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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to assess whether current investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms within treaties to which the UK is a signatory have produced outcomes that are in the UK’s national interest.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK is party to over 80 Bilateral Investment Treaties and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which contain investment protection and Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions.
The UK is a significant capital exporter and investment protection provisions backed by ISDS provide UK investors with legal protection against arbitrary, discriminatory or unfair treatment and expropriation without compensation. ISDS provides a framework to resolve disputes with host governments through independent arbitration.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the briefing by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, People power under pressure: Human rights defenders & business in 2023, published on 7 May, and its finding that Colombia ranked 8th of the countries that had the highest numbers of attacks on human rights defenders challenging corporate harm in 2023; and what action, if any, they plan to take in response to that finding.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK is committed to promoting responsible corporate behaviour by companies overseas and supporting the implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Human Rights. We remain concerned at the worrying rate of murders of, and threats against, human rights defenders and social leaders in Colombia. In March, Minister Rutley met with the Colombian Vice Foreign Minister to raise our concern over attacks on human rights defenders and reiterate our commitment to supporting efforts to tackle the root causes of violence in Colombia. At the UN Security Council meeting on Colombia in April, we set out our commitment to supporting efforts to tackle the root causes of violence in Colombia.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to support the Colombian Ministry of Equality and Equity, particularly pertaining to its work on reparations for victims of sexual and gender-based violence during conflict.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Colombia is a Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) and Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan focus country. Colombia is current chair of the UK-founded International Alliance on PSVI, a key forum for coordinating global action on conflict-related sexual violence. The UK contributed to the opening of a landmark case to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) from the armed conflict in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), the authoritative transitional justice body providing reparations to SGBV victims. We continue to support this work, as well as assistance to victims and survivors seeking access to justice.
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 - Shadow Minister (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
HM Courts and Tribunals Service anticipate that publication of employment tribunal timeliness data will be at the end of the calendar year.