Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what, if any, was the policy for planting new trees after the losses caused by Dutch elm disease.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The National Tree Planting Year of 1973, with its slogan of Plant a tree in ’73, was the Government-sponsored tree planting campaign initiated to compensate for the loss of trees caused by Dutch elm disease. The Forestry Commission donated some 90,000 trees to schools and a further 70,000 for joint projects with local authorities, as did other organisations including the Crown Estate Commissioners.
It also led to the founding of the Tree Council, with Government backing, as the umbrella body for organisations involved in tree planting, care and conservation.
The Forestry Commission has an ongoing programme of grants schemes available for planting, subject to specific criteria and subject to an obligation to manage woodlands with sound forestry practice.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to develop a strain of English elm which is resistant to Dutch elm disease; and what success they have had.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
English Elm (a form of Ulmus minor) is not a native tree and was likely introduced to Britain from Italy by the Romans. The most successful breeding programmes for resistant elms currently operate in Italy, Spain and North America. Resistant elm cultivars have been available for some time, including a series of cultivars of U. minor produced by the Spanish elm breeding programme which show high resistance to Dutch elm disease. Trials of resistant elms in the UK were initiated in Hampshire in 2000. The most recent report from these trials was produced by Butterfly Conservation this year.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons were learnt as a result of the loss of English elm trees as a result of Dutch elm disease; and whether those lessons are being applied to ash dieback.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Safeguarding plant health remains one of Defra’s top priorities. The full findings from Government funded research into the lessons learned from the UK Dutch elm disease outbreak were published by Imperial College in 2011 and an independent taskforce on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity was convened after the arrival of ash dieback in 2012. The Government has implemented all of the recommendations of the taskforce, including appointment of the Chief Plant Health Officer, development of a prioritised risk register, strengthened border security, import regulations and governance arrangements.
The Tree Health Resilience Strategy - the first major publication to come out of the 25-Year Environment Plan sets out a new proactive approach to tree health, with landowners, charities, the public and government working together to take actions to build resilience against pests and diseases to protect the nation’s trees.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made, or intend to make, to the newly elected president of Indonesia, when the result is announced, regarding access to West Papua for journalists and non-governmental organisations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Government regularly raises the situation in Papua with the Indonesian authorities and presses them to address the legitimate concerns regarding access. In January 2018, I raised my concern about this issue with the Indonesian ambassador to London, and our officials in Indonesia also raised this when they visited Papua in February this year. The Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific acknowledged at a Westminster Hall Debate on 8 May that transparency and media access are important. We continue to encourage Indonesian journalists to write openly and frankly about Papua to ensure that local perspectives are properly heard and are part of any debate, and will do so with the next President and their team when the election results are announced in due course.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership for (1) the Crown Dependencies, and (2) other tax havens for which the UK has responsibility.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is important to note that the Crown Dependencies are self-governing jurisdictions with their own legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and courts of law. They have confirmed they will develop public registers of company beneficial ownership once it has been established as a global norm.
In October 2018 the UK Government launched an international beneficial ownership transparency campaign to shift global norms by encouraging and supporting more countries to implement free to access and publicly available company beneficial ownership registers by 2023. In line with this campaign, the UK Government will encourage the Crown Dependencies to voluntarily introduce measures to improve the transparency of their company ownership.
Similarly, the Overseas Territories are self-governing jurisdictions. However, in accordance with the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, the UK Government will prepare an Order in Council by the end of 2020 requiring all Overseas Territories to have fully functioning publicly accessible registers in place by the end of 2023. The UK Government will work consensually with the Overseas Territories on introducing publicly accessible registers, which includes through technical workshops.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Sugg on 4 February (HL Deb, col 1324), what evidence they received that (1) the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) decision to downgrade the New Quay lifeboat capacity was based on extensive research of incident reports and consideration of local concerns, and (2) the RNLI carries out a coastal safety review every five years; and whether they will publish the evidence they hold in relation to both issues.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is an independent charity which declares a lifeboat service to Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) and has advised HMG of their decision to downgrade the New Quay Lifeboat based on the evidence they have collated. HMG has not been provided with copies of the RNLI’s evidence which remains their intellectual property.
The RNLI has also advised HMG of their continuous coastal safety reviews which they carry out to evaluate their own assets on a five-yearly basis. Again, as an independent charity, the RNLI are not required to provide HMG with the written evidence of such reviews and has not done so.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 4 April 2017 (HL Deb, col 940), what improvements have been made in the waiting time for hospital patient transport; and what is the average waiting time.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Patient transport service waiting time data is not collected centrally.
The provision of non-emergency patient transport services is a matter for local National Health Service commissioners, including setting performance standards, monitoring performance and taking improvement action where needed. This ensures that services are best adapted to local conditions, and where services fall short we expect commissioners to take swift action.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on what grounds incontinence pads provided through the NHS were changed from Attends to Tena; and what tests were carried out as to their relative effectiveness.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS Supply Chain has not changed supply of incontinence pads from Attends to Tena. Both these and other brands are available for purchase from NHS Supply Chain.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they are making to the government of India about the arrest on 28 August of five Indian Dalit human rights activists during simultaneous police raids conducted in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Faridabad, Pune, Ranchi, and Goa.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Any allegation of human rights abuse is of conern and the FCO believe must be investigated thoroughly, promptly and transparently. The Government remains committed to promoting and defending human rights and we expect all countries to comply with their international legal obligations in this regard.
We have not raised this particular case with the Government of India, but we do raise concerns more broadly where necessary. The British High Commission in New Delhi and our network of Deputy High Commissions continue to monitor the human rights situation in India and work with civil society on projects that protect and promote human rights. For example, our officials in India helped create the first ever network of Dalit Women Human Rights Defenders trained as paralegals.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that mining companies listed on the London Stock Exchange are engaging in illegal land grabs in protected tribal lands in India.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCO has not made an assessment. Nor has the FCO received any recent representation on this issue. The Government expects multinational enterprises to operate responsibly abroad, and encourages them to do so, in line with the domestic laws of the countries in which they operate, in the spirit of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and international standards including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.