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1659974

	registered interest
	date	12/09/2023
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Security
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what support the Houses of Lords Administration receives from His Majesty’s Government regarding the issuing of parliamentary passes and the vetting of individuals when passes are requested; and what consideration he has given to a review into the activities of hostile states and the subversion of parliamentary democracy in the House of Lords.
	tabling member printed	Lord Alton of Liverpool
	uin	HL10084
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2023 answer text <p>All passholders are subject to vetting, and Parliament follows the Government vetting framework and is regulated by the Government’s statement of vetting policy. Parliament’s vetting processes draw on data provided by the relevant national authorities. More information can be found in Parliament’s <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/mps-lords--offices/offices/pass-office/psd-national-security-vetting-booklet.pdf" target="_blank">National Security Vetting booklet</a>. I am constrained in what further I can share widely on Parliament’s security measures.</p><p>Parliament works with the relevant national authorities to keep all potential threats to Parliament, parliamentarians and parliamentary democracy under constant review and ensure our mitigations are appropriate. This includes the threat posed by foreign state interference. Parliament is also represented at the Defending Democracy taskforce which is chaired by the Security Minister.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 21/09/2023 15:58:00 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	738 label Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool

1660663

	registered interest
	date	13/09/2023
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	House of Lords Chamber: Visits
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many people had their visits to the House of Lords Chamber cancelled as a result of the early sittings on Wednesday 6 and Wednesday 13 September to allow for extended scrutiny of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill; and what arrangements have been made to those people to offer redress.
	tabling member printed	Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
	uin	HL10143
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2023 answer text <p>The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. No tours run by Visitors Services were cancelled because of early sittings on Wednesday 6 and Wednesday 13 September. When the Chambers sit, visitors have a reduced tour, confined to public areas. 650 people had a reduced tour as a result of early sittings. Visitors are warned at the time of booking that their tour may be changed due to Parliamentary business.</p> answering member printed Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall question first answered 20/09/2023 16:51:19 answering member 2506 label Biography information for Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
	tabling member	1141 label Biography information for Lord Forsyth of Drumlean

1660672

	registered interest
	date	13/09/2023
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	Palace of Westminster: Beverage Containers
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what assessment he has made of the environmental claims printed on the paper cups now in use on the Committee Corridor; if no such assessment has been made, whether he will undertake to carry this out; and whether he will share the findings of any such assessment with the Environment and Climate Change Committee.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lucas
	uin	HL10152
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2023 answer text <p>All of the paper cups for the water coolers on the House of Lords Estate are sourced from a single supplier, WaterLogic. Some of the cups on the estate are simply labelled ‘Planet’, as per the manufacturer name, and others come with the supplier’s branding printed on. Both versions are the same product, which is advertised and sold as being recyclable, biodegradable and compostable. WaterLogic’s website confirms that the cup is plastic-free and made of paperboard which is fully recyclable, biodegradable and compostable. The cup’s material is heat resistant and can be reused multiple times.</p><p>There will be an internal review of how the cups are being collected across the House of Lords Estate by our cleaning partners, to ensure that they are continuing to be disposed of in the correct manner (i.e. not as part of the general refuse). This is an issue covered by the Services Committee who will be informed of the results of the review once it has been completed and whose agendas and minutes are published online.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 21/09/2023 15:06:40 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1879 label Biography information for Lord Lucas

969327

	registered interest
	date	06/09/2018
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Plastics
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what action is being taken by the House of Lords Administration to reduce its use of plastic.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
	uin	HL10157
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2018 answer text <p>The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chairman of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf.</p><p>In April 2018 the Services Committee endorsed a number of measures to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics:</p><p><strong>A. Remove water in plastic bottles from sale in catering venues–</strong> This will be effective from October 2018, reducing plastic waste immediately.</p><p><strong>B. Eliminate the consumption of plastic-lined take-away cups for hot drinks (through substitution) and reduce overall take-away cup waste–</strong> This will be effective from October 2018, with plastic-lined disposable cups replaced with a compostable alternative.</p><p>In addition, Catering &amp; Retail Services (CRS) will continue to incentivise customers to use china mugs, or their own re-usable cups, when purchasing hot drinks by offering a 10p discount on every purchase. A 25p surcharge on all hot drinks purchased in a disposable take-away cup will be introduced from October 2018 for a twelve-month trial.</p><p><strong>C. Substitute the remainder of CRS plastic disposable items–</strong> In early 2018 all plastic drinking straws supplied by Catering &amp; Retail Services were replaced with compostable paper straws. Individual condiment sachets have also been replaced with condiment bottles. Remaining plastic catering disposable items used by Catering &amp; Retail Services will be replaced with compostable alternatives from October 2018.</p><p>The plastic tumbler cups currently provided in meeting rooms and kitchen facilities will also be replaced with compostable cups.</p><p>To capture compostable disposable products (including take-away cups) effectively, 800 compostable waste bins have been purchased and will be deployed across the Estate during the 2018 conference recess.</p><p><strong>D. Substitute single-use plastic carrier bags in Retail Services with carrier bags made from paper–</strong> The current plastic carrier bag stock is being depleted and alternative bags made from paper (using material from responsibly-managed, FSC-certified forests) have been identified as a replacement.</p><p>The following additional measures are being taken:</p><ul><li>The development of a ‘green’ stationery catalogue, to reduce the consumption of single-use avoidable plastics in stationery purchasing (implementation anticipated for October 2018);</li><li>The development of a pilot for a re-usable packaging ‘totes’ scheme at the Off-Site Consolidation Centre for all deliveries (implementation anticipated for January 2019); and</li><li>The development of procedures for incorporating the environmental impact of packaging into the weighting of relevant procurement and tender exercises (implementation anticipated for November 2018).</li></ul><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Laming question first answered 20/09/2018 16:06:51 answering member 2079 label Biography information for Lord Laming
	tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley

1660690

	registered interest
	date	13/09/2023
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Costs
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what the most recent annual cost for the House of Lords was (1) in total, and (2) per member.
	tabling member printed	Lord Wigley
	uin	HL10170
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2023 answer text <p>The most recent costs of the House of Lords can be found in the Annual Report and Resources Accounts 2022-23 available on the Parliamentary website. Significant costs are incurred with running and maintaining the variety of the buildings across the World Heritage site of the Parliamentary Estate, and the associated non-cash costs (e.g. depreciation and revaluation adjustments).</p><p>For the 2022-23 financial year the costs of the House of Lords excluding estates and works expenditure and non-cash items was £104,670,000. Of this amount the costs directly relating to the Members Finance Scheme (including allowances and travel expenses) totalled £21,110,000. As at 31 March 2023 there were 776 members eligible to attend the House.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 21/09/2023 15:14:56 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	547 label Biography information for Lord Wigley

1250566

	registered interest
	date	10/11/2020
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	Electronic Voting: WhatsApp
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans there are to use WhatsApp to alert members of the House about votes taking place using the remote voting system.
	tabling member printed	Lord Myners
	uin	HL10181
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2020 answer text <p>The Remote Voting system currently alerts Members of the House of Lords to a Division via text message (if they have opted in and provided a mobile number) and email to their Parliamentary account using Notify, which is a secure government service. Members have the option of adding an alternative email address. Notify complies with the National Cyber Security Centre's Cloud Security Principles, and is protected with encryption and secure tokens.</p><p>There are no plans to accredit any further tools or apps and develop the remote voting system to use them as notification tools. A greater number of elements within the notification system would introduce an undesirable level of complexity and increase the risk of faults.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord McFall of Alcluith question first answered 23/11/2020 13:10:14 answering member 4148 label Biography information for Lord McFall of Alcluith
	tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1471257

	registered interest
	date	16/06/2022
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what discussions the House of Lords had with the landlord of the QEII conference centre about the relocation of the House as part of the Restoration and Renewal project; and on what basis such discussions took place.
	tabling member printed	Lord Empey
	uin	HL1030
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2022 answer text <p>The freehold title for the QEII Conference Centre is currently held by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (previously the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government). Since 2018 House of Lords officials have been involved in discussions with officials at DLUHC (then MHCLG) regarding potential use of the QEII Conference Centre by the House of Lords as part of the Restoration and Renewal (R&amp;R) programme. This has included exploring the terms of any possible acquisition of the building for the purposes of housing the House of Lords during the R&amp;R programme and seeking to understand the associated costs, risks and liabilities.</p><p>This follows the QEII Conference Centre having been identified as the preferred decant location for the House of Lords, in line with the recommendation by the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster in 2016; a recommendation which was agreed by the House of Lords Commission in September 2018, subject to further feasibility work being undertaken.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 27/06/2022 15:39:34 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	4216 label Biography information for Lord Empey

1662233

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2023
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	Peers: Leave of Absence
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker on how many occasions, and when, the Leave of Absence Sub-Committee has declined to recommend that leave of absence be granted.
	tabling member printed	Lord Faulkner of Worcester
	uin	HL10362
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2023 answer text <p>Applications for Leave of Absence are submitted to the Clerk of the Parliaments, who accepts all applications that comply with the requirements set out in Standing Order 21. It has never been the practice to consult the Leave of Absence Sub-Committee on individual applications, and minutes of the Sub-Committee’s meetings show that it has never declined to recommend that leave of absence be granted.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 28/09/2023 09:16:49 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	2472 label Biography information for Lord Faulkner of Worcester

1664768

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	Peers: Leave of Absence
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether letters applying for Leave of Absence from the House of Lords are in the public domain.
	tabling member printed	Lord Young of Cookham
	uin	HL10601
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2023 answer text <p>No. Members applying for leave of absence are required under Standing Order 21 to specify in their written application both their reason for seeking leave of absence and either a date by which they expect to return to the House or, if they are unable to specify a date, the circumstances which will allow their return. Letters requesting leave of absence may therefore contain sensitive personal information, which it would be inappropriate to disclose.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 24/10/2023 14:42:16 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	57 label Biography information for Lord Young of Cookham

1255116

	registered interest
	date	24/11/2020
	answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
	answering dept id	204
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
	hansard heading	Parliament: Security
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what are the current rules on (1) eligibility, and (2) sponsorship of Parliamentary passes for lobbyists.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top
	uin	HL10656
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/12/2020 answer text <p>Nobody is entitled to a parliamentary pass by virtue of being a lobbyist. Any passholder who has an external lobbying role separate to their parliamentary role is not permitted to use their pass for lobbying purposes. The rules governing the sponsorship of passes by members of the House of Lords, which were recently amended, say: &quot;Such passholders must use their Parliamentary pass only to provide Parliamentary support to the sponsor and other members of the House, and not in furtherance of any other interests of their own or of other organisations for which they work. Members may not sponsor a pass for anybody whose primary role is to support an All-Party Parliamentary Group.&quot;</p><p>The Code of Conduct for House of Lords Members’ Staff requires them to register their outside interests, including &quot;any … financial interest in businesses or organisations involved in parliamentary lobbying&quot;.</p><p>Anybody who has evidence that an individual is breaching any of these rules may complain to the independent Commissioner for Standards at <a target="_blank">lordsstandards@parliament.uk</a>.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord McFall of Alcluith question first answered 02/12/2020 17:34:16 answering member 4148 label Biography information for Lord McFall of Alcluith
	tabling member	4150 label Biography information for Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top