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Tag: Speeches

  • Robert Goodwill – 2023 Speech on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

    Robert Goodwill – 2023 Speech on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

    The speech made by Sir Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby and the Chair of the Environment Select Committee, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    Goal 5 of the plan aims at eliminating waste, and while we have made great progress—for example, in phasing out single-use plastics and substituting more sustainable materials for plastic in packaging for foods—the sad fact remains that our local authorities are very good at collecting waste, but the majority of our plastic waste is exported overseas.

    Will the Secretary of State look at two things she could do to improve that situation? First, will she look at the operation of extended producer responsibility, and maybe look at what is being done in Belgium to make sure there is work with industry to incentivise investment in our plastic waste recycling here? Secondly, will she look at setting a date, as my Committee has suggested, for the phasing out and elimination of plastic waste exports to countries such as Turkey, where standards are not as good as ours?

    Dr Coffey

    On exports of plastics, we have recognised this issue and want to make sure that we are not exporting to non-OECD countries, but that does not mean that we give a blank cheque when there are exports to member countries of the OECD. That is why we have a rigorous process in place, but we will continue to investigate, through the Environment Agency, where issues arise and get them fixed.

    On our thinking more broadly, one of our sadnesses during covid was of course the explosion in single-use plastics and the throwaway elements that were necessary for public health. We also had a reduction in our recycling rates. We do want to turn that around, and that is why we will continue to work on the important EPR reforms to which my right hon. Friend referred.

  • Alex Sobel – 2023 Speech on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

    Alex Sobel – 2023 Speech on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

    The speech made by Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds North West and the party’s Shadow Spokesperson on Environment, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement. I am pleased that on this occasion we are actually getting an oral statement, rather than a DEFRA Minister having to be dragged to the House for an urgent question or sneaking something important out as a written statement. However, even on this occasion, she made a speech announcing this plan outside this House yesterday. Unfortunately, my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West and Royton (Jim McMahon), the shadow Secretary of State, is unable to be here, as he has a pre-arranged medical appointment. I am glad the Secretary of State is here to be held accountable, but it must be difficult for her to continue to try to defend her Department’s record.

    The Conservative Government are big on promises but little on delivery. The proof is in the pudding, and the Secretary of State’s own appalling environmental track record speaks volumes. As water Minister, she presided over a new sewage spill every four minutes—321 years’ worth of sewage was spilt in just three years; and she cut the resources of regulators that are there to protect the environment by a third. Her three months as Environment Secretary have not been any better. First, she broke her own statutory deadline for publishing environmental targets. Then she told Parliament that meeting polluting water bosses is not a priority, before announcing measures that inflict more sewage dumping and toxic air on our country. [Interruption.] She can correct the record when she responds. Even her Department’s own regulator, the Office for Environmental Protection, gave the Government “nul points” on their 25 year environmental goals. On chemicals, the Government are missing in action. Their UK REACH system is evidently not working properly. Never mind Dr Dolittle, it is Dr Damage—a lot.

    Let us look at this latest plan, as I have questions. Why will our sites of special scientific interest, which have been so neglected, not be assessed for five years, until 2028? Why is there no mention of reintroducing species to help nature recovery, aid flood management and increase pollination? Does the Secretary of State agree that she is betting the house on environmental land management schemes—ELMs—by relying totally on take-up and farmer co-operation? She had the opportunity to come to Parliament to say, or to outline at the National Farmers Union conference in Oxford, that she is on the side of farming communities, but she failed to do so. Where is she on the Dartmoor issue, and the increasing threat to access to nature? How does she plan to deal with the 1,781 retained EU environmental regulations we are going to have to deal with this year?

    Trust is an important word in politics, and it is clear that there is very little trust in this Government to get anything done. Actions speak louder than words. The environmental improvement plan is full of praise for the action the Government have taken since 2018 to deliver improvements in our air quality, but light on detail on the actions they will take over the next five years to deliver change. That is why when Labour plans to introduce a stand-alone, ambitious, effective and comprehensive clean air Act, it will do what the Minister will not: save lives, save money and clean our air. Labour will expand meaningful access to nature and clean up the Tory sewage scandal. We will hold water bosses to account, not just pay lip service, and ensure that regulators can properly enforce the rules.

    This environmental improvement plan, which was so long in gestation, still has glaring omissions, and there is no evidence on how it will be delivered. Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, said at the plan’s launch yesterday:

    “It’s now all about delivery”.

    Yet, DEFRA has continually failed to deliver. How can we trust this failed Government to deliver for our natural environment? Only Labour will deliver a fairer, greener future.

