Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have gathered data on the prevalence of e-bikers exceeding the speed limit of 15.5 miles per hour in urban areas; and if so, whether they will publish them.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and other outcomes for motoring offences in England and Wales on an annual basis, as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Other PACE’ statistical bulletin. The most recent data, up to 2021, is available here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1118166/fixed-penalty-notices-and-other-motoring-offences-statistics-police-powers-and-procedures-year-ending-31-december-2021.ods
However, the Home Office does not centrally collect data on the type of vehicle involved in the offence.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 December 2023 (HL858), whether they have reviewed the account by Dame Kate Bingham in The Long Shot of her experience of government and other supervision whilst she was Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the framework of project supervision in respect of the work of that Taskforce.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of The Long Shot. The Government published A review of the Vaccine Taskforce on GOV.UK in an online-only format on 29 August 2023. The review draws out learning that can be applied to future Government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, and to business-as-usual activity.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why it has taken six years for them to respond to the report The patronising disposition of unaccountable power: A report to ensure the pain and suffering of the Hillsborough families is not repeated (Session 2017–19, HC 511) on the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
For much of the time since Bishop James Jones’ report on the experiences of the Hillsborough families was published there were ongoing legal proceedings; it was clearly important that the Government did not take any action which might risk prejudicing the outcome of those proceedings.
More recently, the Government has been undertaking work to go further to deliver on issues that are important to the families, and to make sure that similar injustices are not repeated.
In publishing its response to Bishop James’ report on 6 December, ministers in both Houses apologised to the Hillsborough families on behalf of the Government for the length of time taken to do so.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham (HL391), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, whether they intend to review the processes and systems of supervision and governance in respect of projects commissioned by the Government.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is the government’s centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA leads the government project delivery function and sits at the heart of government, reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. The IPA and HM Treasury have the final decision on which projects and programmes join the Government Major Project Portfolio (GMPP). The IPA is responsible for the tracking and monitoring of GMPP projects. The IPA supports GMPP projects with expert advice and support, intervening early to ensure that projects are set up for success. Overall accountability to Parliament sits with responsible Accounting Officers; this includes supervising their governance processes and monitoring performance to ensure they are sufficient and proportionate. For projects not part of the GMPP, where IPA does not provide independent assurance, it is the responsibility of the Accounting Officer to ensure that a suitable assurance process is in place.
The IPA was established to provide support to priority projects. However, in recent years the IPA has developed a number of tools to support Accounting Officers and senior project leaders across government to set projects up for success. These tools are reviewed periodically to ensure they reflect current best practice.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the evidence presented by Lukasz Krupski about the safety of Tesla's self-driving vehicles as part of their development of the Automated Vehicles Bill.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Tesla does not currently operate a self-driving system, within the meaning of the Automated Vehicles Bill. The Bill will prohibit the sale of vehicles as self-driving if they do not meet the safety requirements set out in the Act to do so. The Bill also envisages the appointment of inspectors who would be excellently placed to investigate technical concerns about self-driving vehicles.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact on the housing market of net migration reaching 745,000 in 2022.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Net migration inevitably has an impact on demand for housing. That is why this Government continues to act to control migration and stop illegal migration.
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 has started delivering a major overhaul of our immigration and asylum system, laying the foundations for further immigration and asylum reform.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Dame Kate Bingham's experience, as set out in The Long Shot, of leading the Vaccine Task Force during the COVID-19 pandemic; and whether they intend to review the processes and systems of supervision and governance in respect of projects commissioned by His Majesty's Government.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of The Long Shot. The Government has published a review of the Vaccine Task Force’s performance. The review draws out learning that can be applied to future government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, and to business-as-usual activity.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish the evidence to support the statement by the Minister for Housing and Planning in an interview with Inside Housing in July that “we’ve got record numbers of social rent homes that have been built”.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Callanan on 3 July (HL Deb col 984) on the use of Biomass at the Drax Power Station, on the basis of what evidence officials advised that “the Panorama Programme provided an inaccurate representation of practices by the forestry and business sector on the ground”, as set out in a briefing note obtained through a Freedom of Information request and published on 12 October.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to him on 18 September to Question UIN HL9759.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to review the processes operating in the public sector for protecting data, including data about individuals held by suppliers to public sector bodies.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government takes its data protection responsibilities very seriously, including where data is held by suppliers to the Government and suppliers to public sector bodies. Data protection processes are kept under continuous review. As the relevant National Technical Authority, the National Cyber Security Centre provides the Government, public sector bodies and the private sector with expert advice on protecting data from unauthorised access.
The Government Cyber Security Strategy was published last year. This sets out our plans significantly to harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attack by 2025, with all organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities by 2030 at the latest.