Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in light of the guidance on the NHS website under "Using linked profiles to access services for someone else", they are of the opinion that an 11-year-old child is able in all instances to deny their parents access to their medical records; and, if not, (1) what tests they expect a GP to apply in determining what information to withhold from parents, (2) whether this includes a test of Gillick competence, and (3) why these tests are not specified in the above notice so as to ensure that the process is transparent.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The guidance states that when a child is aged between 11 and 16, they may be able to deny their parents proxy access to their online if the GP surgery agrees that is appropriate, and it is not intended that in all instances that would be appropriate. A GP surgery should have processes in place for determining whether a child aged between 11 and 16 years is competent to make this decision.
Specific tests are not described in the above guidance as each case must be considered individually with the interests of the child being paramount. There are no set questions to assess Gillick competency, but the professional bodies have guidance on this and the Frazer Guidelines.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is Ofsted's policy regarding its expectation of the duties and actions of Local Authority Elective Home Education Officers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
When inspecting Local Authority children’s social care services, Ofsted looks at the arrangements for children’s welfare and protection while they are being electively home educated.
Ofsted will look at the ways in which Local Authorities identify children who are not receiving suitable education and what steps the Local Authority takes to deal with that, particularly those children who are either on a child protection plan, education, health and care plan, or are a child in need as part of its children’s social care remit. They may also request a report on children for whom the local authority is responsible who are of school age and who are not in receipt of full-time school education at the time of inspection.
The ‘Evaluating the educational progress of children in care and care leavers’ section of the Ofsted framework for inspections states that Her Majesty’s Inspectors will analyse data and information on elective home educated children and children missing education, as part of these inspections.
Inspectors do not have powers to evaluate or comment on the quality of home education, only the way Local Authorities deal with it as part of their statutory responsibilities.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all farmers piloting the Sustainable Farming Incentive are members of their local farmer cluster; and if not, what plans they have to require such farmers to join.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The SFI pilot is testing a version of SFI with 840 farmers across the country for three years and commenced in November 2021. Those taking part in the pilot represent a broad range of farmers that include owner occupiers and tenants; large and smaller scale businesses; and arable, livestock and mixed farming enterprises. The pilot is testing the end to end operational side of the scheme as well as the delivery and effect of the environmental Actions. Learning from the SFI pilot is feeding back into our policy teams in Defra to help develop and iterate the full schemes. Whilst some farmers within the SFI pilot may already be part of their local farm cluster group, land in the SFI pilot is not subject to any existing additional agri-environment scheme. This is so we can ensure the learning we gain from our farmers taking part in the pilot is directly related to the elements of the scheme we are testing and learning from.
As we evolve our existing Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme, this will pay for more locally-targeted actions relating to specific habitats and features that can be done alongside food production. Through CS Plus we plan to increase the impact of the scheme by adding in more ways to incentivise and reward those who work together across multiple holdings to deliver specific environmental outcomes relevant to the locality, and join up connecting habitats across local areas.
Both SFI and CS will be available to all eligible farmers that wish to take part and as we develop these schemes, we will continue to refine the actions with farmers and land managers to make sure they work on the ground, are good value for money, and deliver the intended outcomes for sustainable domestic food production and the environment.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further the publication of Updated energy and emissions projections 2021 to 2040 on 18 October, what are the projected (1) sources of, and (2) uses for, electrical energy in 2024 (a) on average, and (b) on a cold winter evening with no wind; and what are the uses to which gas is being put in 2040.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Annex J of BEIS Energy and Emissions Projections 2021-2040 provides a breakdown of electricity supply by source. The breakdown for 2024 is shown overleaf. More detailed breakdowns by use, time of day or weather pattern are not available for electricity supply, electricity consumption or gas consumption.
