Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what information they have on changes in the population of hares in England and Wales over the past 30 years.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There has been a historic decline of brown hares in Britain, predominantly shown through the game bag records, but there is some uncertainty about whether that decline is continuing. The British Trust for Ornithology’s Breeding Bird Survey (Heywood et al, 2025), which records mammals as well as birds, shows an increasing trend of 47% in the English population of brown hare between 1996 and 2023. However, other sources, such as the game bag records and A Review of the Population and Conservation Status of British Mammals (Mathews et al, 2018), consider the population to be stable.
Mountain hares, which became extinct in England around 6,000 years ago, were translocated from Scotland to the Peak District National Park in the 1870s. They are now showing a continuing decline in population and a recent study by Bedson et al (2025) has shown a decline of 58% over seven years from 3,562 hares to 1,038 hares (2017-2024), putting them at risk of another extinction in England.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many hares they estimate are shot each year.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra holds no official statistics on the number of hares shot in England each year and therefore makes no official estimate. We are however aware of a number of estimates made by stakeholder groups which range markedly from the low tens of thousands to the low hundreds of thousands.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many reports have been made to police of illegal hare coursing since the Hunting Act 2004 came into force.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Hare coursing or poaching are not crimes which the police must record and notify to the Government. Where violence or intimidation are part of any hare coursing or poaching the most common crimes that could be recorded would be violence with injury, violence without injury or public order crimes where threats are used. However, there is no means of identifying if these are connected to hare coursing or poaching and for this reason the Government does not hold the information.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which Ministers, and on how many occasions, used the Windsor Suite at Heathrow Airport (1) between 1 July 2024 and 14 May, and (2) between 1 July 2023 and 1 July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Cabinet Office does not hold this information and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the inclusion of Victoria Tower Gardens on the list published by Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank, 7 most endangered heritage sites in Europe for 2025, on 18 March.
Answered by Lord Khan of Burnley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The design for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre was chosen because it is sensitive to the heritage and existing uses of Victoria Tower Gardens, and includes enhancements that will help all visitors, including better pathways and improved access to existing memorials.
In considering the planning application, the independent Inspector looked in detail at matters such as the impact on the Gardens and existing Memorials. He concluded that any harms to heritage assets or open space were outweighed by the public benefits of the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the remarks by the World Heritage Committee in the State of Conservation report 2021 about the impact of the Holocaust Memorial Centre on the outstanding universal value of the Palace of Westminster.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The independent planning Inspector who considered the planning application for the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, took into account all evidence; including pre-application advice from Historic England in its capacity as statutory advisor, guidance from (International Council on Monuments and Sites - heritage advisors to UNESCO) and statements from the World Heritage Committee.
The assessment in the Inspector’s 2021 report was that: “…the proposed UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre would not result in compromise to the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site because it does not harm it or its setting, thus conserving it.” Whilst the inspector's assessment pre-dates the Committee's decision relating to the 2021 State of Conservation Report, there was no substantive change in the Committee's position which reiterated earlier statements.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what is the estimated cost of the fencing planned for the front of Parliament along Abingdon Street and what is the market cost of fencing of the same specification.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Abingdon fence installation was competitively procured by both Houses of Parliament through parliament’s framework supply-chain and benchmarked against other fencing projects within Parliament. For security reasons, the Houses do not publish capital expenditure on security mitigating projects as providing this level of detail could enable an individual to infer the extent and nature of the works, and thus the vulnerabilities which they were intended to mitigate.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what is the salary of the Director of Security for Parliament.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Director of Security for Parliament is a bicameral role, but for administrative purposes is employed by the House of Commons. The salary of the Director of Security is published alongside other Commons Executive Board members in the annual accounts of the House of Commons. In 2023-24 the salary and benefits in kind of the Director of Security were £140-145,000.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there are any restrictions on the movement of Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles onto Ministry of Defence barracks or training areas.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence takes the security of defence assets very seriously, and is working with other Government Departments to understand and mitigate any potential threats to national security from vehicles. Our policies and procedures take account of the potential threats from all types of vehicle, not just those manufactured in China, and we have issued appropriate internal direction to all drivers and passengers.
There are no centrally mandated policy restrictions on the movement of Chinese manufactured vehicles. We are aware that individual defence organisations may have stricter requirements relating to electric vehicles on some sites, but we do not provide specific details for security reasons.
Asked by: Lord Robathan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there are any restrictions being put in place to prevent Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles from accessing any critical infrastructure.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government takes national security extremely seriously and the Department works closely with the transport sector and other agencies such as the National Protective Security Authority and the National Cyber Security Centre to respond to any security vulnerabilities. This includes ensuring critical infrastructure is secure and resilient, and risks are managed proportionately.