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1126998

registered interest
date	15/05/2019
answering body	Department for International Trade
answering dept id	202
answering dept short name	International Trade
answering dept sort name	International Trade
hansard heading	Overseas Trade: The Gambia
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what actions they are  taking to increase the amount of trade between the UK and The Gambia.
tabling member printed	Lord German
uin	HL15759
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>As the Prime Minister set out during her visit to Africa last Summer, the Government is committed to seeing a step change in our relationship with Africa in order to drive forward trade and investment. The Africa Trade Services Unit was set up to act as the single point of contact for UK companies exporting to Africa. The Unit responds to all Africa trade enquiries, including those related to Gambia, and can support UK companies through the delivery of trade services.</p><p> </p><p>The UK remains committed to ensuring developing countries can reduce poverty through trading opportunities. The Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act 2018 enables the UK to put in place a trade preferences scheme for developing countries that maintains the same level of access as the EU's Generalised Scheme of Preferences, which will grant duty-free, quota-free access to Least Developed Countries, including The Gambia.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 21/05/2019 11:48:36 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
tabling member	4163 label Biography information for Lord German

1127012

registered interest
date	15/05/2019
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	Pollinators
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) highlight the importance to the planet of bees and other pollinators such as butterflies and bats, and (2) protect pollinator species.
tabling member printed	Lord Pendry
uin	HL15773
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>Protecting pollinators is a priority for this Government. The Government supports two major events to raise awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators and encourage people to take action.</p><p> </p><p>Firstly, our ‘Bees’ Needs’ campaign, which we run with a number of partners. In July 2018, with the generous support of our hosts, Shaftesbury PLC, we put on a week long event in Carnaby Street (renamed ‘Carnabee’ Street for the week) to raise awareness of the steps we can all take to protect pollinators. With immense gratitude to our hosts Shaftesbury PLC, this event will be repeated this year from 8 to 14 July.</p><p> </p><p>Defra also organises, in partnership with the Green Flag Awards, an annual Bees’ Needs Champions Awards to recognise and celebrate examples of exemplary initiatives undertaken by schools, local authorities, universities, community groups and bee farmers to support pollinators.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is taking a range of other steps to protect pollinator species. In 2014 we published a ten year National Pollinator Strategy, setting out how the Government, conservation groups, farmers, beekeepers and researchers can work together to improve the status of the 1,500 or so pollinating insect species in England.</p><p> </p><p>We are also creating habitat for pollinators. In 2015, we introduced new and simple wildlife ‘packages’ within Countryside Stewardship to make it easier for farmers to provide flower rich margins or pollen and nectar plots on fields to support wild pollinators.</p><p> </p><p>The Government also recently announced £60,000 to develop pollinator habitat mapping and is supporting largescale projects to bring landowners and conservationists together to provide habitat in Devon and Hampshire. Natural England, our statutory nature conservation adviser, continues to work with a range of landowning and NGO partners to support the recovery of threatened species such as the barberry carpet moth, shorthaired bumblebee and chequered skipper butterfly.</p><p> </p><p>We are supporting monitoring work. In collaboration with research institutes and volunteer organisations, we have established a pollinator monitoring and research partnership to gather further data and improve our understanding of the status of pollinators and pollination services in the UK.</p><p> </p><p>We are taking steps to reduce pressures on pollinators. We have implemented science led restrictions on neonicotinoids based on scientific evidence that they carry risks to pollinators. We continue to tackle threats from invasive species, such as the Asian hornet, and protect honey bees from pests and diseases through the National Bee Unit’s nationwide team of bee inspectors.</p><p> </p><p>We are safeguarding honey bee health. Collaboration has been a central tenet of the work by the Government and Bee Inspectors to protect honey bee health. Along with beekeeping associations, the Government has carried out a decade of work under the Healthy Bees Plan, drafted in 2009 as a means of sustaining our honey bee population. We will be reviewing this work this year and using valuable lessons from this to develop our future strategy.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 21/05/2019 15:04:18 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	457 label Biography information for Lord Pendry

