Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of the security provisions for energy and telecommunications infrastructure in the UK's exclusive economic zone.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK Government constantly monitors and regularly assesses the security of critical national infrastructure, including energy and telecommunications assets in the UK's Exclusive Economic Zone. This is a whole-of-Government effort involving multiple Departments, including the Ministry of Defence.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate the Office for Budget Responsibility made of revenues for spirits excise duty in the 2024-25 financial year; and what those revenues are to date.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for Budget Responsibility spirits alcohol duty receipts forecast can be found in table 3.9 of the ‘detailed forecast tables: receipts’ publication accompanying the Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2024: OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook Detailed Forecast Table Receipts - OBR (obr.uk)
The year-to-date spirits duty receipts for April to August 2024 can be found in the statistics table accompanying HMRC’s ‘tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK’ publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk
The OBR will be publishing updated forecasts on 30 October 2024.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the increase in alcohol duty for spirits introduced in 2023 on the Scotch whisky industry.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 1 August 2023, spirits duty rates were increased in line with inflation, after 6 years of consecutive freezes. Duty is currently frozen until 1 February 2025.
The Government is closely monitoring the impact of the recent reforms and rates that took effect on 1 August 2023.
The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve the accuracy of individual identification carried out by the technical infrastructure which performs border checks.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This Government’s priority is to maintain strong border security and steps are always taken to constantly improve the accuracy of individual identification before arrival and at the border.
Border Force checks all passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services to identify individuals who pose, or are suspected to pose, a risk to the national interest.
Identities, and combinations of names and dates of birth, are not necessarily unique. Individuals who share names with persons of interest may experience closer examination than those who do not, and Border Force Officers may ask them additional questions to establish their identity and allow them to proceed as quickly as possible.
Enhancements to the technical infrastructure for border checks are being rolled out to assist Border Force officers as they make their decisions.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the treatment that people with similar names to other individuals on watchlists receive during border checks at airports.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Our priority is to maintain a secure border. Border Force performs checks on all passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services to identify individuals who pose, or are suspected to pose, a risk to the national interest.
Identities, and combinations of names and dates of birth, are not necessarily unique. Individuals who share names with persons of interest may experience closer examination than would otherwise be the case.
The Home Office is making significant investment to improve the underlying technical infrastructure which performs border checks to identify individuals more precisely. This will reduce the number of individuals incorrectly matched to persons of interest and enable Border Force to identify more quickly individuals who are not to be confused with persons of interest. We expect these improvements to start having effect over the summer.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he plans to take to ensure domestic manufactured content is embedded in tidal stream projects.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government continues to engage with tidal stream industry on maintaining high levels of UK content in tidal stream projects.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of setting a one gigawatt deployment target for tidal stream energy for 2035.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government will continue to review the merits of setting a target for tidal stream deployment and will continue to engage with stakeholders on this.
Tidal stream is a home-grown industry of considerable promise, and the UK remains the world leader in tidal stream generation technologies, with over half of the world's deployment of this innovation situated in UK waters.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the minimum ringfence for Tidal Stream projects to £30 million for Allocation Round 6 of the upcoming Contracts for Difference auction.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The minimum budget for tidal stream was set in March at £10m.
The Secretary of State will confirm his decision on whether to increase the AR6 budget by 1st August, before the AR6 bidding window opens.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many fire station closures there have been in each local authority in each year since 2016.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
For the latest available data, to year ending March 2021, there were 1,390 fire stations, compared with 1,400 in year ending March 2016, a reduction of 10 stations over the period for the whole of England.
Table 1: Number of Fire Stations in England, by year
Year ending March | Number of Fire Stations | England-wide Annual Change |
2016 | 1,400 | |
2017 | 1,400 | 0 |
2018 | 1,394 | -6 |
2019 | 1,395 | +1 |
2020 | 1,393 | -2 |
2021 | 1,390 | -3 |
Change 2016 to 2021 | -10 | |
Data on fire stations is published in FIRE1403, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/634d2ed6e90e0731aa0fcc59/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire1403-201022.xlsx. The number of fire stations is not collected by local authority but is available by fire and rescue service (FRS) by year for England.
The data since March 2021 is under review as we are working on ways to ensure the quality and accuracy of the data provided.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the visit by the Minister for the Indo-Pacific to Hong Kong on relations with China.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
In line with the Government's "protect, align, and engage" approach to China, as set out in the Integrated Review Refresh, the I raised a number of issues important to the UK national interest with Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui during my visit to Hong Kong in April. This included the prosecution of British national Jimmy Lai, the enactment of further national security legislation (Article 23), and concerns over transnational repression against BN(O)s in the UK. Issues of mutual and global interest were also discussed, alongside areas of disagreement or concern.