Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the environmental effect of restored peatland; and what steps he is taking to ban the sale of peat.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Research has shown that restored peatland achieves a variety of natural capital objectives, including carbon sequestration, water regulation and quality, optimising biodiversity, preserving archaeology, and minimising wildfire hazards. A 2019 BEIS report stated that a near natural bog can remove the equivalent of 3.54 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare per year, and a near natural fen can remove 5.44 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare per year. We are working towards reducing England’s peatland annual greenhouse gas emissions through restoration, and the Government has committed £640 million through the Nature for Climate Fund part of which will deliver 35,000 hectares of peatland restoration by 2025.
The Government also continues to be committed to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture in England. The biggest user of peat is the amateur sector and this is an important part of our policy focus. We signalled to the industry that if we have not seen sufficient movement to peat alternatives by 2020, then we would look at further measures that could be taken, and we are currently considering what these potential further measures could look like.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the recent easing of covid-19 lockdown restrictions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of permitting metal detecting hobbyists to return to their recreation.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
This government recognises that finds made by the public, including those found by metal-detectorists, make an immense contribution to our knowledge of the archaeology and history of Britain.
The recent easing of lockdown restrictions means that since 13th May, people have been, and are, able to enjoy metal-detecting, as long as they adhere to social distancing measures. At the moment, in England, this means that groups of up to six individuals from different households are able to meet outside to metal detect as long as they maintain 2 meters between them.
To support the hobby, the department has published guidance on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-on-searching-for-archaeological-finds-in-england-during-covid-19.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students have graduated with archaeology-based degrees in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Higher Education Statistics Agency collects and publishes statistics on enrolments and qualifications obtained at UK Higher Education Institutions. Latest statistics refer to the academic year 2017/18. Statistics on qualifications obtained by subject areas are available in Table 19 of their Open Data pages:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-19.
The number of first-degree qualifiers from archaeology-based subjects has been provided in the table.
Academic year | Forensic & Archaeological Sciences | Archaeology | Combined Total |
2008/09 | 1,710 | 905 | 2,615 |
2009/10 | 1,710 | 880 | 2,590 |
2010/11 | 1,755 | 900 | 2,655 |
2011/12 | 1,940 | 920 | 2,860 |
2012/13 | 1,890 | 900 | 2,790 |
2013/14 | 1,920 | 905 | 2,825 |
2014/15 | 1,570 | 750 | 2,320 |
2015/16 | 1,640 | 870 | 2,510 |
2016/17 | 1,645 | 815 | 2,460 |
2017/18 | 1,650 | 830 | 2,480 |
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the number of qualified archaeologists required for the construction of High Speed Two.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education meets his counterparts and officials from other government departments regularly to discuss the Department for Education agenda.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the number of archaeologists required for the construction of HS2; and what discussions he has had with archaeologists' professional bodies.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
HS2 Ltd estimates that over 1,000 archaeologists, period specialists, scientists and conservators will be needed to deliver the HS2 archaeology programme.
Neither myself, nor the Secretary of State, have discussed HS2 with archaeologists’ professional bodies directly. HS2 Ltd engages regularly with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and Historic England in relation to industry matters, including capacity and skills. This includes participating in the National Infrastructure Plan and Skills Capacity Working Group, chaired by Historic England.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of (a) religious education and (b) history lessons in state secondary schools are taught by teachers with no post A-level qualification in the subject.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2017, there were 118,200 hours of religious education taught in state funded secondary schools. Of these, 24.2% of hours were taught by a teacher with no relevant post A level qualification in religious education or a related subject such as philosophy. A ‘relevant post A level qualification’ is defined as a first degree or higher, Bachelor of education (BEd) degree, Postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE), Certificate of Education or another qualification at level 4 or above, which is in a discipline deemed relevant to that subject based on Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) codes.
These figures relate to all qualified teachers in state funded secondary schools
In 2017, there were 185,700 hours of history taught in state funded secondary schools. Of these, 8.8% of hours were taught by a teacher with no relevant post A level qualification in history or a related subject such as archaeology.
