Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to publish the (a) full results and (b) evaluation reports from all Environment Land Management and Trials; and whether these will be made publicly available.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department is not yet able to provide a detailed estimate of when evaluation reports from all Environment Land Management (ELM) Tests and Trials will be published, as the programme is expected to continue throughout this Parliament.
Findings from the Tests and Trials undertaken to date have been summarised in evidence reports published on GOV.UK (Dec-22, Jun-22, Dec-21, Jun-21, Sep-20, Jul-20) with further reports expected to be published later this year.
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, whether his Department will consider setting a £7m wave energy ringfence in Allocation Round 7 of the Contracts for Difference mechanism.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Allocation Round 7 (AR7) budget details will be published shortly, before the bidding window opens.
Any decisions regarding the AR7 budget, including any minima, maxima or ringfences, are based on a wide range of factors, including an assessment of the pipeline of projects that could participate in the auction. The budget is set to help support effective competition in the CfD auction with the aim of delivering low carbon electricity deployment at low-cost to the consumer and supporting investment in emerging technologies.
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, whether his Department will consider setting a £40m tidal stream ringfence in Allocation Round 7 of the Contracts for Difference mechanism.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is undertaking analysis of the technology pipeline available for Contracts for Difference Auction Round 7 against our legal obligations. We are considering the appropriate parameters for all technologies, including tidal stream. Final parameters will be published in the Budget Notice by December 2025.
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 - Minister of State (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 - Chief Secretary to the 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 - Chief Secretary to the 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 (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
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 (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
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 - Minister 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 - Minister 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.