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  • Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the financial impact that the decision by the Office of Road and Rail to allow competition on the East Coast Main Line will have on the existing Virgin Trains East Coast franchise.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government is currently working to establish a robust estimate of the financial impact, taking full account of the specific details of the Office of Rail and Road’s decision. At this stage, that process is incomplete.

  • Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the total cost of fees, facilitation costs and enabling works for HS2 in each year since 2010.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The table below sets out the spend on HS2 in each year since 2009/10. Data for 2015/16 is currently provisional and so is not included.

    2009/10
    £m

    2010/11
    £m

    2011/12
    £m

    2012/13
    £m

    2013/14
    £m

    2014/15
    £m

    Total HS2

    9.43

    24.3

    54

    207.6

    318.2

    362.7

  • Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the additional cost of £70 to £80 per annum, at 2011 prices and based on a 50 per cent probability of cost overruns, to all Thames Water customers of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, as quoted on page 83 of the prospectus of Thames Water Utilities Cayman Finance Ltd, represents good value for money for the consumer.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The impact of the Thames Tideway Tunnel on Thames Water customer bills is expected to be £20-£25 per year (at 2015 prices) by the mid-2020s. This is about a third of the initial estimate of £70-£80 per year in 2011, assessed at an early development stage of the project, and represents good value for money for customers. It follows the successful competition by Thames Water Utilities Ltd, completed in August 2015, to procure an Infrastructure Provider to finance and deliver the Thames Tideway Tunnel. The Thames Water Utilities Cayman Finance Ltd prospectus quoted by the Noble Lord is dated 26 June 2015 and so was prior to this procurement.

  • Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many train paths an hour will be freed up on the West Coast Main Line when HS2 Phase 1 is operational according to Network Rail’s West Coast Main Line Capacity Plus study, and when that study will be published.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    HS2 Phase 1 will add significant additional capacity to the London to West Midlands rail corridor, and this provides an opportunity for the industry to evaluate how best to make use of the released capacity on the southern section of the West Coast Main Line. Network Rail continues to develop the evidence base to support the Capacity Plus study. Train operating companies and freight operating companies, passenger transport executives and local authorities and High Speed 2 Ltd are supporting Network Rail in its ongoing work. Network Rail will use this work to inform the Initial Industry Advice for Control Period 6 which is expected to be published by the end of 2016.

  • would have a less than one in five chance of being detected despite potentially causing more than 10 – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    would have a less than one in five chance of being detected despite potentially causing more than 10 – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by would have a less than one in five chance of being detected despite potentially causing more than 10 on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the statement in the Executive Summary of the Water fluoridation: Health monitoring report for England 2014 that there is no evidence of a difference in the rate of hip fractures between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas”

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The possible effects of fluoride in water have been extensively studied and reviewed over the last 50 years. In the United Kingdom the most recent review prior to the publication of Public Health England’s (PHE) Health Monitoring Report was undertaken by the National Health Service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination based at the University of York and published in 2000. The Medical Research Council subsequently, in 2002, reported to the Department of Health its advice on future research priorities. The US National Research Council reported in 2006 and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council reported in 2007. PHE drew on these authoritative sources in selecting a number of indicators of health conditions for inclusion in the 2014 water fluoridation health monitoring report.

    The chosen indicators of various health conditions were selected based on the evidence base, theoretical plausibility, potential impact on population health, the quality and availability of data, and the validity of the indicator. The selected indicators will be reviewed for future reports in the light of emerging evidence.

    The article by KK Cheng et al did not provide any new evidence regarding hip fractures, but comments on the chance of detecting an increased risk of hip fracture for a speculated odds ratio of 1.2 in a previous study by Hiller et al. 2000. This only refers to a single study and it is important to consider the overall weight of evidence.

    The overall weight of evidence and the consensus of opinion from authoritative reviews do not indicate that a drinking water concentration of 1 part fluoride per million parts of water presents an increased risk of hip fracture.

