theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-12)

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Baroness O'Loan:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are planning to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under close review, as we seek to protect the UK from the threats that we face. However, we will not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.

Iran's malign activities, including the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The UK already maintains sanctions on over 450 Iranian individuals and entities covering human rights abuses, nuclear proliferation, malign influence internationally and state threats, including sanctioning the IRGC in its entirety. The Government will continue to consider what further steps may be taken to deter Iran's malign activity.

The National Security Act 2023 provides another significant toolkit in the fight against individuals working for state entities like the IRGC. The UK is now a harder target for those states which seek to conduct hostile acts against the UK, including espionage, interference in our political system, sabotage, and assassination.
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Lord Wharton of Yarm:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce new scholarships for students from Northern Cyprus to study in the UK. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: The department does not have any plans to introduce scholarships for students from Cyprus to study in the UK.

There are a range of resources and support for international students looking for scholarships, which can be found on the UK Council for International Student Affairs website and the British Council’s Study UK page.

Higher education (HE) providers in the UK offer a range of bursaries and scholarships to international students. We encourage students to ask their HE provider for information on support that may be available.
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government what additional funding a school receives for each additional pupil. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: Every year, the department uses the schools national funding formula (NFF) to distribute core funding for 5 to 16-year-old pupils (reception to year 11) in respect of mainstream state-funded schools in England. The NFF determines how much funding will be available for schools in each local area. The precise sum received by an individual school is then determined by the local formula set by the appropriate local authority.

In the current NFF, the vast majority of funding is distributed on the basis of pupil numbers and pupils’ characteristics. In 2025/26, 74.2% (£36.0 billion) of the schools NFF has been allocated through basic entitlement funding, which every pupil attracts. A further 17.8% (£8.6 billion) of all funding has been allocated through additional needs factors based on deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. Therefore, the amount of additional funding a school attracts through the NFF for each additional pupil depends on the characteristics of that pupil. For example, in 2025/26, every primary age pupil attracts £3,847 in basic entitlement funding but would also attract an additional £495 if they were entitled to free school meals. The factor values for 2025/26 are attached and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs-2025-to-2026.

Through the dedicated schools grant, we are allocating a national average of £6,466 per pupil in 2025/26 in mainstream schools, compared to £6,330 in 2024/25 (including premises and growth funding). This represents a 2.15% increase per pupil on average in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25.

National Funding Formula policy document  (pdf, 518.7KB)
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Lord Tope:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish the findings of the Oak National Academy independent review when it is concluded. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: The findings of the independent review of Oak National Academy will be published in due course.
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Baroness Whitaker:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to disseminate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of the Roma during the Nazi Era, published in December 2024, to schools and to incorporate it into teacher training. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: The Holocaust is the only historic event which is compulsory within the current national curriculum for history at key stage 3. The government has made a commitment that the Holocaust will remain a compulsory topic in the reformed national curriculum, which will also be required teaching in academy schools when it is implemented.

The history curriculum gives teachers and schools the freedom to decide how to teach the subject and what resources to use to support an understanding of the Holocaust and the Nazi’s persecution of non-Jewish groups including the genocide of the Roma. This can already include the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The government supports the teaching of Holocaust education by funding teachers’ professional development in this subject through University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education (CfHE), and the Holocaust Educational Trust’s (HET) Lessons from Auschwitz project, which gives students aged 16 to 18 the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. CfHE will receive £500,000 in government funding in the 2024/25 financial year, match funded by the Pears Foundation, and HET will receive £2.3 million. Both Lessons from Auschwitz and the knowledge and training provided by the CfHE include information and resources to support an understanding of the Holocaust and the Nazi’s persecution of other non-Jewish groups, including the genocide of the Roma.

In addition, a further £2 million funding for Holocaust remembrance and education was committed in the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024. This will be used to support the ambition set by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister for all students to have the opportunity to hear a recorded survivor testimony. The department is currently exploring how it can support schools to fulfil this ambition.
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current level of funding for Holocaust education and whether they plan to increase that funding. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines information for England only.

The government supports the teaching of Holocaust education by funding teachers’ professional development in this subject through University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education (CfHE), and the Holocaust Educational Trust’s (HET) Lessons from Auschwitz project, which gives students aged 16 to 18 the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the 2024/25 financial year, CfHE will receive £500,000 in government funding, match funded by the Pears Foundation, and HET will receive £2.3 million. Funding for 2025/26 has been committed at broadly the same level.

In addition, a further £2 million funding for Holocaust remembrance and education was committed in the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024. This will be used to support the ambition set by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, for all students to have the opportunity to hear a recorded survivor testimony. The department is currently exploring how we can support schools to fulfil this ambition.

The government has also committed £7 million to tackle antisemitism in education. £500,000 has already been awarded to the University Jewish Chaplaincy and a £4.15 million procurement is currently being evaluated with delivery commencing from spring 2025. The remaining funding will go towards a future Tackling Antisemitism in Education innovation fund.

As with all programmes, funding for the 2026/27 financial year onwards is subject to the spending review.
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Lord Agnew of Oulton:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the DFE Government Major Projects Portfolio Data March 2024, published on 16 January, what assessment they have made of the expected monetised benefits of the Early Years Childcare Reform Programme, given its reported whole life cost of £15.1 billion; why these benefits are currently recorded as "£0 million"; and by what date they expect to finalise and publish a full benefits realisation plan. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: The data published on 16 January 2025 reflects the status and delivery stage of the early years and childcare programme, as of 31 March 2024. Since then, central estimates for the financial benefits of extending early years education and childcare entitlements were published in April 2024 by the National Audit Office. These estimates indicate, as of March 2024, a benefit-to-cost ratio of £1.26:£1.00, and a total benefit of £15.972 billion.

The Office for Budget Responsibility also estimated that 60,000 additional parents will enter work, and 1.5 million will increase their working hours by 2027/28 as a result of the policy.

As expected of all Major Projects that form part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, we will continue to provide regular data to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority on the progress of programme delivery. Now the programme is in live delivery, we will continue to monitor how these estimated benefits develop throughout the programme lifecycle and at the appropriate points provide an update on our position, reflecting the latest delivery data.
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the likely increase in pupil numbers in state schools in the next year arising from a reduction in the number of pupils being privately educated. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

As set out in HM Treasury’s government response to the technical note on applying VAT to private school fees and removing the business rates charitable rate relief, the government estimates that approximately 3,000 pupils will move from private schools to state schools in the 2024/25 academic year. The response can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees-removing-the-charitable-rates-relief-for-private-schools.

The government predicts that in the long-term steady state, 37,000 pupils will leave or never enter the UK private school sector as a result of the removal of the VAT exemption applied to school fees. This represents around 6% of the current private school population.

Of those leaving or never entering the private sector, the government estimates an increase of 35,000 pupils in the state sector in the steady state following the VAT policy taking effect, with the other 2,000 either being international pupils who do not move into the UK state system, or domestic pupils moving into homeschooling. This state sector increase represents less than 0.5% of total UK state school pupils, of which there are over 9 million. This movement is expected to take place over several years. Additionally, the government expects approximately 2,900 pupils will move into state schools in England following the business rates policy taking effect.

As such, the impact on the state education system as a whole is expected to be very small.

Local authorities, devolved governments and schools have processes in place to support pupils moving between schools. Children move between and within the private sector and the state-funded sector every year, for a range of reasons.
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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how artificial intelligence technologies will benefit education, particularly regarding how it can benefit the teaching of pupils. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: Artificial intelligence (AI), when made safe and reliable, represents an exciting opportunity to give our schools leaders and teachers a helping hand with classroom life. The government is working closely with our regulators to understand their readiness to respond to the opportunities and risks relating to AI. Ofsted and Ofqual both published policy papers in April 2024 outlining their approach to AI.

Research shows parents want teachers to use generative AI, allowing them to focus on helping children in the classroom with face-to-face teaching. This supports the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.

Widespread use of generative AI tools is only possible once the basics of connectivity, devices, and capability are in place. The department continues to support the sector to build these fundamentals of technology.

It is important that the department gathers evidence to understand how AI technologies can benefit education. To support with this, the department launched a call for evidence on generative AI in education on 14 June 2023. It closed on 23 August 2023 and we published the report on 28 November 2023. The call for evidence sought views and experiences from practitioners across all stages of education as well as the EdTech sector and AI experts.

The department also commissioned a ‘Use cases for generative AI’ or ‘Hackathons’ project, working with Faculty Science Ltd in partnership with the National Institute of Teaching to further understand possible uses for generative AI in education.

The department is continuing to assess how AI will benefit education and benefit the teaching of pupils and will share more in due course.

