House of Lords
Parliament

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Crossbencher Baroness Manningham-Buller, who is a former Director General of MI5, says "a number of lessons were learned and changes were made" after terrorist attacks in the UK last year.

The rise of extreme right wing terrorism is a serious concern, she says, along with Russian hostile activity, "which I thought was over".

"I spent over a year of my life interviewing a defector from the GRU 30 years ago. I did not expect that that information would still be current."

"There's no liberty without security," she says.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Labour's Tanmanjeet Singh Desi asks if there is a problem with the current system of business rates.

Mr Goodacre says that "there is a problem" with the way reliefs are calculated, which puts increasing burdens on small businesses.

Edward Woodall, of the Association of Convenience Stores, says that business rates are not used in the same way for online businesses which just use property and are not open to the public.

Mr Ironside says that adding new taxes to the industry will just create more problems. Eight out of 10 of the largest online retailers in the UK have substantial bricks and mortar properties, he adds.

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Labour MP Kate Osamor asks the final urgent question regarding plans to use private investments to make up government commitment on overseas aid.

She says millions of pounds a year could be cut from the taxpayers' overseas aid contribution under changes set out by the International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt.

International rules dictate that this re-investment does not count towards the UK's 0.7% foreign aid commitment, which is enshrined in law.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt says redefining what counts as aid spending could contribute to "reducing the ask on the public purse".

She says today she has announced a conversation about "doing good, while making money".

"We want to give British savers the choice to make a financial return in exchange for their goodwill to change the world for the better," she says.

She says the use of private investments will help to create "a stronger Britain and a more prosperous and secure world".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour MP Wes Streeting says the failing contractor should be made to "cough up" any money needed to be paid to sort out the situation in the immediate future, not the government.

Labour MP Maria Eagle adds that MPs should have been told that COBRA had met on this issue before hearing it today.

Health Minister Stephen Barclay says: "This is the first time I have been able to speak to the House since the new contract provisions have been made.

"The ongoing arrangements of new contracts are likely to have some financial impact on the trusts as they deal with the removal of waste," he says.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Rebecca Pow asks the minister to confirm that the public were never in danger.

Health Minister Stephen Barclay assures MPs that the public and hospital patients were never in danger from this incident, and that media headlines about the amount of body parts included in this waste have been exaggerated.

"The Environment Agency has begun a criminal investigation and we are working alongside them."

Liz Kendall, Labour MP, notes that HES made a gross profit of over £15m last year, and asks the minister what financial penalty HES will face.

Mr Barlcay says 15 NHS trusts have cancelled their contracts which will cause "a significant financial burden". He says fines will be for the legal process through the Environment Agency to decide.

"The focus on the NHS has been the continuation of services."

Select Committee
Parliament

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Chair Clive Betts asks what responsibilities a retailer has when a large shop which was purpose-built has been vacated by the tenant.

Mr Ironside says this is always a decision of "last resort" and is very "difficult" to make.

Mr Betts asks if it is therefore the case that retailers offer no help to regenerate a community when they leave a high street.

Mr Ironside says retailers often provide help to their workforce in order to reskill them and help them to re-enter the job market.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames says security and freedom must be balanced.

He sets out tests by which this can be judged. "If the tests are not met... then the powers proposed should be opposed or limited by Parliament," he says.

"In a number of areas we believe these tests are not met by this bill. Some measures may be capable of amendment, others we believe are irredeemably bound."

He warns the Brexit will considerably impact the UK's ability to counter terrorism activity, and in pursuing if "the government threatens to undermine the very security it seeks to protect."

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Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary, says this is a scandal and the public should have been informed about this as soon as it was identified in March. He asks what monitoring of the HES contract was put in place in March.

"This is another example of a private contract going disastrously wrong," he says.

Minister Stephen Barclay says "the issue has been the over storage of waste, not that it has been stored in the wrong manner by HES."

NHS Improvement concluded that HES "failed to demonstrate that they were operating within their contractual limits", he says.

"Consequently, 15 NHS Trusts served termination notices to HES formally to terminate their contracts at 4pm on Sunday.

"While the waste was stored securely, it was not being processed and disposed of within the correct regulatory timescales. At no point has there been an impact on public health or any delay to the ability of the NHS to carry out operations," he says.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Conservative Mary Robinson asks if there is evidence to show that rent increases on tenants has an adverse effect on retail premises.

Mr Goodacre says that there is no evidence to say that this is the case. He adds that the British Independent Retailers Association tends to focus on the impacts of business rates rather than rents.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Opposition spokesman Lord Rosser says Labour supported the bill in the House of Commons, but did table amendments that highlighted their concerns about some issues. Not enough time was given to discuss this, he says.

Counter-terrorism legislation is not always being considered "in quite the calm and measured way they [the government] would like us to believe", he says, "but is in some areas being rushed to meet deadlines."

Journalists and overseas aid workers could be at risk of being falsely prosecuted, he says, as well as those who went abroad "without appreciating what they were getting involved in and came back disillusioned".

He says opposition peers will be raising all of their concerns: "We all surely have an interest in ensuring this bill is balanced and proportionate, that its provisions are all necessary and that it strengthens our hand in countering terrorism and terrorist activity - whilst safeguarding human rights."

House of Commons
Parliament

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We now move on to the second urgent question today regarding the NHS waste scandal.

A firm has been stripped of NHS contracts after hundreds of tonnes of clinical waste from hospitals was allowed to pile up at its sites.

Health Minister Stephen Barclay says new arrangements have been made with Mitie to replace the service by Healthcare Environmental Services.

HES says although it did also collect some body parts, this anatomical waste was correctly stored as per guidelines.

The contractor removes the waste from a significant number, but not all, hospitals in England and Scotland.

Mr Barclay says the waste was stored securely but was not disposed of in the correct timeframe.

"Our priority has been to ensure that proper measures were put in place so that trust can be continued as normal," Mr Barclay says.

"We will be reviewing how contracts are awarded in the future."

Select Committee
Parliament

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Questioning the witnesses about the future of shops on the high street, Labour's Matt Western asks how other countries "seem to be more resilient" in the face of online competition. He says that in France the local corner shop and bakery do not seem to be struggling.

Mr Goodacre of the British Independent Retailers Association says that the UK is very efficient to deliver to as it is relatively small in comparison to France, Germany and the United States.

Mr Ironside of the British Retail Consortium says that property taxes for high street shops are high in the G20.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Robert Halfon calls for a review into fake labelling in addition to ingredients, referencing an article in the Daily Mail today which suggests the bread Pret a Manger brands as "fresh" is frozen in France for a year.

David Rutley says that "businesses must step up to the plate, especially Pret who are not just a small corner shop".

He says incorrect labelling also needs to be looked into within this review to ensure that customers are being told the truth when purchasing products.

"We will be strengthening the allergen labelling framework as soon as possible."

Select Committee
Parliament

The committee looks at the policies and spending of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Members include:

• Mr Clive Betts , external(Chair) Labour
• Bob Blackman , externalConservative
• Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi , externalLabour
• Helen Hayes , externalLabour
• Kevin Hollinrake , externalConservative
• Andrew Lewer , externalConservative
• Teresa Pearce , externalLabour
• Mr Mark Prisk , externalConservative
• Mary Robinson , externalConservative
• Liz Twist , externalLabour
• Matt Western , externalLabour

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Rachel Maclean says a new law should be created to recognise Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who went into cardiac arrest on a flight after consuming a sandwich she had bought at Heathrow Airport in 2016.

Minister David Rutley says it would be extremely appropriate to recognise Natasha, one of the victims of the food labelling issue, in any future law changes.

He says as a father of a child with food allergies, he knows how crucial a change to this law is, and "will work hard to ensure it is implemented as soon as possible".

"We do need to strengthen the current regulations, and Pret a Manger and other companies must look at the report and see the implications."

Select Committee
Parliament

• Tom Ironside, Director of Business and Regulation, British Retail Consortium, external
• Edward Woodall, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Association of Convenience Stores, external
• Andrew Goodacre, Chief Executive, British Independent Retailers Association, external
• Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive, British Beer and Pub Association, external
• Tony Sophoclides, Strategic Affairs Director, UK Hospitality, external
• Joe Harrison, Chief Executive, National Market Traders Federation, external

Select Committee
Parliament

The committee is meeting to take evidence on high streets and town centres in 2030.

A report in the Financial Times newspaper, external found that landlords were struggling to offload “billions” in UK retail property. One agent in the sector told the paper that the bid-offer between what landlords want and what tenants are willing to pay “is just a chasm”.

The UK has seen a number of high-profile retail chains collapse in recent months, including Mothercare, Toys R Us and BHS. Supermarket chain Marks and Spencer has announced it will close some of its stores.

Comet, Zavvi and other brands closed following the turmoil of the 2008 recession.

Canterbury City Council has opted to buying the remaining stake in Whitefriars shopping centre in order to regenerate it over a 10 year period.

There has been huge spending in the retail sector by councils since 2016.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow environment, food and rural affairs secretary Sue Hayman joins the minister in sending her condolences to the families involved.

Ms Hayman calls on the minister and the department to hurry along their review of food labelling, arguing that this should be the top priority for DEFRA.

She says "rigorous food labelling is paramount to our food health and safety standards".

Ms Hayman says full ingredients lists should not just be a "nice to have", as this is a matter of life or death to some people. She suggests that in the reading of the Agriculture Bill tomorrow, consideration is given to ensuring that strict labelling laws on food products are imposed post-Brexit.

She suggests all ingredients for any food product should be clearly displayed on the product in a written format.

"We need urgent action to ensure that food labelling is as strong as it has ever been, and that these tragic incidents never happen again."

House of Lords
Parliament

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Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford is now introducing the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill at second reading.

"No government takes any pleasure" in having to introduce another counter-terrorism bill, she says.

"Like its predecessors, this bill is born out of necessity."

She says "dry statistics can never being home the pain and the sorrow suffered by individual victims of terrorism".

Threats of terrorism are "evolving", so it's important legislation reflects this change, she explains - "this bill closes a number of gaps in existing terrorism offences".

Hostile state activity also presents a threat to national security, she says, not just terrorism, and she raises the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury. She explains that the bill would strengthen powers so that defences against hostile state action "mirror" those that exist to oppose terrorist threats.

"The time has come to harden our defenses against hostile state activity."

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Labour MP Melanie Onn asks an urgent question on UK food labelling and allergy-related deaths.

A coroner last week said that Pret a Manger's food labelling had been inadequate when Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died after buying a sandwich at Heathrow Airport in 2016.

Yesterday, a second customer who is believed to have died after an allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger product, was named as Celia Marsh.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Michael Gove, has said that the government will review food safety and labelling laws.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister David Rutley says mandatory information must be available to consumers, but at a national level there is flexibility on how this information is presented on freshly prepared food. This can include a sign saying staff members can give a list of ingredients to customers.

"These deaths have shone a harsh spotlight on allergy related labelling in particular, and has led to a big push for change."

Melanie Onn asks for a review of food labelling to be carried out immediately, and not left until after Brexit. She says "stronger words need to be had with businesses" to ensure that all food labelling is accurate and comprehensive enough.

"It is clear that the law needs to be updated as soon as possible."