Tag: Lord Greaves

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.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent the proposed new police forces funding formula is weighted to reflect the importance of (1) historic crime levels, (2) historic clear-up levels, and (3) preventative and educative work; and in what ways it reflects policy relating to the maintenance of a network of neighbourhood policing.

Lord Bates

Our proposed funding model is based on a set of four indicators which correlate well with long term patterns of crime. The indicators cover population, population characteristics and environmental characteristics. They are used as proxies for police demand and are based on objective, robust and reliable data that can be compared across all force areas.

Decisions about the size and composition of the police workforce are an operational matter for chief officers, working with their Police and Crime Commissioner.

We continue to strongly support neighbourhood policing, and are committed to the principle that tackling local crime and anti-social behaviour should be a priority for the whole force – not just neighbourhood policing teams – working collaboratively with other local agencies, businesses and residents to respond to the problems they face.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and to what extent, they are (1) engaged in diplomatic contacts with, and (2) providing support to, the Kurdish authorities and groups involved in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK has a strong and well-established relationship with the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq. We maintain a Consulate General in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and have regular contact with officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government. As part of our wider support to Iraq, we are providing significant military assistance to the Kurdish Peshmerga to help them degrade and defeat ISIL. In addition to air support, we have trained over 2,100 Peshmerga fighters in infantry fighting skills, weapons handling and Counter-Improvised Explosive Device procedures. We have also gifted weapons, non-lethal equipment and airlifted support provided by other partners in the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.

In Syria the situation is more difficult. Kurdish groups are effective against ISIL, and have benefited from US airstrikes against ISIL. But we remain concerned that the Syrian Kurdish authorities maintain links with the Assad regime and the proscribed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), so we are not able to provide material support. UKofficials have discussed our concerns with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the ruling Kurdish authority in Northern Syria and continue to do so.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many citizens of each European Union member state, other than the United Kingdom and Ireland, aged 18 or over are resident in the United Kingdom; and of those, how many have been resident in the United Kingdom for more than five years, broken down by their country of citizenship.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which railway schemes will be funded out of the £13 billion funding that has been allocated to the Northern Powerhouse, and what is the expected cost of each individual scheme.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

During the March 2015 budget, funding of £13bn was identified to maintain and improve transport infrastructure in the north. A variety of railway schemes have already been completed across the north of England as part of our long term investment in building the Northern Powerhouse, such as the recently transformed Manchester Victoria station, and work is progressing on other schemes including work to prepare the railway between Manchester and Preston via Bolton for electrification which is under way at Farnworth Tunnel. Sir Peter Hendy’s review of Network Rail’s enhancements programme is still in progress. A firm list of schemes and costs cannot be produced until this process is completed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-09-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in relation to the webpages of the Communities and Local Government and Home Office sections of gov.uk entitled Syria refugees: what you can do to help, how many responses they have had in the first week from (1) the general public, (2) local authorities, (3) education providers, and (4) religious organisations, offering help under each of the headings; and what system they have set up for dealing with those responses.

Lord Bates

The response of the British public has been one of overwhelming generosity. In order to harness that response, the Government has established a webpage on gov.uk containing useful information on where to find further advice to frequently asked questions. The webpage has generated significant traffic in the last week, and aims to direct the public towards the most relevant information or bodies through which they can help, such as the Local Government Association website, or the websites of relevant charities and Non Governmental Associations. We are working closely with key partners to ensure that the offers received are captured by the appropriate organisation or body.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-09-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much of the funding allocated for the Northern Powerhouse will be spent on (1) repairs of potholes and damaged carriageways, and (2) other highway maintenance that would normally come out of annual revenue budgets; and how much of such spending will be allocated to (a) the Highways Agency, and (b) local highways authorities.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Department for Transport is allocating £1.3billion capital funding between 2015 and 2021 to local highway authorities that fall within the Northern Powerhouse for local highways maintenance. This funding can be used to repair potholes. The funding is not ring-fenced and it is entirely for each highway authority to decide, based on their needs and priorities, as to how this funding is spent. In addition the funding the Department for Transport allocated to local highway authorities in England to improve road conditions was £1 billion more over the last Parliament compared to what was provided between 2005 and 2010.

Local authorities are able to use revenue funding for maintaining their local highways and this is allocated by the Department of Communities and Local Government through the Revenue Support Grant.

The Department for Transport is funding a local highways maintenance project in Sheffield as well as street lighting schemes in Blackpool, Knowsley, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Oldham, Redcar & Cleveland, Rochdale, South Tyneside, Sunderland and Wakefield, through the Private Finance Initiative.

In addition we are also allocating £2.9 billion for improvements to the strategic road network within the Northern Powerhouse managed by Highways England as set out in the Road Investment Strategy published in March 2015 for the period between 2015 and 2020.