Became Member: 22nd June 2005
Left House: 28th April 2022 (Retired)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Moonie, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Lord Moonie has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Lord Moonie has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The government published a draft Public Service Ombudsman Bill in December 2016, setting out plans to introduce a new Public Service Ombudsman.
The requested information is not held centrally. UK public procurement policy is to award contracts on the basis of value for money, which means the optimum combination of cost and quality over the lifetime of the project, through fair and open competition and in line with our current international obligations.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply, and I will place a copy of their letter in the House Library.
The information is not held in the Government. I refer the noble Lord to the Euro Stat website below which might be of some help.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Mortality_and_life_expectancy_statistics
Government departments do not publish details of the salary ratio of their highest to lowest paid employees. The Office for National Statistics do publish the salary ratio of highest to median earners for each Civil Service organisation. These ratios are published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics and can be found attached.
The Civil Service recruits on the basis of merit and assesses on the basis of evidence supplied by the candidate. This is in line with fair and open competition rules as laid out in the recruitment principles upheld by the Civil Service Commission.
Gender identity is not used as part of the sifting process of job applications within the Civil Service. Candidates are asked this information for diversity monitoring purposes only.
The Civil Service aims to become the most inclusive employer in the UK, with the Talent Action Plan focussing on removing barriers for those from underrepresented groups.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The Government routinely consults with allies and partners on the shared threats we face and will take their analysis into account in formulating our National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Since January 2011, as part of the Government’s transparency programme, details of contracts above the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder:
https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.
The UK Government has secured early access to 407 million vaccine doses through agreements with seven separate vaccine developers. The Government is working closely with vaccine developers to monitor progress of clinical trials.
The Environment Agency (EA) has recently restructured its senior management team following a voluntary exit scheme and has filled all vacancies within the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) senior team.
Article 8(4–6) of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU) came in to force in November 2012.
The Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) was developed and implemented as a result of this directive after consultation. The Regulations came into force in July 2014 and the Scheme was launched in July 2014. The Environment Agency acts as the Scheme Administrator on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The first Compliance deadline was in December 2015 and as of 10th October 6885 organisations have notified compliance. The Environment Agency and other regulators are now focussed on bringing remaining organisations into compliance with ESOS and preparing for the next compliance deadline in 2019.
Payments to generators are based on generation meter readings and must be made at least quarterly. There is no restriction on FIT licensees making payments more frequently; generators may wish to consider this when choosing a FIT licensee or deciding to switch FIT licensees.
Rising sea levels can cause coastal flooding and coastal erosion. Our long-term policy statement sets out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. It includes five ambitious policies and over 40 supporting actions we will take to accelerate progress to better protect and prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion from more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change.
No assessment has yet been made of the impact of COP26 pledges on sea level; however the UK Climate Projections published in 2018 (UKCP18) project potential impacts on sea levels from a range of global warming scenarios. An initial comparison shows that the UKCP18 projections are broadly consistent with the IPCC's latest findings, so we can be confident that our current projections take into account the COP26 pledges and commitments.
The Environment Agency's (EA) Thames Estuary 2100 Plan (TE2100) sets a long-term approach, designed with climate change at its core. It was the first adaptive flood risk management strategy developed in England and is internationally recognised as a leading example of a climate adaptation strategy. By taking an adaptive approach, the EA can better anticipate and respond to a range of future climate scenarios, ensuring it is investing in the right flood risk management actions at the right time, to ensure the resilience of the estuary and its communities in the future.
The EA expects the Thames Barrier to continue to protect London from tidal flooding until 2070. TE2100 identifies several options for a future Thames Barrier to protect the Thames Estuary and London to the end of the century and beyond. It outlines three possible options, including upgrading the existing Thames Barrier and two proposed locations for building a new barrier.
The UK aims to be a world leader in agricultural technology, innovation and sustainability through the Agri-Tech Strategy which the Government published in July 2013. £160 million was committed to be co-invested with industry and address challenges in the agri-tech sector including £70 million for an Agri-Tech Catalyst that supports collaborative research projects to take agricultural innovations from the laboratory to the marketplace, and £80 million invested in four world class Centres for Agricultural Innovation. This is to develop and support the wide scale adoption of innovation and technology, developing skills and capability in the food and farming supply chain.
