Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 18 July 2018 (HL9238), what steps they are taking to ensure that towns, villages and hamlets affected by the HS2 railway line can access the optical fibre network being installed along the HS2 line of route.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
HS2 Ltd is planning to install a trackside optical fibre network along the Phase One HS2 line to provide digital connectivity for its passengers. As part of work to design this network, HS2 Ltd is working with the Department for Transport and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to consider options for offering capacity to third parties, in order to share the benefit of HS2’s investment in optical fibre with local communities.
Separately from HS2, the Prime Minister has recently set out ambitions for accelerating the roll-out of gigabit capable broadband across the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to replace biodegradable plastic with compostable plastic.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government published a call for evidence on standards for bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastics. We want to gain a better understanding of the overall sustainability of these materials and whether product standards could provide reassurance of this. The call for evidence will run until 14 October and a Government response will be published taking the responses into account.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many water leaks have been recorded by each water company in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Environment Agency’s records for water company leakage are in the table:
Total leakage Ml/d | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Affinity Water | 178.70 | 182.64 | 179.57 | 171.68 | 173.92 |
Anglian Water | 192.72 | 192.00 | 182.65 | 184.72 | 182.66 |
Bristol Water | 43.65 | 45.11 | 44.22 | 46.42 | 46.64 |
Cambridge Water | 12.71 | 13.53 | 13.24 | 14.32 | 14.39 |
Essex & Suffolk Water | 58.39 | 60.86 | 62.42 | 68.08 | 66.17 |
Northumbrian Water | 134.04 | 136.79 | 134.66 | 133.82 | 137.05 |
Portsmouth Water | 29.50 | 28.85 | 28.06 | 30.37 | 32.87 |
Bournemouth Water | 20.67 | 20.56 | 19.63 | 19.11 | 19.11 |
Severn Trent Water | 441.00 | 440.40 | 429.39 | 423.56 | 445.52 |
South East Water | 92.56 | 92.43 | 88.11 | 88.63 | 87.69 |
South Staffordshire Water | 66.88 | 69.22 | 69.88 | 69.85 | 72.41 |
South West Water | 84.07 | 84.36 | 83.75 | 84.40 | 88.13 |
Southern Water | 84.59 | 81.69 | 83.91 | 88.11 | 88.16 |
Sutton & East Surrey Water | 23.93 | 24.16 | 24.17 | 24.30 | 24.16 |
Thames Water | 648.14 | 657.39 | 645.90 | 667.84 | 685.38 |
United Utilities | 451.90 | 453.89 | 451.96 | 439.34 | 453.76 |
Wessex Water | 69.33 | 68.57 | 68.35 | 68.35 | 67.68 |
Yorkshire Water | 282.29 | 288.32 | 285.11 | 295.17 | 300.28 |
England total | 2916.19 | 2941.89 | 2896.35 | 2918.07 | 2986.47 |
Water company leakage records for the last three years are published on the Discover Water website. This will shortly include leakage records for 2018-19.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether a timetable has been set for the implementation of the water abstraction plan, published on 15 December 2017; and what progress has been made on that plan to date.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government’s report on the progress made in reforming the arrangements for managing water abstraction in England presented to Parliament in May 2019 included a timetable for completion of the water abstraction plan, which is progressing on schedule.
The report is published and is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are undertaking research to enable (1) vehicles to carry integral solar panels for charging their batteries, and (2) flat glass windows and doors on high rise buildings to capture solar energy.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has awarded over £300m in grants via Innovate UK into ultra-low emission technologies. Although no project is currently exploring solar panelled vehicles we would, of course, continue to welcome proposals related to this area in relevant future competitions and are aware the industry is already exploring this technology.
HM Government has funded development of novel photovoltaics for applying on windows and doors. For example, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has provided £1m to Swansea University, the University of Glasgow, and Science & Technology Facilities Council Laboratories for research into thin film solid state dye-sensitized solar cells on glass. BEIS’s Energy Entrepreneur Fund and UKRI have funded research on perovskite solar cells for windows at Oxford Photovoltaics, Nyak Technology Ltd & Centre for Process Innovation Ltd. UKRI are investing £36m in the Active Building research centre in Wales, which investigates building integrated solar energy conversion.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many dairy producers in England and Wales were registered with the Food Standards Agency in (1) 2014, (2) 2015, (3) 2016, (4) 2017, (5) 2018, and (6) 2019.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
As at 1 April for each of the specified years, the number of milk production holdings registered by the Food Standards Agency is shown in the following table.
