Latest news with #EnvironmentalAuditCommittee
Powys County Times
24-07-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
MPs urge ministers to introduce long-awaited rules on supply chain deforestation
MPs have called on ministers to introduce long-awaited rules aimed at removing products from UK shelves that have been farmed on land where trees were cut down. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) wrote to Environment Secretary Steve Reed calling for urgent action to tackle the issue in supply chains. Under the previous Government's proposals, businesses will be prohibited from using or selling goods containing palm oil, cocoa, beef, leather and soy linked to deforestation. This due diligence system was part of the 2021 Environment Act but ministers are yet to bring forward the necessary secondary legislation or set a timetable for when they will do so. EAC chairman Toby Perkins asked Mr Reed to set out a specific date for introducing the legislation 'ideally before the New Year' so that the rules can be in place for the new financial year in April. The letter said: 'Delays in bringing forward this legislation makes the Cop15 agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and the UK's commitment to ending deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, harder to achieve. 'However, it also leaves businesses with uncertainty and will leave them with less time to prepare and comply with the regime. 'On 2 June, in your response to the Committee, you recognised the urgency of taking action to ensure forest risk commodities are not driving deforestation and stated you would set out the Government approach in due course.' Several British supermarkets recently warned that they are in 'limbo' waiting for the Government to introduce the new rules. In an open letter earlier this month, retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Lidl said deforestation presents an increasing risk to supply chain stability as well as food security. But they also said the UK could suffer millions in export losses to the European Union if Government inaction leaves businesses unprepared to comply with the bloc's own deforestation rules, which are due to come into force at the end of this year. Asked recently whether the Government has a timetable for introducing the legislation, the Environment Secretary told the PA news agency: 'Currently no, but we are working at pace so we can do this as quickly as possible.' On the supermarkets' letter and whether the Government is looking to speed up progress on introducing the rules, Mr Reed said: 'Absolutely.' 'I agree with the supermarkets,' he said. 'The previous Government was just dragging their heels without ever coming to a conclusion about what we do about protecting forests in other countries as well as in our own country. 'And of course forests, trees, woodlands were very important for capturing carbon and cleaning the atmosphere so we don't want to be importing food that has been grown where the forests have been destroyed. 'The Government is working with supermarkets, with food producers and internationally to make sure we get the outcome and we can do that as soon as possible to give everybody certainty about how we move forward on this.'
New Statesman
23-07-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
The Mouses of Parliament
Photo byMPs and peers have packed their buckets and spades so actual rodents can enjoy a free run of the Mouses of Parliament over the summer. The infestation is worsening in a crumbling palace previously awarded a low two (out of five) catering hygiene rating by Westminster City Council after droppings were found in nearly two dozen places. Only this month the nature minister Mary Creagh's grilling on sustainability by the Environmental Audit Committee in room eight was interrupted by a mouse scampering across the floor. 'Oh my God,' squealed a startled Creagh, 'it must have been a species recovery right here in the room.' The upside was the uninvited visitor at least made her hearing memorable, unlike the Prime Minister's at the Liaison Committee the same day. One cabinet minister purred that Keir Starmer was human Trazodone, which was mission accomplished after a tumultuous first year. Gurgling down the plughole of Steve Reed's water refresher went Feargal Sharkey's prospects of a peerage after the campaigner and former Undertones frontman called for the Environment Secretary's resignation over the 'water industry shambles'. Sharkey was widely floated for ermine, having hosed down the dirty Tories in dozens of target seats in an arduous tour during the election campaign. A snout said a No 10 hitherto fretting about whether Sharkey might go rogue in the Lords had a definitive answer. It's All Over Now, as Sharkey once sang. Donald Trump is often best charmed on the golf course. Japan's Shinzo Abe even gifted him a gold-plated club. But who in the British cabinet could enjoy a round with the president? Not Starmer, who became the first PM to turn down membership of a Chequers-linked golf club. The leading contender ahead of Trump's flying visit to his Turnberry course was the Attorney General, Richard Hermer, who volunteered earlier this year. Could his swing convince Trump that human rights lawyers aren't all bad? Perhaps, if he lets the president win. Having lost out in the Conservative leadership contest to Kemi Badenoch after dim-witted supporters inadvertently rigged the ballot against him, James 'not very' Cleverly returned to the front bench to be the – seriously – 'thinking Tories'' answer to Robert 'generic' Jenrick. Urbane Cleverly will, whispered an admirer, go full video and challenge his more reactionary colleague's domination of the bandwidth. Classic divide and rule from Badenoch. Handbags at dawn in Nigel Farage's big press conference on crime. Laila Cunningham, a London councillor