Bishop of St Albans asks about water pollution

The Bishop of St Albans asked a question about government discussions with water companies regarding pollution on 1st March 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty’s Government what recent discussions they have had with water companies regarding water pollution.

Lord Benyon (Con): My Lords, the current environmental performance of water companies is unacceptable. In December 2022, the Water Minister and the Secretary of State met with CEOs of lagging water companies—as identified by Ofwat’s recent assessment—to outline the Government’s expectations that performance must improve significantly. Furthermore, in January, my colleague Rebecca Pow met with the CEO of South West Water. She will be meeting the CEOs of all lagging companies individually every six months and she expects to see significant progress. Most recently, I also met CEOs of water companies with Minister Pow to highlight the importance of addressing water pollution and reaching their net-zero goals.

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Church Commissioners Written Answers: Food Banks

Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answer to a question from an MP on 1st March 2023:

Jim Shannon MP (DUP): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, if he will hold discussions with the Church of England on taking steps to help increase foodbank donations.

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Bishop of Southwark asks about peace-building activities in Israel

The Bishop of Southwark received the following written answer on 1st March 2022:

The Lord Bishop of Southwark asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the decision by the government of Israel to prohibit Palestinians under the age of 22 from entering Israel to participate in organised peace-building activities and the impact that this will have on UK-funded cross-community peace building work in the region.

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Bishop of Oxford asks about gas boilers in new build homes

The Bishop of Oxford asked a question on the government’s heat and buildings strategy, and whether the government planned to change the target date for banning the installation of gas boilers in new build homes, on 28th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of progress on their Heat and Buildings Strategy, published on 19 October 2021; and whether they have any plans to change the date of 2025 for banning the installation of gas boilers in new-build homes.

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Bishop of Durham asks about admissibility of asylum applications

The Bishop of Durham received the following written answer on 28th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked His Majesty’s Government:

  • what is the average processing time for a decision on the admissibility of an asylum application
  • how many individuals’ asylum applications were declared inadmissible in 2022; and what percentage of such individuals were returned to a safe or third country.
  • how many individuals, whose applications were declared inadmissible for asylum but who were unable to be returned to a third country, have been added to the list of asylum applications.
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Bishop of Exeter asks about preventing antimicrobial resistance

The Bishop of Exeter received the following written answers on 28th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Exeter asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the ‘One Health’ approach outlined in the report by the United Nations Environment Programme’s Bracing for Superbugs: Strengthening environmental action in the One Health response to antimicrobial resistance, published on 7 February.

Lord Benyon (Con): The Government is aware of the report and Environment Agency staff contributed to initial United Nations workshops that led to its commission. Now that the report has been published, we will assess the content and conclusions. Defra, the Environment Agency and UKHSA are currently working together to investigate antimicrobial resistance in the environment under the Treasury-funded Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and Environment (PATHSAFE) project. The Environment Agency is developing possible surveillance methods and data systems that could be used in the future to help us better understand and mitigate environmental antimicrobial resistance.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about support for domestic businesses amid the rising cost of living

The Bishop of St Albans asked about support for domestic businesses such as market gardens, during a debate on rising food prices on 27th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, security is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of any Government, yet with huge hikes in the cost of food from overseas, our domestic market is declining. Take, for example, the outstanding market garden sector in the Lea Valley in my diocese. About 10% of them had to close in the last year because of the cost of heating. What are the Government going to do to ensure that those market gardens are able to sustain themselves, to guarantee our basic food security in this country?

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Bishop of St Albans asks about assistance for victims of earthquake in Syria and Turkey

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 27th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assistance they are providing to support victims of the earthquake in Turkey and northern Syria.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about UK’s human rights obligations towards migrants

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 27th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the measures they would need to implement to ensure the UK is compliant with international human rights obligations to migrants in the event of withdrawal from the ECHR.

Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con): Further detail regarding the new legislation to tackle small boats will be set out in due course.

Hansard

Bishop of Exeter asks about mitigation of antimicrobial resistance

The Bishop of Exeter received the following written answer on 27th February 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Exeter asked His Majesty’s Government what discussions they are having with water companies to mitigate the risks of antimicrobial resistance.

Lord Benyon (Con): The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency (EA) have been working with the water industry to research the occurrence and transport of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics through wastewater treatment works as part of the industry-funded Chemical Investigations Programme. Investigations have been carried out at 10 sites across the country to understand how the different treatment processes affect the presence and prevalence of particular organisms and resistance genes. The results were published by UK Water Industry Research in February 2023. In addition, the EA has completed a study to look at the amounts of antifungal substances that remain in biosolids as one of the final products of these wastewater treatments. These results will also be published in early 2023.

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