Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many leak enquiries are extant; when he expects them to be concluded; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The government takes any unauthorised disclosure of official information extremely seriously, and each Department is responsible for investigating potential losses or leaks of its information. It has been the policy of successive administrations not to comment on leaks or leak investigations.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the planned Establishment of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary; and what is its current strength at all Ranks against its Establishment numbers.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The table below shows the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's workforce requirement, by rank and rate, as at 1 April 2019.
I am withholding the strength figures as their disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.
|
|
RANK | REQUIREMENT |
|
|
Commodore | 2 |
Captain | 53 |
Chief Officer | 87 |
First Officer | 125 |
Second Officer | 215 |
Third Officer | 145 |
Chief Petty Officer | 124 |
Petty Officer | 207 |
Leading Hand | 274 |
Able Bodied Seaman* | 735 |
Total | 1,967 |
|
|
*or equivalent |
|
Note: These figures are from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's internal system and could differ from published figures.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pending the roll out of new rules on General Licences, what guidance his Department issues on permitted activities in (a) Special Areas of Conservation and (b) Special Protection Areas.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The new General Licences issued by Defra and published on the 14 June provides information and advice in regard to the application of those licences on or within 300 metres of the boundary of protected sites, which include Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas. Underpinning with Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) designation provides the key mechanism to manage terrestrial European sites. General guidance on the consenting process for permitted activities on SSSIs is published on Gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protected-areas-sites-of-special-scientific-interest
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what representations she has made to her Turkish counterpart on the implications for their NATO membership of their purchase of a Russian Anti-Air System.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
My right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Defence (Penny Mordaunt) met with Turkey's Defence Minister in Brussels last month, when she raised our concerns about Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence system. Turkey is a valued NATO Ally, and while we are disappointed that Turkey has chosen to acquire the S-400 we remain committed to our strategic partnership. We will continue to discuss our concerns with Turkey.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on salmon stocks in English rivers of seals.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
No formal assessment of the effect of seal activity on Atlantic salmon stocks has been made in English rivers.
Although diet studies suggest that seals typically prey on other fish species, seals are known to consume salmon in estuaries, around nets and river mouths. Predation by seals is controlled by regulations including licensed sustainable culling, as well as non-lethal methods such as sound scaring equipment.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research programmes on the decline of salmon stocks in English rivers his Department is currently allocating funding to.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Defra funds research conducted by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Environment Agency to address factors contributing to the decline of salmon in English rivers. Factors, such as water quality, migration barriers, marine survival and exploitation are addressed in Defra’s 5 year Implementation Plan for Salmon Management in England and Wales, conducted by Cefas for the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation. Progress on these plans is reported on annually.
Projects Defra is currently funding include:
- Anthropogenic Factors – ‘Prioritising the management of salmonid based on the relative impacts of anthropogenic factors’
- Stock assessment methodology improvement – ‘Genetic sex ratio analysis of salmon smolts and adults’
- Climate Change – ‘Predicted effects of Climate Change on UK diadromous fish populations’
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many licences his Department has issued to kill (a) cormorants and (b) goosanders in each of the last five years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The numbers of cormorant and goosander licences issued between 2014 and 2019 (to date) by Natural England on behalf of the Secretary of State are given in the table below. Individual licences are licences issued to an individual or angling club/fishery. An area based licence is one licence issued to a primary contact which covers multiple individuals amongst a group of fisheries within a defined catchment or area.
Species | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 (to date) |
Cormorant (Individual) | 409 | 456 | 450 | 435 | 429 | 106 |
Goosander (Individual) | 31 | 35 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 9 |
Cormorant only (Area Based Licence) | 6 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 1 |
Goosander only (Area Based Licence) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cormorant / Goosander (Area Based Licence) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of (a) cormorants and (b) herons on immature fish in English river systems.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The overall impact on immature fish is not assessed at a national level.
However, in granting licences to control protected birds Natural England consider the evidence of damage provided by the applicant (for example the impact on immature fish) as well as the conservation status of the species.
Additionally, the Environment Agency have funded advisory posts to support affected fisheries using income from fishing licence sales. The current arrangement is part of the angling services contract awarded to the Angling Trust which pays for three posts that provide specialist management advice to angling clubs and fisheries owners impacted by cormorants and other fish predators.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of salmon stocks in English rivers.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Defra undertakes annual assessments of salmon and sea trout stocks for England and Wales. These assessments are conducted by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.
The annual assessments, including the most recent for 2018, are published on GOV.UK. Which can be accessed via the following link:
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the process for (a) distributing and (b) grading of diplomatic telegrams of a sensitive nature; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) gave evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 10 July on the recent leak of classified information official documents, which covered Diplomatic Telegrams. Formal correspondence from diplomats, including these, is marked either OFFICIAL, OFFICIAL SENSITIVE or SECRET in line with government policy.
We use the Cabinet Office Government Security Classification policy as a guide to classifying all FCO information and its subsequent handling. We are confident we have good security systems. Nevertheless we are reviewing how they are functioning in light of recent events. The new cross-government SECRET system developed by the Cabinet Office now also provides enhanced secure communication in the majority of our posts around the world and across government.