Emma Reynolds MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  That is raised with me in my constituency too. It is a tricky issue, however, because there are lots of people across the country who, at different religious festivals and obviously on Guy Fawkes day, enjoy fireworks. It is about getting the balance right.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  I am sure that there will be opportunities in the new year to have a discussion about the animal welfare strategy. I will be able to confirm the answer to the hon. Member’s question when the strategy comes out.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more. I was not a Member of this House during the last Labour Government, but as a proud Labour member, I am proud that that Government banned foxhunting. I reiterate what my hon. Friend says: those who engage in this illegal practice should face the full force of the law.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman, on behalf of the whole House, for what he has just said, and for his service, before he became a Member and since. This is a really important area, and we absolutely appreciate that the Veterinary Surgeons Act needs updating. I can reassure him that we are continuing to pursue opportunities to do that.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think you have much in common with my hon. Friend. I thank her for her doughty campaigning on this issue. The work we are doing on the Veterinary Surgeons Act is separate from the animal welfare strategy, but as we have discussed privately, that work is ongoing.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a great campaigner for his constituency and does great work locally. We do indeed have a good reputation for animal welfare around the world. I was in Brussels recently meeting my counterparts at the European Commission, and they were very interested in what we are doing here in the UK. Obviously they are doing different things in Europe, but it is always interesting to share notes.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  I reassure my hon. Friend that we are looking at this issue, and there will be further details in the strategy.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  As I said in response to a previous question, this is a DSIT lead, not a DEFRA lead. We do work closely with DSIT, and as a Labour Government, we are committed to phasing out animal testing as quickly as possible, but obviously we need alternatives to be in place to do so.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. We did debate this issue on the radio together. The reason we are making these changes is that the top 7% of estates account for 40% of inheritance tax reliefs—that is £219 million for the top 37 landowners—and we think that is unfair.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We know how much you love your pets, Mr Speaker, and we are a nation of animal lovers. We intend to publish our animal welfare strategy very soon, taking forward our manifesto promises with the most ambitious reform in a generation. This commitment to animal welfare sits alongside our wider ambitions for nature. Earlier this month we launched our environmental improvement plan, which sets out how we will protect our environment for future generations. Finally, Mr Speaker, I wish you, your family, your many pets, your staff, the House staff who look after us so well, and all hon. Members, a merry Christmas. As many of us prepare to spend time with loved ones over Christmas, I want to thank the farmers, the emergency workers and many more who will continue their vital work throughout the festive period.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to confirm that the animal welfare strategy will be published before Christmas, and I will have more to say about that shortly in the House. We are giving this country of animal lovers the legislation to match. The strategy will set out our priorities until 2030 and take forward the manifesto commitments on which Government Members stood.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Well, Mr Speaker, it was not really worth waiting for. In the first instance, I urge the right hon. Lady to check her emails, as I sent a detailed response to her letter. I also urge her to stop talking the sector down. We are ensuring that we are helping farmers to be more profitable, which is why we have published the Batters review today. We are setting out in the new year our next iteration of the SFI, in close collaboration with the farming sector, and we will also set out our 25-year farming road map.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Standards · Hansard source

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  I can confirm that further details on this issue will be set out in the animal welfare strategy, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising it. He is right that we need to have a closer eye on enforcement and work more closely with councils to ensure that there is better enforcement.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Standards · Hansard source

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  Our animal health and welfare pathway scheme provides funding to farmers to improve the health and welfare of their livestock. It also supports veterinary visits to discuss health and welfare, and it provides capital grants for equipment and infrastructure to improve animal welfare. I am pleased that 7,000 farmers have already signed up to receive funding.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  I am proud that this Government commissioned Baroness Batters to do the review into farm profitability, which is a lot more than the Conservatives managed to do in 14 long years. We will be taking forward a number of her recommendations, but, as I said, we will reply in full in the new year. We commissioned her because she has great experience and expertise. There are many ways in which we are unlocking profitability, not least the planning reforms that myself and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government are introducing to make it easier for farmers to build on-farm reservoirs, polytunnels and various other things that will diversify their farms. We are bringing down the barriers, which is something that they long called for, but they saw none of that action under the previous Government.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  As this House knows, Baroness Batters is a long-standing champion of British farming. Today, the Government have published her independent farming profitability review 2025, which we commissioned earlier this year. We will set out a more detailed response in the new year, but I can confirm today that, following her recommendations, we are establishing a farming and food partnership board to give farmers a stronger voice in Government. We will take forward sector plans to build profitability in sectors with great potential, and we will seek to boost private finance into farming.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  I am proud that this Government, unlike the previous Government, are protecting and promoting British farming in our trade deals, including with India and the USA. [ Interruption. ] Opposition Members may chunter from a sedentary position, but they sold them out on their trade deals with Australia and New Zealand. We are also making progress with the EU on a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, which will make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier, and our global network of agrifood attachés has already brought down 46 trade barriers this year, worth £127 million.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  I echo my hon. Friend’s thanks to farmers working hard over the festive season. Upland communities face unique challenges. I or the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs will be delighted to meet his delegation. We are reforming the sustainable farming incentive to make it simpler and easier for farmers to apply to. We want more farmers to benefit from these schemes, and under this Government we already have a record number of farmers in these schemes.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  As the right hon. Gentleman will know, we have already introduced fair dealing regulations for pig and dairy farmers, but I agree with him that we need to look to go further.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  I am very determined that we leverage in more private finance into farming. I visited a landscape recovery project in north Buckinghamshire a couple of weeks ago. It is really fantastic to see the innovative practices in these schemes that are levering in private finance in part of the compliance market, and part of the thriving and nascent nature credits market.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member asked a number of good questions. I have said that the new iteration of the SFI will be out in the first half of next year. My hon. Friend the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs and I are looking very carefully at how we get this right, and I can reassure the hon. Member that we are looking at the distributional analysis on who is getting these schemes at the moment. We do want to make it easier for smaller farms to gain access to the schemes—I can reassure him on that.

• 13 Nov 2025 · Water Sector Reform · Hansard source

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  I share the public’s frustration with what has happened in recent years, but I reassure her that we will take decisive action. We have already passed the Water (Special Measures) Act, but we will also be issuing a White Paper later this year and will legislate to ensure that we have better regulation, a better regulator and a better water system for her constituents and those around the country.

• 13 Nov 2025 · Water Sector Reform · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his question, and I look forward to working with him on this issue. We will look at pre-pipe solutions in the forthcoming White Paper, which I look forward to discussing with him when we publish it.

• 13 Nov 2025 · Water Sector Reform · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her campaigning on this issue. We recognise the scale of the challenge facing our water system and are taking decisive action to reset the sector. We will create a single powerful water regulator, abolishing Ofwat and ending the fragmentation that led to the abuses of the past. As my hon. Friend refers to, we have already banned polluting water bosses from taking bonuses, which we did early in our time in government with the passing of the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025.

• 13 Nov 2025 · Water Sector Reform · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Under this Labour Government, there is nowhere to hide for polluting water companies. We have overseen record fines on water companies and are introducing automatic penalties—like speeding tickets—to ensure that those companies are held to account for every level of offence.