    Dr Coffey

    Well, what can I say? I am not sure how much that deserves a response, but out of respect for the House I will say that it is important to make sure that these long-term environmental plans are in place. We brought in legislation saying that we would refresh them every five years, and that is exactly what we have done.

    If we are talking about track records, of course the Labour Government never did anything about sewage. They did not know anything about it. [Interruption.] They did nothing—nothing. I am used to the usual spew coming out of those on the Labour Front Bench and, frankly, it is not good enough.

    Let us go through some of the questions on which the hon. Member wanted some updates. On chemicals, we still have the system in place, and as is set out in the environment improvement plan, we will be publishing a chemicals strategy this year.

    On SSSIs, I am very conscious of the risks that exist. There are variations in what is going on around the country, which is why I have asked for an individual plan to be put in place for every single SSSI. Natural England will be going through and making the assessments of what is there and what needs to be done, and we will get on with it.

    I think environmental land management schemes have been transformational. This is a journey for those in the farming industry, who are the original friends of the earth—the people who want a very special countryside—and that is why we have brought forward measures, as my right hon. Friend the Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries laid out to the House when he came here to talk about this transition last week. We will be working with farmers, and indeed I will be at the NFU conference next month. There has not been any NFU conference since I have been in the Government, but we make sure that we continue to speak to farmers and others.

    On retained EU laws, I have already told Parliament the approach we have set out. Where there is legislation that is superfluous, we will get rid of it. We will be looking carefully at all the regulations that are in place, and that is what we are going through. It seems to have escaped Opposition Front Benchers’ attention that we have of course already repealed 146 regulations. They did not even notice, so there we go.

    In the meantime, we want to make sure that we are holding different people to account, but there is an individual endeavour, a local endeavour and a national endeavour. That is why provisions such as those on biodiversity net gain, which will be coming into effect later this year, will start to help local nature recovery strategies. It is why we have announced extra funding for more projects, with second rounds of things such as the landscape recovery scheme. There are also species reintroductions happening in different parts of the country.

    I am very pleased we have published our environmental improvement plan. I think it shows a clear path for how we will get nature recovery, recognising that this has been going on for centuries. Finally, I am delighted to say that we in the UK Government should be proud of getting nature very much at the forefront of international thinking. We are leading the way on that, and we are doing our bit around the world. I trust that we will continue to be the Conservative party because we believe in the conservation of our precious land.

  • Therese Coffey – 2023 Speech on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

    Therese Coffey – 2023 Speech on the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023

    The speech made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    I would like to update the House on the next steps that the Government are taking to help nature recover through our new environmental improvement plan. It is a delivery plan setting out how we will achieve our ambitious, stretching environmental targets, the most critical of which is to halt the decline of nature by the end of this decade. We can and must achieve that, both here in the UK and globally.

    We are already under way. In this Government’s first 100 days, we have already delivered with legally binding targets to halt nature’s decline, clean up our air and rivers and support a circular economy; playing an instrumental role in a new global agreement for nature at the UN nature summit COP15; enacting the legal duty on Government, national and local, on considering biodiversity; publishing our environment principles policy statement; setting out in detail our transformational farming schemes with the full range of actions we will pay farmers and land managers to do to restore nature; announcing we will ban the most commonly littered single-use plastic items from October 2023; agreeing to enact mandatory sustainable urban drainage systems for new development, which will reduce the risk of surface water flooding and pollution; putting in place the plant biosecurity strategy for Great Britain, a five-year vision for plant health to protect native species, with plants providing an annual value of £15.7 billion to the UK; and agreeing with the devolved Administrations our approach to managing fisheries. There is much more I could add.

    Nature is a crucial part of our islands’ story and our shared future. We know what is special with our rare habitats and our iconic species, and we also know the pressures it is under. We rely on our natural capital for a secure supply of food, for clean air, and for clean water, as well as for leisure and genuine joy. However, nature has been taken for granted for too long and used freely as a resource with little thought for the consequences. We have to reverse that and respect nature.

    Seventy years ago, people were waking up to the devastation of the great flood of 1953, in which more than 300 people died, reminding us that the full force of nature can bring us challenges. We took action then and it is why we have continued to invest billions of pounds in protecting people’s homes and in better protecting more than 100,000 local businesses to safeguard around 100,000 jobs. However, nature can also help us to tackle some of our great challenges, so we need to help protect nature too. Undoubtedly and understandably, the pandemic set us back in some areas, as we responded to the emergency at hand. A silver lining to that experience, if any is to be had, was the opportunity for us to reconnect with nature, and I am particularly pleased by our pledge in this plan to bring access to a green or blue space within a 15-minute walk of everyone’s homes, be that parks, canals, rivers, countryside or coast.