Wild parsnip, Pastinaca sativa subspecies sylvestris, is the wild ancestor of the cultivated garden parsnip. It is part of our native flora and poses no risk to the environment. Some members of the public experience skin irritation or blisters after contact with the plant’s sap and sunlight but the health risk is limited.
The table below contains detail of all MOD reimbursement resulting from DFID requested support to crisis in the past five years. The costs shown are marginal/additional costs in accordance with the agreed terms of the DFID – MOD memorandum of understanding and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) guidelines.
Year | Events | Cost |
2010 | Haiti Earthquake and Pakistan Floods | £1,234,936 |
2013 | Philippines - super typhoon Haiyan | £8,950,281 |
2014 | Iraq - air drops to Yazidis population on Mount Sinjar | £2,000,000 |
2014-15 | Sierra Leone - ebola response | £28,800,000 (to date) |
The UK offered Chinook helicopters to help deliver urgent humanitarian aid to the most remote areas of Nepal, in response to a UN request on 25 April for help, issued on behalf of the Nepalese government.
In deciding not to accept the offer, the Government of Nepal cited technical reasons and referred to the existing helicopter capacity that was already in the country.
It was ultimately a decision for them to take on what equipment should be used during the relief effort.
The UK has committed £427m to combat Ebola in West Africa, £373m for the ongoing crisis response and £54m for early recovery activities including infection prevention control and WASH facilities. The Secretary of State recently announced a further £240m package of support for Sierra Leone at the UN Secretary General’s Conference in New York, however this will focus on long term recovery over the next 2 years.
DFID is leading the UK Government’s response to the crisis and retains the budget for response activities, reimbursing other government departments including the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and Public Health England for any costs incurred. DFID has so far disbursed over £275 million to combat the outbreak.
The British Consulate General Los Angeles did not employ external consultants specifically to work on any of the events mentioned by the Noble Lord.
The Department for International Trade has used agency support in some our work to promote the UK’s excellent creative industries globally, often delivering through partnerships with organisations such as with Variety, BFI, BFC and BAFTA.
The UK is prepared to deal with a significant Icelandic volcanic eruption. Since 2010, the Department for Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), NATS and industry have developed a bespoke response guidance, which is regularly exercised and updated. In addition, new radar and monitoring equipment has been established in Iceland; the Met Office has enhanced its ash-modelling capability; and revised operating procedures for aircraft flight in ash‑contaminated airspace have been agreed.
The current plans for HS2 Phases One and 2a will see Glasgow connected to the high-speed rail network between 2029 and 2033. Journey times between Glasgow and London will fall by 45 minutes from 4hrs 30min at present to 3hrs 45min.
On completion of HS2 Phase 2b, Edinburgh will become connected to the high-speed rail network, reducing journey times to London from the current 4hrs 19mins to 3hrs 48min.
New high-speed rail infrastructure is planned from London to Manchester via Birmingham and Crewe. Classic-compatible high-speed trains running to Scotland will connect to the West Coast Mainline (WCML) in north-west England and these will use the existing conventional rail network to serve both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Driver Controlled Operation (DCO) has been in safe operation for over 30 years on many of our commuter networks. It is also in safe operation across the whole of London Underground.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is responsible for the enforcement of Health and Safety law on the railways and this organisation has examined thoroughly the safety of DCO. A report on its findings in relation to Govia Thameslink Railways’ implementation of this form of dispatch as well as its guidance to train operators on DCO Principles has been produced and is available on its website.
Its inspectors are satisfied that with suitable equipment, proper procedures and competent staff in place, it is a safe method of operation.
We want the UK to continue to have one of the best electric vehicle charging networks in the world. To help achieve that aim we have put in place a range of grant schemes to support the installation of charging infrastructure - on-street, off-street and at workplaces.
Under the Government’s Go Ultra Low City Scheme £22.9m has been allocated to support the installation of infrastructure in several UK cities. Highways England also has a commitment of £15m to ensure there are charge points (rapid where possible) every 20 miles on 95% of the Strategic Road Network.
At Autumn Budget 2017, the Chancellor announced £400 million for a new Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (£200m new Government investment to be matched by private investors). This funding is supported by a range of policy measures including the Automated and Electric Vehicle Bill, currently in Parliament, which will help ensure that there are sufficient electric vehicle charge points throughout the UK, and that they are convenient and easy to access for all drivers.