The department needs to ensure that AI is safe and effective. In August 2024, we announced the Education Content Store, a joint pilot with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which aims to make the underpinning content and data that are needed for great AI tools available to developers, including tools for teachers to support their teaching. In parallel, the department has launched innovation funding to encourage developers to make use of the content store and stimulate the market to create high-quality marking and feedback tools for teachers.

The department has committed to publishing a safety framework on AI products for education, due later this year. My hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Early Education will meet education technology companies before setting out clear expectations for the safety of AI products for education.
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Baroness Redfern:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of library provision in primary schools. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 28 January 2025 to Question 25143.
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Baroness Redfern:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage reading in schools. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 28 January 2025 to Question 25144.
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Lord Hampton:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to add young carers to the daily attendance reporting to help improve their attendance. \p Baroness Smith of Malvern: The department wants to ensure that young carers have the best life chances by supporting them in their education. They were first added to the School Census in the 2022/23 academic year. This change has raised both awareness and the profile of young carers in schools. It has, for the first time, provided hard data on both the numbers of young carers in schools and their education.

The department expects the quality of the data returns to continue to improve as the collection becomes established. 72% of schools did not record any young carers in 2024.

The department produces guidance, which is periodically reviewed with the sector, to ensure that our data asks are clear and that schools understand how to record all elements of the School Census, including identification of young carers. Further, the School Census has embedded validation rules to maintain the quality of the data which mean that for all pupils, schools must respond to say whether or not the child has been identified as a young carer. We will continue to work closely with the sector, including organisations that work directly with schools in the support of young carers, to encourage better identification, recording and support for young carers in schools.

The department’s expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, were made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. The ‘support first’ ethos of the attendance guidance is that pupils and families, including young carers, should receive holistic, whole-family support to help them overcome the barriers to attendance they are facing. This includes holding regular meetings with the parents of pupils who the school, and/or local authority, consider to be vulnerable to discuss attendance and engagement at school. Schools are expected to recognise that absence is a symptom and that improving a pupil’s attendance is part of supporting the pupil’s overall welfare.

The daily attendance data collection has been established to ensure consistent recording and monitoring of pupil attendance, support the identification of absence patterns, and help schools and local authorities provide appropriate interventions. We will continue to monitor the quality of school census data on young carers for consideration for future inclusion in the daily collection.

Working together to improve school attendance (pdf, 942.6KB)
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Lord Reay:To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Scottish Government Chief Statistician's publication, Data collection and publication guidance: Sex, Gender Identity, Trans Status, published on 16 October 2024, what discussions has the Office for Equality and Opportunity had with the Office for National Statistics on produced an equivalent version of recognised genders for statistics in England and Wales; and whether the (1) Office for Equality and Opportunity, and (2) Office for National Statistics, have produced any other internal or external guidance on the categorisation of different gender identities. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO) has not had any discussions with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) about the Scottish Government’s publication ‘Sex, gender identity, trans status - data collection and publication: guidance’ or on producing an equivalent version of recognised genders for statistics in England and Wales.

The OEO has not produced any internal or external guidance on the categorisation of different gender identities.
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Lord Reay:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have an agreed single definition of “woman”. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: The Equality Act 2010 states that a woman is a female of any age. This Government is steadfast in its commitment to supporting all women including making work pay and keeping our streets safe.
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The Lord Bishop of St Albans:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to engage positively with Muslim communities, including the Muslim Council of Britain. \p Lord Khan of Burnley: The Government recognises the importance of engaging meaningfully with faith and belief groups. HMG does not engage with the Muslim Council of Britain. There has been no change to this policy. This has been set out consistently in Parliament.

Since being appointed Faith Minister, I have been engaging with Muslim communities nationwide, connecting with women, young people, and community leaders through extensive outreach efforts. This has included engagement with numerous Muslim leaders in the aftermath of the Southport incident and subsequent riots, hosting a Muslim women’s roundtable, and supporting a number of community-led initiatives including interfaith youth forums. Looking ahead, I am planning further engagement in preparation for Ramadan to continue fostering dialogue and strengthening collaboration.
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government what further measures they are taking to combat antisemitism. \p Lord Khan of Burnley: Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our society, and tackling antisemitism in all its forms is a top priority for this Government. We are working closely with Lord John Mann as HMG’s Independent Adviser on Antisemitism on the most effective methods to tackle antisemitism and advocate for British Jewish communities. We will ensure that the Jewish communities concerns about antisemitism are heard and acted upon.

This Government has also allocated further funding of £54m for the Community Security Trust to enable them to continue their vital work in protecting UK Jewish communities until 2028.

