Tag: Lord Greaves

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have held with Vivarail, train operating companies, and Passenger Transport Executives on the potential use of D-trains (class 230), and for which areas or services.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The deployment of rolling stock is a matter for train operators.

Department for Transport officials have met with Vivarail to understand their proposals for the refurbishment of D78-Stock. Along with other industry stakeholders, officials have visited Vivarail’s facilities at the Long Marston Depot.

The Great Western Railway franchise includes a commitment for the operator to carry out initial feasibility studies in respect of a number of potential projects, and one of these is into the use of D-Class trains.

Vivarail is a private sector company that has developed these proposals at its own risk.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they treat UK citizens in Iraq and Syria who participate in ISIL actions and activities as enemy combatants or criminals, and whether in making such assessments they consider what the actions of those individuals were, in particular whether they are violent or of violent intent, and whether or not their violence is targeted at the UK or UK citizens.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

More than 750 Britons of national security concern have travelled to the region since the start of the conflict and we estimate that around half of those have returned. Those who have committed criminal offences (including financing terrorism, training for terrorism and murder) should expect to be prosecuted for their crimes on their return to the UK.

The British Government is carrying out air strikes to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces’ efforts against Daesh in Iraq. UK citizens who are part of Daesh in Iraq are in no different position to other Daesh members there. The current position in Syria is that the UK will only take military action if there is a critical British national interest at stake or there was the need to act to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. In relation to the airstrike against Reyaad Khan on 21 August, I refer the noble Lord to the oral statement of 7 September 2015 made by the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), which was repeated the same day in the House of Lords by The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston), (Official Report, column 1249).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what improvements will take place under the new Northern Rail franchise on the Blackpool South and Preston to Colne service, other than the replacement of the Pacer trains.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Preston-Blackpool South will get a Sunday service all year round. At present the line shuts down for a period in the winter, but from Dec 2017 at least an alternate-hours service will operate all year round. Colne-Preston will get a full hourly Sunday service – twice as many trains on Sunday compared to now, and with the entire Northern fleet being refurbished, passengers will notice rolling stock improvements across the franchise.

Accrington and Blackburn stations will become Northern Connect stations so will be staffed from 6am to 10pm (if they don’t already have staffing hours longer than this), with WiFi and catering outlets. All Northern stations with more than 10 passengers per day will have ticket machines, real-time information and help points.

Beyond that there is a franchise wide, £38m investment in bringing stations up to standard, with benefits for many stations, which includes new platform seating, replacement shelters, new waiting rooms and toilets, and customer information screens.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-01-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current status of the Big Society programme; which department and Minister is responsible for it; what projects are currently active; what is the budget for each of those projects; what changes have taken place to the programme since the general election; and what procedures are in place to report to Parliament on the programme.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The Big Society programme remains a key manifesto commitment for the Government. The 2015 Spending Review saw this commitment reaffirmed with, for example, funding for the National Citizen Service increased to over a £1 billion creating the next generation of community minded volunteers. An additional £100 million in funding for Social Impact Bonds has also been pledged to reduce demand on public services. These programmes are helping to create a stronger, more engaged nation where people and neighbourhoods are able to take greater responsibility with improving the country.

These programmes are regularly reviewed and reports are publicly available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 28 January (HL5309), what assessment they have made of whether it will be legally possible to restrict their community-based language training offer to Muslim women.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The new English language scheme will not just be restricted to Muslim women. It will reach tens of thousands of the most isolated women and will be targeted to specific communities based on Louise Casey’s on-going review into integration in England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-05-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to simplifying the Governance for Railway Investment Projects process.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Her Majesty’s Government has no plans to simplify the Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) process.

GRIP underwent a full review and subsequent update by Network Rail in 2015, and has been designed in alignment with PRINCE2 which is recognised as best practice framework for project management globally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much surplus land owned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and its agencies they estimate is suitable for building new houses on; how much has been released in each year since 2010–11; and how much they expect to release in (1) the current year, and (2) each year to 2020–21.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

During the last Parliament, the Government exceeded its ambition to release surplus land with capacity for 100,000 homes. The housing capacity of the land released by Government Departments and their arms length bodies is set out in the attached table.

Over this Parliament, the Government is committed to releasing surplus public sector land with capacity for up to 150,000 homes by 2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government is working with Departments to review their land holdings in order to identify suitable surplus public sector and finalise disposal plans for this Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what amendments were made to the formula for police funding following the consultation process with individual police forces.

Lord Bates

We received over 1,700 responses to our recent public consultation on proposed police funding reforms. The overwhelming view from respondents was supportive of a new formula and the principles we set out. We have carefully analysed the feedback received and, in light of this, are proposing a number of refinements to the model:

– retain population volume and households with no adults employed and dependent children as core indicators;

– clarify that the second population characteristic we intend to use is the updated ‘urban adversity’ version of the Acorn 5 indicator which has replaced the old ‘hard pressed’ version (this ensures that the model is in line with CACI Limited’s current Acorn classifications);

– revise the bar density measure so that it takes account of bar volume as well as bar density, reflecting strong consultation feedback that this better captures scale and the impact of clusters of bars and the night-time economy within a force area;

– remove ‘Band D equivalent properties’ as a core indicator, reflecting strong consultation feedback that this variable did not adequately capture the ability to raise additional precept income as intended;

– add an Area Cost Adjustment (ACA) to the model to reflect regional variations in the cost base.

These proposed refinements to the model produce an adjusted set of weightings across the remaining four core indicators as follows:

Variable	Weighting
Population volume	30%
Households with no adults employed and dependent children	31%
Urban adversity/Acorn 5	31%
Volume and density of bars	8%

The Policing Minister wrote to all PCCs and Chiefs on 8 October to provide detail on the proposed refinements and to set out the indicative force-level impact and invite further comments.

We will then finalise the model in light of further feedback received.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will announce proposals for the use of the proposed £1 billion fund to support brownfield housing schemes.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The operation and focus of the Brownfield Fund are currently being developed and details will be available when the Fund is launched.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether companies carrying out hydraulic fracturing operations in the United Kingdom must provide full details of the chemicals that they use including all the ingredients of proprietary products, and whether this information will be made available to the public.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

Operators are required to disclose fully the composition of fracturing fluid additives as part of their application for environmental permits. The Environment Agency (EA) assesses the hazards presented by fracturing fluid additives or drilling muds on a case-by-case basis and will not permit the use of chemicals hazardous to groundwater where they may enter groundwater and cause pollution. The EA has the power to restrict or prohibit the use of any substances where they would pose an environmental risk.

Information on chemical substances and their maximum concentrations is included within the environmental permit. The permit is placed on the public register.