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967545

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Unfair Practices: Competition
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to continue to sanction in accordance with EU law large corporations who abuse their dominant market position after Brexit.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL10028
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2018 answer text <p>The Competition Act 1998 contains prohibitions equivalent to those in EU law. After EU exit, companies found to abuse a dominant market position in the UK will be sanctioned under the Competition Act.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 17/09/2018 13:25:39 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

967546

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Public Sector: Procurement
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that they meet their target of awarding small and medium-sized enterprises 33 per cent of public works contracts by 2022.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL10029
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2018 answer text <p>This Government is committed to supporting small businesses and we continue to aspire to 33% of Government procurement spend on goods, services and works goes to SMEs by 2022.</p><p> </p><p>In April the government announced a number of measures to help achieve this, including:</p><p> </p><p>· Requiring greater transparency by prime contractors to increase SMEs visibility in the supply chain;</p><p>· Improving the visibility of supply chain opportunities to SMEs; and</p><p>· Consulting on how to improve prompt payment to SMEs in the supply chain.</p><p> </p><p>We have already streamlined our procurement processes to assist small businesses, and we continue to focus on breaking down the barriers that might deter SMEs from bidding for Government contracts.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Young of Cookham question first answered 18/09/2018 13:28:40 answering member 57 label Biography information for Lord Young of Cookham
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

967547

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions: Small Businesses
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises that have set up an auto-enrolment pension scheme have done so correctly, and (2) safeguard workers against pension contribution errors made by their employers.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL10030
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2018 answer text <p>Automatic enrolment has been a great success, with over 9.8 million employees enrolled and more than 1.3 million employers having met their duties to date.</p><p>The Department and The Pensions Regulator remain committed to enabling small and micro employers to comply with automatic enrolment by making the experience as straightforward as possible for this group.</p><p> </p><p>As part of this work, the Regulator launched an interactive step-by-step guide. This simplified guide to meeting automatic enrolment duties is designed to meet the specific needs of employers who may not have pensions experience, including those with just one or two staff. The guide includes an online tool so that employers can easily find out what they will need to do to comply and when. Using the online tool also means employers will receive tailored communications relevant to their circumstances. The step-by-step guide to automatic enrolment can be found on their website.</p><p> </p><p>Government has put in place a robust, proportionate compliance framework. This is administered by The Pensions Regulator, and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law. An employer is required to select a qualifying pension scheme; enrol qualifying staff into that scheme, and deduct any contributions payable under automatic enrolment.</p><p>Employers are also required to pay those contributions across to their chosen pension provider by a set deadline. Although the deadlines for contribution payments vary, depending on the type of scheme being used, there is an overall legal deadline of the twenty-second day of the following month; which aligns with the HMRC deadline for paying tax and National Insurance.</p><p>Qualifying pension schemes for automatic enrolment are subject to the same regulatory framework as all trust-based workplace pension schemes, also overseen by The Pensions Regulator. The Regulator has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of defined contribution pension schemes and managers of personal pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions; provide information to help members check their contributions; and report material payment failures to the Regulator.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 11/09/2018 15:44:53 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

967548

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Starlings
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of studies by the British Trust for Ornithology which show that the population of starlings has fallen by 66 per cent since the 1970s.
tabling member printed	Lord Tebbit
uin	HL10031
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2018 answer text <p>The Government is aware of the British Trust for Ornithology data on starlings. The Government’s wild bird statistics that measure relative abundance show decreases for starlings of 81% in the long term (1970-2015) and 5% in the short term (2010-2015).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The cause of the decline in starlings, although not fully understood, is likely to be linked to food availability and over winter survival. To support starlings and other birds there are agri-environment scheme options that aim to boost food availability. In the period 2008-2014, farms in Higher Level Stewardship agreements, specifically undertaking bird friendly management options, found a sustained 79% increase in starling abundance.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 17/09/2018 12:38:53 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	952 label Biography information for Lord Tebbit

967550

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Sewage: Water Treatment
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of research by the Environment Department at the University of York which found that worms, maggots and flies at sewage treatment plants contain traces of many drugs, including anti-depressants.
tabling member printed	Lord Tebbit
uin	HL10032
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2018 answer text <p>Researchers at the University of York have published in a peer reviewed journal that earthworms collected at sewage treatment plants contained mean concentrations of 26.20±4.70 ng/g of the anti-depressant fluoxetine (trade name Prozac) (Bean et al. 2017). In a recent paper concerning the effects of low, environmental relevant, concentrations of Prozac on the courtship of starlings (Whitlock et al. 2018), they also refer to work by other researchers showing earthworms at sewage treatment plants to contain other contaminants including pharmaceuticals (Markman et al. 2007 &amp; 2008). There are many other studies globally showing uptake of pharmaceuticals into a variety of invertebrate species.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The uptake of pharmaceutical residues from sewage, sewage effluent and sewage sludge has been shown to negatively impact invertebrates themselves and provides a clear route of exposure to many species of wildlife including birds and bats. The full significance of this is still being assessed.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bean, T. G., Arnold, K. E., Lane, J., Bergstrom, E., Thomas-Oates, J. E., Rattner, B., &amp; Boxall, A. B. A. (2017). Predictive framework for estimating exposure of birds to pharmaceuticals. <em>Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry</em>. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/etc.3771" target="_blank">10.1002/etc.3771</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Markman S,Guschina I,Barnsley S,Buchanan K,Pascoe D,et al. (2007) Endocrine disrupting chemicals accumulate in earthworms exposed to sewage effluent. Chemosphere 70: 119–125.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Markman S, Leitner S, Catchpole C, Barnsley S, Müller CT, Pascoe D, et al. (2008) Pollutants Increase Song Complexity and the Volume of the Brain Area HVC in a Songbird. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1674. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001674</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Sophia E. Whitlock, M. Glória Pereira, Richard F. Shore, Julie Lane, Kathryn E. Arnold. Environmentally relevant exposure to an antidepressant alters courtship behaviours in a songbird. <em>Chemosphere</em>, 2018; 211: 17 DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.074" target="_blank">10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.074</a></p><p> </p><p>(12/12)</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 17/09/2018 12:37:26 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	952 label Biography information for Lord Tebbit