    Our focus is on picking up the pace and scaling up at home, and around the world, and that is why we are putting nature top of the international agenda as well. We brought nature into the heart of our collective response to climate change under our presidency of COP26 in Glasgow. At COP27 the Prime Minister said that

    “there is no solution to climate change without protecting and restoring nature”.

    The House may have heard me before extol the marvel of mangroves as the ultimate example of how investing in nature is an essential, effective and cost-effective way to take on a multitude of challenges. The key achievement of 2022 was the agreement reached at the UN nature summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in Montreal.

    To level with the House, there is much, much more to do to restore the natural world. Some of the challenges are not always so easy or so quick to fix as we might all hope, yet I assure hon. Members that with our new legal duty to consider biodiversity, guided by our environmental principles policy, we are embedding nature in the heart of every decision that Government will take for the long haul. We have a plan for the whole of Government to support this national endeavour and we have already started the journey with a great many improvements.

    We are replacing the EU’s bureaucratic common agricultural policy, which did so little for farmers or nature, and rewarding our farmers for taking action to help nature retain and regain good health, reduce emissions and produce food sustainably. Those things are absolutely symbiotic and we are leading the way in making this essential transition. We have cleaner air, with major decreases in all five major pollutants. Emissions of fine particulate matter, PM2.5, the most damaging pollutant to human health, decreased by 18% between 2010 and 2020. I want our air to be even cleaner. That is why we are working with farmers to tackle ammonia emissions.

    Councils ask for a lot of powers, but I need them to use the powers they already have, including on tackling litter and fly-tipping, rather than just asking for more. I will be publishing what they are doing and seeking to share best practice across the country.

    We are accelerating the rate of tree planting. The Forestry Commission will start growing its estate and increase planting, fulfilling its original statutory obligation to help to rejuvenate the forestry and timber industry. We have strengthened the financial support through our environmental land management schemes and we will continue to promote urban tree planting so children everywhere can enjoy their local woods.

    On the chemical status of our water bodies, the science and modelling are clear that it will take decades to recover and heal completely, but we are keeping a spotlight on water quality and getting industry to clean up its act. We are restoring 400 miles of river through the first round of landscape recovery projects and establishing 3,000 hectares of new woodlands along England’s rivers, as well as doubling funding available for the catchment-sensitive farming programme to £30 million in each of the next three years, to cover all farmland in England. We have already seen a huge improvement in our bathing waters. Last year, nearly three in four beaches were deemed excellent—only about half of them were back in 2010—but I share people’s concern about sewage in our waters. That is why we, a Conservative Government, turned on the monitoring, and why we are holding industry to account on fixing this issue. Through our storm overflows discharge reduction plan, we are requiring water companies to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment, an estimated £56 billion of capital investment over 25 years. We have set clear expectations on improvements on which we will track performance. The next formal review will be in 2027, so if we can go further and faster, that is exactly what we will do.

    This issue remains an international endeavour as well. We have a globally recognised track record of action, helping communities protect and restore their national treasures. Reinforced by our science expertise and financial support, we are helping nature around the world. That is the right thing to do and it is absolutely in our interests as well. Having committed to doubling UK international climate finance to £11.6 billion, and to spending at least £3 billion of that on nature, we are building on decades of action, backing efforts to take on the whole host of threats that now face the world’s flora and fauna well beyond climate change alone. We are doing that through the blue belt programme, protecting an area of ocean larger than India around our biodiverse overseas territories, through our world-renowned £39 million Darwin initiative, and through the illegal wildlife trade challenge fund. We are ploughing all that expertise and experience into our newly established £500 million blue planet fund, and our £100 million biodiverse landscapes fund, to help some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities restore, protect and connect globally important but fragile habitats.

    I am so proud that the UK is leading, co-leading and actively supporting the global coalitions that are committed to securing the maximum possible ambition and achieving the greatest possible impact on everything from taking on the scourge of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, to persuading countries to agree a new, legally-binding global treaty to end plastic pollution by 2040, to supporting efforts to establish a global gold standard for taking nature into account across our economies.

    I could spend hours talking about nature, about our mission, about what we have already achieved. As the Member of Parliament for Suffolk Coastal, I am blessed to represent a very special part of our country, with many precious habitats and protected sites, on land and offshore. I always said it felt like I had had six years of a perfect apprenticeship before I became the Environment Minister in 2016. There are many more parts to the plan that we published yesterday. I recognise that we have work to do, and our aim is to catalyse action across Government, across the economy and across the country, with the whole Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs family, our agencies, including Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, our delivery partners and regulators, the whole of Government, and individuals, communities and businesses, from farms to finance, all working together to bring this to life.

