theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-03-12 conversation_9
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-03-12 conversation_9

Lord Tyrie:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effects on UK GDP of the imposition of tariffs by the President of the United States of America on Mexico and Canada. \p Lord Livermore: HMT continuously monitors external developments and potential impacts on the UK economy and is committed to considering what actions are best to promote and safeguard UK business interests.

Global trade is an important driver of global and domestic growth; increased trade barriers and increased uncertainty about trade policies between partners will be detrimental to the global and UK economies. We are clear – as a very open economy – that free and open global trade is in our national interest.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-03-12 conversation_10
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-03-12 conversation_10

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering:To ask His Majesty's Government how much was raised in tax in each of the past three years from gambling activities. \p Lord Livermore: The table below contains the latest betting and gaming duty receipts totals for each of the past three calendar years.

UK betting and gaming duty receipts by calendar year

Total betting and gaming receipts

2022

£3,254 million

2023

£3,393 million

2024 (provisional)

£3,552 million

The totals above are composed of receipts from General Betting Duty, Pool Betting Duty, Gaming Duty, Bingo Duty, Remote Gaming Duty, Machine Games Duty, and Lottery Duty.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Freyberg:To ask His Majesty's Government what tax incentives or business rate relief measures they are considering to support small and medium-sized pottery enterprises in Stoke-on-Trent, particularly those focusing on traditional production methods and local employment. \p Lord Livermore: The Government has introduced a number of tax measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises across the country, including those in the pottery sector in Stoke-on-Trent.

At the Autumn Budget, the Government published the Corporate Tax Roadmap to provide certainty for businesses to invest, committing to maintaining the Annual Investment Allowance at £1 million, which covers the qualifying expenditure of the vast majority of businesses.

The Government also took the decision to support the smallest businesses by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,500, which means that this year, 865,000 employers (43%) will pay no National Insurance contributions at all.

At Autumn Budget, the Government also froze the small business multiplier. Together with Small Business Rates Relief, which exempts over a third of properties from business rates, these measures protect 90% of properties from inflationary increases in business rate liabilities. The Government also remains committed to delivering a fairer business rates system.

The Government keeps all tax reliefs under review, in order to ensure they strike the right balance between keeping taxes simple to administer, well-targeted and effective.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Finn:To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of the Senior Civil Service in the Propriety and Constitution Group are based outside of London. \p Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent: As of February 2025 Propriety and Constitution Group has fewer than 10 SCS based outside of London.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Finn:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 19 February (HL4743), whether they continue to adhere to the guidance set out in Chapter 1 of the Public Inquiries Handbook (Guidance for Sponsor Departments), as published on the House of Lords Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005 website as it was on 8 August 2012, which advises that Permanent Secretaries should, under certain circumstances, issue written assurances that no information officials provide to an inquiry will be used against them in later disciplinary proceedings; and, whether they will lay a copy of the current version in the Library of the House. \p Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent: The position on written assurances is as set out in the previous answer (HL4743).

In our response to the recommendations of the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee, published on 10 February, the Government has committed to publish guidance on inquiries.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness McIntosh of Pickering:To ask His Majesty's Government how many times have the specialised committees created by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement met, and how many of these meetings have been attended by ministers. \p Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent: Under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement there are 19 Specialised Committees. These are co-chaired by a UK and EU senior official, and have met 67 times since 2021. The Specialised Committees report into the Partnership Council, which is the ministerial body set up by the TCA. It has met three times since 2021 and is currently chaired by Minster for the Cabinet Office Nick Thomas-Symonds and Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič. Further information is provided on GOV.UK.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Finn:To ask His Majesty's Government, for each of the last five years, how many individuals have been appointed to the Senior Civil Service in the Propriety and Constitution Group; and of these (1) what was their grade on appointment, (2) how many were appointed through external competition, cross-government competition, intra-departmental competition, or managed moves, (3) how many were recruited from outside the Civil Service, and (4) how many were made on a temporary basis. \p Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent: The Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Constitution Group was created in 2022/23 from parts of three separate business units; the Cabinet Secretary’s Group, Union and Constitution Group, and the Inquiries BU. We have therefore included data from 2022 to present.

