Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make an immediate one-off grant in aid to the BBC World Service to enable it to increase its Russian services (1) online, and (2) over the air.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO strongly values the work of the BBC World Service and its independent and impartial broadcasting. FCDO officials are working closely with the BBC to consider how best to support BBC services to the Russian people.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the treatment of BBC World Service journalists working for the Persian language service by the authorities in Iran; and what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the harassment of journalists in that country.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We condemn the persecution of current and former BBC Persian employees and their family members, and the many individuals who have had their assets frozen or are banned from leaving Iran. We regularly raise this issue of harassment directly with the Iranian government, as well as in multilateral fora. At the UN Third Committee in October 2020 we urged Iran to cease their harassment of journalists and media organisations, and at the Human Rights Council in March 2021 we made it clear to Iran that their repeated violations of human rights are unacceptable. We reiterated our concerns on 24 June 2021 at the BBC Persian event, attended by multiple supporters of media freedom, which took place alongside the Human Rights Council. These actions by the Iranian authorities contravene multiple international human rights obligations, and we will continue to call them out for as long as they commit them.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they have learnt from the government of Israel’s campaign in response to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in that country; and what steps they are taking to apply any such lessons to the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department is regularly in discussions with other countries on a wide range of COVID-19 issues, including Israel, to share learnings and collaborate internationally on the vaccination programme. Feedback from these discussions, where relevant, is used to improve the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to bring into force all of the provisions of Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 to ensure that children are not exposed to online pornography.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government announced in October 2019 that it will not commence the age verification provisions of Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 and instead deliver these protections through our wider online harms regulatory proposals.
Protecting children is at the heart of our plans to transform the online experience for people in the UK and the strongest protections in the online harms framework will be for children. All companies in scope will be required to assess whether children are likely to access their services, and if so, provide additional protections for children using them. Through the online harms framework, we will be able to go further than the Digital Economy Act’s focus on online pornography on commercial adult sites. We will be able to protect children from a broader range of harmful content and activity, across a wider range of sites.
Under our proposals, we expect companies to use age assurance or age verification technologies to prevent children from accessing services which pose the highest risk of harm to children, such as online pornography. The online harms regime will capture both the most visited pornography sites and pornography on social media, therefore covering the vast majority of sites where children are most likely to be exposed to pornography. Taken together we expect this to bring into scope more online pornography currently accessible to children than would have been covered by the narrower scope of the Digital Economy Act.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for a single holistic infections strategy that addresses antimicrobial resistance, sepsis, future infections threats, and pandemic preparedness.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has assessed the case for a single holistic infections strategy and agrees with the need to closely align work on antimicrobial resistance, sepsis, future infections threats and pandemic preparedness. This has culminated in the publication of Public Health England’s PHE Infectious Diseases Strategy 2020-2025: Addressing urgent threats in the 21st century outlining priorities to reduce the risk of and burden from all infectious diseases including resistant infections, infections that can lead to sepsis, endemic infections, vaccine-preventable infections, and infections of pandemic potential, and bringing them together as a single strategic framework. A copy of the Strategy is attached.
While the Infectious Diseases Strategy does not address sepsis strategy directly, it is critical that our work on sepsis and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) is closely aligned. Sepsis forms an important part of NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme, which will continue to drive improvement in the prevention and management of infection and optimal antibiotic use.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risks associated with the Iranian trade in arms following the expiration of the UN Security Council arms embargo on Iran in October.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), a reciprocal deal that lifts sanctions in exchange for tough nuclear limits. Iran has broken the nuclear limits in the JCPoA and we are working to bring Iran back into compliance through the deal's Dispute Resolution Mechanism.
UNSCR 2231, which underpins the JCPoA, includes a number of clauses designed to allow sanctions to expire on fixed dates: the UN conventional arms embargo is due to expire in October 2020. We have repeatedly set out concerns about Iranian destabilising behaviour, including proliferation to non-state actors. We are consulting partners on the broader implications of the UN arms embargo expiry and encourage all states to implement national export control best practice.
As part of those consultations, we are taking into account sanctions regimes that will remain in place after the arms embargo expires, such as UNSCRs 1540, 1701 and 2216, which prohibit the proliferation of weapons to Lebanese Hizballah and the Houthis. The EU arms embargo and UN ballistic missile restrictions on Iran will also remain in place until 2023. Separate to sanctions in place under the JCPoA, there is an EU Iran human rights sanctions regime. It places trade restrictions on specified goods and technology which may be used to repress the civilian population of Iran and on specified goods and technology which may be used for interception and monitoring services in Iran. These EU trade restrictions do not have an expiry date.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of proposals from the UK's screen industries and others for reform of the apprenticeship levy to increase the numbers of skilled new entrants needed to meet demand.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Apprenticeships offer businesses in the screen industries an opportunity to make a long-term, sustainable investment in training and promote diversity in the workforce.
We have already responded to feedback from businesses by introducing flexibilities in our funding rules. This includes increasing the time for employers to spend their levy funds from 18 to 24 months and raising the transfer cap from 10% to 25% this year. Levy-paying employers will be able to transfer funds to as many smaller employers or charities as they wish, in order to support the development of skills in their supply chain or respond to skills shortages in their sector. In the Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer also announced up to £240 million of additional funds to halve apprenticeship training costs for smaller employers. We continue to keep all aspects of apprenticeship funding policy under review.
We recognise that co-ordinating and delivering apprenticeship training can be a challenge for smaller employers in the screen industries. We are working closely with Screen Skills in response to their report in order to explore how employers can take advantage of flexible delivery of off-the-job training including, potentially, through Apprenticeship Training Agencies. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has a £2 million funding package under the creative industries sector deal, which includes support for employers to help them accelerate the development of up to 20 new apprenticeship standards. DCMS will work with the Institute for Apprenticeships to identify skills gaps and understand how the apprenticeship programme can support the priorities identified in the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which competition between existing and new terminal facilities at Heathrow Airport might be beneficial to airlines and passengers.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the independent regulator, will consider the benefits of competition at Heathrow Airport. It has already explained the importance of considering alternative commercial and delivery arrangements for the provision of new capacity and has recently published a technical note on this subject in the context of expansion.
Government continues to encourage all potential promoters to engage with all relevant stakeholders on proposals that will facilitate the efficient and timely delivery of new capacity at Heathrow Airport.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what process will be used to determine who will be the developer and operator of the new terminal at Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Airports National Policy Statement (NPS) does not identify any statutory undertaker as the appropriate person or appropriate persons to carry out the preferred scheme.
Any prospective developer would need to submit a Development Consent Order (DCO) application in line with the Airports NPS. Any application for a DCO will be considered carefully and with an open mind based on the evidence provided, through a public examination by the independent Planning Inspectorate, before any final decision is made.
The CAA has recently published a technical note outlining its approach to dealing with licensing issues raised by potential new developers of expansion at Heathrow.
Asked by: Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they are taking to ensure that (1) the costs of Heathrow Airport expansion do not rise above £14 billion, and (2) that airlines, passengers and taxpayers will not cover any extra amount should costs rise above that level.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government is clear that the Northwest Runway scheme at Heathrow will be financed by the private sector. Ahead of the decision to designate the Airports National Policy Statement (NPS) the Government and its independent expert advisors concluded that, so far as can be assessed at this early stage of the process, Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) is able to privately finance expansion without Government support.
The Secretary of State for Transport set out a clear ambition in 2016 for airport charges to remain as close as possible to current levels in real terms. The Secretary of State has re-commissioned the CAA to oversee, and report on, how well Heathrow Airport Limited is engaging with the airline community on its plans for expansion with the objective of achieving value for money for the consumer. This follows on from a previous commission during which Heathrow announced the identification of potential costs savings of up to £2.5bn.
Ultimately, the CAA will determine the level of airport charges in lines with its primary duty to further the interests of consumers (passengers and freight operators). In its most recent consultation the CAA noted that there are “credible scenarios in which capacity expansion can be delivered affordably and financeably, with airport charges per passenger remaining close to current levels in real terms and line with the ambition expressed by the SoS [Secretary of State] on these matters in 2016”.