    Nature needs us to accelerate and scale up our help if we want to enjoy nature and have its help for generations to come. Together, we can achieve it. Whether someone lives in a city or town, in the countryside or on the coast, we all have a part to play in the truly national endeavour and the decade of global action that we need now to see this through. I commend this statement to the House.

  • Stuart McDonald – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    Stuart McDonald – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    The speech made by Stuart McDonald, the SNP MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East and the party’s spokesperson on Home Affairs, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    May I also start by commending the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Ian Byrne) and his colleagues not just on securing the urgent question, but on all their campaigning work on behalf of survivors and families affected by Hillsborough? The persistence, bravery and decency of the people of Liverpool over these 34 years has been utterly extraordinary in the face of cover-up and smear, but they need more than warm words—they need a comprehensive response. The long overdue police report, while a start, does not provide a complete response. That needs the Government, and we should have had a Government response before now.

    As Bishop Jones has said, the wait has been “intolerable”, and the families are speaking about the bishop’s report gathering dust. I appreciate that questions are being raised that will not be answered today, in the light of the announcement of a spring publication, but can the Minister at least assure us that when that long overdue response from the Government is published, we can have a full debate on the Floor of the House on its findings?

    Secondly, the Minister referred to engagement with the families. There has been some good engagement, but there have been some ropy times as well, so can he say a little more about what form that engagement will take going forward?

    Chris Philp

    I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and for the sentiments he expressed, which I completely understand. In relation to a full debate, scheduling business in the House is not my responsibility, but it would seem to me like a reasonable request to make, and I will certainly pass it on to my colleagues who are responsible for scheduling parliamentary business. Families have been fully engaged. One reason why the independent pathology review, which had been commenced, has been temporarily paused is to allow for more engagement to take place, because families rightly felt that they wanted to be more involved. That engagement is continuing. Critically, before the Government response is published, there will be more such engagement, for the obvious reasons that the hon. Gentleman rightly points to.

  • Yvette Cooper – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    Yvette Cooper – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    The speech made by Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary and Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Ian Byrne), and all the other Merseyside MPs, for pursuing this matter, and I thank my hon. Friend for securing this urgent question.

    Ninety-seven people lost their lives as a result of what happened at Hillsborough on that terrible day 34 years ago. We remember the football fans who never came home, and we must also never forget the shameful cover-up that followed. The Hillsborough families have fought for decades against obfuscation and lies to get to the truth. Everyone hoped that the report from the Right Rev. James Jones would be a turning point, and I welcome the work that the former Home Secretary did in commissioning that report, but it is five years on. The police have rightly said:

    “Police failures were the main cause of the tragedy and have continued to blight the lives of family members ever since.”

    Nevertheless, five years is too long, and what makes this even more shameful is the fact that there is still no Government response to what has happened. The Home Secretary said yesterday that it was because of active criminal proceedings, but those finished 18 months ago, and the work could have taken place even while those proceedings were ongoing.

    In September 2021 the Government announced that the response would be published by the end of the year, and we are still waiting. The Home Secretary also said yesterday that the Government were engaging with families, but what engagement has taken place? Has the Home Secretary met the families? Has she met the bishop? And I have to ask, where is she today? Previous Home Secretaries have shown respect to the families and acknowledgement of the appalling ways in which they have been wronged by being here to respond, and it is a devastating failure of responsibility and respect to them for her not to be here to respond.

    The key measures on which we need a Government response are well known: the duty of candour, the public advocate and the elements of the Hillsborough law. The Labour party stands ready to support that law and get it into statute. Will the Government now commit themselves to supporting it, and recognise what the bishop has said about its being “intolerable”, given the pain of those families, not to have a response? The report is entitled “The patronising disposition of unaccountable power”. Does the Minister accept that that is exactly what this continued delay will feel like to so many families and survivors now?

    Chris Philp

    I entirely agree with the shadow Home Secretary’s opening comments—and, indeed, with what has been said by other Members—about the appalling impact that this has had on the families of those who so tragically lost their lives. When I took my own son to a Crystal Palace football game a few weeks ago, I thought about how awful it must have been to be trapped in those circumstances, which is a terrible thing to contemplate.

    As the shadow Home Secretary said, the police have apologised for the terrible failings that took place on the day and in the years subsequently. It is right that they have apologised to the families, and to the country as well. In relation to the timing, I have already said that there were legal proceedings ongoing. It has been 18 to 21 months since those concluded, which is why since I was appointed I have asked for the work to be sped up, and it will be concluded rapidly and it will respond to all the points in full.