Our central data does not record managed moves so we are unable to include information on these.

There were no intra-departmental competitions.

Year appointed

Grade

Approach

Successful candidate

Contract

Roles appointed

2022

SCS Pay Band 1 SCS2

Across government  External

Internal Internal

Permanent Permanent

1 1

2023

SCS Pay Band 1

External

Internal

Permanent

1

2024

SCS Pay Band 1

Across government EOI

Internal

Temporary

1

SCS Pay Band 1

External

External

Temporary

1

2025

None To Date
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Finn:To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Civil Service is independent of His Majesty's Government; and whether the statement that civil servants are independent of Government on the Civil Service ‘About us’ page on Gov.uk is compatible with (1) the Carltona principle, (2) the Civil Service Code, (3) the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, and (4) the Prime minister’s role as Minister for the Civil Service. \p Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent: The Civil Service ‘About us’ page on Gov.uk was inaccurate and has been updated.

The Armstrong memorandum of 1985 set out that “it is the duty of civil servants to serve their Ministers with integrity and to the best of their ability”, and that “the British civil service is a non-political and disciplined career service”. This was codified in 1996 with the creation of the Civil Service Code, a document that governs the conduct of civil servants to this day.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Taylor of Bolton:To ask His Majesty's Government how many deprivation orders have been issued in cases of conviction for revenge porn offences. \p Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede: The numbers of all types of deprivation orders issued in cases of conviction for offences of “Disclosing private, sexual images” under section 33, Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 and “Sharing intimate images without consent” under section 66B, Sexual Offences Act 2003 is as follows.

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Jan-Sept 2024

5

4

2

1

1

8

3

17

These figures relate to all instances that a deprivation order was issued to a defendant for these offences.

The Government is committed to halving violence against women and girls and has introduced legislation to criminalise several types of intimate image abuse, and to extend the powers of the court to issue deprivation orders in these cases. We are exploring what can be done to encourage the use of deprivation orders in cases such as these.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Patten:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reoffending rates of those serving short community sentences of six months or less. \p Lord Timpson: In 2022/23, the proven reoffending rate for adults serving immediate custodial sentences of six months or less was 59.6%. For further details, please see here: proven-reoffending-jan23-mar23-annual.ods. We do not have a published breakdown for community sentences by sentence length. To produce this data would incur disproportionate costs.

However, studies found that short custodial sentences of 12 months or less were associated with higher reoffending rates (approximately 4 percentage points higher) than court orders of any length (which includes both community orders and suspended sentence orders) had been given.

The Government has delivered on a manifesto commitment to bring sentencing up to date and ensure the framework is consistent by launching an Independent Review of Sentencing chaired by former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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The Lord Bishop of Lichfield:To ask His Majesty's Government how many deaths by suicide of people on probation there were in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years. \p Lord Timpson: In the table below, please find the number of self-inflicted deaths of offenders supervised in the community by the Probation Service, financial year 2014/15 to 2023/24, England and Wales (1) (2) (3).

Financial year

Number

2014/15

190

2015/16 (4)

271

2016/17

251

2017/18

282

2018/19

359

2019/20

347

2020/21

422

2021/22

490

2022/23 (5)

453

2023/24 (p)

392

(p) The 2023/24 figures are provisional and may be updated in future publications to account for any changes or additions to the data since they were originally collected.

Notes

(1) These figures are published annually in the Deaths of offenders in the community publication, which is available at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/death-of-offenders-in-the-community.

(2) Apparent cause is as reported in annual returns (prior to 2020/21 only) or the national Delius case management system (nDelius) and has not been independently verified.

(3) The reporting period for these statistics (financial year 1 April to 31 March) relates to when the death occurred.

(4) The Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) was introduced on 1 February 2015 and corresponded with an increase in the number of offenders on post-release supervision. Caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.

(5) A new set of death classifications was implemented on 1 April 2022 and, as such, figures from 2022/23 are not comparable to those presented for previous years. The category of 'self-inflicted death' up to 31 March 2022 includes any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life, irrespective of intent. The category of 'self-inflicted death' from 1 April 2022 includes any death of a person at their own hand, including where intent is undetermined. This includes some drug poisonings (e.g. where a suicide note is found, or the circumstances are suspicious) but not drug poisonings which appear to have been the accidental result of consumption for another purpose. Refer to the guide to deaths of offenders supervised in the community statistics (www.gov.uk/government/statistics/deaths-of-offenders-in-the-community-annual-update-to-march-2024/guide-to-deaths-of-offenders-in-the-community) for further details about the new set of classifications.

Data sources and quality: The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Source: National Delius (nDelius) case management system
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Black of Brentwood:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Animal Welfare Committee’s report Opinion on the welfare implications of current and emergent feline breeding practices, published in September 2024, and its recommendation that the breeding of cats with known and harmful extreme traits should be banned. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: The Government welcomes the Animal Welfare Committee’s Opinion on the welfare implications of current and emergent feline breeding practices. We are carefully considering the Committee’s recommendations.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Sikka:To ask His Majesty's Government why Ofwat did not use actual gearing levels of water companies in its calculation of weighted average cost of capital for the 2024 pricing review. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: In all of Ofwat's price determinations since privatisation, Ofwat has set the allowed return by reference to a notional capital structure. Ofwat uses a notional capital structure as it protects customers from bearing the risk of companies' actual financing decisions and it sets a signal to companies and investors on regulatory expectations about the allocation of risk within the capital structure. The use of the notional structure means it is companies and investors, rather than customers, that bear the risks of their capital and financing choices where the financing arrangements depart from the notional structure.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Sikka:To ask His Majesty's Government how Ofwat adjusted the regulatory capital value of each water company to take account of (1) capitalisation of interest payments, and repair and maintenance costs, and (2) intragroup debt and interest payments. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: The Regulatory Capital Value (RCV) of a water company represents the net stock of investment that has been contributed by debt and investors over time in delivering their investment activities. This is used by Ofwat for the purposes of setting its regulatory determinations.

Ofwat calculates an efficient totex (total expenditure) allowance for each company, covering operating, maintenance, and enhancement costs. Totex is funded in one of two ways; pay-as-you-go expenditure funded through revenue allowances, or long-term investment funded through the RCV and run-off from the RCV over time. Pay-as-you-go expenditure generally reflects forecast operational costs. Capital costs are generally added to the RCV, with the RCV run-off allowance providing companies with a funding allowance for carrying out activities such as maintenance.

As the RCV represents only the net stock of investment for delivering investment activities, it takes no account of intragroup debt and interest payments. Ofwat set the allowed return for companies on the basis of a notional capital structure which makes no assumption about the need for intragroup debt and interest payments. Where such arrangements exist, these arrangements are not funded in the determinations that are set by Ofwat and are matters for companies and their investors.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Black of Brentwood:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to introduce a ban on the retail sale of eggs and egg products from caged hens; and, if not, whether they plan to establish a consultation on the issue. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: The transition to non-cage egg production has been accelerated in recent years by the major supermarkets pledging to stop selling shell eggs from hens kept in colony cages by 2025, and some supermarkets have extended this to products containing liquid or powdered eggs.

We remain firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. The use of cages for laying hens is an issue which we are currently considering very carefully.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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The Lord Bishop of St Albans:To ask His Majesty's Government what methods they use to assess the impact of their policies on rural communities. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: The Government has made a commitment that all policy decision-making should be rural proofed.   Defra leads on rural proofing, but individual departments are responsible for ensuring that their policy decision-making is rural proofed.

Rural proofing ensures that rural areas are not overlooked and that the intended outcomes are deliverable in rural areas.

Defra works with government departments to encourage rural proofing by providing advice and guidance. As set out in our response to the House of Lords Select Committee report 2018, we have also published three annual reports detailing how rural proofing has been applied in England. All the reports were compiled with contributions from other Government Departments.

