Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many E-7 Wedgetail AWACS systems they plan to procure; and what is the anticipated delivery timescale of each such system.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
In March 2019, HM Treasury and the Ministry of Defence approved the procurement of five E-7 Wedgetail aircraft, however, discussions regarding the final E-7 Wedgetail fleet size are on-going with a decision expected in the first half of this year. The first UK E-7 Wedgetail is expected to enter service with the Royal Air Force in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration is given to the welfare of (1) women, and (2) children, when developing policy on surrogacy.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Law Commissions for England and Wales and Scotland have been undertaking a review of United Kingdom legislation about surrogacy with significant engagement from a range of stakeholders. The Law Commissions are currently considering responses to a public consultation about proposed changes.
The key consideration of these proposals is to balance the best interests of children born through surrogacy, treated as paramount in line with the current law, with the interests of women acting as surrogates, and the interests of intended parents.
Draft legislation is expected in 2022 and is intended to be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many advance payments have been made to pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic by (1) total value, and (2) number of recipients.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Advanced payments have been used on a number of contracts awarded to suppliers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our approach has been to take some managed risk in order to secure supplies in an exceptional and globally highly competitive market. Contracts have break clauses in them, meaning if the company supplies faulty products or misses delivery dates, we can cancel the contracts and reclaim our money.
Over 1,000 purchase orders have now been raised with suppliers for the delivery of goods and services related to the COVID-19 pandemic. To provide a validated assessment of whether an advanced payment has been agreed or not for each of these orders would involve disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how long it will take to achieve mass vaccination of the population against COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England and NHS England and NHS Improvement are the health and social care delivery organisations responsible for ensuring that a COVID-19 vaccine is deployed and administered safely and efficiently to the public. The Government is working at pace for the delivery of any potential COVID-19 vaccination programme as quickly as possible, but the scale of what is rolled out and when will depend on a safe, effective vaccine being available. All plans we are making recognise that there are numerous potential vaccine candidates, meaning that we will need to remain flexible.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what cost savings they have achieved to date through the TyTAN Typhoon aircraft programme; and where any such savings have been reallocated.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The 10-year £2.14 billion Typhoon Total Availability Enterprise support contract was awarded to BAE Systems in July 2016 and represents a saving of 38% compared to previous arrangements. To date, more than £500 million of savings have been realised and recycled to fund Typhoon capability upgrades over the next ten years.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what NATO and EU exercises the Ministry of Defence intends to participate in during 2021.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The following list represents planned UK involvement in NATO exercises for 2021:
DYNAMIC GUARD 21/1
DYNAMIC MOVE 21/1
DYNAMIC MANTA 21
RAMSTEIN AMBITION 21
DYNAMIC MASTER 21 (postponed from 2020)
FORMIDABLE SHIELD 21
STEADFAST DEFENDER 21
DYNAMIC MOVE 21/2
DYNAMIC MASTERMIND 21
DEFENDER EUROPE 21
NOBLE JUMP
DRAGON READY
DYNAMIC MARINER 21
STEADFAST JACKAL 21
CYBER COALITION 21
NOBLE PARTNER
TIMBER EXPRESS
JOINT COOPERATION
IRON THUNDER
Attendance at all these exercises will be COVID restriction dependent.
The UK will not be participating in any EU exercises during 2021.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they next intend to participate in the Baltic air-policing mission.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The UK remains committed to the security of the Baltic region including in the Air domain. We cannot comment on future operational deployments.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many advance payments have been made to defence contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic by (1) total value, and (2) number of recipients.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been working closely with its suppliers during the Covid-19 pandemic to support them at this difficult time. In accordance with Government procurement guidance, the MOD has to date approved interim payments of £124 million to ensure that critical defence outputs can continue uninterrupted. £86 million of this was to 31 UK suppliers. The remainder have been made under Foreign Military Sales arrangements.
The MOD has also engaged directly with more than 600 of its critical suppliers to enhance our understanding of supply chain resilience.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much income they received in the last financial year from calls to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs helplines that have the 0300 prefix.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HMRC do not receive any income from the use of 0300 numbers.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the impact of a decrease in GDP as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic on (1) legislative, and (2) manifesto, commitments for expenditure as a percentage of GDP.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The UK’s fiscal council, the Office of Budget Responsibility, makes forecasts for GDP. They have published a coronavirus reference scenario, which they continue to develop and update, which can be found on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s website. In their public commentary the Office for Budget Responsibility have said that the fiscal and monetary support measures of the UK authorities “help to limit the adverse impact on potential output and thus future GDP once the crisis has passed”.
The government will take stock of the impact of the covid-19 public health and economic emergency on the forecast for the economy and public finances through the Budget process. Further details of spending plans will be set out in due course, including through a Spending Review later this year.