Industrial Strategy: Local Growth
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
I agree with the noble Lord that productivity will be key to our success going forward. He and I come from part of the UK that needs to expand its productivity and key to that will be developing the skills agenda, which I set out in the previous answer.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked—a compliment to the Minister, who consistently manages to answer them all in the time allotted.
Audit and Corporate Governance
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
My noble friend makes an interesting point. Although this White Paper does not include proposals on trading in companies’ shares, the listings review of the noble Lord, Lord Hill, does include some recommendations, including making it easier for private growth companies to make the jump to a public listing.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked. That brings Question Time to an end.
Offshore Gas Rigs
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
We do encourage companies to capture as much of it as possible and, as the noble Baroness said, put it to good use on the platforms or pipe it to shore and use it, where possible, in domestic gas transmissions. The Government’s 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution, announced in 2020, stated our ambition to capture 10 megatonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2030—the equivalent of 4 million cars worth. Where possible, we can use it; if not, we can store it safely underground.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked. We now move, therefore, to the fourth Oral Question.
Hospitality Sector Minister
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con) [V]
My noble friend makes a very powerful point. My ministerial colleague, Minister Scully, is closely working with the sector to hear its concerns. He has had a number of meetings with the sector—if that is not right I will correct that for my noble friend—to listen to concerns, hear about plans for reopening and do whatever we can to work with it in this extremely difficult and challenging time.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, and we now come to the third Oral Question.
Covid-19: Night-time Economy
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Lord is tempting me to stray into matters beyond my brief. I know that considerable research is going on, from funding provided by the DHSC, to ascertain the precise impacts of the virus on different communities. The noble Lord is entirely right that the night-economy time is vital to the black community. Within the night-time economy, the hospitality sector alone employs around 2 million people, with 7% more BAME employees than the UK average of 12%. As I outlined earlier, we have taken steps to try to preserve as many of these jobs as possible.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, and we now move to the third Oral Question.
Covid-19: Vaccine Trials
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
My noble friend makes some important points. We are indeed working closely with health experts to provide information and advice at every possible opportunity to all communities across the country. The NIHR launched a public campaign to raise awareness among people from BAME back- grounds, partnering with British comedian Omid Djalili, alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Sanjeev Bhaskar and other leaders, who can offer examples to the community of how important it is to take part in research and receive the vaccines when they are available.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed. I underline the point made by the Leader, that questions should be kept short and confined to two points. It is unfair to everybody else if that rule is not followed. We now go on to the second Oral Question.
Covid-19: Small Businesses
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Lord makes a vital point. I and my ministerial colleagues regularly having meetings with all the various business representative organisations to ensure that the support we are able to give is carefully tailored, targeted and available to as many different businesses as possible.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have, again, been asked, and that brings Question Time to an end.
Green Homes Grant Scheme
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
No. At present, we keep the primary and secondary elements of the scheme, because we think that is the best way of delivering the maximum carbon savings that I know the noble Lord is also keen on. We keep the scheme under constant review and listen to suggestions for improvements from him and others on how we can make it more effective. The noble Lord’s feedback is valuable, and I will bear it in mind.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.
Covid-19: Impact of No-deal Brexit on Vaccine Supplies
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
This is a matter, of course, for the Department of Health and Social Care, but we will indeed want to work with businesses, as we have done on the supply of vaccines. We pay tribute to the work of the Vaccine Taskforce, which has done a tremendous job. We have 357 million doses of vaccines from seven leading candidates, some of which are manufactured in the UK and some abroad. We have worked very closely with business and we want to continue to do so in the future.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked.
Green Economic Recovery
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
I agree with the noble Lord that retraining will play an important part. We recently launched the Green Jobs Taskforce to support it. It will look at the key challenges faced by employers and workers in supporting a green recovery, ensuring that we have the right pipeline of talent and skills provision.
Lord Callanan (Con)
My noble friend makes an excellent point. He will be aware that in the 10-point plan we are doubling the green recovery challenge fund with an extra £40 million. Nature recovery can indeed help us to mitigate and adapt to climate change by capturing carbon and providing other environmental benefits. My noble friend’s point is very well made.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
If the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, is still with us, I am quite prepared to take her question now.
