Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that all cars sold in the UK meet appropriate anti-theft standards and are adequately protected from relay attacks.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All passenger cars placed on the UK market need to be Type Approved. This process ensures compliance with requirements for anti-theft and car alarm systems.
The Government is protecting vehicles from relay attacks through provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill. The Bill will create new offences to enable prosecution of those who possess, make, adapt, supply, or offer to supply electronic devices; where there are reasonable grounds to suspect those devices will be used for the purposes of vehicle theft.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement statutory measures to ban the sale of zombie knives and machetes.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Between 18 April and 16 June 2023, the Government ran a consultation on new knife legislation proposals to tackle the use of machetes and other bladed articles in criminal activity. The Government published the response to the consultation on 30 August 2023.
Alongside other proposals, the Government intends to ban the import, sale and possession of zombie style knives and machetes.
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024.
Once the legislation has been approved by Parliament, a surrender scheme will be launched this summer to remove these knives from our streets.
Once the surrender scheme has been completed, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor and ensure that the National Highways meets its legal duty to ensure its land is kept clear of litter under sections 89(1) and (2) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways is monitored against a litter performance indicator as part of the Road Investment Strategy (RIS2). This requires them to report on the percentage of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) where litter is graded at B or above under the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Litter Code of Practice. National Highways performance on this metric is reported to the Office for Road and Rail and published annually.
National Highways consider litter to be a very serious problem. It is harmful to the environment, damaging to their reputation, and upsets their customers. It also creates a risk to the substantial number of people who collect it, and uses resources that could instead be better used to improve the road network.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in achieving their target for motorway stations to have six rapid or ultra-rapid chargers by the end of 2023; and when they expect this to be achieved.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has recently collected updated chargepoint numbers for the end of 2023 from motorway service area operators (MSAOs). There are now 800 open-access (can be used with any electric vehicle) rapid (50kW) and ultra-rapid (150Kw+) chargepoints at motorway service areas (MSAs) in England.
More than 565 chargepoints are ultra-rapid. This is a substantial increase of over 300 extra ultra-rapid chargers at MSAs in the last year.
56 of the 114 MSA sites now have at least six ultra-rapid open access chargepoints. Government is working closely with the distribution network operators, MSAOs, chargepoint operators and other key stakeholders in industry on wider challenges to chargepoint rollout and overcoming barriers at those sites that still need to reach their baseline provision.
One of the challenges faced by some is the cost of the grid upgrades. To address this, the £70m Rapid Charging Fund pilot, launched in December 2023, will help support MSA sites with the cost of the grid connections where it is currently not commercially viable, investing alongside the private sector.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Turing Scheme: evaluation of year 1, published on 3 January, which found that 79 per cent of universities had difficulties with the Turing scheme application process, whether they intend to review that process.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
For applications to the Turing Scheme for the next academic year, the department has been working with users across the education sector, including universities, to develop a new online application process that is as concise and user friendly as possible, reducing the application burden on education providers.
The department has published information for 2024/25 academic year applications to the Turing Scheme, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/turing-scheme-apply-for-funding-for-international-placements. Schools, colleges, and universities across the UK can now review the guidance and prepare their applications for funding ahead of the application window opening in February 2024.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans (1) to accelerate the uptake of heat pump installations and support jobs and skills in this sector, and (2) to increase the availability of a new generation of higher temperature heat pumps using new refrigerants, including R290, or propane.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In October, the Government increased the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant for heat pumps to £7,500. In the first full month after the uplift, we saw double the number of vouchers redeemed compared to those redeemed prior to the uplift. Government is also supporting skills in the sector through the £5m Heat Training Grant which launched in July 2023.
Government has funded innovation in new technologies, like higher temperature heat pumps that use alternative refrigerants, through the Net Zero Innovation Programme and such technologies are eligible for support under various Government grant schemes, including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many onshore wind projects consisting of individual turbines were completed in 2023; and what steps they are taking to increase the number of new onshore wind farms.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government does not routinely collect information on the number of turbines that make up onshore wind farms, with the exception of larger projects tracked by the Renewable Energy Planning Database. Nevertheless, Government sees onshore wind of all sizes as an important part of the energy mix and supports large-scale onshore wind farms through the Contracts for Difference Scheme and small-scale onshore wind farms through the Smart Export Guarantee.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to maintain a vaccine-based immunity in the under-65s given the spread of the JN.1 COVID-19 sub-variant.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a body of independent experts, advises the Government on who should be offered vaccination through the national programme for COVID-19. JCVI advice continues to be aimed at reducing hospitalisation and mortality in those groups which are at higher risk of serious outcomes from the disease.
Throughout the pandemic, older people have been amongst those most likely to experience severe disease if infected by SARS-CoV-2. Existing data on hospital admissions in the United Kingdom is consistent with the clinical risk continuing to be strongly age related, as well as associated with specified existing clinical conditions.
The JCVI view based on the available data is that due to a combination of naturally acquired and vaccine derived immunity in the population, otherwise known as hybrid immunity, COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people. This is why JCVI advice to date is that the COVID-19 national programme should be targeted to those at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 disease. More information regarding current eligibility for seasonal vaccination is available in chapter 14a of the Green Book, a copy of which is attached.
The JCVI continues to regularly review the emerging data on COVID-19 for each new campaign they recommend.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to making COVID-19 vaccines available for people to buy privately.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to make the COVID-19 vaccines the Government holds for National Health Service use available for purchase. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a body of independent experts, advises the Government on who should be offered vaccination through the national programme for COVID-19. Vaccination for COVID-19 through the NHS is free for those eligible.
Current COVID-19 vaccines offer good protection against serious outcomes but only short-lived protection from mild symptomatic disease. The aim therefore is to offer vaccination to those the JCVI advises are at higher risk of hospitalisation and death. This risk is strongly linked to older age and some specified clinical conditions.
All vaccines that have been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for use in the United Kingdom may be prescribed by physicians privately as well as through the NHS. Currently COVID-19 vaccines are not available privately but as is the case for many other vaccines, manufacturers and providers are able to set up a private market alongside the NHS offer when they consider this viable and appropriate. The Government is supportive of the emergence of a private market for COVID-19 vaccines. Supply of vaccines for such a market would be, as with all other vaccines, a matter for the private providers working with manufacturers to obtain through the open market.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to increase the national minimum wage for apprentices from the current £5.28 per hour.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
From April 2024, the department is increasing the apprentice minimum wage by 21.2% to £6.40, from £5.28 per hour. This is a cash increase of £1.12 and will benefit an estimated 40,000 apprentices, including young apprentices under 19 and those in their first year of an apprenticeship.