Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of electricity grid miscalculations on housebuilding in England.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The calculation of electricity network capacity for new housing developments is a matter for housing developers and network companies. Guidance on network capacity requirements for housing developments has been published by the Independent Networks Association, whose members are responsible for the connection of around 80 percent of newbuild developments. Distribution Network Operators also offer online calculators for housebuilders to determine the network capacity they might require for their developments.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent any negative impact on this year's local elections as a result of fake news being disseminated through (1) artificial intelligence, and (2) other means.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK’s elections and already has established systems and processes in place, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK.
The Government has established the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which has a mandate to safeguard our democratic institutions and processes from the full range of threats, including digitally manipulated content. The Taskforce is an enduring government function which is ensuring we have a robust system in place to rapidly respond to any threats during election periods, including novel threats from artificial intelligence (AI).
The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will increase the transparency of digital political advertising, including AI-generated material.
Additionally, it is already an election offence for a person to make a false statement about a candidate which provides a reasonable check and balance against malicious smear campaigns.
The threat to democracy from artificial intelligence was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to the development of more cooperative housing schemes.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is committed to supporting housing co-operatives and other providers of community-led housing. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied, and was most recently revised in December 2023. The National Planning Policy Framework now includes several measures that will support the diversification of the housing market, including the growth of the community-led housing sector. These new measures include:
Community-based groups (or their partner organisations) who are registered as providers of social housing may apply for capital grant through the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).
In addition, in 2023, we provided £3 million to support a social finance fund to provide equity and loan finance for community-led housing schemes across England. This fund is expected to support the delivery of 1587 homes over ten years.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the number of building inspectors and any risk to construction due to declines in their numbers.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Noble Lady to the answer given to Question UIN 16272 on 5 March 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many arms-length management organisations there are in England.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We do not collect this information centrally. However, the National Federation of ALMOs’ latest publicity suggests that there are currently 19 arms-length management organisations in England: https://www.almos.org.uk/about-us/our-members/.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the amount of microplastics in tap water.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has published two research projects on microplastics in drinking water – one in January 2019 reviewing the potential risks from nanoparticles and microplastics and another in October 2022 looking at the removal of microplastics by drinking water treatment processes.
The research by the DWI found that more than 99.99% of microplastic particles were removed through conventional drinking water treatment processes. As a consequence of the removal rates, microplastics were present at very low levels in drinking water. Their contribution to total daily exposure, and presenting a potential risk to human health, was likely to be low or insignificant. The World Health Organization has also recommended that routine monitoring of microplastics in drinking water was not necessary at this time.