Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of Chinese investment in infrastructure in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 18 January is attached.
Lord Taylor of Warwick
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
26 January 2023
Dear Lord Taylor of Warwick,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of the amount of Chinese investment in infrastructure in the UK (HL4889).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics which include international investment positions, that is the value of the stock of investments held at a point in time. Statistics are presented for both UK-based companies that have a foreign parent company (inward) and for UK companies that control affiliates abroad (outward). Our latest FDI statistics for China are available up to 2021, with figures in the table below extracted from our Foreign direct investment involving UK companies (directional): inward[1] publication.
‘Infrastructure’ is not an identifiable category in FDI statistics. Therefore, we have included all industrial activity categories in Table 1 to enable you to consider the relevant components.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
1https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessinnovation/datasets/foreigndirectinvestmentinvolvingukcompanies2013inwardtables
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to update their Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy command paper, published in March 2021.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
As the Chancellor set out in the Autumn Statement, the Government is updating the Integrated Review. The date of publication for this will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office (Minister for Constitution) has had with other ministers regarding the post-Brexit funding arrangements.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Ministers and officials regularly meet other Ministerial and departmental colleagues to discuss a range of issues, including those relating to the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union.
Taking into account the financial settlement with the EU, an additional £14.6 billion of spending by 2024-25 has been allocated to the United Kingdom’s domestic priorities, rather than being sent in contributions to the EU. This spending was incorporated into the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021-documents.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current overall level of financial investment from China to the UK.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question: PQ HL4040 is attached.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect government accounts on social media from hacks and cyberattacks.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
We are committed to protecting government accounts on social media. Public sector organisations are responsible for securing their own services, including social media accounts. The Cabinet Office, with the support of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), regularly provides advice and guidance to organisations on how best to secure social media accounts from hacks and cyber attacks.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to implement (1) air raid sirens, or (2) civil defence systems, in the UK to provide an early warning signal for a nuclear attack.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government does not plan to implement air raid sirens to provide an early warning signal for nuclear attack. Since April 1969, the Royal Navy has maintained continuous at sea deterrence, with at least one nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine patrolling the seas undetected at all times, ready to respond to the most extreme threats to the UK, should they materialise.
The Government is committed to ensuring the public receive advice about the risks to them and the actions they can take. As part of broad emergency response capabilities, arrangements are in place to warn and inform the public that an emergency has, or is about to, occur and the steps they should take in response. This is a locally based approach, supported as necessary, by national messaging from central government using a range of channels, including social and broadcast media. The Government has announced its intention to augment these existing arrangements with the launch of a mobile phone based emergency alerting system later this year.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to close the acceptance gap between white students and ethnic minority students who join the Civil Service Fast Stream.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The proportion of ethnic minority groups overall being appointed to the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2021 was 23.3%, this aligns with the 2019/20 Higher Education Statistics Agency graduate population level of 23.7% for ethnicity.
Steps to ensure that students from minority ethnic backgrounds are successful in their application to the Civil Service Fast Stream start with outreach, attraction and marketing activity, which is designed to encourage applications from individuals from all backgrounds and locations. This is undertaken via early stage schools, college and apprenticeship engagement, along with industrial and internship placements. We have developed an inclusive website, social media strategy, and refreshed the target university list for outreach.
Further to this, the Cabinet Office is:
expanding the range of internships we offer,
undertaking cultural bias reviews of our selection processes,
increasing assessor diversity, and
improving our fair and inclusive selection processes by incorporating more regional/virtual assessment.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to unilaterally stop checks on some goods sent across the Irish Sea as an alternative to triggering Article 16 to suspend the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Frost
The Government has already secured unfettered access for Northern Ireland firms for goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain through the legislative protections we have provided, notably enshrining in the UK Internal Market Act 2020 full unfettered access for qualifying Northern Ireland goods to all parts of the UK market.
For movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, we have set out proposals that would largely eliminate checks on goods remaining within the UK. We would prefer to secure this reduction through negotiations with the EU. However, the Article 16 safeguards within the Protocol remain on the table if that should be the only way to secure our position.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide financial support for businesses whose checks and paperwork were delayed as a result of preparing for import control deadlines.
Answered by Lord Frost
The revised timetable for import controls set out in my written statement of 14 September 2021 allows businesses more time to adjust to new processes as they recover from the pandemic which has impacted supply chains across Europe. The nature of the border import controls for which businesses are preparing has not changed, and therefore any time or resource spent by businesses preparing for them will still be of value. The additional time will be used to further businesses' readiness for the introduction of these new requirements.
The Government also continues to support businesses trading with the EU in all sectors of industry, including putting in place additional staffing, comprehensive guidance for businesses and funding infrastructure to ease border processes.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking (1) to increase emergency mental health support for British army veterans who served in Afghanistan, and (2) to communicate current military decisions regarding Afghanistan to veteran communities.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
There has been a step change in veterans’ mental health provision, driven by significant investment. This year £17.8M has been allocated to the Veterans Mental Health Service Op COURAGE and £10M to the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to help deliver charitable initiatives supporting veterans’ mental health needs across the United Kingdom. However, we recognise that recent events may have caused distress to some veterans. That is why, last week, an Armed Forces Mental Health summit was held by the Defence and Health Secretaries, bringing together experts to discuss support for those who served and their families. Following the summit, a further £2.7M has been made available to Op Courage to expand services to support those experiencing complex mental and/or physical trauma, or alcohol and substance misuse.
The Government has also engaged members of the Armed Forces community to reinforce that the mission in Afghanistan was of value. Veterans should be in no doubt of the remarkable role they played in serving their country and keeping it safe. They should feel immensely proud of their service. The PM published an open letter to the entire Armed Forces community on 29 August echoing this sentiment.