    A more recent review of potential health effects from water fluoridation was published in 2015 by the Irish Research Board. The report concluded that a summary of the existing literature indicates that the relationship between fluoride in drinking water and bone health is inconsistent, with no definitive proof of protective or harmful effects.

  • Biography information for Baroness Deech – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Biography information for Baroness Deech – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Baroness Deech on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Verma on 11 May (HL8116), what is their assessment of the view expressed in section 4.1.1 of the Overseas Development Institute’s Final Report of November 2015 Evaluative Review of the Statebuilding Grant and the Palestinian Governance Facility—DFID Palestinian programme that the manner in which DFID’s funds are demonstrated to have only paid the salaries of PEGASE-approved employees is of questionable efficacy”

    Baroness Verma

    UK direct financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority is used for the sole purpose of paying the salaries of civil servants responsible for providing essential services. Our support is provided through a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank, which carries out close monitoring of PA expenditure. Only named civil servants from a pre-approved EU list are eligible, and the vetting process ensures that our funds do not benefit terrorist groups. The process is subject to independent auditing, which is regularly reviewed and strengthened accordingly.

    As the ODI report itself makes clear, UK support to the PA is delivering real results, improving lives and is instrumental in preventing economic collapse and violent escalation.

  • – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 12 October 2015 (HL1940), what plans they have to commission or financially to support further studies that might meet the specific and relatively narrow criteria” of the 2015 Cochrane review Water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The 2015 Cochrane review Water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries was an update of a Cochrane review first completed in 2000. A panel of experts agreed the search criteria in the original review, and the update kept these largely unchanged.

    The National Institute for Health Research is currently funding an evaluation of a water fluoridation scheme in Cumbria. This started in 2013 and the final report is expected to be published in 2021. Findings from the evaluation will be available for consideration in any subsequent systematic reviews relating to water fluoridation.

  • Earl Baldwin of Bewdley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Earl Baldwin of Bewdley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Earl Baldwin of Bewdley on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 12 October 2015 (HL1940), what assessment they have made of the reasons why systematic scientific reviews, such as Cochrane reviews, adopt specific and relatively narrow criteria”.”

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The 2015 Cochrane review Water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries was an update of a Cochrane review first completed in 2000. A panel of experts agreed the search criteria in the original review, and the update kept these largely unchanged.

    The National Institute for Health Research is currently funding an evaluation of a water fluoridation scheme in Cumbria. This started in 2013 and the final report is expected to be published in 2021. Findings from the evaluation will be available for consideration in any subsequent systematic reviews relating to water fluoridation.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what procedures they have in place to identify the occurrence of genocide for the purposes of fulfilling their obligations as a contracting party under Article VIII of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948; and whether there is a protocol in place to guide those procedures.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK is party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948 which requires that we prevent and punish the crime of genocide in our jurisdiction. As a State Party to the International Criminal Court Statute (ICC), the UK has made it a domestic crime to commit any of the crimes in the ICC Statute, including genocide. Where such crimes take place in the UK, or are committed by UK nationals, they can be prosecuted before the UK courts. Responsibility for investigation and prosecution in the UK lies with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Police.

    Our seat on the UN Security Council means that the UK is able to swiftly engage where a threat of atrocity crimes emerges. The form of that engagement depends on the particulars of any individual situation. Where prevention has failed, it is the international community’s responsibility to take collective action, through diplomatic, humanitarian and other means. Where timely and decisive action to end, or prevent, the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes is necessary, the UK is active in calling for UN action. However, the Government believes that formal recognition that genocide has been committed is ultimately a matter for the courts, not political bodies.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the British Embassy in North Korea has presented a copy of the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to North Korean officials; and whether the UK Ambassador to North Korea has held discussions on that report with his North Korean counterparts.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Our Embassy in Pyongyang continues to raise the Commission of Inquiry report in bilateral discussions with the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and urges them to engage with the international community on the human rights situation in the DPRK. Our Embassy has not specifically presented a copy of the report to North Korean officials, but we have presented North Korean officials with a supporting Written Statement by the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire).