Ebola: Sierra Leone

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Trefgarne

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend is absolutely right. Having community organisations on the ground was key in enabling us to try to restrain as much of the disease as we possibly could. I can reassure my noble friend that that commitment remains and we will continue to work on the ground with community groups, on a programme of intensive community engagement that began in October 2014. As my noble friend knows, we were among the first to be on the ground to respond to the crisis.

[Lord Trefgarne (Con)]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware of the British Army nurse who travelled to west Africa to treat Ebola patients, contracted the disease herself, was brought back to the United Kingdom and restored to health and has now insisted on returning once more? Does not that demonstrate devotion to duty of a quite extraordinary kind?

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend is absolutely right. We must of course pay tribute to all those people who put themselves at risk on the front line, including our military personnel and staff of the NHS, among many who have gone there and worked on the ground, putting their own lives at risk. We must also pay tribute to the people of Sierra Leone themselves, who were very much instrumental in being able to restrain this outbreak.

Energy: Hydropower

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Trefgarne

Wednesday 10th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Trefgarne]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the cost per kilowatt-hour (before subsidy) of generating electricity by hydropower; and how many sites within the United Kingdom have been authorised for this purpose.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Baroness Verma)]

My Lords, government records indicate that around 625 sites are currently operating in the UK. For large-scale installations over 5 megawatt capacity, the central estimate for standard run-off river hydro plants is 12.8 pence per kilowatt-hour. There are currently no published cost estimates for smaller hydro plants under 5 megawatts, but we expect to publish generation costs later this year for a range of renewable technologies drawing on evidence used in the renewables obligation and feed-in tariff.

[Lord Trefgarne]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the Environment Agency has authorised several thousand very small sites for the purposes of electrical generation to the dismay of the angling community—and, indeed, the fish?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the angling community, and I agree with him that it is a very important and large community. When it raises concerns, we take them very seriously. But the trust is fully engaged in ongoing work to review the Environment Agency’s hydropower good practice guidelines.