Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support and funding, if any, they give to Indigenous Women’s Commissions in the various Colombian Indigenous Tribes (1) to support the legal training the commissions offer about sexual and gender-based violence, (2) to train magistrates in the Indigenous Justice System about gender, and (3) to support the work they do with indigenous women and girls, victims of sexual and gender-based violence.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Colombia is a priority country for the UK's Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Strategy. The UK has supported the Special Jurisdiction for Peace for those documenting cases of sexual violence in conflict. With women's organisations, our support has ensured survivors of sexual violence, including indigenous women, receive justice and support. The UK has also supported Colombia's first Women Peace and Security National Action Plan, ensuring indigenous women's experiences were heard. During his visit to Colombia in November, Lord Collins met civil society and women's organisations to underline UK support.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their Embassy in Bogotá has been monitoring the return of the displaced Wiwa Indigenous Communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, and what is their assessment of the security in that region for indigenous communities.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We remain concerned at the violence facing the Wiwa community. Embassy officials visited and discussed security concerns with Wiwa communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in October 2024, and raised these issues with local authorities, the Ministry of Defence, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace. Supporting Colombia in its commitment to secure a lasting peace is an important priority of this Government. We are working with the Colombian government and other partners to implement the 2016 Peace Agreement, including the Ethnic Chapter. We support the protection of the Wiwa indigenous peoples through our funding of civil society organisations and UN agencies.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether UK aid is being used to address the depletion of important ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We remain concerned about the environmental damage from organised crime in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and Embassy officials have raised this with the Ministry of Environment. Through the Magna Carta Fund, the UK has supported civil society to protect indigenous environmental defenders. This has included the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where we support protection and judicial mechanisms for environmental defenders, and contribute funding to conservation and restoration schemes to protect fragile ecosystems.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will support the 2024 resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems at the United Nations General Assembly First Committee.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
At the UN General Assembly on 5th November 2024 the United Kingdom joined 161 other states in voting in favour of Resolution 1/79/L.77 on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Prime Minister's speech at the UN General Assembly on 26 September, whether they are supportive of an international treaty on Autonomous Weapon Systems.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
International discussions on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) are undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) via a Group of Government Experts (GGE). In 2023 the UK joined consensus on a strengthened mandate for the GGE to "consider and formulate, by consensus, a set of elements of an instrument, without prejudging its nature, and other possible measures to address emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems". The UK remains committed to working constructively and proactively to fulfil that mandate through that process.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scale of innovation in the UK’s defence and security sector, in the light of the success of non-legacy defence contractors in recent US procurement rounds.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises the importance of engaging with non-traditional defence suppliers and is working closely with UK Industry and Academia to identify and invest in innovative technologies that address our most pressing capability challenges.
This includes initiatives such as the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), which is designed to find and fund innovative solutions to defence and security challenges, for example through Regional Defence and Security Clusters (RDSCs)
This Government is committed to bringing forward a Defence Industrial Strategy, working closely with industry to support UK resilience and innovation.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the last Valuation Office Agency business rates revaluation on critical national infrastructure, including airports and power stations.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The last business rates revaluation, which came into effect in England and Wales on 1 April 2023, resulted in a fall in the total rateable values for each of the sectors shown below. Using the examples provided, the figures below demonstrate the overall change in total rateable value (RV) for civil airports and fossil fuel power stations, between the 2017 and 2023 rating lists.
Civil airports.
2017 RV: £392,425,000
2023 RV: £390,997,000
Fossil fuel power stations.
2017 RV: £164,653,000
2023 RV: £138,420,000
For transparency the VOA publishes official statistics for each property class, which show the change in RV. These can be found on the Non-domestic Rating Stock of Properties statistics pages for 2023 and 2024.
The VOA carried out a revaluation of around 2.1 million non-domestic properties in England and Wales to produce the 2023 rating list. The new RVs came into force on 1 April 2023, with the 2023 RV reflecting changes in rental values between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2021.
The government is committed to a fairer business rates system. In our manifesto, we pledged to level the playing field between the high street and online giants, as well as to take steps to incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Health and Safety Executive will have regard to the environmental principles policy statement when formulating its final restriction opinion on the risks to human health and the environment of using lead in ammunition.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive is currently finalising its UK REACH opinion on further action to restrict the use of lead in ammunition and is considering the environmental principles policy statement.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the current state of the global crude oil fleet, and (2) the number of vessels that have 'gone dark' since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport holds data on the number and type of vessels within the world fleet, and as of 31 December 2023 there were 15,700 chemical and oil tankers in the world fleet with a total deadweight tonnage of 714 million tonnes.
The Government are aware of 'going dark' activities conducted by vessels since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, it is not possible to ascertain the exact figure of 'dark vessels' or 'dark periods', as while they can be due to deceptive practices, they may also be for safety reasons in high-risk areas or arise from technical issues and GPS jamming. The Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC) have established a (Russian) Maritime Sanctions Assessment Team focusing on the movements of oil tankers that are assessed to be associated with the movement of Russian oil.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede on 24 July (HL Deb col 501), what further discussions, if any, have taken place about the formulation and timetabling of anti-SLAPP legislation.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises that SLAPPs pose a risk to the integrity of our legal system. We are considering all options for reform in relation to this issue.