Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government which specific counties are included within the term "the west country of England" when they refer to this region.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The West Country is not an official region, but could be loosely and approximately defined to match the South West region. The West of England, covers a much smaller area, focussed around the Greater Bristol and Bath city region. The West of England Combined Authority is made up of the following local authority areas: South Gloucestershire, Bristol and Bath & North East Somerset.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, have they made of the number of illegal migrants who have reached the UK from or via Tunisia in each of the last 3 years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes statistics on detected irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release published on gov.uk. Data on detected irregular arrivals by nationality is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’ with the latest data up to the end of December 2023.
Please note these statistics do not include details of countries of transit, and nationality may differ from country of origin.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, have they made of the cultural and economic welfare of the permanent residents of the Scilly Isles.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is committed to levelling up all parts of our country. We have also recognised the unique circumstances and needs of island communities and their residents, including by establishing the Islands Forum. The Forum is a mechanism for discussing the challenges and opportunities faced by island communities, and for considering how by working together local government and the UK Government (and where relevant the devolved administrations) can support the people of islands across the UK.
The Isles of Scilly has been awarded up to £6 million to fund a museum and cultural centre on St Mary’s. In addition, the final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 makes available up to £6.8 million to the Council of the Isles of Scilly, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £0.5 million or 8% in cash terms on 2023-24. This includes an additional £150,000 in funding in recognition of the unique circumstances facing our island authorities, and their physical separation from the mainland.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made since the year 2000 of the need for new reservoirs in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply in England. The Plan sets out our commitment to a twin track approach to improving water supply resilience, with action to reduce water company leaks alongside investing in new supply infrastructure.
It is a duty on water companies to maintain, improve and extend their water supply networks, to account for future water needs, such as those for domestic and industrial users. Last year, regional water resources groups and water companies, consulted on their draft water resources plans. These statutory plans set out how each company will secure water supplies sustainably for at least the next 25 years. The draft water resources management plans contain proposals for multiple new water resources schemes by 2050, including nine new reservoirs.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of reservoirs in England and Wales in ensuring continuous water supplies to meet (1) domestic, and (2) industrial, demand.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply in England. The Plan sets out our commitment to a twin track approach to improving water supply resilience, with action to reduce water company leaks alongside investing in new supply infrastructure.
It is a duty on water companies to maintain, improve and extend their water supply networks, to account for future water needs, such as those for domestic and industrial users. Last year, regional water resources groups and water companies, consulted on their draft water resources plans. These statutory plans set out how each company will secure water supplies sustainably for at least the next 25 years. The draft water resources management plans contain proposals for multiple new water resources schemes by 2050, including nine new reservoirs.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many warships are available to the Royal Navy, and how many officers of the rank of rear admiral and above.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As at 16 February 2024, the Royal Navy has 29 warships of which there are 20 available. The warship numbers included are: Offshore Patrol Vessels, Frigates, Destroyers, Aircraft Carriers and Landing Platform (Docks).
There are currently 14 officers of the rank of Rear Admiral and above serving in Navy Command. There are an additional 27 serving across the MOD, as well as other Government Departments and NATO, at the time of the most recently published figures (October 2023). The figures for the number of officers at the rank of Rear Admiral and above are taken from the Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics available at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2023
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of current planning legislation in limiting light pollution of the night skies in England.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The National Planning Policy Framework states that planning policies and decisions should “limit the impact of light pollution from artificial light on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation.”
The character of the area and the surrounding environment is already a material consideration about what will be considered an appropriate level of lighting for a development. This applies to both new housing and new commercial developments.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the safety of UK citizens seeking to worship in Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Turkey.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO routinely updates our travel advice, which provides guidance for British nationals on staying safe abroad, including in Turkey. Our travel advice notes that no travel can be guaranteed safe and in Turkey terrorists may target places visited by foreigners, including places of worship. The UK stands with Turkey against terrorism, and we welcome the Turkish authorities' swift response to security threats, such as the fatal shooting which took place at Santa Maria Church in Istanbul on 28 January. We support the rights of all minority groups in Turkey, including Christians and Jews.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in England are supplied with metered water; and what percentage of all households this represents.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There was a total of 24,009,150 household properties based on data reported by companies in England through their annual review of the Water Resources Management Plan for the year 2022/23.
Of this, the total number of metered household properties was 14,299,320 and a further 374,860 were metered household void properties.
As a result, for 2022/23 59.6% of household properties across English water companies were metered excluding void properties or 61.1% household properties were metered including void properties.
Note - a void household property is a household property that is connected to public water supply but not currently being billed by the water company as they have been classified as empty.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in England are supplied with private sources of water; and what percentage of all households this represents.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In England, in 2022, local authorities reported 34,904 private water supplies serving 956,429 people, approximately 1.7% of the population. These figures include commercial premises such as farms, bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels, sporting clubs, manufacturers and other businesses as well as shared supplies which could supply 2 properties or a hamlet. We do not have separate figures for domestic supplies to households and the figures only include private water supplies that local authorities are aware or have been made aware of. There is no requirement for private water supply owners or occupiers to report themselves to their local authority.