Skip to main content

House of Lords Business

See what is going on in the House of Lords today, as well as what has happened since June 1998. This includes the relevant Order Paper, Minutes of Proceedings, questions tabled and edition of House of Lords Business. These documents can also all be downloaded.

Questions for Written Answer for 18 May 2021

Tabled on 17 May 2021 and due for answer by 1 June 2021.

Lord Allen of Kensington to ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the Levelling-Up white paper; and whether the white paper will seek to increase the spread, funding and powers of metro mayors.  HL244
Answered
Lord Allen of Kensington to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Covid Recovery Commission Ambition 2030: A Partnership for Growth, published on 27 April; and what plans they have to implement its recommendations.  HL245
Answered
Lord Allen of Kensington to ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish the findings of Sir Michael Barber's “rapid review” of Government delivery.  HL246
Answered
Lord Allen of Kensington to ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish their innovation strategy.  HL247
Answered
Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the analysis by the Local Government Association, published on 20 February 2020, which found that more than a million homes granted planning permission in the past decade have not yet been built; and what plans they have empower local authorities to incentivise developers to expedite the buil… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text
Answered
Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to implement full foreign exchange price transparency by financial institutions.  HL249
Answered
Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 15 February (HL12985), what developments have been made following the call to action 'Remittances in Crisis: How to Keep them Flowing', which the UK co-launched with Switzerland in May 2020; and how do they intend to measure progress.  HL250
Answered
Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce remittance costs; whether they intend to raise the issue of remittance costs at the upcoming G7 Summit in June; and what plans they have to mark International Day of Family Remittances on 16 June.  HL251
Answered
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle to ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to supporting the call by the European Commission and others for a moratorium on deep sea mining.  HL252
Answered
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the landing of a Chinese rover on Mars; and what plans they have, if any, to support the 1979 Moon Agreement, and in particular its principle that the resources of space should not be appropriated by any commercial or state interest.  HL253
Answered
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that British citizens who are also EU/EEA citizens do not receive communications asking them to apply for settled status; and what estimate they have made of the number of such citizens who have been contacted to apply for settled status.  HL254
Answered
Lord Berkeley to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will provide in relation to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc (1) a list of members on the inter-ministerial group, (2) a list of members on the inter-departmental Board, (3) a list of all meeting dates since March 2019 of (a) the inter-ministerial group and (b) the inter-departmental Board; whether they plan to place the minutes o… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text
Answered
Lord Birt to ask Her Majesty's Government what approaches they have made to the government of the United Arab Emirates about the situation of Princess Latifa Al Maktoum.  HL256
Answered
Lord Birt to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 26 April (HL14697), what proportion of OneWeb launches are anticipated to use small launchers; and what is their assessment of the scale of the market for small launchers sited in Cornwall and Scotland.  HL257
Answered
Lord Blencathra to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish statistics on the number of people who died from COVID-19, as opposed to the number who died from other causes but had a positive COVID-19 test within 28 days of their death.  HL258
Answered
Lord Blencathra to ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of excess deaths recorded in the COVID-19 death statistics of people who did not die from COVID-19, but who are listed in the statistics because they had a positive COVID-19 test within 28 days of their death.  HL259
Answered
Lord Blencathra to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to defend British (1) history, (2) culture, and (3) values, from individuals and organisations that see themselves as 'woke'.  HL260
Answered
Lord Blencathra to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of inability of immigration officials to detain two individuals in Glasgow on 14 May; and what further steps they will take enforce immigration law as a result of that incident.  HL261
Answered
Baroness Blower to ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current annual cost of the Ministry of Defence's nuclear enterprise.  HL262
Answered
Lord Blunkett to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will provide (1) the total number of prisoners serving more than 10 years past the expiry of their original tariff, and (2) a breakdown by each year served beyond 10 years.  HL263
Answered
Lord Blunkett to ask Her Majesty's Government what is the breakdown by ethnicity of the number of prisoners still in prison after their tariff expiry.  HL264
Answered
Lord Blunkett to ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners continue to be in (1) Category A, and (2) Category B, prisons after the expiry of their original tariff.  HL265
Answered
Lord Blunkett to ask Her Majesty's Government what is the latest data on the number of prisoners reported to have self-harmed while serving imprisonment for public protection sentences on recall.  HL266
Answered
Baroness Bull to ask Her Majesty's Government what funding support they plan to provide to enable universities to continue utilising PCR testing as their campuses reopen.  HL267
Answered
Baroness Bull to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of sustaining PCR testing and sequencing at scale in universities as a means of identifying and understanding new variants; and what plans they have to fund support for such testing and sequencing.  HL268
Answered
