Steff Aquarone
MP for North Norfolk · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) on securing this debate. He truly is a champion that coastal communities like mine can rely on to stand up for them.”
“It is also not just lifesaving rescuing that the coastguard carries out. The coastguards I spoke to told me that their role often includes keeping the public safe from unexploded bombs uncovered on our beaches.”
“It is far from huge recompense—about £30 for a call-out of three hours or less—but it helps. It makes it viable for more people, it enables people to give up more of their time to volunteer and it makes the service more resilient. We desperately need people to attend call-outs.”
“What was striking, and I think this has to be at the heart of our consideration, was that one chap said to me, “I’ll be honest with you, Steff, I didn’t even know that we got paid when I first applied”. I heard that again and again, and I have also heard it from right hon. and hon. Members during this debate.”
“I asked the Minister’s boss, the Secretary of State, for answers when she came before the Transport Committee last week, and I was equally not reassured.”
“The MCA has relied on legal opinions for its claim that the court decision means it has no choice but to take this approach. Will he publish those also? The Government say that there will be a transition period to assess the changes. Could they assess the changes before launching into that period?”
The complete record
Every one of 586 lines we hold for Steff Aquarone, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 12.
“I do not see why people working on their home or farmers working on their land, which certainly are not security vulnerabilities, should be required to seek approval from the state, and to hand over an indeterminate fee, just to access data the Government have collected. For many businesses, such as builders, plumbers, electrical technicians and a great many more, this would add red tape and costs to their operation. I know the Chancellor is keen to slash red tape and encourage growth. If the Minister accepts these amendments, I am sure he would be helping the Government to achieve just that. It is a great way of getting into No. 11’s good books.”
“Do not get me wrong, I am a big fan of this whole idea, so much so that I have been bothering other Committees about their equivalents. Amendments 17 to 20 would make the national underground asset register more available and transparent. As Labour Members have already said, the Bill will give quite a lot of power to the Secretary of State to use secondary legislation at their whim to choose the costs and potentially place restrictions on access to vital information for many individuals and businesses. The Minister told us this morning that he is not often a fan of secondary legislation, so I hope to appeal to our shared concern. There are many legitimate reasons to access this data, and particularly to liberate the benign data.”
“I hope the Minister will, within reason, give consideration to making this a more open, transparent and accessible regime. Can he tell us more about how the Government will ensure this?”
“It may be wishful thinking. I fear that if we pass the Bill as it stands, we may find ourselves in a similar situation to the postcode address file in a few years’ time, with a vast wealth of data that could unlock growth for businesses being locked behind a paywall, leading to restriction on businesses’ ability to grow and expand. I know that some Labour Members have begun to break ranks by calling for the liberation of the postcode address file. This is not quite a placard slogan, but it is an important idea none the less. I do not want the Minister to face the same calls on the NUAR a few years down the line. I support the overall aim to tackle the problem of simply not knowing what infrastructure we have buried and where, which frustrates many sectors and individuals.”
“I am a big supporter of the affirmative approach, so the Minister’s words provide great reassurance. I am slightly confused by what he said about use cases being invalidated, but I will come back to that. My main reason for withdrawing amendment 17 is that, as he correctly identified—he got me—this is not just about Northern Ireland. I will come back on Report and revise which clauses I am hitting with my amendments.”
“I want to seek specific clarification from the Minister about whether he thinks that these provisions will improve or solve the situation where an unmarried parent tragically dies before the birth of their child. Will this make it easier for their parenthood to be entered on the birth certificate? My hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) had an Adjournment debate on that subject recently, and it is a large matter for a small but distributed number of people.”
“If the Minister cannot make such a commitment to the Committee today, which I would understand, I would be delighted if she would be willing to meet me and residents in my area who are facing the challenges of coastal erosion, to discuss what we can do to ensure they are well protected. I would be delighted to welcome her to one of those villages to see the impact of erosion at first hand. I am grateful to you, Ms Vaz, for allowing me to make these comments, and I look forward to hearing a positive and reassuring response for the Minister.”