Date | Number of Registered Milk Production Holdings |
1 April 2014 | 10,362 |
1 April 2015 | 9,866 |
1 April 2016 | 9,585 |
1 April 2017 | 9,444 |
1 April 2018 | 9,356 |
1 April 2019 | 8,889 |
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many tenant farmers in England are awaiting their (1) Environmental Stewardship (ES) payments, (2) Countryside Stewardship (CS) payments, for 2018; and whether all ES and CS payments for 2017 have been made.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Rural Payments Agency has paid all CS 2017 eligible claims bar those held for legal reasons such as probate. On CS 2018, 95% of eligible claimants received an advance payment by early April; 30% of eligible claims have received their final payment and we expect to pay 95% of eligible claims by August 2019.
On ES, around 92% of 2017 eligible claims have now received a payment and we are on track to complete 95% by the end of July 2019. Just over 52% of 2018 eligible claimants have received their advance payment and just under 21% have received their final payment.
Regrettably, we cannot confirm how many of these are tenant farmers as we do not record the agreement holders’ occupant status.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 1 February (HL13061), what rationale was behind the decision to set the cost to serve allowance for smaller non-household water customers at its proposed levels.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Determining the appropriate price protections for non-household water customers, including the cost to serve allowance, is a matter for Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water industry. The current price protections for non-household water customers run until March 2020.
Ofwat has collected detailed cost data from all licensed water and sewerage retailers, to provide them with the evidence about the current cost to serve allowance.
In December 2018 Ofwat published a consultation on price protections to apply from April 2020. This included questions on the cost to serve allowance. Chapter 7 of the consultation published on GOV.UK sets out the proposed approach and Ofwat’s rationale for the proposal.
The consultation closed on 15 February. Ofwat is considering the responses received and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 1 February (HL13061), what assessment they have made of whether the cost to serve allowance for non-household water retailers is sufficient to enable effective competition.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Determining the appropriate price protections for non-household water customers, including the cost to serve allowance, is a matter for Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water industry. The current price protections for non-household water customers run until March 2020.
Ofwat has collected detailed cost data from all licensed water and sewerage retailers, to provide them with the evidence about the current cost to serve allowance.
In December 2018 Ofwat published a consultation on price protections to apply from April 2020. This included questions on the cost to serve allowance. Chapter 7 of the consultation published on GOV.UK sets out the proposed approach and Ofwat’s rationale for the proposal.
The consultation closed on 15 February. Ofwat is considering the responses received and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Ofcom review individual cases where telephone and broadband failures are dealt with in an unsatisfactory manner.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
These are matters for Ofcom, the UK’s designated enforcer of consumer law and regulation for the UK communications industries. Ofcom do not handle individual complaints, but look at how problems affect UK consumers as a whole and then make decisions on whether to open enforcement investigations. Ofcom also has powers to introduce new consumer regulations under its General Conditions of Entitlement, which apply to all providers of electronic communications networks and services must comply with if they want to provide services in the UK.
In March 2017, Ofcom consulted on introducing an automatic compensation scheme for fixed broadband and landline telecoms to protect consumers who suffer from specific service failures. Subsequently, industry agreed to introduce a voluntary automatic compensation scheme, which came into effect from 1 April 2019. The new scheme applies to new orders placed or problems reported from 1 April 2019 and sets out compensation amounts for delayed repairs following a loss of service, missed repairs or provision appointments, and delays to the start of a new service. Ofcom plan to review the scheme after it has been in place for 12 months.
Where an individual feels that their service fault has been dealt with in an unsatisfactory manner by their telecoms provider, and if their complaint has not been resolved after eight weeks, they can refer their case to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. ADR schemes can review individual cases and any decisions they make are binding on telecoms providers. There are two ADR schemes for telecoms, the Ombudsman Services (OS) and the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS), and all communications providers must be members of one of these schemes.