Tag: Lord Stoddart of Swindon

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to remove restrictions on local authorities raising council tax to meet the needs of their communities.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

The Government is committed to working with local authorities to protect hard-working council tax payers from excessive increases. In the Spending Review, the Government announced a new adult social care precept worth 2 per cent for authorities with responsibility for adult social care for the remainder of the Parliament, subject to the approval of the House of Commons. This new precept was in addition to a ‘core’ council tax referendum principle of 2 per cent, which would be reviewed annually. The Government has set out its proposals for council tax referendum principles for 2017-18 in the Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation, released on 15 September 2016.

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 European Union policy of requiring farmers to erect notices advertising the European Union if they receive grants; whether such notices require planning consent; and whether they will require that all such advertising notices should also indicate information about the ratio of United Kingdom contributions to the European Union budget and the sums returned by way of grants to farmers and others.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

EU regulations require any business who receives over €500,000 for capital items to display a billboard setting out:

• The name of the project
• A description of the activity supported by the project
• The name of the funding stream: ‘European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas’
• The full relevant EU logo

We expect less than 1% of all agreements will be large enough to meet this requirement.

However, the Minister of State for farming, food and marine environment will be considering how this requirement might be removed in future CAP regulations.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest projection of the cost of HS2 at completion including motive power units and carriages.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Spending Review 2015 settlement announced by the Chancellor on 25 November sets out an updated funding envelope for delivering the HS2 project in 2015 prices of £55.7bn. This includes provision for rolling stock, including motive power. The underlying budget for this project has not changed. At SR13 we announced that the total budget was £50.1bn in 2011 prices and it has been uprated to 2015 prices.

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 European Parliament’s report that 50 per cent of the EU £23 billion aid budget has been delayed or not used, and whether they plan to take steps to terminate the policy of delivering part of the UK overseas aid budget through the EU.

Baroness Verma

The report concerned was compiled by an individual Member of the European Parliament and was not an analysis representing the views of the European Parliament as a whole. It was based on a reading of reports by EU offices in non-EU countries, intended to identify potential problems at an early stage, so that things can be put right in time. In the event that it is proven that money has been wasted, we expect the EU and its audit institutions to take swift and decisive action to recoup funds and to carry out a thorough review of all its programmes to provide a clear set of actions to stop this happening again.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they anticipate imminent proposals by the European Commission compelling member states to send gas supplies to any other state in the case of emergencies; and if they expect such proposals to be brought forward, whether any decision would be taken by qualified majority voting or unanimity.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

Commission proposals for a revision to the existing security of gas supply regulation were published on the 16 February. We will need to consider carefully the precise emergency arrangements that are proposed and how they might impact on the UK. These proposals will of course be subject to the usual negotiation process during which the Government will seek to achieve the best possible outcome for the UK. A final text will need to be agreed by qualified majority voting in the Council and in agreement with the European Parliament.

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.