967551

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Starlings
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of low concentrations of anti-depressants on the courtship and breeding of starlings.
tabling member printed	Lord Tebbit
uin	HL10033
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/09/2018 answer text <p>The experiments conducted by University of York in collaboration with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) demonstrated that exposing starlings to a maximal environmentally relevant concentration of an anti-depressant (fluoxetine) altered courtship behaviour in wild-caught starlings (<em>Sturnus vulgaris</em>). The males sang less and were more aggressive towards females that had been dosed with an anti-depressant than to the untreated females and in addition the treated females were also initially more aggressive towards males than the untreated females. However there were no effects on female courtship behaviour or on circulating female hormones in treated females. These findings suggest that exposure to this dose of anti-depressant reduced female attractiveness to the male but the reasons why are not clear. Whether these levels of anti-depressants in the environment would have a significant effect on an individual’s fitness or the population as a whole requires further investigation.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 17/09/2018 12:36:31 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	952 label Biography information for Lord Tebbit

967552

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Somalia: British Nationals Abroad
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what inquiries, if any, they have made concerning the use of rehabilitation centres in Somalia to which British Somali children are being sent; and what activities are offered in those centres.
tabling member printed	Baroness Tonge
uin	HL10034
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2018 answer text <p>​Her Majesty’s Government advises against all travel to Somalia, except for the cities of Hargeisa and Berbera. The British Embassy in Mogadishu and the British Office in Hargeisa are currently unable to provide consular assistance in Somalia or Somaliland. The UK’s ability to offer consular support to British Nationals in Somalia or Somaliland or establish with certainty the activities undertaken in “rehabilitation centres” is therefore extremely limited. However the High Commission in Nairobi has in the past provided limited consular assistance, including to those who had previously attended “rehabilitation centres&quot;.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 18/09/2018 15:29:30 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	200 label Biography information for Baroness Tonge

967553

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Developing Countries: Health Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how much DfID spent directly targeting reproductive health under the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee codes (1) 13010, (2) 13021, (3) 13022, (4) 13030, and (5) 13081 in the financial years (a) 2015–16, (b) 2016–17, and (c) 2017–18.
tabling member printed	Baroness Tonge
uin	HL10035
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2018 answer text <p>DFID spent the following directly targeting reproductive health under the OECD Development codes 13010; 13021; 13022; 13030 and 13081:</p><p>2015/16: £313.705M</p><p>2016/17: £307.197M</p><p>This data does not capture spend on our substantial multilateral contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, UNFPA, WHO, Unitaid and UNAIDS.</p><p>Data for all sector codes and spend are available on the Statistics for International Development website. Figures for the 2017/18 will be released early in 2019.</p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 13/09/2018 16:21:57 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	200 label Biography information for Baroness Tonge

967554

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Developing Countries: HIV Infection
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how much DfID spent directly targeting HIV and AIDS under the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee codes (1) 13041, and (2) 13042 in the financial years (a) 2015–16, (b) 2016–17, and (c) 2017–18.
tabling member printed	Baroness Tonge
uin	HL10036
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2018 answer text <p>DFID spent the following directly targeting HIV and AIDS under the two OECD Development codes 13041 and 13042:</p><p>2015/16 = £27.159M</p><p>2016/17 = £27.143M</p><p>This data does not capture spend on related programming that complements our wider work on comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights including research and health systems strengthening.</p><p>Data for all sector codes and spend are available on the Statistics for International Development website. Figures for the 2017/18 will be released early in 2019.</p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 13/09/2018 16:22:10 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	200 label Biography information for Baroness Tonge

967555

registered interest
date	04/09/2018
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Development Aid: Health Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of DfID’s total overseas development aid was spent on sexual and reproductive health and rights in (a) 2015–16, (b) 2016–17, and (c) 2017–18.
tabling member printed	Baroness Tonge
uin	HL10037
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2018 answer text <p>Based on internationally agreed methodology, DFID spent 10.7% in 2015-16 and 9.49% in 2016-17 of its overseas development aid on sexual reproductive health and rights.</p><p>Figures for 2017-18 are not yet available.</p> answering member printed Lord Bates question first answered 13/09/2018 16:22:20 answering member 1091 label Biography information for Lord Bates
tabling member	200 label Biography information for Baroness Tonge