Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken with other countries and UN agencies, including the World Meteorological Organisation, to help restore water to the rivers and ground water resources in war torn countries in the Middle East.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government is working closely with partners, including UN agencies, to improve access to and management of water resources in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
Examples include:
- Technical support for national policy and planning on water resources in Syria, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Jordan.
- Support for water resources management in Yemen, through the World Bank’s Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience.
- Working with UNICEF in Jordan to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities for Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians.
- Supporting the Water Authority of Jordan carry out urgently needed improvement of the wastewater system’s operational capacity, by building a new wastewater conveyor (redundancy pipe) benefitting a total of 2.3 million people.
- Support to the construction of the Central Gaza Desalination Plant and upgrading of the water distribution network in Gaza.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent their efforts to reduce environmental impacts of aviation will include (1) the use of larger and quieter aircraft such as A380 and Boeing 787, (2) the reduction of carbon emissions, and (3) where appropriate, the limitation on constructing new runways.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government is currently developing its Aviation Strategy which sets out to achieve a safe, secure and sustainable aviation sector that meets the needs of consumers in a global, outward-looking Britain. As part of the development of the Aviation Strategy, government is considering the best actions and policies to support growth while tackling environmental impacts.
In the development of the Aviation Strategy, the Government is exploring strengthening incentives to bring forward production and operation of quieter aircraft.
The Aviation Strategy development also includes putting in place a framework for UK aviation carbon emissions to 2050, which ensures that aviation contributes its fair share to action on climate change, including the UK’s domestic and international obligations.
The Government has now designated the Airports National Policy Statement which sets out the need for additional airport capacity in the south-east of England and why Government believes that need is best met by a new Northwest runway at Heathrow Airport. The NPS is clear that a new Northwest Runway Scheme will not receive planning consent unless it can demonstrate compliance with our air quality obligations and adequately mitigate against other environmental impacts of expansion. The detail of the environmental mitigation package will be developed at a later stage through the development consent process.
We will be publishing a Green Paper on the Aviation Strategy for public consultation later in 2018 and a White Paper in the first half of 2019.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their policies and main targets for reducing carbon emissions associated with shipping and aviation to and from the UK; and how they are collaborating with the International Maritime Organisation and International Civil Aviation Organisation to achieve those goals.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Given the international nature of the aviation and shipping sectors, the Government’s emphasis is on taking strong action at the global level as the best means of addressing carbon emissions from these sectors.
In April, Member States of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) reached agreement on a Strategy, which includes a commitment to phase out Greenhouse Gases from international shipping as soon as possible within this century, and by at least 50% by 2050.
Led by the Department for Transport, the United Kingdom played a leading role in the negotiations, pushing for an ambitious and credible outcome that would enable shipping to play its part in meeting the Paris Agreement temperature goals.
The Strategy is a major milestone for the shipping industry, which is now the first global sector to have set an absolute emissions reduction target. It sends a clear signal to the maritime sector that the move to zero emissions technology is imminent. The Government is now working in the IMO to determine what practical and technical approaches need to be taken globally in order to reach the emissions reduction targets.
In aviation, the UK was equally instrumental in reaching a ground-breaking agreement at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Assembly in 2016 on a global carbon offsetting scheme, known as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). This is the first worldwide scheme to address carbon emissions in any single sector and is set to commence from 2021.
CORSIA contributes to ICAO’s ambition to decouple growth in flights from growth in emissions by achieving carbon neutral growth in the international aviation sector from 2020.
To achieve this goal, ICAO has identified a basket of measures, which also includes aircraft technologies, operational improvements and the use of sustainable alternative fuels. The UK continues to play a leading role in ICAO’s environmental work, including all areas of the ‘basket of measures’.
The Government is currently developing its aviation and maritime strategies, which will ensure continued progress and that set out a framework for how these modes will contribute fairly to action on climate change, including the UK’s domestic and international obligations.
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 measures they are taking to monitor any change in performance of wind turbines in on-shore and off-shore locations from their time of construction; whether they intend to publish assessments of the likely future lifetime of the wind turbine systems now being constructed in the UK; and if so, whether this information will be provided to organisations that are investing in such systems.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Department reviews generation performance of a range of existing and new renewables plants, including onshore and offshore wind, on an annual basis as part of setting the level of the Renewables Obligation. The most recent publication can be found here (copy also attached):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewables-obligation-level-calculations-201819
The Department periodically reviews the evidence base on the generation costs of renewable electricity technologies, including their lifetimes, and when appropriate publishes reports on the topic. The most recent of these publications can be found here and attached (copy also attached):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-november-2016
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 which components of Euratom's work programme will the UK participate in following the current negotiations; and whether those will include regulation, safety, energy coordination, and long term research and development of fusion and nuclear waste policies.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government’s strategy is to seek a close association with Euratom, to the mutual benefit of the UK and the EU, and to provide maximum continuity for the civil nuclear sector. The components of this future relationship with Euratom are subject to negotiations with the EU. The UK will also seek to fully associate itself with the Euratom Research and Training Programme, including the Joint European Torus (JET) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and recognises that such an association would necessarily involve an appropriate financial contribution in line with other associated countries.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of hours worked by GPs in the NHS; whether working hours are increasing; whether they intend to limit the number of hours worked; and what discussions they have had with doctors' organisations about GPs' working hours.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Based on responses to the GP Worklife Survey, the average weekly hours worked by general practitioners (GPs) in England has remained relatively stable since 2008, but increased slightly from 41.4 hours to 41.8 hours per week between 2015 and 2017.
The following table summarises statistics for average weekly hours worked by GPs from 2008 to 2017.
Year | Number of responses | Mean |
2008 | 634 | 42.1 |
2010 | 1,054 | 41.4 |
2012 | 1,112 | 41.7 |
2015 | 1,113 | 41.4 |
2017 | 869 | 41.8 |
The Department regularly meets with the Royal College of General Practitioners and representatives from the profession to discuss a range of issues, including the number of hours worked by GPs. GP contractors are required to provide essential and additional services within core hours in order to meet the reasonable needs of their patients. It is for the practice partners to agree the working hours of individual GPs within the practice.
Any changes to these arrangements will need to be negotiated between NHS England and the GPs’ representative body, the General Practitioners’ Committee of the British Medical Association.
The working hours for salaried GPs are set out in the salaried GP model terms and conditions of service. This defines full-time as 37.5 hours per week, and specifies that working hours should be carefully defined within a job plan.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what research they have conducted on the influence of violent media material on the behaviours of young men in large UK cities; and what steps they are taking to monitor and address it.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
In the Serious Violence Strategy, published on 9 April 2018, the Government sets out our analysis of the trends and drivers in serious violence and this includes the role that social media plays. That analysis shows that social media has created an opportunity for rivals to antagonise each other, and for those taunts to be viewed by a much larger audience for a much longer time period. This may lead to cycles of tit-for-tat violence.
We are working with social media companies and law enforcement agencies to take preventative action to address the availability of such violent gang related material available via social media.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what control measures they are considering to monitor and curtail the movements and violent behaviour of some young men in large UK cities; and whether these measures include the introduction of identity cards.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
On 9 April 2018, the Government published a new Serious Violence Strategy to take action to address serious violence and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The strategy outlines an ambitious programme of over 60 commitments and actions to tackle this issue. It establishes a new balance between prevention and the rigorous law enforcement activity. The strategy will shift our approach towards steering young people away from crime in the first place and put in place measures to tackle the root causes.
In 2010 the then Government decided to scrap the identity card scheme and the associated National Identity Register because it was expensive and represented a substantial erosion of civil liberties. This Government has no plans to revisit that decision.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the provision by local authorities of health, social and fitness programmes connected to accommodation for homeless people; and what funding they provide to support such programmes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is determined to prevent and reduce the levels of homelessness, and provide people with all the support they need to rebuild their lives.
Whilst we have made no specific assessment, we know the importance of taking a truly holistic approach to tackling homelessness. It is for this reason we have established a cross government taskforce, whose membership includes the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which will develop a strategy to end rough sleeping, before looking at wider homelessness issues. We have also launched pilots of Housing First in key regions to put some of the most hard-to-reach rough sleepers in accommodation and help them recover from complex health issues, for example substance abuse and mental health difficulties.
This builds on important action the government has taken to tackle homelessness, including implementing the Homelessness Reduction Act, which means more people will get the help they need sooner, and providing over £1.2 billion to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping through to 2020.
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 steps they are taking to ensure that the UK funding of the operational hydrology and water programmes of the World Meteorological Organisation continues at present levels and is not affected by the proposed reorganisation of that agency.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK’s Permanent Representative to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is actively engaged in discussions around the WMO budget, strategic plan and governance reform, with appropriate support from the UK Hydrological Adviser. The UK will remain closely involved in the ongoing assessment of options and the development of proposals over the next 12 months, up to the World Meteorological Congress in May - June 2019, where they will be further discussed and decisions made.