Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the replacement for the Astute-class SSN Royal Navy submarines will take the form of another submarine.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The programme to deliver the first of Class of an SSN Replacement for the Astute Class submarines is currently in the Programme Definition and Design Phase, which aims to identify potential capability solution choices. Therefore, it is too early to determine what the capability solution will be.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the expected dates for the Dreadnought-class of SSBN submarines to be in service.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
As set out in the 2019 Annual Update to Parliament on the UKs future nuclear deterrent, the Dreadnought submarine programme is on track for the First of Class, HMS Dreadnought, to enter service in the early 2030s. The planned in-service dates of submarines are withheld as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Invitation for Proposals for a Single Tier of Local Government issued to principal authorities in Cumbria by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 9 October, what plans they have to consider proposals that cross existing county boundaries.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Secretary of State will carefully consider any proposal for single tier local government received in response to the invitation issued on 9 October 2020 on the basis of the longstanding criteria for establishing unitary councils, namely that, if implemented, it must be likely to improve local government in the area, commands a good deal of local support overall across the area, and lead to unitary councils covering a credible geography.
The statutory Guidance accompanying the invitation states that in formulating a proposal an authority should take into account the impact of any proposed unitary authorities on other local boundaries and geographies; if the area of any proposed unitary authority crosses existing police force and fire and rescue authority boundaries, the proposal should include an assessment of what the impact would be on the police forces and/or fire and rescue authorities and include the views of the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners and Fire and Rescue Authorities.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What assessment he has made of the effect on the work of the Global Coalition against Daesh of the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The inglorious end of Daesh’s leader is certainly an important milestone in the fight against this death cult but as reports of a new leader emerge, it is becoming clear that it is not the end of Daesh. Daesh still poses a threat to the UK, our interests, values and people. We will continue to adapt and strengthen our efforts to prevent Daesh carrying out terrorist attacks, spreading its poisonous narrative, financing its wicked operations and recruiting supporters. We will continue to work with coalition partners to end Daesh once and for all.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish plans to introduce a bottle return scheme in England and Wales similar to that introduced by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The consultation on proposals to introduce a deposit return scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland closed on 13 May. Policy officials are currently analysing the responses; the analysis of responses and Government response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people applied for compensation under the pleural plaques compensation scheme in each parliamentary constituency; and what proportion of those people settled (a) in part and (b) in full.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The pleural plaques compensation scheme ran between 2 August 2010 and 1 August 2011 and was administered by the Ministry of Justice. A total of 9511 applications were made to the scheme, of which 9018 were successful. Applications were not recorded by parliamentary constituency.
The scheme operated as an extra-statutory scheme, making £5000 payments on an ex-gratia basis to applicants who fulfilled the scheme’s criteria, namely that they were individuals who had begun, but not resolved, a legal claim for compensation for pleural plaques at the time of the House of Lords ruling in October 2007 in the case of Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd [2007] UKHL 39. That ruling had held that the occurrence of pleural plaques is not a compensatable disease.
Eligibility for the scheme was limited to that category of people as they would have had an understandable expectation of receiving compensation when they began their claim, an expectation which would not have been shared by those diagnosed later.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals were deported by another country to the UK in each of the last five years for which records are available.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We do not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK nationals were deported back to the UK in each of the last five years for which records are available.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We do not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work on 25 February 2019, Official Report, from which areas of departmental work the 1,200 staff assigned to correct employment and support allowance underpayments are being transferred.
Answered by Sarah Newton
In 2018/19, across the Department, we increased our resources by 4,209 FTE to manage all demands including LEAP exercises. We have not stopped any priority work to carry out the ESA underpayments exercise.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the advice provided by (a) the Post Office and (b) government agencies to holders of the Post Office Card Account on their options to transfer payments to other sources, including any changes to that advice in the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Post Office has not issued any advice, written or otherwise, to Post Office card account users over the past five years regarding options to transfer onto alternative products.
The DWP has written to customers who use the Post Office card accounts to encourage them to receive payment into a mainstream account. This is part of our policy of reducing reliance on payment exception services and promoting financial inclusion through the use of mainstream accounts. Mainstream accounts offer more features and reduce the cost to the taxpayer. One of the key messages we highlight, is that 99% of banks’ personal accounts enable customers to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches.
For those claimants and pensioners who are unable to open a mainstream account, the DWP will implement an alternative payment service that allows users to obtain cash payments in their local area (including suburban and rural locations) before the end of the Post Office card account contract in November 2021.
All DWP letters provide a free telephone number where the customer can call to discuss their payment options further and change their method of payment over the telephone. A copy of these letters will be placed in the House of Commons Library.
As we approach the end of the Post Office card account contract, the DWP and POL will work together to issue joint guidance on Post Office card account user’s options, to transfer to other payments methods.