Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, the Minister has answered the questions about the involvement of other departments and about getting expertise in from the outside. The House of Lords report was adamant that this should be an ongoing process. How often do Defra and the Government envisage that this strategy should be renewed? Would it, for instance, be coincidental to the three-yearly statutory obligation on Defra...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, the Minister will be aware that if heat pumps became universally used as a primary source of heat in rural Britain, the electricity supply to many villages and market towns would crash. That is before they start using electric cars en masse. What are the Government going to do to ensure that the national grid will be able to provide an adequate supply of power across all of Britain?
Lord Cameron of Dillington: I hope the House will forgive me, but these various amendments on safety prompt me to ask the Minister about something that has not featured much in our discussions: the issue of hacking into self-driving vehicles—SDVs. It was touched on peripherally during the debate on data protection in Committee but not really highlighted as a major safety concern, which is why I thought I would bring...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: Some 60% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa are smallholder farmers, and most of them are women. Food from domestic resources is crucial for reaching many of these SDG goals: poverty; hunger; health; management of water; even education, because these lady farmers put nearly every penny they make from their food production into educating their children. Will the noble Lord please...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, forgive me for intervening before the Minister responds, but the word “rural” in Amendments 51 and Amendment 61 attracted my attention, as you might expect. As I said in my Second Reading speech—and following up on what the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, has just been talking about, the Government have to make a plan, because the SDVs could make a huge difference to rural life, if...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle the harmful impact of commercial fishing in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Lord Cameron of Dillington: To ask His Majesty's Government whether existing management measures in place for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are sufficient to protect that marine ecosystem.
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, I support the Bill. It is right that as a nation we should signal our acceptance of this technology, even if it is not quite yet oven-ready or mature enough to be properly rolled out. We are a nation whose future will depend on our ability to adapt and harness new technologies, so we must signal to the entrepreneurial businesses of the world that we are open for such business....
Lord Cameron of Dillington: To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to developing a publicly accessible database on the UK’s subsurface to optimise understanding of it.
Lord Cameron of Dillington: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they are taking to (1) implement a national framework for the licensing of land for geothermal drilling, and (2) streamline permissions to enable geothermal drilling to take place.
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, I must first declare my interests as a farmer and chair of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Rivers are an important source of life. They host a huge range of species, both above and below the waterline—too many to list in a five-minute speech. They also have a life force of their own, having run through our landscapes for millennia. We are here today and gone tomorrow...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, I must first thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate, especially the valedictory speech of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle, who has contributed so much to this House. I join others in wishing him well in his retirement, although I suspect that, like most people who are born contributors, his retirement will not be retirement in the sense that a...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, it is funny—when I stand up, everyone seems to leave. First, I declare my interests as a farmer and landowner and as the chair of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UKCEH. I thank all those involved in our report—first, those Lordships who diligently served on the committee but, above all, thanks are due to our clerk, Simon Keal, and his team, Stephen Reed and Katie...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, housing for this and the next generation is the biggest problem facing rural communities. The problem has been bad for decades but it is getting worse. In Cornwall now, the price of the average home is 12 times the average wage; people cannot possibly get a mortgage on that basis. Everywhere, so-called affordable homes are not affordable to most rural workers. Furthermore, there...
Geothermal potential for heat and power in Great Britain – Lord Cameron of Dillington.
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, in devising a continuous renewal of their land use strategy, how will the Government recruit and accommodate the necessary expertise in areas such as energy, leisure and housing—to take a few—which are outside Defra’s normal remit? How will they arrange for interdepartmental co-operation or even an interdepartmental commission or committee?
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, I repeat, again, that I am a very strong supporter of this Bill and everything it stands for. However, again, as I have said at every stage and indeed a moment ago on the previous grouping, the one weakness of the Bill is around animal welfare. Anyone reading the Hansard of the passage of this Bill through the Commons will note that it was the greatest concern of MPs too, but they...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, for the purposes of Report, I declare my interests: I am still involved in a family farming enterprise growing crops and rearing livestock, I chair the board of the UK Centre of Ecology & Hydrology, and I am president of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers. As the House knows, I am a very strong supporter of the Bill and everything it stands for. It is only to strengthen...
Lord Cameron of Dillington: My Lords, after much thought, I am afraid I am a reluctant opposer of these amendments. I understand the need for transparency with the consumer—and the answer to the noble Baroness’s last question is very important—but I feel labelling will not work in this case. Everybody supports the proposal to have a register of PBOs, and no one is trying to hide anything. If anyone really wants to...
