Tag: Lord Stoddart of Swindon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-04-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is legal for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to advertise and provide access to the Government’s referendum leaflet on its main website and whether any costs involved are additional to, or part of, the total spending on producing and distributing the leaflet.

Lord Bridges of Headley

Gov.uk provides a range of Government information, including links to the eureferendum.gov.uk website which sets out information for the public in order to ensure they are able to make an informed decision on 23rd June.

It is legal for Government to do so and there are no additional costs associated with this. These links will be removed at the start of the restricted 28 day period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 3 August (HL1132 and HL1135), whether they consider that they are showing no sense of urgency in negotiating the UK’s departure from the EU and whether they consider that delay in doing so will result in uncertainty and harm to the economy.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The Government is working thoroughly, systematically and rapidly through the full range of issues. The Prime Minister has been clear we will not be triggering Article 50 before the end of 2016, and the detailed work underway to prepare for our negotiation over exit is complete.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-10-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 21 October (HL2529), how the loss of coal-fired generating capacity will be made up, what level of spare capacity will be maintained between 2015 and 2020, how they will ensure that disconnections or significant reductions in voltage do not occur, and whether compensation will be available to victims of such measures should they happen.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

From 2018, the Capacity Market will ensure that retiring plant can be replaced by new investment by providing additional secure investment for both existing and new electricity generators. In the meantime, National Grid secures adequate loss of load expectation through the Contingency Balancing Reserve in which additional power stations are held to provide security in times of system stress.

Both facilities deliver against the statutory reliability standard of 3 hours of loss of load expectation, a level as high as anywhere else in Europe. Loss of load expectation does not equate to the number of disconnections in a year, but is the estimated number of hours in a year that the System Operator (National Grid) needs to intervene in the market in order the maintain supply. For 2015/16, National Grid procured 2.4GW of reserve to deliver a loss of load expectation of 1.1 hours, sufficient to maintain security of supply even in the toughest system conditions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Answer by Baroness Altmann on 19 November (HL Deb, col 265) promising to look at the gender pay gap for older women, whether they will also look into the gender pay gap between men and women under 35 years of age.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

We are pleased with the progress made towards eliminating the gender pay gap women working full time under the age of 40, but we are not complacent. To encourage young women to consider a wide range of career options, we have revised statutory guidance for schools on careers to raise aspirations; established a new Careers and Enterprise Company to encourage greater collaboration between employers and schools to inspire young people; supported the ‘Your Life’ campaign to encourage more young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM); and published the ‘Your Daughter’s Future’ guidance for parents.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the statement made by the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, advocating further EU integration, including the creation of an EU defence capability.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The EU already has a range of capabilities to build and promote security, which can be complementary to those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The UK is working to make these more effective and to improve NATO/EU co-operation. But the Government has consistently made clear that we will oppose any measures which would undermine Member States’ competence for their own military forces or lead to competition and duplication with NATO. Complementarity with NATO is a principle that was reinforced by the European Councils on defence in June 2015 and December 2013.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 9 February (HL5598 and HL5599), whether they intend to reject calls to impose a sugar tax.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched shortly, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese including sugar.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-05-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 24 March (HL6984) concerning Hinkley Point nuclear power station, what effect the delay by the government of France will have on the project and its projected completion date.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

Both the French Government and EDF have restated their support for the Hinkley Point C project. After addressing the financing of the company and its investment plans, the chairman of EDF has begun a non-binding consultation with the company council ahead of a final investment decision. In the meantime, EDF has maintained development work in order to secure the overall schedule of the project. EDF has not changed the planned date for first operation in 2025.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-09-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the widening of the M4 motorway between junctions 3 and 12 will commence, when it is likely to be completed, and what measures they will put in place to avoid delays to traffic during the construction period.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Highways England’s latest Delivery Plan states that the start of works for the M4 Junction 3-12 scheme is the fourth quarter of 2016/2017 and it will open to traffic in 2021/22.

Measures to avoid delays to traffic during the construction period include:

• Maintaining three lanes of traffic in each direction during peak periods
• Using average speed camera equipment to smooth flows and improve safety and journey time reliability
• Installing a CCTV system to identify vehicles in need of recovery and other incidents, with free recovery of broken down vehicles to remove obstructions and keep traffic flowing
• Minimising traffic management during Bank Holiday periods and working with major events to coordinate traffic management
• Timing overnight lane closures and full carriageway closures at less sensitive times.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-10-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the construction of four commercial nuclear power reactors for the United Arab Emirates by a South Korean consortium with a total capacity of 5.6 GWe at cost of £14 billion, in the light of their plans for nuclear generation at Hinkley Point.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

The Government does not make direct comparisons between projects in different circumstances that have different contracts and are situated in different markets.

There has been a thorough review of the costs of the Hinkley Point C project to ensure that the contract represents value for money. Hinkley will provide reliable low carbon energy for around 60 years and offer 25,000 jobs during construction. My rt. hon Friend the Secretary of State expects to be in a position to take her final decision on the Contract for Difference and associated agreements for Hinkley Point C once the documentation relating to equity investment into the project is finalised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 18 November (WS305), whether the assertion that every home and small business will get smart meters means that it will be compulsory to have them installed.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

The Government has placed an obligation on energy companies to take all reasonable steps to install smart meters at all domestic and smaller non-domestic premises by the end of 2020. However, there is no obligation on customers to accept a smart meter if they do not wish to have one installed.