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  • Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what revisions have been made to the Northern Ireland Parades Commission procedural rules and guidelines in the last five years.

    Lord Dunlop

    No revisions have been made to the procedural rules or the guidelines issued by the Parades Commission in the last five years. In line with the provisions of the Public Processions (NI) Act 1998, the procedural rules and the guidelines are required to be kept under review by the Commission; it is a matter for the Commission whether it proposes any revisions to the relevant instruments.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to continue with the Troubled Families Programme in the light of the National Institute of Economics and Social Research’s recent analysis.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    At the Spending Review 2015, £720 million was allocated to fund the remaining four years of the new Troubled Families Programme (2015 – 2020). We are absolutely committed to continuing to help this group of people, to help these vulnerable families that have some of the most complex needs of people in the country. We are looking at the evidence from the evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme (2012-2015) to see how things could be done differently, to learn from it and see if there is even more we can do to improve the lives of troubled families.

    We have already learnt lessons from the first Troubled Families Programme and reflected them in the design of the new programme. We have published an overview of the first programme (attached) which highlights the improvements that have been made: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-first-troubled-families-programme-2012-to-2015-an-overview

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  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether consideration is being given to prohibiting the use of tasers in detained settings for people with mental health conditions.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The deployment of police officers to mental health settings and the tactics used are an operational matter for the police.

    Any use of force by police officers must be appropriate, proportionate, necessary and conducted as safely as is possible. If police officers need to use force, it is right that they are expected to account for their actions.

  • Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made on the implementation, through public procurement policy, of their commitment to achieve 100 per cent sourcing of credibly certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2015.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The Government Buying Standard for food and catering was amended in October 2012 to state that, from the end of 2015, all palm oil used for cooking and as an ingredient in food shall be sustainably produced. The Government has been making good progress towards meeting this requirement, with the majority of departments reporting that their catering contractors are complying with it. The next report on progress under the Greening Government Commitments, covering 2015/16, will include an update on sustainable procurement issues, including palm oil.

  • Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made, and when they plan to implement their commitment in the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests to work on new procurement policies to limit the consumption of commodities associated with deforestation.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The Joint Statement on REDD+ by the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway made at the United Nations Climate Summit on 23 September 2014 in support of the New York Declaration on Forests contains a commitment that:

    “We will work with other consumer countries to promote national commitments that encourage deforestation-free supply chains, including through public procurement policies to sustainably source commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef and timber“.

    The Government Buying Standard for food and catering was amended in October 2012 to include a new requirement to procure palm oil, palm kernel oil and derivatives from sustainable sources. All food and catering products bought by central Government must meet these sustainability requirements.

    The Government’s Timber Procurement Policy also requires central Government Departments, Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies to procure timber and timber products that are both legal and sustainable.

  • Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what figure should be included for carbon dioxide emissions from wood, per unit of fuel, in the background data for fuel consumption used for the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2014, given that there is no figure for wood included in the table on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Emissions of carbon dioxide from using biomass, including wood, in the energy sector are not reported within the national totals in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory because they are offset by the carbon dioxide absorbed by fast-growing bio-energy sources. The carbon stock they represent is reported in the land use change and forestry sector, in line with international guidelines set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

  • Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many European Court of Justice rulings against the UK government have not yet been implemented; and whether they will give details of those rulings.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Six European Court of Justice rulings have not yet been implemented. These are listed below:

    1.Case number C-161/14 – Commission v UK

    An infraction judgment made by the Court of Justice of the European Union, where the court ruled that the UK has failed to apply the VAT reduced rate to supplies of energy saving materials correctly. This is currently under review.

    2. Case 301/10 (October 2012) – Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive – Commission v UK

    The infraction judgment concerned the appropriate collection of urban waste water of agglomerations in Whitburn and London, and the appropriate treatment of urban waste water of agglomerations in London. Works on collection facilities at Whitburn are due to be completed by the end of 2017. Works to collection and treatment facilities, including the Thames Tideway Tunnel, are due to be completed by 2023.

    3. Case 304/15 (September 2016) – Large Combustion Plants Directive – Commission v UK

    The infraction judgment concerned permitted NOx emissions from a coal-fired power station in Aberthaw. The regulator, Natural Resources Wales, will review the environmental permit to amend the emission limits early in 2017, with modifications at the plant due to take place in summer 2017. There has also been a recalculation of the power station’s contribution to the UK’s Transitional National Plan for combustion plants.

    4. C-530/11 European Commission v UK

    The Court of Justice of the European Union handed down an infraction judgment concluding that the UK had breached EU law by failing to ensure procedures for certain environmental challenges were not prohibitively expensive.

    5. Case number C-304/14 – Secretary of State for the Home Department v CS

    A judgement on the interpretation of Article 20 TFEU, regarding the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.

    6. Case number C-115/15 – Secretary of State for the Home Department v NA

    A judgement on the interpretation of Articles 20 and 21 TFEU regarding freedom of movement for workers within the Community.

  • Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to lay before Parliament for scrutiny the outcome of the negotiations for leaving the EU before those negotiations are concluded.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Government will comply with all the constitutional and legal obligations that apply to the deal that we will negotiate with the EU.

  • Lord Bird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Bird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bird on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Project Literacy campaign, and whether they have plans to support and promote that campaign.

    Lord Bates

    The Department for International Development (DFID) share Project Literacy’s view that illiteracy leaves people around the world vulnerable to poverty, abuse and exploitation, and are committed to supporting the Global Goal target of ensuring that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030. The majority of DFID’s education programmes are focused on ensuring all children are able to read, write and count. For example, DFID is helping to increase literacy rates amongst women and girls in Northern Nigeria, where 7 out of 10 women cannot read at all, through the Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises project, which supports 18,000 young women to improve their literacy and numeracy.

  • The Earl of Sandwich – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The Earl of Sandwich – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Sandwich on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the UK’s international aid budget has been allocated to multilateral aid, and primarily through which institutions, in each of the last five years.

    Lord Bates

    On average over the period 2010-2014, 40 per cent of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) was allocated to multilateral organisations. The table attached lists the top five multilateral organisations in terms of core funding.

    Figures for 2015 will be published later this year.