“The Flood Re scheme is providing many tangible benefits to those affected by flooding in North Norfolk, but the residents of villages such as Happisburgh, Trimingham and Overstrand have no similar protections from the threat of coastal erosion. I hope the Minister might consider bringing forward provisions to set up a coastal reinsurance scheme, to ensure that those affected by coastal erosion have insurance protection from the impact of erosion on their property. It is a problem affecting only a few thousand households, so it is far from a huge undertaking for the Government and industry, but for all those it impacts it causes daily worry and fear for the future.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I will make some brief remarks, which I hope the Minister can respond to. My constituency of North Norfolk suffers heavily from flooding. Many of my constituents have benefited from the Flood Re scheme, so I wholeheartedly welcome this measure, which will increase the funds available to it. I hope that the Minister, in her closing remarks, will update us on her confidence that risk-reflective pricing will be delivered by the time Flood Re exits the market and her plans to ensure that that is the case over subsequent years. The key thing that drove me to speak in the debate is an omission from the regulations that relates to those affected by coastal erosion. I will be very brief.”
“I would be delighted if the Government could back our amendment today, but if they are unable to do so, I hope that the Minister’s team will be able to provide promises of progress for the residents of Happisburgh and all the other communities who live with the existential threat of coastal erosion.”
“I am aware that the Minister did not support this amendment in Committee. I am not expecting the recess to have led him to a Damascene conversion, but I hope that he can provide some reassurance today on how the Government will look at this double standard for energy products and what steps they will be taking to provide protection to villages such as Happisburgh that are doing all the right things but feel they do not get their fair share back. I would also be happy to welcome him and any of his Government colleagues to Happisburgh to see the situation for themselves. I honestly believe that bearing witness to the way that our coastline is being ravaged by climate change, meeting the people it affects and understanding what we are set to lose will spark anyone into supporting radical action to stop this coming to pass.”
“People in Happisburgh have lived with the looming threat of coastal erosion and frequently feel left behind or forgotten about, and it seems as though this is just another example of this happening. I am sure that if there were an erosion risk of this scale in central London or the south-east, the Government would move heaven and earth to take action, but in North Norfolk, right at the eastern edge of our island nation, people feel despondent about the situation they are facing. Our amendment seeks to right this wrong. We believe that when these reforms to the Crown Estate allow for new renewable energy products, efforts must be made to secure the coastline where they make landfall. Renewables are our future, and we have to make sure that the communities that host key infrastructure have a future too.”
“One local business owner spoke of how such a scheme means he no longer feels “trepidation” when he checks the weather forecast. Just down the coast in the village of Happisburgh, the Norfolk Boreas and the Norfolk Vanguard wind farms make their landfall. Happisburgh has been at the frontline of the coastal erosion suffered in north Norfolk, with 40 homes already lost to the ever-encroaching North sea. This is a village battling the real-world impacts of climate change, and it is doing its bit to fight back by hosting renewable energy infrastructure, but it has had no additional protections. This double standard seems deeply unfair. It is in our interest to protect the renewable energy infrastructure we are building, but it is also in our interest to protect the communities that live alongside it.”
“I want to speak to amendment 3, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings), which deals specifically with coastal erosion. My constituency plays host to a whole load of energy infrastructure that is vital to our security and our renewable transition. We have the Bacton energy hub, which is on track to make the exciting transformation from being a key asset in national gas to hydrogen production and carbon capture. It is one of my constituency’s largest employers, but it is also of national significance because of the role it plays in our energy ecosystem. It is therefore understandable that, a few years ago, a £20 million sandscaping scheme was welcomed. It gave protection not only to the energy terminal but to the villages of Bacton and Walcott that surround it.”
