House of Lords Business

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the UK’s bilateral aid programme is directed towards the rebuilding of Pakistan’s colony shanty towns in which families from the country’s minorities live; what assessment they have made of the number of people, in total, living in those colonies and their access to running water, electricity or education;… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that (1) Pakistani refugees have recently been rounded up by Thai police and taken to detention centres, and (2) Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan has issued an instruction to the Immigration Bureau to detain all foreigners without visas, stating that they will be deported wit… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what action, if any, they are taking in response to the decision by the government of Hong Kong to deny a work visa to the Financial Times’ Asia News Editor Victor Mallet; and whether they have made an assessment of the implications of that decision on (1) freedom of expression, and (2) the one country, two systems policy, in… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have seen any evidence of substantive Human Rights reforms in Eritrea since the most recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea to the thirty-eighth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.  HL10530

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government whether the UK intends to vote in support of Eritrea joining the Human Rights Council at the UN General Assembly.  HL10531

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government which factors will be considered by the UK when it votes on Eritrea’s candidacy for election to the Human Rights Council at the UN General Assembly.  HL10532

Lord Boateng to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the quality of data collected on women's and girls' experience of the Mental Health Act 1983.  HL10533

Lord Boateng to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relevance of ethnicity in (1) the numbers of BAME girls aged 17 and under who were detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, and (2) the numbers of self-inflicted deaths amongst girls and young women from BAME backgrounds.  HL10534

Lord Bradley to ask Her Majesty's Government how many directors of public health there are in England; and of those directors, how many are qualified medical doctors.  HL10535

Lord Bradshaw to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 20 September (HL10301), whether they have considered implementing a target for NOX emissions to be reduced to 4 per cent by 2025; and if so, how much of this improvement is dependent on (1) vehicle design, and (2) policies to reduce traffic congestion.  HL10536

Lord Crisp to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish their response to the report by the Independent Commission on Adult Acute Psychiatric Care in England Old Problems, New Solutions, published in February 2016; and if so, when.  HL10537

Lord Freyberg to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which their methodology for valuing raw data assets on government balance sheets differs from private sector practices.  HL10538

Lord Jones of Cheltenham to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will assist the South Atlantic Overseas Territories to deal with the accumulation of plastic waste and other detritus which has gathered around the islands.  HL10539

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb to ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Chief Constable of Police for Derbyshire's annual terrorism and domestic extremism report for the Strategic Governance Board of November 2017, why a division of the East Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit provided significant intelligence support for the policing of anti-fracking protests; and when protests… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb to ask Her Majesty's Government what baseline tests are carried out at fracking sites and test sites for radiation in air and water.  HL10541

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb to ask Her Majesty's Government what action is taken by the Environment Agency, and within what timescale, in the event of a pad being ruptured at a fracking site and the water going to ground.  HL10542

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb to ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is regular or random monitoring of the run-off areas downhill from fracking site pads to check for potential contamination caused by site operations.  HL10543

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb to ask Her Majesty's Government whether the public are able to access all the test results from fracking sites and test sites which are reported to the Environment Agency.  HL10544

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 12 July (HL9337), what steps they intend to take to replace the ECO3 energy efficiency scheme which ended on 30 September; and when they intend to lay the Energy Company Obligation Order 2018 before Parliament.  HL10545

Lord Kennedy of Southwark to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.  HL10546

Lord Kennedy of Southwark to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Benin.  HL10547

Lord Kennedy of Southwark to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the human rights situation in Gabon.  HL10548

Lord Kennedy of Southwark to ask Her Majesty's Government how many more homes for social rent they expect to be built following the announcement by the Prime Minister on lifting the borrowing cap for local authorities.  HL10549

Lord Lilley to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of whether the EU can reach a legally binding agreement with the UK on their future trading relationship before the UK has left the EU.  HL10550

Lord Lilley to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of whether the EU can reach a legally binding agreement with the UK on the future trading relationships across the border between Ireland and the UK, before the UK has left the EU.  HL10551

The Marquess of Lothian to ask Her Majesty's Government how many civilian deaths and injuries resulted from the capture of Raqqa from ISIS by the United States-led coalition supported by Syrian Democratic Forces in 2017.  HL10552

