Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 29 March (HL6810), whether they will provide additional funding for local highway authorities to address (1) the backlog of 4,000 applications for historic rights of way, and (2) the 41,000 miles of potentially unrecorded routes discovered by the Ramblers and its volunteers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, the majority of which is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities and allocate funding accordingly.
The Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reforms package which will reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process for new rights of way to be added to the legal record for everyone to enjoy. The reforms will streamline processes for recording rights of way with landowners, local authorities and users benefitting from a faster, less expensive, less confrontational and less bureaucratic process.
Local authorities will have powers to reject weakly evidenced applications, ignore irrelevant objections and agree appropriate modifications directly with landowners. Local authorities will have powers to correct obvious administrative errors on the definitive map via a significantly shortened process.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed Protect Duty on parish and town councils in England; and what new funding they intend to provide to local authorities to support their compliance with that legislation.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Martyn’s Law, formerly known as the Protect Duty, will be published as a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny this Spring. The Home Office is acutely conscious that this Bill must be proportionate, ensuring not to place undue burdens on local authorities, including parish and town councils, whilst balancing against the threat the UK faces from terrorism.
Alongside the draft Bill, the Home Office will publish an impact assessment. A further, updated, impact assessment will be completed prior to any formal introduction of the Bill. The Home Office will also undertake a new burdens assessment and assess any requirements arising from it.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the total cost of dependent carer’s allowance payments to councillors who serve on local authorities in England.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Publishing councillor allowances is a matter for local authorities.
Individual authorities are required to publish the total sum of all councillor allowances, which includes the dependents' carers' allowance, every year as set out in The Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide additional funding for local highway authorities to address (1) the backlog of 4,000 applications for historic rights of way, and (2) the 41,000 miles of potentially unrecorded routes discovered by the Ramblers and its volunteers.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Funding for local authorities is a matter for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on their commitment to ensure that everyone in England is 15 minutes' walk from green and blue spaces of their decision to re-impose a deadline for recording historic rights of way.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in England can access green and blue spaces within a 15-minute walk as outlined in our Environmental Improvement Plan. The rights of way reforms package will reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process for new rights of way to be added to the legal record for everyone to enjoy.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the threshold made under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 below which smaller authorities are exempt from routine external audit and are instead subject to the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government has committed to review the threshold for audit requirements relating to smaller authorities as part of the Redmond Review and is considering these requirements within the context of its broader programme of work on local audit.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the consent regime for the installation of solar panels on Listed Buildings.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In the Government's British Energy Security Strategy, published last year, we committed to reviewing the practical planning barriers that households can face when installing energy efficiency measures, including in conservation areas and listed buildings. An announcement on the outcome of the review will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 1 December (HL3482), whether they can provide a breakdown of the £194 million grant by (1) hydrogen fuel cells, (2) other electric battery technologies, (3) hydrogen combustion, (4) synthetic liquid fuels, and (5) biofuels.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A breakdown of ATI Programme R&D grants awarded, by individual project, are set out in the table below. Co-funded R&D project supported through the ATI Programme typically involve a range of collaborators including industry partners, universities and research organisations (the ATI Programme has an average of 4 partners per project). Further project information and descriptions can be found on UKRI’s Gateway to Research (gtr.ukri.org) and the ATI website (ati.org.uk)
ACCEL (Rolls-Royce) – battery-electric powertrain | £3.4m |
AEDD (Vertical Aerospace) – diagnostic charge device for aircraft batteries | £1.2m |
AEMTA (Safran) – electro-mechanical systems for moving electrical motors and machines | £3.1m |
AEPEC (Safran) – electrical power systems | £10.8m |
AEROBAT (Rolls-Royce) – battery modules for all-electric propulsion systems | £7.3m |
AeroMC (Safran) – electric and hybrid propulsion and power controls | £14.9m |
