark Menzies.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has a very important visitor centre at Fairhaven lake in my constituency. The Ribble estuary, one of the most important estuaries anywhere in the UK, attracts about 270,000 birds per year. What are the Government doing to ensure that local children are engaging with the RSPB and gaining bird knowledge?

[Rory Stewart]

That is a fantastic result—270,000 birds. The Environment Agency and Natural England are working very closely with the RSPB in the Ribble estuary. Connecting children to nature is absolutely essential. If we are to protect nature for the future, people need to love it. The key is to ensure that children not only access nature, but understand it and respond to it.

Flooding

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Monday 7th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The response efforts over the weekend and the preparations put in place by the Environment Agency, the emergency services and Army personnel have been fantastic. They have been working their socks off on the ground to protect people, and we are all very grateful for what they have done. My role is to make sure that we are co-ordinating those efforts and giving the local teams all the support they need. On Saturday and Sunday I spoke to the gold command to ask whether they needed any additional support and resources, and whether all those resources have been made available. Of course, we will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the resources are available on the ground.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

May I put on record my thanks to the emergency services and to officials at DEFRA and the Department of Transport for the work they have put in over the weekend? Will the Secretary of State assure me that she will continue to work with farmers in my constituency to ensure that the devastation that some of them have suffered over recent days will be looked at with sympathy?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. As well as making sure that farmland is protected as part of our six-year flood defence programme, we will look at the specific impacts on farmers. The farming Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), will do more work on that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 5th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

We held a workshop in Manchester as part of our food and farming strategy development and I am delighted that some of my hon. Friend’s constituents were able to contribute. Data and technology will form a crucial part of our food and farming plan. We are using the way in which we can harness data to improve plant health, animal health and crop yields, for instance. It is therefore vital to the future of our agriculture.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

11. How many flood schemes are due to begin construction in 2015 under the Government’s six-year flood defence programme.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rory Stewart)]

The Government planned to launch 161 schemes in this financial year, providing extra protection for 70,000 households. As this is the Environment Agency’s flood awareness week, let me take the opportunity to remind everybody living in risk areas for flooding that there is a very important personal responsibility to remain in touch with the Environment Agency, particularly through the winter months.

[Mark Menzies]

I thank the Minister for the work that the Department is doing with the flood protection schemes in Fairhaven in my constituency. Fylde also suffers from inland flooding, so will the Department consider schemes to alleviate the flooding impacting on high-quality farmland in Fylde?

[Rory Stewart]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. I am glad that he recognises the work that has already been done along the Fylde coast, which is one of the top six projects for the Environment Agency. Nearly £80 million has been spent on protection along the Fylde coast. On farmland, the Dock Bridge pumping station and the work that my hon. Friend has done with farmers in situ are extremely important and I look forward to meeting him and the Environment Agency.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Menzies Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The details of the €500 million scheme have yet to be decided, but I am clear that it has to go to immediate help for farmers. We know that many farmers are struggling to pay bills and have serious cash-flow issues, so as well as long-term measures such as getting a futures market for dairy to give more confidence and promoting exports, we need to help with cash flow, which I am clear is a real issue in Northern Ireland.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

T5. May I thank the Secretary of State and her team for the efforts they made to help to eliminate the cryptosporidium virus that affected households across Lancashire for up to five weeks, leaving them without clean drinking water? Will she look into the levels of compensation, which I believe are currently completely inadequate, being offered by United Utilities to the homes and businesses affected?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I welcome the fact that the final boil notices were lifted on 6 September and that compensation has been offered, but I understand that for many businesses this really was a difficult period in which they incurred many additional costs. I would be happy to discuss the issue further with my hon. Friend.