“Before I came to this place, I worked with large companies across the world, talking to them about how they should restructure and reform their organisations to make the best use of the power of data, not only to improve their businesses but to improve the experience of their users and customers. When they used data best, they brought prosperity to their organisations and made people want to come back to them time and again. How many of our constituents could honestly say that they want to engage with Departments and public services time and again? We have to face a hard truth: when citizens engage with Government, they are far from impressed. In so many cases, they feel that they are battling with sclerotic bureaucracy and a system built of silos, which feels designed for the convenience of the administration and not the user.”
“I am enjoying the debate and feel regretful that I no longer have any disclosable interests in the creative industries. I am grateful to Members for sharing their powerful testimonies. I do have a couple of disclosable interests in relation to tech, and I want to address my comments to some of aspects of that. Over the course of human history, we have found ourselves in possession of resources that can radically change how our society operates and the quality of life that we lead. Over thousands of years, we have revolutionised society by harnessing fire, oil, electricity and even cassette tapes. I truly believe that the great opportunity for our generation is to harness the power of data for the public good.”
“I could not agree more. Some of the conclusions that are reached through the procurement of technology services by local councils defy sense and are utterly baffling. I am sure that all of us are guilty of that; I will not go any further than that—”
“Estonian citizens can access 100% of their public services online at any time. The Estonians have transformed their healthcare system with the e-health and e-prescription initiatives, which free up GP time by allowing prescription refills to be dealt with online and ensure fast and simple access to key medical information during emergencies.”
“It is a place I visited in my past life to talk about data-driven success stories. I am sure that it is no coincidence that, for the past 20 years, the Estonian digital transformation has been led by liberal Governments from our Estonian sister parties. After the fall of communism, in the late 1990s, Estonia embarked on an ambitious programme known as the “Tiger Leap” to expand internet access and computer literacy—the first step in embedding the digital environment into all levels of the citizen and Government experience. Their Government proudly say that their e-cabinet, which streamlined the decision-making process, brought the average length of an Estonian Cabinet meeting down from five hours to 30 minutes—an appealing prospect to those on the Treasury Bench, I am sure.”
“All of us are guilty, I am sure, of being part of decisions that sometimes defy sense when it comes to usability. I can speak only on behalf of the citizens who contact me about having to go round in circles, sharing the same stories, digging out new and old reference numbers and wondering why nothing seems to want to work for them. I am sure the Minister would agree that it does not have to be this way. We have already seen the transformative impact of the improved usability of gov.uk services, and that is just the very front end of the machine. Total transformation of how data is used in our public services could radically change how we deliver services for citizens. I hope the Government will look to Estonia for inspiration on how to have a truly data-driven Government with the citizen at the centre.”
“Savings worth up to 2% of Estonian GDP have been made thanks to that efficient data environment—a saving that, if replicated in the UK, would easily fill the Chancellor’s budgetary black hole. For 12 of the 15 e-services surveyed, 80% of citizens or more said they had made using public services easier. I call on the Government to be bold, ambitious and, above all, citizen-focused in such design and delivery.”
“The hon. Member makes an excellent point, for which I am grateful—I will address it in a moment, if I may. X-Road, described as the backbone of e-Estonia, is a secure data-exchange platform that allows smooth and seamless use of data between organisations. It carries out 2.2 billion transactions every year, and is estimated to save Estonians 1,345 years-worth of work per annum. The platform has been described as having a “radical anti-silo” agenda. My experience so far of the structures of Parliament and Government have convinced me that we would all benefit from a heavy dose of radical anti-siloism. That data transformation saves the Government money, and the public like it.”
“I also think of the farmers who are baffled by the systems used to issue flood recovery payments, because the data is not transparent.”