The Marquess of Lothian to ask Her Majesty's Government how many civilian casualties in Syria and Iraq have resulted from the missions of the Combined Joint Task Force—Operation Inherent Resolve and the actions of the Global Coalition against Daesh.  HL10553

The Marquess of Lothian to ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of the United States about the objectives of the Iran Action Group created by the United States State Department on 16 August, in particular the commitment to a whole-of-government effort to change the Iranian regime’s behaviour.  HL10554

The Marquess of Lothian to ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of adult social care workers required in England in the next ten years; what is the current shortfall in the number of adult social care workers in England; and what action they are taking to address that shortfall.  HL10555

The Marquess of Lothian to ask Her Majesty's Government how many applications they have received for UK visas for family settlement to reunite with a partner or parent who is in the UK as a refugee or with humanitarian protection in each year since 2010; and of those, how many have been granted.  HL10556

The Marquess of Lothian to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have sought information from the Iranian authorities about the purpose of a development in Wadi Jahannam near Baniyas in northwest Syria reported by ImageSat in August, further to reports that it is an Iranian missile factory.  HL10557

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering to ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current capacity for the incineration of household waste; and whether they have any plans to increase this capacity.  HL10558

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage greater use of energy from waste.  HL10559

Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what meetings (1) ministers, and (2) officials have held with UK port-owning companies to discuss (a) preparations for Brexit, and (b) current operational weaknesses.  HL10560

Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of Brexit on the productivity of the UK's ports, and (2) the likely impact on the UK's ports of a no-deal Brexit.  HL10561

Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the efficiency of IT infrastructure at UK ports; and what plans they have to support improvements in IT infrastructure at UK ports in time for Brexit.  HL10562

Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on productivity in shipside operations at the Port of Felixstowe of IT implementation issues and of problems at the port of Southampton; and what support they have offered.  HL10563

Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in the light of experience at the Port of Felixstowe, they intend to write to UK Port companies to encourage better planning on IT and other investment changes to ensure consistent UK port capacity in the pre-Christmas period.  HL10564

Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact the Port of Felixstowe’s IT problems are having on small and medium-sized enterprises.  HL10565

Lord Moonie to ask Her Majesty's Government how many days each Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker has spent at sea from 2016 to date.  HL10566

Lord Moonie to ask Her Majesty's Government to which city or town each Type 23 frigate and Type 45 destroyer is affiliated; and how many official visits or events with its affiliated city or town each has taken part in from 2016 to date.  HL10567

Lord Moonie to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of why they have not received any compliant bids in the first round of bidding for the Type 31e frigate.  HL10568

Lord Moonie to ask Her Majesty's Government how many A400M aircraft which were originally intended for the German Luftwaffe have been or will be accepted into RAF service; and what were the cost savings to the UK.  HL10569

Lord Moonie to ask Her Majesty's Government what aircraft will fulfil the air superiority role, including Quick Reaction Alert, when the F-35 enters service; and for how long.  HL10570

Lord Moonie to ask Her Majesty's Government what volume is taken up by the Bowman radio fit in current and planned army vehicles; and what impact this has on their capacity to carry soldiers and equipment.  HL10571

Lord Ramsbotham to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that opportunity areas develop plans to improve communication and language skills of children and young people over the age of five.  HL10572

Lord Ramsbotham to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that where there are concerns about a child or young person's behaviour in school an assessment is carried out to determine whether there are any causal factors such as difficulties with speech, language, and communication.  HL10573

Lord Ramsbotham to ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Public Health England about providing practitioners with evidence-based red flags that indicate communication and language concerns at each of the statutory review points that are part of the next review of the Healthy Child Programme.  HL10574

Lord Ramsbotham to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans Ofsted has to consider children and young people's speech, language, and communication needs in their future research on special educational needs and difficulties, including provision of joint commissioning of specialist therapies and support.  HL10575

Baroness Randerson to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for poor recruitment to the National College for High Speed Rail; what are the financial implications of this for the project in this financial year; and what implications this has for the recruitment of sufficient numbers of skilled staff.  HL10576

Baroness Randerson to ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact on the electric car market of company car tax thresholds increasing for the next two years.  HL10577

Baroness Randerson to ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions HM Treasury has had with (1) the Department for Transport, (2) the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and (3) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on aligning vehicle taxation with each of their policy objectives.  HL10578

