Lord Truscott Alert Sample


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View the Parallel Parliament page for Lord Truscott

Information between 3rd February 2024 - 14th March 2024

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Division Votes
6 Feb 2024 - Automated Vehicles Bill [HL] - View Vote Context
Lord Truscott voted Aye - in line with the party majority and against the House
One of 4 Non-affiliated Aye votes vs 3 Non-affiliated No votes
Tally: Ayes - 200 Noes - 204
4 Mar 2024 - Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill - View Vote Context
Lord Truscott voted Aye - in line with the party majority and in line with the House
One of 9 Non-affiliated Aye votes vs 4 Non-affiliated No votes
Tally: Ayes - 274 Noes - 172
6 Mar 2024 - Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill - View Vote Context
Lord Truscott voted No - in line with the party majority and against the House
One of 6 Non-affiliated No votes vs 6 Non-affiliated Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 278 Noes - 189


Written Answers
Buildings: Insurance
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Thursday 8th February 2024

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to stop managing agents charging leaseholders excessive commission charges for renewing buildings insurance.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill seeks to ban the placer of insurance on residential leasehold properties from receiving any form of commission that is passed on to leaseholders as a cost. Instead, costs relating to the placement and management of buildings insurance will be issued through a transparent handling fee, proportionate to the value of the work done. The detail will be set out in affirmative secondary legislation.

Transparency reforms within the Bill will require the placer of insurance to disclose information about their decision-making process when purchasing buildings insurance on behalf of leaseholders. These measures will support responsible, transparent, and accountable sourcing of buildings insurance for leaseholders of multi-occupancy buildings.

High Speed 2 Line: Costs
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their most recent assessment of the expected cost of HS2, and what assessment they have made of whether this represents good value for money.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The most recent cost assessment of the HS2 programme was published in November 2023 through the six-monthly update to Parliament. The Department will provide a Value for Money assessment via an update to the Phase One Business Case, due in the course of 2024.

Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Vehicles: Insurance
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to mitigate the rising cost of insurance for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Department for Transport officials regularly liaise with representatives of the motor insurance industry on a variety of issues such as the cost of insurance.

It is the responsibility of individual motor insurers to set their premiums and the terms and conditions of their policies, and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market.

However, the Department will continue to engage with motor insurance stakeholders to understand the challenges facing motor insurance providers and any potential solutions. The Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly, and firms are required to do so under the Financial Conduct Authority rules.

High Speed 2 Line
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Friday 9th February 2024

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in the light of current cost increases, they intend to review the business case for HS2.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Work has begun on an updated Business Case for the HS2 programme. This will be published in due course.

Property Development: Energy
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the incentives required to encourage housing developers to join a voluntary energy-use monitoring scheme.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We are committed to ensuring that good quality homes are built which meet the energy efficiency standards they were designed to. That is why, as part of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation, we are consulting on introducing a post-occupancy fabric performance testing scheme for new homes.

We are proposing that developers opt-in to performance testing a proportion of their new homes. This would enable us to gather better data on how significantly new homes are underperforming.

We envisage that many developers will opt-in to the performance testing scheme and have been encouraged by work some developers are already doing to monitor and improve the actual performance of their homes.

Housing: Energy
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce mandatory energy performance testing for new homes.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We are committed to ensuring that good quality homes are built which meet the energy efficiency standards they were designed to. That is why, as part of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation, we are consulting on introducing a post-occupancy fabric performance testing scheme for new homes.

We are proposing that developers opt-in to performance testing a proportion of their new homes. This would enable us to gather better data on how significantly new homes are underperforming.

We envisage that many developers will opt-in to the performance testing scheme and have been encouraged by work some developers are already doing to monitor and improve the actual performance of their homes.

Banks: Taxation
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Monday 4th March 2024

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to implementing a windfall tax on the excess profits of UK banks.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Banks already face an additional rate of tax on their profits in the form of the Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge – meaning they pay 3 percentage points more on their profits (28%) than most other businesses (25%). This is in addition to a charge on the largest banks’ balance sheets in the form of the Bank Levy.

Pedestrian Areas
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Tuesday 5th March 2024

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report commissioned by the Local Government Association The path to inclusive footways, published on 10 February; and what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and (2) micromobility parking provision, do not obstruct footways.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Strategy, published in March 2022, outlined that local authorities are best placed to understand what charging infrastructure is required, and have a key role in ensuring the delivery of chargepoints meets the needs of their areas. The Government and industry sponsored, Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 1899 provides specifications on the placement, design and installation of accessible public EV chargepoints.

Cross-pavement cable solutions can be used to channel EV charging wires across the pavement safely. As part of the Plan for Drivers, the Government committed to provide guidance on the use of safe cross-pavement charging solutions, best practice to local authorities on relevant legislation, permissions, and how to consider applications.

The Government has extended its e-scooter trials until May 2026 to build on current learning across areas including usage, safety, parking provision and environmental impacts. The Department’s guidance for local authorities and operators taking part in trials sets out that appropriate parking provision should be provided to ensure e-scooters do not become obstructive.

Pedestrian Areas: Finance
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of highway funding is spent on footways.

Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This information is not held. In England local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highway network in their area, including footways. Further information and best practice on the Well-managed Highway infrastructure Code of Practice is available from the UK Roads Leadership Group. Based on previous research, the Department estimates that on average local highway authorities spend around 9% of their highway maintenance budgets on maintaining footways.

Horizon IT System: Fujitsu
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to investigate whether Fujitsu staff had unauthorised access to the Post Office’s Horizon software system; and, if so, whether there have been any alleged cases of fraud or theft of Post Office funds by Fujitsu staff.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The independent Post Office Horizon Inquiry was set up – and put on a statutory footing - to review all the evidence to establish a clear account of the implementation and failings of Horizon so that a scandal like this does not happen again.

Until Sir Wyn’s work is completed, and all the evidence is known, it would be premature for me to comment on every aspect of this scandal alongside this inquiry which is there to get to the bottom of the facts.

Homelessness
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Monday 11th March 2024

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total cost of eradicating homelessness in England.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government has made the unprecedented commitment to end rough sleeping and to fully enforce the Homelessness Reduction Act. In September 2022, we published our cross-government strategy ‘Ending Rough Sleeping for Good’, and we are investing almost £2.4 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping between 2022 and 2025.

We are also taking action to prevent people from becoming homeless or rough sleeping in the first place. We are investing over £1.2 billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, including a £109 million top-up for 2024/25, giving councils the funding they need to prevent homelessness and help more people sooner.

Retail Trade: VAT
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to restore VAT free shopping for foreign tourists.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

As set out at Spring Budget 2024, the government is considering the findings of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s review of the original costing of the withdrawal of tax-free shopping, published in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 6 March, alongside industry representations and broader data. The Government welcomes further submissions from stakeholders in response to the OBR’s findings. All taxes are kept under review.

Palace of Westminster: Repairs and Maintenance
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what has been the cost of the Restoration and Renewal programme to date; and whether there are any plans to scale-back future costs.

Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The total cost of the R&R Programme, from 2020-21 until the end of 2022-23, is £297m. This includes the costs of the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body and Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority which were established in April and May 2020 respectively (including £5m of costs in April 2020 before the Delivery Authority was formally incorporated). It also includes the costs of Restoration and Renewal Client Team, which took over the sponsor function for the programme from the Sponsor Body in January 2023.

The total forecast spend for the current financial year (2023-24) is £83m, which includes the costs of the Delivery Authority and the R&R Client Team.

The Delivery Authority’s Main Estimate for 2024-25 is currently subject to parliamentary scrutiny and approval. As well as parliamentary approval being required for the initial budget provision, the Delivery Authority’s expenditure is subject to regular scrutiny and challenge throughout the financial year including by the R&R Client Team and House finance teams, Delivery Authority Board, R&R Programme Board, R&R Client Board and Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission.

The Delivery Authority’s funding is based on what is required to deliver the key activities tasked to it by the R&R Client Team. The Delivery Authority seeks to ensure that its expenditure remains taut and proportionate for the activities required to deliver the Programme and constantly re-assesses its resources, scaling up or down as appropriate. The R&R Programme routinely publishes information on costs, for instance in quarterly reports, annual reports, and memoranda provided to the Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission.