Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

Earl Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 30th April 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK is an outstanding report, which needs to be read by chairmen of risk companies all over the world. It identifies precisely that this problem is not just about the environment but about risk. The net-zero economy grew by 9% last year. The value of net-zero technologies is now £74 billion, and the same will happen for nature. Therefore, there is an economic imperative as well as one that should drive us because we need to do the right thing for nature.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, the UK was an early adopter of the TNFD framework, and it is great that more 300 businesses have now signalled their intention to sign up. What actions are the Government undertaking to promote and champion the framework internationally, particularly at key global functions such as the G7 and the G20 summits this year?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

Climate and nature finance are raised at all those fora. The most important thing is that the Government have put a large amount of money in. We have backed the Green Finance Institute, a wonderful organisation, with £4.8 million to do a number of different pieces of work for us. This is being talked about in all sorts of fora and was mentioned last week at the World Bank spring meetings. It is now embedded in how risk is talked about as well as in how Governments are supporting a global endeavour to get some universal baseline which companies can understand and which is not overburdensome but which makes them look at their supply chains.

Forest Risk Commodity Regulations

Earl Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The Government are doing a lot to prevent deforestation in addition to this measure, which, as she knows, came from the Glasgow leaders’ declaration we led on at COP 26 to put an end to deforestation and land degradation by 2030. We are putting this in place. The noble Baroness asked for the date on which it will be laid. We have a few tweaks to make, because we are in negotiation with the EU to make sure that we are getting this right for Northern Ireland. We are working with the EU. With products that come from other countries and are then processed and exported to the EU, we will be working under two systems, and we want to make sure we are getting that right.

In addition, we are doing a range of different activities, including our investments in forests and sustainable land use. Our Partnership for Forests has mobilised £1 billion in private investment and has brought 4.1 million hectares of land under sustainable management and benefited over 250,000 people. I could go on. We are doing a lot in addition to this measure.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, while we welcome these measures, we note that Defra consulted on them in December 2021. They only cover illegal goods and apply to businesses that have a global turnover of over £50 million per year and use over 500 tonnes of beef, leather, cocoa, palm or soya oil per year. Will the Government commit to full alignment with the EU’s deforestation regulations, which cover all forest commodities sourced from both illegal and legal deforestation?

Office for Environmental Protection

Earl Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, raised the issue of peat. The England Peat Action Plan committed us to restoring 35,000 hectares of peat-land by 2025—which is fairly soon—through the nature for climate fund. Through the net-zero strategy we are also committed to restoring 280,000 hectares of peat by 2050. We will bring forward legislation this year to ban the use of peat in horticulture. That is just one area that the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, raised. I also draw her attention to our 34 new landscape recovery projects, which show that we are on track to have 70% of land in environmental land management schemes by 2028. This is progress and has real benefits to our environment on the ground.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, launching the annual assessment, the chair of the OEP said that

“government’s plans must stack up. Government must be clear itself and set out transparently how it will change the nation’s trajectory to the extent now needed, in good time”.

We do not yet have that clarity or transparency. What action will now be taken to meet the key delivery plans, the interim targets, and to implement an effective monitoring and evaluation learning framework?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The noble Earl probably missed what I said earlier about the fact that this report covers just two months since the announcement last January—a year ago—of the environmental improvement plan. In a year’s time, he will be able to see how we are doing against that through the next report, in the summer. Through the Environment Act, noble Lords on all sides were rightly keen to ensure that there is an accurate monitoring and reporting system. These are not state secrets; this is 800 pages of data that we can share that underpin the targets that we produce in that plan. We are committed, through parliamentary processes and through the OEP, to report on those monitoring methods. We will continue to do so in an open and transparent way.

Environmental Policies: Timeliness and Effectiveness

Earl Russell Excerpts

Monday 22nd January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, the Office for Environmental Protection’s annual report shows that the environmental improvement plan, which sets out legally binding targets, is meeting only four out of 40 of them. With the OEP keeping legal action under active consideration, the Government taking almost a full year to respond to the first OEP report, and the Minister in the other place saying only that the Government will respond in due course, will the Minister give a firm date for when they will provide a formal response to this serious report?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The Environment Act requires the Government to respond within 12 months, and we will respond considerably more quickly than that. I know that the noble Earl is asking me a question, but does he agree with me that this is without any measure of doubt the greenest Government ever? I am proud of that and happy to be held accountable for all these measures. We brought in a landmark piece of legislation in the Environment Act. We have brought in so many other measures that have addressed long-awaited needs in this environment, and without doubt we have the greenest Government ever.

English Flood Defences

Earl Russell Excerpts

Thursday 30th November 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Earl Russell]

To ask His Majesty’s Government, following widespread flood damage caused by both storm Babet and Ciarán, what action they are taking to ensure all English flood defences are fit for purpose.

