Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce legislation to strengthen Northern Ireland's place within the Union in light of the adoption of the Windsor Framework; and whether any such legislation will affect the operation and implementation of the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring the timely and successful implementation of the Windsor Framework and to seeing the restoration of an Executive in Northern Ireland as soon as possible. We are in regular contact with the Northern Ireland political parties about these matters and how we may best secure both objectives.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what, if any, discussions they are holding with the EU regarding amending the terms of the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Windsor Framework fundamentally amends the old Northern Ireland Protocol and is the best possible deal for Northern Ireland. The UK Government is now working with businesses and stakeholders, focussed on the successful implementation of the Framework.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the breakdown by constituency of the number of applications to the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme that are still outstanding.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Over 120,000 vouchers have been issued so far under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and its previous iterations. To date, over 100,000 of these vouchers have been used to connect premises to gigabit-capable broadband.
Building Digital UK (BDUK) is working closely with all active suppliers registered on the scheme to identify areas and approve projects in parts of the UK where a voucher-funded project has a good likelihood of delivering gigabit coverage faster than the procurement approach and represents good value for money. There are currently only 97 voucher project applications pending a decision. This data is not currently broken down at a constituency level.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is a delay in issuing vouchers in Northern Ireland under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme for rural broadband connectivity.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As part of Project Gigabit, we are planning to launch procurements in Northern Ireland, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans.
Work is under way to identify the premises requiring support, and a temporary pause to the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme for projects in Northern Ireland was initiated to enable the intervention area to be defined.
Building Digital UK (BDUK) is working closely with all active suppliers registered on the voucher scheme to identify areas where a voucher-funded project has a good likelihood of delivering gigabit coverage faster than the procurement route and represents good value for money. These areas are designated as voucher priority areas, meaning that suppliers are able to continue to build voucher-funded projects in these areas throughout procurement.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for security in Europe of the use by the Russian Federation of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The nuclear rhetoric and signalling we continue to see from Russia and President Putin is designed to distract and deter us from supporting Ukraine. Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine continues to be a very serious situation but it is not, and should not become, a nuclear crisis. No other country is talking about nuclear use.
As the G7 has repeatedly made clear, any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in this conflict would be met with severe consequences. We continue to call on Russia to de-escalate, starting by ceasing its illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of bioptic telescopic glasses to enable those with visual impairment to drive within the UK.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The use of bioptic devices and the possible implications on fitness to drive was discussed at a meeting of the Secretary of State for Transport’s Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Visual Disorders meeting in October 2022.
The panel agreed that bioptics are only used on an average of 2% of driving time, thus resulting in the remaining 98% of driving time occurring with impaired visual acuity. The panel considered that the use of the bioptic device impinges upon the binocular visual field. Therefore, the panel agreed the use of such devices remain unacceptable for driving.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much unspent money were returned to HM Treasury by the Northern Ireland Executive in the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Spending Review 2021 set the largest annual block grants, in real terms, of any spending review settlement since the devolution Acts. This provided £15 billion per year for the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Block Grant Transparency document details the Barnett consequentials that have been provided to the Northern Ireland Executive in the last three years, as well as other changes to the block grant including surrenders1. The Northern Ireland Executive received the following Barnett consequentials: £2.3 billion in 2021-22, £1.8 billion in 2022-23 and £2 billion in 2023-24.
The Northern Ireland Executive can utilise Budget Exchange at Supplementary Estimates each financial year to move planned or unexpected underspends between years. The Northern Ireland Executive accessed £40m of Budget Exchange in 2020-21, £134m in 2021-22, and £130m in 2022-23. This mechanism means that typically no, or very little, general resource or capital funding is returned to the Treasury at the end of the year. There was an increase in capital underspends during the COVID years and underspends in ringfenced resource spending are more common given the terms of those funding streams.
The Northern Ireland Executive are well funded to deliver all their devolved responsibilities, receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in other parts of the UK.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what Barnett consequentials were made available to the Northern Ireland Executive in the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Spending Review 2021 set the largest annual block grants, in real terms, of any spending review settlement since the devolution Acts. This provided £15 billion per year for the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Block Grant Transparency document details the Barnett consequentials that have been provided to the Northern Ireland Executive in the last three years, as well as other changes to the block grant including surrenders1. The Northern Ireland Executive received the following Barnett consequentials: £2.3 billion in 2021-22, £1.8 billion in 2022-23 and £2 billion in 2023-24.
The Northern Ireland Executive can utilise Budget Exchange at Supplementary Estimates each financial year to move planned or unexpected underspends between years. The Northern Ireland Executive accessed £40m of Budget Exchange in 2020-21, £134m in 2021-22, and £130m in 2022-23. This mechanism means that typically no, or very little, general resource or capital funding is returned to the Treasury at the end of the year. There was an increase in capital underspends during the COVID years and underspends in ringfenced resource spending are more common given the terms of those funding streams.
The Northern Ireland Executive are well funded to deliver all their devolved responsibilities, receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in other parts of the UK.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the practicality of supplying electric vehicle charging facilities for motorists in areas of dense terraced and high-rise living accommodation.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to ensuring that the right chargepoints are installed in the right places and has several schemes supporting charging infrastructure.
The £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund will support local authorities to work with industry to provide tens of thousands of local chargepoints and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking.
Local authorities will also continue to benefit from the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme for smaller scale projects. So far funding has been awarded for the installation of over 18,000 chargepoints. The Government also provides grants to support the provision of chargepoints in private residential carparks such as those serving high-rise living accommodation. The grants provide up to £30,000 per apartment block towards the cost of installing EV chargepoints.
Grants are also available for people living in flats or rental accommodation with an off-street parking place, providing up to £350 towards the purchase and installation of a chargepoint.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what legislative proposals they intend to introduce to ensure that businesses in Northern Ireland have free access to the market in Great Britain.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is unequivocal in its commitment for unfettered access for Northern Ireland goods to the whole UK market. That means a permanent guarantee of being able to place goods on the UK market in all scenarios - meaning no new forms, checks, controls, tariffs, or any barriers to the market whatsoever, whatever the future form of regulations in Northern Ireland. Those are protections that are enshrined in law in the UK Internal Market Act 2020 and which we will build on further following the Windsor Framework.