Climate Change

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

I will relay the noble Baroness’s suggestion to the Chancellor and he will consider it within the Government’s fiscal policies.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, it is rare that I disagree, or have the trepidation to disagree, with the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, but does my noble friend agree that tidal power is utterly predictable?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

I entirely agree with my noble friend that it is predictable. It is another emerging technology and one that we are investing in with academia to try to see its development around our coast.

Japanese Knotweed

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I certainly shall. As I said to the noble Baroness, obviously, we want to use nature- based solutions to many of the diseases and problems that humans, and indeed animals, have. I shall certainly put a copy of any information that I have in the Library and send a note to the noble Lord.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

May I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, on taking up the mantle of my noble friend Lady Sharples so ably.

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

Both my noble friend Lady Sharples and the noble Lord are tenacious in seeking to deal with this very difficult plant.

Single-use Plastics

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 1st October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, we have said that we will be introducing the environment Bill in the second Session. I very much look forward to it, if I am in position, and hope that this will be something on which we could all work, because that is one of the key features. When I make inquiries about whether we need primary legislation for some of things we need to do, I am advised that we do. That is why it will need to be done through the environment Bill. I absolutely take the point: we have a finite planet and the longer we wait, the more damage that we will have to deal with. We are still producing too much plastic; that is why we need to advance and why the Plastics Pact is so important in working with industry. We are starting to see success on that, but we need to do a very lot more.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, would it not be highly advantageous if we were to follow the example of the National Trust and replace plastic wrapping with that made from potato starch, which is compostable?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I declare my membership of the National Trust, and indeed, my compostable bag was put on my compost heap over the weekend.

REACH etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2019 Lords Chamber

I see the wrinkled faces of those opposite me and they will be glad to know that I have reached the end of this point. There are clearly many flaws in this statutory instrument. Some of them have been highlighted also by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee and I am sure that we will hear about others from my noble friend Lord Teverson. That is why I have tabled this amendment and I await the Minister’s response with interest. I beg to move.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

I should inform the House that, if this amendment is agreed to, I cannot call either of the other amendments to the Motion on the Order Paper by reason of pre-emption.

[Lord Whitty (Lab)]

My Lords, in the light of that, I should like to speak to my amendment and to the contributions made so far. It is some time since I have found myself on the Front Bench, so I had better observe the niceties.

First, I thank the Minister for spelling out these complex regulations. No one denies the need, post Brexit, for robust regulation in this field. However, I contend that the way in which the Government are going about it is causing excessive bureaucracy and cost. The Minister rightly referred to the work that his department has done in talking to the industry, and the industry appreciates that, but he must be aware that there are still grave concerns among large sectors of the industry and firms, as well as downstream firms, about the situation post Brexit. I thank his department for all that work and I thank him for producing the latest UK REACH guidance yesterday, bringing together previous technical notes and updating them, but it is a little late given that these regulations were laid when we thought that by Friday we might be out of the EU.

I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Fox, for his amendment. I agreed with pretty much every word he said and I will try not to repeat his points—at least not at great length—but I disagree with the purport of his amendment. The regrettable fact is that we are in an unenviable position here. These regulations could have come into effect on Friday and might still come into effect in two and a half weeks’ time. As is the case with so many of the no-deal contingency regulations that we have been through, whatever we might think and whatever the ideal outcome might have been, industry, consumers and the workforce need some degree of certainty about what happens on Brexit day and the day after. If we do not have these regulations, as is the intention of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Fox, we will be in a legal vacuum. Given the complexity of this area, the potential danger and the hazardous nature of many of the chemicals covered by the regulations, as well as the legal and insurance situations, I suspect that a lot of trade will grind to a halt. That would be very dangerous for the environment and very expensive to the sector.