We regularly meet and work closely with all our franchisees and their owning groups. Stagecoach Group and Virgin Rail Group are no exceptions.
We are in discussions with Virgin-Stagecoach to ensure the needs of passengers and taxpayers will be met in the short term whilst laying the foundations to bring forward the reforms, as outlined in the Strategic Vision for Rail, in full under a long-term competitively procured contract.
The current East Coast franchise operated by Virgin Trains East Coast commenced 1st March 2015. An announcement of the expected premium over the duration of the contract was made at franchise award. All premiums due to date under the contract have been paid. Payments by franchised operators are published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) annually and can be found on their website.
This is a commercial decision for Train Operating Companies. However, a number of train operators run ‘dry trains’ meaning that no alcohol is allowed on board. This normally happens on the advice of British Transport Police when it is known large groups will be travelling, for example to a football match.
The Virgin Trains East Coast Franchise Agreement, like other franchise agreements, includes provisions for contractual termination. The Franchisee’s Guarantor will be required to meet its financial commitments to the tax payer in full, in particular the provision of Parent Company Support, while the Franchisee will be required to meet its commitments including the Performance Bond.
All passport holders at the time will be offered the opportunity to bid. Like others, Virgin and Stagecoach will need to meet all relevant requirements.
The Government recognises the important future role batteries will have as a primary energy source for vehicles. The recently announced Faraday Challenge is a £246m commitment to battery development in the UK to make the most of the automotive electrification market opportunity.
We expect most motorists to continue to charge at home, but we have put in place support schemes for those unable to do so with schemes to fund domestic on-street, off-street and workplace chargepoints. As announced at Autumn Budget 2017, a new £400m electric car Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (£200m new Government investment to be matched by private investors) will accelerate the roll-out of charging infrastructure by providing access to finance to companies that deliver chargepoints.
The Government is due to publish a strategy on Government support for the transition to zero emission vehicles by March 2018.
In 2016/17, Highways England spent £3.1bn in total in covering construction and maintenance of the Strategic Road Network, and the Traffic Officer Service.
The Government provided a total of £137.6m to local authorities from the local majors programme for the construction of new local roads.
The Government also allocated £1.029 billion to local authorities for highways maintenance in England outside London This was made up of £826m highways maintenance block needs element, £50m highways maintenance block incentive element, £103m highways maintenance block challenge fund and £50m Pothole Action Fund. A further £258 million was provided to local authorities in England outside London for small scale transport improvements through the integrated transport block.
The Mayor of London receives an annual grant from the Government for transport including rail, underground and roads, so the Department does not hold a breakdown of the expenditure.
The Department for Transport considered the impact of HS2 on the West Coast Main Line rail corridor in the Supplement to the October 2013 Strategic Case for HS2. The increase in peak-time seats on Birmingham services associated with HS2 (the Phase 2 “Y“ shaped network) was estimated at 97% compared to today’s capacity. HS2 was also estimated to increase PM-peak, standard-class seats from Euston from 15,869 to 39,566 across all Intercity West Coast (ICWC) services.
Phase 1 (London to West Midlands) of HS2 is scheduled to open to passengers in 2026, Phase 2a (West Midlands to Crewe) in 2027, and the rest of Phase 2 (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Yorkshire) in 2033. The project remains on time and on budget.
The compensation figures for all Train Operating Companies operating Delay Repay covering the years 2009-10 to 2014-15 are published on the GOV.UK website, and a copy of the full figures is provided in the attached document. Overall figures are below. Figures for the 2015-16 financial year for all Train Operating Companies are expected to be published on the GOV.UK website later this year.
Amounts in £ (000s)
2014-15 - 25,623
2013-14 - 22,608
2012-13- 12,603
2011-12 - 8,021
2010-11 - 3,256
2009 -10 - 2,981
The Department for Transport has not made an estimate of unclaimed compensation. The Office of Rail and Road considered this issue in its response to the Which? super-complaint on passenger compensation and has committed to working with the industry to agree a set of indicators that will show how the take-up of compensation is changing over time.
We are also working with the industry as it develops improvements to make the compensation process as easy for passengers as possible, including further automation. A number of train companies have already introduced fully automated compensation and other are planning to do so.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) is leading the industry’s response to the Office of Rail and Road’s recommendations following the Which? super-complaint, and we are discussing this with them as they lead efforts to raise standards.
