Results 1-20 of 5,876 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Hilary Benn

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Natural Environment (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: We have seen improvements in water quality, more species have been protected, pollution levels are decreasing, and 89 per cent. of our sites of special scientific interest are in a favourable or recovering condition. However, we all need to do more to protect our natural environment, and securing a good deal at Copenhagen would be a very important step forward.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Natural Environment (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I congratulate my hon. Friend on hosting the event, and I am sorry that I was not able to join her for it. The single most important thing that we can do is understand and appreciate more the value of biodiversity, including what it does for us, because it is fundamental to human existence and we have taken it for granted for far too long. It sustains our economy, our clean water and air and...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Natural Environment (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I share the hon. Gentleman's concern, and we are trying to find the most effective way to deal with such invasive species. I am happy to write to him to set out the steps that we are seeking to take.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Natural Environment (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I have seen that report, and I share my hon. Friend's desire that more people should have the chance to get out there. The national parks provide a wonderful opportunity for that, and of course the coastal access provisions of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, which received its Third Reading earlier this week, will provide further opportunities for young people and others to enjoy the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Natural Environment (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I profoundly disagree with that last statement. The Government are very committed. If the hon. Gentleman considers, for example, bird numbers, we have managed in this country to stop the decline that happened between the 1970s and the 1990s. The number of sea birds is up, we have offered protection to Lyme bay to safeguard the pink sea fan and there are otters in every single English county...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Farmers (Suicides) (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I have not received any particular representations about this, but earlier this year the Farming Crisis Network produced its sobering report on the impact of bovine TB on farming families. This showed, as we all know, that for those most seriously affected, the economic and particularly the human consequences of bovine TB are devastating. The TB eradication group for England has since met...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Farmers (Suicides) (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I know that my right hon. Friend took a great deal of interest in the matter and I pay tribute to her work on it. The TB eradication group that we have now established is both looking at what can be done to help farmers to try to cope with the disease and getting on with doing effective things to try to tackle it. I have approved all the recommendations that the TB eradication group produced...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Farmers (Suicides) (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: It is a matter for the TB eradication group to report as it sees fit. Its first report, as I just indicated, has been received, and I accepted all its recommendations. The fact that we are working in partnership now to try to deal with this devastating disease is a big step forward compared with where we were before.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Farmers (Suicides) (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I do not know to which unpublished reports the hon. Gentleman refers. If he is talking about scientific research, that has to go through a peer review process and be published. One of the things that the eradication group is doing is keeping a close eye on unfolding scientific information—that is part of its remit and it referred to that in the report that was recently put out.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Farmers (Suicides) (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: The publication of that research information is a matter for the journals who publish these things, and it has to be in a form suitable for publication. As soon as it is publicly available, I will ensure that it is placed in the Library so that we may all see what it has to say.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Bovine Tuberculosis (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: Since November 2008, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has worked alongside the farming industry and veterinary profession as part of the bovine TB eradication group for England. On 8 October, the group published a progress report including a number of recommendations now being implemented. We are pursuing the future use of vaccination through vaccine research and...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Bovine Tuberculosis (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I am well aware that, as the hon. Lady points out, others take a view different from the judgment that I formed and reported to the House last year. For me, the overwhelming requirement has been to take action that will be effective in dealing with the disease. As I indicated earlier, I understand completely, having talked to many, many farmers, how devastating the disease is, but we have to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Bovine Tuberculosis (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: As I have indicated to the right hon. Gentleman previously, there is no simple cage-side test that can be used— [Interruption.] With respect, no test is reliable enough to indicate whether a badger is infected with tuberculosis. However, as I also said to him previously, if someone is of the view that an animal is in such distress that it would be a kindness to put it down, the law...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Flood Defences (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: As well as continuing its annual programme of maintenance for the main rivers in Oxford, West and Abingdon to manage flood risk, the Environment Agency is nearing the completion of a £1.8 million programme of short-term measures for Oxford, and is developing the long-term Oxford flood risk management strategy, which is currently out for consultation. A study on the River Stert in...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Flood Defences (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I should be very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and his group.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Topical Questions (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I wish to inform the House that following routine inventory checks earlier this year, 38 Rural Payments Agency data back-up tapes and one compact disc were unaccounted for. Thirty-five have now been accounted for. Of the rest, one tape and the CD did not contain personal protected data, but the two remaining tapes potentially contained partial data in code. However, tapes of this sort can...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Topical Questions (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I of course accept responsibility. I was informed yesterday and I thought it important to take the first possible opportunity to inform the House, which is what I have done this morning. In accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines, a full investigation was done. As the data were in code that cannot be read, as I have indicated, a judgment was made in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Topical Questions (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I take responsibility; that is my job. As the right hon. Gentleman will know, the history of the RPA is not a happy one. Since I took up this position, the one thing I have made clear to the Department and to the RPA is that the agency must maintain the improvement it has achieved—we should acknowledge that—in getting payments to farmers more speedily, given the unhappy past. I am...

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Topical Questions (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: There is no mechanism I can think of that would enable that to take place. Different parts of the farming industry are in different positions, and the latest information on farm business income will be published shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Topical Questions (29 Oct 2009) has video

Hilary Benn: I have indeed seen the information to which my hon. Friend refers, and it shows where public sentiment and opinion lie. In the light of that, I find it very hard to understand why Opposition Members want to change the law so that foxes can once again be ripped to pieces by hounds, because that is the change in the law they appear to be seeking.