I think we can take it that she is not. All supplementary questions have been asked, which brings Question Time to an end.
Climate Change
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
We only received the report from the committee a few days ago and we will be studying it carefully. We are providing lots of investment in this area. We have the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan, delivering something like £12 billion of public investment and hopefully leveraging three times as much private money. We have investments in the green homes grant and a number of other schemes, so we recognise the challenge. As I am sure the noble Baroness will recognise, public finances are quite tight at the moment, but I think we have an excellent record of providing the money to meet our ambitions.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked.
Travel Agents
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
We have many consultations with the industry and we have put in place a strong package of financial support that businesses in the sector can access, including government-backed loans, various grant schemes and the extended furlough and self-employed support schemes.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
I call the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft. No? We will move on. I call the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan.
Lord Moynihan (Con)
My Lords, I declare an interest as someone whose holiday was understandably cancelled due to Covid. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that it is unacceptable that some travel agents should still be holding back on refunding customers and using customer payments as interest-free loans to their business without customer consent? Should not the ending of such practices be a condition precedent of eligibility for government support schemes, as well as future certification as fit and proper travel agents?
Lord Callanan (Con)
I will indeed pass on my noble friend’s concerns. As I have said, I cannot predict what will be in the announcement tomorrow, but we have been looking very closely at all the problems that exist for the tourism sector, in particular for those who want to travel abroad. I will certainly pass on my noble friend’s remarks.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked. We now come to the fourth Oral Question.
Covid-19: Small Businesses
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Lord highlights an important problem. This is a difficult issue, but insurance contracts are a matter of commercial negotiations in the market, and it is hard for the Government to interfere in what is, essentially, a commercial decision between the person issuing the insurance and the person taking it out. But we are certainly aware of the problem, and we are looking to see whether there is anything we can do in this field.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked. We now move to the next Question.
Clean Growth Fund
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Lord makes a good point—we should indeed seek to clean up our environment as much as possible—but, as I said, that is not the purpose of this fund, which is to invest in early-stage green technologies, where a proven funding gap has been shown to exist.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked and we now move to the next Question.
Covid-19: Financial Support for High Street Retailers
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
My noble friend makes an important point. Business rates are based on the rateable value of non-residential properties, and rateable value is a measure of the property’s annual open-market rental value, as assessed by the Valuation Office Agency. Clearly, with the move towards out-of-town shopping centres and online retailers, this is an area ripe for urgent review, and we are doing that.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, so we now move on to the next Question.
World Energy Outlook 2020
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Viscount makes a good point. The short-term impact of Covid-19 on the global energy industry is a reduction in energy demand of something like 5% year on year, which has accelerated the movement away from coal towards renewables. The report highlights the fact that solar PV is now one of the cheapest forms of energy below carbon fuel. The other points that he makes are indeed very valid.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked. That brings Question Time to an end.
Rolls-Royce
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The plant is not closing. Rolls-Royce has made it clear that it sees it having a long-term future and will continue to invest in it. However, we have to understand the context: the Covid-19 pandemic has dealt it a devastating blow. In its first half-yearly results, Rolls-Royce announced that the company’s revenue fell by 24% to £5.6 billion, while for civil aerospace, the area in which it operates, revenue fell by 37%. This is a devastating time for many companies, including Rolls-Royce. We are doing all that we can to ensure that it survives the pandemic and can go on to generate secure, well-paid jobs in the future.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked and we now move to the second Oral Question.
Post Office: Horizon Accounting System
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 1 month ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Callanan) (Con)
The noble Lord was getting a bit ahead of himself in asking his supplementary question before he asked his main Question, so I will answer that main one first and then come on to the second one.
The answer to the Question that he originally posed to me as a Private Notice Question is that, on 2 October, the Post Office announced that it would not oppose 44 of the 47 cases referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. This is an important milestone for the postmasters appealing their convictions. It is now for the courts to decide whether their convictions should be overturned, and it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on these cases until that process is complete.
