Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, as I have already said, the arrangements for security at the Games involve a combination of different participants-the police, the military and the commercial provider, G4S. The noble Lord talks as if only G4S had been commissioned to provide security. That is not the case. As I said, the approach involves the police and the military. That has always been the case. On the point he...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: But they are not part of the security arrangements. I restate what I have already said because it is important: the Home Office has been reviewing the way in which things have developed. As issues started to develop over the past couple of weeks that made it necessary for us to be ready to act, we took the necessary steps so that we could act. We acted yesterday. The security of our Olympic...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: I am obviously interested to hear what the noble and gallant Lord says about the initial expectations of the Ministry of Defence about troop requirements for the Olympic Games. I cannot comment on them because they would have been formed during the period of office of the previous Government. I can say that, during the time the coalition has been in power, and as we have got closer to the...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: I certainly share my noble friend's view of our Armed Forces. We are all in their debt for the way in which, from time to time, they step in and take control of situations. My noble friend is absolutely right to make that point and we keep that very much in mind. On this specific issue-notwithstanding the points that the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, made a few moments ago-the...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: Co-ordination of the emergency services is, of course, essential and arrangements are in place to ensure proper co-ordination. As to the noble Baroness's question about a second helicopter, I am afraid that I do not have the answer, but I will write to her.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, first, let me make it clear that the Home Office took decisive action yesterday once the matter with G4S that we are discussing today crystallised. We were able to do this because we have monitored progress closely and had contingency arrangements in place, so there is no question of our security needs not being met. I stress that we were in a position to act yesterday because we...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall repeat as a Statement an Answer given by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary to an Urgent Question in the other place. It is as follows: "Mr Speaker, the Government's overriding priority is to use all resources necessary to deliver a safe and secure Olympic Games. That is what the public and the House would expect. The security...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, before I resume the House, I take this opportunity to offer some assistance to noble Lords who will be participating in the next debate in the name of my noble friend Lord Astor. As is obvious from the list of speakers, there is great interest in this debate, which has led us to have to limit speaking times to three minutes, with the exception of my noble friend Lord Astor and my...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: The Government's response to the consultation on the long-term management of the UK stockpile of civil plutonium was published on 1 December 2011 and is publicly available on the DECC website: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/ consultations/plutonium/plutonium.aspx.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: The Government are clear that consumers should be able to access easily their own smart metering energy consumption data, and share this with third parties, should they choose to do so. Consumers will be able to capture their more detailed energy consumption data-at a frequency dependent on the Home Area Network technology used in the metering equipment, but required to be better than 10...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, I am sorry that my timing is a bit wrong tonight. I beg to move that the House adjourn during pleasure until 8.30 pm. Sitting suspended.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: Following the announcement by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority that it was seeking alternative approaches to be considered alongside the preferred option of converting plutonium into mixed oxide fuel, GE Hitachi and others expressed an interest in submitting proposals in the future. Work is currently ongoing between GE Hitachi and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to help determine...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: Renewable generation is currently supported through the Renewables Obligation (RO). RO bands are currently being reviewed and we expect to announce the outcomes shortly.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, in moving this Motion, I should like to refer briefly, for the benefit of all noble Lords, to interventions during the moving of amendments. During the previous session of the Committee earlier this afternoon, there were four occasions when Peers intervened on noble Lords as they were moving amendments and there was a mix of reactions from around the Chamber and indeed the Table. I...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, before I resume the House, I will cover a bit of housekeeping relating to the next debate in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty. I remind noble Lords that, with the exception of the noble Earl and the noble Viscount, Lord Younger of Leckie, all speeches are limited to three minutes because this is a time-limited debate. I remind all noble Lords participating this evening...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: The Department for Energy and Climate Change had 32 civil servants working within the private office of ministers and the permanent secretary on 1 June 2012. There were no people under the age of 21 or apprentices working in these areas at that time.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, the Government are determined to do all that they can to minimise the threat from terrorism to the UK and our interests abroad. Proscription of terrorist organisations is an important part of the Government's strategy to tackle terrorist activities. We would therefore like to add the organisation, Indian Mujahideen-IM-to the list of 47 international terrorist organisations that are...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her comments and very much welcome her support. She obviously made a number of points, which I will endeavour to respond to. However, I am sure she will appreciate that this being the matter it is, there is a limit to what I can say because of the sensitivities of what is under consideration. As I said and as the noble Baroness restated, there...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: I am grateful to my noble friends. If that solution is satisfactory to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, that is what I will do. Let me see if I can make some progress in responding to some of the other important points raised in the debate. The noble Baroness, Lady Smith, raised issues about costs. The straightforward point is that we have developed this policy in complete and full...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Lords, this is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with sensitively. I am grateful for all contributions of noble Lords to the debate. In particular I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, for confirming the JCHR's agreement that this remedial order is compatible, and for the remarks he made about the process. First, it may be worth repeating some of the things I said to make...