    I repeat the point I made earlier that a number of things have happened already. The right hon. Lady mentioned the independent public advocate. As she will know from her own time in government, where a public consultation has taken place, it is generally speaking a prelude to action. On the question of co-operating with inquiries, the 2020 statutory professional standards for policing did introduce that requirement, but the response needs to cover all the points, and that will happen soon.

  • Theresa May – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    Theresa May – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    The speech made by Theresa May, the Conservative MP for Maidenhead and the former Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    The apology from the police is, of course, welcome, but it would have been far better for them to have done their job properly on that fateful April day, 34 years ago. If they had done so, families of the 97—and, indeed, the whole Liverpool community—would not have gone through the suffering and anguish that they have had to bear over the past 34 years.

    Let me say first to my right hon. Friend that I do not think saying vaguely that the Government’s response will be available this spring is good enough: five years on, they must now publish it. Secondly, does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the elements that can be put in place to help families if, sadly, such an event—a tragedy of this sort— happens in the future is the introduction of an independent public advocate, which was promised in the Conservative party manifesto in 2017? Will he give a commitment now that the Home Office will not put any barriers in the way of the work of the Ministry of Justice in introducing such a body?

    Chris Philp

    As I mentioned, for approximately four years following the publication of the report there were ongoing criminal legal proceedings which nobody wanted to prejudice, but, as I have said in the House and as the Home Secretary said yesterday, we do now want to get on and respond quickly and comprehensively to the bishop’s report. As for the introduction of an independent public advocate—a measure being worked on by the Ministry of Justice, as the right hon. Lady said—a public consultation has taken place. The response is being worked on in the usual way, but it is happening at pace.

  • Ian Byrne – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    Ian Byrne – 2023 Speech on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    The speech made by Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    Since that awful day on 15 April 1989, 97 people have died directly from the actions of South Yorkshire police and other agencies, including the emergency services, the Football Association and Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, with families destroyed and survivors traumatised—so traumatised that many have since taken their own lives.

    The lies and smears from the cover-up by the establishment, which acted with impunity and arrogance because it could, meant that justice was never delivered for all those who have died and suffered since. In 2017, Bishop Jones delivered the report “The patronising disposition of unaccountable power: A report to ensure the pain and suffering of the Hillsborough families is not repeated.” Shamefully, we have not yet had a Government response to his recommendations in the report commissioned by the then Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May).

    Yesterday, Bishop Jones said that the delay was intolerable. His recommendations are, in essence, the Hillsborough law, which so many in this place and outside have since campaigned for. We must always remember that these recommendations are to ensure that no other community goes through the suffering that we have endured since 1989. They will hopefully futureproof the ability to gain justice.

    Yesterday, we finally had the response to the report from the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. This was the first apology from the police force for its actions since the disaster 33 years ago. For so many, including myself, it is far too little and far too late.

    Yesterday’s recommendations from the police did not go anywhere near far enough to change the culture that we came up against in our quest for justice. I ask the Minister whether this Government will do the right thing for future generations in our nation and implement a Hillsborough law containing Bishop Jones’s recommendations with immediate effect. The families and survivors of so many disasters and consequent state cover-ups deserve nothing less, and these injustices must never again be allowed. If a Hillsborough law had existed in 1989, we would have had a chance of justice for the 97; without it we had none.

    Chris Philp

    I fully understand and respect the sentiments that the hon. Member so powerfully expressed in his remarks. On the timing and the years that have passed since the bishop’s report, for much of that time there were ongoing legal proceedings and, of course, no one wanted to prejudice those for obvious reasons. That accounted for about four years—from 2017 to about May 2021—but about 21 months have passed since then and I agree that the Government response does need to come out quickly. Indeed, since my appointment a couple of months ago I have asked for it to be sped up, and I want to make sure that that happens this spring, following, of course, consultation with the families, which is extremely important. That will include responses to the points that the hon. Member made.

    I reiterate that the statutory changes made to the professional standards for policing in 2020 include a duty of co-operation on police officers in relation to inquiries, which, as he has said, is very important. He is right: we do need to get on and respond comprehensively to the bishop’s recommendations, which is what I am working on.

  • Chris Philp – 2023 Statement on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    Chris Philp – 2023 Statement on the National Police Response to the Hillsborough Families Report

    The statement made by Chris Philp, the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, in the House of Commons on 1 February 2023.

    I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question. I know this is a subject with profound personal resonance for him. I pay tribute to him and many others for the work they have done and continue to do in memory of the victims of this awful tragedy and to ensure that the lessons are learnt.

    The Hillsborough disaster was an awful, devastating tragedy. Its impact continues to be felt to this day, especially by the families and friends of the victims. I am sure the thoughts of the whole House are with them. It is imperative that lessons are learned from the experiences the Hillsborough families have gone through, so I am very grateful to Bishop James Jones for the report he produced, which highlighted a number of points of learning for the Government, the police and other agencies.