Tackling hate crime will be a key part of this Government’s work to overcome divisions and create connections between all communities, and we are exploring a more integrated and cohesive approach to achieve this.
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Baroness Eaton:To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 16 December 2024 of the English Devolution White Paper, whether a degree of flexibility will be applied when considering proposals for new authorities which fall below a population of 500,000. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: On 5 February the Minister for English Devolution and Local Government wrote to all councils in two-tier areas and small neighbouring unitaries to invite them to prepare proposals for reorganisation. This invitation set out guidance from the Secretary of State for proposals including that new unitaries must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks. As a guiding principle, new councils should aim for a population of 500,000 or more. There may be certain scenarios in which this 500,000 figure does not make sense for an area, including on devolution, and this rationale should be set out in a proposal.
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Lord Wigley:To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the out-turn cost of HS2 on the basis of their latest proposals for the completion of the project. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: Our latest position on cost is noted in our December 2024 report to parliament. We are undertaking a full reset of the programme, led by the new CEO Mark Wild. Until that work is concluded we are unable to provide a robust assessment of outturn cost but will be reporting to parliament in due course.
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The Lord Bishop of Manchester:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Crisis and Resilience Fund will help local authorities to address the causes of financial crisis instead of the symptoms. \p Baroness Sherlock: The Crisis and Resilience Fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities – working with the voluntary and community sector – as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis. The Fund will support local interventions that prevent people from falling into crisis and improve their citizens’ long-term financial resilience, reducing the need for crisis support in the long-term.

My Department has engaged extensively with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process involving a representative group of local authorities, third-party organisations and academics. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in January 2026.
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Lord Kempsell:To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of overpaid benefits they have recouped in each of the past 10 financial years. \p Baroness Sherlock: The recovery of overpayments cannot be attributed to the year in which the benefit was overpaid, as many of those overpayments will have occurred over more than one year.

Furthermore, many of the overpayments that occurred in previous years are still undergoing recovery or are likely to be identified and recovered some time in the future.

The annual National Statistics publication Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK compares the amount of money recovered in each financial year from overpayment debts with its estimate of the money that was overpaid in that financial year – with the understanding that much of that recovered money each year would have been from benefits that were overpaid in past years. Figures from the National Statistics publications are provided in the annex.

The overall amount that can be recovered by deduction from benefit is set by regulations, and priority is given to a number of other deductions above those for recovery of an overpayment of benefit.

We encourage anyone who is finding recovery difficult to get in touch with DWP Debt Management, who can consider a lower rate of recovery or temporary suspension.
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Baroness Lister of Burtersett:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of furniture provision, through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, on the likelihood of low-income households entering unmanageable debt. \p Baroness Sherlock: My Department has engaged with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process including furniture provision. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in January 2026.
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Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 24 November (HL11931), whether the report into young people and work will also examine reasons for the increase in the number of young people with disabilities and health conditions, and if not, what plans they have to investigate the reasons for this increase. \p Baroness Sherlock: The rising number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) is a crisis of opportunity that demands more action to give them the chance to learn or earn.

To truly address the root causes of youth inactivity, we need a deeper understanding of the barriers that disabled young people and those with health conditions face. The Report will examine the drivers behind the rise in NEET rates and economic inactivity among young disabled people and those with health conditions.

On the 4th of December my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Department for Health and Social Care launched an Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism.

The review will look to understand the similarities and differences between mental health conditions, ADHD and autism. It will look at prevalence, early intervention and treatment, and the current challenges facing clinical services.

The review will also seek to identify opportunities to provide different models of support and pathways, within and beyond the NHS, that promote prevention and early intervention, supplementing clinical support.
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Baroness Lister of Burtersett:To ask His Majesty's Government whether the new Crisis and Resilience Fund guidance will make furniture and appliance provision an integral part of the support offered by local authorities to those lacking essential furniture. \p Baroness Sherlock: My Department has engaged with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process involving a representative group of local authorities, third-party organisations and academics. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in January 2026.
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government whether the child poverty strategy will cover provision for all children in the UK, including those in families with no recourse to public funds. \p Baroness Sherlock: In developing the Child Poverty Strategy, the Taskforce has considered all children across the United Kingdom. To develop the strategy the Taskforce has engaged extensively with families, charities, campaigners and leading organisations across the UK to shape and inform our plans. We have engaged with organisations who have made representations on behalf of children subject to no recourse to public funds and will continue to do so.
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Lord Naseby:To ask His Majesty's Government, following the extensive damage in Sri Lanka from torrential rain and a cyclone, what consideration they have given to providing extra and urgent practical support. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: I refer the Noble Lord to the topical statement made by the Foreign Secretary in departmental oral questions on 2 December, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:

"May I send my condolences and those of the Government to all those who have lost loved ones in the deadly storms in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam? Many have lost homes and livelihoods. I praise the emergency responders who have worked tirelessly and are committed to helping those affected, often at great personal risk.

