Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce legislation to create a new regulatory framework to ensure that online platforms take action to prevent extremist content.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
On 8 April, the Government published the Online Harms White Paper, which sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online. Companies will be held to account for tackling a comprehensive set of online harms, including terrorist and extremist content.
We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. This regulator will set clear safety standards, backed up by mandatory reporting requirements and effective enforcement powers.
The Government is consulting on a number of proposals in the White Paper and will bring forward legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of their vetting procedures when awarding contracts for Government support services.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Her Majesty’s Government requires that National Security Vetting is conducted to the same standard for all employees in sensitive roles, including those working for government support services. Vetting is conducted centrally by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV). Vetting policy, which sits with the Cabinet Office, applies equally to government personnel and private-sector employees on government contracts.
Cabinet Office encourages all government departments to uphold a set of minimum personnel security standards and these may be applicable for certain industry roles. ‘Support services’ is a broad category and could include everything from cleaning and catering to IT provision, security and administration. In that context different roles will have very different requirements and approaches are flexed depending on the risk. It is the responsibility of individual government departments to determine their security needs for each contract that they enter into. The requirement for vetting will be decided based on a given role’s access to sensitive assets, facilities or materials.
The procedures by which a private-sector company or contractor can gain a vetting clearance are currently designed to prioritise security as opposed to ubiquity; individuals must be able to demonstrate they will be working on an active government contract before being granted a clearance. This ensures tighter control of who is cleared, for what purpose and for how long.
A comprehensive, cross-government review of National Security Vetting is underway. This will examine potential reforms in vetting for the private-sector – including how we can improve the timeliness of security clearance and reduce the administrative burden of it for small and medium enterprises.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Cabinet Office designation of Interserve as a high risk supplier in June 2018, how that designation was communicated to all Government departments and agencies.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
As stated in the Strategic Supplier Risk Management Policy that applied in June 2018, the Government does not publish whether or not a strategic supplier is designated as high risk. This Policy was withdrawn and replaced with a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers.
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 what percentage of the UK’s energy mix by 2030 will be delivered by (1) marine renewable energy, and (2) solar energy; and what steps they (a) have taken, and (b) intend to take, to achieve the delivery of that percentage.
Answered by Lord Henley
On an annual basis BEIS publishes updated energy and emissions projections, which are located on the BEIS website. In the latest report published 11 April 2019, renewables are projected to form 59% of the UK's electricity generation by 2030 (under the reference scenario). Up to the early 2020s, the reference scenario reflects current power sector policies. Beyond the early 2020s, the reference scenario includes assumptions that go beyond current Government policy. The results do not indicate a preferred outcome and should be treated as illustrative.
Since 2003 the Government has made £174m innovation and grant funding available to wave and tidal stream technologies with £80m of that since 2010. Wave and tidal stream projects benefitted from the highest level of support under the Renewables Obligation (5 RO Certificates/MWh) and are eligible to enter the forthcoming Contract for Difference allocation round. As set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, wave and tidal stream technologies could have a role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK, but they will need to demonstrate how they can compete with other forms of generation.
Solar PV is a UK success story: under the RO and Feed in Tariff schemes, both of which have now closed, a total of 12.3GW of solar PV capacity was delivered. We are now exceeding our historic projections on solar PV deployment. In 2013 we estimated that solar capacity would reach 10-12GW by 2020, but latest figures indicate that we already have over 13GW of solar capacity installed in the UK; enough to power over 3 million homes. Subsidy-free deployment of solar PV may be a viable option for developers in future, with two such sites having already deployed in the UK, and the planned construction of two more large-scale subsidy-free solar projects was announced in February 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote the teaching of modern languages in schools in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
There are a number of initiatives in place to promote the teaching of modern languages in schools in England. The reformed national curriculum makes it compulsory for pupils in maintained schools to be taught a foreign language in key stage 2 and 3, and academies are required by their funding agents to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum. The government has introduced the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure, which includes languages and the proportion of GCSE entries from pupils in state-funded schools in a modern foreign language (MFL) has increased from 40% in 2010 to 46% in 2018.
Recruiting MFL teachers is a priority. Generous financial incentives are offered for languages teaching, including scholarships in modern foreign languages worth £28,000, and tax-free bursaries, typically worth up to £26,000. We are also working in partnership with Spain’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to deliver Spain’s Visiting Teachers programme. This will provide schools with access to a pool of qualified teachers from Spain who are able to teach MFL. For the 2019/20 academic year, the programme will be open to secondary schools and primary schools.
The Teacher Subject Specialism Training programme aims to improve the subject knowledge of non-specialist teachers and returning teachers in MFL and to increase the number of hours taught.
We have also recently launched the new Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, which will attract new teachers to all subjects, including MFLs.
A £4.8 million MFL Pedagogy Pilot commenced in December 2018. It is managed by the newly appointed MFL Centre for Excellence and is run through 9 school-led hubs, to improve uptake and attainment in languages at key stages 3 and 4. We have also launched a pilot project in MFL undergraduate mentoring for secondary school pupils to drive up participation in the subject, specifically targeting areas of high disadvantage to extend access to languages for all pupils.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the need for legislative consent motions to be passed by the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly in relation to the Great Repeal Bill.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The final content of the Great Repeal Bill, when it is introduced, will determine the process to take it forward.
The Government fully respects the Sewel Convention and is working closely with the devolved administrations – for example through the Joint Ministerial Committee on EU Negotiations.
This is part of the normal working arrangements between the UK Government and the devolved administrations.