I will now move to the question which the noble Lord just asked. The settlement was agreed in December and was full and final; for this reason, it has been excluded from the scope of the inquiry.
On the question of its prosecution function, the chief executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, has assured the Government and confirmed publicly that the Post Office is not currently conducting any private prosecutions and has no plans to do so.
As regards current and future litigation, of course only the courts can decide on criminal matters, such as whether to overturn the postmasters’ convictions, so it would not be appropriate for the inquiry to look at these questions, especially when the court process is still ongoing.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, I think we have dealt with both questions there.
Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab) [V]
My Lords, we are all very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, for continuing to press this issue doggedly over the last decade. Under the framework document, the Post Office business plan must address
“the state of the relationship … with the community of postmasters.”
The sole shareholder—the Government—is required to meet the CEO
“at least twice a year”.
Ministers have known all about this grotesque scandal. It is not good enough to hide behind the pretence that these matters were merely operational. At how many of those biannual meetings did the Minister pursue this? If he did not, surely that is negligence? If he did, why has it taken so long?
Lord Callanan (Con)
I am afraid I cannot give the noble Lord a direct answer. I do not know how many lawyers were engaged. I will try to find out and will write to him on this. I should imagine a lot. But I do not know the number because the matter was one for the Post Office. We have announced the inquiry. These are matters that the inquiry will want to go into. I am sure Sir Wyn will want to pursue this. I hope he will produce the appropriate conclusions and will attach the blame—if there is any—to those who are responsible.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked.
COP 26: Sponsors
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
As in all these matters, the ultimate decisions will rest with Ministers. We will judge companies closely against the criteria that we have already published, and I am sure that the noble Baroness will want to hold me to account for those decisions.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, and indeed all Questions on the Order Paper answered.
Maritime Industry
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Lord makes an important point. We are working with a number of other countries through the International Maritime Organization, and we accept that the maritime sector has an R&D gap, with little investment in alternative fuels to date, which is holding back decarbonisation. Therefore, there is no question that the sector presents a great challenge for the net-zero efforts.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.
Energy: Hydrogen
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
We will shortly set out a heat and buildings strategy, which will take account of these factors. As I mentioned earlier, we are already working with the boiler manufacturers through a £25 million fund to see how much hydrogen we can currently inject into the system. Experiments are taking place in various parts of the country to see how we can deploy hydrogen into the domestic gas networks. Obviously, we need to work with the boiler manufacturers to ensure that that works.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked and we now move to the next Question.
Renewable Energy
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The figures I gave were on total renewable capacity, but my noble friend makes a good point. A number of waste-to-energy schemes have been highly successful. We of course have to recognise that various communities have some concerns. We will always seek to work with local communities to make sure that any further projects are acceptable to them.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked. We now move to the second Oral Question.
Post Office: Horizon Accounting System
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
I am pleased that the noble Lord’s train was not late. I understand the frustration expressed by noble Lords. When I first saw the award, I shared some of that frustration, but that was the process and that was the judicial outcome. There is a separate historical shortfall scheme, which the Post Office is following. We believe that this is the appropriate way for compensation to be awarded.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Public Procurement Contracts
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
Each government department publishes its own SME action plan, which describes how it is engaging better with the SME sector to address the department’s own needs and increase spend with SMEs. Particular departments hold early-market engagement events to explain and discuss their requirements with a wide range of suppliers.
Lord Lucas (Con) [V]
My Lords, could my noble friend please tell me what departments are doing to make sure that SMEs can get on the preferred list of companies—where departments use this—and that the buyers within those departments are rewarded for making the extra effort to deal with small suppliers and are not risking their own careers by doing so?
Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Baroness asks a good question. Unfortunately, we do not gather data on how many UK SMEs are involved in EU procurements. However, there will, of course, be a high level of access to markets in the EU once the UK has joined the WTO general procurement agreement as an independent member. This is expected to be at the beginning of 2021. The UK’s market access offer for services is the same as the current coverage under the EU’s GPA schedule. Reciprocal coverage will continue once the UK is a GPA party.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
I call the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Needham Market. Baroness Scott? No? We will go on. I call the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering.
