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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to reported delays to Legal & General’s proposed investment in a factory near Leeds to build pre-fabricated homes.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

The Government is keen to widen the use of innovative construction in housebuilding. We are encouraging this through our housing and planning programmes including Affordable Homes 2016-21, Build to Rent and Housing Zones, and through our National Planning Practice Guidance.

We are also providing funding. Earlier this month, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government launched the Home Building Fund, which aims to provide further support to builders using innovative construction, in addition to custom builders, small and medium-sized builders, and new entrants to the market. Full details are published (attached) at www.gov.uk/homebuildingfund

We welcome Legal & General’s plans to enter this growing market and operate a new offsite manufacturing facility, but it is not for Government to comment on the commercial decisions it may take around its launch date.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of comments by Kristin Forbes, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, on possible over-counting of the economic effects of Brexit, what assessment they have made of the Bank of England’s growth forecasts.

Lord Young of Cookham

The government has produced no such assessment of the independent Monetary Policy Committee’s forecasts for the UK economy.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has the responsibility to produce detailed forecasts for the economy and public finances twice a year. The OBR will produce forecasts to accompany the Autumn Statement on 23 November.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help London’s small technology companies and to protect technology talent.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

We are committed to ensuring that Britain is the best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas and start a business, including small tech businesses. Innovate UK provides support to businesses across the UK with around 60% of its grant funding going to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to help them to develop new ideas and recruit and retain tech talent. We are supporting more companies to do research and development through the UK’s R&D Tax Credits scheme. The total of R&D support claimed rose to £2.45bn in 2014-15, an increase of £675m (38%) on the previous year.

An example of a specific activity in London is Tech City UK (TCUK), funded by Government, who focus their efforts to accelerate the growth of digital businesses at all stages of their development across the UK. TCUK creates a positive culture in relation to digital technology and technological entrepreneurship, and fosters the right policy and business environment for start-up and high-growth entrepreneurial businesses. It does this by connecting entrepreneurs to other businesses and investors, whilst also providing a vital feedback loop to government to ensure that policy development is fit for purpose.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to prevent the late cancellation of operations.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The commitment that ‘all patients who have operations cancelled, on or after the day of admission (including the day of surgery), for non-clinical reasons to be offered another binding date within 28 days, or the patient’s treatment to be funded at the time and hospital of the patient’s choice’ is included as a pledge in the Handbook to the NHS Constitution. A copy is attached.

Every quarter, NHS England publishes the number of operations cancelled at the ‘last minute’ for non-clinical reasons. A last minute cancellation is defined as ‘when a patient’s operation is cancelled by the hospital on or after the day of admission (including the day of surgery) for non-clinical reasons’. The financial sanction for not meeting the pledge in 2016-17 is non-payment of costs associated with cancellation and non-payment or reimbursement (as applicable) of the re-scheduled episode of care.

Every month, NHS England also publishes data on urgent operations that are cancelled by the trust for non-medical reasons, including those cancelled for a second or subsequent time. This includes all urgent operations cancelled, not just those cancelled at the last minute. Although there is no pledge for cancelled urgent operations, NHS England has set a National Quality Requirement that no urgent operation should be cancelled for a second time, and the NHS Standard Contract provides for a financial sanction of £5,000 per incidence.