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Benyon) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are working closely with the Environment Agency and other relevant authorities to ensure that flood defences impacted by recent flooding are repaired. Following Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán, more than 14,000 inspections of flood protection assets have been conducted, with action taken wherever performance was compromised. We have allocated more than £200 million a year for the maintenance of flood defences and aim to achieve getting 94% to 95% of flood-risk assets to their target condition.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, extreme weather is now the new normal. When it comes to flood events, I am not certain that we are ready for the future. Although I recognise that the Government have doubled capital funding, information from the National Audit Office just two weeks ago revealed that the number of properties to be protected from flooding by 2027 has been cut by 40%. In addition, Unearthed has shown that 40,000 of England’s vital flood defences are so damaged as to be almost useless. Why are there no longer-term plans or concrete targets for flood defences beyond 2026-27? Is it time for a full review of our flood defences?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

We constantly look over the horizon to make sure that we factor in important phenomena such as climate change and the extreme weather events we are seeing. The National Audit Office has reduced that figure principally because of the inflationary effect on the cost of building concrete and steel defences. Of course, that is only part of it; nature-based solutions are now becoming a key part of our defences. I really question the Unearthed data. The Environment Agency puts all defences in a category from 1 to 5. If it is a category 4, meaning that it is not where you want it to be, it still functions in the main. When we know that a flood is coming, a minor change can be made. That was an unfair description by Unearthed; the figure of 94% to 95% of our assets being in good condition is worthy of comment.

Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (Substitution of Cut-off Date Relating to Rights of Way) (England) Regulations 2023

Earl Russell Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con)]

My Lords, I have tabled a parallel regret Motion but, before I get to that, I will say what a pleasure it is for those of us who have followed this through the long night—many years—to see the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, back in his place. He has been with us for many of these debates, and he and I have debated many times in the past. I know he has not been in the best of health, and I am sure I speak for the whole House when I say that we wish him back here in full health ASAP.

When I joined your Lordships’ House in 2000, one of the first Bills I was involved with was the Countryside and Rights of Way Bill, as it then was. I remember a short debate on footpaths—it was before I made my maiden speech, so I did not participate—during which the Labour Government Minister pointed out that there was a 25-year timetable during which we could finish this task. The universal reaction to this was, “Well, that’s job done, isn’t it?”. This just shows how wrong we all were then. During the intervening 20 or so years, I have had the chance to raise, and support other Members of your Lordships’ House raising, this important policy issue. So I find myself echoing the famous words attributed to a football manager: “It’s déjà vu all over again”.

We heard a magisterial speech from the noble Baroness, and I will not repeat what she said. One issue that could usefully be picked up is the work of the stakeholder working group, which was an attempt to draw together all the people who have an interest in footpaths. It was set up in 2008 and reported unanimously in 2013. On 20 January 2022, nearly two years ago, I put down a Question for my noble friend on whether the Government would set a date for the commencement of the provisions of that working group. I received the famous words that

“the Government intends to lay legislation as soon as reasonably practicable”.

That was two years ago, and it will shortly be seven or eight years since this group reported unanimously. The Government really must decide that we can use this information to try to pull together the many people who have an interest in this area.

My regret Motion is rather more specifically focused. I thank my noble friend most sincerely for his five-year extension. Of course, I am disappointed that there has been something of a U-turn in government thinking, but half a loaf is better than no bread. My Motion points out that while we have put off the potential car crash for five years, it is still unlikely, given the glacial progress we have made over the last 20-plus years, that we will solve the problem in five years from now.

Before I go any further, I need to put on record, as I have previously, that I am a member of the Ramblers and have been briefed by it, as has the noble Baroness. As a brief background to Members of your Lordships’ House who are not familiar with how bureaucratic the system is, I will give a short personal example.

My family investment company owns a trivial amount of agricultural land in Shropshire, a county that features quite high on the list in the Ramblers briefing. Our family policy is that if an adjoining field becomes available, we will make an offer for it. So it was that a couple of years ago we purchased a field with a footpath that went diagonally across it. Every year, in accordance with the regulations, after the crops had been planted we went on a quad bike with a sprayer on the back and sprayed out the two-metre wide strip, through the middle of the crops, that followed the line of the footpath. Obviously, you lose a certain amount of land from that but, equally, you are asking people to walk across a ploughed field and a sown field that is muddy, wet and so on. The corners and sides of the field have headers, two-metre strips of grass that protect the hedgerows and the wildlife in them.

It occurred to us that it might be a good idea, and better for walkers, if they could use the strips rather than the mud, so we discussed it with Shropshire Council. I have only praise for its help in the work it did with us, which was very constructive and helpful—but, my goodness, the process you have to go through. This small change affected one cottage. I spoke to the people at the cottage and together we sent in a letter from them saying that they had no objection. There was silence.

Some months went by, and we were then told by the legal department of the county council, “Sorry; it wasn’t in the right form to meet the regulations”. So back we went with another set of letters. The trouble is that this goes on and on. We started this in February this year, and we are told we are unlikely to have a determination, a final resolution, before early summer next year. That will be a year and a half just to redirect, not to remove or add to, a footpath in a way the county council thinks is beneficial for walkers.

The time and effort and diversion of precious resources to carry this out seems disproportionate. It seems to me really important that we discuss and tackle the one size fits all that we have built into the regulations. The Defra plan—here I quote from the excellent report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee—is that it will

“speed up and streamline existing bureaucratic procedures”.