    As my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said during yesterday’s debate, the Government are fully committed to engaging with the Hillsborough families prior to the publication of the Government’s formal response. Since arriving in the Home Office two or three months ago, I have asked for this work to be sped up, and we are expecting it to come out in the course of this spring. The National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing published their response earlier this week. I welcome their commitment to avoid repeating the mistakes that were made, and I welcome the apology that they gave. They made it clear that strong ethical values and the need for humanity and humility in the police response to public tragedies are critical. One of the commitments they rightly made earlier this week was to substantially strengthen and update their own code of ethics in relation to these issues.

    Some important steps have been made by the Government in the past few years, which have addressed a number, but not all, of the points that Bishop James Jones published. For example, in 2020 a suite of police integrity reforms was introduced, on a statutory basis, via the professional standards for policing, which included, crucially, a duty to co-operate with inquiries. Other initiatives have already been taken forward to support bereaved families, including the removal of means-testing for exceptional case funding to cover legal support for families at an inquest, which broadens the scope and access for families; and the refreshing of our “Guide to Coroner Services for Bereaved People” so that it is more tailored to their needs and provides improved guidance for others involved in the inquest process. The Inquiries Act 2005 also provides a statutory process for funding legal representation requests. Last year, the Home Office also established an independent pathology review, and additional consultation with the families is now taking place. A consultation has also taken place on retaining police documents, which was the subject of a recommendation made by the bishop, and the Ministry of Justice has also consulted on establishing an independent public advocate.

    Those steps are important. They go a long way to improving the situation, but they do not cover everything that the bishop recommended, which is why we will be responding in full. We intend to do so in the spring, but after, of course, full and deep engagement with the families concerned.

    The Government are committed to making sure that these lessons are learned following this awful tragedy and I, as the newly appointed Police Minister, will do everything that I can to work with Members across the House, particularly those representing the affected communities, to make sure that this does now happen quickly.

  • Liz Truss – 2023 Article Reflecting on Her Time as Prime Minister

    Liz Truss – 2023 Article Reflecting on Her Time as Prime Minister

    A small section of the article written by Liz Truss, the former Conservative Prime Minister, in the Sunday Telegraph published on 5 February 2023.

    The date of what inevitably became known as the mini-Budget was set for Sept 23. In hindsight, perhaps we could have delayed it for a few days. However, much longer than that would have meant not sticking to our commitments.

    There were concerns in some quarters that the announcement would not be accompanied by forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). However, the OBR’s core purpose is to produce twice-yearly forecasts on whether the Government is on track to meet its fiscal targets. Commissioning a report at that juncture would not have been appropriate, given that the forecast would have been unable to take into consideration the future spending decisions we planned to outline in the Medium Term Fiscal Plan a few weeks later.

    It’s also worth recalling that no OBR forecast has accompanied many other fiscal announcements, not least the Covid-19 furlough scheme, which cost £70 billion.

    As I had spelled out during the leadership campaign, I wanted to go for growth by reversing the proposed rises to corporation tax and National Insurance and implementing a programme of economic reform in order to prevent recession and stagnation and put the UK on a positive path.

    But this was not in line with the instinctive views of the Treasury or the wider orthodox economic ecosystem.

    I saw first-hand during my two years as chief secretary to the Treasury that pessimism and scepticism about the growth potential of the British economy are sadly endemic at the Treasury: serious planning reform was dismissed as not politically deliverable; discussing monetary policy was a taboo; deregulation of financial services and other industries was viewed as undermining the prospects of a deal with the EU; and Brexit was seen as a damage-limitation exercise rather than a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

    Instead, the focus from the Treasury was on micro, top-down tinkering such as productivity initiatives trying to encourage firms to become more efficient, along with government intervention.

    Our Plan for Growth was a conscious break from this orthodoxy – focused instead on stimulating competition and economic freedom with incentives from the ground up. The plan comprised the energy package, reversing the tax rises, some additional tax simplification measures, and a package of economic reforms to help grow the economy and build long-term gains in its growth potential.

  • Andrew Griffith – 2023 Speech to The City UK’s Annual Dinner

    Andrew Griffith – 2023 Speech to The City UK’s Annual Dinner

    The speech made by Andrew Griffith, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to The City UK’s Annual Dinner on 2 February 2023.

    Good evening, everyone, and thank you for the invitation to speak to you. And thank you Miles for your kind introduction.

    Your contribution to the sector, to the economy, to people’s lives is well known.

