Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied child asylum seekers have entered the UK this year; and whether they plan to make the National Transfer Scheme compulsory for all local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The number of unaccompanied children who make asylum claims is published in the quarterly immigration statistics. The latest statistics can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to
We are very grateful to local authorities who have pledged places to support the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) and we need more to come forward and do their bit for vulnerable children.
We recognise a need to achieve a more equitable distribution of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and have therefore worked with local government partners to develop proposals to further improve the scheme which we have recently consulted on. We are grateful to local authorities for their responses to that consultation which we are carefully considering in order to develop a more sustainable long-term future model for the NTS. The consultation also sought views on a potential mandatory approach should participation in the voluntary scheme not achieve a more proportionate distribution of UASC.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the transportation of illegal substances through county lines.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This Government is determined to crack down on the county lines gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities.
That is why we are investing £25m to boost law enforcement efforts to put a stop to these ruthless gangs – this includes funding to tackle activity on the road and rail network, expand the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC), boost operational activity in the three major exporting force areas (the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, West Midlands), and increase support for victims.
We know that the transport network is used to facilitate county lines, and our £25m investment has enabled the British Transport Police (BTP) to establish a County Lines Taskforce which works with police forces and rail industry partners to deliver targeted activity on the rail network. This investment has also continued to improve availability and standardise the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) data, allowing for further additional support to county lines investigations.
Our investment is already delivering results: as a result of the £5m we invested in 2019-2020, pilot forces and British Transport Police have closed nearly 140 deal lines, seized cash and drugs with a total value of over £3 million, and made over 100 weapons seizures between November 2019 and March 2020.
In addition, a recent county lines ‘week of intensification’ co-ordinated by NCLCC in September and involving all police forces, including BTP, resulted in over 1,000 arrests, drugs worth more than £1m seized and over 1,500 vulnerable individuals safeguarded.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage the take-up of transporting freight by water, rather than by road.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Moving additional freight by water or rail can provide a number of benefits over transporting that freight by road, in particular environmental gains, but can also a decrease in congestion. The Department will continue to consider waterborne freight in future transport policy, including the Future of UK Freight strategy and when looking at transport decarbonisation options.
In terms of current measures, the Department offers Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) to assist companies with the operating costs associated with running inland water (or rail) freight transport instead of road, where this is more expensive than road. A similar scheme, Waterborne Freight Grant, is available to help with the additional operating costs of a new coastal or short sea shipping service.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to diversify the UK’s national telecommunications supply chain, particularly with regard to 5G infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The security and resilience of the UK’s telecoms networks is of paramount importance. The government will publish its targeted diversification strategy focused on rebalancing the telecommunications supply chain in the coming weeks alongside the Telecoms Security Bill. As part of this, we are exploring ways to incentivise research and development in the UK telecoms sector, such as alternative 5G deployment models, and accelerating the development of ‘interoperable’ equipment - kit which can be used by multiple vendors - and making it standard across the sector.
The government has established a Diversification Taskforce - chaired by Lord Livingston of Parkhead - which will provide independent and expert advice to the Government, supporting the development of the strategy and ensuring that our measures are ambitious and effective.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many road fatalities and accidents were caused by driving under the influence of drugs over the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The number of fatalities and reported personal injury road accidents where a police officer attended the scene of the accident and allocated the contributory factor “Driver/Rider impaired by drugs (illicit or medicinal)” in Great Britain for the last 5 years can be found in the table below.
Reported road accidents and fatalities where the contributory factor "Driver/Rider impaired by drugs (illicit or medicinal)" was allocated¹, Great Britain, 2015-2019 | ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year | Fatalities | Personal injury road accidents |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2015 | 67 | 881 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2016 | 92 | 1,054 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2017 | 105 | 1,151 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018 | 85 | 1,321 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2019 | 92 | 1,469 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: DfT, STATS19 |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation will be incorporated into UK law at the end of the transition period; and what new mechanisms will be put in place to regulate future UK-to EU data transfers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
At the end of the transition period, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) will retain the General Data Protection Regulation in UK domestic law.
