Tag: Greg Knight

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will commission a study into the effect on bird and marine life of off-shore windfarms; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

The Planning Inspectorate is responsible for examining development consent applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects, including offshore renewable energy installations over 100MW in English and Welsh waters and their adjacent offshore waters, and then making a recommendation to the Secretary of State at Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) for the final decision.

As part of the planning process, the environmental impacts of offshore renewable energy installations are considered through the requirement to undertake project level Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRAs). In order to improve the evidence on the extent of the environmental impacts of offshore renewable energy installations, the Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) was initiated by DECC, Marine Scotland and The Crown Estate. ORJIP includes a longer-term project to improve empirical evidence on the impacts of offshore renewables on marine species, such as birds and marine mammals. Further information is available at http://www.carbontrust.com/client-services/technology/innovation/offshore-renewables-joint-industry-programme-orjip/.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made in implementing the British Food Plan across all Government departments; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

The Government is committed to providing food produced to British standards or their equivalent in all its canteens, restaurants and cafeterias by the end of this Parliament. Defra is working closely with other Departments and businesses to implement the Plan for Public Procurement of Food, including a balanced scorecard. The Ministry of Justice recently launched a tender for supplying food to prisons, worth £500 million, which requires bids to use the balanced scorecard. Their current supplier has agreed that the 30 million portions of UHT milk served in prisons each year will be sourced from UK producers. We are working with MoD to develop the best way to embed the balanced scorecard into their forthcoming contracts. We are working with all central Departments to ensure their food and catering contracts comply with the balanced scorecard approach.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what measures her Department is taking to ensure that all mobile phone operators have sufficient spectrum to meet future demands for mobile data; and what steps her Department is taking to prevent a dominant company controlling the market on spectrum availability.

Matt Hancock

All mobile network operators face rapidly growing demand for data, and need spectrum to meet that demand. Since 2010 the Government has made 384 MHz of spectrum used by the public sector available for private sector use, including 190 MHz of spectrum suitable for mobile data. This mobile spectrum is being assigned by Ofcom through an auction; a consultation on the auction rules is expected soon.

Ofcom’s duties include the promotion of competition and efficient use of spectrum, and it has indicated that it remains committed to the principle of a four-operator UK market – and therefore to four operators with sufficient spectrum to be credible. The Government therefore believes that Ofcom will set rules that ensure serious bidders approaching the forthcoming auction with realistic valuations of the scarce spectrum on offer can obtain the spectrum they need.

In the next 3-5 years the government and Ofcom will provide additional spectrum for mobile data including the 700 MHz band.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to ascertain the reason for a large number of whales becoming stranded on the east coast of the UK in 2016; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

Mass stranding events of whales are rare and ascertaining what causes them can be difficult. This is why Defra, in conjunction with the Devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales, funds the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP). Although it is still too early to draw any conclusions on what may have caused the recent mass strandings of sperm whales in the North Sea, the CSIP will be working with stranding networks in Germany and the Netherlands over the coming months to try to identify the potential cause.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of recent trends in the prevalence of myxomatosis in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

Rory Stewart

Myxomatosis is not a notifiable disease. As such the Government has not made an assessment of its incidence recently.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons his Department deploys speed cameras that photograph vehicles from the (a) front and (b) rear on (i) trunk roads and (ii) motorways; and for what reasons his Department does not have a consistent policy on the deployment and use of such speed cameras.

Andrew Jones

It is for local authorities and police to decide how they wish to operate speed cameras. The Department issued guidance in 2007 entitled “Use of speed and red-light cameras for traffic enforcement: guidance on deployment, visibility and signing”. I wrote to all local authorities in England and Wales on 20 October 2015 to remind them of the guidance which is available on gov.uk.

Some cameras have the capability to photograph vehicles from the front and rear, whereas others do not. Where front and back photographing is possible, it will be for highway authorities and the Police to decide whether such cameras are most suitable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons a high-sided heavy goods vehicle which overturned on the Humber Bridge on 1 February 2016 was permitted to cross the bridge while the bridge was closed to all high-sided vehicles due to high winds; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

Safety on the Humber Bridge is the responsibility of the Humber Bridge Board in cooperation with the local police.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on which motorways at which locations automatic number plate recognition cameras are in use; and what offences such cameras are being used to detect.

Andrew Jones

Highways England have installed and operate automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras across 500 sites covering the majority of the motorway and trunk road network. These are used for data gathering and provision of information, such as journey times and are not used for enforcement purposes.

In addition, there are a small number of ANPR cameras at the Dartford Crossing to support Dartford free flow charging and 22 sites at various locations operated by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to detect offences, including unlicensed operators, untested vehicles and at some locations overloaded vehicles.

A private sector company, Trafficmaster, operates their own ANPR cameras to capture traffic flow information to provide traffic services for travellers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2016 to Question 48050, if her Department will make representations to Ofcom on introducing a cap on the amount of spectrum each mobile operator can hold.

Matt Hancock

Ofcom is still considering the rules for the forthcoming auction. We will await their findings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the level of democratic oversight of road safety partnerships; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

None. This is a matter for the partnerships concerned.