E-HAV1 (Hybrid Air Vehicles) – electric propulsion system technologies | £1.1m |
EMPAS (QinetiQ) – electric motors for jet engines | £1.2m |
Feasibility Analysis and Modelling of MgB2 Superconducting Electrical Power Machines (Epoch Wires) – electric machines for future aircraft | £0.25m |
FRESSON (Cranfield Aerospace Solutions) – electric (hydrogen fuel cell) propulsion system | £9.6m |
H2GEAR (GKN Aerospace) – Liquid hydrogen (fuel cell) propulsion system | £27.2m |
HEPBAS (Electroflight) – electric drivetrain and battery systems | £0.4m |
HEPBAS (Electroflight) – electric propulsion battery systems | £0.35m |
HIDASP (MicroLink Devices) – solar fuel cells for electric aircraft | £3.0m |
HYFLY (Airbus) – airframe integration for hybrid electric demonstrator | £14m |
HYFLYER (ZeroAvia) – hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system | £2.7m |
HYFLYER 2 (ZeroAvia) – hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system | £12.3m |
IDP (Vertical Aerospace) – key technologies for battery-electric flying taxi | £11.9m |
INCEPTION (Blue Bear) – all electric propulsion module using batteries and fuel cells | £2.9m |
IPCCA (Collins) – architecture for motor drive electronics | £2.4m |
IPPA (Airbus) – identify key technologies enabling more electrical aircraft | £4.2m |
LACS (Blue Dolphin UK) | £0.32m |
LAMPS (Collins Aerospace) – power electronics and motors | £1.3m |
MEGAFLIGHT (Rolls-Royce) – propulsion system for hybrid electric demonstrator | £17.2m |
SMPP (Safran) – electrical systems for more electric aircraft | £12.2m |
SREEV (Advanced Innovative Engineering) – Hybrid power units for UAVs | £0.53m |
UTOPEA (Evolito/YASA) – electric motors and power electronics | £5.5m |
ZEST-1 (Airbus) – initial steps towards large hydrogen-powered aircraft | £19.5m |
ZIP (Airbus) – key technologies for high altitude satellites | £3.6m |
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial assistance they have given to (1) businesses, or (2) academic institutions, in connection with low carbon aviation in the form of (a) grants, (b) loans, (c) guarantees or indemnities, (d) acquisitions of shares or securities, (e) undertakings or assets, or (f) incurring expenditure, for the benefit of the body assisted in the creation of (i) hydrogen fuel cells, (ii) other electric battery technologies, (iii) hydrogen combustion, (iv) synthetic liquid fuels, and (v) biofuels.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government co-invests in mid-stage R&D, with industry, to develop new ultra-efficient and zero-carbon aircraft technologies through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme. Since 2013, the ATI Programme has committed R&D grants to 29 industry-led collaborative projects on new forms of propulsion or fuels totalling £194m. Industry will co-invest £178m alongside these grants. The R&D projects cover a range of technologies but are primarily focused on aircraft propulsion systems involving hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, and electric motors and machines. Each project involves a range of collaborators including industry partners, universities and research organisations. Grants through the ATI Programme have also been provided to develop aircraft gas turbine engines, which have included work packages to test synthetic fuels or biofuels. We have not been able to isolate the cost of this element of research within large projects, so have not included it in the figures set out above.
In order to explore the potential for zero-carbon emission flight, the Government also provided a £15m grant to the ATI-led FlyZero project. This in-depth research study, which was completed in March 2022, found green liquid hydrogen offers the greatest potential to power future zero-carbon emission aircraft.
To kickstart a domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry, the Government has made £227m available, since 2014, to support the development of advanced fuel plants. This includes investing in 8 SAF plants through the Green Fuels, Green Skies competition and more recently launching the £165m Advanced Fuels Fund. The Government has separately committed £12m to establish a UK SAF Clearing House to support the testing and certification of new SAF and £1m to run the first-ever passenger aircraft flight powered by 100% SAF, between the UK and the US, through the Net Zero Transatlantic Flight Fund. These investments are coupled with the £400m UK Government partnership with Breakthrough Energy Catalyst into emerging climate technologies, including SAF.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to regulate, and (2) to supervise, farmers to ensure that no products from economically viable land, that would otherwise be used for food, are used as feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuels.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As set out in July, in the Government Response to the consultation "Mandating the use of sustainable aviation fuels in the UK", to count towards and be eligible for reward under any UK mandate for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), SAF must not be produced from food or feed crops.
While growing crops for the biofuel sector offers farmers more routes to market for their harvest and flexibility in their crop rotations, consideration must also be given to land biodiversity or carbon-store value.
HM Government’s Food Strategy aims to broadly maintain the current level of food that we produce domestically and to boost production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities. We announced in the Food Strategy the intention to publish a Land Use Framework for England in 2023, which will set out land-use change principles to ensure food production is balanced alongside climate, environment and infrastructure outcomes.