Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the emergency loan fund established by the government of Scotland to support small and medium-sized housebuilders; and what plans they have to set up a similar fund for housebuilders in England.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Continuing to build the homes the country needs is a priority for the Government and we have been supporting the sector through various measures to bolster confidence and retain capacity. In addition to the broader business support packages announced by the Chancellor, including the Bounce Back Loan and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan schemes, the £2.5 billion Home Building Fund (Short Term Fund), first launched in 2016, also remains open to new borrowers. The fund is targeted at small and medium builders that have been unable to access lending via the market and will help viable development schemes progress. We have also made available £1 billion of guarantee support to SMEs through the ENABLE Build scheme.
We will continue to engage regularly with all parts of the housing industry to understand and monitor the impact of Coronavirus.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the national Homes for Heroes campaign; and what plans they have to support it.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9bn available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022 to deliver approximately 250,000 new affordable homes in a wide range of tenures, including Social Rent, Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy. A mix of different tenures is vital to meet the needs of a wide range of people, and allow the sector to build the right homes in the right places.
Building on this, we announced at Budget 2020 that we are investing £12bn to build affordable homes between 2021/22 and 2025/26. This will be the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when HMRC will launch the online portal to facilitate the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government expects the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to be in place by the end of April, including a new online portal through which businesses can access the Scheme.
The Scheme is a significant programme of work, and one of many Coronavirus-related changes and programmes that are being implemented at present. Nonetheless, HM Revenue and Customs are working at pace to allow the Scheme to be up and running.
Guidance for employers and employees has already been published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to issue advice on the steps needed to put employees into furlough.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was published on 26 March for both employers and employees. The guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.
This is an unprecedented jobs retention scheme and the Government has been working hard over the last two weeks to set out further details on the scheme. The Government will continue to review the guidance and publish further updates if necessary.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to meet their commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to delivering on our world-leading target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. The Prime Minister has announced that 2020 will be a Year of Climate Action. In the run-up to the COP26 summit, we will be bringing forward ambitious plans across key sectors of the economy to meet our carbon budgets and net zero – including an Energy White Paper, Transport Decarbonisation Plan and Heat Roadmap. This will build on the £2 billion we have announced since setting the target and the commitments in our manifesto – from investing £9.2 billion in the energy efficiency of our buildings, to £800 million to deploy the first carbon capture and storage cluster in the UK, to planting an additional 75,000 acres of trees a year by the end of the parliament.
The UK’s success in the global economy will be rooted in innovation and cutting-edge technology. By driving technological change, we will create the high quality, highly paid jobs of the future, the Budget sets out plans to increase public R&D investment to £22 billion per year by 2024-25. The Government will invest that money in the people, ideas and industries that will cement the UK’s world-leading position in science and technologies ranging from nuclear fusion to electric vehicles and life sciences.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that all UK airports and RAF bases are supplied with military grade drone detection equipment, and that training is provided to relevant police, military personnel and airport staff.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Her Majesty’s Government takes the threat posed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to airports and other critical infrastructure seriously. Steps have been, and are being taken, to ensure that our airports have the appropriate measures in place. Given the sensitivities around military grade equipment, it would be inappropriate to comment further about these measures.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many applications for Universal Credit Split Payments in the last 12 months were (1) made, and (2) declined.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children aged (1) five years old and under, (2) ten years old and under, and (3) 16 years old and under, were in care in each year between 2007 and 2017.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The number of looked after children at 31 March in each year by age is available in the attached table.
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft with a laser pointer under the Aviation and Safety Act 1982 within the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of arrests broken down by offence group and police force area. These data are published in the ‘Police Powers and Procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins, and data can be accessed here: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2016
Data presented here are on the police power of arrest. In line with police recorded crime statistics, these data cover arrests for all notifiable offences carried out by police in England and Wales
Asked by: Lord Fink (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times in the last 12 months a commercial aircraft runway in England and Wales has had to close temporarily due to a drone sighting.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 376/2014, safety-related events which endanger or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person have to be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The Regulation requires that the reporting, analysis and follow-up to such occurrences remain confidential. However, the Regulation does permit information to be released on request to interested parties that have a genuine safety related need for the information. An application can be made at www.caa.co.uk/srg1605.
The CAA will shortly be publishing an Aviation Safety Review in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation. This will include detailed analysis of safety occurrences reported to the CAA in 2016 and is intended to inform the public about the level of safety in civil aviation in a clear, engaging and objective manner.