Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to legislate to remove or amend any nutrient neutrality rules restricting housebuilding.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Nutrient neutrality advice affects 8% of national housing delivery or 14% of England’s land area, equating to 16,500 dwellings per year if housing delivery were to remain at recent levels. The Government is committed to finding solutions to support the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections. We are working with nature organisations, other stakeholders, and the sector to determine the best way forward. If legislation is required for the purposes of enabling development to fund nature recovery where currently both are stalled, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will provide the necessary legislative underpinning to unlock a win-win outcome for the economy and for nature. We will only act in legislation where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes. We will conduct a full impact assessment ahead of any changes to legislation.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of removing or amending nutrient neutrality rules on housebuilding.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Nutrient neutrality advice affects 8% of national housing delivery or 14% of England’s land area, equating to 16,500 dwellings per year if housing delivery were to remain at recent levels. The Government is committed to finding solutions to support the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections. We are working with nature organisations, other stakeholders, and the sector to determine the best way forward. If legislation is required for the purposes of enabling development to fund nature recovery where currently both are stalled, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will provide the necessary legislative underpinning to unlock a win-win outcome for the economy and for nature. We will only act in legislation where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes. We will conduct a full impact assessment ahead of any changes to legislation.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many homes they predict will need to be delivered across the Greater London area to house the predicted additional 434,000 people who will be living there by 2028 compared to 2018.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer given to Question UIN 3005 on 9 September.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what penalties they intend to impose on the Mayor of London should he fail to meet London’s housing delivery target.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local planning authorities should monitor progress in building out sites which have permission. The Government publishes the Housing Delivery Test results for each local authority in England annually, which is a percentage measurement calculated over a rolling three-year period, taking into account the homes delivered in an area against the homes required. The latest Housing Delivery Test results, published in December 2023, measures delivery over the 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 financial years. Paragraph 79 of the National Planning Policy Framework sets out the policy consequences for local planning authorities whose housing delivery has fallen below their housing requirement.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the delivery of housing in London in each of the past five years for which data are available.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local planning authorities should monitor progress in building out sites which have permission. The Government publishes the Housing Delivery Test results for each local authority in England annually, which is a percentage measurement calculated over a rolling three-year period, taking into account the homes delivered in an area against the homes required. The latest Housing Delivery Test results, published in December 2023, measures delivery over the 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 financial years. Paragraph 79 of the National Planning Policy Framework sets out the policy consequences for local planning authorities whose housing delivery has fallen below their housing requirement.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to promote densification of housing in Greater London.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has consulted on an updated growth-focused National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which makes clear our commitment to maximise delivery in urban areas, including building upwards where appropriate. We will publish the outcome of the consultation and a revised NPPF in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the provisions relating to Northern Ireland contained in the Domestic Abuse Bill, considered by the House of Commons in 2019, will be included in the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Bill; and what assessment they have made of the inclusion of such provisions on the UK’s ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
In a written ministerial statement on 10 February 2020, the Northern Ireland First Minister and Deputy First Minister announced that a Domestic Abuse Bill was one of the Bills that the Minister of Justice intended to introduce during the 2019-20 Assembly session (the statement is available at: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/official-reports/written-ministerial-statements/2019-2020/bv125_wms_teo_100220.pdf).
The Northern Ireland Bill will include the new domestic abuse offence criminalising controlling or coercive behavior which was previously in Part 2 of the Domestic Abuse Bill introduced in the UK Parliament in July 2019. The offence is required to ensure that the law in Northern Ireland satisfies the requirements of Article 33 (psychological violence) of the Istanbul Convention. As domestic abuse legislation is a devolved matter, it is preferable for legislation relating to such matters to be delivered through the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The Domestic Abuse Bill as re-introduced in the UK Parliament will continue to include Northern Ireland provisions extending the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts to certain violent and sexual offences (required to satisfy the requirements of Article 44 (jurisdiction) of the Istanbul Convention). We are in discussion with the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice about the timetable for the Assembly Bill, with reference to the UK’s progress towards ratification of the Istanbul Convention.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the results of their consultation Assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases, which closed on 27 August 2019; whether they intend to publish any provisional findings of the panel appointed to conduct the consultation; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The panel assessing the risk of harm to children and parents in private law cases has been meeting regularly to discuss the wealth of evidence collected from 1,200 individuals and organisations, and is in the process of finalising its report. It is right that it takes the time to analyse this data and to consider the recommendations for how the family courts can be reformed to improve the experiences of victims of harm. A full report outlining the findings and recommended next steps will be published this spring. The Government will publish a response at the same time setting out the steps we will take to reform the family courts.
After the panel completed the call for evidence in Autumn 2019, the Ministry of Justice published a Progress Update on 23 October. The Progress Update included provisional findings from the panel. This has been attached and can also be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/assessing-risk-of-harm-to-children-and-parents-in-private-law-children-cases.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what further consideration they have given to the recommendation of the report by the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, Draft Domestic Abuse Bill (HL Paper 378, session 2017–19), published on 14 June 2019, to extend the range of evidence accepted for the automatic prohibition of cross-examination by perpetrators of domestic abuse; and whether that recommendation will be reflected in the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Bill.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
We indicated in our initial response to the Joint Committee’s report, published in July 2019, that we would publish a further response in due course addressing around ten recommendations where we needed more time to fully consider the Committee’s proposals. This included their recommendation in respect of the scope of the automatic prohibition on cross-examination in person in family proceedings. We aim to publish that further response alongside the Domestic Abuse Bill. As the Leader of the House of Commons has indicated (Official Report, House of Commons, 23 January 2020, column 423), we expect to re-introduce the Bill ahead of the Easter recess.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the further actions they committed to in their response to the report by the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill have been completed; and if they have not been completed, whether those actions will be completed in time to be reflected in the forthcoming budget.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
We indicated in our initial response to the Joint Committee’s report, published in July 2019, that we would publish a further response in due course addressing around ten recommendations where we needed more time to fully consider the Committee’s proposals. We aim to publish that further response alongside the Domestic Abuse Bill.
We will also publish an updated impact assessment alongside the Bill. As the Minister for Safeguarding and Vulnerability indicated at Second Reading of the Bill in the last Parliament (Official Report, House of Commons, 2 October 2019, column 1331), we will prioritise the funding for the Bill in the 2020 Spending Review.