These figures relate to all qualified teachers in state funded secondary schools.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2018 to Question 169126 on A14: road works, what estimate he has made of the delay to work on that road as a result of the archaeological work; and what estimate he has made of the cost of that delay.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme is on budget and on target to open to traffic by 2020/21 as planned.
Highways England have encountered some challenges with the archaeology work schedule, but they have been able to work flexibly to ensure there has not been an impact on the construction programme. Highways England confirm this will not have an impact on the overall scheme budget and will be able to publish final costs once the scheme has completed.
Asked by: Michael Fallon (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on the prehistoric landscape at Stonehenge of the proposals for a new flyover and tunnel.
Answered by Jesse Norman
A principal aim of the scheme is to remove the roads and heavy traffic, with their associated noise and disturbance from the vicinity of the stones and to reunite Stonehenge with its surrounding monuments in their natural chalk downland setting. This involves removing the road and its traffic completely from within sight of the stones, with the locations of the tunnel portals being beyond the visual horizons from Stonehenge.
Highways England is carrying out extensive Heritage Impact Assessments to ensure the scheme brings benefits without creating unacceptable effects on the important features of the World Heritage Site.
A programme of archaeological surveys has been developed with input from an independent Scientific Committee, which comprises some of the country’s most eminent archaeologists. The project also has a Heritage Monitoring and Advisory Group comprising Historic England, Wiltshire Council Archaeology Service, English Heritage and The National Trust. The Scientific Committee and Advisory Group will continue to have oversight of all the archaeological findings as the scheme develops. Further information about the Scientific Committee’s work can be found at: http://www.a303scientificcommittee.org.uk/
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have set aside for HS2 phase one enabling works, design and pre-construction activity; and how much of that funding has already been spent and on what.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Spending Review 2015 established a long term funding envelope for Phase 1 of £27.18bn in 2015 prices. HS2 Ltd is expected to manage all elements of the delivery of Phase 1 from within the overall funding provision.
In November 2016, HS2 Ltd awarded three Enabling Works Contracts. These are structured as framework contracts, with a total combined value of up to £900m (in 2015 prices). These contractors in place in advance of the main works contracts are delivering a range of activities including archaeology, site clearance, establishing site compounds, utility diversions, ecology surveys, demolition, ground remediation, watercourse activities, highways realignments, monitoring and instrumentation, structural reinforcements and drainage work.
Government spending on HS2 Ltd is detailed in the Department for Transport’s annual report and accounts.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, which company has been contracted to carry out cleaning work on the ceiling of Westminster Hall; and what archaeological supervision has been provided to supervise that cleaning work.
Answered by Tom Brake
Work is currently underway in Westminster Hall to complete phase three of the conservation programme. This includes: the refurbishment of the lantern; removing the extensive dust deposits from the roof timbers; minor repairs to the interior of the roof to stabilize decorative elements and tracery; fire protection improvements; and new lighting.
The principal contractor for the programme is Mitie, who have in turn subcontracted the refurbishment of the lantern, cleaning of dust deposits and the minor repairs to the heritage and conservation specialists, DBR Limited. The programme of work is supervised by heritage architects Donald Insall Associates.
There is a large body of academic material on the Hall already available, with principal studies conducted between 1854 and 2016. Both information from this, together with extensive condition surveys, have been used as the basis for the specification for the current work and any further survey in this regard would be of no evident value to Parliament. It should be noted that the roof is an example of ‘standing archaeology’ – that is, it will be accessible for the foreseeable future as it has been in the past. The obligation to record the repairs and to deposit the records in the archives will be undertaken by the consultant conservation architect (Donald Insall Associates), specialist conservators, the in-house Architecture & Heritage team and Historic England. This information will be made available to interested parties and therefore no further archaeological supervision is necessary.
I have sent the hon. Lady a copy of the list of references to studies of the roof, and placed a copy in the Library.