Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pregnant women are on remand, awaiting trial, in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The number of pregnant women on remand is not centrally monitored. Information on pregnancy is monitored locally by prison Governors/Directors to ensure the appropriate supportive provisions can be put in place.
I am however, able to confirm that an ad hoc data collection exercise was undertaken last year, which found that at 15:00hrs on 28 October 2019, 47 women in prison self-declared as pregnant, including those on remand and who had been sentenced.
In July 2019 the Government began a review of pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units (MBUs), and Mothers separated from children (under two years of age) who are in prisons, which includes a strand of work on improving data collection. The review is due for completion later this year, and a report will be published in due course.
Section 5 of the Bail Act 1976 sets out the reasoning for refusing bail where:
While there was an increase of 8% (520 to 559) in the number of women on remand in the year to March 2020, this figure is comparable with the 564 women on remand at 31 March 2018.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, NPS are currently running a bail information service in the 136 courts that currently remain open, with a particular focus on those with ‘protected characteristics’ which include women. This service looks to ensure the identification of defendants who might be eligible for bail, and to provide sufficient information to the courts to enable them to make fully informed decisions in each individual case. As of 11 May 2020, 121 bail assessments have been completed by NPS Bail Information Officers, a proportion of which will apply to women.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, or plan to have, with the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization about ensuring that their water programmes are coordinated.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK, represented by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and the Met Office, is actively involved in helping to steer the water related activities of both organizations through its Memberships of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) Council, the WMO Executive Council and the WMO Hydrological Coordination Panel.
Within UNESCO, as former Vice-Chairs of the IHP and current Council Members, we are making efforts to influence current planning for the Ninth Phase of the Programme, which is due to commence in 2022. A key area of focus for UK input has been to encourage UNESCO to reach out to partners across the UN-system and more broadly in the planning and implementation of the next phase.
In doing so we are encouraging not only coordination through bilateral links and UN-Water, which the UK Government helped establish in 2006, but exploration of the potential benefit of establishing further joint initiatives between organizations in order to provide integrated support to Members’ efforts towards the water related Sustainable Development Goals. This push towards joint working is being replicated in the positions being taken with respect to WMO’s water activities, including their transformation under the Organization’s ongoing reforms.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, or plan to have, with the World Meteorological Organization about expanding that organisation's Water Programme to include (1) extreme flooding, and (2) wind damage.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is actively supporting advancement of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) water related activities through membership of the WMO Executive Council and the WMO Hydrological Coordination Panel. Water issues are recognised within WMO’s new Strategic Plan, which was approved by the World Meteorological Congress in 2019. The Government is supporting WMO to develop a Plan of Action that will strengthen operational National Hydrological Services in areas such as flood risk management, drought preparation, hydrological monitoring and water resources assessment.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) advice, and (2) funding, they have provided, or intend to provide, to help property owners protect their properties from flooding.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Since 2016 Defra have been working with industry through a Property Flood Resilience Roundtable to explore how business, homeowners, and Government can reduce the impact of flooding through greater awareness and the use of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures.
Following the unprecedented flooding in November and following the recent storms, Government announced Property Flood Resilience recovery grants of up to £5,000 in affected areas to help eligible homes and businesses become more flood resilient.
Between 2015 and 2021 the Environment Agency is spending approximately £3.6 million of grant in aid on PFR resistance measures for households at very significant risk. In additional, the Government is funding a £2.9 million PFR Pathfinder project which aims to boost the uptake of PFR measures through education, advice portals and innovative initiatives to make homes and buildings more resilient to floods.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, or intend to have, with the insurance industry about incentivising property owners to protect their properties from (1) flooding, and (2) wind damage.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Since 2016, Defra has worked with insurers and other industry representatives through a Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Roundtable to take forward technical issues and develop pathways to deliver greater uptake of Property Flood Resilience. A ‘Code-of-Practice’ to improve service delivery has recently been published by the group.
Flood Re have published their Quinquennial Review into the future development of the scheme, including ways to incentivise PFR, which the Government is carefully considering.
We have not had any discussions with the insurance industry on wind damage.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide more data to local organisations and communities to help them prepare for future floods.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Environment Agency (EA) publishes data and maps for England on coastal erosion risk and flood risk. This includes a five-day flood forecast, river levels and flood warnings. The EA makes, and will continue to make, this and other environmental data openly available for download so that it can be used by individuals, communities and local organisations free of charge. The EA will continue to improve these digital services based on feedback.
