Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the White Nile river remains open as a humanitarian supply corridor into Upper Nile in South Sudan.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has consistently called for an immediate ceasefire, the protection of civilians, and the safety and security of aid workers in our engagement with the Government of South Sudan and other regional partners. On 27 March, alongside the Troika and other likeminded partners, we called for de-escalation following rising violence. The Minister of State for International Development raised the issue of humanitarian access when she met South Sudan's Foreign Minister on 16 April in the margins of the Sudan Conference, and our Ambassador in Juba called for a ceasefire when he met with South Sudan's President Kiir on 14 May. The UK continues to support our UN partners to advocate for access to those displaced by the current conflict and to continue to deliver a humanitarian response in Upper Nile.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to introduce specific legal protection for chalk streams.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Chalk Streams will be prioritised as part of the record £11 billion of investment to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows in England and Wales during Price Review 2024, with 75% of such High Priority Sites needing to be improved by 2035 and the rest by 2045. By 2050, we expect no storm overflow spill to cause any adverse ecological harm and spill no more than 10 times per year.
The Government is committed to securing better environmental outcomes alongside securing the development we need and is considering how best to reform environmental assessment processes with this objective in mind.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support farmers in the light of dry conditions this spring.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food supply chain that has frequently demonstrated its ability to adapt when required.
The Met Office’s 3-month weather outlook for May, June, and July indicates near average rainfall is most likely for the UK but with a slightly higher than normal chance of wet weather. Defra is aware of the current concerns around the ongoing dry conditions. However, it is too early to understand the impact of this period of dry weather on livestock, horticulture and crop plantings, and the subsequent impact this may have on yield and quality later in the year at harvest time.
We continue to engage and work closely with the industry and to monitor the weather impacts on domestic food production, through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG), which was established by Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor the UK market across all key agricultural commodities.
The Government is also engaged with research on climate change and adaptation measures through our work with the Met Office Hadley Centre Food Farming and Natural Environment (FFNE) service.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 5Rights Children and AI Design Code, and what steps they are taking to assess the impact of AI on children.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Government recognises the importance of this issue and welcomes proposals on how to ensure technology keeps children safe. The Government engages with a range of stakeholders on the impact of AI, including child safety organisations and experts.
Regarding the impact of AI, the majority of AI systems are regulated by existing regulators, a range of which have specific measures for protecting children. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Act are for children, who will be protected from both illegal content, and legal content which is nonetheless harmful to children, including where that content is AI generated.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the advice to parents from primary schools in St Albans to ban smartphones for children under 14 years old; and whether they plan to ban smartphones for children under 14 years old nationwide.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The government is committed to keeping children safe online. The Department for Education’s ‘Mobile Phones in Schools’ guidance is clear that schools should prohibit the use of devices with smart technology throughout the school day, including during lessons, transitions and breaks. We expect all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.
We are focused on implementing the Online Safety Act which will protect children from both illegal and legal but nonetheless harmful content, including pornography and violent content. We continue to keep under review all evidence of options to protect children online.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Gambling Commission complies with its obligations under the Gambling Act 2005, including taking regulatory action against operators if necessary to protect vulnerable people from harm.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Gambling Commission is an independent regulator, but as the sponsoring department we have a number of channels available to assess the Commission’s delivery against its objectives and duties, including regular meetings with the Commission’s senior leadership. There are a range of regulatory interventions that the Commission is able to make, and the outcomes of this regulatory action are published on its website. Since 2016/17, the Commission has taken over 100 enforcement actions, and this has resulted in more than £207 million in fines and regulatory settlements being paid by gambling operators.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to redefine affordable housing according to local incomes instead of market rates.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government believes that affordable housing must be affordable to local people and address local needs. This is why we amended the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to give local authorities greater flexibility to deliver the right mix of affordable homes to respond to housing need in their areas, while also making clear that they should address the particular needs of those who require Social Rent homes.
To reflect the government’s commitment to prioritise the building of new Social Rent homes, we amended the definition of affordable housing in the NPPF to provide a separate definition of Social Rent – rather than referring to it as just one of a number of types of affordable housing for rent. We have also committed that new investment to succeed the current Affordable Homes Programme will have a particular focus on delivering Social Rent homes.
We will consider what further steps we can take to support social and affordable housing as part of our intent to produce a set of national policies for decision making in 2025.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce cross-subsidy between rural and urban areas for franchised bus services where routes exist that are not themselves profitable.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Local authorities can choose to subsidise bus services, including those that span urban and rural areas, where commercial provision alone is not sufficient to meet the needs of local communities, and where it represents value for money. This is a decision for local authorities to make.
Under franchised bus services, the local authority can have responsibility for all elements of the bus network including routes, timetables and fares. There are many different options available for franchising for local authorities and cross subsidy between profitable and non-profitable routes is a possible feature of some models.
The Government is investing in bus and has committed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. Hertfordshire County Council has been allocated £12.2 million of this funding, helping to improve bus services across the area. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they plan to take to reduce microplastic pollution.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the importance of addressing contaminants in soil, including microplastic pollution. To tackle microplastics in soil, we need to tackle plastics up-stream. The plastic problem is one of management, not removal or eradication, to reduce, reuse, and recycle the material we have and not let it escape into, and damage, our environment.
The Environment Agency is supporting collaborative research which will support future policy and regulatory decisions on microplastics. This includes six investigations with the water industry under the Chemical Investigations Programme, considering generation of microplastics within wastewater treatment works through breakdown of plastic equipment, emerging sewage treatment technologies, and pathways of microplastics from biosolids applied to land to soils and groundwater. The Environment Agency are also conducting research into tyre wear particles and associated chemicals which is due to be published later this year, and supporting National Highways on research into microplastics generated during driving.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report published on 22 April by Friends of the Earth International, Climate and biodiversity in freefall, particularly the finding that 78 per cent of the top 50 carbon offsetting projects are likely ineffective or worthless.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The UK is a strong advocate for carbon pricing and a pioneer on carbon markets, through domestic action and our support for the uptake of pricing and market schemes globally.
Harnessed properly, carbon markets can help deliver global climate ambition, mobilise much-needed finance to tackle climate change, and deliver cost-effective abatement and wider development benefits. They can play a crucial role in protecting forests internationally and in the UK.
Stakeholders have called for greater clarity on what constitutes a high-quality carbon credit and how credits should be used. Therefore, in November last year the UK Government published a set of guiding principles for high-integrity voluntary carbon and nature markets and in April this year we launched a consultation into steps that can be taken to implement these.
Through our climate finance programmes the UK has helped address the challenges linked with ‘project-based’ forest credits , for example, the ‘leakage’ of carbon emissions. We have worked with countries to develop jurisdictional approaches to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), which cover entire countries or states, allowing greater transparency and the generation of higher-integrity carbon credits.