Continuity Trade Agreements: Parliamentary Scrutiny
Debate between Theresa Villiers and Greg Hands(4 years ago)
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Greg Hands
My hon. Friend—it is good to have so many Stoke MPs here, from our Benches, asking questions—is quite right. The CPTPP represents a fantastic future for this country, and I hope that we are able to apply for formal accession in early 2021.
Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)
Our SPS—sanitary and phytosanitary—rules are based firmly on human health concerns, but they can have important animal welfare benefits by barring the import of food produced according to controversial intensive farming methods that would be unlawful here. With that in mind, will the Minister confirm that our trade deals will retain the ban in this country on ractopamine in pork and bovine somatotropin in dairy produce?
Greg Hands
I can confirm that on 1 January under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 all of those existing rules will be transferred over to the UK statute book, and those bans will be maintained, which fulfils the manifesto pledge made by my right hon. Friend and I both individually and collectively last December.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Theresa Villiers and Greg Hands(13 years, 6 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)
The south-east airports taskforce is looking at ways to improve efficiency, tackle queues and reduce delays at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. It is due to report in July.
Greg Hands
I commend the Secretary of State and the Minister for their active and robust campaign to improve the passenger experience. I think that it has improved in recent months, particularly at Heathrow, but I polled my constituents and many of them disagree. Greg Taylor said:
“Compared to Asian airports…Heathrow is a disgrace”,
and James Max complained about
“bad baggage reclaim…expensive food and parking…poor public transport”.
How can my constituents get more involved in the process of improving the experience at Heathrow and other airports?
Mrs Villiers
My hon. Friend is right to give credit to Heathrow for real improvements over recent years. Although terminal 5 started pretty badly, it is now a high-quality facility, and the airport will be investing in a major redevelopment of other terminals, hopefully to bring them up to the same standards. But more needs to be done, which is why we will modernise the airport regulatory framework to put passengers at the heart of the system, to give the Civil Aviation Authority the power to intervene where airports fail their passengers, and to incentivise the sort of investment in improvement, to baggage handling and terminals, for example, that his constituents clearly want. We are also introducing a new consumer panel at the CAA to improve passengers’ ability to influence the regulation of the airport.