Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to hold the next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on EU Negotiations; and whether that meeting will include a discussion on extending the Brexit transition period.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The UK Government has been working closely with the devolved administrations throughout negotiations with the EU. It is intended that the next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee (EU Negotiations) will be convened in the coming weeks. Other engagement with the devolved administrations continues, with the Paymaster General speaking to Ministers from the devolved administrations, to update them on the negotiations, last week.
The Government’s position remains that there will be no extension to the transition period.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the comments made by Sir David Lidington on 22 April, what assessment they have made of the available capacity of the Civil Service; and whether that capacity is sufficient to conclude a trade agreement with the EU at the same time as responding to COVID-19.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
At this time of national crisis, resources have been redirected to work on Covid-19. There is a robust resourcing process in place that can be used to increase resource capacity on EU exit related work if departments require. This is a temporary arrangement, and at all times consideration has been given to ensuring that sufficient resource remains in place to support negotiations and readiness in line with the end of the transition period on 31 December.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Second Reading of the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill not occurring in the House of Commons on 21 April, what steps they are taking to ensure that new immigration arrangements are in place by the end of December.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government remains committed to ending free movement and introducing a new Points-Based Immigration System.
The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill will proceed when Parliamentary time allows and taking into account the new virtual operating arrangements in Parliament.
The Government set out proposals for its new Points-Based Immigration system in its policy statement on 19 February.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many primary schools in England and Wales have modern language assistants teaching (1) French, (2) Spanish, and (3) German.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The requested information is not held by the department.
The School Workforce Census is the department’s main source of information on teacher and support staff numbers and the subjects taught by teachers. However, this census does not collect information on the subjects taught by primary school teaching staff or support staff.
The reformed National Curriculum in England makes it compulsory for pupils in maintained schools to be taught a foreign language in Key Stage 2.
Education in Wales is a devolved matter for the Welsh Government.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 11 July 2019 (HL17122), what measures they are considering to promote the take up of foreign language courses available to Government ministers.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We are not considering any particular measures to promote language training to Government Ministers but ministers can apply for Foreign and Commonwealth Office language training if they need, in order to conduct government business.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what language training they provide to ministers with international portfolios.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not provide language training to ministers with international portfolios as a matter of course, but ministers can apply for FCO language training if they need it to conduct Government business.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of smart motorways; and how many penalty notices have been issued for non-compliance with smart motorway restrictions on each motorway.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Smart motorways are an important part of the modernisation of England’s motorways. The Government’s policy is to implement smart motorways on the busiest sections of motorway, as they provide a way to increase capacity and improve performance without the need to widen the road.
Smart motorways have reduced congestion and improved journey time reliability, by making the hard shoulder available as a traffic lane and using variable speed limits to smooth traffic flow. Each scheme has to meet a strict safety objective, which is to be at least as safe as a traditional motorway.
An assessment of the first two smart motorway ‘all lane running’ schemes, on the M25, shows that they are delivering the intended benefits. This assessment is detailed in the ‘M25 J5-7 Monitoring Third Year Report’ and the ‘M25 J23-27 Monitoring Third Year Report’, both published on 16 July 2018 by Highways England.
The issuing of penalty notices is a matter for the police force in each area, since Highways England is not an enforcement body.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of electric car charging points in each county in England and Wales; and what plans they have to increase the number of such charging points.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Highways England has reviewed chargepoint provision within 20 miles of the strategic road network across relevant counties in England to determine the gaps in charge point availability and to identify locations of potential sites for new charge points to meet their commitment that motorists will be no more than 20 miles from a charge point on 95% of the strategic road network. Highways England has so far given grants to 5 local authorities (Mid Suffolk, Ryedale, South Somerset, Worthing and Shropshire) to deliver 19 chargepoints and is working with BP Chargemaster and Swarco to deliver a further 59, which will all be installed by Spring 2020.
The UK now has over 17,000 publicly accessible chargepoints, including more than 1,700 rapid devices – one of the largest networks in Europe. Our vision is to have one of the best infrastructure networks in the world for electric vehicles, and we want chargepoints to be accessible, affordable and secure. In addition to the Highways England funding, the Government provides grants to fund chargepoints at homes, workplaces and on residential streets. These measures, along with the £400m public-private Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund, will see thousands more chargepoints installed across the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the announcement in the Spring Statement that listed companies will be required to report on their payment performance in their annual report and accounts in order to tackle the issue of late payment, (1) how they intend to publish this information, and (2) when they will assess whether adequate improvement has been made.
Answered by Lord Henley
At Spring Statement, my rt. hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that Government will require large company’s Audit Committees to review payments practices and report them in their annual accounts. We are in discussion on the best mechanism to implement this and further details will be published in due course as part of the Government Response to the Creating a Responsible Payment Culture Call for Evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many smart meters have been installed in England and Wales, broken down by local authority area, in each of the past three years.
Answered by Lord Henley
The latest data on the number of smart electricity and gas meters installed in Great Britain is published on a quarterly basis on Gov.UK. As of the end of December 2018, there were nearly 13.8 million smart and advanced meters currently operating in Great Britain.
Data is published only at Great Britain level. Data is not collected from energy suppliers in a format that allows local authority counts to be produced.