Lord Collins of Highbury to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 29 April, how much of the 2021–22 Overseas Development Assistance will be allocated to (1) Gavi, the vaccine alliance, (2) the Global Fund, and (3) the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.  HL269
Answered
Baroness Eaton to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they made of the efforts by local authorities and local economic partnerships to develop local industrial strategies; and what plans they have, if any, to replace the local industrial strategies with an alternative place-based model.  HL270
Answered
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock to ask Her Majesty's Government whether EEA nationals over state pension age who have not applied to the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June will continue to be eligible to receive (1) Pension Credit, (2) Housing Benefit, and (3) other benefits.  HL271
Answered
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock to ask Her Majesty's Government how EEA nationals with settled or pre-settled status will be covered by the Right to Rent scheme checks after 30 June; and what the position will be for EEA nationals who are (1) tenants, or (2) prospective tenants, but fail to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June.  HL272
Answered
Lord Hay of Ballyore to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that compensation payments to survivors of historical institutional abuse living in Great Britain do not affect means-tested welfare payments.  HL273
Answered
Lord Hylton to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the World Peace Foundation Starving Tigray, published on 6 May; and what plans they have to raise the humanitarian situation in Tigray at the next UN Security Council meeting.  HL274
Answered
Lord Jones of Cheltenham to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to recognise Palestine as a sovereign nation.  HL275
Answered
Lord Jones of Cheltenham to ask Her Majesty's Government, following the UK’s departure from the European Union, what instructions they have given schools to ask for documentary proof of pupils’ indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom.  HL276
Answered
Lord Jones of Cheltenham to ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to ensure that this year’s agricultural crops do not go to waste.  HL277
Answered
Lord Jones of Cheltenham to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will require HS2 to publish (1) the number of trees they have removed, (2) the number of trees they have planted, and (3) the areas where these changes have been made.  HL278
Answered
Baroness Kennedy of Cradley to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to stop exporting waste to other countries for disposal or recycling.  HL279
Answered
Lord Kilclooney to ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in the event of an erroneous trademarking of a trade name by the Intellectual Property Office, they may reverse the trademarking without the need for further legal action by any aggrieved party.  HL280
Answered
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal.  HL281
Answered
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton to ask Her Majesty's Government what requests for bilateral support they have received from the government of Nepal to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic; and what their response has been.  HL282
Answered
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton to ask Her Majesty's Government what overseas development assistance compliant bilateral financial support they intend to give Nepal over the next five years, broken down by project.  HL283
Answered
Lord Lipsey to ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were tested for COVID-19 during the surge testing in Lambeth and Wandsworth in April.  HL284
Answered
Lord Lipsey to ask Her Majesty's Government how many of those tested during the surge testing for COVID-19 in Lambeth and Wandsworth in April returned a positive result.  HL285
Answered
Lord Lipsey to ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of false positive results for COVID-19 among those tested during the surge testing in Lambeth and Wandsworth in April.  HL286
Answered
Lord Lipsey to ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of the South African variant of COVID-19 were identified as a result of surge testing in Lambeth and Wandsworth in April.  HL287
Answered
Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in individuals who are immunocompromised because of a health condition or who need to take immunosuppressants due to transplantation.  HL288
Answered
Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow immunocompromised patients to have their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine sooner than 12 weeks.  HL289
Answered
Lord Mendelsohn to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow immunocompromised people to be prioritised for a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.  HL290
Answered
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer to ask Her Majesty's Government whether UK citizens who are exempt from the requirement for a Schengen visa are also exempt from the requirement for an attestation d’acceuil to stay in France with friends or family; and if not, what steps they intend to take to negotiate a waiver with the government of France for any such requirement.  … Item text truncated - open link to view full item text
Answered
Lord Myners to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to hold an inquiry into (1) the granting of a banking licence to Wyelands Bank, and (2) its subsequent supervision by the Prudential Regulation Authority.  HL292
Answered
Lord Myners to ask Her Majesty's Government whether will release the proposal sent by the Treasury to supply chain financiers to be incorporated in the Covid Corporate Financing Facility fund, as referred to by Rt Hon David Cameron in evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee on 13 May.  HL293
Answered
Lord Newby to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the proposed Planning Bill contains provisions to require the impact of any new infrastructure proposal to be assessed against the ability to achieve the UK's net-zero carbon emissions target.  HL294
Answered
Lord Newby to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend their road transport infrastructure policy to require that they take account of (1) the UK's commitments under the Paris Agreement, and (2) the commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.  HL295
Answered
