Lord Bradshaw

Neither the Government nor the House of Lords Appointments Commission endorse any service or company charging for advice on how to make and complete an application to the House of Lords.

The Government committed in its manifesto to reform the process of appointments to the House of Lords to ensure the quality of new appointments and to seek to improve the national and regional balance of the second chamber and is actively considering how this can be achieved.

The impact of competition from overseas manufacturing on the UK's bus manufacturing industry continues to be monitored. The UK bus manufacturing industry has been successful in winning most of the orders for the zero emission bus regional areas (ZEBRA) programme.

Where UK industry believe that they are being injured as the result of unfair foreign trading practices, such as dumped or subsidised imports, they can apply to the Trade Remedies Authority as the UK's independent body responsible for the conduct of trade remedy investigations.

Whilst the Government does not hold data on specific importation dates, the majority of all blades used in wind turbines that have become operational in the last three years in the UK have been manufactured in the UK or supplied from Europe.

The Department does not hold this information. HMRC publishes the value and mass of solar panels imported, by country, on its data portal at www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/ots-custom-table/.

While the UK has no large-scale conventional solar manufacturing, the Solar Roadmap sets out a number of actions to strengthen domestic supply chains, such as considering the case to further support companies looking to scale up the production of innovative solar technologies and balance of system components, and an online directory to make it easier for solar manufacturers to locate their operations in the UK.

We are working closely with Ofgem and National Energy System Operator (NESO) to deliver an electricity network ready for clean power by 2030 and beyond, accelerating infrastructure delivery by reforming planning, regulation and supply chains. The same is true for electricity storage where government has set out capacity ranges in the Clean Power Action Plan and has introduced measures to support this, such as the long duration electricity storage (LDES) cap and floor investment support scheme.

The Environment Agency assesses all reported pollution incidents and targets officer attendance at those posing the highest risk to the environment with 71% of serious and significant water industry pollution incidents being attended in the Thames Area. Attendance in person is not the Environment Agency's only response to reported pollution incidents. For those incidents with low environmental risk, advice and guidance may be provided remotely, and in some cases partners such as the fire service will respond where they are best placed to mitigate the impacts of an incident. The Environment Agency expects a similar level of pollution incident attendance in 2025 but will keep this under regular review.

The Environment Agency recognises that more needs to be done to hold polluters to account and is investing in 500 additional staff to increase regulation of the water industry. The Environment Agency aims to attend all confirmed serious and significant pollution incidents and to increase its attendance at low risk water company pollution incidents.

The Secretary of State has allowed Thames Water to finalise its Water Resources Management Plan, which includes the Abingdon Reservoir (South East Strategic Reservoir Option) proposal. The South East Strategic Reservoir Option meets the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project criteria and would need development consent, under the Planning Act 2008, as well as relevant environmental permits before it can be constructed.

Development consent decisions are subject to public examination undertaken by an independent Planning Inspector and require approval by the Secretary of State. An Environmental Impact Assessment will be required, showing the potential impacts and how they will be mitigated to inform the decisions.

At Draft Determination, Ofwat propose to allow Thames Water to undertake a significant investment programme to improve the environment over the 2025-30 period worth £1.9 billion. This includes £1.1 billion to reduce nutrient pollution and £517 million to reduce the use of storm overflows, including around the Thames and its tributaries. Ofwat is considering Thames Water’s response to DDs and will make Final Determinations later this year.

Sewage infrastructure upgrades are the responsibility of the water company. As part of the Environment Act 2021, a new duty has been created for water companies in England to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs).

These plans will help sewerage companies to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues. The plans will bring together various stakeholders including local authorities and industry regulators.

Natural England commissioned a review in 2023 to assess the loss of agricultural land to development, with a particular focus on Best and Most Versatile (BMV) land between 2013 and 2022. The report is expected to be published online by early 2025.

The latest evidence on the effect of the Elizabeth Line on housing growth and access to employment can be found in the 2024 and 2025 post-opening evaluation reports. Both reports can be found on the Transport for London website.

In summary, the evaluation evidence finds that the Elizabeth Line has had positive impact on both employment growth and housing growth, although the impacts have not been uniform across all areas. The evaluation finds that between 2015 and 2023, employment growth around Elizabeth line stations consistently outperformed the total London average (25% growth around Elizabeth line stations compared to 14% in London). The growth in jobs and connectivity has been accompanied by a surge in housebuilding. 71,000 new homes have been delivered around Elizabeth line stations since 2015. By 2024, the residential property stock around inner London Elizabeth line stations increased by 19% compared to 10% for all inner London.