Baroness Randerson to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the financial implications of the invasion of Japanese Knotweed onto railway lines; and who is responsible for meeting the costs of clearing Japanese Knotweed from railway lines.  HL10579

Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the research conducted by Amnesty International Continuing Lack of Adequate Medical Care in Bahrain's Prisons, published on 28 September, which found that 11 political prisoners suffering from serious medical conditions were deliberately denied treatment and that oversight bodies repeatedly fai… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government what are the most recent representations they have made concerning the health of Bahraini political prisoner Ali Hajji; and what assessment they have made of the investigation of his case by oversight bodies.  HL10581

Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government what recent representations they have made about the case of Bahraini prisoner Elyas Al-Mulla, following research conducted by Amnesty International Continuing Lack of Adequate Medical Care in Bahrain's Prisons, published on 28 September.  HL10582

Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the investigation conducted by the National Institute for Human Rights in Bahrain which denies the reported assault against female activists Hajer Mansoor, Najah Yusuf and Medina Ali; and what steps, if any, they have taken to ensure the wellbeing of those activists.  HL10583

Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the statement issued by Bahraini political prisoners Hajer Mansoor, Medina Ali and Najah Yusuf in relation to the restrictions that have been imposed by the prison administration and Major Mariam Albardoli; and how they intend to respond to those women’s call for international intervention in their case… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reported rape of Bahraini female activists Ebtisam Alsaegh and Najah Yusuf by members of Bahrain’s National Security Agency.  HL10585

Lord Sharkey to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether it is in the public interest that EU-mandated safety standards held by the British Standards Institution may not be accessed without payment; and what consideration is being given to making those standards freely available.  HL10586

Baroness Smith of Basildon to ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to respond to the Director of Labour Market Enforcement's Strategy Document for 2018–19; and what plans they have to implement its recommendations.  HL10587

Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to impose a digital services tax on large technology companies.  HL10588

Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Confederation of British Industry’s call to review business rates and raise the annual investment allowance to £500,000 for 2 years.  HL10589

Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, they have made of the research conducted by Atos UK & Ireland which found that more than 1.6 million small businesses could grow radically if they improved their digital skills.  HL10590

Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the British Film Institute Screen Business: How screen sector tax reliefs power economic growth across the UK, published October 2018; and whether they intend to further assist the British film industry as a result of its findings.  HL10591

Baroness Tonge to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will take action to protect the village of Khan al-Ahmar in the Occupied West Bank against the reported attempt by settlers to drive the villagers out using waste water.  HL10592

Lord Tope to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the numbers of owner-occupied dwellings in England that (1) require a rewire, and (2) have residual current device protection.  HL10593

Lord Tope to ask Her Majesty's Government what grant schemes are available to home owners to improve electrical safety in their dwellings.  HL10594

Lord Tope to ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration has been given to the merits of introducing free electrical safety checks for homes owned by people over 75.  HL10595

Lord Watson of Invergowrie to ask Her Majesty's Government, excluding new schools opened following a competition under section 6A of the Education Act 2011, what was their target for the number of free schools to be opened in the 2018–19 school year; how many opened for the start of the September 2018 term; and how many they expect to be opened during the remainder of the 2018–19… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text

Lord Watson of Invergowrie to ask Her Majesty's Government what is the criterion used by the Secretary of State to revoke an Academy Order under section 5D of the Academies Act 2010; which schools have had an Academy Order revoked; and in each case, what were the reasons for the Academy Order being revoked.  HL10597

Lord Watson of Invergowrie to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 11 July (HL9052), when they intend to publish the consultation document on reviewing the school accountability system.  HL10598

Lord Watson of Invergowrie to ask Her Majesty's Government whether provisions in the Education and Adoption Act 2016 to designate schools as coasting will no longer be used to force local authority schools to convert to academies.  HL10599

Viscount Waverley to ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance is provided to NHS Trusts about the use of medication not approved by NICE to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).  HL10600

Viscount Waverley to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of making financial resources available to patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) to obtain medication not approved by NICE.  HL10601

Viscount Waverley to ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance is provided by NHS Trusts about making the drug Spinraza available through the NHS to patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).  HL10602

Lord West of Spithead to ask Her Majesty's Government whether any decision has been made about base porting and support for the new T31e Frigate.  HL10603