Lord Norton of Louth to ask the Senior Deputy Speaker,  further to the Written Answer by Lord McFall of Alcluith on 23 January 2018 (HL4602), what is the estimated cost to the public purse for the repair and maintenance of the Palace of Westminster in each year from 2022/23 to 2026/27; and what is the estimated risk of a catastrophic failure within the Palace during that period.  … Item text truncated - open link to view full item text
Answered
Lord Patten to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the effect on re-offending rates of prisoners participating in higher education while serving their sentences.  HL297
Answered
Lord Patten to ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners are currently enrolled in higher education.  HL298
Answered
Lord Patten to ask Her Majesty's Government why prisoners seeking higher education in prison must be within six years of their release date.  HL299
Answered
Baroness Redfern to ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to sign a reciprocal agreement on driving licences with the government of France.  HL300
Answered
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are under investigation by the Equality Commission over alleged breaches of equality duties related to the Northern Ireland legacy proposals published in March 2020.  HL301
Answered
Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect GP medical practices in England from being purchased by US-based companies.  HL302
Answered
Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government how many GP medical practices in England are owned by US-based insurance and investment companies.  HL303
Answered
Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the most recent report on the use of the Napier Barracks as accommodation for asylum seekers.  HL304
Answered
Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for the future use of the Penally Camp; and what consultations are taking place with the Welsh Government about that site.  HL305
Answered
Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government what changes are being made to improve traffic conditions at the port of Holyhead; and what changes are being made in the surrounding area in order to improve access to the port.  HL306
Answered
Lord Roberts of Llandudno to ask Her Majesty's Government what evidence they used in the decision to open a new immigration detention centre in Country Durham.  HL307
Answered
Lord Rosser to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the loss of fare revenue arising from the recent withdrawal from service of some Hitachi trains; and who will bear the cost of that loss of revenue.  HL308
Answered
The Lord Bishop of St Albans to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of Ethiopian Orthodox priests being murdered in Tigray; and what assessment they have made of religious freedom in Ethiopia.  HL309
Answered
Lord Scriven to ask Her Majesty's Government, following the statement by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on 30 April, which described the “unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by police special forces” against inmates in Jau prison in Bahrain on 17 April, and following decisions by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text
Answered
Baroness Sheehan to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make a statement that the Palestinians under occupation are entitled to security and self-defence.  HL311
Answered
Baroness Sheehan to ask Her Majesty's Government what they consider necessary to achieve a long-term resolution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine  HL312
Answered
Baroness Sherlock to ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the 13,500 recruited work coaches since March 2020 have started work in Jobcentres.  HL313
Answered
Baroness Sherlock to ask Her Majesty's Government how many Jobcentre work coaches are employed (1) in total, and (2) as full-time equivalents.  HL314
Answered
Baroness Sherlock to ask Her Majesty's Government how many Department for Work and Pensions Armed Forces Champions there are (1) in total, (2) on Jobcentre sites, and (3) in Jobcentre plus districts.  HL315
Answered
Lord Shinkwin to ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 29 April (HL15262), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, how many British National (Overseas) passports were issued in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available; and how many people have used the new British National (Overseas) visa sc… Item text truncated - open link to view full item text
Answered
Lord Smith of Finsbury to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) their outline approach, (2) a scoping analysis, (3) their response to public consultation, and (4) a timetable for negotiations, on the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.  HL317
Answered
Lord Smith of Finsbury to ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect formal negotiations on the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to begin.  HL318
Answered
Lord Smith of Finsbury to ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their analysis of the economic impact of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.  HL319
Answered
Lord Smith of Finsbury to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on the intellectual property sector.  HL320
Answered
Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve technical visa access for fintech services.  HL321
Answered
Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to introduce a Fintech Growth Fund; or, if they are not taking any such steps, what plans they have to fill the funding gap in the fintech industry.  HL322
Answered
Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Women’s Budget Group Gender Differences in Access to Coronavirus Government Support, published on 19 April; and what assessment they have made of the reliance of women, in comparison to men, on government COVID-19 support.  HL323
Answered
Lord Taylor of Warwick to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that small businesses can repay government loans over flexible time frames.  HL324
Answered
Lord Turnbull to ask Her Majesty's Government why they are imposing a VAT charge on boats and yachts bought in the UK which are taken abroad and returned after more than three years.  HL325
Answered
Lord Turnbull to ask Her Majesty's Government whether, if a UK resident buys furniture in the UK and takes it abroad, they will have to make a second VAT payment if the furniture is returned to the UK after three years.  HL326
Answered
Legend for business item text
Item that is new or altered.
* Item is an oral question.
Numbers starting HL are unique identifiers for written questions, Bills or papers.