Richard Foord MP: speeches

Speeches

• 12 Feb 2025 · Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. We are at a pivotal moment in history. The international rule of law, established and affirmed after world war two, is on the brink of being disregarded by some of the very states that created it. The International Court of Justice, established in 1945, has a critical role in promoting peace and resolving disputes between states. Since its inception, it has seen approximately 90% of its rulings implemented. It is literally the world court, and the suggestion that its authority somehow is not recognised and respected because it does not apply to one single state cannot abide. Last year, the ICJ ruling declared Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories unlawful. Although the ruling is legally binding in its principles, it is advisory in nature and its implementation will depend on the political will of states in the international community. The horrific attacks carried out by Hamas terrorists on 7 October 2023 were appalling, and they too must not go unpunished, but Israel’s response to that atrocity has failed to distinguish in every case between terrorists and innocent civilians in Gaza. Will we continue to uphold a world order based on law, or will we allow power politics and strategic alliances to dictate when international law applies and when it does not? Just last week, the US President sanctioned officials of the ICC for daring to investigate potential war crimes committed by Israeli forces. That was another dangerous precedent that undermines international justice. We cannot abide this: we must stand by international law and we must respect the ruling of the ICJ.

• 10 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Earlier in topical questions, the Veterans Minister said that the strategic defence review would be published in the next couple of months. Can he confirm that it will be published by the end of April?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Cadet Forces · Hansard source

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  I received some correspondence from John McMillan from Sidmouth. He and his two brothers joined the Air Training Corps in the 1970s. Two of them went on to serve with the Royal Air Force and John himself went on to become a commercial pilot with British Airways, despite there being no previous connection to aviation whatever in his family. Does the hon. Gentleman recognise the value of the cadets to social mobility and providing opportunities?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Cadet Forces · Hansard source

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  In November last year, the Department for Education announced that it would end its £1.1 million grant for the expansion of cadet forces. Will the Ministry of Defence backfill, or make good on, the £1.1 million that the DFE intends to cut?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Net Zero · Hansard source

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  On floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea, the Secretary of State said: “Floating offshore wind represents a golden opportunity” not just for meeting net zero targets but “for lower energy bills, new jobs and the industries of the future”. Do the Government think that the opportunities from offshore wind can extend from the Celtic sea into Cornwall and Devon, too?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Net Zero · Hansard source

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  8. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on meeting net zero targets in Wales.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Rural Housing Targets · Hansard source

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  Did I just hear the hon. Gentleman describe his local Liberal Democrat council as successful?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Rural Housing Targets · Hansard source