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con) [V]
My Lords, can I ask my noble friend the Minister what opportunities there will be for small and medium-sized businesses in the food sector to bid for contracts to deliver food to schools, hospitals, prisons and other public sector services? This is a wonderful opportunity to have locally produced food locally delivered for local consumption.
Lord Callanan (Con)
If we heard the noble Baroness correctly as she was interrupted, I think she was asking about the bureaucracy associated with public sector procurement contracts. We have removed complex pre-qualification questionnaires from low-value contracts and increased the transparency of opportunities via the Contracts Finder website, which covers current and future public sector contracts and award notices above £10,000 in central government and £25,000 in the wider public sector. Contracts Finder is available on a single, free-to-use digital platform and we encourage all SMEs to access it.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, fortunately, and we now move to the second Oral Question.
Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
I thank the noble Baroness for her question. We are aware of proposals for equity investment. For some companies, further debt might not be the right answer. As always, the private sector should be the first port of call, but we will keep the policy under review and will rigorously test any proposals for value for money.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked and we now move to the next Question.
Emissions: Housing
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Callanan [V]
The noble Earl makes a very good point. We are committed to working with the planning authorities to help us in our aspiration for green growth and in bringing as many homes as possible to reach EPC band C strategy by 2035. As we develop those policies, we will need to consider the interaction with planning restrictions where that is appropriate.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, and we now move to the next Question.
Post Office: Horizon Accounting System
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
I thank my noble friend for drawing attention to one of the many tragic cases that have resulted from this; there are many others like it and I too have heard some terrible tales. We believe that an independent review is the best way of getting to the bottom of it. This will have essentially similar terms of reference to a judge-led public inquiry. With regard to the former chief executive, it would be very helpful if she would account much more fully in public for what she knew and for the actions that she took at the time. I have written to the Department of Health to make clear our position on her future. The Care Quality Commission is, I believe, looking at whether she is a fit and proper person for the role that she holds. I hope that it will conduct that review swiftly. Obviously, I cannot predict that, and it is not a matter directly for me, but I have written to the Department of Health to make my views clear.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed. I repeat what I said previously: if noble Lords could keep their supplementary questions reasonably short, we could get more people into the list.
Oil: Changes in Global Markets
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
The noble Lord makes a powerful point. The independence plans of the SNP have been thrown into disarray by the low oil price—we all know the economic forecasts it made at the time. We are of course in close contact and collaboration with the Scottish Government on all these matters. We will continue to assist and help them in their plans going forward.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
That brings this group of questions to an end. Again, I congratulate the Minister and colleagues on getting in all 10 questioners on the list.
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
The noble Lord raises a good point but CBILS is open to businesses across all sectors in all parts of the country. We continue to monitor and review the implementation of all our loan schemes and we will not be slow to make any necessary changes. If the noble Lord has any specific information about difficulties being experienced by ethnic-minority businesses, I would be very happy to see it.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, I regret that the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.
Self-employment Income Support Scheme
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
I referred to some additional measures in the answer that I gave to my noble friend Lord Empey earlier. We have been taking a number of other measures; I can tell my noble friend that, yesterday, HMRC began contacting customers who are eligible for the SEISS. It remains on target to be delivered in early June but, if we possibly can, we will of course get the payments out earlier because we know that they are urgently required in many situations.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has, I fear, elapsed, and we now come to the third Oral Question.
Covid-19: Business Interruption Loans
Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Fowler(4 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
We have made some changes to the scheme so that no personal guarantees are permitted for loans of below £250,000. For loans above that level, lenders are permitted, at their discretion, to require personal guarantees for up to 20% of the remaining loan value. They are never permitted to use directors’ primary personal residences as security, and of course lenders may turn to personal guarantees only post the recovery of business assets. That is a balanced approach which protects CBILS borrowers but, like many other aspects of these schemes, this is something that we will keep under constant review.
The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)
My Lords, that concludes the Virtual Proceedings on Oral Questions. We managed to get everybody in on that last Question; I thank noble Lords for keeping their questions short. Virtual Proceedings will resume at 12.15 pm for the Private Notice Question.