Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment was made of the options for developing contact tracing applications.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We engaged with a number of companies and methodologies.
Pivotal quickly proved their suitability, and given the extreme urgency, we made a direct award as permitted under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Pivotal were recommended to us as a company who were on an existing framework, and who had experience of working with Government. Over two days, we looked across a network of suppliers who had existing contracts with the Government and had done work with the National Cyber Security Centre or other security agencies, and so could be relied on to provide highly secure and privacy-focused products.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procurement process was followed in order to procure and develop the contact tracing application.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We engaged with a number of companies and methodologies.
Pivotal quickly proved their suitability, and given the extreme urgency, we made a direct award as permitted under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Pivotal were recommended to us as a company who were on an existing framework, and who had experience of working with Government. Over two days, we looked across a network of suppliers who had existing contracts with the Government and had done work with the National Cyber Security Centre or other security agencies, and so could be relied on to provide highly secure and privacy-focused products.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Veterans UK Helpline has been suspended; and what assessment they have made of the impact this may have on veterans, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The Veterans UK helpline has not been suspended. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, Veterans UK services are, as far as possible being delivered remotely.
Whilst the helpline is not able to handle telephony enquiries, the helpline contains recorded service information on key subject areas, and all veterans are still able to submit enquiries via email.
A written reply or call-back is made by Veterans UK staff and where welfare support is required, these are referred to the Veterans Welfare Service. More than 4,000 people have been helped in this way since 23 March 2020.
All planned Veterans Welfare Service and Defence Transition Services contact with clients is being maintained, and alternative methods are utilised rather than face to face visits, unless deemed absolutely essential.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on processing War Pension Scheme and War Widow(er) Pension applications.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
All of the existing 470,000 War Pensions, War Widows Pension and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments are continuing to be made as usual into nominated bank accounts, and all requests for welfare support are being met, the same day where at all possible.
With staff working remotely, it has been necessary to pause some compensation scheme administration casework on new claims, appeals and reviews. Many files, some dating back to World War II, exist only as paper records and access to office-based IT systems are needed to process this work.
Where a possibility of financial hardship is identified by the Veterans Welfare Service, a small team is in place to take action on urgent payments where the case evidence needed to do so is available.
UK Veterans staff review the situation daily in order to resume as full a level of service as possible within the current restrictions.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assistance, if any, they have offered to the government of Australia to deal with the bushfire crises.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and I have been in contact with our Australian counterparts to offer our condolences and stress our readiness to help in whatever way they need. I also met with FM Payne on the 3 January in Sydney and offered our full support.
As set out by FCO Minister Heather Wheeler in her Oral Statement of 9 January, we have deployed a team of UK experts to Australia.
The team includes a senior member of UK Fire and Rescue Service, a medical specialist in trauma and mental health, and a military liaison officer specialising in crisis response.
They will work with Australian counterparts to establish what further UK support will be of most use to Australian emergency responders, and ensure that such contributions are fully integrated with Australian efforts.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of occupational exposure limits and maximum exposure limits for formaldehyde in the UK being higher than those of France, Germany and several other European member states.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The EU has recently reviewed the occupational exposure limit value for formaldehyde, and in the Phase 3 amendment to the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive 2004/37/EC, introduced a new binding occupational exposure limit value (BOELV) of 0.3ppm, which came into force on 11 July 2019. The current GB work place exposure limit (WEL) is 2ppm.
Member States have two years to transpose the new BOELV (i.e. by 11 July 2021). Because of differences in cultural practices; cost of embalming and greater capacity in the facilities available; and the limited use of embalming in other Members States, the UK negotiated an additional 3-year transitional period (until July 2024) for the funeral and embalming sector, during which time an interim BOELV of 0.5ppm will apply. This is to allow the UK funeral and embalming sector to comply with the Directive without incurring disproportionate costs.
The Health and Safety Executive is currently working to implement the revised exposure limits for formaldehyde.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Health and Safety Executive will revisit its current work place exposure limits for formaldehyde.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The EU has recently reviewed the occupational exposure limit value for formaldehyde, and in the Phase 3 amendment to the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive 2004/37/EC, introduced a new binding occupational exposure limit value (BOELV) of 0.3ppm, which came into force on 11 July 2019. The current GB work place exposure limit (WEL) is 2ppm.
Member States have two years to transpose the new BOELV (i.e. by 11 July 2021). Because of differences in cultural practices; cost of embalming and greater capacity in the facilities available; and the limited use of embalming in other Members States, the UK negotiated an additional 3-year transitional period (until July 2024) for the funeral and embalming sector, during which time an interim BOELV of 0.5ppm will apply. This is to allow the UK funeral and embalming sector to comply with the Directive without incurring disproportionate costs.
The Health and Safety Executive is currently working to implement the revised exposure limits for formaldehyde.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the restrictions planned for formaldehyde releases from articles, including wood-based panels, under the European Chemical Agency's REACH authorisation list.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Under the Construction Products Regulation, MDF manufactured in Europe must be labelled to European standards ‘E1’ or ‘E2’. 95% of EU companies comply voluntarily with the ‘E1’ standard, meeting World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Proposals for a restriction to control formaldehyde releases from articles (which would include wood-based panels) are being considered under the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regime. The European Chemicals Agency is expected to produce its opinion on the proposal around 20 March 2020, though the subsequent adoption of a legislative decision will be dependent on the outcome of further discussions.
In a no deal exit from the EU, all existing EU restrictions will continue in the UK. A UK REACH system would retain the process for restricting a chemical.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to restrict the use of formaldehyde in domestic articles such as MDF panels that are found to emit formaldehyde fumes that exceed World Health Organization safety limits.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Under the Construction Products Regulation, MDF manufactured in Europe must be labelled to European standards ‘E1’ or ‘E2’. 95% of EU companies comply voluntarily with the ‘E1’ standard, meeting World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Proposals for a restriction to control formaldehyde releases from articles (which would include wood-based panels) are being considered under the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regime. The European Chemicals Agency is expected to produce its opinion on the proposal around 20 March 2020, though the subsequent adoption of a legislative decision will be dependent on the outcome of further discussions.
In a no deal exit from the EU, all existing EU restrictions will continue in the UK. A UK REACH system would retain the process for restricting a chemical.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to abide by the guidance and emissions limits set out under the 2015 EU Industrial Emissions Directive, following its implementation date on 20 November, whether or not the UK continues to be a member of the EU.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Yes. The UK is committed to maintaining environmental standards after we leave the EU and will continue to apply the existing successful model of integrated pollution control, using Best Available Techniques to control emission limits. The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 maintains established environmental principles and ensures that existing EU environmental law will continue to have effect in UK law, including the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU).