Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the solar panels imported over the last three years were made in China; and whether they have plans to increase the proportion of solar panels manufactured domestically.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government by what date they expect the National Grid to have sufficiently updated capacity to use or store the power available from renewable sources.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the blades used for wind turbines imported into the UK over the last three years have been made in (1) China, and (2) the rest of the world.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions there have been between police forces in England and Wales and retailers about levels of shop theft in town centres; and whether there are any plans to base police officers in town centre stores with facilities provided by retailers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the buses purchased with government assistance under the Bus Service Improvement Plans are purchased from (1) UK manufacturers, and (2) China.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport provides funding to local transport authorities (LTAs) to support the delivery of their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs). Decisions on how this funding is used to improve services for passengers are for local authorities to make. The majority of projects delivered by LTAs using capital BSIP funding are used on bus infrastructure, such as bus priority schemes. The Department does not track the manufacturers of buses procured using BSIP funding.
The Government is committed to ensuring the UK remains a leader in bus manufacturing, and earlier this year launched the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel. The Panel brings together industry experts and local leaders to achieve three key objectives of supporting growth in UK bus manufacturing, developing a pipeline of future bus orders and prioritising passenger-centric bus design.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 16 October (HL10758), when assessing the benefits of new road schemes how long those benefits are expected to last, and how loss of benefits are accounted for if congestion reoccurs.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 16 October (HL10758), how they assess the benefits of a new non-road transport project with a potential life of up to a century, what network benefits are accounted for in that assessment, and how new jobs and housing developments are included in such infrastructure planning.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
DfT assesses the benefits and costs of transport interventions using our published Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG), which is based on HMT’s Green Book Guidance. This covers a wide range of social, environmental and economic impacts of transport investment. We use transport models to understand how non-road interventions will interact with the existing network, and the pattern of passenger demand. This will reflect users changing their route or mode of travel to make use of the new project.
Our forecasts of travel demand, on which these appraisals are based, take account of the expected locations of housing and jobs in the future. For major schemes, we also model how land uses may change in response to the investment – for example, housing developments near new or improved railway stations. There is a significant body of evidence linking transport connectivity and jobs, which our appraisals take account of. Currently, this tends to be small component of appraised project benefits. We are undertaking research to improve how we predict and value transport’s impact on unemployment, which is likely to increase magnitude of these appraised benefits in deprived areas.
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of pollution incidents in the Thames Valley were attended by an official from the Environment Agency in 2024, and by what percentage they expect these inspections to rise in 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of current surface access arrangements between London and Heathrow, and whether these arrangements make the best use of available infrastructure capacity.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Heathrow Airport has a wide range of surface access infrastructure, including rail services through Heathrow Express and Elizabeth Line trains, underground services on the Picadilly line, a wide network of bus and coach connections as well as being close to the M25 and M4 motorways. This network supported 83.9 million passengers to access the airport in 2024.
The most recent Heathrow Surface Access Strategy covers 2022 – 2026 and sets out how Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) supports passengers, staff and freight to arrive at the airport, including the continued use of available infrastructure and sets out any new requirements. Any expansion proposals for Heathrow Airport are currently subject to the 2018 Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which sets out targets for increasing public transport mode share and reducing staff car journeys which the proposals will need to meet. These targets will be reviewed as part of any future ANPS review, and the department will engage with promoters of a third runway to ensure future surface access arrangements make effective use of capacity to the airport.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that third rail extension projects include financial assessments of safety concerns, to ensure compliance with the Office for Road and Rail.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We expect Network Rail to undertake an assessment of the costs and benefits for all its schemes, including safety aspects.
It has been encouraging to see recently that the new Chief Inspector at ORR has not closed his mind to further extensions of third rail electrification.