The EA will be releasing an updated flood information service (https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/warnings) in spring 2020 which will feature more impact information, rainfall information and improved navigation. In addition, the EA is working with Fujitsu, EE and the University of Hull to undertake trials of Cell Broadcasting technology (https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/cell-broadcast-trial), and is intending to work with other Government bodies to help to implement this service to warn those at highest risk in advance of flooding.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions, if any, they have had with Transport for London about (1) pollution levels on the London Underground, (2) the comparative pollution level between London Underground, other undergrounds, and at street level in other urban areas, (3) measures to reduce air pollution on the London Underground system, and (4) any proposed provision of pollution warnings to travellers.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London and delivered by Transport for London. It is the Mayor’s responsibility to monitor and mitigate levels of pollutants on the London Underground. The Department for Transport has not had any specific discussions with Transport for London or the Mayor on this matter.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their target for reducing carbon emissions from shipping in UK waters; and what actions, if any, they plan to take to reduce carbon emissions from shipping globally.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Government is committed to meeting net zero emissions by 2050, and this includes emissions from domestic shipping. The Clean Maritime Plan, published in July 2019, is one of the first national action plans on shipping decarbonisation globally. The Plan sets out the ambition that by 2025 all new vessels ordered for the UK are designed with zero emission capability. By 2035 we expect the UK has built a number of clean maritime clusters that focus on zero emission innovation and infrastructure.
Internationally, the UK is fully committed to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Initial Strategy on the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships. This Strategy contains the ambition to peak GHG emissions from international shipping as soon as possible and to reduce the total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 whilst pursuing efforts towards phasing them out. The UK is a leading voice at the IMO and this year will be calling for measures to be adopted through the IMO as soon as possible to ensure the targets of the Strategy are delivered.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to ensure that hazard data is publicly available and visible, in particular, data on (1) coastal erosion, (2) wind strength, (3) flood risks, and (4) the impact on the delivery of emergency services.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government has already taken a number of steps to ensure that hazard data is publicly available and visible.
The Environment Agency (EA) publishes data and maps on coastal erosion and flood risks. The EA also issues flood warnings and flood alerts as part of the Government Digital Service. These are publicly available. The EA also makes other environmental data openly available for download via the Defra Data Services Platform.
The Met Office provides forecasts of average wind speed and wind gust speed up to a week ahead. This is available on the Met Office’s public website and its app. When wind is deemed likely to pose a significant hazard, the Met Office issues warnings to public and emergency responders as part of the National Severe Weather Warning Service. Warnings are accessible from the Met Office through its app and also widely available via many other media channels.
More widely, the National Risk Register (NRR) is a public-facing document that delivers an overview of the key risks most likely to cause disruption in the UK and provides key guidance on individual preparedness during emergencies. The NRR is the declassified version of the National Security Risk Assessment, a cross-Government document that rigorously assesses key risks and their impacts on the UK, including extensive data on the disruption to emergency services. Though it cannot publish all data due to inherent sensitivities, the NRR identifies disruption to emergency services as a key consequence of many of the natural hazards and, where possible, links to key websites hosting hazard data and information on potential disruptions are provided. The current NRR can be found on the GOV.UK website and an updated version will be published in the first half of 2020.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made, if any, in improving the management of higher ground areas in the UK where a natural event, farming and forest management can modify flood run-offs towards lower ground areas.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government, in conjunction with farmers, landowners and the third sector, has made progress in exploring how management of the uplands can contribute towards flood mitigation in the lowlands. This can be achieved through the use of natural processes, such as natural flood management, as well as changing land use and behaviours to better manage the flow of water.
Each catchment is different and requires a unique approach to management but natural flood management measures can be implemented across any area e.g. uplands, lowlands, urban and rural. These measures can include tree planting, leaky debris dams and peatbog restoration on upper slopes, flood washlands and river re-connection and naturalisation mid-catchment and management and creation of coastal marsh and sand dune systems in coastal areas.
There is evidence that natural flood management measures, that are appropriately designed and situated, can help manage flood and coastal risks, often alongside other measure, and can also provide other benefits to the natural environment, including but not limited to habitat creation, increased biodiversity and improved water quality. The Environment Agency (EA) has published an evidence directory which summarises the effectiveness of working with natural processes, from a flood risk and wider ecosystem perspective[1].
This work is supported and encouraged by the Government and complements its record capital investment programme in flood defences. There are currently approximately 40 capital schemes, led by the EA, that include natural flood management measures and the Government expects this to increase. Alongside this successive governments have invested in specific natural flood management programmes. This includes a £15 million programme supporting more than 55 projects, looking at the effectiveness of these interventions including in the uplands. These projects will enable new approaches to be tested and will help determine where natural measures can be most effective.
Similarly the Government has used the Countryside Stewardship Scheme to promote natural process and flood mitigation. For instance, grants are available for the creation and restoration of wetland habitats, tree planting, grip blocking and leaky woody dams. In particular the Facilitation Fund brings farmers and other land managers together to improve the natural environment at a landscape rather than single-farm scale to achieve greater improvements than individual holdings could on their own. One round in 2017 offered funding to groups who implemented natural flood management measures to manage the flow of water.
Looking ahead our exit from the European Union will enable us to leave the Common Agricultural Policy and move to a more ambitious and effective system based on the principles of ‘public money for public goods’. This new scheme will enable land managers to enter into agreements to be paid for delivering a range of public goods set out in the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. This includes mitigation of and reduced risk from environmental hazards, such as flooding which could be achieved through natural flood management.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-with-natural-processes-to-reduce-flood-risk