"In response to requests for support that we have already received, the UK is providing £1,000,000 to address immediate humanitarian needs in Sri Lanka and has contributed £800,000 in response to the multiple typhoons that have struck Vietnam. The UK is closely monitoring the situation and stands ready to provide further support as needed."
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have held with the government of India regarding the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the case of Lieutenant Samuel Kamalesan. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: I refer the Noble Lord to the answer provided on 17 November to Question HL10967.
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Lord Alton of Liverpool:To ask His Majesty's Government how many times the UK Special Representative to Sudan has met representatives of the Sudanese diaspora in Uganda, Kenya, Chad, Egypt and the UK since September 2024, and who he met as part of any such meetings. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: I refer the Noble Lord to the answer of 8 December to his previous question, HL12222, where I outlined the wide-ranging nature of our Special Representative for Sudan's engagements with civil society and diaspora across the region and in the UK. These meetings are necessarily confidential.
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Lord Mott:To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the review of raw cane sugar autonomous tariff quota (ATQ) and related considerations, published on 26 November, whether they will publish the data on which they based the conclusion that increasing the ATQ for sugar cane will not impact domestic sugar beet growers. \p Lord Stockwood: The Government has published a summary of the factors and evidence which underpinned this decision on GOV.UK: Review of raw cane sugar ATQ and related considerations: 2025 - GOV.UK
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_11

Lord Harper:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of the engineering work carried since October 2022 to reduce flooding of the track near Chipping Sodbury, and what, if any, further work is planned. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: The work Network Rail has completed to date has significantly improved the resilience of the track at Chipping Sodbury during flooding events. Resilience levels for closure have been raised from 36mm to 73mm of rainfall for a 5-day consecutive period. This work delayed the flooding impact of Storm Claudia in mid-November significantly, with flooding above railhead occurring only after 76mm of rain, providing an extra 27 hours of resilience and operational railway at Chipping Sodbury.

Network Rail plans to spend a further £1.45m on further measures at Chipping Sodbury starting in 2026/27, which will include removing some long-standing restrictions to discharging water, reinstatement and renewal of pumps at both tunnel portals, and ground investigation and monitoring work.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_12

Baroness Pidgeon:To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to Oxfordshire County Council to develop and build the proposed Greenway route between Thame and Haddenham and Thame Parkway Station. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: The Spending Review in June 2025, which covers multiple years from 2026/27 onwards, allocated £616 million for Active Travel England to support local authorities to build and maintain walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure including dedicated cycling routes. This comes on top of £222.5 million announced in February 2025 for local authorities over xx-xxxx-xxxx.

Active Travel funding supports local transport authorities with developing and constructing walking, wheeling and cycling facilities. Oxfordshire County Council has received £2,650,279 from the Consolidated Active travel fund 2025/6. However, it is up to local authorities to determine and put forward their local active travel infrastructure priorities for funding. As yet, ATE has not been asked to provide design assurance for this potential scheme.

ATE work closely with local authorities to ensure walking, wheeling and cycling routes are safe and accessible. ATE regularly provide design assurance services to local authorities who are planning and designing improvements to new or existing active travel facilities.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_13

Earl Attlee:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 1 December (HL12185), whether they will publish the livery, if any, of the vehicles funded by the consortium, and whether that livery was specially designed for escorting abnormal loads or suitable for general policing duties. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: The vehicles funded by the West Alliance as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade Programme are Volvo XC90s. The vehicles have standard police livery, and in addition of ‘Abnormal Load Escort’ on the rear side windows. The vehicles are only used for abnormal load escorts and not general roads policing duties. Transfer of funds took place on 26 March 2025 and 20 June 2025, amounting to £175,000.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_14

Lord Framlingham:To ask His Majesty's Government how much taxpayer money in total has been spent on HS2 since its inception to the latest date for which figures are available. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: The Department regularly reports on HS2 expenditure through 6-monthly reports to Parliament. As we set out in the latest report published in July 2025, the total overall costs incurred up to the end of April 2025 on HS2 are £40.5 billion (in nominal prices), including expenditure on the former Phase 2.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_15

Lord Framlingham:To ask His Majesty's Government what is the expected completion date of the current phase of HS2. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: Mark Wild, the new Chief Executive of HS2, is undertaking a comprehensive reset of the Programme which will provide a realistic budget and schedule to deliver the remaining works.