Our commitment to rural proofing remains strong and has been carried forward through meetings and discussions with other departments and external stakeholders. The government is also reviewing how we can improve the effectiveness of rural proofing for the future.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Young of Acton:To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff are employed by Ofcom. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave on 25 February 2025 to Question HL4944.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick:To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the Independent Pornography Review conducted by Baroness Bertin to be completed and published. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: The Independent Pornography Review assessed the effectiveness of current pornography legislation, regulation and enforcement. The Review has now concluded, and the report was published on Thursday 27 of February 2025. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creating-a-safer-world-the-challenge-of-regulating-online-pornography.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of video games in assessing and treating dementia symptoms, and whether they plan to fund research in this area. \p Baroness Merron: The Department delivers research into the prevention, treatment and care for dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). This includes a feasibility study to develop an online video game and test whether it can screen, diagnose, and distinguish between people with early or late-phase Alzheimer’s disease and people without dementia. NIHR-funded research, through the START trial, a three-minute computerized cognitive training program, has also led to the development of an online tool shown to improve attention, memory and problem-solving in older adults.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dementia. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Golding:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of online systems for booking same-day GP appointments on elderly and disabled people who cannot use a computer or the internet independently. \p Baroness Merron: NHS England has published a framework for National Health Service action on digital inclusion and is developing further resources to support practical actions. All programmes are actively considering how they can contribute to improvements in healthcare inequalities and digital inclusion. Digital health tools are part of a wider offering that includes face-to-face support and telephone services, with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Redfern:To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission concerning the process of timely onboarding of new clients and patients having access to services. \p Baroness Merron: The Department has regular performance discussions with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). These discussions include, but are not limited to, the CQC’s ratings of general practices and the CQC’s registration process.

The CQC has experienced significant delays in registering providers and publishing updated ratings. Between 2023 and March 2024, the CQC rolled out a new IT system. The delays are partially the result of an increase in registration applications and failures in the CQC’s IT system. The CQC is undertaking rapid changes to increase the number of assessments, provide updated ratings, and speed up its registration process for timely onboarding of new providers, with 25,230 completed since April 2024. It has recently reported that the 500 assessments stuck in its IT system have now reduced to 301 and will gradually result in updated ratings.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Kamall:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the House of Commons on the 15 January (HC Deb col 371), how many extra GPs they have hired since 4 July 2024. \p Baroness Merron: The number of fully qualified general practitioners (GPs) increased by 535 full-time equivalent between July 2024 and December 2024. This data includes estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid staff records. This does not include recently qualified GPs employed through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS).

Information on the number of recently qualified general practitioners for which primary care networks are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS is currently being collated and is not yet published. We are working to verify the data and establish its reliability, which is necessary before any dataset can be published.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to move care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from hospitals into community settings. \p Baroness Merron: NHS England is leading on the development of an approach for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease management to support proactive identification and management of rising risk patients in winter to reduce demand on primary and secondary care. The approach fully aligns with a Neighbourhood Health Service model and includes: identification of rising risk patients through a nationally developed search tool for use in General Practice IT and clinical review; optimisation of care through an in depth OPTIMISE review by a respiratory specialist in an integrated team to prevent deterioration; support and management through remote monitoring and a greater focus on self-management and education; and strengthened support via access to support in the community, for example, through out of hours and seven-day service.

OPTIMISE includes eight processes of care:

To assist with the testing of this approach and to support services this winter, NHS England has developed a range of accompanying resources, including a patient search tool to identify potential patients who would benefit from review and a template to support the OPTIMISE review.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Redfern:To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish the independent economic analysis of community pharmacy commissioned by NHS England. \p Baroness Merron: NHS England commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake an independent economic analysis of National Health Service pharmacy funding in 2024. This work is nearing completion and will be published at the earliest opportunity.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie:To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of the current defence budget is spent on pensions. \p Lord Coaker: I refer the noble Baroness to the answer given by my hon. friend, the Minister for Veterans and People (Al Carns), on 30 January 2025 to Question UIN 26778 in the House of Commons.

Question number 26778 HoC (docx, 35.7KB)
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-12)

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Lord Oates:To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to securing the full independence of the UK's nuclear deterrent. \p Lord Coaker: I can assure the noble Lord that the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent is completely operationally independent. Only the Prime Minister can authorise the firing of our nuclear weapons, even if they are to be employed as part of a NATO response.