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  It is fascinating to hear my hon. Friend talk about the success of rural exception sites in Cornwall, but elsewhere only 14 of 91 local planning authorities that have a policy of using rural exception sites have actually built houses using the policy. Why does that discrepancy exist?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Schools · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 29 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Schools · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth), not just for securing this debate, but for speaking powerfully and sensitively on this delicate subject; I offer my condolences to the family who she represents. If only the incident that the hon. Lady described was unique, but it is not—it is sadly multiplied many times across the country. According to the charity Brake, five children are seriously injured or killed on UK roads every day. In south-west England, 442 children were injured on roads near schools in just one year—an utterly unacceptable situation. I will use my limited time today to talk about prevention and one town that I represent, Ottery St Mary, where a small intervention, through infrastructure and regulation, could help to prevent accidents and awful consequences in future. In Ottery St Mary, there is a pedestrian bridge, Coleridge bridge, where many schoolchildren can avoid the roads and cross the river—at least, they could. Last year, a tree blew on to the bridge and made it impassable for pedestrians. I looked into why the repair work on that bridge is so slow and discovered that one reason is the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016: priority is being given to the salmon spawning season on the River Otter over the safety children going to and from school. I appreciate that the Minister is answering for the Department for Transport and not for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but she should know that I have written to DEFRA about the issue and had a most unsatisfactory reply about the regulations. I am seeking an exception to the regulations on salmon spawning where the safety of children and vulnerable people is at stake. Coleridge bridge is just one example of a rigid policy designed for another public policy imperative having unintended but serious consequences for public safety. As one Ottery resident put it to me in an email, “do we have to wait for there to be a serious incident involving a child or an elderly resident for prompt action?” It has been over a year, and I understand that no work will begin until at least next summer. Given that our local authority, Devon county council, has the money and is ready to do the work, I urge that we in this place do our job to make the regulations more flexible to look after the safety of young people.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer, and I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland), who has done us all a great service in securing this debate. I want to use my limited time to draw attention to some fantastic SMEs, including one in particular that is based near Honiton in the south-west. The south-west has an absolutely fantastic defence industry, which is powering up the region and making for some fantastic industrial developments. The Ministry of Defence employs about 33,000 people directly in the south-west, but of course there is also a huge, integrated supply chain that supports many more jobs besides. It is surely the aim of the new Government to have a more innovative and resilient supply chain. Supacat has been producing vehicles in Dunkeswell in Devon for more than 40 years and is at the forefront of designing and supplying cutting-edge tactical military vehicles. Its high-mobility transporter vehicles have been used by British forces in Afghanistan and on UN deployments in Mali. More than 95% of its supply chain comes from UK-based SMEs, 85% of which are in the south-west. It currently has a contract with Defence Equipment and Support; the Ministry of Defence is buying 70 Jackals and 53 Coyotes, as the Minister will know. In the past, there has sometimes been an instinct to buy off the shelf and from overseas, which would be a huge mistake in relation to the procurement of vehicles for the impending short-range air defence—SHORAD—programme. That instinct to look overseas in the first instance weakens investment, reduces long-term job security and, ultimately, puts future domestic procurement at risk. Supacat has more than 150 skilled workers in Devon, but its future depends on orders that will be delivered beyond November 2025. The Defence Secretary intends the new defence industrial strategy to boost world-class production and manufacturing, and I understand that supporting UK exports will be key to that. It is incumbent on us to buy from fantastic companies such as Supacat, if we then look to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Czechia and Ireland to buy the Jackal, as they have done. To conclude, there are some fantastic SMEs, including Supacat at Dunkeswell, and I commend to that company the House.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

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  To reinforce the hon. Member’s point, the way that Supacat has teamed up with Babcock in Plymouth in recent years to scale up its skilled workforce by 60% is an example of what he is describing.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. Gambling with Lives is a charity that supports families who have been bereaved by gambling-related suicide. Jo from Cullompton lost her son Daniel to gambling suicide, and speaks powerfully about it. What is the Minister doing to ensure that accurate data is recorded for each death linked to gambling?

