Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) destroyers, and (2) frigates, are presently in service with the Royal Navy.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
There are currently six Type 45 Destroyers and 13 Type 23 Frigates in service with the Royal Navy.
There are no destroyers on order. Three Type 26 Frigates are currently on order. We plan to award a contract for five Type 31 Frigates by the end of 2019, and a contract for the second batch of five Type 26 Frigates in the early 2020s.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the authority that public utility companies have to obstruct the highway to carry out repairs and installations.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
A range of legislation, statutory and other guidance applies to utility companies who carry out street works on the local road network to install, maintain and repair the infrastructure on which we all rely. These works are vital but that does not mean they should take longer than they should. My department constantly reviews the legal framework to reduce the impact works have on congestion and is taking forward a number of projects to modernise the regime.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many de-commissioned (1) destroyers, and (2) frigates, remain in the ownership of the Ministry of Defence; and how many of those, if any, could be returned to service.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The Ministry of Defence owns no decommissioned destroyers or frigates; therefore, none are available to be returned to service.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to change the pension arrangements for senior public servants, especially doctors in the NHS, as they approach retirement.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The government keeps public sector pensions policy under constant review in the context of the wider public finances.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will shortly publish a consultation on proposals for a new flexibility for senior clinicians in the NHS pension scheme via the introduction of a 50:50 option.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 14 June (HL16066), whether they have any plans to construct a national water grid.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Water transfers can play a strong role in securing resilience, alongside other new infrastructure and reducing demand and leakage as part of the ‘twin track approach’.
There is already a large amount of water transferred across the country, giving water companies greater flexibility to meet demand. Water companies are finalising revisions to their statutory water resource management plans. These plans set out how they will meet demand for water over at least the next 25 years and many include further transfer schemes.
Ofwat, working with the Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate, recently established the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development which will make sure regulation enables strategic schemes to improve resilience of water supplies. Such schemes might include water transfers.
We are developing a National Policy Statement for water resources infrastructure which will streamline the planning process for nationally significant water resource infrastructure including large water transfers. We plan to lay the final version of this document in Parliament in the autumn.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to whether there will continue to be sufficient supplies of water for all purposes, including domestic purposes, if climate change continues as expected.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government is working closely with other water regulators and the water industry to improve the resilience of water supplies. The Government recognises continued action is required and it is committed to a ‘twin track approach’ of reducing demand for water and increasing supply in parallel.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers under the Water Industry Act 1991. To fulfil this duty, there is a statutory requirement to maintain water resources management plans, which balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future.
The Government, Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat issued guidance to water companies in 2016 on how they should be planning to be resilient to foreseeable risks, including taking appropriate action to respond to climate projections. Water companies are currently revising their plans.
The Government is taking steps to improve water resources planning to ensure that there is better collaboration between water companies and other water using sectors on their water supply resilience. This includes the EA developing a National Framework for water resources, which will identify high priority water users who are unable to meet their demand or are likely to need to expand and set expectations on collaboration at a regional scale. The Government has also consulted on legislative improvements to ensure that water companies’ plans are informed by effective collaboration.
The EA is also implementing the abstraction plan published in 2017. This includes work to bring together the EA, abstractors and catchment groups to develop local solutions to existing pressures and to prepare for the future.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the approximate quantity of steel rail required for the HS2 project.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
As stated in the Working Draft Environmental Statement (p.136), the approximate total of steel required for the HS2 project is 1.94 million metric tonnes.
The procurements for contracts that will involve the purchase of steel have not yet concluded so no contract awards have been made. However, HS2 Ltd has already engaged with thousands of British businesses, to aid them in winning work on HS2. So far 98% of contracts for HS2, awarded directly and through the supply chain, have been won by British companies, with many more opportunities to come in the future. HS2 Ltd has let around £10bn worth of contracts and by the end of next year that will be around £20bn.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) women, and (2) men, currently serving indeterminate prison sentences have exceeded the tariff relating to the crime for which they were originally convicted.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The following table gives the unreleased IPP and life sentence prison population as at 31 March 2019 as well as showing how many prisoners, in each sentence category and according to gender, remain in custody beyond the expiry of their original tariff or are still serving their tariff period.
| IPP | Life |
Total population | 2,403 | 7,038 |
Post-tariff total | 2,198 | 1,784 |
Post-tariff male | 2,155 | 1756 |
Post-tariff female | 43 | 28 |
Pre-tariff total | 204 | 5,041 |
Pre-tariff male | 204 | 4,780 |
Pre-tariff female | 0 | 261 |
Tariff expiry date not available* | 1 | 213 |
* Includes cases where a confirmed tariff expiry date has yet to be received and any unmatched records. As with any large-scale recording system, administrative IT systems are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the nature of the work currently in progress on the A3 Southbound at Tolworth; and when they expect it to be completed.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London and delivered by Transport for London (TfL). The A3 southbound at Tolworth is the responsibility of TfL.
I understand that TfL regularly monitors its road infrastructure to ensure that it is safe for people to use and that a recent inspection of this section of the A3 found that parts of the crash barrier needed replacement due to damage from collisions and corrosion. For safety reasons, until the barrier can be replaced, TfL has had to restrict access to the near side lane. TfL is working closely with its suppliers who are manufacturing a replacement barrier. It will be installed in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what will be the role of the new Type 31e frigates to be supplied to the Royal Navy.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
I refer the noble Lord to the reply given by my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Mark Lancaster), in the House of Commons on 4 March 2019 to the hon. Member for Portsmouth South, (Stephen Morgan) in response to Question number 226207.