    Along with related professional services, you contribute over 10% of the country’s GDP, 2.2 million jobs. The largest capital market in Europe and the second largest in the world. And that’s before we think about nearly

    £76 billion in total taxes which is enough to fund the entire police force and school system.

    The UK is fortunate to have such a strong sector. We know that you have a choice of where to locate and will never take you for granted.

    You are part of our history.

    London was one of the first ever stock exchanges to be founded.

    This year marks 250 years since a group of stockbrokers

    moved to Sweeting’s Alley to set up a formal club.

    Before then, for close to a century, they’d be working out of the City’s coffee houses because they were deemed too uncouth and rude to be allowed into the Royal Exchange, the City’s centre of commerce.

    Of course, I’m sure nobody at all would have that view today!

    But in all seriousness, from those humble coffee house roots – shared by insurers at Lloyds Coffee Shop – the entire financial services sector has become a data and markets giant.

    From early trading in precious metals, to the telegraph revolution, ticker tape and real time prices. And in between all of the innovation, supporting war efforts, funnelling money into infrastructure and tackling the issues of the day.

    We are at our best when we are contributing to solutions to national and global challenges.

    It was almost a year ago today that we received intelligence about tanks amassing on the Russian border with Ukraine.

    As Putin’s barbaric invasion got under way, you came together to help deliver the biggest economic sanctions in history.

    With the help of the UK insurance sector – really the world’s insurance sector – we followed this by implementing a price cap on Russian oil, further undermining Russia’s ability to profit from aggression.

    And finally, when people’s livelihoods were at risk from a global pandemic, you stepped in to help us support businesses and families with your payments capabilities. So for everything that everyone in this room has done and your individual leadership – thank you.

    As we emerge from a difficult few years for our country, we need to turn our attention to the long-term.

    We have five clear priorities.

    Halve inflation. Grow the economy. Reduce debt. Cut waiting lists. And stop the boats.

    Three of these priorities are about the economy. That’s because the prosperity that it’s our job to deliver can only come on the back of economic stability and growth.

    Yes there are economic headwinds, but we have the highest employment rate for half a century, inflation is lower than 14 other EU countries, and the private sector has grown by 7.5% in the last year.

    And last week a survey of business leaders by PWC said the UK was the third-most attractive country for CEOs expanding their businesses.

    As the Chancellor said last Friday, our vision for the UK is an enterprise culture built on low taxes, reward for risk, access to capital and smarter regulation.

    With volatile markets and high inflation, sound money must come first but our ambition is to have nothing less than the most competitive tax regime of any major country.

    Delivering stability means making sensible choices on spending to tame inflation: not exposing the most vulnerable, but also not believing we can simply spend our way to prosperity.

    As a former CFO myself, I know the importance of balancing the books and I recall graphicly what it was like trying to issue capital in the uncertain markets post 2008.

    But we are well placed. All of the natural advantages which have brought us here remain. Our language, culture, great cities and the rule of law.

    Our universities are ranked second globally for their quality and include three of the world’s top ten. In order to support the ground-breaking work they do, the government has protected our £20 bn research budget, now at the highest level in history.

    Your government has a mandate and a majority and only this week Parliament was passing important financial services legislation.

    The Prime Minister has set out five domains of outsize growth and potential where Britain is up with the very best in the world.

    Advanced manufacturing, the clean energy revolution, life sciences and digital technology. And of course, financial services.

    As your champion I make the case that we count twice. For without efficient and effective capital markets we cannot hope to exploit the potential of the others.

    We are fortunate to be one of the world’s top two financial hubs and the world’s largest net exporter of financial services. Your capability to deploy capital behind innovation combined with our research strengths, makes our aspiration to be a technology superpower ambitious but highly achievable.

    One would think it was self-evident that growth is good.

    As Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy

    Studies, argues in his report “The Morality of Growth” that to some, growth has become the enemy.

    Obviously, I disagree. This entire Government does.

    That’s important because the private sector, we must never forget, is what drives growth and lets us invest in public services.

    And, as Colvile writes, “firms are most effective at doing good when they do well – when they are profitable and successful and attractive employers”.

    Let me speak personally for a moment. As we chart our course in a globally competitive marketplace, we have to be clear eyed about what it is that we want to be good at.

    My view is simple: if we can’t be globally effective in financial services, we should all go home now.

    It is my job to help you achieve that. To remove friction, to support and celebrate risk takers and to shape regulatory frameworks that are well regarded but agile.

    As I’ve said before, this sector has had more reviews than Netflix. Many of the authors and contributors are here tonight. We know what we want to do. Now is the moment to get on and deliver.

    We are taking this forward in a number of ways: through the Financial Services and Markets Bill, and through the Edinburgh Reforms.

