Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of warm days on school pupil performance.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In June 2025, we published a summary of our initial assessment of the three climate risks (flooding, overheating, and water scarcity), in response to the adaptation committee’s independent assessment of UK climate risk. This was to raise awareness in the education system of how the predicted rise in temperatures could impact education. The publication is attached and can also be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-of-uk-climate-change-risk-on-the-delivery-of-education.
Findings show the extent to which rising temperatures, from subtle general increases to extreme heat events (heatwaves), could affect students’ ability to learn.
From our initial assessment, we understand that even when temperatures are less extreme, persistent increases in temperature can affect the ability to learn. That is why the government is supporting responsible bodies to take steps to manage the impact of rising temperatures in school and college environments. It is important to recognise that these findings are based on emerging evidence, giving only an indication at this stage.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many student learning days were lost to flooding during each of the past five academic years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any enforcement action has been commenced by (1) DEFRA, (2) the Environment Agency, or (3) other authorities responsible for waste shipping in the UK, in relation to the export of 'end of life' tyres to India to ensure that the waste is treated in an environmentally sound manner.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(1) The four UK regulators, the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales, The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency enforce legislation on shipments of waste.
(2) The Environment Agency is currently undertaking an internal review into its regulation of waste tyres and their export, particularly to India. This review will be finalised by the end of June and the outcomes made publicly available. The Environment Agency is not able to provide details of ongoing enforcement investigations.
(3) The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has stopped the export of eight containers of waste tyres since January 2024. Six of these were destined for India.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of 'end of life' tyres exported to India in the past 12 months have been exported with a T8 waste exemption.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This information is not available as T8 exemption holders are not currently obligated to provide this information under the conditions of the exemption.
Exporters of waste tyres to India are also not currently required to provide information of their exports routinely.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what checks are carried out by DEFRA or the Environment Agency in relation to 'end of life' tyres exported to India to ascertain whether operators involved in the shipment of tyres have taken all necessary steps to ensure waste is managed in an environmentally sound manner.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To assess if ‘end of life tyres’ will be managed in an environmentally sound manner, the Environment Agency operates on a risk-based basis to carry out checks on destination sites, to ensure that they operate to broadly equivalent UK standards.
Checks may include internet based open-source data, requesting the GPS co-ordinates of the site location, verification from the overseas competent authority responsible for issuing the environmental permit, the contractual details of the shipment and a copy of the permit from the exporter.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 20 February (HL4788), whether they will publish the referenced independent studies exploring the sustainability of biomass electricity generation.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The referenced independent studies refer to work exploring the sustainability of biomass, including electricity generation. Several reports commissioned on behalf of the public sector are already in the public domain, including:
Publicly funded research will continue to be published in line with the Research Concordat.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 3 December 2024 (col 1089) and his Written Answer on 6 February (HL4363), whether they have commissioned any independent research into the long-term sustainability of biomass electricity generation.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Government works closely with a range of stakeholders including academia and independent experts to assist policy development around sustainability of biomass, ensuring that evidence informs long-term decision making. This has included commissioning several independent studies exploring the sustainability of biomass.
It has also included working with Ofgem and independent experts, alongside research gathered from engagement with industry and academia, to support development of strengthened assurance around the compliance of generators with sustainability criteria.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compatibility of the sustainability criteria for the biomass electricity generation industry with the UK's domestic and international commitments on reaching net zero and restoring biodiversity, and whether they plan to change the criteria for generators to increase the proportion of woody biomass that must meet the sustainability criteria from 70 to 100 per cent.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Government only supports the use of sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that meets our strict sustainability criteria.
This Government is committed to enhancing sustainability, and the low carbon dispatchable CfD, announced earlier this month, increases the proportion of woody biomass that must meet the sustainability criteria from 70 to 100 per cent.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stating that they “do not automatically consider or assume biomass used for energy as ‘carbon neutral’, even in cases where the biomass is thought to be produced sustainably”.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
This IPCC reference relates to guidelines on reporting biomass as ‘zero’ emissions at the point of combustion. Under the IPCC Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting framework, removals and emissions associated with growing bioenergy crops, land-use change, fertilization, transportation, etc are recorded against the relevant sectors.
As with any energy source, biomass is not carbon neutral when considering the full supply chain, but it can be low carbon. The UK only considers biomass to be low carbon if it meets sustainability criteria, which includes requirements around sustainable harvesting and maintaining forest productivity, as well as a GHG criteria to minimise supply chain emissions. We plan to consult later this year on the development of a common sustainability framework which aims to enable greater consistency across different biomass end use sectors and to strengthen criteria in line with latest evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 3 December (HL Deb col 1089), what is the evidence that sustainably sourced biomass can provide a low-carbon and renewable energy source; whether that evidence has been produced by an independent organisation that does not have financial links to the biomass industry; and whether they will publish it.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
Global institutions such as the IPCC, and the UK’s CCC recognise that bioenergy and BECCS can play a significant role in decarbonising economies and meeting net zero provided that appropriate policies are put in place to mitigate the use of unsustainable biomass.
The Government only supports the use of sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that meets our sustainability criteria. We also plan to consult later this year on the development of a common sustainability framework which aims to enable greater consistency across sectors and to strengthen criteria in line with latest evidence.