Total electricity generation by source 2024 (EEP 2021-2040 reference case)
Source | Electricity supplied 2024 (TWh) |
Coal | 1 |
Natural gas | 88 |
Nuclear | 22 |
Renewables | 159 |
Pumped storage output | 4 |
Battery storage output | 1 |
Pumped storage input | -5 |
Battery storage input | -2 |
Net imports | 57 |
Total supplied (net of storage & imports) | 327 |
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many farmed animals have been slaughtered for human consumption for each of the last 10 years, broken down by broad species group.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Statistics for the total amount of species slaughtered for human consumption in the last 10 years are as follows:
Year by Year Breakdown:
Year | Cattle | Sheep | Pigs | Chickens | Turkeys |
2012 | 2,038,900 | 11,899,100 | 10,034,500 | 873,788,600 | 18,420,300 |
2013 | 2,018,200 | 12,447,800 | 10,049,700 | 902,247,700 | 17,518,500 |
2014 | 2,071,800 | 12,814,500 | 10,227,200 | 900,382,000 | 15,411,800 |
2015 | 2,030,300 | 13,188,400 | 10,627,000 | 953,111,200 | 16,952,100 |
2016 | 2,099,100 | 12,844,500 | 10,733,100 | 992,639,100 | 15,568,400 |
2017 | 2,092,200 | 13,297,600 | 10,420,200 | 1,036,679,600 | 14,923,500 |
2018 | 2,115,200 | 12,817,100 | 10,667,100 | 1,083,094,200 | 16,154,000 |
2019 | 2,140,900 | 13,154,700 | 10,862,100 | 1,049,761,000 | 16,093,900 |
2020 | 2,137,000 | 13,059,400 | 10,923,400 | 1,096,698,900 | 16,224,100 |
2021 | 2,019,000 | 11,774,300 | 11,264,200 | 1,123,196,600 | 11,982,600 |
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 28 April (HL7750), whether they will now answer the question with the details requested, namely, in respect of the principal offices of each government department located in central London, (1) what temperature the offices are heated to during working hours in winter, and (2) what assessment they have made of the advantages and disadvantages of reducing that temperature by 2°C.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
With respect to part 1 of the question, Government Property Agency (GPA) managed offices located in central London are heated to 22°C with a ± 2°C tolerance.
With respect to buildings which GPA does not manage, the individual departments are responsible and it would be for them to respond.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 set requirements for most aspects of the working environment. Regulation 7 deals specifically with the temperature in indoor workplaces and states “during working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable”. The reasonableness of the temperature is dependent on the work activity being conducted.
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) approved code of practice and guidance (L24) advises the minimum temperature for a workplace should normally be at least 16°C
With respect to part 2 of the question, the temperature of an office floor plate is not uniform. There will be areas which when heated to 22°C with a ± 2°C tolerance will be at the lower end of the spectrum. In naturally ventilated buildings, ventilation is provided by the controlled opening of windows by the occupants. This means that from time to time temperatures are likely to dip lower than the noted threshold.
Reducing nominal temperatures by 2°C moves GPA into an operational band of 18-22°C, which, if windows are open could risk falling close to the lower threshold of 16°C.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 28 April (HL7750), whether they will now answer the question put, namely what steps they are taking to promote energy efficiency in the public sector.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We aim to reduce direct emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037. To that end we are supporting the public sector to decarbonise heat and improve the energy efficiency of their estates by:
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in respect of the principal offices of each government department located in central London, (1) what temperature the offices are heated to during working hours in winter, and (2) what assessment they have made of the advantages and disadvantages of reducing that temperature by 2°C.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The government must meet the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, which place a legal obligation on employers to provide a 'reasonable' temperature in the workplace. The current operational temperatures in open plan offices vary across government.
We are following, and closely monitoring, industry and HSE guidance in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the operational temperature setpoint by 2°C.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what temperature (1) the Palace of Westminster, and (2) the other offices used by the House of Lords, are heated to during working hours in winter; and what assessment has been made of the advantages and disadvantages of reducing that temperature by 2°C.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
During working hours in winter, the main heating flow temperature supplied by the boilers in the Palace of Westminster is varied depending on the outside air temperature and so a definitive answer cannot be provided. Offices used by the House of Lords in Millbank House and Old Palace Yard are monitored and are heated to 21°C during working hours in winter
Reducing the temperature by 2°C across all offices would reduce the energy demand from space heating by approximately 15%. However, due consideration must be given to the outside air temperature, activities being carried out within the offices, and the individual circumstances of people within the offices. Reducing the temperature by 2°C may also encourage the use of portable electric heaters which use more energy.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they are making towards the implementation of Surgical Hubs in England; and how are they administering the programme.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Following successful pilots in London, the National Health Service is now developing surgical hubs across the country. There are currently 44 stand-alone surgical hubs operational in England.
The additional £1.5 billion provided for the recovery of elective services includes funding for developing further surgical hubs. The Getting It Right First Time programme, in collaboration with NHS England and NHS Improvement, is providing guidance to systems and regions on how to use hubs effectively, standardise pathways and adopt best surgical practice. Systems and regions will submit bids to NHS England and NHS Improvement and this process will determine where hubs will be based.