Baroness Featherstone: My Lords—
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, Andrew Mitchell changed DfID for the better with the original multilateral and bilateral aid reviews. DfID follows the money. It is very good value for money. My concerns are less about the outcome of the current aid reviews and more about the use of the ODA by departments other than DfID across government. Will there be a review of the use of ODA by other departments?
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether green gas from marginal grassland will be included in, or excluded from, the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive scheme; and what is the rationale for that decision.
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords—
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, everyone in this House would wish us to tackle FGM, but for the past five years it has been impossible to get it into the curriculum. We are negligent in our duty if we do not enable young girls, who have no idea what is about to happen to them, to know what is going to happen, who to signpost and who to go to for help. Our front-line workers need the support of the Government to...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, as the Minister said, during the coalition years laws were introduced so that a woman could stay in a house with an emergency order over the weekend, extendable up to one month. How many of those have been issued?
Baroness Featherstone: I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement, but I am sorry to say that I find it totally unacceptable for a Minister say that the Government have mandated five clean air zones when 50,000 people a year are dying. I seek an assurance about all the people who are dying who are not in those five mandated cities. How urgent does he regard this? The Statement says it is a top priority. Can...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I was very pleased to hear the Minister say that a number of bidders are interested, because my understanding was that there is only one serious bidder. Am I right? If so and there is only one, would it not be better to wait for a better purchase price?
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will reverse their decision to end the business rate exemption for small solar panels from April 2017.
Baroness Featherstone: I thank the Minister, but I have to say that if one parish council in Wokingham can find that its business rates are going from £7,000 to £14,000, this will be the death of non-domestic solar roof panels. I urge the Government to look at the impact on schools and parish councils, which will be devastating. Will she also address the unfair and unjust anomaly whereby schools with charitable...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Parminter for securing this most important and timely debate. We have had excellent contributions from Members on all sides who have clearly understood the potentially negative impact that leaving the EU could have on our environmental, energy and climate change policies as well as the few opportunities. There will indeed be huge...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, gas is a fossil fuel wherever it comes from. Given that the Government are going to miss our legally binding targets on reductions in carbon emissions, would it not be better altogether if the Government simply banned fracking and got on with delivering reductions in emissions rather than increases?
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to call in the decision by Northumberland County Council to approve plans for an opencast coal mine at Highthorn in the light of recent government commitments to phase out the use of coal.
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether in negotiating the UK’s exit from the EU they plan to seek for the UK to be included in any EU regulations on the security of gas supply in times of crisis, as set out in the European Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation concerning measures to safeguard the security of gas supply and repealing Regulation (EU) No 994/2010.
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, first, I take this opportunity to welcome the noble Baroness to her new role. It is a big portfolio to learn in a couple of days. I am pleased and relieved that Her Majesty’s Government have accepted the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change for the 57% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 for the fifth carbon budget, relative to 1990 levels. Since I arrived in your...
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, I speak for the Liberal Democrats on energy and climate change and it is to that portfolio I wish to speak this evening. We had been doing so well during the coalition years, but, from a position where Britain was already a world leader in offshore wind and could have become a world leader in other areas, we are now already falling away from the global race. In the six months since...
Baroness Featherstone: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to move the United Kingdom towards an energy infrastructure that is based on renewable energy.
Baroness Featherstone: My Lords, this is a most timely debate and I thank all noble Lords who will contribute this evening. With the United Kingdom cast into a maelstrom of uncertainty and turmoil, this is a moment when we look to Her Majesty’s Government to stand by their commitments on climate change. Therefore, I hope and trust that, in responding to this debate, the Minister will take the opportunity to...