• 23 Jan 2025 · International Day of Education · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous) for securing this debate. Education is what we think of when we want to invest in the future. So much of what we discuss in Parliament is about conflict, aid and the present, but education is investment in the future. As we mark the United Nations International Day of Education tomorrow, I want to highlight the case study of Sudan. The United Nations has warned that over 19 million school-age children lack access to education in Sudan. To put that into context, we have about 14 million children in the UK, most of whom are receiving some sort of education and most of whom are in school. The 19 million who are not receiving education in Sudan makes this one of the worst education crises in the world. Schools there have been destroyed, teachers have fled and classrooms have become shelters for displaced families. According to UNICEF, 171 schools are now being used as emergency shelters. The conflict has also brought on the awful concept of the child soldier, and child recruitment into armed groups is rife. An entire generation is growing up without education. The war in Sudan, like many other global conflicts, will have some lasting consequences. These ongoing attacks, some of which are on children, persist, as warring factions violate one of the most basic principles of the law of armed conflict: protecting children. With schools often targeted or repurposed, learning is being disrupted not just for those who are child soldiers or involved as combatants, but for others. The loss of education will have profound, long-term repercussions for those individuals, including reduced incomes, poorer health outcomes and limited opportunities. For the society of Sudan as a whole, it will lead to cycles of poverty and instability in the future. According to the United Nations, the education crisis in Sudan is “the worst education crisis in the world”. When schools close, children become vulnerable to various risks, including exploitation, forced recruitment and abuse. The psychological toll leaves many children unable to resume their normal schooling, even when schools reopen. As of December 2024, over 14.8 million people have been displaced in Sudan—11.5 million of them internally displaced. This is the largest displacement crisis in the world, and over 53% of those displaced individuals are children. With school buildings converted into shelters, children have now gone 22 months without education. The educational facilities themselves have been attacked; they have been destroyed, looted or occupied. Children who once attended school every day are instead working in markets, polishing shoes and performing manual labour to survive. That forced separation from school, as well as from their fellow school pupils, is making it increasingly unlikely that they will return to school even when the conflict abates. The chance that these children who are exposed to violence go on later to perpetrate violence themselves is greater, and, even if they do not do that, they are more likely to underachieve or drop out. I will focus on the work of a small charity because I want there to be a note of optimism in this otherwise pessimistic window on what is going on in Sudan. Windle Trust International has operated in Sudan since 1999. It provides educational opportunities for refugees and internally displaced people. Before the current war, the organisation ran eight schools in Khartoum and two for Ethiopian refugees. It supported 426 refugees from Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, and partnered with 42 universities to offer higher education scholarships. It provided 558 university scholarships, supported more than 68,000 girls to stay in school, and trained nearly 9,500 teachers. The effect of the war on Windle Trust International is that it has had its offices in Khartoum looted, its staff scattered and its operational funding curtailed. This has caused the closure of programmes and the ending of staff contracts. None the less, it is still able to operate a presence in Blue Nile State, where a smaller field office supports Ethiopian refugees in a camp that hosts approximately 12,000 people, 58% of whom are of school age. Windle Trust International does receive some funding from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but that is barely enough to cover two schools, teachers’ salaries, uniforms, education materials and training, so it is a pretty dire circumstance for a small NGO operating in-country. The Sudanese Government at federal and state levels can no longer adequately sustain their own education system. Teachers have gone unpaid for 22 months and reports indicate that 10,000 children have been recruited into armed groups. Education in conflict zones is their way out. Beyond imparting academic skills, schools can provide routine, security and hope. Where education is withheld, children suffer harm, lose future opportunities and lose the recovery prospects of their country as a whole. If Sudan fails to educate a generation of its children, its path towards development—and, ultimately, a growing economy—will become increasingly difficult. I want to close by thinking about financial support for organisations operating in country, and education that is provided through what was the Department for International Development and is now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. We have had a cut in the development budget in the UK from 0.7% to 0.5% in the last few years, and that is currently being exacerbated by the use of official development assistance funding. The UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact, or ICAI, has oversight of that funding, and it has pointed to how £4 billion of it is being spent on asylum hotels, for example, when it could go so much further if it were spent in country on such things as education. The purchasing power that we would have by spending overseas as opposed to in the UK would be so much greater. Other countries do not do things this way; Sweden limits its in-donor refugee costs to a maximum of 8% of its aid budget, and Austria and Luxembourg declare no asylum costs as official development assistance. This is a choice that the UK Government are making right now. In any comprehensive response to Sudan’s crisis, education must be prioritised as long-term development, not just the conflict aid we think of, such as food, shelter and healthcare. Small NGOs like Windle Trust International are doing their very best to facilitate that, but they could do so much more if the west—and the UK Government, for example—were to step up in support.

• 23 Jan 2025 · International Day of Education · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree with the Chair of the International Development Committee, who called the use of official development assistance for hosting asylum seekers in hotels “a spectacular own goal”?

• 23 Jan 2025 · High Streets: Autumn Budget 2024 · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right about how sad it is to see high street shops close, such as the one in which she used to help. We have seen local councils invest in Cullompton’s high street, but this is sadly offset by the shop closures. Will my hon. Friend make some recommendations on what the Government could do to prevent some of these shop closures?

• 23 Jan 2025 · High Streets: Autumn Budget 2024 · Hansard source

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  I appreciate that it is perhaps the Exchequer Secretary who would know this, but will the Government make sure that the reform of business rates that they are proposing is not negative for those small businesses with a very small rateable value that do not currently pay business rates at all?