The UK has a longstanding, close relationship with the US on all defence nuclear issues, which has endured through many changes of Government in our two nations. Our extant long-term arrangements under the 1958 Mutual Defense Agreement and the 1963 Polaris Sales Agreement (as amended in 1982 for Trident) provide for co-operation and collaboration which has been, and continues to be, of considerable mutual benefit to both nations.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-10-02 conversation_1
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the AI Growth Zone in north-east England delivers over 5,000 skilled jobs and attracts the forecasted £30 billion in private investment. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: The Government is establishing AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) to deliver the infrastructure needed for the UK to develop and deploy advanced AI at scale.

Following the announcement of the North East Growth Zone, we have established a taskforce which DSIT SoS will co-chair with the regional mayor (Kim McGuinness), including the region’s leading universities, businesses and skills providers. Alongside our existing engagement with partners, this taskforce will ensure we bring all the force of national government to work with regional and local government. We will lay the physical foundations and build data centres to launch careers in AI, ensuring this Growth Zone is about creating real opportunities for people across the region.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-10-02 conversation_2
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure energy and planning infrastructure can support large-scale AI compute deployments without undermining commitments to clean energy and lowering energy costs. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: To meet the UK’s AI ambitions, we are committed to ensuring our energy system is equipped to support this growing demand in a clean, sustainable, and scalable way.

Through the AI Energy Council, we bring together leaders from both the AI and energy sectors, to discuss how to prepare the UK’s energy system to manage the growing energy demand of AI and aligning AI energy demand with Clean Power 2030 goals. The council will explore bold, clean energy solutions to ensure our AI ambitions align with the UK’s net zero goals.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Baroness Northover:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable Innovate UK to recognise the reclassification of medicines as innovation in their grant assessments. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: Innovate UK recognises the role of innovation in the reclassification, repurposing, and reformulation of medicines.

Whilst not all competitions will allow funding for post-market products, Innovate UK has supported projects involving repurposing for new indications, novel delivery models, formulation changes, and wraparound technologies to improve patient access. For example, Innovate UK is currently funding Signacor Therapeutics in Northern Ireland to repurpose an existing chemotherapy drug towards the treatment of heart disease.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Baroness Smith of Llanfaes:To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish statutory guidance to accompany the Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: Public sexual harassment is a crime that often leaves victims, who are disproportionately likely to be women, feeling very unsafe. That is why tackling it is an important part of our mission to halve levels of violence against women and girls within a decade.

We will confirm next steps on implementation of the Protection from Sex Based Harassment in Public Act 2023, including accompanying statutory guidance, at the earliest opportunity.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord Touhig:To ask His Majesty's Government how many people with autism they estimate have found work in the past 12 months. \p Baroness Sherlock: Information on the number of disabled people with autism who have found work in the past 12 months is published by the Department at: The employment of disabled people - GOV.UK.

There were an estimated 90,000 people with Autism who moved into employment between 2023 and 2024 (the latest data available).
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord Empey:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the unemployment rate in each month of this year, in particular those months in which unemployment rose. \p Baroness Sherlock: The unemployment rate in May-Jul 2025 was 4.7%pts. The unemployment rate has increased by 0.2%pts since the start of the year. Over this period, the employment rate increased by 0.2% to 75.2% and the inactivity rate fell by 0.3%pts to 21.1%.

Increases in the unemployment rate have been driven by people leaving inactivity and reengaging the labour market. This shift in labour market participation, is exactly what our Get Britian Working strategy seeks to address.

Backed by £240m in Autumn 2024 Budget, our Get Britain Working strategy sets out the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation, bringing together skills and health to get more people into work and to get on in work.

Aimed at tackling rising levels of health-related economic inactivity and moving towards an 80% employment rate ambition; the Get Britain Working strategy has three main workstreams – Jobs and Careers Service, Pathways to Work, and young people. We’ve already made rapid progress, including:
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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen employment opportunities in sectors experiencing the sharpest decline in job opportunities. \p Baroness Sherlock: Following a peak during the pandemic, vacancies are returning to their long-term average. There are currently 728k vacancies, slightly above the long-term series average of 696k.