1126696

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
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	Nappies
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 (1) reusable, and (2) disposable, nappies on the (a) environment, and (b) collection and disposal of refuse; and what incentives they are encouraging for the use of reusable nappies.
tabling member printed	Lord Greaves
uin	HL15713
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government recognises the need to address the issues associated with the environmental impact of nappies. In line with the Resources and Waste Strategy published in December last year, we are considering the best approach for a range of products.</p><p> </p><p>There are a number of policy measures available to us, including standards and consumer information, and we believe the right approach for each product requires careful consideration taking account of various factors, for example, waste benefits versus energy usage. We are therefore carrying out some new research into the impacts of reusable and disposable nappies. This will help us decide on the best course of action for the future and in terms of Government support.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 20/05/2019 16:26:12 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	2569 label Biography information for Lord Greaves

1126700

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
answering body	Department for Transport
answering dept id	27
answering dept short name	Transport
answering dept sort name	Transport
hansard heading	Lifeboats
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Sugg on 4 February (HL Deb, col 1324), what evidence they received that (1) the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) decision to downgrade the New Quay lifeboat capacity was based on extensive research of incident reports and consideration of local concerns, and (2) the RNLI carries out a coastal safety review every five years; and whether they will publish the evidence they hold in relation to both issues.
tabling member printed	Lord Harries of Pentregarth
uin	HL15717
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is an independent charity which declares a lifeboat service to Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) and has advised HMG of their decision to downgrade the New Quay Lifeboat based on the evidence they have collated. HMG has not been provided with copies of the RNLI’s evidence which remains their intellectual property.</p><p> </p><p>The RNLI has also advised HMG of their continuous coastal safety reviews which they carry out to evaluate their own assets on a five-yearly basis. Again, as an independent charity, the RNLI are not required to provide HMG with the written evidence of such reviews and has not done so.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Vere of Norbiton question first answered 21/05/2019 14:51:02 answering member 4580 label Biography information for Baroness Vere of Norbiton
tabling member	3813 label Biography information for Lord Harries of Pentregarth

1126702

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
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	Guatemala: War Crimes
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will make representations to the government of Guatemala about the risks of the bill proposing to grant amnesty to those who have committed war crimes; and whether, in any such representations, they will emphasise the need to protect the justices of the Constitutional Court and other judges against threats and intimidation.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL15719
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>​We welcome the fact that the proposed amendments to the National Reconciliation Law, which would have signified a worrying trend towards impunity from serious crimes, lacked sufficient backing in the Guatemalan Congress on 13 March. The UK supported a statement by the local donors' coordination group G13 on 13 March and an EU statement on 26 March condemning the proposed amendments, reiterating support for Guatemala's democratic institutions and calling on the Guatemalan government to respect the independence of the constitutional court. Through our Embassy in Guatemala City, we continue to raise our concerns about the rule of law, human rights and institutional independence with the Guatemalan government.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 21/05/2019 14:01:57 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1126709

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
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	Social Science: Research
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they provided to universities in England for social science research in each of the last five years.
tabling member printed	Lord Mawson
uin	HL15726
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy funds research primarily through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Within UKRI the main funders of social science research are the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and Research England.</p><p> </p><p>The following table shows the value of research grants from AHRC and ESRC related to social science awarded to universities in England in each of the last five years. It also shows the notional allocation of Quality-related Research (QR) funding from Research England to the social sciences in universities in England over the past five years. QR funding is unhypothecated and individual institutions decide how it should be spent on research activities according to their own priorities.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Value of awarded grants (by Financial Year) £</strong></p></td><td><p><strong> QR allocation (by academic year) £</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/2015</p></td><td><p>153,738,462</p></td><td><p>270,300,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/2016</p></td><td><p>106,861,835</p></td><td><p>276,500,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/2017</p></td><td><p>181,616,983</p></td><td><p>279,000,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/2018</p></td><td><p>199,971,534</p></td><td><p>281,200,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/2019</p></td><td><p>247,678,306</p></td><td><p>291,300,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>While these are the primary funders of social science research, other research councils within UKRI provide funding for projects that involve a significant contribution from the social sciences. UKRI encourages interdisciplinary research, including the integration of social science components into other research programmes, when this adds value to the proposals.</p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 20/05/2019 16:04:25 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	3830 label Biography information for Lord Mawson