• 22 Jan 2025 · Green Energy Sector · Hansard source

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  The roll-out of offshore renewables in Scotland should happen alongside the growth of supply chains there. That is vital if the energy transition is to deliver jobs and investment in Scotland’s oil and gas communities. It is welcome that the Government have allocated £200 million to a clean industry bonus, but that falls short of the £500 million that Labour pledged in its manifesto. How do the Government plan to strengthen the clean industry bonus to build thriving renewable manufacturing in the UK?

• 22 Jan 2025 · Green Energy Sector · Hansard source

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  5. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on support for the green energy sector in Scotland.

• 21 Jan 2025 · Environmental Protection · Hansard source

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  Growing up, it was second nature for us to rinse out our milk bottles and put them out for the milkman to collect the next day. It was a very simple system, and it worked. Then came the rise of single-use plastics, and for a while we convinced ourselves that recycling was enough. We felt that as long as we put our plastic bottles in the right bin, they would be dealt with responsibly, but that view completely changed when we discovered what was really happening to some of our exported waste. Britain was the largest exporter of waste to Turkey last year; in 2023, it exported more than 140,000 tonnes. We have also learned that so-called energy from waste plants are producing harmful emissions, much of them from burning plastic waste that could have been reused. I have seen in my east Devon constituency the effect of plastic not making it into the recycling bins at all. The UK goes through an estimated 14 billion plastic bottles every year. They wash up on beautiful beaches in Sidmouth, Seaton and Beer. In 2019, volunteers collecting waste along Devon’s beaches found 12,000 pieces of plastic in one day. Groups such as Sidmouth Plastic Warriors do fantastic work as volunteers to clean up, but they should not have to. Last year, children from Sidmouth primary school created a message-in-a-bottle exhibit, which highlighted the problem of plastic waste in Devon’s seas. Their messages were eye-opening. One child wrote: “I want to swim in the sea with fish, not rubbish.” Another specifically directed her message to MPs, saying: “Whatever you’re doing it’s not enough.” Another simply wrote, “Deeds, not words”. Their words were a powerful reminder, for me at least, that although we must lead, we can also follow the example of other countries. While serving in Germany with the British Army, we found that returning empties to the supermarket was just part of the weekly shop. It became a habit, like taking a reusable bag to the supermarket. When I came back to the UK, I was struck by the difference. In Germany, one rarely sees plastic bottles on the ground. Here, they are in our verges, in our hedgerows and in our waterways. A deposit return scheme will help. By charging a small deposit when a bottle or can is bought and refunding it when the bottle is returned, we are creating an incentive to reuse. However, the decision to exclude glass bottles means that we could miss an opportunity. Glass is one of the most polluting forms of litter. It is dangerous to livestock in the countryside, and to wildlife. In Wales and Scotland, different schemes are being considered, but having varying regulatory regimes in our four nations could bring additional costs and challenges. The hon. Member for Brent West (Barry Gardiner) asked whether producers might shift from plastic to glass if that meant not incurring costs associated with the introduction of the deposit return scheme, which was an excellent question. If there was that unintended consequence, we could see heavier goods being transported around the country, and increased carbon emissions. Overall, we need a deposit return scheme. Devon’s landscape and coastline need it. This time for half measures is over. We need real action, including on glass, across the whole country.

• 20 Jan 2025 · Global Combat Air Programme · Hansard source

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  I commend the Chair and the Defence Committee for turning their scrutinising eye to the global combat air programme. The Chair talked about the benefits and risks of new partners, and explained that we need to weigh the benefits against the risks. In previous multilateral fighter jet programmes, there has been an overestimation of just how much of the product could be exported. Last November, Reuters said that Saudi Arabia could be a potential fourth partner on the programme. Could the Chair expand on some of the benefits and risks of adding Saudi Arabia to the programme, as it relates to exports?

• 20 Jan 2025 · UK-Ukraine 100-year Partnership · Hansard source

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  It is welcome to hear that this partnership agreement is a binding treaty. As such, it contrasts with the Budapest memorandum, which was non-binding and not worth the paper it was written on. There is a lot of talk about how Ukraine is on an irreversible path to NATO membership, but it will be difficult to get a consensus for that anytime soon among the 32 NATO members. In lieu of NATO membership, what security guarantees might the UK seek to develop for Ukraine with European allies?

