Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for encouraging people who are 60 years old and above who have not been vaccinated against shingles to receive a vaccination; and what steps they are taking to encourage the take-up of that vaccine amongst that cohort.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Shingles Vaccination Programme, implemented in September 2013 is provided by general practices. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommends the shingles vaccine for adults routinely at age 70 years with a phased catch up for those aged 71-79 years. The eligibility criteria change means that patients become eligible for the vaccine from their 70th and 78th birthdays, if not previously vaccinated, and can be offered the vaccine opportunistically all year round.
In support of this change, Public Health England (PHE) has updated the communication materials for both patients and healthcare professionals to better identify those who are eligible and emphasise the benefits to patients from the shingles vaccination. This includes guidance for those individuals who have missed the opportunity to receive the vaccine previously but who remain eligible, up to their 80th birthday.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the bio-economy sector deal will be published.
Answered by Lord Henley
Several sectors have expressed an interest in a Sector Deal. We intend to take forward some further Deals that best meet expectations set out in the White Paper in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage local authorities who have waste contracts to renew in the next three years to introduce mandatory separate food waste collections following the recommendations of the National Infrastructure Commission's National Infrastructure Assessment 2018, published in July.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The UK government has committed to work towards no food waste being sent to landfill by 2030 in its Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017. 113 local authorities out of 326 in England currently offer a separate food waste collection service and we encourage all local authorities to consider introducing separate food waste collection when opportunities arise to include these in collection contracts.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to working to support an increase in the number of councils with separate food waste collections. We will outline our plans for this in our Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published this autumn. This will include how we will fulfil our commitments to the circular economy package where bio-waste including food waste recycling must be offered for households.
We recognise the energy generation potential of food waste, when collected separately and sent to anaerobic digestion (AD), though we need to be conscious of some of the unintended consequences for air pollution that can arise.
We will consider the recommendations of the 2018 National Infrastructure Assessment in the development of the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - 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 figure provided in the National Infrastructure Commission's National Infrastructure Assessment 2018, published in July, that introducing mandatory separate food waste collections in England by 2025 would save (1) up to £400 million in capital costs, and (2) £1.1 billion in operational costs for local authorities in total between 2020 and 2050, including the cost of weekly collections.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The UK government has committed to work towards no food waste being sent to landfill by 2030 in its Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017. 113 local authorities out of 326 in England currently offer a separate food waste collection service and we encourage all local authorities to consider introducing separate food waste collection when opportunities arise to include these in collection contracts.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to working to support an increase in the number of councils with separate food waste collections. We will outline our plans for this in our Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published this autumn. This will include how we will fulfil our commitments to the circular economy package where bio-waste including food waste recycling must be offered for households.
We recognise the energy generation potential of food waste, when collected separately and sent to anaerobic digestion (AD), though we need to be conscious of some of the unintended consequences for air pollution that can arise.
We will consider the recommendations of the 2018 National Infrastructure Assessment in the development of the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - 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 recommendation of the National Infrastructure Commission that mandatory food waste collections should be introduced in England to support the production of biogas.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The UK government has committed to work towards no food waste being sent to landfill by 2030 in its Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017. 113 local authorities out of 326 in England currently offer a separate food waste collection service and we encourage all local authorities to consider introducing separate food waste collection when opportunities arise to include these in collection contracts.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to working to support an increase in the number of councils with separate food waste collections. We will outline our plans for this in our Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published this autumn. This will include how we will fulfil our commitments to the circular economy package where bio-waste including food waste recycling must be offered for households.
We recognise the energy generation potential of food waste, when collected separately and sent to anaerobic digestion (AD), though we need to be conscious of some of the unintended consequences for air pollution that can arise.
We will consider the recommendations of the 2018 National Infrastructure Assessment in the development of the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to establish separate mandatory food waste collections in England by 2025 as recommended by the National Infrastructure Commission in its National Infrastructure Assessment 2018, published in July; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The UK government has committed to work towards no food waste being sent to landfill by 2030 in its Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017. 113 local authorities out of 326 in England currently offer a separate food waste collection service and we encourage all local authorities to consider introducing separate food waste collection when opportunities arise to include these in collection contracts.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to working to support an increase in the number of councils with separate food waste collections. We will outline our plans for this in our Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published this autumn. This will include how we will fulfil our commitments to the circular economy package where bio-waste including food waste recycling must be offered for households.
We recognise the energy generation potential of food waste, when collected separately and sent to anaerobic digestion (AD), though we need to be conscious of some of the unintended consequences for air pollution that can arise.
We will consider the recommendations of the 2018 National Infrastructure Assessment in the development of the Resources and Waste Strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will respond to the National Infrastructure Commission's National Infrastructure Assessment 2018, published in July.
Answered by Lord Bates
The government welcomed the publication of the National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA), and is considering the recommendations.
As set out in the National Infrastructure Commission’s Framework Document, the government will respond to the NIC’s recommendations as soon as practical, and endeavour to respond within 6 months, and no longer than a year.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - 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 recommendation by the National Infrastructure Commission to introduce a target of 65 per cent recycling of municipal waste by 2030.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The UK Government is committed to increasing the amount of material we recycle across both households and businesses. The UK recycling rate has increased from 41.2% in 2010 to 44.9% in 2016 but we recognise that more needs to be done.
In our Resources and Waste Strategy, due to be released this autumn, we will outline our plans to increase recycling rates. We want to make it easier for households and businesses to recycle. We also want to stimulate markets for secondary materials to ensure there is a greater incentive to recycle. We will consider the recommendations set out in the 2018 National Infrastructure Assessment on municipal waste targets when composing the Strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what will be the process for the local community to access the Hinkley Point C Community Fund once it becomes operational.
Answered by Lord Henley
The then Minister of State for Energy's 2013 Written Ministerial Statement states that Community Benefit for Hinkley Point C is not due to begin paying out until the plant is generating electricity, scheduled to be 2025.
We are currently looking at the implementation of Community Benefit, including the process for accessing payments.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Building Regulations Establishments research finding that no boilers sold in the UK meet the minimum Energy Related Products efficiency requirement of 92 per cent as legislated for since the beginning of April under Boiler Plus.
Answered by Lord Henley
We do not recognise this claim, and BRE have confirmed that they do not agree with, and have never stated that, “no boilers sold in the UK meet the minimum ErP efficiency requirements of 92 per cent as legislated for”.
I can confirm that when the standards were set the majority of boilers on the market met or exceeded this minimum efficiency requirement. Since coming into force, all boilers installed in England must meet this standard.