Baroness Willis of Summertown (CB)

My Lords, Motion K1 is in my name. I have a whole speech written but I am not going to give it because I greatly appreciate the words that came from the Minister. The concerns around the EDPs are critical. Even this morning I had many emails in my inbox from all walks of life—from builders, nature conservation people and even other Peers—saying, “Please push on this one”. These EDPs are a very ambitious, bold new framework and we simply do not know how successful they will be. Therefore, this amendment is to say, please can we try it on the thing that is the biggest blockage first, then sequentially work on it once we have the evidence base? The Minister, other Peers and I had a very constructive meeting and an exchange of letters. The Government have listened in this case. We will start with nutrients and build from that, but we will learn on the way with the evidence. It is very important that this evidence comes back to this House and that an independent body looks at that evidence base, so that Natural England is not marking its own homework. That has always been a concern for many. I thank the Minister for such helpful discussions. I believe that we will end up understanding how EDPs will work to effect for the biggest blockers, but for nature as well.