No post-opening evaluation of Worcestershire Parkway Station has as yet been carried out. However, the measured impact on housing and access to employment of the station are assessed as:

• Housing: Strategic growth area planned for up to 10,000 homes and a new town centre; initial phase aims for 5,000 dwellings and 50 hectares of employment land by 2041.

• Employment: Mixed-use development includes logistics and office space; Midlands Rail Hub proposals could add 140 weekly services, expanding access to jobs in Birmingham, Cardiff, and beyond.

In line with the Department for Transport’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) Unit A1.3, User and Provider Impacts, costs to existing transport users due to the construction of a road investment scheme are recorded in the appraisal. The impact of delays during construction and maintenance are estimated using the same transport models used to predict the overall traffic effects of the scheme. Bespoke software packages, as described in TAG, are used to value the delays to transport users using standard economic parameters.

The Transport Economic Efficiency (TEE) table, produced for all road investment schemes, allows for the user delays during construction and maintenance to be recorded alongside the travel time benefits of the road investment scheme, to ensure that the economic appraisal accounts for both the benefits and disbenefits for users of the road investment scheme.

The forecast effects and latest measured effects of the Elizabeth Line are set out in two post-opening evaluation reports published in 2024 and 2025. Both reports can be found on the Transport for London website.

In summary, the evaluation evidence finds that the Elizabeth Line has had positive impact on both employment growth and housing growth, although the impacts have not been uniform across all areas. The evaluation finds that between 2015 and 2023, employment growth around Elizabeth line stations consistently outperformed the total London average (25% growth around Elizabeth line stations compared to 14% in London). The growth in jobs and connectivity has been accompanied by a surge in housebuilding. 71,000 new homes have been delivered around Elizabeth line stations since 2015. By 2024, the residential property stock around inner London Elizabeth line stations increased by 19% compared to 10% for all inner London.

The forecast effects of the opening of the Worcestershire Parkway Station were expected to be: (i) reducing road congestion and road vehicle carbon emissions by reducing road vehicle usage; (ii) address Worcestershire's poor accessibility to and from London arising from the limited frequency and length of journey time of North Cotswold Line services; (iii) transform access to the rail network for Worcestershire passengers; and (iv) tackle Worcestershire's exclusion from the Cross Country network (Bristol-Birmingham-North West/North East).

No post-opening evaluation of Worcestershire Parkway Station has as yet been carried out. However, latest measured impacts of the station are assessed as:

• Passenger numbers: Over 2 million journeys in five years, far exceeding forecasts.

• Carbon impact: Achieved carbon neutrality within five years; saves ~1.8 million kgCO₂e annually.

• Economic and transport role: Significant modal shift to rail, reducing congestion and supporting sustainable travel; demand strong enough to trigger plans for car park expansion and service enhancements.

Transport appraisals informed by HM Treasury’s Green Book and DfT’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) take account of delays in the commissioning of road schemes via a few mechanisms.

As set out in the Transport Business Case Guidance, the established business case process is designed to be flexible, and responsive to evidence that emerges throughout the duration of the proposal’s development. This includes reflecting emerging evidence on project timelines in the analysis that informs the economic dimension.

TAG contains detailed guidance on setting an appropriate appraisal period, running from the scheme opening date. We intend to include plans to expand this guidance to make it more helpful for promoters assessing potential changes in opening dates, as part of our upcoming Appraisal, Modelling and Evaluation Strategy (AMES), to be published early next year.

Where scheme delivery is expected to take longer, TAG also contains advice on how to appraise impacts to existing transport users that occur during the construction of schemes.

Regarding accidents, TAG contains extensive guidance and tools to assist promoters in assessing the likely accident and safety impacts associated with a scheme. As with all TAG methods, these approaches are kept under review, and updated with robust evidence where appropriate.

The approach recommended to assess benefits from road investment schemes is set out in DfT’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG), which is based on HMT’s Green Book Guidance. This sets out the best practice guidance on assessing and evaluating policies, programmes and projects. The guidance is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect new evidence.

How long benefits may last will be very much dependent on the nature of the scheme, the local area and the strategic objectives being sought. TAG recommends, therefore, that infrastructure schemes should do bespoke analysis using transport modelling. These models, such as the types described in TAG, allow benefits to be calculated based on various behavioural responses expected. For instance, where infrastructure improvements decrease the cost, time and inconvenience of using that infrastructure, transport users may decide to use that infrastructure, change their destinations or activities, or change their mode of travel.