1126716

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
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	Electric Vehicles: Batteries
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of electric vehicle batteries in the UK that will need to be recycled in (1) 2020, (2) 2030, (3) 2040, and (4) 2050; and what assessment they have made of the UK's capacity to meet this demand for battery recycling given that there are no lithium-ion recycling facilities in the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL15733
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government has not made an estimate of the number of electric vehicle batteries in the UK that will need to be recycled in the future. However, the Government’s Road to Zero Strategy, published last year, set out the ambition that by 2030 50%-70% of new cars sold and up to 40% of new vans sold are ultra low emission and that by 2040 those percentages rise to 100%. Presently, cars and vans have an average lifespan of around 14 years before they become end-of-life vehicles, and figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that in 2018 there were new car registrations of 2,367,147 units and for light commercial vehicles 357,325 units. Of these, 141,234 units were for plug-in and hybrid vehicles.</p><p> </p><p>Second life applications are being explored for batteries which are no longer able to perform as required in electric vehicles. An example is in energy storage solutions, which will delay the point at which the battery has to be recycled.</p><p> </p><p>Electric car batteries are classified as industrial batteries and covered under the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009. This bans the disposal to landfill of such batteries and their incineration. It also establishes take-back and recycling obligations for industrial battery producers.</p><p> </p><p>The UK’s £246 million Faraday Battery Challenge is playing a leading role in promoting the reuse and recycling of battery components. One of the eight technical challenges set is to be able to recycle 95% of an electric vehicle battery pack by 2035.</p><p> </p><p>A number of live projects are exploring this area including a £10 million Faraday Institution research project. This is developing the technological, economic and policy framework that would allow high percentages of the materials in lithium-ion batteries at the end of their first life to be reused or recycled. In addition, several collaborative research and development projects are looking at reusing, remanufacturing or recycling end-of-life, automotive lithium-ion batteries.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 20/05/2019 16:45:56 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1126723

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
answering body	Department for International Trade
answering dept id	202
answering dept short name	International Trade
answering dept sort name	International Trade
hansard heading	Trade Agreements
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government with which countries, in order of priority, they wish to conclude trade deals post-Brexit; and what estimate they have made, if any, of the likely timescale of concluding such deals.
tabling member printed	Baroness Quin
uin	HL15740
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>Our priority is to be in a position to begin formal negotiations with key partners after we leave the EU, and to then make progress towards substantive agreements, so long as such agreements work for the whole of the UK. We have completed public consultations on potential future free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and on the UK’s potential accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). We plan to publish Government responses for each of the four consultations before any formal negotiations begin.</p><p>Trade agreements vary in shape, scope and form, and there is no “average” timeframe for completion. For example, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada took seven years to negotiate, the China-Switzerland FTA took two, but the USA-Jordan FTA negotiations only four months. The Government is clear that its objective is to negotiate the best possible FTAs for the whole of the UK, in the interests of business and consumers.</p><p>While we are looking to forge new agreements, the Government is also seeking continuity for our existing EU trade agreements as we leave the EU. A list of all signed trade continuity agreements is available on the GOV.UK website.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 21/05/2019 11:09:23 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
tabling member	518 label Biography information for Baroness Quin

1126730

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
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	Research: Finance
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help increase investment in UK research and development.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL15747
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Universities and Science to the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow on 27 March 2019 to Question 230812.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Henley question first answered 20/05/2019 16:04:38 answering member 2616 label Biography information for Lord Henley
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1126737

registered interest
date	14/05/2019
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	Abdullah Öcalan
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Turkey in relation to the Kurdish hunger strikers who are campaigning for the end of the solitary confinement in which the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan is being held on the island of Imrali in contravention of European and international law.
tabling member printed	Lord Wigley
uin	HL15754
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>​The British Government has raised Mr Öcalan’s case with the Turkish authorities a number of times. The Minister for Europe and the Americas raised the issue most recently with the Turkish Ambassador on 13 May. While strongly condemning the ongoing violence perpetrated by the PKK, a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK, we have encouraged the Turkish authorities to implement the recommendations made by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture following their visit to Imrali prison. In this regard, I welcome the fact that Mr Öcalan was granted access to two lawyers on 2 May. I also note the comment made by Mr Öcalan, via his lawyers, that individuals should not pursue these hunger strikes to the point of serious illness or death.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 21/05/2019 15:45:21 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	547 label Biography information for Lord Wigley