We recognise the need to provide working-age adults with the support they need to pursue opportunities in the workforce, which is essential for economic growth.

We are already delivering the biggest overhaul of jobcentres in a generation, backed by £240 million investment to boost employment.

By bringing apprenticeships, adult further education, skills training, careers guidance, and Skills England under DWP’s remit, we’re creating strong pathways to support the millions of people across the country.

This will mean a greater focus on adult skills and career outcomes, getting people into skilled work in sectors that need labour – like construction.

Part of our approach is the use of DWP’s Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) that help employers with immediate and future employment needs by upskilling benefit claimants to fill local job vacancies.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord Empey:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the uptake to date of funding under the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme during this financial year, and what level of funding they expect to provide in financial year 2026/27. \p Baroness Twycross: The Government has allocated up to £23 million to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme in 2025/26. This year’s scheme will end on 31 March 2026 or when the budget is exhausted, whichever is the sooner. Funding after March 2026 will be considered as we work through the output of the Spending Review and Departmental business planning process.

In order to help applicants plan, we publish an online tracker showing remaining funding. This indicates remaining budget and is not an underspend. We typically see an upsurge in claims towards the end of the financial year. £7,774,560 worth of funding has been used to date. The tracker can be found at https://listed-places-of-worship-grant.dcms.gov.uk/.
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Lord Freyberg:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 17 September (HL10444), whether they plan to allow high-resolution images of works of art that are in the Government Art Collection and in the public domain to be downloaded free of charge for non-commercial use; and if so, what is their timetable for implementing that access. \p Baroness Twycross: The Government Art Collection (GAC) does not claim copyright in digital reproductions of two-dimensional artworks that are in the public domain. The GAC has not sought or received guidance about the assertion of copyright, aside from Crown Copyright. The decision to license images for commercial and non-commercial use through a contractual agreement is an operational decision taken by the GAC, based on commercial contract law for the access and supply of digital assets.

There are no current or scheduled plans for the GAC to allow high-resolution images of works of art that are in the Government Art Collection and in the public domain to be downloaded free of charge for non-commercial use.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord Hall of Birkenhead:To ask His Majesty's Government what is the timetable, including key milestones, for the renewal of the BBC Charter by 2027. \p Baroness Twycross: We are preparing for the upcoming Charter Review which we expect to launch later this year.

The current Charter sets out the steps that the Government must take during any Charter Review. This includes consulting with the BBC, Ofcom, Devolved Governments and Parliament. We will be seeking views from the public through a consultation before taking any decisions regarding the future of the BBC. The public consultation will ensure that members of the public are able to share their views and inform our policy-making. There will also be the opportunity for Parliamentary debate before the final Charter is published.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Lord West of Spithead:To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of the Israel Defence Forces and Mossad have attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in the past 25 years. \p Lord Coaker: 28 places have been taken up by Israeli Defence Forces on the Royal College of Defence Studies since 2000. These places are offered to the Israel Defence Forces.
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Baroness Deech:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for the UK's defence and intelligence capabilities of their not inviting Israeli officials to the 2025 Defence and Security Equipment International event. \p Lord Coaker: The Ministry of Defence carefully assessed the implications of not inviting Israeli officials to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) UK 2025 conference. We do not comment publicly on operational matters. The Government of Israel's decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong, and, as a result, no Israeli government delegation was invited to attend DSEI UK 2025.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick:To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive about establishing a national allergy register in the UK. \p Baroness Merron: The Government is committed to improving care for people with allergies, and ensuring that they receive high-quality care and support and access to the latest treatments.

NHS England does not collect national data on allergy prevalence or services, nor does it issue specific guidance. In conducting health needs assessments to inform their commissioning decisions, integrated care boards will have access to a wide range of data sources, including public health data, hospital statistics, primary care data, and social care metrics.

