Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to amending building regulations to require the use of non-fossil-fuel heat sources for all new properties.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Future standards next year will set our new homes on a path that moves away from relying on volatile fossil fuels and towards more clean, secure energy. These homes will be future proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency. No further energy efficiency retrofit work will be necessary to enable them to become zero-carbon over time as the electricity grid continues to decarbonise.
The Future Homes Standard consultation was published in December 2023 and closed in March 2024. It set out detailed technical proposals for what future standards could entail. All the options that were proposed would preclude the use of fossil-fuel heating in new homes. We are reviewing proposals and feedback from the consultation and will publish the Government response in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adherence of local authorities to the requirement of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 that profits from off-street car parking may not be transferred to their general fund.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Financial provisions relating to the income and expenditure of local authorities in connection with parking are stipulated in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Subsection 4 of section 55 specifies the purposes for the application of any surplus income from parking. This includes making good any deficit charged to the general fund in the preceding four financial years.
In line with the Local Authority Transparency Code, local authorities should each year publish their costs and profits relating to their parking management, allowing the public to hold councils to account. Parking is the responsibility of local authorities, and it is for them to determine what is best for their own area.
Off-street parking and all matters relating to it are the responsibility of the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government following the passage of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, whether local authorities are able to determine the number of housing units that their district needs without having to follow any direction from the Government on numbers required.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The definition of deliverable sites is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework also sets out that authorities should use the standard method to calculate housing need.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in calculating a five-year supply of allocated housing sites, they will include (1) those sites with existing planning consent but not yet developed, and (2) units not yet built in partly developed sites.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The definition of deliverable sites is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework also sets out that authorities should use the standard method to calculate housing need.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the transport infrastructure plan known as Network North includes the intent to electrify the whole of the Trans-Pennine line (1) from Liverpool to Hull, (2) and from Liverpool to Newcastle.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Yes, this is the case.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Local Government (Levelling Up), during her visit to Hull on 28 February that she would like to see a devolution deal for Hull and the East Riding “sooner rather than later”, when they will provide further details of any plans.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Hull and East Yorkshire were announced in the Levelling Up White Paper as an early County Deal area. The Minister for Levelling Up visited Hull on 28 February where she took part in conversations with the Leaders of Hull and East Yorkshire about their plans for devolution in the region. Devolution discussions will continue following the May elections.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when local authorities will be informed of the provisional public health grant budgets for 2023–24.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We will announce 2023/24 Public Health Grant allocations to local authorities shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the funding they provide to local authorities is sufficient to deliver statutory public health responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
At the Spending Review 2021, we considered the need for local authority public health funding and confirmed that the public health grant to local authorities in England would increase over the settlement period. In 2022/23, the Grant increased by 2.81% to £3.417 billion. This is in addition to targeted investment through local Government in Start for Life support and drug and alcohol treatment services.
We will announce 2023/24 Public Health Grant allocations to local authorities shortly, and in doing so will consider the impact of changes to pay and inflation trends and forecasts since the Spending Review.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what identifying information is required for residents not living in the UK to register to vote in UK elections.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Currently an overseas elector must be a British citizen who was previously registered within the UK within the last 15 years. Overseas electors are subject to identity checks when registering to vote in the same way as domestic electors.
They are required to provide their full name, date of birth and National Insurance number to be checked against DWP data. If an overseas applicant’s identity cannot be verified via the National Insurance number check, they can be required to provide an attestation of identity from a registered overseas elector who is not a close family member. Overseas electors are also subject to checks to demonstrate their connection to the address at which they are registering.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the levels of fraud in the operation of postal voting; and what plans they have, if any, to introduce photo identification requirements for postal voting.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Electoral Commission publishes a report annually on electoral fraud. I also refer the noble peer to the report by (then) Sir Eric Pickles on electoral fraud, which identified a series of weaknesses in the postal vote process (attached). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/securing-the-ballot-review-into-electoral-fraud.
That report was commissioned following the 2015 Election Court ruling on electoral corruption in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
There are longstanding security measures which enhance the security of the postal voting process, including requiring postal voters to provide personal identifiers at the time of applying for a postal vote and which are checked at the time of a poll. The Elections Act 2022 introduces a package of sensible measures to enhance the security around absent voting including an identity check at the point of application for a postal vote, whereby an applicant will need to provide their National Insurance number to be checked against Government records. This process mirrors the current practice for Registering to Vote.
As is usual, the Government will keep this area of policy under review in the future.