Tag: The Lord Bishop of St Albans

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the levels of fly-tipping on private land across the UK in each of the last five years.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Fly-tipping is unacceptable whether it occurs on public or private land, it spoils our enjoyment of the countryside, can harm human health and wildlife, and damage farming and rural tourism. It also undermines legitimate waste businesses where unscrupulous operators undercut those that operate within the law and is a drain on both local authorities and landowners that clear it up. Tackling this scourge and other forms of illegal waste activity is a priority for the Government.

The exact extent of fly-tipping on private land is unknown as landowners are not required to report this to Defra. However landowner estimates, provided to the Defra chaired National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, suggest that fly-tipping on private land may cost between £50 million and £150 million per annum in clean up and disposal costs alone.

Some private landowner organisations do report fly-tipping on their land to Defra on a voluntary basis. Between April 2009 and April 2016 these organisation reported some 5,946 fly-tipping incidents on their land. We recognise that the data collected does not fully reflect the scale of the problem.

We recognise the inconvenience and costs that fly-tipping poses to landowners and we are working with a wide range of interested parties through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to improve understanding and awareness of the problem as well as sharing best practice about tackling it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the spread of Acute Oak Decline in the UK.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Over the past five years Forest Research, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, has conducted a systematic survey to model the distribution of acute oak decline (AOD) in England and Wales. The results show that the condition currently affects several thousand oak trees, mostly across East Anglia, the Midlands and southern England.

The complex nature of the condition means it is often associated with other pathogens, as well as insect defoliators and the research has not yet concluded whether AOD kills trees or not. A large proportion of the infected trees monitored have entered remission suggesting some level of host resistance. We do not have information at the landscape level on the number of oak with AOD symptoms that die every year.

Since 2013, Defra has invested £1.1 million in research to understand the causes, distribution and scale of AOD in the UK. This includes work to investigate the bacterial species associated with the condition and to understand whether the Agrilus biguttatus beetle plays a role in the dispersal of these bacterial species. Early findings from this research are still inconclusive. There is currently no firm evidence of transmission by the beetle.

Earlier this year, Defra in collaboration with the Research Councils, Scottish Government and the Forestry Commission launched a further £2 million call for research proposals on ‘oak health’ and Phytophthora. The successful bids from this call are due to be announced shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2016-06-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of reported commercial robberies in London in 2015 were targeted at betting shops.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of police recorded crimes made in licensed premises such as betting shops in London.

The Home Office collects data on the number of notifiable offences broken down by offence group and police force area, but these do not routinely include information on the specific location.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many oak trees have been killed by Acute Oak Decline in the past five years.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Over the past five years Forest Research, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, has conducted a systematic survey to model the distribution of acute oak decline (AOD) in England and Wales. The results show that the condition currently affects several thousand oak trees, mostly across East Anglia, the Midlands and southern England.

The complex nature of the condition means it is often associated with other pathogens, as well as insect defoliators and the research has not yet concluded whether AOD kills trees or not. A large proportion of the infected trees monitored have entered remission suggesting some level of host resistance. We do not have information at the landscape level on the number of oak with AOD symptoms that die every year.

Since 2013, Defra has invested £1.1 million in research to understand the causes, distribution and scale of AOD in the UK. This includes work to investigate the bacterial species associated with the condition and to understand whether the Agrilus biguttatus beetle plays a role in the dispersal of these bacterial species. Early findings from this research are still inconclusive. There is currently no firm evidence of transmission by the beetle.

Earlier this year, Defra in collaboration with the Research Councils, Scottish Government and the Forestry Commission launched a further £2 million call for research proposals on ‘oak health’ and Phytophthora. The successful bids from this call are due to be announced shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to review their policy of freezing state pensions of British citizens residing in overseas countries, where there is no existing reciprocal social security arrangement in place.

Lord Freud

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK State Pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so – for example in countries where a reciprocal agreement is in place that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this or to assess the impact of British citizens’ choosing to retire abroad.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many families with three or more children born before 6 April 2017 they estimated would be affected by the proposed two-child limit for new claimants for Universal Credit in the calculations of the Budget policy costings for (1) 2017–18, (2) 2018–19, and (3) 2019–20.

Lord Freud

The information requested is not available for publication.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Saudi Arabia concerning the cases of Dawood Hussein al-Marhoon and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We are aware of and seriously concerned by the cases of Dawood Hussein al-Marhoon and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher. We have raised these cases at a senior level in the Government of Saudi Arabia, most recently on 11 October. The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country, especially in cases which do not meet the minimum standards defined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This includes the execution of a minor and the use of the death penalty for a crime which isn’t deemed “the most serious”.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to have fulfilled the agri-environment scheme payments to farmers, and how they will ensure that delays in making such payments do not happen next year.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

We recognise the importance of early payments to the rural community. As at 22 October, Environmental Stewardship advance payments had been made to 25,200 agreement holders with a total value of £62.5 million. Natural England and the Rural Payments Agency continue to work to get payments out as soon as possible with the aim of making the remaining advance payments in November and December.

This year, 2015, has been a transitional year as new Common Agricultural Policy rules have taken effect. Whilst we would expect these payments to start earlier next year, from 2018 new EU rules will prevent any payments being made before 16 October.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-01-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 17 December 2014 (HL3283), whether they will now state what consideration they have given to introducing or amending legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex in order to protect vulnerable women.

Lord Bates

With regard to prostitution, the Government focus is on harm minimisation and I refer to my answer of 17 December 2014 to question HL3283 on this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 17 December 2014 (HL3284), whether the collection of consistent and comparable data on domestic abuse is now under way, and when they plan to publish the results.

Lord Bates

All forces through the Annual Data Return must record and provide data on domestic abuse related crimes and incidents. The requirement is part of the Home Secretary’s commitment to take forward recommendations made by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in its report on the police response to domestic abuse published in March 2014. It came into force in April 2015 and the first findings from this collection will be published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in October as part of the quarterly Crime in England and Wales statistics publication. The Home Office is working with the ONS on the publication of more detailed data in future crime publications.