    Unleashing the sector, realising potential, delivering for you and for UK plc.

    My ambition is for us to be the global financial hub – using our strengths to enhance strong relationships with jurisdictions all around the world, attracting investment and increasing opportunities for cross-border trade.

    I want to work hand-in-glove with you this year on the priorities I have agreed with the Chancellor.

    First, is to deliver the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

    To get that on the statute book by Easter so we can unlock the reforms it contains.

    Second, as I’ve alluded to, is boosting competitiveness by delivering the Edinburgh Reforms.

    Third, and related, is to unleash private capital to invest in all those growth sectors I mentioned earlier.

    And fourth, I want us to bolster financial inclusion and support retail savers and investors.

    Good regulation has the power to be a positive tool to enable you all to compete in a global world.

    I am grateful to TCUK for your work on how the regulators’ authorisation processes can be made more efficient.

    This is an important area, and one that I have raised with the leadership of the FCA and the PRA.

    I am pleased that they have committed to make improvements and I am grateful for their collaboration.

    In order to strike a better overall balance, the Financial Services and Markets Bill will introduce a new secondary objective in law for the PRA and the FCA on growth and international competitiveness.

    That’s important, and taken with a number of other measures, we do expect to see a real change.

    And I want to put to bed any idea that this is about a race to the bottom: the government’s vision is about making UK regulation more proportionate and simpler whilst retaining high regulatory standards.

    Nor do we seek to diverge for divergence’s sake. In running international businesses, no one wants to add extra complexity or difference. The ambition of a European MoU remains.

    Whether it’s implementing the outcomes of Lord Hill’s Listing Review or making regulation more tailored for the UK market, we’re ensuring we remain one of the best countries in the world to do business.

    As the Chancellor laid out just days ago, if we’re going to have successful Enterprises – growing companies need capital.

    That is why we have selectively used the regulatory flexibility we now have.

    One of the most tangible examples – one that will unlock over £100 billion of pounds for productive investment, creating jobs and prosperity – is reforming Solvency II.

    It is a change that will unleash capital into productive investments, such as offshore wind.

    It will allow the insurance sector to play an ever-greater role in providing opportunity to left behind communities and our transition to Net Zero, with the industry expecting to invest more than £100 billion over the next decade.

    Good for business: good for the country.

    And then there’s an issue close to my heart: financial inclusion.

    What does that mean?

    It means making sure all people, regardless of their background or income, have access to the useful products and services which help them succeed in life.

    And let me be clear: this isn’t woolly talk.

    We’re driving tangible measures.

    Take access to cash. You don’t need telling that one of the macro trends we’re likely to see continue this year is a move from cash to electronic payments.

    Yet cash is something that millions cannot currently live without.

    Those in rural communities, the elderly, those who use cash to manage personal finances.

    That is why, for the first time since the ancient Kelts began minting coins in the British Isles, this year will see communities’ benefit from new laws to protect access to cash.

    It is also a personal mission to foster an environment that supports individual savers and investors.

    This is a government that will always be on the side of those saving for the future or their retirement.

    It’s these steps – and more – that show we mean it when we say financial services need to deliver for everyone.

    Finally, one of the reasons this sector is so successful is innovation. We want to do everything we can to ensure that UK financial services are at the forefront of technological advancements.

    Just look at fintech – what an incredible UK success story.

    Despite a challenging economic backdrop, the sector attracted $12.5 bn of investment last year.

    That’s second only to the US globally. It’s more than the next 13 European countries put together.

    We are committed to turbocharging the growth of the UK fintech sector with the new Centre for Finance, Innovation, and Technology – CFIT.

    Indeed, today we’ve heard the exciting news that Ezechi Britton has been appointed as the CEO of CFIT.

    He brings extensive experience as a fintech entrepreneur and in venture capital investment.

    Building on our FinTech lead, we are going to go further, establishing a framework for regulating cryptoassets and stablecoins.

    Just yesterday we published a consultation setting out comprehensive proposals for regulating the sector. It’s a big potential opportunity – I want to get it right so am actively seeking your views.

    The golden thread here is innovation. Being at the forefront of change, is how we will make the UK the natural home of innovative financial services companies.

    Rather than looking enviously at our competitors, I want them to look to emulate us.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, Miles, I am excited.

    Excited to be in this job, and excited to be able to push ahead with a significant programme of work for the balance of this year.

    The opportunity we have is substantial and the moment to seize it is right now.

    Together we can continue to build the UK as one of the world’s most competitive locations for financial services.

    A financial services superpower that will help secure the long-term economic wellbeing of the country.

    Thank you again for your welcome, thank you for listening and thank you for everything you continue to do for this industry and this country.