Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that overseas food producers growing food for UK consumption are assisted to transition to a low carbon economy.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Sustainable agriculture and land use are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and objectives of the Paris Agreement. The 2019 IPCC land-use report sets out the critical role that sustainable land use must play in climate mitigation and building resilience. The 2019 IPBES report warns of a pending collapse of nature, with land use change identified as the main driver. We need a food systems and land use revolution on the same scale of the transition to clean energy. A revolution with people, planet and prosperity at its heart.
The COP26 Nature Campaign aims to raise the profile of this agenda, building on the Just Rural Transition (JRT) launched at the UN Climate Action Summit and providing a platform to highlight actions that leading countries are taking to deliver change. The Government is delivering on the building and securing political ambition through several pillars of the campaign through:
Defra continues to position the UK’s commitment to sustainable agriculture through Government Trade Dialogues and Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Defra also runs a number of Agricultural Dialogues with partner countries which provide opportunities to share UK values on environmental and sustainability issues by exchanging policy and best practice on sustainable agriculture and supply chains in light of the UK’s Due Diligence legislation. Collaboration through dialogues such as these are key to promoting the UK’s environmental objectives while assisting overseas trading partners in achieving the transition to a low carbon economy.
Defra’s International Climate Finance (ICF) contributions enable the UK to meet international commitments on the environment by supporting developing countries promote sustainable livelihoods and low carbon agriculture. For example, since 2012, the UK has invested £62 million to promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil through the Low Carbon Agriculture (LCA) Programme. Phase I of the LCA brought 46,472 hectares of land under sustainable land management and resulted in over 8.9 Mt of avoided greenhouse gas emissions.
Defra is also playing a key role in catalysing the private sector to support environmentally sustainable land-use. Through its ICF, Defra has invested in the Land Degradation Neutrality fund and Eco.Business Fund, impact investment funds which seek to encourage private sector investment in more sustainable production and consumption practices to protect nature and reduce climate change.
The UK has committed to increase finance for nature through its ICF to at least £3bn from 2021 to 2026. The Government is also currently considering the findings of Professor Dasgupta’s landmark review of the economics of biodiversity and will respond in Spring 2021.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking in response to the recommendations of the report by the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison, published in October 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The report by the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative incorrectly suggests that six in ten female prisoners are released homeless. This is based on a sample of just 116 women from a single prison in 2019. Official statistics published in July 2020 show that 6,185 women were released from custody in the year to March 2020, with 50.8% of them going into secure, long-term accommodation and a further 7% to approved premises. 18.3% (i.e. fewer than 2 in 10) were recorded as being homeless at the point of release.
Nonetheless, too many prisoners, of both genders, are released homeless. We are strengthening our work to prevent homelessness on release by continuing the successful probation Homeless Prevention Teams (HPT), which have supported many homeless service users during the pandemic. We are also engaging with other organisations to develop new initiatives.
We are launching a new accommodation service in Summer 2021, providing up to 12 weeks of basic temporary accommodation for prison leavers who would otherwise be homeless. This service will launch in five of the 12 probation regions in England and Wales: the East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, Greater Manchester, Kent Surrey and Sussex, and the North West. It is our intention to roll out the accommodation provision nationally, pending the Spending Review later this year.
We also continue to ensure that appropriate funding is available to women’s community sector organisations, having invested £5.1 million in the two years following publication of the Female Offender Strategy as well as announcing a further £2.5 million last year to cover the core costs of these organisations. This funding responded directly to the many requests for the Government to act to address financial instability in parts of the sector.
HMPPS has also recently announced the development of Eden House, which will be a new Approved Premises for women in Bristol; it is due to open in June 2021 and will be the first new Approved Premises in over 30 years.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that vulnerable female prison leavers, in particular those with complex needs, have access to safe and secure accommodation immediately on release.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The report by the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative incorrectly suggests that six in ten female prisoners are released homeless. This is based on a sample of just 116 women from a single prison in 2019. Official statistics published in July 2020 show that 6,185 women were released from custody in the year to March 2020, with 50.8% of them going into secure, long-term accommodation and a further 7% to approved premises. 18.3% (i.e. fewer than 2 in 10) were recorded as being homeless at the point of release.
Nonetheless, too many prisoners, of both genders, are released homeless. We are strengthening our work to prevent homelessness on release by continuing the successful probation Homeless Prevention Teams (HPT), which have supported many homeless service users during the pandemic. We are also engaging with other organisations to develop new initiatives.
We are launching a new accommodation service in Summer 2021, providing up to 12 weeks of basic temporary accommodation for prison leavers who would otherwise be homeless. This service will launch in five of the 12 probation regions in England and Wales: the East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, Greater Manchester, Kent Surrey and Sussex, and the North West. It is our intention to roll out the accommodation provision nationally, pending the Spending Review later this year.
We also continue to ensure that appropriate funding is available to women’s community sector organisations, having invested £5.1 million in the two years following publication of the Female Offender Strategy as well as announcing a further £2.5 million last year to cover the core costs of these organisations. This funding responded directly to the many requests for the Government to act to address financial instability in parts of the sector.
