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

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to review and propose simplification of household waste and recycling collection across the UK.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Defra and the Waste and Resource Action Programme are working with local authorities and other waste management stakeholders to develop a vision and business case for greater consistency in the way materials are collected for recycling. This will set out the benefits that could be achieved for householders, local authorities, reprocessors and others. The vision is to be published in the summer and will include proposed models for more consistent arrangements for collection of recyclable materials.

    The broad aims for this work are to help local authorities to reduce costs; improve the quality and quantity of materials collected and to improve householder engagement and participation in recycling through reducing confusion and inconsistency and providing opportunities to improve communications.

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

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of co-mingled recycling collection in the light of the recycling target of 50 per cent of municipal waste by 2020.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Local authorities are best placed to determine local collection arrangements. From January 2015, under the Waste (England and Wales) (amendment) Regulations 2012, waste collection authorities were required to collect separately paper, plastic, glass and metals unless it is not necessary in order to provide high quality recyclates or its not technologically, environmentally or economically practicable to do so.

    As part of a wider study by WRAP to assess the factors influencing the recycling performance of local authorities it was concluded that very little certainty could be applied in establishing a difference in recycling performance between dry scheme types where schemes were collecting the same set of dry recyclable materials. This analysis considered data reported by local authorities for the year 2012/13 and the report is available on WRAP’s website.

    With input from WRAP, Defra has considered a number of options for achieving higher recycling rates and this work has assumed a range of collection approaches as reflected by current practice. The work being taken forward to identify opportunities for greater consistency in recycling collections provides a further opportunity to consider the effectiveness of collection options in terms of contribution to national recycling rate, quality of material collected and cost effectiveness. This work will be reported on later this year.

  • Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the National Food Crime Unit’s annual budget is allocated to investigating serious crimes.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) is initially focusing on establishing the scale and nature of food crime in the United Kingdom at a strategic level through developing intelligence sharing relationships across the law enforcement community and with the food industry. This will also enable the Unit to instigate investigative interventions by law enforcement partners and local authorities to identify and disrupt specific instances of food crime. The NFCU’s budget is directed towards fulfilling this primary intelligence function.

    Intelligence analysts within the Unit have just completed the first ever Food Crime Annual Strategic Assessment (FCASA), which will be published soon. The FCASA sets out the Unit’s developing understanding of food crime in the UK and will drive its work to ensure resources are focused where the threat to consumers and other interests is the greatest.

    At the end of this year, the Food Standards Agency will review progress on food crime, in line with Professor Elliott’s recommendations following the horsemeat incident. This review will inform decision-making about the Unit’s future form and function.

  • Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions of criminal gangs in the food sector have been initiated by the National Food Crime Unit since it was established.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) is initially focusing on establishing the scale and nature of food crime in the United Kingdom at a strategic level through developing intelligence sharing relationships across the law enforcement community and with the food industry. This will also enable the Unit to instigate investigative interventions by law enforcement partners and local authorities to identify and disrupt specific instances of food crime. The NFCU’s budget is directed towards fulfilling this primary intelligence function.

    Intelligence analysts within the Unit have just completed the first ever Food Crime Annual Strategic Assessment (FCASA), which will be published soon. The FCASA sets out the Unit’s developing understanding of food crime in the UK and will drive its work to ensure resources are focused where the threat to consumers and other interests is the greatest.

    At the end of this year, the Food Standards Agency will review progress on food crime, in line with Professor Elliott’s recommendations following the horsemeat incident. This review will inform decision-making about the Unit’s future form and function.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Earl of Courtown on 15 March (HL6695), whether they will call on the government of Turkey to compensate civilians killed or injured, or whose property has been destroyed or damaged, by artillery, demolitions, or air attacks not only in Cizre, but elsewhere in Turkey.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We regularly discuss the situation in Cizre and elsewhere in south east Turkey with the Government of Turkey, who have underlined to us their desire to carry out security operations in a careful manner, fully respecting the rule of law. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), and our Ambassador to Turkey have emphasised to the Turkish government the need to respect human rights and avoid civilian casualties. We call for a Kurdistan Workers’ Party ceasefire and a return to the peace process. Turkey’s Development Minister has said the government is providing a range of support to those affected and is working on monetary and other forms of compensation for those whose homes and properties have been damaged.

