Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have received any representations from allies at ministerial or ambassadorial level about specific boycotts undertaken by UK local authorities or other public bodies.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is concerned by instances of local authorities and other public bodies pursuing boycotts and divestment activity. These campaigns can undermine community cohesion and are often inconsistent with UK Government foreign policy. Complete details of representations are not held centrally, but we are not aware of representations about specific boycotts from such sources.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to resume the publication of timeliness data in respect of employment tribunals.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts and Tribunals Service anticipate that publication of employment tribunal timeliness data will be at the end of the calendar year.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and the viability of introducing similar provisions for England.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
With regard to access to the countryside, England has a comprehensive network of public rights of way and the public has the ‘right to roam’ over many areas of wild, open countryside. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 currently provides the public with a right of access to areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England. There are no plans to change this.
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is committed to ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space. As part of this we are completing work on the 2,700 mile King Charles III England Coast Path, and delivering the £16m Access for All programme across our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside to make access to green and blue spaces more inclusive.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any work is underway to prepare for a fiscal event outside of the usual Treasury timetable.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Treasury develops policy throughout the year, in line with the Chancellor’s priorities and regardless of whether a date for a fiscal event has been announced.
The government is required by law to commission the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to produce two forecasts per year and to hold a Budget each fiscal year.
The Chancellor has not announced the date of the next fiscal event.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to their Government Cyber Security Strategy: 2022–2030, published on 25 January 2022, what assessment they have made of the UK Cyber Security Council’s progress in developing consistent taxonomies, standards and pathways for the cyber security profession across the UK.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Cyber Security Council was established to develop professional standards so that cyber security can be appropriately recognised as a profession, similar fields such as accounting and engineering. In October 2023, the Council announced that over 100 cyber security practitioners had been awarded professional titles (including chartered status) and this number is increasing. The Council has used its standards to outline pathways into and through the cyber security profession by creating a Cyber Careers Framework. The Council continues to work with stakeholders in government, industry, and academia to ensure that the standards it sets are relevant, accessible, and demand consistent high quality from cyber security practitioners throughout the UK.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support businesses seeking to adopt process improvement programmes for their organisational cyber-resilience.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is inviting views on a proposed Cyber Governance Code of Practice until 19th March. This is part of a package of action in the £2.6 billion National Cyber Strategy to drive up improvements in organisational cyber resilience. Co-designed with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and industry experts, the Code consolidates critical cyber governance areas for directors' ownership. As part of this package, the NCSC revised their Board Toolkit (BTK) and intends to develop an online Cyber Governance Training Pack for Boards, integrating the Code and BTK. This comprehensive package will help boards ensure that cyber resilience is embedded throughout their organisation, including its people and processes.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of existing cyber-resilience regulations relating to the UK’s critical national infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The National Cyber Strategy 2022 set outcomes for critical national infrastructure (CNI) (in the private and public sector) to better understand & manage cyber risk and minimise the impact of cyber incidents when they occur. In addition, at CyberUK 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister announced specific and ambitious cyber resilience targets for all CNI sectors (public and private sector) to meet by 2025.
Over the past year, the Cabinet Office has been progressing foundational work to support the creation of common but flexible resilience standards across CNI and do more on the assurance of CNI, including cyber assurance preparedness, by 2030. This includes work to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of all regulation that applies to CNI, including (but not limited to) NIS regulations, and to bring more private sector businesses working in CNI within the scope of cyber resilience regulations.
The Government is also committed to ensuring cyber security in the public sector, which is why GovAssure was launched in April 2023. Under GovAssure, government organisations regularly review the effectiveness of their cyber defences against common cyber vulnerabilities and attack methods. We are currently evaluating the first year’s assessments. GovAssure will enable government organisations to accurately assess their levels of cyber resilience across their critical services, highlight priority areas for improvement and provide the Government with a strategic view of cyber capability, risk and resilience across the sector.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what date they expect to receive the Health and Safety Executive's delayed final restriction opinion in respect of the risks of using lead in ammunition to human health and the environment; and whether they will make and publish their decision on the restriction within three months of receipt of the opinion.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK REACH restriction process relating to lead in ammunition was initiated in 2021 by the then Defra Secretary of State, with the agreement of the Scottish and Welsh Governments. This triggered a process under the UK REACH regulations, with the dossier preparation and recommendations process led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE expects to issue their final restriction opinions later this year. The decision to apply any restrictions, or not to do so, will subsequently be made by the Defra Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Ministers, and published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many legacy asylum applications are awaiting an initial decision.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Statistics relating to Illegal Migration’. Provisional data on the legacy applications awaiting an initial decision is published in table IMB_02 of the Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act: data tables to December 2023. The latest data relates to 28 December 2023.
Finalised data for 31 December 2023 is due to be published on 29 February 2024 in table Asy_10a of the Asylum and resettlement summary tables, as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what UK expenditure within Rwanda has been authorised in respect of (1) building the capacity of their asylum system, and (2) amending the UK–Rwanda agreement to mitigate against the risk of refoulement.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As I said to the House at Committee Stage for the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on 19 February, Noble Lords will be aware that we have provided Rwanda with £220 million as part of the economic transformation fund and £20 million as an advance credit to pay for operational costs in advance of flights commencing. The spend on the MEDP with Rwanda so far is £240 million.
We anticipate providing another £50 million in the next financial year. This is not new but follows the same arrangement from 2022.
Rwanda did not ask for money to sign the treaty, nor did we offer it. However, it is right and proper that there is funding to reflect the additional costs in the future. The Government are already committed to disclosing further payments made as part of the economic transformation fund and the per-person relocation costs as part of the department’s annual accounts in the normal way.
During the debate, I committed to write to the Noble Lord Purvis on this matter, and the letter will be published in the House library in due course.