“This is absolutely not a pitch to be a member of the Bill Committee, but I would certainly be grateful for the opportunity to implement my views in the design and delivery of Britain’s very own Tiger Leap into the data-driven revolution. Estonia is a crystal-clear example proving that the results of such a transformation are not just the preserve of tech geeks—a category into which I place myself—but provide tangible benefits for individuals, and not just by making them use digital stuff at the front end, which the hon. Member for Windsor (Jack Rankin) will be glad to hear. I think about the lady in her 90s whose Openreach engineer understandably refused her fibre upgrade because the local council had not shared with them the fact that she used a telecare device.”
“Absolutely. There are so many layers upon which data governance, data infrastructure and data practices must be established, and data retrievability is one of the things that sit between those layers and the application or interface that uses them.”
“I am trying to make sure that this Bill is built not around convenience for the Administration, but around genuinely citizen-centred design principles. The Bill tackles issues such as data handling, but I would like it to start to set out a vision for a data-driven society—I am a bit disappointed in that, as it stands, it could be more ambitious and innovative in this regard—and seek to carve us out as data pioneers among our international peers. I hope the Government can see the evidence from successful data-driven societies, and I am confident they do. I hope they hear the frustrations of citizens at their experiences, and I think they currently do. I hope they will make this Bill one that can be lauded by future generations as the launchpad that transformed our society.”
“I am also concerned that, along with the provisions in the Bill for creating a digital ID system, there is no equal right to a non-digital ID. Not only does this create concerns about data freedom, but in areas such as North Norfolk, where digital exclusion is higher than in many other areas, I am worried about how many of my older residents will feel comfortable or confident using any digital system. Their rights must be preserved, and their experiences and fears given equal worth. The Bill seeks to tackle a difficult but very important subject. It is right that the Government venture into data transformation to deliver for all our constituents and make their experiences as citizens interacting with the Government far better than is currently the case. I guess my reservation is about who it is written and working for, and why.”
“He had asked it to send him details of his conversation with it by email, rather than by letter, to try to save the Government money, and he was told that it had to post this to him by letter because that was how the system worked. Harnessing the power of data must not, however, come at the cost of our rights or civil liberties. I am very concerned about some aspects of the Bill that have been touched on by other hon. Members, such as the reduced accountability mechanisms for law enforcement when handling data, a potential watering down of our GDPR rights and giving more scope for automated decision making without human oversight, although I have been partially reassured by some of the comments from the Minister, for which I am grateful.”
“I do not doubt that that was an enabling factor, but one reason why being citizen-focused works so well is that it is much easier to build trust and credibility bit by bit by telling people why doing something differently will be better for them. In that way, we do not end up in the horrendous situation of facing yet another £100 billion abortive IT project that cannot quite establish public trust and collapses. Again, I draw attention to the success of some of our European neighbours. To go back to examples that are not just about the interface, but about the underlying enabling tech, an exasperated constituent contacted me to tell me how the Department for Work and Pensions had refused to email him.”
“People do it because they value the family farm, the people they employ, the supply chains they support and the communities they have served for generations. I urge the Government to listen to farmers, listen to their communities and think again.”
“This is not a debate about protecting exemptions for multimillionaires and tax dodgers. If the Government had proposals to truly tackle that issue, I would fully support them, and I am sure my local farmers would too. However, this proposal is hugely damaging for family farmers who, year on year and generation on generation, hope to stay in a business that has been made virtually unprofitable by years of Government failure. They are being dragged into a punitive tax by spiralling land costs that are out of their control. If these were greedy individuals looking to duck tax, they would have left this tough industry many years ago. No one would take on a relentless job that involves hard, lonely labour in all weathers—a job with skyrocketing rates of suicide—just for a tax exemption.”
“Farming is a beating heart ever present at the core of our rural economy, but the changes proposed by the Government run a real risk of ripping that heart out altogether. While our area is diversifying in a number of innovative and exciting ways, the simple fact is that our farmers will always be there to put food on the table. Keeping farming alive locally allows us to be part of the exciting progress that science and agriculture can make together. The Norwich Research Park, in the neighbouring constituency of the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough)—undertakes incredible agri-science and is very near to us, so family farms in Norfolk are the perfect test bed for latest in gene editing of crops, which can bring about higher yields, smaller carbon footprints and less need for pesticides.”