That is a critical decision. It needs to be brought in, and quickly, if it is to have any measurable impact over the next five years.

At the heart of my regret Motion is concern about performance and how we instil a sense of urgency in this issue. How do interested parties monitor the progress—if any? We have this debate today and my noble friend, in winding up, will no doubt give us enthusiastic and encouraging words that we will all be pleased to hear. We will then go on our way, and the danger is that the status quo will prevail.

How might performance—actual and relative—in different local authorities be measured? How, as a result, might a certain amount of pressure be supplied to the laggards? There is a wonderful new body called Oflog—the Office for Local Government—which might have an important role to play. I shall quote a couple of lines of the Written Ministerial Statement from July, when its establishment was announced. It said:

“Oflog is a new performance body focused on local government in England. It will provide authoritative and accessible data and analysis about the performance of local government, and support its improvement … By collating, analysing, and publishing existing data about the relative performance of councils, it will help councillors and the public have the information they need to scrutinise more effectively … it will ensure council leaders can compare themselves against their peers and find examples of good practice to learn from; and it will allow central Government and their partners to identify where there might be challenges and a need to step in to give support, where appropriate”.—[Official Report, Commons, 4/7/23; cols. 35-6WS.]


It seems to me that Oflog hits all the hot buttons as far as footpaths and their preservation are concerned. If, as I fear, my noble friend the Minister is unable to say in his reply that he is already on the case and Oflog is the answer, could he give the House undertakings that he will examine the possibility of Oflog being used in this case; and that he will write to all Members of your Lordships’ House who have participated in the debate as to what progress has been made and what the results of those discussions were?

I conclude by saying, as is common ground among all of us, that the network of footpaths in England and Wales is a unique and irreplaceable resource. We surely have to use the next five years to establish an approach that will preserve it for future generations.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, for their regret Motions. My view is that the Government have got themselves in a bit of a mess with this statutory instrument, which was laid during Prorogation and has not had time to be debated in the House.

Obviously, the funding promised in the original Labour Government Act to be given to voluntary bodies has never really materialised. These reforms should have been delivered and monitored long before 2026 to inform enactment but endless delays have prevented this happening. Although most bodies welcome the extension of the proposed cut-off date, most bodies also oppose the implementation of Part II as a whole. Defra’s decision to bring into force the relevant provisions in Part II with immediate effect and without any agreed exemptions for now is not a welcome development.

The regulations that have already come into force extend the cut-off date by which time applications have to be made to local authorities to register historic rights of way for footpaths and bridleways from 1 January 2026 to 1 January 2031. This reverses the previously understood position that the cut-off date would be repealed altogether. After the new date, any unregistered historic rights of way in England will be extinguished unless they are subsequently found to be exempt from the cut-off date, but these measures are yet to be announced.

Defra has argued that it does not expect any significant impact on business, charities or local authorities, but there is already a considerable backlog of applications and many more cases are expected to come with the new extended cut-off date. Each case costs many thousands of pounds and, as we have heard, the process for this is extremely complicated. The new cut-off date will have considerable impacts. Among the 21 local authorities for which data is available, there are 4,000 applications for a definitive map modification, 80% of which are likely to be pre-1949 rights of way. Based on calculations, it has been estimated that these backlogs alone could take 20 years to work through.

The number of applications will continue to increase the closer we get to the final cut-off date. The additional costs on local authorities, voluntary bodies and landowners alike will be considerable—estimated to be as high as £40 million. How will the Government ensure that the additional financial burden for this extension is paid for? How will they ensure that the existing backlog of cases is dealt with and that there is sufficient capacity in the system to meet the projected future applications? What happens to any cases in the system that are not processed before the cut-off date? When will clarity be given on the grounds for the exemptions that Defra says will be put in place? Footpaths are a precious national resource; we must work to ensure that none is lost, never to be replaced.

Libya Floods

Earl Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 19th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I totally agree with the noble Lord and his premise that Libya is economically very rich. Since the disputes broke out, which continue to plague the country, there has been corruption and a lack of co-ordination and administration. Some reports suggest that that led to the collapse of the infrastructure—particularly the two dams which directly impacted and devastated Derna. I can assure the noble Lord that we are working with the UN. Prior to this crisis, I had engaged with SRSG Bathily on reconciliation and bringing the two sides together. I hope to meet him again when I am in New York later today and during the next two days.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, the apocalyptic floods in Libya are now estimated to have killed 11,000 people, with 10,000 still missing. Their intensity and impact have been aggravated by global warming. Since 2020, the UK’s aid budget has fallen from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI. I implore the Minister to think again, particularly as the original aid budget was set before the world had to respond to regular climate disasters.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

We have talked many a time about the need for aid, and the Government are committed to returning to 0.7% at the appropriate time. I am sure the noble Earl would acknowledge that the United Kingdom has been at the forefront of support in both Libya and Morocco, and we continue to engage in this respect. I am sure the noble Earl has been following media and other reports and will know that this is not just about climate. There are some serious issues around accountability, particularly about the maintenance of the dam. We are awaiting a full assessment in that regard. There is an acute responsibility on the part of those who administer this part of Libya.