Given the complexity of conducting a reset whilst maintaining in-flight delivery, sufficient time must be given to accurately inform a robust range of when HS2 services will commence. The Department will update Parliament once this work is completed.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_16

Baroness Scott of Needham Market:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the availability of dietitians with a special interest in chronic fatigue syndrome, and how many of those dietitians there are in England. \p Baroness Merron: The Department does not hold information on the number of dieticians who hold specialist knowledge or experience relating to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

NHS England publishes monthly Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics, with the data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, which is the payroll and human resources system for the National Health Service. This means it allows for identification of staff by broad staffing groups, including dieticians, working in Hospital and Community Health Services, but it does not provide the level of detail needed to identify staff with the skills, knowledge or experience of working with patients with specific conditions or allow identification of the types of patients and service delivery areas that staff may be involved in on a day to day basis. The latest data is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_17

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of trends in the uptake of flu vaccinations both regionally and nationally, and what steps they are taking to promote this uptake. \p Baroness Merron: For England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes provisional vaccine uptake data throughout the flu season. Weekly national level data for general practice (GP) patients is available from October to January on the GOV.UK website.

Monthly national and regional level data for GP patients, school-aged children, and frontline healthcare workers is available from October to January. Monthly data for this season was published on 27 November 2025 and included all vaccinations given between 1 September to 31 October 2025. Final end of season data is published in the annual reports in late spring, with the monthly and annual data available on the GOV.UK website.

The Department is working with the UKHSA and NHS England to encourage flu vaccine uptake via the national ‘Stay Strong. Get Vaccinated’ campaign. Marketing activity is currently running across television, video on demand, radio, outdoor advertising, and social channels. This is complemented by mainstream, regional, and specialist, highly targeted media and stakeholder channels to engage priority cohorts. The media plans include weekly a winter bulletin, highlighting the uptake and importance of the flu vaccination. Campaign messaging is supported by a comprehensive suite of information materials and guidance, ensuring healthcare professionals are empowered to guide patients, and the public can make an informed choice.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_18

Lord Kamall:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve digital connectivity between high street optometrists and secondary eye care services through the NHS Innovation Accelerator. \p Baroness Merron: NHS England’s digital accelerators pilots have provided the evidence to demonstrate the value of digital integration of primary and secondary care through a refined single point of access model. The digitally enabled single point of access uses IT connectivity between primary and secondary eye care services to improve the referral and triage of patients, with patient data and images being assessed by clinicians to determine if patients need an appointment in secondary care. This was found to reduce unnecessary hospital appointments, time from referral to treatment, and supports more patients being managed in the community. The learnings from the pilots have been shared with integrated care boards.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_19

Lord Kamall:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide NHS email accounts to NHS contractors, including optometrists. \p Baroness Merron: National Health Service contractors, in the form of independent sector organisations, who provide health and social care services nationally, can be eligible for NHS.net accounts, formerly NHSmail, subject to acceptance criteria. Organisations that qualify will be permitted to create accounts for staff delivering patient-facing services.

Where an independent sector organisation has been commissioned locally and the commissioning body requires NHS.net, the local NHS organisation may provide sponsor email accounts for the duration of the contract. This is at the discretion of the local NHS organisation, as they are responsible for managing their own accounts.

NHS.net provides licences for optometry practices in England, specifically for General Ophthalmic Services contractors with 10 or fewer sites. Eligible practices can receive one shared mailbox and up to three individual NHS.net accounts per site, enabling secure communication of patient data.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-12-12 conversation_20

Lord Kamall:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential benefits of expanding primary eye care services through high street optometry practices to support the early detection of eye conditions. \p Baroness Merron: Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for assessing the health needs of their population and commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet them.

ICBs already commission National Health Service sight testing services through high street optical practices. Regular sight tests, whether provided by the NHS or privately, play a vital role in the early detection of sight threatening eye conditions.

ICBs can also commission enhanced eye care services from high street optical practices, including minor and urgent eye care services and glaucoma referral refinement services. These services further support the identification and management of eye conditions to prevent avoidable sight loss.