To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Africa: Sustainable Development
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 to deliver inclusive and sustainable development in Africa and transform it into "the global powerhouse of the future"; and what engagement they are having with partners to support the delivery of those aims.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

On 30 October, the UK and the African Union held our inaugural High Level Dialogue, hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Africa. At the Dialogue, Minister Mitchell announced further UK funding in support of the African Union's 2063 Agenda, and for its flagship Silencing the Guns campaign. This includes £10 million in stipends to support troops in Somalia, bringing our total commitment to the AU Transition Mission in Somalia since 2022 to more than £57 million.

We are also providing £3 million through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's Tackling Deadly Diseases in African Programme, helping the Africa Centres for Disease Control and World Health Organisation address emergency preparedness and response in the continent.


Written Question
Tidal Power: Cost Effectiveness
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of tidal turbine technology to produce energy at a cost-effective level.

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Tidal stream is a novel technology and so initial costs are high. Cost reductions are required to deliver the potential benefits cost-effectively. In 2023 DESNZ published research on ‘Levelised Costs of Electricity from Tidal Stream Energy’. It suggested there is potential for significant cost reductions, subject to deployment. 94MW of new tidal stream power was procured in Contracts for Difference Allocation Rounds 4 and 5. This will increase the UK’s installed capacity tenfold.


Written Question
Red Sea: Piracy
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the increased costs to British business resulting from the attacks to shipping in the Red Sea.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department of Business and Trade is in regular contact with key businesses and industries to understand the issues they may be facing as a result of the disturbance in the Red Sea. We have open channels of communication with key stakeholders to ensure the most effective mitigations are in place to support with any increased costs they are facing. Our Critical Imports and Supply Chains Strategy will help UK business build the secure and reliable supply chains vital to the UK’s economic prosperity, national security and essential services.

For exporters affected, UK businesses can access DBT’s wealth of export support via Great.gov.uk. This comprises a digital self-serve offer and our wider network of support, including trade advisors, export champions, the Export Academy, International Markets network, and UK Export Finance.


Written Question
Housing: Construction
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of electricity grid miscalculations on housebuilding in England.

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The calculation of electricity network capacity for new housing developments is a matter for housing developers and network companies. Guidance on network capacity requirements for housing developments has been published by the Independent Networks Association, whose members are responsible for the connection of around 80 percent of newbuild developments. Distribution Network Operators also offer online calculators for housebuilders to determine the network capacity they might require for their developments.


Written Question
Elections: Disinformation
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent any negative impact on this year's local elections as a result of fake news being disseminated through (1) artificial intelligence, and (2) other means.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK’s elections and already has established systems and processes in place, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK.

The Government has established the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which has a mandate to safeguard our democratic institutions and processes from the full range of threats, including digitally manipulated content. The Taskforce is an enduring government function which is ensuring we have a robust system in place to rapidly respond to any threats during election periods, including novel threats from artificial intelligence (AI).

The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will increase the transparency of digital political advertising, including AI-generated material.

Additionally, it is already an election offence for a person to make a false statement about a candidate which provides a reasonable check and balance against malicious smear campaigns.

The threat to democracy from artificial intelligence was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.


Written Question
Housing: Cooperatives
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to the development of more cooperative housing schemes.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is committed to supporting housing co-operatives and other providers of community-led housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied, and was most recently revised in December 2023. The National Planning Policy Framework now includes several measures that will support the diversification of the housing market, including the growth of the community-led housing sector. These new measures include:

  • A new community-led housing exception sites policy to encourage local authorities to support the development of community-led sites that deliver affordable housing to meet local need;
  • encouragement to local planning authorities to seek opportunities to support small sites to come forward for community-led development for housing;
  • greater emphasis on the role that community-led development can have in supporting the provision of housing in rural areas; and
  • a definition of “community-led developments”, which will help planning authorities provide support for local proposals for community-led housing development;

Community-based groups (or their partner organisations) who are registered as providers of social housing may apply for capital grant through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).

In addition, in 2023, we provided £3 million to support a social finance fund to provide equity and loan finance for community-led housing schemes across England. This fund is expected to support the delivery of 1587 homes over ten years.


Written Question
Building Inspectors
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the number of building inspectors and any risk to construction due to declines in their numbers.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

I refer the Noble Lady to the answer given to Question UIN 16272 on 5 March 2024.


Written Question
Arms Length Management Organisations
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many arms-length management organisations there are in England.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We do not collect this information centrally. However, the National Federation of ALMOs’ latest publicity suggests that there are currently 19 arms-length management organisations in England: https://www.almos.org.uk/about-us/our-members/.


Written Question
Water Supply: Microplastics
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the amount of microplastics in tap water.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has published two research projects on microplastics in drinking water – one in January 2019 reviewing the potential risks from nanoparticles and microplastics and another in October 2022 looking at the removal of microplastics by drinking water treatment processes.

The research by the DWI found that more than 99.99% of microplastic particles were removed through conventional drinking water treatment processes. As a consequence of the removal rates, microplastics were present at very low levels in drinking water. Their contribution to total daily exposure, and presenting a potential risk to human health, was likely to be low or insignificant. The World Health Organization has also recommended that routine monitoring of microplastics in drinking water was not necessary at this time.


Written Question
Bus Services
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of (1) rural bus services in England, and (2) the effectiveness of the Bus Services Act 2017 in improving services.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government's approach to improving bus services in England, including those in rural areas, is set out in the National Bus Strategy. We have announced more than £4.5 billion of funding for buses in England outside of London since 2020,
including:

o The recently announced £1 billion of funding redirected from HS2 to deliver better buses across the North and the Midlands as part of Network North;

o Over £1 billion allocated in 2022 to help LTAs deliver their BSIPs;

o £300 million in ongoing funding to support and improve services until April 2025;

o Nearly £600 million to cap single bus fares at £2 from 1 January 2023 until the end of 2024; and

o £2 billion between March 2020 and June 2023 to prevent reductions to bus services following the pandemic.

The Bus Services Act 2017 was accompanied by a suite of regulations to provide Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) outside London with powers to improve local bus services. These included enhanced partnerships (EPs) between bus operators and LTAs, and automatic franchising powers to all Mayoral Combined Authorities. 73 LTAs now have an EP in place and Greater Manchester expect to have a fully franchised bus network by March 2025.

The Bus Services Act 2017 also focused on introducing the Bus Open Data Service (BODS). The BODS was launched in 2020, and requires all bus operators of local services in England to open up high-quality, accurate and up-to-date bus service information including timetables, fares, tickets & vehicle location information.

The Bus Services Act 2017 also amended the Equality Act 2010 to enable the Government to introduce ‘Accessible Information Regulations’ as part of its commitment to creating an inclusive transport system. These regulations were introduced in 2023, which by Autumn 2026 will require the majority of local bus and coach services to incorporate audible and visible announcements as standard.

The Department is conducting a monitoring and evaluation exercise on the impact of the National Bus Strategy. The Bus Transformation Evaluation assesses the delivery and impact of Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) introduced by the 33 LTAs that received Phase 1 BSIP funding from the Department under the National Bus Strategy. A draft interim report is expected by summer 2024. In addition, the Department is also conducting monitoring and evaluation of the Inclusive Transport Strategy 2018, which includes an assessment of the impact of accessibility requirements introduced under the Bus Services Act 2017 to provide audible and visible information on buses. The Inclusive Transport Strategy: Evaluation Baseline Report was published in January 2022 and the final report is expected to be published later this year.