“I speak today on behalf of the 392 signatories from North Norfolk, and our wider community as a whole. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending Saturday morning with farmers outside a supermarket in my constituency; many people who might not have initially been supportive of their cause really appreciated the opportunity to hear directly from farmers. Historically, North Norfolk has relied heavily on agriculture for employment and economic prosperity. We still have a lot of agricultural employment, but the knock-on is also felt in other sectors. Farmers supply local businesses with high-quality, locally sourced produce. They are custodians of our natural environment and more and more are using their land for sustainable farming and natural flood management, to protect the wider community.”
“I welcome this debate as a chance to shout about the challenges they face and will continue to ensure that the Government are giving my community the support it needs.”
“We continue to lose bank branches across the constituency. I am campaigning hard for better access to banking in those towns where the last ones are starting to look flaky. In Wells-next-the-Sea, we are at risk of losing our visitor information centre, which faces a funding shortfall. I am pledged to work alongside them to find new funding streams. It is a vital shop window for our local businesses and attractions. I cannot help but reflect that the crisis in local government funding is also putting high street services at risk. Those high street services are so vital to our community. In North Norfolk we have the oldest population in the country, so easily accessible services are a lifeline for many of my constituents. Preserving and protecting services is a top priority for local people, so a top priority for me.”
“We have been extremely lucky, not least in the success of Lib Dem-led North Norfolk district council in securing funding for things like the heritage action zone project in our largest town, North Walsham, which has created a new sense of vibrancy and optimism by refurbishing the town centre and giving many of the historic shopfronts a much-needed facelift. But street furniture and material renovation alone cannot mask the fact that our rural high streets are suffering. That is in no small part down to a gradual managed decline of rural services. Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of cutting a ribbon on the brand-new banking hub in Holt. Holt lost its final bank branch in 2021, and ever since I have been working alongside the community to protect access to banking services and cash.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this debate. In North Norfolk, half of my constituents live in settlements of just a few hundred houses, or even fewer; the other half live in market towns, all but one of which have populations well under 10,000. The health of our rural high street is probably the most significant barometer of prosperity, economic health and the state of the nation, so it is imaginably disastrous whenever any business shuts up shop.”
“T3. In Norfolk and Waveney, 44% of women on the gynaecology waiting list have been waiting for treatment for longer than the 18-week NHS target, and one in 10 have been waiting over a year. They are the worst waiting time statistics in England, so will the Minister set out what conversations she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to ensure that women in North Norfolk will no longer be left behind?”
“I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a Norfolk county councillor. The Conservatives leading Norfolk county council have nearly bankrupted our county, failed children with special educational needs and disabilities, penalised those with disabilities, blown £50 million on four miles of never-to-be-built road, broken our transport system, taxed and complicated our recycling centres and left our roads pockmarked with potholes. What is it about this glittering record of success that attracted the Secretary of State to allowing them to negotiate the future of Norfolk’s devolution?”
“I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing such an important debate, especially on World Cancer Day. In my constituency of North Norfolk, Radiotherapy UK found that nobody can access radiotherapy treatment within 75 minutes by public transport. Does he agree that we need a two-pronged approach to tackle this—to fix our broken public transport infrastructure and to make more services available closer to where people are, such as at Cromer hospital in my constituency?”
“The council is keen for the Department for Education to use Norfolk as a test bed for innovative solutions to the crisis in SEND, and our county is keen and eager to be a big player in the national conversation about the important transformation that must come to the way in which these services currently function. I would be incredibly grateful if the Minister took the time to meet with me, Norfolk county council and others to discuss the challenges we face and, more importantly, how we can help. I have pledged to those who have got in touch to tell me their stories and challenges in the SEND system that I will keep fighting for them.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) and refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Conservative-controlled Norfolk county council is failing too many SEND children—moreover, the Conservative Government failed SEND children—but the system is also failing children and families, and Norfolk wants to be part of the solution. There are many settings that are worthy of national best practice exemplification for the way they support a high incidence of SEND without needing to refer to EHCPs.”
