Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 30 October (HL1684), whether they are considering centralised procurement for buses as part of their bus services improvement strategy.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

There are currently no plans to centralise the procurement of bus service contracts. The government believes that local leaders are best placed to make decisions about funding and bus services in their communities.

As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this session. The Bill will increase powers available to local leaders to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising, high-quality partnerships with private operators or local authority ownership.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government why this year's Innovation Accelerator funding was limited to three city regions in England and Scotland; and what plans they have to extend it to Wales and Northern Ireland.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The announcement in the Budget extends funding for the three city regions piloting the Innovation Accelerator programme for an additional year. Longer-term decisions regarding the future of the programme, including any extension to new areas, will be considered as part of the next phase of the Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that a high level of adulterated honey is sold in UK supermarkets; and what plans they have to strengthen product testing standards in the UK to bring them in line with those of the EU.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The National Food Crime Unit’s 2024 strategic assessment of food crime concluded it is unlikely that adulterated honey is broadly present on the UK market. All honey on sale must meet the Honey (England) Regulations 2015 which lay down detailed specifications for honey in terms of its composition and quality criteria. The Government keeps its rules under continuous review to ensure they continue to meet their objective and protect consumers.

Honey authenticity analysis is challenging due to natural variations in honey composition and harvesting practices. No single test can definitively determine a honey’s authenticity.

The Government has an active programme of research dedicated to standardising and improving honey authenticity testing, working to support monitoring and enforcement to protect consumers and legitimate businesses. This includes enabling ways to validate testing approaches to assess compliance to ensure they are fit for purpose including use of a weight of evidence approach.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what options they are considering for the proposed new rail link between Birmingham and Manchester; and whether they plan to consider forms of public-private partnership.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

While we recognise the concerns about connectivity between Birmingham and Manchester, we will not reverse the previous government's decision to cancel Phase 2 of HS2, and our primary focus now is the safe delivery of HS2 between Birmingham and London at the lowest reasonable cost. We are committed to a long-term approach to infrastructure and investment, taking account of local transport priorities. We are taking into consideration the recent proposal from the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands for enhancing rail connectivity between the Midlands and the North-West, including their ideas for private sector partnerships. We will thoroughly review the fiscal position we have inherited before setting out a clear plan to address capacity and connectivity issues in due course.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority will have powers to mandate best practice in infrastructure planning including the use of the Construction Playbook as proposed by the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will combine the functions of the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority. NISTA will bring oversight of strategy and delivery into one organisation, driving more effective delivery of infrastructure across the country.

As announced by the government in October, NISTA will be operational by Spring 2025. NISTA’s governance will be confirmed in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to implement financial mechanisms to support sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in the UK in view of the forthcoming SAF mandate.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

As announced in the King’s Speech, the Government will be laying legislation to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism that will support SAF production in the UK. We expect the legislation for a revenue certainty mechanism to be in place by the end of 2026.

We also announced in the Budget that we will extend the Advanced Fuels Fund for a year to support the development of SAF plants in the UK.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the rate of bus accidents in London leading to personal injury or death, compared with that in other UK cities; and what lessons have they drawn about the impact of the bus franchise model used by Transport for London and its potential application elsewhere.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The department publishes statistics on road casualties based on collisions reported by the police using the STATS19 system. STATS19 groups together buses and coaches as a single vehicle type. Bus operations in London are the responsibility of the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL). TfL publish information about bus incidents on its network, alongside reports on specific bus related safety issues.

Data on the number of bus occupant casualties in London boroughs and other local authorities is published annually as part of the department’s casualty statistics, though direct comparisons are not made between different areas.

Casualty rates are not published at this level due to the unavailability of local authority level traffic data for modes other than cars.

The government will introduce a Buses Bill later this Parliamentary session. This will put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising, strengthened Enhanced Partnership with private operators or local authority ownership. We believe local leaders are best placed to make decisions about bus services in their area.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government why work on the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce was paused in July; what plans they have to take the evidence received by the taskforce up to that point into account in future work; and when they plan to make a final decision on the future of the taskforce, or any successor body.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce was paused in June 2024 so that ministers could assess the work of the taskforce so far, and determine how it fitted into the Government’s priorities for the Department.

However, the work carried out to date on the taskforce was incredibly valuable and remains important to the Department's work. We are committed to progressing work in this area and we will set out more details on next steps for the taskforce in due course.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 25 November (HL2426), how many of the ministerial cars referred to in each of 2023 and 2024 are (1) electric vehicles, and (2) hybrid vehicles.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The number of Government Car Service Vehicles which were Electric and Hybrid on 11th November in the following years was:

1. 2023: 36 battery electric and 53 hybrid.

2. 2024: 36 battery electric and 64 hybrid.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to require London and North Eastern Railway to run direct services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross beyond December.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

There are no plans to require London North Eastern Railway to run direct services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross beyond December 2024. Sunderland will continue to have direct London services provided by Open Access operators. Additionally, improvements to the Metro network will improve connectivity in the North East.

Found: Letter dated 13/11/2024 from Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill to Baroness Randerson regarding response to