Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Curran on 13 October (HL Deb col 115), what was meant by the statement "in comparison to the work of the last Government, the price of diesel has reduced by 11p per litre".
Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
When the previous government left office in July 2024, the fiscal plans set out at Spring Budget 2024 would have increased fuel duty by 11p until today. This comprises the planned unwinding of the 5p cut on 1 April 2025, planned increases to fuel duty by inflation on 1 April 2025 and 1 April 2026 and the VAT charged on that additional duty.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in respect of the latest year for which figures are available, on how many occasions pills to terminate a pregnancy were delivered by post or courier (1) as a number, and (2) as a percentage of all medical terminations in that year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not contained within the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales 2023, which remains the last set of data published in this area.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what responsibilities they intend (1) Great British Railways, and (2) Greater Manchester Combined Authority, to have for (a) setting fares, (b) specifying service levels, and (c) holding operators to account for local rail services integrated into the Bee Network.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government and rail industry is working closely in partnership with Greater Manchester to support the integration of local rail into the Bee Network. Services will be operated by Great British Railways (GBR). We are having continuing conversations regarding the funding and specification of local GBR services.
We aim to balance greater local influence while maintaining GBR's responsibility for delivery as part of the nationally integrated railway. The detailed arrangements, including the respective responsibilities for setting fares, service specification and accountability, are being developed with Greater Manchester and the rail industry.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the initial and recurring fees charged by Ofgem for registration of a heat network; and what assessment they have made of the potential effects on leaseholders and tenants in small blocks of flats.
Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofgem is not charging a fee for registration and will not charge any fees from authorised heat networks until 2028 at the earliest.
Ofgem is initially recovering the costs of heat network regulation through license fees paid by certain gas and electricity licensees. After this time, the cost of regulation will be spread across the gas, electricity and heat network sector.
In April Ofgem consulted on how they will recover the portion of regulatory costs falling on Heat Networks. This included proposals for smaller networks, how the proportion of fees for each organisation should be calculated and how often they should be collected. The link to the consultation can be found on Gov.UK and a response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to require motorway service stations to display their current fuel prices in a manner visible to motorists before they exit the motorway.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government has no plans to require motorway service areas to display fuel prices on signage along the carriageway.
However, the Government has implemented an open data scheme for fuel prices, called Fuel Finder, which requires all petrol stations in the UK to report their prices. This is expected to save the average household an additional £40, through making it easier to shop around for fuel.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many terminations of pregnancy were carried out by (1) medical means and (2) surgical procedures, in the last year for which statistics are available; and how many of those carried out by medical means (1) involved, and (2) did not involve, an in-person meeting with an abortion provider.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest available official statistics show that there were 277,970 legal abortions carried out among residents in England and Wales in 2023, of which 35,765 were carried out by surgical means, and 242,205 were carried out by medical means. Data is not currently available on the number of medical abortions where the patient had an in-person meeting with an abortion provider.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they sought or assessed evidence from any of the nine countries referred to in paragraph 37 of their consultation stage impact assessment, Standardised packaging and pack inserts for tobacco products (excluding cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco), heated tobacco devices, herbal smoking products and cigarette papers, published on 10 July, before producing that impact assessment; if so, (1) what evidence was considered, and (2) why it was not identified in the impact assessment; and if not, why they applied an assumed impact size of 1.9 per cent a year, derived from cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco, to cigars without testing that assumption against the experience of those countries.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The impact assessment draws on available international evidence on standardised tobacco packaging, including evidence from Australia and Canada. This is a consultation-stage impact assessment, and the consultation process welcomed further evidence.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendation by the Court of Appeal in Haycock v R (EWCA Crim 1105) that there should be a systematic review process to ensure that individuals still subject to imprisonment for public protection and detention for public protection sentences are adequately identified and provided with legal advice.
Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes routine data on prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences in custody in the Offender Management Statistics publication. This is available online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly.
Prison staff are required to assist any prisoner who wishes to request legal advice by providing lists of legal advisers, supplying appropriate forms, and assisting prisoners to complete them where requested due to language or literacy difficulties.
Criminal legal aid is available for eligible IPP and DPP offenders for parole proceedings and for related preliminary or incidental proceedings. Information on finding a legal aid adviser is available at: Find a Legal Aid Adviser or Family Mediator. Alternatively, organisations, such as the Association of Prison Lawyers or the Prisoners' Advice Service, may be able to assist in finding a prison law adviser.
On 1 September, the Lord Chancellor announced that the Government will bring an end to the sentence for those who continue to serve it and will bring forward legislation to do this by the end of this Parliament. These are complex cases, involving important public protection and victim considerations. Reform will take time to get right.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they hold information on the number of local authorities that (1) have introduced, and (2) are considering, parking charges based on vehicle (a) dimensions, (b) weight, and (c) emissions.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not hold data on how many local authorities have introduced, or are considering, parking charges based on vehicle dimensions, weight or emissions.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many reported road traffic collisions involved a driver who was driving on a foreign driving licence that was valid for use in the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not held by the Department for Transport.