Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the decision to cut the permitted weight of volumetric concrete mixer vehicles from 38.4 tonnes to 32 tonnes, what assessment they have made of the number of extra vehicles that will be required to transport concrete.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The permitted maximum laden weight of volumetric concrete mixers has not been reduced. A temporary arrangement to enable market adjustments to the operation of the vehicles complying in practice to the standard weights applicable to heavy goods vehicles has been put in place. The longer-term market adjustments may include the same vehicle making more journeys or increased use of other vehicle types for concrete transport.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of fatal accidents caused by 32 tonne drum ready-mix concrete vehicles in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No specific estimate has been made of fatal accidents caused by 32 tonne drum ready-mix concrete vehicles in each of the last five years.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by Regeneris Consulting Economic Value of Mobile Batching Plant Sector and Consequences of Weight Change Policy, published in February 2015, what assessment they have made of the value to the UK economy of (1) the manufacturing, and (2) the servicing, of volumetric concrete mixer vehicles in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No estimate has been made of the value to the UK economy of manufacturing and servicing of volumetric concrete mixers on an annual basis.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult utilities and highways representatives on the impact the loss of operators of 38.4 tonne and 44 tonne volumetric concrete mixer vehicles from 2028 wil have on emergency repairs.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are no plans for further discussions with utilities and highways representatives about the maximum weights of volumetric concrete mixers. The Department recognises the use of the vehicles in repair operations and also higher effects on structures associated with vehicles operating on roads in excess of the standard weight limits.
Dispensations to allow extra weights for vehicles operating in 2018 were designed to allow the market to adjust to the vehicles complying, during the course of this decade, with the standard weights applicable to heavy goods vehicles. After that volumetric concrete mixer vehicles are allowed to continue to be operated at standard weights, as before the dispensations made in 2018.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate, if any, they have made of the number of volumetric concrete mixer vehicles produced in the UK in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No specific estimate has been made of the number of this vehicle type produced in the UK on an annual basis in each of the past five years. A total of 1106 volumetric concrete mixers are currently in circulation in Great Britain operating under Vehicle Special Orders permitting them to operate at higher than usual weights. The Department’s estimate is that these vehicles represent the vast majority of the type in operation at that time and that the service life of the vehicles average effectively about ten to twelve years.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Sutton Trust Learning in Lockdown, published on 21 January; and what plans they have to meet the Sutton Trust to discuss the report.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The data for the Sutton Trust report was collected at the start of the new term. Since then, the department has substantially increased delivery of devices to support vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils with remote learning.
The government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, trusts, local authorities and further education providers, as of Monday 15 February, with over 490,000 delivered since 4 January 2021.
The Department has also partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering over 60,000 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home and buying more for issues.
Where remote education is needed and pupils continue to experience barriers to digital remote education, we expect schools to work to overcome these barriers. This could include distributing school-owned laptops or supplementing digital provision with different forms of remote education such as printed resources or textbooks. This should be supplemented with other forms of communication to keep pupils and students on track or answer questions about work.
The Department has introduced a £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils and students. This will increase access to high-quality tuition for disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling the attainment gap between them and their peers.
As part of the National Tutoring Programme, schools in the most disadvantaged areas are being supported to employ in-house academic mentors to provide tuition to their pupils. During this period of national restrictions, as members of school staff, we expect mentors to continue providing tuition support to pupils in line with their school's policies.
The Department has responded to a written enquiry from the Sutton Trust and do not have any current plans to meet. We have conducted surveys with schools, pupils and parents throughout the COVID-19 outbreak and have collected data on access to technology, which will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the (1) investigation, and (2) prosecution, of online racist abuse by the (a) police, and (b) Crown Prosecution Service.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We have robust legislation in place to deal with internet trolls, cyber-stalking and harassment, and perpetrators of grossly offensive, obscene, or menacing behaviour.
We have published the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper, which includes specific measures to work with private companies and ensure that they are held to account for tackling illegal activity and content, such as hate crime, harassment, and cyber-stalking, as well as activity and content which may not be illegal but is nonetheless highly damaging to individuals (legal but harmful). The Full Government Response will be followed by legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be ready this year.
The Home Office also funds a Police Online Hate Crime Hub to improve the police response to victims of online hate crime.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the way in which social media companies deal with racist abuse directed at footballers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Culture Secretary and Sports Minister recently led a roundtable discussion with current and former players from the Premier League, English Football League (EFL), Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship, which discussed online racist abuse and players’ perspectives on tackling discrimination in the game.
We are clear that the online racist abuse of football players is unacceptable. We must do all we can to tackle it. We are taking steps through the online harms regulatory framework to ensure that online abuse, whether anonymous or not, is addressed. Under a new legal duty of care, companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content, including illegal online abuse. All companies will need to take swift and effective action against such content.
The police have a range of legal powers to identify individuals who attempt to use anonymity to escape sanctions for online abuse, where the activity is illegal. The government is working with law enforcement to review whether the current powers are sufficient to tackle illegal anonymous abuse online. The outcome of that work will inform the government’s future position in relation to illegal anonymous online abuse
Companies providing high-risk, high-reach services will also need to undertake regular risk assessments to identify legal but harmful material on their services. These companies will need to set clear terms and conditions which explicitly state what categories of legal but harmful material they accept (and do not accept) on their service. Companies will need to enforce these terms and conditions consistently and transparently and could face enforcement action if they do not. The Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the regulatory framework, will be ready this year.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cooperation of social media companies with the police on incidents of online racist abuse.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Culture Secretary and Sports Minister recently led a roundtable discussion with current and former players from the Premier League, English Football League (EFL), Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship, which discussed online racist abuse and players’ perspectives on tackling discrimination in the game.
We are clear that the online racist abuse of football players is unacceptable. We must do all we can to tackle it. We are taking steps through the online harms regulatory framework to ensure that online abuse, whether anonymous or not, is addressed. Under a new legal duty of care, companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content, including illegal online abuse. All companies will need to take swift and effective action against such content.
The police have a range of legal powers to identify individuals who attempt to use anonymity to escape sanctions for online abuse, where the activity is illegal. The government is working with law enforcement to review whether the current powers are sufficient to tackle illegal anonymous abuse online. The outcome of that work will inform the government’s future position in relation to illegal anonymous online abuse
Companies providing high-risk, high-reach services will also need to undertake regular risk assessments to identify legal but harmful material on their services. These companies will need to set clear terms and conditions which explicitly state what categories of legal but harmful material they accept (and do not accept) on their service. Companies will need to enforce these terms and conditions consistently and transparently and could face enforcement action if they do not. The Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the regulatory framework, will be ready this year.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Ofcom about RT’s compliance with the requirements of holding a broadcasting licence in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Broadcasting regulation compliance is a matter for Ofcom, all regulatory decisions made by Ofcom are fully independent of the Government. Ofcom has an ongoing duty to ensure that all UK licenced broadcasters adhere to requirements under broadcast licence rules.