Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the recent publication of the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2023, whether they have considered the merits of legislative action such as 'Herbie's Law', to support a further decrease in the number of scientific procedures performed on living animals and to support the long-term phase-out of animal experiments in medical research by 2035.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) is leading on plans to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternatives to animal testing.
As yet, no assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing Herbie’s Law.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the recent publication of the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2023, what plans they have to increase funding for the further development and uptake of human-specific methods that can replace the use of animals in medical research, such as computer modelling and organ-on-a-chip technology.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) is leading on plans to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternatives to animal testing.
As yet, no assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing Herbie’s Law.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they apply when assessing requests for public inquiries into the deaths of persons as a result of terrorist activity in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
A Government Minister may establish an Inquiry if particular events have caused, or are capable of causing, public concern. The Inquiries Act 2005 sets this out in statute and can be viewed here: Inquiries Act 2005 (legislation.gov.uk)
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what steps they are taking ahead of White Ribbon Day to invest in the prevention of gender-based violence, particularly in work engaging men and boys.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has set out our ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, using every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
Prevention and education are fundamental to our approach, and we will tackle the root causes of these crimes, including supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what steps they are taking ahead of White Ribbon Day to prioritise the prevention of gender-based violence.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has set out our ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, using every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
Prevention and education are fundamental to our approach, and we will tackle the root causes of these crimes, including supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.
Asked by: Baroness Goldie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in the renovation and refurbishment of service accommodation and service family accommodation; and what remains outstanding in relation to those works.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Department, through its contractors, continuously renovates, refurbishes, improves, and maintains its estate, including accommodation.
With regards to Service Family Accommodation (SFA):
In Financial Year (FY) 2023-24, the Department invested £578 million on maintaining and improving SFA, including £220 million which was spent on remediating damp and mould in c4,000 homes, refurbishing c1,000 long term empty homes, replacing doors and windows in c3,000 homes, providing c1,100 homes with External Wall Insulation, c1,000 homes with replacement kitchens and bathrooms, and upgrading heaters and boilers in c1,500 homes.
In FY2024-25, £619 million is to be spent on maintaining and improving SFA, including £180 million to improve insulation in c600 homes, remediate c1,000 long-term damp and mould homes and refurbishing 200 long-term empty homes. Circa 1,700 minor damp and mould packages are planned, and 30 homes will receive upgraded heating.
With regards to Single Living Accommodation (SLA):
In FY 2023-24, £37.8 million was spent on improvements to SLA, with another £3.2 million spent on SLA Safe & Legal compliance works.
During FY2024-25 expenditure of £41 million is planned to improve the condition of SLA including refurbishment, heating upgrades and room conversions to additional bedspaces. £7.5 million has also been ringfenced for internal improvements to SLA condition and heating. In addition, £14.3 million of Safe & Legal compliance works are planned. Further to this, a further £66.6 million of SLA expenditure is planned for FY2025-26.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 7 August (HL344), how many staff in (1) the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and (2) UK Research and Innovation are permitted to undertake diversity-related network time during core working hours; what is the percentage of overall working time they are permitted to spend on such network activity; how many hours are allocated in total; which networks are being funded; and whether they have any plans alter such funding.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has 19 colleague-run networks, 11 of which are diversity-related. Time taken on network activities is agreed between individuals and line managers- no formal facility time is allocated. No network holds a delegated budget, and there are currently no plans to revise this approach.
UKRI has 12 network co-chairs across 8 formally supported staff networks. Co-chairs are allocated 1 day per month to carry out network related activities which includes work on organisation-led EDI priorities and reporting on network activities to governance. All 8 networks receive funding for their activities (in financial year 2023/24 this was less than £5,000). There are no plans to alter these funding arrangements.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support collaboration between universities and industry on upskilling to address skill gaps in the domestic supply chain of semiconductor chips.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This Government recognises the importance of skills as a crucial factor in maximising the potential of our semiconductor sector, driving growth, and creating high-quality jobs throughout the UK. My officials are collaborating with stakeholders across industry and academia to understand the challenges faced by the semiconductor sector in order to take the necessary steps needed to expand the talent pool for the long term. The newly announced Skills England will play a vital role in bringing together government, industry and training providers to address the skills needs of the coming decade.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many non-crime hate incidents have been recorded since the publication of statutory guidance by the Home Office in June 2023, broken down by relevant police force or police authority.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not centrally collate information on the number of non-crime hate incidents recorded by individual police forces – this data is held by individual forces.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have carried out an impact assessment on their proposal to put VAT on independent school fees; and if so, whether they will publish it.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 29 July, the Government announced that, as of 1 January 2025, all education services and vocational training provided by a private school in the UK for a charge will be subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20 per cent.
This will secure additional funding to help deliver the Government’s commitments relating to education and young people, including opening 3,000 new nurseries, rolling out breakfast clubs to all primary schools, and recruiting 6,500 new teachers.
Following scrutiny of the Government's costings by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), details of the Government’s assessment of the expected impacts of these policy changes will be published at the Budget on 30 October in the usual way.