Data regarding all anaphylaxis-related deaths in England and Wales are documented by the Office for National Statistics, and the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology also holds a register to capture and learn from fatal cases of anaphylaxis, which has been operational since 1992, namely the UK Fatal Anaphylaxis Registry (UKFAR).

NHS England’s National Patient Safety Team is working with the UKFAR to develop a mechanism for sharing relevant patient safety information relating to anaphylaxis incidents, including the reporting of anaphylaxis in hospitals. The aim will be for the UKFAR to extract and share patient safety incidents reported to the national databases, the National Reporting and Learning System and the Learn from Patient Safety Events service, relating to severe allergic reactions. Work has been progressing on this, and a search strategy has been agreed upon.

For these reasons, the Government has had no discussions with the Scottish Government or Northern Ireland Executive about establishing a national allergy register in the United Kingdom. However, the Department co-chairs the Expert Advisory Group on Allergy, which brings together external allergy stakeholders, the Department and representatives from the devolved governments, to discuss the development of an external national allergy strategy that will be presented to the four governments of the UK to respond in early 2026. The group aims to support the growth and delivery of comprehensive specialist allergy services across the UK.
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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of children from Gaza who will be brought to each devolved nation in the UK for specialist medical treatment. \p Baroness Merron: As part of the Gaza medical operation, two groups of children and their immediate families have arrived in the United Kingdom. We are unable to confirm at this point how long the process will run for, nor the numbers of children who will be evacuated.

Patients and their immediate family members will have leave to stay in the UK for up to two years, irrespective of how long their treatment lasts, with access to the National Health Service, housing, and other services. Should these individuals wish to remain in the UK after they have arrived beyond the initial 24 months, they can apply for further permission to stay under existing routes within the Immigration Rules.

The Government is working closely with the local authorities in the areas where evacuees are likely to be hosted to make sure that those coming to the UK receive the help they need during their stay in the UK. We expect children will be treated in a small group of NHS trusts across the four nations of the UK.

These patients and their families have suffered an unimaginable ordeal and their privacy is paramount. For this reason, the Government will not be providing further details about their treatment or whereabouts to protect patient confidentiality and their personal safety.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-10-02)

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Baroness Penn:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take following the closure of the call for evidence for the parental leave and pay review. \p Lord Leong: We received over 1300 responses to the call for evidence. This information is currently being analysed, and the findings will go on to inform the review. Next steps will include engaging with a range of stakeholders, including advocacy groups, trade unions and business representatives, as well as evaluating other sources of evidence.

The review launched on 1 July and will last for 18 months. The Government will conclude the review with a set of findings and a roadmap, including next steps for taking any potential reforms forward to implementation.
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Baroness Northover:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer from Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 7 May (HL6732), when they plan to issue an updated Critical Minerals Strategy. \p Lord Leong: Thanks to the extensive engagement and insights from our industry and expert stakeholders as well as cross-government collaboration, we have developed a powerful new vision and plan for securing critical minerals in the UK.

Following the outcome of the multi-year Spending Review and the publication of the Industrial Strategy, the Critical Minerals Strategy will be published later this year.
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Lord Kamall:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to develop a cross-departmental drowning prevention strategy for unguarded waters. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: Responsibilities for water safety sit with various Government departments, agencies, local authorities, and other public bodies. These include regular safety messaging and guidance to ensure people have the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe, as well as provision of safety/lifesaving equipment at water bodies. Water sports national governing bodies are responsible for providing advice and guidance for how to participate in their sports safely. Inland waterway navigation authorities conduct risk assessments to inform the provision of appropriate lifesaving equipment on their networks. In conjunction with other services, HM Coastguard provides safety advice and guidance about the coastal environment.

The National Water Safety Forum brings together a wide range of national groups, including some 80 local authorities, to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for the prevention of drowning and water safety harm in the UK. The Forum launched the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy 2016-2026 (copy attached), which aims to reduce the number of accidental drownings in the UK by 50% by 2026. The Local Government Association has developed a water safety toolkit (copy attached) for local authorities for use inland and on the coast.

UK Drowning Prevention Strategy (pdf, 1984.4KB)

Water Safety Toolkit (pdf, 488.8KB)