Vol. 756 Tuesday No. 38 14 October 2014 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDER OF BUSINESS Questions Thames Tideway Project: Contingent Guarantees ......................................................109 Housing: Private Rented Sector ...................................................................................111 Money Laundering: UK Parliamentarians ..................................................................113 ISIL ................................................................................................................................116 Leader of the House of Lords Bill [HL] First Reading..................................................................................................................118 Deputy Chairmen of Committees Membership Motion .......................................................................................................119 Select Committees Membership Motion .......................................................................................................119 Arctic Committee Membership Motion .......................................................................................................119 Serious Crime Bill [HL] Report (1st Day) ..........................................................................................................119 Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure Motion to Direct ...........................................................................................................165 Grand Committee Infrastructure Bill [HL] Committee (7th Day)..............................................................................................GC 31 Written Statements......................................................................................................WS 15 Written Answers ...........................................................................................................WA 29 £4·00 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. 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The first time a Member speaks to a new piece of parliamentary business, the following abbreviations are used to show their party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative Con Ind Conservative Independent DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Lab Labour Lab Ind Labour Independent 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 2014, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 109 Thames Tideway Project[14 OCTOBER 2014] Thames Tideway Project 110 Baroness Parminter (LD): My Lords, given the House of Lords Government’s work with Infrastructure UK, Thames Water and Ofwat to identify the exceptional risks for Tuesday, 14 October 2014. which the contingent financial support has been offered, what measures have the Government asked to be put 2.30 pm in place to minimise the likelihood of those risks and the resulting cost to the taxpayer? Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Truro. Lord De Mauley: My Lords, the latter half of my noble friend’s question is quite difficult to answer at Thames Tideway Project: Contingent this stage. The Written Ministerial Statement referred Guarantees to the contingencies covered by the support package. Question There are, for example, measures to deal with situations where claims exceed insurance cover, where economic 2.37 pm or political events affect access to debt finance, where there are exceptional cost overruns and where the IP Asked by Lord Berkeley goes into special administration. It allows for discontinuation in certain circumstances and deals To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have with how value for money for taxpayers is to be indicated the availability of contingent guarantees achieved. I can assure noble Lords that we have kept in support of Thames Water; and whether this this to an absolute minimum to ensure a competitive complies with their policies on offshore financial process. instruments, governance and taxation. Lord West of Spithead (Lab): My Lords, will the The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department Minister confirm that Thames Water has now put in for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De Mauley) place all the security measures that were required to (Con): My Lords, to be clear, the Government are not ensure that water supplies cannot be easily contaminated providing a contingent guarantee to Thames Water. or poisoned by terrorists? The Thames tideway tunnel project will be financed and delivered by a competitively tendered infrastructure provider which is an entirely separate entity to Thames Lord De Mauley: I cannot answer that specific Water. Details of a contingent government support question. I can say that it is Ofwat’s job to oversee package for this entity, which complies with all relevant exactly what each water company does, particularly government policies, were announced in a Written Thames Water. Ministerial Statement on 5 June. Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville (Con): Pursuant Lord Berkeley (Lab): My Lords, I am grateful to the to the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord West, is Minister for that reply. Every week the Government my noble friend aware that on the Thursday of the tell us that they intend to outlaw aggressive taxation occupation of the Iranian embassy rather more than and leverage policies. The Minister says that Thames 30 years ago, the chairman of Thames Water was rung Water is not going to be in receipt of these funds but up by an anonymous caller on that morning and asked the Thames tideway tunnel project will be. Why are whether, if he received instructions to cut off the water they allowing that to be financed in a tax haven while to any of his customers, he would accept that order also promising it a government guarantee? Is there not implicitly? The chairman replied, “If it was the Iranian a conflict of interest here somewhere? embassy, yes; if it was any other customer of ours, no”. In my view, he demonstrated considerable knowledge of the international scene. Lord De Mauley: My Lords, I have comprehensively answered the noble Lord’s point about tax in earlier Lord De Mauley: I know that we are always grateful short debates on this subject. Perhaps we will come to my noble friend for his grasp of history. He was back to that later, but I will address his point about the there. On the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord appropriateness of offering a government support package. West, it is important enough that I will write to him. The contingencies covered by it are set out in the Written Ministerial Statement. It is common for Government to provide support of some kind to major Lord Grantchester (Lab): My Lords, we have heard infrastructure projects—for example, the PFI projects growing anxieties around certain facets of the water under the previous Government. The government support industry. Further to the specification and preparatory package here will cover low probability but high impact works notice regarding the Thames tideway tunnel risks that the market could not take on at a reasonable recently published, will the Government look again at cost to customers. The infrastructure provider will be the value-for-money condition to provide better clarity incentivised not to call on it and it will exist only concerning financial commitments for customers before during the construction phase. The important thing to agreeing contingent government support? bear in mind is that the infrastructure provider will pay for the cover. Furthermore, the financing for the Lord De Mauley: My Lords, I agree 100% with the project is sought competitively to help minimise the noble Lord that value for money for customers is cost—and that means the cost to customers. absolutely key and is an absolute focus of the Government. 111 Housing: Private Rented Sector[LORDS] Housing: Private Rented Sector 112 Housing: Private Rented Sector to about 3.8 years for an average