The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2015-12-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the current weekly costs of the Chilcot Inquiry.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Iraq Inquiry, which is independent of Government, publishes its annual costs after the end of each financial year. The Inquiry’s costs for FY 2014/15 were £1,358,500, providing an average weekly cost in the last financial year of £26,125.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-01-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of recent flooding, what plans they have to re-allocate the proposed funding for HS2 to the funding of strengthened flood defences.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
There are no plans to re-allocate HS2 funding to flood defences. The HS2 budget is to deliver HS2.
The Government is separately investing £2.3bn in flood defences through the six-year capital programme, which will better protect 300,000 homes and reduce overall flood risk in England by 5% by 2021.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any part of the proposed HS2 rail line is to be built on a flood plain.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Given HS2 is a national infrastructure project of over 350 miles, HS2 does currently plan to cross floodplains. For Phase One, the assessment of all sources of flood risk can be found in Volume 5 of the Environmental Statement. For Phase Two, flood risk is detailed in the Appraisal of Sustainability.
HS2 Ltd has a design aim that, for the lifetime of the development, there should be no increased risk of flooding for vulnerable receptors, including residential property, taking projected climate change impacts into account. The design of HS2 does consider the practicalities of a range of environmental factors, including flooding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-01-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 11 January (HL4782) whether they have any plans to cap or curtail the Chilcot Inquiry’s expenses or costs before it reports.
Lord Bridges of Headley
No.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the experience in Oklahoma in the US, they plan to commission a detailed study into the potential correlation between fracking in the UK and more frequent earthquakes.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Waste water re-injection in the US has been linked to seismic activity, but this technique has not been proposed in the UK and the Environment Agency will not permit re-injection of waste water into any formation at this stage.
In the UK, we have over 50 years’ experience regulating the onshore oil and gas industry. Our regulator regime is robust and we have strong controls in place to mitigate the risk of any seismic activity in the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-02-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 11 January (HL4782), what assessment they have made of the terms of reference, composition, duration and cost of the Chilcot inquiry.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Chilcot Inquiry was set up by the Labour Government following consultation with other political parties and with the support of Parliament. The Government looks forward to the publication of the Inquiry’s report in June or July, in accordance with Sir John Chilcot’s most recent letter to the Prime Minister.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-06-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the cost of redeveloping Euston as part of the HS2 programme.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Several assessments of the costs for redeveloping Euston were undertaken as part of the option appraisal work in developing the current proposals for the HS2 Euston Station.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-06-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect the Cabinet Secretary to conclude the HS2 cost review; and whether they will place a copy of his conclusions in the Library of the House.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
As is normal for large projects, the Cabinet Office’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is conducting assurance of the HS2 programme as it proceeds into its delivery phase. It is standard practice for this to include a small cross Government team, and not unusual for the Cabinet Secretary to take an interest on projects of this scale.
Headlines from the IPA’s work on Phase 2 of High Speed 2 has now been reported in a NAO report on the HS2 project, published on 28 June. The work informs future cost estimates for HS2, as these are developed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2015-11-04.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the value for money of the estimated £46 million of public funds provided to Kids Company over the last 15 years.
Lord Bridges of Headley
Kids Company delivered important work for vulnerable young people and received support from successive governments over a 15 year period, beginning in 2002.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2015-11-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the recent atrocities committed by ISIL in France, Egypt and the Lebanon, whether they have reconsidered the statement by the Foreign Secretary on 10 March that Russia represented the single greatest threat to UK Security”.”
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
As the Strategic Defence and Security Review makes clear, Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and destabilising activities in Ukraine directly challenge European security and the rules-based international order. We have long been clear that Russia’s actions are unacceptable. Nevertheless we need to work with Russia on key areas of shared interest: in particular to end fighting in Syria, and to focus on the shared aim of destroying the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. That was the basis on which the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), met President Putin at the G20 Summit in Antalya on 16 November.