Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what factors have led to the delay in establishing the National Regulator for Construction Products since it was announced by the Office of Product Safety and Standards on 14 January 2022; and what steps they are taking to bring about its establishment.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As of April 2021, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is responsible for the regulation of construction products. The regulator is undertaking enforcement activity under the current Construction Products Regulations 2013, funded by the department. In July 2022, the department further extended existing enforcement powers, enabling OPSS to act on behalf of the Secretary of State as the national enforcement authority, overseeing compliance where there are existing designated standards.
The department is also looking to lay future secondary legislation (to be made under the Building Safety Act 2022) which will give OPSS access to broader powers to intervene in the sector.
To examine how the system for testing the safety of construction should be strengthened, the department commissioned an independent review into weaknesses in the existing testing regime. This report has recently been published, and the department is working with the two regulators (OPSS and HSE) to take its recommendations forward.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to speed up the notification of the results of bids to the Levelling Up Fund; and what assessment they have made of the delay of the establishment of Marple Leisure and Community Hub in Stockport Borough.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
All bids submitted to the second round of the Levelling Up Fund, including the Marple Leisure and Community Hub in Stockport Borough, have been assessed following the robust process set out in published guidance.
I appreciate that applicants, if successful, will want to begin work on their projects as soon as possible. We have notified applicants and MPs that having received such a high number of quality applications, the announcement has been delayed until the New Year to allow us to allocate additional funds - meaning up to £2.1 billion will be granted to successful bids in this round. We will therefore announce the results of the second round by the end of January 2023.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Autumn Statement on 17 November that the NHS will be given £3.3 billion additional funding, what proportion of that funding will be spent on rebuilding community NHS dentistry services in areas with (1) no, or (2) low, take-up of new adult NHS patients, such as Stockport.
Answered by Lord Markham
NHS England will publish its planning guidance and funding allocations for 2023/24 in due course.
NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022. In September, we announced how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care. This includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. We will also streamline processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the abolition of Harrogate Borough Council on 1 April 2023 and the related extension of existing councillors' terms, what plans they have, if any, to legislate to allow electors of Marston Moor Ward at Harrogate Borough Council to vote for a representative ahead of the North Yorkshire Unitary election.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
We are aware that since the end of January there has been a vacancy in this ward.
The North Yorkshire (Structural Changes) Order 2022 cancelled the ordinary elections in May 2022 in Harrogate.
My officials are discussing with Harrogate’s officers what the implications are for representation in this ward for Harrogate Borough council.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish the next biennial report to Parliament required by Section 6 of the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Since the last parliamentary report, the Government has made significant progress in improving the environmental sustainability of the built environment. In December 2021, the Government implemented an uplift to Part L (conservation of fuel and power) of the Building Regulations that delivers a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions and marks an important step on our journey towards a cleaner, greener built environment.
The Heat and Buildings Strategy sets out the further steps we will take to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and decarbonise heating, including a Future Homes Standard in 2025, and the Net Zero Strategy has set out our vision for a decarbonised economy in 2050.
We will publish, in due course, a new report setting out the details of these changes to the Building Regulations and all other matters set out in Section 6 of the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the September 2021 report of the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision, what plans, if any, they have to ensure that (1) the 80 per cent of bodies identified as having failed to implement an effective risk-based approach to anti-money laundering do so without delay; and (2) the 66 per cent of bodies identified as not having or having only ineffective systems for recording sector risk profiles, move swiftly to develop them.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
Since 2018, the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) has worked with the accountancy and legal sector professional body anti-money laundering supervisors (PBSs) to increase the consistency of their anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) supervision and facilitate increased intelligence and information sharing. OPBAS has independently assessed how each PBS carries out their AML/CTF supervisory responsibilities.
In its third report, published in September 2021, OPBAS found that although PBS compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations continues to improve, there were some weaknesses in the effectiveness of their supervision, including risk assessment, governance and enforcement.
OPBAS noted significant improvements in PBSs’ technical compliance, driven in part by PBSs’ positive response to action plans drawn up as a result of the first annual report. However, OPBAS will continue to work with individual PBSs to address issues identified in the third report.
In addition, HM Treasury is currently reviewing the UK’s AML/CFT regulatory and supervisory regimes.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Department for Education complies with procurement guidelines by removing references to retention deductions from all future building work procurement contracts.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department takes into account all legislation and government guidance in its construction procurements, including procurement policy notes and the Construction Playbook. Its approach to contractual payment mechanisms balances the efficient operation of its construction contracts and management of public money against the expectations of the construction sector. The use of retentions in construction contracts is subject to ongoing consultation across government, and the industry and the department are keen to be part of this debate.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow jobseekers to establish their benefit status online rather than in person to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
Customers claiming Universal Credit, New Style JSA and ESA already do so online. Many parts of the verification process, which is essential to check an individual’s eligibility to claim, is also carried out online. To protect Universal Credit from the risk of fraud, in some cases we require face to face verification activity in a COVID secure environment.
Key workers will continue to deliver essential services, including in jobcentres, across the UK. Anyone who needs to get support or other vital services from our jobcentres will be able to continue to do so in an environment that is safe and compliant with COVID regulations. Telephone appointments can be arranged for customers who prefer to receive support virtually. We ask customers who do come in-person to take a lateral flow test and follow all the safety measures to help reduce the spread of COVID.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Freedom of Information requests were considered by the Cabinet Office's Clearing House in each of the last ten years; and how many of these were (1) answered in full, (2) answered in part, and (3) refused, broken down by the statutory grounds for refusal.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The Clearing House function does not have full time members of staff, and its work is done by a small team of people in the FOI team, including the Deputy Director of Freedom of Information and Transparency, alongside their other day to day responsibilities. There is no separate budget for the Clearing House.
The Cabinet Office does not routinely capture data on the number of requests which are referred to the Clearing House. However, in 2020, Clearing House gave advice on 516 aggregated ‘round robins’ (requests made to more than one department and that have repeat characteristics); a small proportion of over 30,000 requests received by government departments in the same time period.
The Cabinet Office has referred requests to the Clearing House where appropriate and in line with the published criteria, which is available on gov.uk here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-and-freedom-of-information.
Information on Freedom of Information statistics is also published on gov.uk here - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
Asked by: Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to instruct the Office of Nuclear Regulation to investigate the recent problems at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong, China, in order to inform the commissioning of any similar plants in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Callanan
Nuclear power stations in Great Britain must comply with our stringent nuclear safety laws, overseen by a robust and independent regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). The ONR would not allow a reactor to be built or to operate if it judged that it was not safe to do so.
The ONR are already engaged with relevant contacts, including its international regulatory partners, to fully understand the issues at Taishan, and any associated learning will form part of their ongoing scrutiny of the Hinkley Point C (HPC) project.