Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Reform UK - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many positions in his Department included (a) diversity, (b) inclusion, (c) equity and (d) equality in their job title in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of the salaries of each such job was in each of those years.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Ministry of Defence does not routinely collate information on specific words and collating this information would come at a disproportionate cost.
Information on spending and staffing can be found in the Department's annual report and accounts: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff in his Department have job titles which include the words (a) equality, (b) diversity, (c) inclusion, (d) gender, (e) LGBT and (f) race.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Ministry of Defence does not routinely collate information on specific words and collating this information would come at a disproportionate cost.
Information on spending and staffing can be found in the Department's annual report and accounts: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests has finished reviewing Ministers’ declared interests, whether all Ministers have now declared their interests, and when they intend to publish the List of Ministers' Interests.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The next List of Ministers’ Interests will be published in due course in line with the established process in place for the declaration and management of private interests held by ministers, which ensures that steps are taken to avoid or mitigate any potential or perceived conflicts of interest.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have granted the war crimes team within the Metropolitan Police Service a general power proactively to investigate alleged war crimes in the Occupied Territories, or whether that team only investigates such allegations following specific requests by the International Criminal Court in accordance with the International Criminal Courts Act 2001.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) War Crimes Team, hosted by SO15, is a small team that has national responsibility for investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is funded directly by CTP and operates across the UK. The CTP War Crimes Team, which is hosted within the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, has received around 170 referrals relating to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October. It would not be appropriate to comment on the specific nature of each and every referral, or the referrer, but each case is reviewed in line with War Crimes/Crimes Against Humanity Referral Guidelines, jointly agreed by police and the Crown Prosecution Service. The operational independence of policing is integral to this process. At this time, there is no UK-based investigation into any matters relating to this particular conflict.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking alongside international partners to address what on 9 September the World Health Organisation called the "extreme health and humanitarian crisis" in Sudan.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces has created a humanitarian disaster in Sudan, with over 9 million people facing emergency or famine like conditions. On 1 August, the Foreign Secretary tweeted to highlight the findings of the IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) that famine existed in Northern Darfur's Zamzam IDP camp, and there was a high likelihood of its presence elsewhere. He also reiterated that the use of starvation as a weapon of warfare is a war crime. On 6 August, the UK, as United Nations Security Council (UNSC) penholder on Sudan, called an urgent Council session to discuss the FRC's findings. On 22 August, the Minister for Development announced an additional £15 million of vital assistance to Sudan, South Sudan and Chad to support vulnerable people forced to flee violence and seek safety. This brings the UK's ODA for Sudan this year to £97 million, most of which is vital humanitarian assistance.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will carry out full impact assessments of the (a) social and (b) economic impact of Environmental Land Management Schemes on upland farms.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Uplands farmers will have a key role to play in the future for delivering sustainable food production and our environmental targets. We are committed to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes and will work with the sector to optimise the schemes, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers including upland farms, while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.
We plan to increase the transparency of schemes by publishing data on the impact they are having, including on upland farms. We will confirm next steps in the rollout of other ELM schemes, including how we will publish this data, in due course.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to enable agri-environment agreement applications before the current agreements expire.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farmers with existing agri-agreements can apply to enter the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) if the activities under each scheme are compatible and they will not be paid twice for a similar activity on the same area of land at the same time. We are fully committed to making the Environmental Land Management schemes work for all farmers. We will confirm plans for further rollout of the schemes as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker why, in addition to the non-executive members of the House of Lords Commission, two non-executive directors are to be recruited to the House of Lords Management Board; and how much their employment will cost.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Within the House of Lords, Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) are expected to provide an independent view and expertise on service delivery and provision, governance, and boardroom best practice. The Lords Management Board is seeking two NEDs to bring complementary skills and experience to the Board to provide advice, support and challenge about the management and delivery of services to the House of Lords. The renumeration of the NEDs is in line with wider public sector practice and within the House’s governance arrangements. The remuneration for 2024/25 is £9,495 per annum based on 15 days of engagement.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the number of smart meters which malfunction in the UK.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is working closely with industry and Ofgem to reduce the proportion of smart meters not operating in smart mode. Data on this is included in the statistics the Government publishes every quarter on the progress of the smart metering rollout. These are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/smart-meters-statistics and at Gov.UK. This shows that over 90% of smart meters are functioning in smart mode and that the proportion of meters operating in ‘traditional’ mode is steadily reducing. Smart meters operating in traditional mode continue to record energy usage accurately but do not send automatic readings to energy suppliers.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the soft power value to the UK of the news programming provided by the BBC World Service; and whether they intend to fund fully the BBC World Service language services.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government strongly values the BBC World Service as a UK soft power asset. It is the world's most trusted international broadcaster. Consisting of 42 language services, it provides impartial accurate news to a global audience of 320 million across more than 120 countries.
The Government is committed to a successful BBC World Service and ensuring its financial sustainability. Ahead of Charter Review, the Government will keep an open mind about the future of the licence fee and how the World Service is funded, and engage with the BBC, the public and other stakeholders before making decisions.