Actions already taken by the RDG include:
The Department for Transport requires bidders for new franchises to put forward proposals to make the compensation process swift and simple.
On 13 October 2016 the Secretary of State for Transport announced an improved compensation scheme for passengers if their train is more than 15 minutes late. We will implement the policy in the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise, which includes Southern, within months. Following its introduction on GTR services, ‘Delay Repay 15’ will then be rolled out across the network starting with the new South Western, West Midlands and South Eastern franchises. All franchise competitions let by the Department for Transport (DfT) will include requirements to introduce this policy and the DfT is exploring opportunities to roll this out for all DfT franchises during this Parliament.
The roles and duties of on-train staff are the responsibility of the train operating companies, though the Department for Transport does on occasion in the course of its various meetings with franchised operators discuss developments on current staffing issues.
Network Rail’s business performance is measured in every four-week period through a scorecard that includes a series of safety measures. Performance against the metrics in the scorecard is linked to the bonuses of senior managers.
In terms of the company’s Executive Directors, each year Network Rail’s Remuneration Committee assesses performance for the year and decides whether the scorecard out-turn should be adjusted on safety grounds. Network Rail’s Management Incentive Plan states that in the event of a serious safety incident during the year, which impacts passengers, the workforce or the public, for which Network Rail was responsible, no incentive would normally be payable to any executive director for that year.
Network Rail has been fined fifteen times over the last five years for breaches of health and safety legislation, however the incidents that these fines correspond with took place over the last thirteen years (2003-2016). All fines must be paid out of existing budgets and no additional funding will be made available by government and no extra can be raised from track access charges.
As demonstrated by the various routes and services devolved to Transport for London (TfL) since 2007, the Department for Transport is committed to transferring services to local control where there is a business case for doing so.
In May 2018, Heathrow Connect services are due to be transferred to TfL control in preparation for full operation of Crossrail.
The Government have no plans to introduce regulations to restrict high intensity lit advertising over motorways for goods and services at this time.
The Government is committed to helping people achieve financial security in later life and is reforming the pension system as part of its efforts to encourage a culture of saving. Automatic enrolment was introduced to enable most people in work to save for later life. It has been a great success to date with over 6.8 million eligible workers enrolled by more than 290,000 employers since it began in 2012 and it is important we recognise the contribution employers have made to this achievement.
Automatic enrolment is currently being extended to small and micro employers. While the self-employed are not eligible for automatic enrolment, they will have legal duties to enrol any eligible workers in their employ. The Government understands that these employers may find complying with automatic enrolment challenging and we are doing all we can to make automatic enrolment as straightforward as possible for this group. The Department and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) are focussed on making compliance with automatic enrolment duties as clear as possible, as well as simplifying the language regarding automatic enrolment.
As part of this work, TPR has launched an interactive “Step by Step” guide on their website. This simplified guide to meeting AE duties is designed to meet the specific needs of employers who may not have pensions experience, including those with just one or two staff. The guide includes a duties checker so that employers can easily find out what they will need to do to comply and when. Using the duties checker also means employers will receive tailored communications relevant to their circumstances.
What an employer pays and the amount of time they spend on setting up automatic enrolment will depend on various factors, including how they use business advisers, how they run their payroll and which pension scheme they choose.
From research it has conducted, TPR estimates that small employers with between one and four staff members usually spend a total of about 10 hours overall carrying out all their automatic enrolment tasks, over a 12 month period before their staging date. This research has also shown that average costs associated with outsourced payroll are less than £200 while average pension scheme set up costs are under £500.
Automatic enrolment is a legal duty for employers, just like paying the National Living Wage, tax and National Insurance. There are no plans to reimburse employers for time or costs should their employees choose to opt-out. However, less than one in ten people are choosing to opt-out which is much lower than originally estimated. We have also seen around 5% of people not eligible for automatic enrolment choosing to opt-in to their employer’s pension scheme.
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The UK Health Security Agency’s COVID-19 vaccination consent form for children and young people or parents and carers is part of a suite of materials, including an easy to read patient information leaflet, to assist an individual in making their decision about acceptance of vaccination. There are no plans to include information on the potential risks of the vaccine in the consent form, as this is available in the accompanying easy-read leaflet and importance is placed on making the consent form as accessible as possible.