Plastic Pollution
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I thank my noble friend for that question. As someone who is running the London marathon this year, I will be appalled at the number of plastic bottles there will be by the roadside, but we have been told that if we empty them out they will be recycled. My noble friend makes a very good point: we have to clear up after our events. One thing that is happening right here, right now, which all noble Lords could participate in, is the Great British Spring Clean; 450,000 volunteers have signed up, and it will go on until 23 April. We can all be out there picking up litter, and indeed plastic.
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
My Lords, can my noble friend advise the House what efforts the Government are making on British waste to encourage new, more imaginative technologies that convert plastic waste into energy, such as those in town centre schemes in Copenhagen and Stockholm? They could mitigate some of the harm that this plastic mountain is inflicting.
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
My noble friend raises a very important point. Energy from waste is potentially one of the solutions. However, we do not want to see items being sidetracked from recycling and reuse into energy from waste. Certainly, if we can stop products going to landfill, we will look at incineration. We are working with the Environment Agency and looking at how plastics are burned and any emissions that are released. We understand that Public Health England’s position on carbon dioxide release, for example, remains that modern, well-managed incinerators are not a significant risk to public health.
Honda in Swindon
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I beg to differ with the noble Lord: there was certainly no complacency on my part, and I am sorry if he felt that was the case. The Government are absolutely committed to getting a deal that supports all businesses and takes away uncertainty. We now know the steps we need to take to achieve that. I come back to the use of the word “complacency”. It is certainly not the case. We will set up a task force for the staff in Swindon to look at how we can make sure they have successful future careers and we make use of their skills and experience. We have come very quickly to a stage where we have assembled all the key players: Unite the Union, the key trade union, is involved; local MPs and the local borough council are involved; the LEPs are involved. I am convinced that, if we can all work together, those 3,500 skilled and valued employees in Swindon will be very attractive to other employers.
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
Can my noble friend say whether Honda will continue with the development of its hydrogen fuel cell technology in the UK?
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Unfortunately, I cannot, because I do not know anything about its hydrogen fuel cell technology. I will write to my noble friend.
Prisons: Children of Prisoners
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I thank the right reverend Prelate for raising this. I managed to speak to her, literally a few minutes before I rose to answer the Question, and I was surprised, as I am sure noble Lords will also be, that that is the case. My information is that families who look after such children, whether they are carers from the same family or non-family carers, are eligible for the same benefits as they would get if they were the parents of the child—child benefit, child tax credits and so on. Indeed, they may also get other funding under Section 17 of the Children Act. I would like to investigate this further and write to the right reverend Prelate. I will, of course, put a copy in the Library, because this is a very important issue.
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
My Lords, almost exactly a year ago we debated the excellent Farmer review on this very subject. Can the Minister report on the progress, if any, on developing links between prisons and communities, which benefit the children of all prisoners, and on technology such as tele-visiting arrangements, for maintaining prisoner-child contact?
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I share the noble Baroness’s appreciation for the work of my noble friend Lord Farmer, and we are making good progress in going through his 19 recommendations and ensuring that they are implemented. One of those recommendations was the introduction of new family service contracts for prison governors, which, as I mentioned, has already happened. We are trying to create outward-looking prisons so that our empowered governors go into the community and look at what is available there, whether that be third sector groups or other service provision, and use what is available locally to ensure that prisoners have contact with their families, and also the employment skills and training they need to make a successful future.
HMP Long Lartin
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I thank the noble Lord, Lord Judd. Rehabilitation is a very complex and difficult subject. I refer noble Lords to the review by my noble friend Lord Farmer, which was debated in your Lordships’ House yesterday. The conclusion of that review was that rehabilitation and successful reduction in reoffending is a three-legged stool. I think all noble Lords agree that we are looking at improving education, and that we need to make sure that there are opportunities for employment. The strand identified by my noble Friend, Lord Farmer, however, is making sure that prisoners can maintain family ties outside prison to ensure that there is no reoffending and stop intergenerational crime.
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
Many of us were here yesterday for the excellent debate on the review from my noble friend Lord Farmer, so we are not blind to the issues of overcrowding and understaffing. We welcome the Government’s announcement of 2,500 extra staff being put into the prison estate. Would my noble friend the Minister confirm that the prison transformation programme itself, including the new building and design of prisons such as HMP Berwyn in north Wales, will result in a prison estate far more suited to current needs?
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
I thank my noble friend for that. I have been down to the other place and I can confirm that, because I was listening to the Prisons Minister when he said that we are still on course to build 10,000 modern and well-designed prison places, which we need to replace the old Victorian places that are, frankly, not fit for purpose any more. It is a long-term project and necessarily so, and we have committed £1.3 billion to make that transformation over the course of the Parliament.