Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 21 November (HCWS1098) in relation to the annual financial report for the Government’s hospitality wine cellar, what saving they estimate might be made by substituting English and Welsh wines with comparable wines from elsewhere.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government Hospitality wine cellar supplies wines and spirits for official business hospitality offered by Government Ministers to a range of domestic and international guests. The cellar has a clear objective of being able to supply the highest quality wines from around the world at the best prices, by purchasing wines young and relatively inexpensive and keeping them until they are ready to drink. The cellar has been a supporter of the UK wine industry for over 25 years and stocks a range of English and Welsh still and sparkling wines. However, some UK wines can cost more than some imported wines, and Government Hospitality must always strike a careful balance between the proper expenditure of taxpayers' money and the desire to promote UK produce. The stocking of the cellar is carefully managed to achieve the best value for money.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with NATO headquarters concerning the (1) challenges, and (2) scope for further improvements to NATO's financial audits in response to a presentation from the International Board of Auditors for NATO to NATO on 24 March.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We believe NATO needs to move faster on implementing the International Board of Auditors for NATO (IBAN) recommendations. Some progress is being made. As a result of the recent Functional Review of the NATO HQ nations have agreed additional resources to address areas of weakness identified in risk management, internal audit and internal control. But there is currently no consensus among allies on how to proceed with IBAN’s Financial Performance audit recommendations. We have requested a NATO scoping paper setting out how the organisation intends to address some of the points raised and will continue to press for faster progress on implementing IBAN recommendations.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by the Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) on 26 November (HL Deb, col 511), whether, under the proposed free trade deals after the end of the transitional period, goods which are imported into the UK tariff-free from non-EU states under those deals, would be liable to the EU's Common External Tariff when they and similar goods produced in the UK are exported to the EU and would be within the definition of the EU's tariff arrangements.
Answered by Baroness Fairhead
The Political Declaration states that the future economic partnership between the UK and EU “should ensure no tariffs, fees, charges or quantitative restrictions across all sectors”. It also states that “It should facilitate trade and investment between the Parties to the extent possible, while respecting the integrity of the Union's Single Market and the Customs Union as well as the United Kingdom's internal market, and recognising the development of an independent trade policy by the United Kingdom beyond this economic partnership.” Goods exported from the UK to the EU following the transition period will be subject to arrangements that are consistent with these objectives and principles.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many import licences or permissions were granted in each of the last five years for live botulin toxins for the manufacture of Botox.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Clostridium botulinum toxin is the active substance used as a starting material for the manufacture of Botox, a licensed human medicine. Active substances are those substances which give a medicinal product its therapeutic effect and must be manufactured to Good Manufacturing Practice standards for active substances used as a starting material.
From 20 August 2013, manufacturers, importers and distributors of active substances who are established in the United Kingdom had to register their activity with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
The UK has no registered importers of the active substance Clostridium botulinum toxin, but has one registered manufacturer of the toxin that is Good Manufacturing Practice compliant, and was last inspected in May 2016.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what research they have undertaken or commissioned into the creation of an effective vaccine against the synthetic horsepox virus.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has not undertaken or commissioned research in this area. However, the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council both have a wide portfolio of research activity in vaccines which support underpinning vaccine research and new vaccine technologies, through to clinical trials.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many members of each of the emergency services have been vaccinated against (1) smallpox, and (2) anthrax; what percentage of the total staff of each service this represents; and of those vaccinated, how many will need to be vaccinated again in the next year.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
There are no active vaccination programmes against smallpox or anthrax for any of the emergency services.
Vaccines can be made available to first responders responding to a confirmed anthrax incident if required. The Government still holds the smallpox vaccine for use against certain strains of orthopox viruses if required.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House what steps she has taken to draw the failure of the Home Office to answer within 10 working days three questions for written answer which were tabled on 24 July (HL9827, HL9860 and HL9890) to the attention of Home Office ministers.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
As Leader of the House I take very seriously the responsibility incumbent on all Ministers to provide full, timely and comprehensible answers to Questions for Written Answer (QWAs).
I have raised the outstanding answers with the Minister of State for Counter Extremism and understand that members concerned have been contacted by the Home Office to apologise for the delay and to provide an explanation as to why these answers have not yet been provided. I know that the Minister will answer the questions as soon as is possible.
My office will continue to work with all departments to ensure prompt and satisfactory answers to all QWAs.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House what explanations she has received from the Home Office about that Department's failure to answer within 10 working days three questions for written answer (HL9827, HL9860 and HL9890) which were tabled on 24 July.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
As Leader of the House I take very seriously the responsibility incumbent on all Ministers to provide full, timely and comprehensible answers to Questions for Written Answer (QWAs).
In this instance I am informed that the Home Office is working towards an appropriate response, noting that this is subject to ongoing legal proceedings. I have been assured by the Department that an answer will be provided as soon as possible. In the meantime, I know that the Home Office has been in touch with the relevant members of the House to apologise and to provide an explanation for the delay.
My office will continue to work with all departments to ensure prompt and satisfactory answers to all QWAs.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many awards of (1) Knights Bachelor, (2) DBE, (3) KBE, and (4) CBE were given to people styled Professor, save for those in the Diplomatic and Overseas lists, in the recent Birthday Honours List; what was the percentage of the total of each award given; and what assessment they have made of whether sufficient consideration is given to those with deserving talent, who are not styled Professor.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
In the Birthday Honours List 2018, the following recipients were styled professor: eight Knight Bachelor recipients (38% of recipients at that level), four DBE recipients (36%), no KBE recipients (0%) and 23 CBE recipients (26%). All nominees are assessed against the same criteria. The Cabinet Office always strives to encourage a greater diversity of nominations from the public and carries out outreach work to attract nominations from groups identified as under-represented in the honours system.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether it is possible to use scientific analysis techniques to establish whether beef has been produced using hormone implants when the amount of hormones in implanted steer beef is lower than the amount of those hormones in non-implanted bull beef.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
There are prototype methods that give a good indication of whether a substance is naturally occurring. However, these need further refinement before they can be considered suitably robust and reliable for regulatory use.