Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was meant by the word "additional" in the NATO Brussels Summit Declaration of 11 July which stated in paragraph 14 that "Allies will offer an additional 30 major naval combatants, 30 heavy or medium manoeuvre battalions, and 30 kinetic air squadrons, with enabling forces, at 30 days readiness or less".
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The maritime, land, and air assets that will deliver NATO's "4-30s" Readiness Initiative will be in addition to the capabilities already committed to the NATO Response Force. However, the specific requirements are being defined by NATO and national contributions will be confirmed when that process is complete.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 25 June (HL8482), what provisions are in place to ensure that the electric relays of the fibre networks to which Airwave sites are connected would continue to work during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Airwave service was designed to continue to operate in the event of an extended power outage. Extensive audits of the circuits were undertaken during the commissioning of the service to ensure that the network equipment, eg relays, between the exchanges and the base stations were able to operate in the event of a mains electricity failure.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 6 June (HL8104), what systems are in place across existing mobile networks to ensure that they continue to operate during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
DCMS works closely with industry to ensure that telecoms, as one of the UK’s critical sectors, is both secure and resilient. This includes work to ensure that security and resilience plans are updated and developed as technology changes and to reflect key risks and contingency planning. The industry-led Electronic Communications Resilience & Response Group, which DCMS supports and facilitates, is a cross-government and industry partnership that leads on resilience activity in the telecoms sector as a whole and considers a range of security and resilience issues including power loss.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 6 June (HL8104), whether the existing emergency services communications network, Airwave, would operate during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
ESMCP is working with representatives from the emergency services to determine which elements of the Emergency Services Network require resilience enhancements in addition to those that have already been delivered. All ESMCP suppliers are required to have business continuity plans in place, and resilience against extended power outages is achieved using a range of technical solutions that include tow to site and fixed generators and batteries.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 6 June (HL8104), what steps they intend to take to ensure the Emergency Services Network will continue to operate during a prolonged power outage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Airwave network would continue to operate in the event of a prolonged power outage. A significant proportion of Airwave sites were fitted with additional power resilience to ensure that sites could run for a minimum of 5 days on autonomous power.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to provide sufficient back-up power generation for the 5G mobile system to ensure that the emergency communication system can operate during an prolonged power outage.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
As 5G technology is still at innovation stage and has not been commercially deployed yet, there are currently no national 5G networks in the UK. Once this technology is deployed, it will be built out across existing networks and complimentary to them. Widespread loss of electricity is one of the highest risks in the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies published by government. As a result, DCMS together with Ofcom and industry take power resilience matters and telecommunications very seriously.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make it his policy to replace the Ordnance Survey's aerial photography programme with the licensing of such photographs from other agencies and businesses; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Ordnance Survey is an independent, non-ministerial government department with Executive Agency status operating as a Trading Fund under the Ordnance Survey Trading Fund Order 1999. As such, Ordnance Survey has delegated authority the make the decisions necessary to fulfil its Public Task.
An open procurement process is currently underway for a new contract to fulfil Ordnance Survey’s remote sensing requirements. Ordnance Survey requires ownership of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the aerial imagery for various reasons, including the ability to use the deliverables on an unrestricted basis and the need to be able to deliver changing Crown policy requirements.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the cost was of the Ordnance Survey's aerial photography programme in each of the last five years; and if he will make an estimate of the potential annual cost of licensing such photographs from other agencies and businesses.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The costs for Ordnance Survey’s aerial photography programme in each of the last five years are as follows:
2010/11 - £3.36m
2011/12 - £2.05m
2012/13 - £1.63m
2013/14 - £1.96m
2014/15 - £1.97m
These costs include capture of the imagery and it’s processing to create ortho-imagery, which is used to update the Master Map of Great Britain.
As explained in the response to Question UIN 221333, Ordnance Survey requires full ownership of the Intellectual Property Rights of the aerial photography it acquires. Ordnance Survey considered all options and decided to procure full rights to the data it required.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether Ordnance Survey is conducting aerial photography of the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Ordnance Survey captures aerial photography every year and uses this imagery to update the OS MasterMap® of Great Britain in order to fulfil its obligations under its Public Task. In addition, Ordnance Survey makes the aerial photography available as a product for its customers’ use in the Government, Business and Consumer markets; this is called OS MasterMap® Imagery Layer.
Ordnance Survey has been acquiring aerial imagery since the 1930s and established its own Flying Unit in 1966.
Ordnance Survey captures imagery in order to meet its commitments to maintain the currency of its mapping data as laid before Parliament in its annual Agency Performance Monitors.
Asked by: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the future waterproofing requirements of the armed forces of (a) the UK and (b) other NATO member states; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence takes all measures possible to ensure that all clothing issued to service personnel is both right for the job and right for them. We apply rigorous technical specifications and quality standards which are reviewed regularly. These assessments include regular engagement with UK Front Line Commands and NATO to ensure appropriate products are obtained for UK Armed Forces.
The new Waterproof Garments contract, commonly known as the Taped Seam Contract, includes the lightweight waterproof jacket, which can be worn under body armour; all other waterproof garments are designed to be worn without body armour.Although, currently, there is no identified requirement for chemical and biological protection or flame retardancy the new contract will include a design and development clause for future requirements.