Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Yes, this is the case.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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 Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
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.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they expect the provisions of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, if passed, will interact with the Building Safety Act 2022; and what steps they will take to ensure provisions in the Act concerning building safety standards are not undermined by the revocation of retained EU law.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the noble Baroness to the answer given (attached) to PQ 105305 on 12 December 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Pinnock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to extend the criteria for disqualification to stand as a candidate for Parliament to include disqualification if named on the Sex Offenders Register; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government is not currently planning to legislate to extend the disqualification criteria for UK Parliamentary General Elections beyond the criteria currently set out in the House of Commons Disqualification Act and the Representation of the People’s Act. We are keeping this issue under review and are committed to ensuring that our electoral arrangements are fit for purpose. In respect of Members of the House of Lords, HoLAC provides advice on nominations for all life peers, to ensure the highest standards of propriety.