who last month joined Reform from the Tories, kicked off proceedings, before the Runcorn by-election victor, Sarah Pochin, the party's sole female MP, got up to thank her. Pochin noted that thanks to Cunningham's defection 'Reform UK now has two formidable women who speak with bravery and conviction about what needs to be done to bring back law and order to our streets'. But wait! Was she forgetting the existence of former Conservative minister Andrea Jenkyns, now Reform's Greater Lincolnshire mayor and until Pochin's triumph the party's most high-profile woman? Or does Pochin not think Jenkyns is 'formidable' enough on the subject of law and order? Jenkyns was not in attendance, but she has previously been spotted rolling her eyes when Pochin speaks at events. Is the upstart party big enough for both? MPs left for the recess still speculating on what was behind Rachel Reeves' PMQs tears. The latest theory doing the rounds is that shortly before the Chancellor entered the chamber she received a very shouty phone call from burly peer Tom Watson, Labour's rambunctious former deputy leader. Watson is locked in a fiery spat with a member of Reeves' team and, the story goes, called her to vent. Was it Watson's venomous words that reduced Reeves to tears? The official line remains a benefits-bashed Chancellor cracked after a dressing down from the Speaker. No cuddly politics in a Green Party with as many MPs (four) as Reform, yet a fraction of the public attention and prospects. MP Carla Denyer's focus on her Bristol Central constituency is blamed by some for the Greens' failure to take the West of England mayoralty in May. Labour's Helen Godwin pipped Reform squillionaire Brexit bad boy Arron Banks, with the eco brigade back in third. Denyer subsequently stood down as the Greens' co-leader. Voting to elect a fresh top team opens in August. In a fevered internal contest the stark choice is between Denyer's fellow chief, MP Adrian Ramsay, on a ticket with a third MP, Ellie Chowns, and the insurgent Zack Polanski pitching himself as the Greens' populist answer to Farage's turquoise reactionaryism. The Greens are at a crossroads. Predicting which way they'll turn would be a mug's game. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Over in the Lords a new name was heard in the undeclared contest to lead Tory peers: Thérèse Coffey. Briefly deputy PM during the Liz Truss interregnum, Coffey swapped parliamentary houses after voters in Suffolk Coastal issued marching orders and preferred Labour army reservist Jenny Riddell-Carpenter. Sociable Coffey, whispered a snout, is trying to mobilise the Tory turnip Taliban. Snout Line: Got a story? Write to tips@ [See also: Kemi Badenoch isn't working] Related
BBC News
18-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Fixing Shrewsbury floods 'isn't rocket science', locals say
Businesses in Shrewsbury have said they are frustrated by a perceived lack of action taken by authorities to tackle flooding, following a visit from MPs. The Environmental Audit Committee's Flood Resilience Inquiry paid a visit to the town, which is a key case study they are examining in efforts to influence government policy. Mark Edwards runs Chase Car Care Centre, which floods often, and said he feared locals' feedback would be "forgotten about."A spokesperson for the committee said it shared locals' "sense of urgency on the need for better protection to this crucial issue." MPs from the committee visited the Shropshire market town as part of efforts to understand the impact of flooding and explore how it can be tackled. Mr Edwards, whose business is just metres from the River Severn, said he was sceptical of what the inquiry would achieve."I was hoping there was going to be an answer, a solution to what's going on - but obviously not," he said. Dilwyn Jones is from Sabrina, which offers boat tours of Shrewsbury's River Severn, and said he felt frustrated by the MPs' visit. "We just feel that we're banging our heads against the wall", he said, adding that he felt there was a tendency to "overcomplicate things.""I don't think we need more pilot schemes - I don't really think it's rocket science," he said. Julia Buckley, MP for Shrewsbury, and the committee's chair Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, were amongst the said she was "really hopeful that some of our recommendations will be taken up by government.""I'm confident we'll write a fantastic report and put forward really very bold recommendations," she said the inquiry would question how institutions work together to address flooding, as well as making sure housing was built without increasing flood risk."There's a number of recommendations in various areas, as well as the fact that we always want the government to spend more on these things," he said. Siobhan Connor from Shrewsbury Flood Action Group provided evidence to the inquiry earlier this year, and has urged the authorities to move faster. "We're not particularly happy, we've been saying the same things again and again," she said. "We've told them what needs to happen - we need to move at pace with this." Katia Sanhueza-Pino works for the National Flood Forum and lives in flood-prone Shrewsbury."Standing around and talking in terms of ideas that need to be developed into action is the first step - but that has been going on for years," she said."Residents and businesses in Shrewsbury are just tired of waiting." A spokesperson for the Environmental Audit Committee stated that the group "knows that flooding is an issue that many communities across the country are deeply worried about."They added that they were "grateful to the flood victims and officials we met at the five sites we visited" and added that they "share their sense of urgency on the need for better protection to this crucial issue." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