HMPPS has also recently announced the development of Eden House, which will be a new Approved Premises for women in Bristol; it is due to open in June 2021 and will be the first new Approved Premises in over 30 years.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to ban all arms exports to countries that are not part of NATO or in a formal alliance with the UK.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
HM Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and will continue to assess all export licences in accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria, including if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
In addition, HM Government is able to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require, and this is done in line with the Consolidated Criteria.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of the United Arab Emirates about the (1) continued detention, and (2) treatment, of Michael Smith; and when they last made any such representations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Embassy Dubai sent a Note Verbale to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August 2019 to clarify the terms of Mr Smith's continued detention. The FCDO Director of Consular Services also raised Mr Smith's detention in August 2019. We continue to speak with the local authorities regarding Mr Smith's welfare. Consular staff most recently spoke to the prison doctor on 28 January 2021.
Consular staff work incredibly hard and do all they can to assist people who ask for our help. We offer tailored support based on an assessment of a person's specific needs and circumstances.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their announcement of 23 January of up to 500 new places for women in prisons, (1) what was the evidence base for this decision, (2) how much each cell will cost, (3) what is their estimate for the additional running costs for these places for each of the next 20 years, (4) what alternative uses these places will be put to in the event they are not needed, and (5) what evaluation they made regarding the effectiveness of this decision compared to investing in women's community groups designed to prevent crime.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Our prison population projections published in November 2020 show that the female prison population is projected to rise by around two-fifths by 2026 (1,300 women) with most of that rise coming in the next two years. Our projections took in to consideration the impact of the planned recruitment of a further 23,400 police officers – the impact of which cannot be ignored. Doing nothing is not an option. It is our responsibility to ensure that those women who need to be in custody are held in appropriate, decent and safe accommodation. The design of the new accommodation is being developed to be trauma-informed and gender-specific with improved outcomes for women. Our design principles include requirements around ensuring suitable visiting spaces are provided, greater in-cell communication options informed by what we have learned from the COVID pandemic, and in open designs the potential inclusion of rooms to support overnight visits for mothers and their children (currently already delivered in two prisons within the women’s estate).
We are currently unable to confirm how much each cell will cost or provide an estimate for additional running costs for the next 20 years. This is in large part as the cells will be a mixture of both open and closed places – and the inevitable variation in ancillaries costs which would need to be taken in to account.
In the event these additional cells are no longer needed, this new accommodation will enable us to close old, poorer quality capacity in parts of the women’s estate. This is also an established aim of the custodial element of our Female Offender Strategy.
We are not investing in these prison places at the expense of women's community services - this is not an 'either/or’ approach. As well as investing in prison places to meet projected demand we are investing approximately £80m in community drug treatment, £70m in accommodation services, and a further £2m to support 38 grassroots organisations doing incredible work steering women away from the criminal justice system. In addition to this, we are developing new Residential Centres for women in the community which is being initially piloted in Wales.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to stop granting export licences for the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
HM Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and will continue to assess all export licences in accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria, including if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
In addition, HM Government is able to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require, and this is done in line with the Consolidated Criteria.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received from (1) NGOs, and (2) others, about (a) the World Trade Organization’s proposed ‘Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19’ (IP/C/W/669), and (b) the need of developing countries for immediate access to the COVID-19 vaccines currently available; what assessment they have made of any such representations; and what assessment they have made of (i) the humanitarian needs of people in developing countries, and (ii) the need to avoid new opportunities for the development and spread of COVID-19 mutations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, and has committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to ensure COVID-19 vaccine access for low- and middle-income countries. We do not consider waiving intellectual property (IP) rights to be an appropriate course of action in boosting the manufacturing of safe, effective, and quality vaccines. The existing intellectual property framework has mobilised research and development to deliver a host of new medicines and technologies to detect, treat, and defend against COVID-19.
According to the UN Global Humanitarian Overview, 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021. Humanitarian needs are the largest on record, driven in large part by the direct and indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK is a major humanitarian donor, providing over £2 billion in assistance to humanitarian crises in the last financial year. The emergence of new COVID-19 variants serves as a powerful reminder that viruses mutate by their very nature. As a result, over 4000 SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified across the globe. The UK's world-leading genomic sequencing continues to monitor these variants as they arise and develop, and we will offer this expertise to identify new variants to countries who do not have the resources to do so.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what priority they will give to specific economic green development in West Cumbria in their post-COVID-19 reconstruction plans.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are seizing the initiative to build back better, greener, and faster from COVID-19. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution is part of the government’s mission to level up across the country, mobilising £12 billion of government investment to create and support up to 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs in the UK including in West Cumbria, helping recovery from the pandemic and spurring over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.
We have previously funded the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to produce the Cumbria Local Energy Plan helping businesses develop low carbon and renewable energy projects which will contribute to sustainable economic growth. As part of a restructuring of the North West Energy Hub, the Cumbria LEP will gain a dedicated Energy Officer to assist in the delivery of the Cumbria Local Energy Plan.
Over the coming months, we will bring forward further bold proposals to deliver on our ambitious climate commitments and further cement a green recovery from Covid-19, including a Net Zero Strategy, to cut emissions and create new jobs and industries across the whole country.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why they did not call in the plans for an inquiry into the new coal mine in Cumbria.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Secretary of State’s powers to call in a case are used very selectively, and on 6 January 2021 he decided not to call in this application. The responsibility for determining it is with Cumbria County Council. Further representations to MHCLG when received are carefully considered.