Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to review and limit the increase to the standing charge on energy household bills.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The energy price cap sets a limit on unit rates and standing charges, ensuring that millions of households pay a fair price for their energy. The standing charge reflects the on-going costs that fall on a supplier to provide and maintain a live supply to a customer’s premises.
Ofgem is responsible for setting the price cap and remain the sole decision-maker over how it is calculated.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the mitigation hierarchy will be implemented in the planning process for offshore windfarms.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The mitigation hierarchy is an established principle of environmental and planning law. The Government is currently consulting on an updated National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure, including offshore wind, which states that applicants should always employ the mitigation hierarchy. The Government will be publishing updated guidance for offshore wind developers and regulators to further clarify how to work through and adhere to the mitigation hierarchy.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill includes provision to replace Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment processes for national infrastructure projects, marine works and terrestrial planning with Environmental Outcome Reports (EORs). EORs apply to a range of consenting regimes and will assess any steps proposed to avoid, mitigate or compensate for effects of specified environmental outcomes that are not met and to what extent the mitigation hierarchy was followed.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government to what extent the Environmental Outcome Reports provided for by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill will cover site assessments undertaken as part of the planning process for offshore wind farms.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government recognise the important role site assessments play in understanding the impact of development and such assessments will fall under the new system of Environmental Outcome Reports (EORs).
An outcomes-based approach will test the acceptability of environmental impacts, with indicators developed to assess how a plan/project supports environmental outcomes set out in in the Environmental Improvement Plan, the Clean Air Strategy, and the UK Marine Strategy. These indicators will measure the expected change due to a plan/project against baseline conditions and wider trend data.
The Bill creates a framework for assessment that can work across the various EIA and SEA regimes - including the nationally significant Infrastructure Planning regime covering offshore wind projects. Further detail will be developed through consultation.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government which environmental tests will be applied in the preparation of Environmental Outcomes Reports as provided for by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government recognise the important role site assessments play in understanding the impact of development and such assessments will fall under the new system of Environmental Outcome Reports (EORs).
An outcomes-based approach will test the acceptability of environmental impacts, with indicators developed to assess how a plan/project supports environmental outcomes set out in in the Environmental Improvement Plan, the Clean Air Strategy, and the UK Marine Strategy. These indicators will measure the expected change due to a plan/project against baseline conditions and wider trend data.
The Bill creates a framework for assessment that can work across the various EIA and SEA regimes - including the nationally significant Infrastructure Planning regime covering offshore wind projects. Further detail will be developed through consultation.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many new residential properties have been constructed within Environment Agency flood zone 2 each year, since the financial year 2012/13.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The percentages of new residential addresses created that have been within each of Environment Agency flood zones 3 and 2 in each financial year since 2012-13 are provided below. Figures for 2012-13 are not available on the same basis due to a change in land use change methodology which took effect from 2013-14.
The most recent available percentages of new residential addresses created that have been within Environment Agency flood zone 3, broken down by local authority area are provided in the attached table.
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Financial year | Proportion of new residential addresses created within Flood Zone 3 1 (Per cent) | Proportion of new residential addresses created within Flood Zones 2 and 3 2 (Per cent) |
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2013-14 | 7 | 10 |
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2014-15 | 8 | 11 |
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2015-16 | 8 | 11 |
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2016-17 | 8 | 11 |
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2017-18 | 10 | 13 |
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2018-19 | 8 | 11 |
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2019-20 | 9 | 13 |
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2020-21 | 7 | 11 |
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2021-22 | 7 | 10 |
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Sources: |
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1 Live table 320: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2021-to-2022 |
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2 Using address data used to derive the land use change - new residential address statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2021-to-2022 |
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Although National Flood Zone 2 is a stand-alone category, to be practically useful it is generally combined with National Flood Zone 3 to give a complete picture of areas at 0.1% or more risk of flooding in any given year. Therefore figures are provided for National Flood Zones 2 and 3 combined.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of imported meats were denied entry into the UK for having failed documentary or physical checks in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Documentary, identity and physical checks on imported meat and meat products from non- European Union countries are undertaken at the first point of entry into Great Britain at designated Border Controls Posts.
The frequency of checks applied to imported meat and meat products are prescribed in Commission Retained Regulation (EU) 2019/2124. Imported meat, meat preparations and meat products are subject to 100% documentary and identity checks, with the frequency of physical checks varying from 1% to 30% depending upon the type of meat product that is imported.