We have made Regulations (The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc)(EU Exit) Regulations 2019) under the EUWA to make necessary and appropriate changes to the retained legislation so that the UK’s data protection law continues to function effectively after the transition period. For example, the Regulations rename the GDPR as the ‘UK GDPR’, repatriate certain powers from the EU Commission to the Secretary of State and replace European terminology with UK equivalents.
At the end of the transition period, the UK will recognise EEA countries and EU institutions as continuing to be adequate for the purpose of the UK GDPR, so data can continue to flow from the UK to the EEA without further safeguards needing to be implemented.
In order for the free flow of data from the EEA to the UK to continue at the end of the transition period, we are seeking adequacy decisions from the EU under both the GDPR and the LED.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what aid they have provided to Lebanon following the explosion in Beirut on 4 August.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In response to the Beirut Port explosion on 4 August 2020, the UK announced a £25 million package of humanitarian assistance to help support Lebanon in its time of urgent need. This makes us one of the biggest international donors to the crisis.
Of this assistance, £20 million is allocated to the UN World Food Programme in Lebanon and will go directly to help vulnerable families by covering their essential survival needs, and will provide support for cash, vouchers, or in-kind support. £3 million will go to the British Red Cross for emergency support to respond to the explosion.
We rapidly deployed UK experts to Beirut to advise and assist with the response and undertake longer term planning. This has included:
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are currently paying the additional rate of income tax; and how much they raised from this band over the last financial year.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The table below contains estimates of additional rate taxpayer numbers and liabilities taxed at the additional rate for the 2019-20 financial year:
Number of taxpayers with total taxable income above the additional rate threshold and tax liabilities at the additional rate | |
Number of taxpayers (thousands) | 450 |
Total additional rate tax liabilities (£ million) | 42,400 |
Of which: |
|
Tax on earnings (£ million) | 35,300 |
Tax on savings (£ million) | 856 |
Tax on dividends (£ million) | 6,290 |
The estimated number of income tax payers, and liabilities by tax band are published in HMRC’s Income Tax Liabilities Statistics publication.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been the total yield on inheritance tax collected in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HMRC publish information regarding the total amount of Inheritance Tax (IHT) receipts received in each tax year annually in their ‘Inheritance Tax Statistics’ publication.
The latest statistics were published on 30 July 2020. The amount of revenue raised from IHT, irrespective of when the charge to tax arose, is reproduced in the table below, for each of the last five years.
Tax Year | Receipts (£millions) |
2015-16 | 4,673 |
2016-17 | 4,840 |
2017-18 | 5,218 |
2018-19 | 5,384 |
2019-20 | 5,161 |
Source: Table 12.1 Inheritance Tax: Analysis of Receipts. Available online on the GOV.UK website. These figures include both cash and non-cash receipts.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the level of (1) imports, and (2) exports, between the UK and South Africa in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Risby,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking about imports and exports between the UK and South Africa, and the UK and India, in each of the last five years (HL7881; HL7882).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes data on goods and services exports for the UK with South Africa and India[1], which can be found in table 1 below. Please note that data are in current prices and, as such, include the effect of inflation. We do not have total trade data, split by country, on a volume basis (with the effect of inflation removed) at present.
Table 1: UK total trade (goods and services) with South Africa and India, in £ million, non-seasonally adjusted
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
South Africa | Exports | 4853 | 4558 | 4686 | 4570 | 4487 | 4758 |
Imports | 3344 | 3896 | 4161 | 4192 | 5036 | 6270 | |
India | Exports | 7872 | 6909 | 5771 | 6630 | 9226 | 7958 |
Imports | 11225 | 9555 | 10076 | 12052 | 12654 | 16171 | |
Source: ONS
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond