Lord Tebbit

In 2014 the National Solar Centre of the Building Research Establishment published Biodiversity Guidance to Solar Developments in order to support developers in managing the effect of generating stations on plants and animal wildlife. This can be found at:

http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/nsc/Documents%20Library/NSC%20Publications/National-Solar-Centre---Biodiversity-Guidance-for-Solar-Developments--2014-.pdf

While DECC holds information on the numbers and capacities of solar farms, DECC does not hold information on the quantity of land used for each. This information may be held by individual local planning authorities.

Under the Companies Act listed companies are required to report on diversity, including gender, in their annual reports. Company reporting is overseen by the Financial Reporting Council and companies are required to follow the UK Corporate Governance Code on a comply-or-explain basis.

In September 2014 FRC published an updated Code, including changes to the preface reinforcing the importance of diversity in all its forms on the board. This includes, but is not limited to, gender and race.

At the launch on 15^th December 2014, the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills welcomed a new private sector-led campaign which will look to address the lack of ethnic diversity in boardrooms, based in part on research that indicates the proportion of Black & Ethnic Minority people in leadership positions is lower than expected compared to the wider population (estimated at 5.1% and 14% respectively). Measuring progress is a key part of the campaign.

The Government contributed £1,800, as part of a Foreign & Commonwealth Office Prosperity Fund project on carbon markets, towards travel and accommodation costs for Baroness Worthington to attend an emissions trading experts meeting in China in April 2014.

The Government has contributed £1,800 for travel and accommodation for Members of the House of Lords to attend meetings overseas specifically on climate change in the current financial year.

I refer my noble friend to my answer of 4 December 2018 [HL 11735], since when nine ministers have resigned from the Government.

The number of ministers appointed to Her Majesty's Government, and the roles to which they are appointed, will vary from time to time. Since 4 December, nine ministers have joined the Government.

The following ministers have resigned from office since the formation of the Government on 11 June 2017:

• Lord Price CVO, former Minister of State for Trade Policy
• Lord Nash, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System
• The Rt Hon Baroness Anelay of St. Johns DBE, former Minister of State for Exiting the European Union
• The Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, former Secretary of State for Defence
• The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, former Secretary of State for International Development
• The Rt Hon Damian Green MP, former First Secretary of State and Minister for the Cabinet Office

• The Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, former Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities
• Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen, former Baroness in Waiting (Government Whip)
• The Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP, former Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equalities
• Dr Philip Lee MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Youth Justice, Victims, Female Offenders and Offender Health
• The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, former Minister for Trade Policy
• The Rt Hon David Davis MP, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Steve Baker MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• Andrew Griffiths MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Small Business Consumers and Corporate Responsibility
• Guto Bebb MP, former Minister for Defence Procurement
• Tracey Crouch MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society
• Jo Johnson MP, former Minister of State for Transport and Minister for London
• The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• The Rt Hon Esther McVey MP, former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
• Suella Braverman MP, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• Shailesh Vara MP, former Minister of State for Northern Ireland
• Sam Gyimah MP, former Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation

The requested information is not readily available. The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The following ministers have resigned from Government after the Chequers Summit:

• Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

• Rt Hon David Davis MP, former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

• Guto Bebb MP, former Minister for Defence Procurement

• Steve Baker MP, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

• Andrew Griffiths MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The Government constantly monitors the health of all of its strategic suppliers and reviews its contingency plans as necessary. Carillion publicly issued profit warnings on three occasions.

The Strike Price for Hinkley Point C is £92.50/MWh, reducing to £89.50/MWh if EDF proceed with Sizewell C

Social enterprises are businesses with primarily social/environmental objectives, whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or community rather than mainly being paid to shareholders or owners. We are currently refreshing our own government estimates of the nature and size of the social enterprise market in the UK, and we will publish our research early in 2017.

The Government is aware of the British Trust for Ornithology data on starlings. The Government’s wild bird statistics that measure relative abundance show decreases for starlings of 81% in the long term (1970-2015) and 5% in the short term (2010-2015).

The cause of the decline in starlings, although not fully understood, is likely to be linked to food availability and over winter survival. To support starlings and other birds there are agri-environment scheme options that aim to boost food availability. In the period 2008-2014, farms in Higher Level Stewardship agreements, specifically undertaking bird friendly management options, found a sustained 79% increase in starling abundance.

The experiments conducted by University of York in collaboration with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) demonstrated that exposing starlings to a maximal environmentally relevant concentration of an anti-depressant (fluoxetine) altered courtship behaviour in wild-caught starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). The males sang less and were more aggressive towards females that had been dosed with an anti-depressant than to the untreated females and in addition the treated females were also initially more aggressive towards males than the untreated females. However there were no effects on female courtship behaviour or on circulating female hormones in treated females. These findings suggest that exposure to this dose of anti-depressant reduced female attractiveness to the male but the reasons why are not clear. Whether these levels of anti-depressants in the environment would have a significant effect on an individual’s fitness or the population as a whole requires further investigation.

Researchers at the University of York have published in a peer reviewed journal that earthworms collected at sewage treatment plants contained mean concentrations of 26.20±4.70 ng/g of the anti-depressant fluoxetine (trade name Prozac) (Bean et al. 2017). In a recent paper concerning the effects of low, environmental relevant, concentrations of Prozac on the courtship of starlings (Whitlock et al. 2018), they also refer to work by other researchers showing earthworms at sewage treatment plants to contain other contaminants including pharmaceuticals (Markman et al. 2007 & 2008). There are many other studies globally showing uptake of pharmaceuticals into a variety of invertebrate species.

The uptake of pharmaceutical residues from sewage, sewage effluent and sewage sludge has been shown to negatively impact invertebrates themselves and provides a clear route of exposure to many species of wildlife including birds and bats. The full significance of this is still being assessed.

References

Bean, T. G., Arnold, K. E., Lane, J., Bergstrom, E., Thomas-Oates, J. E., Rattner, B., & Boxall, A. B. A. (2017). Predictive framework for estimating exposure of birds to pharmaceuticals. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3771

Markman S,Guschina I,Barnsley S,Buchanan K,Pascoe D,et al. (2007) Endocrine disrupting chemicals accumulate in earthworms exposed to sewage effluent. Chemosphere 70: 119–125.

Markman S, Leitner S, Catchpole C, Barnsley S, Müller CT, Pascoe D, et al. (2008) Pollutants Increase Song Complexity and the Volume of the Brain Area HVC in a Songbird. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1674. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001674

Sophia E. Whitlock, M. Glória Pereira, Richard F. Shore, Julie Lane, Kathryn E. Arnold. Environmentally relevant exposure to an antidepressant alters courtship behaviours in a songbird. Chemosphere, 2018; 211: 17 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.074

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The class of substances known as Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) which include oestrogens found in contraceptive pills are a hazard to some wildlife. While it is correct that EDCs are a recognised environmental issue, which continues to be researched with a view to the protection of wildlife, EDCs do not pose a threat to drinking water supplies as drinking water treatment facilities will remove oestrogens, if they were to occur in river water.

The Environment Agency is currently commissioning work to survey the incidence and severity of intersex in wild fish in a number of rivers that were surveyed 15 years ago, to assess how the situation may have changed.

The effectiveness of this Act is assessed annually by recording details of complaints and enforcement cases. Research undertaken for Defra in 2013 concluded that ragwort is not becoming more widespread.

The Ragwort Control Act 2003 contains provision for a Code of Practice for the management and control of ragwort.

Common ragwort is one of the five, so called ‘injurious weeds’ and is toxic to grazing livestock including horses, so the priority is to protect them where there is a risk of them ingesting dead, dying or green ragwort. The Government recognises the impact that ragwort ingestion can have and we ask that landowners take all reasonable steps to ensure that ragwort does not spread from their land onto adjoining land, where it poses a risk to grazing livestock, land used for grazing or to produce hay/forage. Where complaints are received and there is a genuine risk to grazing livestock then action to ensure compliance is taken with private individuals or public bodies.

The White Paper on the Future Relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union was published on the GOV.UK website and shared in a letter to the Chairs of the European Union Committee and the Commons Exiting the European Union and European Scrutiny Committees at the moment the Secretary of State stood up to make his statement.

Copies of the White Paper were put in the libraries of both Houses at 0930 on 12 July but due to an administrative error, the White Paper was not distributed to Members of the House of Commons ahead of the debate. There was no intent on the Government’s part to withhold information from the House and the Secretary of State has apologised for this oversight.

We will make a success out of leaving the European Union. We will protect and strengthen the national interest.

As set out in the guidance Eliminating mixed sex accommodation in hospitals, it is for each trust to determine how best to accommodate patients, taking into account national guidance on action to eliminate mixed sex accommodation, the relevant quality and safety standards, and patients’ own preferences. A copy of the guidance is attached.

We will invest more than £300 million on dementia research over the course of this Parliament. This includes research into causes, diagnosis, cures, care and prevention of dementia.

A key aspiration in the Challenge on Dementia 2020, published in February 2015, is to improve public awareness and understanding of the factors which can increase the risk of developing dementia and how people can reduce their risk by living more healthily.

Public Health England (PHE) has responsibility for the risk reduction element of the 2020 Challenge and has allocated around £62,000 in 2016-17 to support this ambition.

PHE has also allocated £2.5 million in 2016-17 for its Prevention and Sexual Health Promotion programme. These monies are dispersed on HIV prevention programmes, the HIV Prevention Innovation Fund, support for the national HIV self-sampling service, as well as the Sexual and Reproductive Information Service, and on monitoring and evaluation of the programme.

On 4 December 2016, NHS England announced an investment of up to £10 million over 3 years as part of a major extension to the national HIV prevention programme led by PHE. The aim is to support those most at risk of acquiring HIV through providing access to pre-exposure prophylaxis within a clinical trial. NHS England also funds access to post-exposure prophylaxis.

As part of the Government agenda to develop aspirational apprenticeships, the Department of Health and Health Education England have actively supported the development of an apprentice standard for a registered nurse. This has recently been approved by the Department for Education. The employer-led Trailblazer Group will need to complete the assessment plan and end point assessment before the standard is ready for delivery and can be used by employers.

We expect to see the first nursing degree apprenticeship programmes begin in September 2017.

NHS Digital provides data on the number of nurses working in the National Health Service in England, but information on the percentage of nurses who qualified in 2010 and left the NHS within five years of qualification, is not collected.

The 2014-15 data is not available as the accounts are still being audited.