Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any National Policy Statements are under discussion or are being prepared by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; and if so, which.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government is currently developing a National Policy Statement (NPS) for water resources. The development of this NPS was announced in a written ministerial statement by Lord Gardiner in March of this year (HLWS532). The Government is also considering whether there has been a significant change in circumstances on the basis of which the NPS for waste water was decided, and whether this would have a material impact on the policy itself and therefore whether a review of the NPS is necessary.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to investigate any possible conflicts of interests created by PriceWaterhouseCooper acting as (1) an adviser to Ofwat’s 2014 Price Review, and (2) an auditor to six water companies.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government currently has no plans to investigate any possible conflicts of interests in relation to role of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) as adviser to the 2014 Price Review (PR14).
Following a process of open competition, after which PwC was contracted as their PR14 delivery partner, Ofwat took steps to ensure that any potential conflicts of interest were identified and managed at all stages. The measures taken were over and above PwC’s normal processes to ensure robust ethical walls are in place.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 16 March (HL5813 and HL5815), since HS2 Ltd, Thames Water Utilities Ltd and Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd are all private limited companies, why the information requested is available for HS2 but not the other companies.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
HS2 Ltd is funded by the Government, whereas Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd and Thames Water Utilities Ltd are not, and as such, different arrangements apply in respect of the information which the Government can request from them and the extent to which it can be disclosed.
In the particular case of information about CH2M Hill staff referred to in the noble Lord’s previous question (HL5813), this is not required by the Secretary of State to carry out her functions, and Defra therefore does not hold it.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 10 March (HL5599) stating that they have not yet taken a decision as to the timing of any review of the waste water National Policy Statement, when they will make that decision; and whether they expect to undertake such a review within the next five years.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The 2012 National Policy Statement (NPS) for Waste Water states that a review can be expected approximately every five years. A decision will be taken this year on whether a review of the NPS is necessary at this point in time, in line with the provisions of Section 6 of the Planning Act 2008. These provisions include consideration of whether there has been a significant change in circumstances on the basis of which the NPS was decided and whether this would have a material impact on the policy itself.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many CH2M Hill staff (1) are working for; (2) are seconded to; (3) have worked for; or (4) are advising under consultancy arrangements: (a) Thames Water, (b) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and (c) Bazalgette, on the Thames Tideway Tunnel project.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has no CH2M Hill staff working for it on the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT) project now or in the past. CH2M Hill has been contracted to Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (‘Tideway’) as project managers for the TTT project since August 2015, and before that to Thames Water Utilities Limited (‘TWUL’). The engagement of CH2M Hill staff by Tideway or TWUL for work on the TTT project is a matter for them as private sector companies.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many CH2M Hill staff (1) are working for; (2) are seconded to; (3) have worked for; or (4) are advising under consultancy arrangements the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on flooding in the Thames Estuary.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
CH2M Hill does not currently have any staff working for or seconded to Defra for works on the Thames Estuary. CH2M Hill has 65 full time equivalents working on flooding in the Thames Estuary under consultancy arrangements with the Environment Agency. CH2M Hill has not had any further additional staff working on flooding in the Thames Estuary in recent history.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to review the National Policy Statement (NPS) for Waste Water, published on 9 February 2012, in the light of the statement in that NPS that it was expected that the Secretary of State would review the NPS approximately every five years.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has not yet taken a decision as to the timing of any review of the waste water National Policy Statement.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government who are the project representatives for the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, and what are their roles and responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Liaison Committee has been established to oversee the delivery of the Thames Tideway Tunnel project and is made up of senior representatives from each of the parties to the project, Tideway, Thames Water Utilities Limited, and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Committee meets quarterly, with representatives from the Environment Agency and Ofwat attending as observers. Following a competitive process, the multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy firm Mott McDonald was appointed as the Independent Technical Assessor for the project, with a duty to review, evaluate, comment, verify and advise as applicable the members of the Liaison Committee and Ofwat on Tideway’s assessment of project costs, quarterly reports to the Committee, and such engineering and other technical issues that may arise as the project progresses. Full details of the role and responsibilities are set out in the project Liaison Agreement, which is available on the Defra pages of the GOV.UK website
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Thames Tideway Tunnel project will send clean excavated materials to landfill permit sites as a waste or to be beneficially reused as a material or product as recovery in accordance with its commitment to reduce waste to landfill in the development consent order.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Tideway, the infrastructure provider set up to finance and deliver the Thames Tideway Tunnel, has been assessing several sites identified through the Development Consent Order (DCO) process to receive the tunnel excavated material.
Amongst other things this assessment looks at maximising the beneficial use of excavated material and its transport by river to meet environmental commitments made under the DCO. The relevant site operators have already made a number of applications to the Environment Agency (EA). The type of permit these sites require will be assessed by the EA in line with its guidance. This guidance is currently being revised following a recent Court of Appeal judgment which in some cases may lead to the reclassification of some waste activities as disposal rather than recovery. It is possible for appropriate disposal to deliver beneficial use such as habitat creation.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the additional cost of £70 to £80 per annum, at 2011 prices and based on a 50 per cent probability of cost overruns, to all Thames Water customers of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, as quoted on page 83 of the prospectus of Thames Water Utilities Cayman Finance Ltd, represents good value for money for the consumer.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The impact of the Thames Tideway Tunnel on Thames Water customer bills is expected to be £20-£25 per year (at 2015 prices) by the mid-2020s. This is about a third of the initial estimate of £70-£80 per year in 2011, assessed at an early development stage of the project, and represents good value for money for customers. It follows the successful competition by Thames Water Utilities Ltd, completed in August 2015, to procure an Infrastructure Provider to finance and deliver the Thames Tideway Tunnel. The Thames Water Utilities Cayman Finance Ltd prospectus quoted by the Noble Lord is dated 26 June 2015 and so was prior to this procurement.