Infrastructure Planning (Water Resources) (England) Order 2018

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Wednesday 21st November 2018 Grand Committee

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, the Government are pushing for it on behalf of the nation in so far as we undertook consultation. With climate change and population growth, we need to prepare. We wish to place a greater emphasis on the environment and therefore to deal with overabstractions. We need to find ways of having sufficient water, given the projections of an increase in population. This is about planning. We do not expect the projects to which this measure will apply to take place in the next five years; this is about forward planning. We think that these changes will probably embrace about six projects in England. The noble Lord asked who is driving this. We need to take a public responsibility to ensure that there is sufficient water for the nation. Yes, we should cut consumption where we can, but, because of population growth and climate change, we are bringing forward this measure now as part of our forward planning. It will involve public engagement, but that is the background to it.

On conclusions and criteria, we needed to make sure that we consulted, so we consulted on our initial proposals last November and then held a more detailed consultation in April. There was broad support for our approach from a range of stakeholders who responded, including water companies, environmental groups and other interested groups.

In reaching a conclusion on the new thresholds, we considered a number of factors, including the physical size of the infrastructure in question, the size of population that could be served by its output and the major infrastructure the Government anticipate will be needed in future. This is likely to require developers to engage with a number of planning authorities and other regulatory regimes. We also wished to move to a level playing field so that different water resource schemes are all required to meet thresholds that are as consistent as possible to qualify for consideration under the Act. This should help avoid developers favouring one scheme over another just because they prefer one planning route over another.

In making these amendments, we are introducing a consistent metric to measure the output of each infrastructure type. This metric is known as deployable output and is commonly used by the water industry for water resource planning. Deployable output is an annual average measure of the number of litres of water a particular piece of infrastructure can be expected to produce in a day under drought conditions. We concluded that a project expected to have a deployable output of 80 million litres per day—a level that could serve a population of around half a million people—is a nationally significant infrastructure project.

As explained, the order will amend qualifying thresholds for two existing infrastructure types mentioned in the Act and introduce a third—desalination plants. In the case of water transfers, this order would reduce the size of the threshold that projects would need to meet to qualify as nationally significant in line with the number of people served—that is, 80 million litres per day.

There will now be two ways for reservoirs to qualify for the streamlined planning process under the Act. The order would introduce a deployable output measure, consistent with transfers. However, we have chosen to retain a measure based on physical volume, recognising that the size of reservoirs matters. This is not just because of the impact they can have on neighbouring communities, but because a large reservoir takes a long time to drain down. Thus, with a relatively low deployable output, it can be an important part of overall water resource resilience. We have increased the volume for reservoirs to qualify under the Act from 10 million cubic metres to 30 million cubic metres.

We have also introduced desalination plants as a new infrastructure type. Consistent with the other infrastructure types, if the deployable output of a given desalination plant is expected to exceed 80 million litres per day, the project can be considered under the Act.

While the national level is the right one for decisions on nationally significant infrastructure, it is vital that those communities directly affected have their say and are heard in the decision-making process. The Act and regulations made under it set out the consultation requirements for development consent order applications. I can assure your Lordships that extensive pre-application consultation and engagement with those affected by the proposals will need to be undertaken by applicants. Furthermore, members of the public can participate in the examination process by registering their interest, thus ensuring that local views can be heard.

The main benefit to the developer of projects meeting the criteria in the Act is that they will face a less complex, consenting process with quicker decision-making. A number of consent requirements, such as planning permission, listed buildings consent and scheduled ancient monument consent, are replaced by a single consent, issued by the Secretary of State, following advice provided by the Planning Inspectorate.

It is the Government’s intention to designate a national policy statement for water resources infrastructure under the Planning Act. This policy statement will summarise government policy—

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, it has just been drawn to my attention that a Division has been called in the Chamber. Since we have a few seconds to go until 6.25 pm, the Grand Committee therefore stands adjourned until 6.35 pm.

Plastic Waste

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 9th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, since the Government heard of China’s decision in July, a great deal of work has been done. I can assure your Lordships’ on that. It is clear that the last resort is always landfill. More reuse, recycling and energy recovery in this country is the top priority. Landfill will always be the last resort. The noble Lord is right about the role of the Environment Agency, which is very important. It has been working with key partners and issuing guidance. It is important that the well-being of the environment is the number one priority,

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend may not be entirely surprised by my supplementary question. Does he agree that it would greatly mitigate the effect of the decision by the Government of China if we stopped wrapping just about anything and everything in plastic?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, my noble friend makes an important point. What we want to do, through the resources and waste strategy which will be published later this year and the clean growth strategy which was published in October last year, is to see zero avoidable waste. We want to see less packaging and that the plastic we do use is readily recyclable.

Water Bill

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, I contributed to the Bill in Committee but that was all on the Flood Re insurance aspects and did not relate to this part. However, in listening to the debate on sustainability and resilience, I was struck by the points about whether the Bill was worded strongly enough as regards the importance of sustainability. I recall the reply in Committee from the Minister, my noble friend Lord De Mauley, when he made it absolutely clear that Ofwat has had a stand-alone statutory duty to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development since 2005. In response to what the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, has said, I would like to turn it a different way round and say that this is actually about the outcome produced, and whether sustainability is strongly enough part of the Bill.

I pay tribute to the work of my noble friend Lord Redesdale in this respect. With this amendment, the Government have delivered the outcome that we want. The question is whether Amendments 61, 62 and 63 are sufficient to meet the arguments that were put forward in favour of the word “sustainability” at that stage. I think that these amendments are sufficient, and I have two reasons for concluding so. First, the resilience duty now requires the promotion of increased efficiency in the use of water. Additionally, the amendments made on Report in the House of Commons mean that the resilience duty includes a requirement that the sustainable management of water resources should be promoted as part of that resilience duty. In practice, therefore, the sustainability test is now being met.

Secondly, the Blueprint for Water coalition of environmental groups, which includes the World Wide Fund for Nature, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, makes it clear in its comprehensive briefing for this Report stage that the Bill satisfies its previous call for Ofwat’s secondary sustainable development duty to be raised to a primary duty. I find its support for the Government’s position reassuring in this respect.

With the other proposals relating to abstraction reform, together with Ofwat’s existing trading and procurement code, which includes a sustainability clause, I think that the Government have made their case and should therefore be supported. Again, I pay tribute to the role of my noble friend Lord Redesdale and his advocacy on this issue. His efforts in Committee have produced the amendment that we are debating today.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes)]

My Lords, perhaps I can be of assistance to the House, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Whitty. Paragraph 8.137 of the Companion to the Standing Orders says quite clearly:

“On report no member may speak more than once to an amendment, except the mover of the amendment in reply or a member who has obtained leave of the House, which may only be granted to … a member to explain himself in some material point of his speech”.

My interpretation is that provided the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, gets the leave of the House, he is able to answer—if he so wishes, of course.

[Lord Whitty]

I am not sure whether the leave of the House is divisible business. With the leave of the House, I will explain to the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, that the sustainable development duty under the current Ofwat remit is a secondary duty. For several other regulators, including Ofgem, it is now a primary duty. That is what my amendment seeks, and it would cover social, environmental and economic matters, not simply resilience and water efficiency.

Horsemeat

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Thursday 14th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

The noble Lord is absolutely right that what we have to do at the end of this is learn the important lessons. I entirely agree with him on that.

[Lord Geddes]

Is my noble friend aware of this problem arising elsewhere in the world—in other words, outside the European Union?

[Lord De Mauley]

That is an interesting question. I am sure that countries in the rest of the world have their own problems. I am not aware of this specific problem arising elsewhere.

Public Bodies (Abolition of Regional and Local Fisheries Advisory Committees) Order 2012

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Grand Committee

Motion agreed.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, is not able to be present just this minute. The Grand Committee therefore stands adjourned until 4.35 pm.

Foxes

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, my understanding is that it could be illegal to do so under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 if it were to cause distress to the fox, which I imagine it would. Obviously, it would depend on the individual circumstances of any capture and release.

[Lord Geddes]

My Lords, would my noble friend consider whether a repeal of the Hunting Act would assist in this context?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I was wondering when that question would come up. I have a feeling that the repeal of the Hunting Act would not make much difference in relation to urban foxes in Hackney.