“The Government’s housing targets mean that my area needs 9,500 new homes over the next 20 years, which thousands of my constituents are very worried about. Many of them would be far happier if they knew that the properties being built would meet the needs of local people, by being affordable to buy and cheap to run. Does my hon. Friend agree that the New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill is not only a no-brainer, but an essential part of gaining public support for house building?”
“One constituent complained to me about a lack of quality bird netting or deterrents on solar panels in his street, which has led to a large influx of pigeons that are causing a considerable nuisance to him and his neighbours. That may sound like a scene from a Hitchcock film, but it is causing daily frustration, and could be easily avoided if the provisions in the Bill were correctly applied. I cannot find any puns to add to that story. Anyone who wants to tackle climate change knows that it makes sense to put solar panels on the roofs of new builds. Anyone who wants to move into a house with low or no energy costs knows it, and anyone who is worried about excess solar farms being installed in our fields knows it, too.”
“We have a housing shortage in North Norfolk. In in particular, we need to build houses that are affordable to buy and cheap to run. Most of my constituents would be far happier with the current growth in house building if they knew that the properties were being built to meet the needs of local families, and that can be done. Some of the most energy-efficient, low-cost housing in my constituency has been built by housing associations, such as Broadland, that have constructed mixed developments containing both expensive and social housing, and it would be perfectly possible to do that at scale. The new regulations on solar panel installation that the Bill would require the Secretary of State to create could help us to deal with some of the problems and frustrations about rooftop solar.”
“And the petitioners remain, etc.” Following is the full text of the petition: [ The petition of the residents of the village of Roughton in North Norfolk, Declares that Post Office services in the village must be protected as they are a vital lifeline for many residents. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to work with the Post Office to review the closure of Roughton Post Office, seek alternative arrangements to protect the existence of a Post Office in Roughton, and ensure that there is reliable and appropriate access to Post Office services within Roughton. And the petitioners remain, etc. ] [P003034]”
“Local Liberal Democrat councillors and I have spoken to hundreds of people in Roughton and the surrounding villages who are furious about the prospect of losing post office services in their area. For the older population in North Norfolk, they are a vital lifeline not just for post but for banking, cash access and more. I present this petition in the hope that our collective pressure on the Post Office will secure a better future for these important services in those rural villages. The petition states: “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to work with the Post Office to review the closure of Roughton Post Office, seek alternative arrangements to protect the existence of a Post Office in Roughton, and ensure that there is reliable and appropriate access to Post Office services within Roughton.”
“May I ask about the specifics of the Government’s response to module 1? I was interested to hear about the national vulnerability map, which could help with a range of matters including digital exclusion as well as public health, but let me ask the Minister two questions. First, has he taken into consideration the findings of Chris Whitty’s 2021 report on coastal communities and their specific vulnerabilities? Secondly, while this is obviously a hugely valuable undertaking, I do not want us to create a one-trick pony, so could the Minister try to seize the big opportunity to build a better system for storing and using citizen data that could benefit everyone and give all sorts of people the support that they need when they need it?”
“On that point, my constituent Lauraine took early retirement from the NHS in 2014 to care for her husband. She believed that her state pension would kick in in 2015 and support her in her caring responsibilities, since she never received any notification from the DWP to tell her that it would not. She feels angry and let down. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is shocking that the Government can hear testimonies such as Lauraine’s and still refuse the fair compensation that these women deserve?”
“I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. There is a strong case for devolution in Norfolk. However, can the Minister confirm that holding elections in May does not prevent devolution for Norfolk, and would he agree that Norfolk’s voters should be allowed to have their say on who is taking forward our devolution negotiations?”