As our systems record all failures arising from documentary, identity, or physical checks, it may be the case that a single consignment may have failed one or all the checks. The total number of documentary, identity and physical checks failures as a percentage of all checks carried out in 2020 was 0.36%, in 2021, 0.34% and in 2022, 0.31%.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government at which point checks are carried out on meat imported into the UK; how many checks are purely on the basis of documentary evidence; and what proportion are physical checks.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Documentary, identity and physical checks on imported meat and meat products from non- European Union countries are undertaken at the first point of entry into Great Britain at designated Border Controls Posts.
The frequency of checks applied to imported meat and meat products are prescribed in Commission Retained Regulation (EU) 2019/2124. Imported meat, meat preparations and meat products are subject to 100% documentary and identity checks, with the frequency of physical checks varying from 1% to 30% depending upon the type of meat product that is imported.
As our systems record all failures arising from documentary, identity, or physical checks, it may be the case that a single consignment may have failed one or all the checks. The total number of documentary, identity and physical checks failures as a percentage of all checks carried out in 2020 was 0.36%, in 2021, 0.34% and in 2022, 0.31%.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of new residential properties have been constructed within Environment Agency flood zone 3 for the most recent year that data are available, broken down by local planning authority area.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The percentages of new residential addresses created that have been within each of Environment Agency flood zones 3 and 2 in each financial year since 2012-13 are provided below. Figures for 2012-13 are not available on the same basis due to a change in land use change methodology which took effect from 2013-14.
The most recent available percentages of new residential addresses created that have been within Environment Agency flood zone 3, broken down by local authority area are provided in the attached table.
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Financial year | Proportion of new residential addresses created within Flood Zone 3 1 (Per cent) | Proportion of new residential addresses created within Flood Zones 2 and 3 2 (Per cent) |
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2013-14 | 7 | 10 |
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2014-15 | 8 | 11 |
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2015-16 | 8 | 11 |
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2016-17 | 8 | 11 |
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2017-18 | 10 | 13 |
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2018-19 | 8 | 11 |
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2019-20 | 9 | 13 |
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2020-21 | 7 | 11 |
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2021-22 | 7 | 10 |
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Sources: |
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1 Live table 320: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2021-to-2022 |
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2 Using address data used to derive the land use change - new residential address statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2021-to-2022 |
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Although National Flood Zone 2 is a stand-alone category, to be practically useful it is generally combined with National Flood Zone 3 to give a complete picture of areas at 0.1% or more risk of flooding in any given year. Therefore figures are provided for National Flood Zones 2 and 3 combined.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many new residential properties have been constructed within Environment Agency flood zone 3 each year, since the financial year 2012/13.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The percentages of new residential addresses created that have been within each of Environment Agency flood zones 3 and 2 in each financial year since 2012-13 are provided below. Figures for 2012-13 are not available on the same basis due to a change in land use change methodology which took effect from 2013-14.
The most recent available percentages of new residential addresses created that have been within Environment Agency flood zone 3, broken down by local authority area are provided in the attached table.
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Financial year | Proportion of new residential addresses created within Flood Zone 3 1 (Per cent) | Proportion of new residential addresses created within Flood Zones 2 and 3 2 (Per cent) |
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2013-14 | 7 | 10 |
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2014-15 | 8 | 11 |
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2015-16 | 8 | 11 |
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2016-17 | 8 | 11 |
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2017-18 | 10 | 13 |
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2018-19 | 8 | 11 |
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2019-20 | 9 | 13 |
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2020-21 | 7 | 11 |
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2021-22 | 7 | 10 |
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Sources: |
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1 Live table 320: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2021-to-2022 |
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2 Using address data used to derive the land use change - new residential address statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-statistics-2021-to-2022 |
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Although National Flood Zone 2 is a stand-alone category, to be practically useful it is generally combined with National Flood Zone 3 to give a complete picture of areas at 0.1% or more risk of flooding in any given year. Therefore figures are provided for National Flood Zones 2 and 3 combined.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of levels of food security in England; and, in particular, of self-sufficiency in fruit and vegetables.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Domestic food production, coupled with international trade, gives us national resilience. When it comes to food we can produce here, we are 74% self-sufficient. Our aim is to broadly maintain the current level of food that we produce domestically and boost production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities. Defra has a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to effectively respond to disruption, should it occur.
Some supermarkets applied item limits to a small number of fruit and vegetables due to poor weather affecting the harvest in Spain and North Africa, where a high proportion of produce consumed in UK at this time of year is grown. However, with the exception of one retailer, these limits have now been removed, reflecting that fact that supply is returning to normal levels.
Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report was published in December 2021. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work. Defra publishes annual statistics on horticulture, including some self-sufficiency statistics here: Latest horticulture statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).