• 20 Jan 2025 · Obesity: Food and Diet · Hansard source

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  I commend the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing the debate and for putting himself out there by calling for a sugar and salt reformulation tax. I will add that it is not just through penalties that we will tackle diets in this country; it is also through incentives. Today I want to talk about some incentives being used in East Devon, where I represent Honiton and Sidmouth. It was recognised a long time ago that ultra-processed foods were not only linked to obesity, but were contributing to malnutrition and poor dental health. I want to highlight the brilliant work of the charity Project Food, which is dedicated to improving diets, promoting healthier lifestyles and reducing the burden of preventable disease in the community. Project Food is linked slightly to a restaurant called River Cottage. One of the trustees, Stewart Dodd, invited me to see Project Food in October. It operates out of Axminster’s community hospital, and that is entirely fitting because the work it does is very much around public health. Project Food is a shining example of grassroots public health action. Through free cooking demonstrations, hands-on sessions, one-to-one support and online classes, it empowers people to move away from ultra-processed food. Yet it finds it very difficult to keep up with the growing demand for its services in Devon. More families than ever are turning to Project Food for help because of the high cost of nutritious food, contrasted with the relative affordability of foods packed with sugar and palm oil. Alarmingly, a report by the Food Foundation revealed that low-income households now need to spend up to 50% of their disposable income on food if they are to meet Government recommendations on what is a healthy diet. Over 11% of UK households experience food insecurity and, as we all know, millions are turning to food banks, as well as to ultra-processed foods, just to survive. While the debate is principally about diet and food, we should think about some of the co-benefits of reducing sugar intake. I will point to dentistry. Fewer than half of the children in Devon saw a dentist last year. Promoting healthy eating habits could reduce the strain not only on the wider NHS and secondary care, but on dentistry. We know that tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for children aged between five and nine, so this is plainly an area where working on the reformulation of food could help save money on dentistry too. The hon. Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) referred earlier to Natasha’s law, which was about how allergens are illustrated on food packaging. That was extended through the calorie labelling regulations that came into effect in 2022. Those regulations have helped to prevent obesity by ensuring that when people go into a café or restaurant, they can see what it is they are eating and the calories associated with the meal they might choose. We should also recognise that this can have a negative effect. I had a constituent come to me to talk about the calorie labelling regulations in 2022 and the effect they had had on her daughter, who suffers from anorexia. The requirement on large businesses to put calorie counts on menus had made it extremely difficult for her to go out to eat with her daughter. Her daughter would take one look at the menu and simply refuse to eat anything, and it led to the family simply not going out to eat at all. One way the Minister might consider building on those calorie labelling regulations is by requiring those same restaurants and cafés to have menus with no calorie counts on them, so that families can dine out without the fear of stressing out somebody who has an eating disorder. To return to Project Food and how we can better support some of the community assets we have to help tackle obesity and improve diet, we should be thinking about the use of community hospitals. We have spare space in community hospitals at Axminster and Ottery Saint Mary, from where Project Food operates. I suggest that the work being carried out by Project Food would be suitable for social prescribing. It is definitely having a positive effect on the people I saw who are working with that charity. It has done some excellent work, and I suggest that its work could be scaled and implemented across the country. With that spare capacity, we could see hubs for nutrition programmes and other public health measures that support healthier communities, which would be very much in line with what the Government have been talking about in response to the Darzi report. By addressing poor nutrition head-on in the community, we can reduce inequality, improve lives and alleviate the immense pressure on our health service.

• 14 Jan 2025 · Agricultural and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 14 Jan 2025 · Agricultural and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  I do not question the Minister’s difficult inheritance, but the Labour party adviser Dan Neidle suggests that the plan to slap inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million should be replaced with a much higher threshold with a clawback mechanism, perhaps for land over £20 million that is sold. That would tackle the Dysons of the world without affecting small family farms. What does the Minister think of that proposal?