Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is any limit on the number of occasions that an individual can register a change of name by enrolled deed poll; and if not, what assessment they have made of the implications for (1) national security, (2) the work of the police, and (3) money laundering.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
There is no limit to the number of times a person can change their name by the enrolled deed poll process. This is consistent with long stablished common law rights for people to change their name and the European Convention of Human Rights. Changing a name for a deceptive or fraudulent purpose could however be prosecuted as part of the underlying fraud or deception.
Upon enrolment the deed is advertised in the London Gazette by the High Court providing a searchable public record of enrolled deed name changes. As such, the Government does not believe there are any grounds for concerns relating to national security, the work of the police or money laundering arising from the process.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) was spent on (1) responding to emergencies and other unpredictable events, (2) illegal immigration into the UK, and (3) payments to the government of France for measures to prevent or reduce illegal migration across the English Channel, in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Statistics on International Development (SID) National Statistics provides an overview of all UK spend on Official Development Assistance (ODA).
UK ODA spent on Humanitarian Aid activities, which includes Humanitarian Emergency Response ODA, for 2019, 2020 and 2021 (the latest three years available) are outlined in the SID Statistics. The proportions have been reported in respect to total bilateral UK ODA (otherwise known as earmarked ODA). The figures do not include the UK’s core contributions to humanitarian focused multilaterals, for instance the UK’s core funding to Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in 2021 was £63.5m.
The Home Office does not have any ODA spend in relation to illegal migration or any payments to France (which is not an ODA eligible country).
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to switch public spending from buses with rubber tyres to lightweight trams in urban areas to reduce the toxic effects from particulates generated by rubber wheels.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Department has no current plans to reallocate funding for buses to light rail, including tramways. Light rail is largely devolved and it is for local authorities to determine if light rail interventions are appropriate and proportionate, and to identify funding.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether converting bus routes to trams in urban areas with low-cost vehicles fuelled by biomethane has a role in achieving the UK's commitment to the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Mass transit, including light rail and bus rapid transit, is largely devolved in England outside London. It is for local authorities to determine whether mass transit interventions are appropriate and proportionate, including with respect to technology, fuel choice and local decarbonisation ambitions.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many privately rented dwellings hold a current Energy Performance Certificate; and what proportion of those are certified in each of the bands A to H.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All privately rented dwellings are required to have a valid Energy Performance Certificate when they are placed on the market. The English Housing Survey Private Rented Sector report provides an estimate of the proportion of privately rented dwellings in each rating band.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities publishes data tables on all Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Registers since 2008.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many vintage vehicles are currently licenced free of road tax; and what is the cost to the taxpayer of that concession.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
There are currently 1,102,021 vehicles in the historic vehicle taxation class. Of these 595,823 are currently licensed and attract a nil rate of vehicle excise duty.
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs publish official statistics on structural tax reliefs ever year. The latest estimate for the historic tax class was published on 12 January is £130m for 2022-23.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Home Office officials have been convicted of abuse of public office in each of the last 10 years; and how many of those have been given custodial sentences.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Note: We have interpreted this question as referring to ‘Misconduct in Public Office’ (‘abuse of public office’ is not a criminal offence).
In the last ten years there have been seven Home Office officials who have been convicted of Misconduct in Public Office. All received a custodial sentence and all were convicted before 2015. Since then, the Crown Prosecution Service have moved towards using more specific charges such as theft, assisting unlawful immigration and bribery.
A breakdown for each year is provided below:
Year | Convicted of abuse of position | Custodial sentence received |
2012 | 3 | 3 |
2013 | 1 | 1 |
2014 | 1 | 1 |
2015 | 2 | 2 |
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many fatal accidents involving cyclists riding after lighting-up time without lights have occurred in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The table below shows the number of fatal road collisions in Great Britain reported by the police using the STATS19 system where a police officer attended the scene and allocated the contributory factor ‘Not displaying lights at night or in poor visibility’ to a pedal cyclist involved in the collision.
Year | Fatal collisions |
2017 | 2 |
2018 | 3 |
2019 | 4 |
2020 | 4 |
2021 | 4 |
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which bodies are currently proscribed as terrorist organisations.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The list of proscribed organisations is publicly available at the following link: Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether recordings from road traffic cameras can be used by the police in investigating all types of crime.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Under the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, evidence from a road traffic enforcement device is obtained for certain motoring offences and used in court proceedings without the need for other corroborative evidence. Therefore, the use of road traffic cameras does not extend to all crime types.