Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 16 May (HL Deb cols 19GC–29GC) regarding the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023, how many other regulations related to the provision of access for disabled people are in force in London but not elsewhere; and what plans they have to ensure that the regulations for disability access is identical in London and elsewhere.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Transport for London has adopted a proactive approach to improving the accessibility of its transport network, which exceeds legislative requirements. Direct comparisons with accessibility interventions outside London, which may or may not be required by law, are therefore likely to be misleading.
To level up accessibility across Great Britain, we have introduced the “REAL” cross-modal disability awareness training syllabus, relaunched the Inclusive Transport Leaders Scheme, and are requiring the provision of audible and visible information onboard local bus and coach services.
Disabled people should be able to use transport services easily, confidently and without additional cost wherever they travel. All transport authorities have an important role to play in supporting accessible services which reflect local need.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 21 December 2021 (HL4995), what was the total amount of import tariffs collected on tuna imported from the Maldives in (1) financial year 2020–21, and (2) each of the preceding four years.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HMRC does not hold the information requested. Traders pay customs duty and import VAT based on calculated liabilities for goods, either immediately or on a monthly basis via duty deferment accounts. The subsequent revenue collected is not recorded on a product or sector basis, and thus no breakdown by product or country of origin is held.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel on 14 December (HL Deb, col 130), what was the total amount in import tariffs collected in (1) financial year 2020–21, and (2) each of the preceding four years.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In the financial year 2020-21, HMRC received £2,962 million in Customs Duty receipts.
In the preceding four years, HMRC received the following yearly amounts for Customs Duty:
2016-2017 | £3,359 million |
2017-2018 | £3,412 million |
2018-2019 | £3,356 million |
2019-2020 | £3,287 million |
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the WannaCry ransomware attack on the NHS, what instructions were provided to (1) NHS, and (2) Public Health England (PHE), staff about the importance of software updates; what assessment they have made of whether the PHE Excel errors, resulting in COVID-19 cases being unreported, were related to a lack of software updates; and what plans they have to ensure that PHE uses appropriate database software to record and analyse COVID-19 data in future.
Answered by Lord Bethell
All health and care organisations that have access to National Health Service patient data must annually complete NHS Digital’s Data Security and Protection Toolkit. The Protection Toolkit includes guidance on how to manage out of date software. To meet the standard required, organisations must operate on supported systems or have plans in place to mitigate the risk such as segregating those machines from the network. NHSX and NHS Digital are also supporting NHS organisations to upgrade their existing Microsoft Windows operating systems to Windows 10 and to deploy Advanced Threat Protection. This gives oversight of cyber activity at device level across the NHS and whether they have installed updated software to protect them from cyber threats.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many fax machines are regularly used in the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Fax machines and associated consumables were removed from the NHS Supply Chain catalogue in January 2019, and we continue to support the National Health Service with digital transformation to remove the need for outdated technology, including fax machines.
We have not requested further information on fax machine usage from trusts during the COVID-19 outbreak, in order to reduce the burden on systems.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many vehicles have been stopped for reasons which include overloading in each region in England in the last 12 months; how many such vehicles have been tested for gross weight; and how many drivers have been arrested for being found to have overloaded their vehicle.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of its roadside enforcement checks the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has stopped 8,335 vehicles for reasons including overloading in England in the last 12 months. The DVSA does not hold data on the number of vehicles stopped for this reason in each region in England. Of the 8,335 stopped, the DVSA has issued 3,806 prohibitions to drivers where the vehicle has been deemed to be overloaded.
It is possible that a vehicle could have had multiple types of overloading offences so the data relates to vehicles weighed and vehicles that have one or more of these types of offences. Having a vehicle that is overloaded is not an arrestable offence and the DVSA does not have the power to arrest.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress NHS England has made to commission MR-guided focused ultrasound for patients with essential tremor.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS England is part way through the process of developing a clinical commissioning policy for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) for treating essential tremor. Stakeholder engagement will be taking place in the next few weeks. If there is a need for additional investment to support the introduction of this new service this will be considered in the next relative prioritisation round, alongside other interventions requiring new investment.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published interventional procedure guidance on the use of MRgFUS as a treatment for essential tremor in June 2018. A copy of Unilateral MRI-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy for treatment-resistant essential tremor is attached.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service last met the Forensic Science Regulator; and how regularly he has met her since her appointment.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Home Office Ministers have regular meetings as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 3 December (HL11702), how many individuals were (1) cautioned, (2) charged, and (3) convicted by the TV Licensing Organisation as a result of non-payment of the BBC licence fee in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport does not hold this information. Issues relating to non-payment of the licence fee are a matter for the BBC as a body independent from the government.
Asked by: Lord Borwick (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) individuals were charged, and (2) Magistrate Court cases (a) were heard, and (b) ended in conviction, in England and Wales in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Ministry of Justice does not hold charge data. However, data on cases heard and convictions is as follows:
| Magistrates' Courts Figures | |
Year | Cases Heard | Convictions |
2015 | 1,492,160 | 1,179,919 |
2016 | 1,456,177 | 1,176,117 |
2017 | 1,392,139 | 1,146,720 |