TAG recommends an appraisal period that is linked to the life of the infrastructure asset. This allows accounting for the foreseeable costs and benefits over that time horizon, where they are expected to occur. The appraisal period is usually for 60 years after scheme opening, which is used reasonably consistently in the sector. Allowances may be made for infrastructure that is expected to have longer-lasting benefits and costs after 60 years. TAG recommends that, in such cases, the analysis may cover up to a 100-year appraisal period from scheme opening as a sensitivity test. This is the recommended treatment, since large uncertainty is a feature of the very-long-term, and costs and benefits are heavily discounted in this period.

The benefits of road travel, in particular transport user benefits, can indeed deteriorate for each road user as congestion reoccurs. TAG methods allow for this, utilising the modelling previously mentioned. The “counterfactual” position is important here. This is the state of transport conditions in the case where there is no investment. Benefits are counted across the entire transport network, including non-road travel. Even where the road in question may reach the levels of congestion seen today, benefits, albeit potentially weaker, are still expected to occur even over long-time horizons, when considering the operation of the whole network. For example, traffic may reroute from previous local bottlenecks, some decongestion on public transport services may occur, and so on. In the counterfactual, people would effectively see higher costs/time/inconvenience of reaching the destinations they desire, or indeed become ‘priced off’, the transport system providing them with lower access to opportunity. Again, local conditions are important in understanding the precise source of such benefits.

The government is committed to creating a level playing field for all sectors by ensuring that everyone pays the right amount of tax at the right time. Like all other businesses, those which exclusively accept cash must meet their tax obligations.

Cash is a legitimate means of paying for goods and services, but sometimes cash payments/transactions are used to deliberately facilitate tax evasion.

HMRC’s approach to tax evasion aims to tackle current non-compliance and change future behaviours. Their activities include national campaigns and specialist task forces that incorporate intensive bursts of targeted activity in high risk trade sectors and locations across the UK. HMRC also work with customer groups and third parties, such as other local and central Government agencies, to reduce error and fraud within these sectors. This includes providing customer education highlighting the importance of keeping accurate records.

HMRC take reports of suspected tax evasion seriously and operate a confidential Fraud Hotline.

The Government will continue to consider options to tackle cash-facilitated evasion.

Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level. We will not stand for this.

Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities including where their officers are based.

However, we are committed to harnessing the collective power of Government, law enforcement and businesses to bear down on retail crime. That is why we are backing the Tackling Retail Crime Together strategy, jointly developed by the police and the private sector. This collaborative approach brings together industry knowledge and experience with policing powers, fostering the local and national partnerships that will make a real difference in local areas.

But we want to go further and faster, which is why the Home Secretary recently announced a “Winter of Action”, building on the success of our Safer Streets Summer campaign to tackle town centre crime including shop theft and anti-social behaviour. We are in the final stages of preparing the Winter of Action. Our aim is to ensure that it reflects the shared priorities of all our partners to enable a truly collaborative approach to delivery.

The Home Office does not collect information on the number of police officers actively monitoring road and traffic driving standards.

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the primary function of police officers, as at 31 March each year, in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

Data on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in road policing functions, which includes “traffic units”, “traffic wardens”, “vehicle recovery”, “casualty reduction partnership” and “road policing command team and support overheads” have been collected since March 2015, and can be found in Table F1 of the data tables accompanying each publication. The Home Office do not hold directly comparable data on the number of police officers employed in road policing roles for years prior to 2015.

Table 1 shows the number of FTE police officers employed in road policing roles in England and Wales between 31 March 2015 and 31 March 2024. As at 31 March 2024, there were 4,215 FTE police officers employed in road policing roles, a decrease of 19.5% (1,022 FTE) compared to March 2015 when there were 5,237 FTE police officers employed in road policing roles. The proportion of police officers in road policing roles has also been declining since 2015.

Table 1: Number and proportion of FTE police officers employed in road policing roles, as at 31 March 2015 to 2024, England and Wales

The proportions have been calculated excluding police officers recorded under the ‘Other’ function category, ‘National Policing’ functions or where the function was not known. The ‘Other’ category includes police officers on maternity/paternity leave, career break, full-time education or on suspension; and those on long-term leave (sickness, compassionate special or unpaid).

This Government places great importance upon our agricultural land and food production. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out how the best and most versatile agricultural land should be reflected in planning policies and decisions. The Framework is also clear that where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.