Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what steps they are taking to support consumers who cannot monitor their energy consumption via their smart meter as a result of a failure to connect with a data hub.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Energy suppliers are required by licence conditions to take all reasonable steps to ensure their customers’ smart meters are fully functional and provide customers with complete and accurate information. Energy suppliers must also offer an In-Home Display (IHD) at the point of installation and provide a replacement or repair for any faulty IHD within the first year of installing a consumer’s smart meters.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is responsible for regulating energy suppliers against their licence obligations.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of current legislation protecting animal (1) welfare, and (2) rights; and whether they plan further legislation in respect of animal welfare in the current session.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government's Action Plan for Animal Welfare was published in May 2021 and can be found at: Action Plan for Animal Welfare - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). A copy is attached to this answer.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government in what county or region was the primary residence of individuals recommended for a Life Peerage by the Prime Minister in each year since 2019.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government does not hold residency information for those nominated to the House of Lords. That is a matter for each individual.
The Prime Minister is responsible for peerage nominations and will take a range of factors into consideration when making recommendations to the Sovereign.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the geographical distribution by region or nation of members of the House of Lords.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government does not hold residency information for those nominated to the House of Lords. That is a matter for each individual.
The Prime Minister is responsible for peerage nominations and will take a range of factors into consideration when making recommendations to the Sovereign.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they plan to give to the promotion of municipal bonds to enable residents to invest in local initiatives to reduce the impact of climate change.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
DLUHC has consulted with DCMS following their work on municipal bonds for community investment.
In 2019 the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport sponsored independent research (attached) into the concept of crowdfunding as a way for people to invest in Local Authority projects in their communities. The report, entitled Financing for Society: Crowdfunding Public Infrastructure, was published by the University of Leeds and included case studies about the use of community municipal bonds for projects including those aimed at tackling climate change. DCMS has no current plans for further promotion of this financing mechanism.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the reforms in the Health and Care Bill will meet the needs of Inclusion Health populations.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Health and Care Bill proposes integrated care boards and requires the creation of integrated care partnerships (ICPs) in each local system area. ICPs will bring together the National Health Service, local authorities and wider representatives, as appropriate to address the health, public health and social care needs of people in their areas. We expect that this would include addressing the needs of inclusion health groups. This and other measures contained in the Bill will enable more integrated care for patients and service users, including inclusion health groups.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to establish a regulatory framework for the audits of local authorities; and whether any such plans would include the appointment of a regulator to assess and advise on such audit reports.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government published its response to the Redmond Review of local authority financial reporting and external audit on 17 December 2020. The current regulatory framework for local audit was one of the matters considered by the review. We are giving close consideration to Sir Tony Redmond’s finding that the local audit framework is too fragmented and are committed to exploring the full range of options as to how the recommendations relating to system leadership can best be achieved and will update on this further later in the Spring.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many local authorities in England delivering adult social care have increased their adult social care precept for 2021/2022 by (1) 3, (2) 2–2.99, (3) 1–1.99, and (4) 0–0.99, per cent.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Department will publish National Statistics on 25 March setting out the level of council tax charged by local authorities in England for 2021/22. This release will include details on how authorities with responsibility for adult social care have made use of the adult social care precept.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This is a complex issue and that is why a review is the right course of action and we are looking at all options.
Work is ongoing and the Government will update on its findings in due course.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what they currently estimate the percentage of (1) false negative, and (2) false positive, tests for COVID-19 to be.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library