Vol. 805 Thursday No. 101 3 September 2020 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Questions Aid Impact .....................................................................................................................437 Tree Planting ..................................................................................................................441 Folic Acid.......................................................................................................................444 Covid-19: Local Restrictions ..........................................................................................447 Covid-19 Statement........................................................................................................................451 Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 Motion to Approve ..........................................................................................................466 Representation of the People (Electoral Registers Publication Date) Regulations 2020 Motion to Approve ..........................................................................................................488 Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020 Motion to Approve ..........................................................................................................502 Channel Crossings in Small Boats Commons Urgent Question..............................................................................................515 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Commons Urgent Question..............................................................................................520 Grand Committee Electricity and Gas etc. (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 Considered in Grand Committee.................................................................................GC 51 Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act 2013 (Remedial) Order 2019 Considered in Grand Committee.................................................................................GC 61 Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (Remedial) Order 2020 Considered in Grand Committee.................................................................................GC 74 Human Rights Act 1998 (Remedial) Order 2019 Considered in Grand Committee ................................................................................GC 81 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2020-09-03 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2020, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 437 Arrangement of Business [3 SEPTEMBER 2020] Aid Impact 438 House of Lords by not just maintaining ICAI but strengthening its focus on the impact of our aid and the value that it Thursday 3 September 2020 adds to our policy agenda. The House met in a Hybrid Sitting. Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab): My Lords, does the Noon Minister accept that it is very disappointing that the Independent Commission for Aid Impact rated Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Bristol. the UK’s progress on international climate finance as inadequate? How do the Government intend to rectify this, given the urgency of much more progress before Arrangement of Business the UK hosts COP 26 next year? Announcement Baroness Sugg (Con): My Lords, we are committed 12.08 pm to increasing and improving our work on climate. We The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith): are doubling our funding to the International Climate My Lords, the Hybrid Sitting of the House will now Fund and, as the noble Baroness says, we are hosting begin. Some Members are here in the Chamber,respecting COP. We are also absolutely committed to making social distancing, others are participating remotely, sure that that funding is spent effectively. but all Members will be treated equally. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, I will immediately adjourn Lord Bruce of Bennachie (LD) [V]: My Lords, I the House. welcome the Government’s decision on ICAI. I worked Oral Questions will now commence. Please can with Andrew Mitchell on its establishment and the those asking supplementary questions keep them short set-up agreed then has proved successful. ICAI is and confined to two points; and I ask that Ministers’ subject to confirmatory hearings by the International answers are also brief. Development Committee and, through the committee, reports its programme and findings. This needs to be maintained if the UK’s global reputation is not to be Aid Impact risked. Therefore, I urge the Government to support a Question dedicated Commons Select Committee to monitor ICAI and UK aid, and to maintain the credibility of 12.08 pm the great work that has been done to date. Asked by Baroness Sheehan Baroness Sugg (Con): I am grateful to the noble Toask Her Majesty’sGovernment what assessment Lord for welcoming the commitment to keep ICAI. they have made of the quality of the work carried On the Select Committee point, the Government agree out by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact that Parliament has an important role in scrutinising in the scrutiny of (1) the effectiveness, and (2) the UK aid spending, and Select Committees are of course value for money, of United Kingdom aid. fundamental in scrutinising the Government’s spending and policies. We acknowledge that, as a consequence The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign, of the merger, the House of Commons might have to Commonwealth & Development Office (Baroness Sugg) reconfigure the Select Committee structure, but the (Con): My Lords, the Government highly value the Government’s view is that normally the committee Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s scrutiny of structure mirrors the departmental structure. UK aid and have assessed its quality in two reviews since its establishment in 2011. The last tailored review Lord Howell of Guildford (Con) [V]: My Lords, the in 2017 found that ICAI’s work continued to be both independent commission clearly does a good and much- necessary and important. Since its inception, the needed job in evaluating aid flows, but does my noble commission has contributed to improving the impact friend agree that it has been particularly useful in and value for money of UK aid. bringing home the fact that aid alone is not an effective driver of development or indeed of poverty reduction, Baroness Sheehan (LD): My Lords, I thank the and that issues such as counterterrorism, security, Minister for her reply. The retention of ICAI, at least human rights breaches, private investment conditions in the short term, is welcome. Inevitably, however, the and, obviously, good governance under the law are merger of two departments will see much jockeying just as much part of the modern development package? for ideas. Therefore, first, does the Minister accept Does she further agree that the proposed merger between that it is important that ICAI’s remit is not curtailed our aid and foreign policy departments, about which I but, instead, bolstered to ensure that transparent scrutiny think we are going to hear a Statement later today, is maintained and that effective and accountable aid offers a highly effective and rational way of bringing will be the hallmark of the new FCDO? Secondly, can these essential modern-day strands of development she tell us to whom ICAI will report? closer together? Baroness Sugg (Con): My Lords, we are committed Baroness Sugg (Con): My noble friend is right that to more effective and accountable aid spending under my noble friend Lord Ahmad will be repeating a the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Statement later today. The advantages that my noble Office, and of course that includes transparency and friend highlights are exactly the reason why the external scrutiny.We will reinforce that external scrutiny Prime Minister has merged DfID and the FCO to 439 Aid Impact [LORDS] Aid Impact 440 [BARONESS SUGG] small secretariat are not sufficient to provide the resources become the new FCDO. My noble friend is right that that the budget demands to provide assurance to aid alone is not