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

    Lord Higgins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Higgins on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the increase in road congestion and the construction of Cycle Superhighways in London, how they will ensure that fire, ambulance, and other emergency service vehicles are able to use Superhighways in the event of a terrorist attack or other major incident.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    London’s cycle superhighways are the responsibility of the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL). Emergency service vehicles operating under blue lights will always find the safest and fastest way possible to arrive at a major incident or terrorist attack. This could mean using any part of the highway, including, where necessary and where the road layout allows this, part of a cycle superhighway.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to publish a response to their consultation on accredited safe havens, Protecting personal health and care data: a consultation on proposals to introduce new regulations, which closed on 8 August 2014.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Department received 278 responses to the 2014 consultation Protecting personal health and care data, but was unable to publish the Coalition Government’s response to that consultation before the 2015 election.

    The consultation set the clear ambition to move as quickly as possible to a future state where:

    – the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is the place for holding identifiable health and care information at the national level;

    – access to data is more automated so that routine functions, including many commissioning functions, do not require access to identifiable data; and

    – consent is used more widely as the means for sharing identifiable information.

    Analysis of consultation responses demonstrated no obvious consensus about the function, purpose, number and controls required for Accredited Safe Havens (ASHs) to operate. Since the 2014 consultation, HSCIC, working with NHS England, local government, Public Health England and other key stakeholders has committed to the delivery of the future state within two years, without the need for interim ASHs. Delivery of these functions by HSCIC has the added benefits of:

    – increasing the likelihood of the public that there are robust protections and safeguards in place for their health and care data and information and;

    – reducing the need for the health and care system to use identifiable data as a basis for delivering their functions.

    The Government has concluded that the focus should be on supporting the HSCIC and NHS England in taking forward the future state as soon as possible. This will address the need to support integration and, in the longer term, to ensure flexibility is built in to reflect future priorities and also developments in technology and data.

    In September 2015, The Secretary of State for Health commissioned the Care Quality Commission to undertake a review of data security in the National Health Service, and in parallel commissioned Dame Fiona Caldicott, the National Data Guardian, to undertake an independent review of data security and consent, to:

    – Develop new data security standards;

    – Devise a method of testing compliance with the new standards, and;

    – Propose a new consent/opt-out model for data sharing.

    The National Data Guardian’s independent review will report shortly and the government will consult on the recommendations and respond to them in due course.


  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any plans for a database of outcomes from innovative medical treatments will be subject to the patient level extraction process of the Standardisation Committee for Care Information.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Access to Medical Treatments (Innovations) Bill, which has passed through all Parliamentary stages and is awaiting Royal Assent, provides a power to the Secretary of State for Health to direct the Health and Social Care Information Centre to; design, build and operate a database of innovative medicines which clinicians may wish to consider helping their patients gain access to, which will be implemented using internationally standardised medical coding.

  • Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is (1) the average hourly rate, and (2) the range of charges, for official veterinary surgeons employed in abattoirs.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    In 2014/15 the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) full cost normal time hourly charge rate for an Official Veterinarian (OV) in Great Britain was £37.30. Discounts are applied to FSA charges and as a consequence the average hourly rate of charge for an OV was £16.81.

    The range of normal time hourly rates charged for FSA OVs in Great Britain in 2014/15 was £0.00 to £37.30.

  • Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why National Savings and Investments stopped the sale of Premium Bonds for cash in Post Offices and withdrew their brochures, forms and reply envelopes at the same time, and what assessment they have made of the effect of that decision on the sale of Premium Bonds.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    National Savings and Investments’ (NS&I) core remit is to provide cost effective financing for the Government. Over the past few years, NS&I has been moving its business to direct only channels – internet, phone and post – producing significant savings for the taxpayer.

    The end of Premium Bond sales and wider NS&I services at the Post Office was a commercial decision made by NS&I. This decision reflects the way that their customers are choosing to do business with NS&I and also the growth of the Post Office’s own range of savings products. The change followed the success of 65+ Pensioner Bonds, which saw over one million pensioners from around the country invest via direct only channels.