theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Baroness Lister of Burtersett:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help low-income, vulnerable people such as domestic abuse survivors who are moved into unfurnished social housing without any furniture or white goods, nor the financial means to acquire them. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: My Department engages actively with registered providers of social housing and a wide range of stakeholders on issues affecting tenants, including groups such as End Furniture Poverty to understand their work on this matter.

On 2 July, we launched a consultation on a reformed Decent Homes Standard (DHS) for the social and private rented sectors, which included proposals for the Government to develop best practice guidance for all landlords, including information on how tenants in need can access support for furniture provision. The consultation has now closed, and responses are being analysed. More details on future guidance will be published as part of the Government’s formal response.

In the meantime, people living without essential furniture may be able to access support through their local authority, including via the Household Support Fund and other locally available services. My Department is also allocating £10.9 million of funding this year to 61 local authorities in England with the highest numbers of children in temporary accommodation, to increase access to support and services. More information (attached) is available on gov.uk here.

children experiencing homelesness (pdf, 153.6KB)
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Baroness Pinnock:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 24 November (HL Deb col 1154), whether severely contaminated brownfield sites will not be developed due to the cost of remediation, and whether they plan for those sites to remain contaminated and derelict. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: The National Planning Policy Framework states (attached) that planning policies and decisions should support appropriate opportunities to remediate derelict and contaminated land. It also states that where a site is affected by contamination, responsibility for securing a safe development rests with the developer and/or landowner. Planning Practice Guidance on viability (attached) recognises abnormal costs, including those associated with treatment for contaminated sites.

To unlock previously developed land for housing, the Government provides capital support to local authorities through the Brownfield Land Release Fund. The funding enables councils to undertake necessary remediation works, including decontamination.

National Planning Policy (pdf, 658.4KB)

Guidance on Viability (pdf, 401.2KB)
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Baroness Pinnock:To ask His Majesty's Government whether the brownfield land register includes an assessment of the impact of the level of contamination on the viability of the land for development. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: The Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 require local planning authorities to prepare, maintain, and publish a Brownfield Register. When including land on the register, local planning authorities must consider that land is suitable, available, and achievable for residential development. This will involve assessing a range of factors and constraints including any known land contamination and viability issues.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Lord Wigley:To ask His Majesty's Government when they will appoint&nbsp;a commissioner responsible for giving advice about Wales under the provisions of the Crown Estate Act 2025. \p Lord Livermore: The recruitment campaign launched on 16 October with a view to making an appointment by early 2026. It closed to new applications on 12 November and continues to progress in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Baroness Hoey:To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for members of the public calling His Majesty's Revenue and Customs by phone. \p Lord Livermore: HMRC publishes its call waiting times on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates

Improving day-to-day performance is a key priority for HMRC.

In 2024-25, HMRC handled 71.5% of adviser attempts across their helplines and had an average call answer time of 18 minutes 38 seconds. This year (April – September 2025), HMRC have handled 83.8% of adviser attempts and average call wait times have decreased to 13 minutes 30 seconds.

HMRC are taking steps to make sure more of their services are digital. HMRC online services and the HMRC app are convenient to access and receive high customer satisfaction ratings. As more people use HMRC online services, advisers are freed up to support those with more complex queries and those who are digitally excluded.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of employers adopting AI systems on the labour market, and what steps they are taking to ensure workers are equipped with the skills required by the labour market. \p Baroness Lloyd of Effra: The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out how we will address key labour market challenges and spread opportunity in order to fix the foundations of our economy so we can make the most of the opportunities AI presents. The Government is supporting workforce readiness for AI through a range of initiatives.

The new AI Skills Hub, developed by Innovate UK and PwC, provides streamlined access to digital training. This will support government priorities through tackling critical skills gaps and improving workforce readiness. We are also partnering with 11 major companies to train 7.5 million UK workers in essential AI skills by 2030 and expanding AI education in universities, by launching Pioneer Fellowships for cross-disciplinary upskilling.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage professional services firms to adopt artificial intelligence productivity tools. \p Baroness Lloyd of Effra: The Government is committed to driving AI adoption across the economy, including professional services. Through the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we are tackling barriers such as lack of awareness, trust, and technical capability. This includes expanding the BridgeAI programme (which supports organisation adopt AI with funding and hands-on support), announcing an AI champion for professional business services, and training 7.5 million workers across the economy in essential AI skills by 2030. We are also investing £11 million to grow the UK’s AI assurance market, ensuring firms can adopt tools confidently and responsibly. These measures will help businesses harness AI to boost productivity and maintain the UK’s global competitiveness.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding in the Nuclear Regulatory Review 2025 that increasing complexity in the regulatory system has led to a relative decline in the UK's nuclear sector. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: The government endorses the report’s approach and accepts the principles of all recommendations it set out.

My Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister has also issued a Strategic Steer which sets clear expectations for the civil, defence, and decommissioning nuclear sectors to accelerate safe and efficient delivery through proportionate regulation and stronger collaboration.

We will present a full implementation plan within three months, taking account of international obligations, national security considerations, and planning, environmental and court processes.
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Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of revising the semi-urban population density criterion on the development of civil nuclear projects in the UK. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: It is recognised that there may be potential longer-term benefits for nuclear technologies to be deployed closer to denser populations, such as providing high-temperature heat to industrial plants or proximity to electricity transmission infrastructure.

Given the importance of new nuclear development and recent recommendations from the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce, government will be reviewing the criterion following designation of the new nuclear planning framework.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of international regulatory harmonisation on the speed of delivery of civil nuclear projects in the UK. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: International cooperation and regulatory harmonisation have the potential to streamline deployment for nuclear energy deployment around the world and help achieve economies of scale.

The UK continues to explore opportunities for regulatory harmonisation in nuclear to speed up the deployment of new nuclear in the UK, demonstrated by the recent Atlantic Partnership for Advanced Nuclear Energy, which builds on existing UK-US collaboration.

ONR as the UK’s independent regulator will need to be satisfied that any design to be deployed in the UK meets UK safety standards and complies with UK law.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-12-10)

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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to lift any other elements of the benefit cap beyond scrapping the two-child limit. \p Baroness Sherlock: The benefit cap limits the total amount of benefits a working age household can receive and is applied through Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. The benefit cap aims to incentivise work as, where possible, it is in the best interest of children to be in working households. The Department provides a range of support for people to prepare for, move into and progress in work. We are delivering a step-change in employment and skills support for parents, enabling parents to balance work and caring responsibilities through high quality, flexible jobs, and improving access to childcare so parents are better able to work. There are no plans to change the benefit cap policy.

Alongside employment support, the Department supports families in work through an exemption from the benefit cap for households earning at least £846 each month. There is also protection for the most vulnerable as those who are caring or are severely disabled are exempt from the benefit cap.

Removing the two child limit is the fastest and most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty over this Parliament and estimated to alone lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament. It builds on major action we’ve already taken including expanding Free School Meals for over half a million children, investing £39 billion in social and affordable housing, £13.2 billion in the Warm Homes Plan, and rolling out Best Start Family Hubs backed by £500 million.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk that increased labour costs could cause firms (1) to hire fewer workers, and (2) to replace jobs with robots and artificial intelligence technologies. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: Delivering on our plan to Make Work Pay is a core part of the mission to grow the economy, raise living standards and create opportunities for all. We are committed to working in partnership with businesses to realise that ambition, enabling businesses and workers to thrive.

My department has published a set of Impact Assessments that provide a comprehensive analysis on the potential impact of the Employment Rights Bill. This analysis includes consideration of increases in labour costs for businesses and the subsequent effects. This analysis is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments
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Lord Mott:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve coordination between different regulatory bodies in the UK to ensure a coherent regulatory framework. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: This Government is determined to address concerns about the complexity and structure of the regulatory system by providing clear and consistent strategic direction, enabling regulators to plan effectively and deliver long-term objectives in line with the Government’s priorities. This is why the Prime Minister, in conjunction with the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, wrote to key regulators asking them to provide concrete proposals to prioritise growth with the support of Government. Our overall regulatory vision, which will address these will issues, will be set out in due course.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Mott:To ask His Majesty's Government whether all new regulations are subject to impact assessments, particularly in relation to their regional impact and impact on small businesses. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: Where government intervention requires a legislative or policy change, departments are expected to analyse and assess the impact of the change on the different groups affected.

Impact assessments are generally required for all the Government's interventions of a regulatory nature that affect the private sector and-or civil society organisation or public services. The Better Regulation Framework requires regulatory provisions with impacts on business of greater than +/-£10 million to be accompanied by a final impact assessment which is laid before Parliament alongside the regulations. These assessments must consider impact on small and micro businesses, explore whether such businesses need to be in scope and, where appropriate, identify mitigations for the additional burden. Provisions with lower impacts should provide a proportionate assessment or estimate of the impacts in the accompanying Explanatory Notes or Memorandum.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Mott:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that regulators are accountable for their decisions and that businesses and consumers have avenues to challenge regulatory actions. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: The ability to challenge regulatory decisions where necessary is critical to an effective regulatory system that drives economic growth. Most regulatory decisions are subject to internal appeal within regulators. This Government is committed to ensuring regulators are effective and fully accountable, as demonstrated by the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Business and Trade’s recent meeting with regulators where they scrutinised the pro-growth measures that regulators had identified to support the growth mission. The Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury are leading the regulatory reform agenda across Government and we will set out our overall regulatory vision shortly.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Mott:To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff the Competition and Markets Authority employs in the communications team, and what is the total annual budget for the team. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: The CMA currently employs 35 people in its Communications Team, which includes stakeholder and business engagement, compliance communications, digital communications, media relations and strategic communications. It has a total annual budget of £3.2m in the current financial year (2024-25). Like other organisations, the CMA is in the process of reviewing its future budgets, and expects to reduce the budget for the Communications Team by at least 10%.
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Lord Mott:To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff the Competition and Markets Authority employs in each directorate. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: The Competition and Markets Authority employs approximately 1,120 staff. Full Time Equivalent staff numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number. These figures include individuals with a CMA contract of employment, irrespective of the length of contract, whether being paid or not and so includes those on parental leave, a career break or those loaned or seconded out of the CMA. It excludes agency workers and CMA Board and Panel members.

The breakdown for each Directorate is as follows:

Senior Executive Team - 11

Competition Enforcement - 131

Consumer Protection and Markets - 118

Digital Markets Unit - 70

Mergers - 76

Office for the Internal Market and Subsidy Advice Unit - 33

Office of the Chief Economic Adviser - 160

Legal Service - 176

Corporate Services - 121

Data, Technology and Insight - 133

Strategy, Communications and Advocacy - 91
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Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb:To ask His Majesty's Government how much residual waste was incinerated in 2022 (1) by weight, and (2) as a proportion of all residual waste. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: For too long the nation has seen recycling rates stagnate and relied on burning or burying waste.

The Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy, a future where we keep our resources in use for longer, waste is reduced, we accelerate the path to net zero, we see investment in critical infrastructure and green jobs, our economy prospers, and nature thrives. Key to this commitment is the reduction of residual waste. The Government has set out that it will only back new waste incineration projects that meet strict conditions and that these are in accordance with the long-term residual waste reduction target.

Estimates of residual waste (excluding major mineral wastes) in England, and their treatment method, for 2022 were published in April 2024 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/estimates-of-residual-waste-excluding-major-mineral-wastes-and-municipal-residual-waste-in-england).

It is not possible to provide a figure for residual waste as a proportion of all waste. A comparable figure of all waste is not available.
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Lord Wigley:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to issue guidelines to water companies operating in England regarding the salaries paid to their senior management. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: For too long, customers have been let down and water companies have discharged record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

That is why we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will strengthen regulation, including delivering new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bringing criminal charges against persistent law breakers.

Executives will no longer be able to take home eye-watering bonuses where companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability.

In October 2024, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, also launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. This is a wide-ranging review to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb:To ask His Majesty's Government how much recyclable waste was incinerated in 2023. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: A total of 18 million tonnes of waste was incinerated in 2023 in England (Source: Waste Management Summary for England for 2023). This compares with 17.2 million tonnes in 2022. Information on how much of this was recyclable is not held.
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Lord Norton of Louth:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 January (HLWS374), what plans they have to encourage other Departments to emulate the Home Office in (1) undertaking detailed post-legislative scrutiny of Acts, (2) engaging with key government and operational stakeholders, and (3) in making written statements when memoranda are produced and laid as Command Papers. \p Baroness Twycross: The Cabinet Office has written to departments reminding them of the importance of post-legislative scrutiny.

It is a matter for each department to determine whether a written statement should accompany publication, and which stakeholders to engage when conducting post-legislative scrutiny.

While all bills that have reached Royal Assent are eligible for post-legislative scrutiny, it can be agreed between the department and the relevant Commons departmental select committee that a memorandum is not required.
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Lord Agnew of Oulton:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Civil Service People Plan 2024–2027, published on 10 January 2024, what was the cost to central government departments of ensuring 100 per cent of Senior Civil Servants achieved Chartered FCIPD status and 100 per cent of G6/G7 officials achieved Chartered MCIPD status by 1 April 2024. \p Baroness Twycross: There are several methods of gaining CIPD Membership including study options, apprenticeships and experiential routes. For experiential routes, there is a central Cabinet Office contract with the CIPD for departments to utilise. The costs associated with this accreditation to date are provided below:

£197,615

Departments may also utilise other methods that are available for their SCS and Grade 6/7 HR professionals to gain CIPD membership that are not included in the central Cabinet Office contract
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Lord Dodds of Duncairn:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 28 January (HL4030), what are the (1) names or (2) job titles of the members of the Veterinary Medicines Working Group set up in relation to the implementation of the Windsor Framework. \p Baroness Twycross: The names and affiliations of members of the Veterinary Medicines Working Group are included in the Terms of Reference, which have been deposited in the House of Commons and House of Lords libraries.
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Lord Kempsell:To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with EU officials regarding the UK joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention. \p Baroness Twycross: We are always looking at ways to reduce barriers to trade - within our clear red lines - because having a smooth trading relationship with European partners is essential to driving growth at home.

This is one of the options we are open to looking at to reduce barriers, and it’s right and responsible that we are looking at it to determine what is in the UK’s national interest. But we do not currently have any plans to join PEM.
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Lord Sikka:To ask His Majesty's Government when the Office for National Statistics will publish their latest data on winter deaths; what criteria they will use to calculate them; and whether they have any plans to return to a static reporting date. \p Baroness Twycross: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Sikka

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

31 January 2025

Dear Lord Sikka,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish their latest data on winter deaths; what criteria they will use to calculate them; and whether they have any plans to return to a static reporting date (HL4448).

The ONS previously published a regular release on winter mortality in England and Wales. However, following the recent consultation on health and social care statistical outputs[1], this release has been paused to enable a review of the methodology and timeliness of the statistics to be completed. Once the review is complete, a proposal on the future status of this output will be published.

The ONS does publish regular statistics on deaths registered each week[2] which may be of interest to you. This includes deaths registered over the winter period as well as estimates of excess deaths using the methodology that was implemented in February 2024[3].

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/health-and-social-care-statistical-outputs/outcome/health-and-social-care-statistical-outputs-consultation-response

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/previousreleases

[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/estimatingexcessdeathsintheukmethodologychanges/february2024

ONS letter for PQ HL4448 (pdf, 106.5KB)
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Lord Kempsell:To ask His Majesty's Government what contribution they are making to human spaceflight, what assessment they have made of whether the UK should establish its own human space flight programme, and what estimate they have made of when a British mission will visit the moon and Mars. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: The UK makes a significant contribution to human space exploration via investment through the European Space Agency (ESA). Rosemary Coogan is now training with NASA in Houston ahead of a long-term mission to the International Space Station. John McFall and Meganne Christian, who are both in the ESA astronaut reserve, are currently training at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany to prepare them for future space missions. These missions are not yet identified.

The UK Space Agency is also working with Axiom Space to explore the potential for a first of-a-kind commercially sponsored UK astronaut mission to the ISS. We have not made a specific estimate of when a British mission will visit the moon or Mars.
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Lord Strathcarron:To ask His Majesty's Government how many pieces of content the National Security Online Information Team has flagged for review by social media platforms in the past 12 months. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: In 2024, 180 examples of content were provided to platforms across national security and public safety risks.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Clement-Jones:To ask His Majesty's Government what role the National Security Online Information Team played in responding to the 2024 summer riots. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: During last summer’s unrest, the National Security and Online Information Team identified mis and disinformation themes and trends which resulted from the tragic events in Southport. It worked with wider government and major social media platforms to understand emerging risks and tackle content contributing to the subsequent disorder. This included proactively referring content within the team’s remit for platforms to independently assess and act on in line with their terms of service.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Taylor of Warwick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure creative industries remain protected from being used by artificial intelligence models, particularly regarding the music industry. \p Lord Vallance of Balham: Copying protected material in the UK will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.

The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.

The consultation seeks views on how to give rights holders of creative works, including those in the music industry, greater control over use of their material, and greater transparency about when their material is used to train AI models, while supporting the development of world-leading AI models in the UK.

The consultation closes on 25 February.
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Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the National Security Online Information Team’s work on freedom of expression. \p Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: NSOIT’s commitment to protecting freedom of expression is embedded in its compliance policies and practices. For example, NSOIT has a blanket ban on referring content from journalists and politicians to social media platforms. Its privacy notices are publicly available on gov.uk.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Jackson of Peterborough:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 25 October 2024 (11179), what assessment they have made of the Local Government Association guidance A councillor's workbook on equality, diversity and inclusion, published on 10 January 2024, which states that being gender fluid or gender neutral constitute the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: MHCLG has not made an assessment of the Local Government Association (LGA) guidance referred to in the question. The LGA is independent of central government and is responsible for publishing and assessing its own guidance for the local government sector.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Lord Crathorne:To ask His Majesty's Government what mechanisms they plan to put in place to ensure that the housing built to meet their targets will be of a high design standard; and whether they intend to seek the advice of bodies, such as the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, to help ensure that new housing is an embellishment to the communities where it is built. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 12 November 2024 (HCWS209).

HCWS209 (pdf, 582.6KB)
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Baroness McIntosh of Pickering:To ask His Majesty's Government why they are abolishing the Rural Delivery Services Grant; and what assessment they have made of the impact of its removal on rural counties such as North Yorkshire. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: I refer the noble lady to the answer given to Question UIN 20652 on 27 December 2024 and the answer to Question UIN 22380 on 15 January 2025.

PQ22380 (pdf, 440.4KB)

PQ20652 (pdf, 279.8KB)
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_23

Lord Porter of Spalding:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have for allowing elected councillors to join the Local Government Pension Scheme. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: Currently, councillors in England are not eligible for membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme, after access was removed in 2014. As the Responsible Authority for the LGPS, MHCLG keeps access to the scheme under regular review.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_24
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_24

Lord Tyrie:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the National Trusts Acts to require the National Trust to publish a comprehensive annual statement of the financial benefits it enjoys from tax reliefs and other disbursements from the Exchequer, whether direct or indirect. \p Baroness Twycross: The Government has no plans to review the National Trust Acts. The National Trust is an independent charity, run by its board of Trustees who are responsible for the organisation’s governance.

The accounts and annual reports of all registered charities with an income of over £25,000 are freely accessible on the public register of charities provided by the Charity Commission on gov.uk. These provide detailed information on the charity’s income and expenditure, which can help the public better understand the charity and its finances.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_25
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_25

Baroness Sanderson of Welton:To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Department of Culture, Media and Sport intends to publish a strategy for English public libraries. \p Baroness Twycross: The Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, Sir Chris Bryant MP, who has the policy remit for public libraries in England, has engaged with library sector organisations and leaders. They discussed the challenges in the sector and reflected on priority policy areas. He is considering their views and DCMS continues to promote the role of libraries across a range of government priorities.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_26
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_26

Lord Godson:To ask His Majesty's Government, in the context of any handover of responsibility for counter-extremism work from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to the Home Office, which department will have responsibility for (1) cross-Government engagement principles, (2) establishing an extremism-specific due diligence tool, (3) blasphemy-related extremism, and (4) religiously motivated hate crime. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Home Office work on countering extremism, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government continues to lead work on strengthening community cohesion with local councils. It is vital that the two programmes on cohesion and extremism work in parallel.

On the definition of extremism, I refer Lord Godson to the Answer provided by the Security Minister on 22 January to Question UIN 23874, and to the Urgent Question response provided by the Security Minister on 28 January.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_27
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_27

Lord Pearson of Rannoch:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 January (HL3896), what assessment they have made of the appropriateness of identifying membership of grooming gangs by reference to Pakistani origin. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: Further to my previous response, the Government will lay out a clear timetable before Easter on how we will take forward the 20 recommendations from the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. We will also set up a new panel to ensure victims' and survivors' voices are prioritised in future policy making.

We have been clear that local authorities, who are responsible for delivering local services, are best placed to commission local inquiries, and we stand ready to support as we can. That is why the Home Secretary announced to Parliament on the 6 and 16 January 2025 a range of measures, including stronger national backing for local inquiries and funding provisions to help local councils set up their own reviews. The Home Office will develop a new effective framework for victim-centred, locally-led inquiries, and work with Oldham Council and four other pilot areas to implement it. Additionally, local councils which are yet to hold regional investigations where the group-based sexual offences have been more prevalent will be urged to conduct their own reviews to prevent offending happening again.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary's statement made on 16 January, which set out the actions the Government is taking forward to improve our response to, and understanding of, child sexual exploitation and abuse, including group-based abuse This includes improving the data available on the perpetration of these crimes and the Home Secretary has asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes - gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available.

The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, including what is known about the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_28
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_28

Lord Mendelsohn:To ask His Majesty's Government on what date the Attorney General last received a briefing from the Metropolitan Police regarding the five Rwandan genocide suspects named in an extradition judgement and currently living in the UK. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: We would invite you to consider referring this question to the Attorney General and the Metropolitan Police for a response.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_29
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_29

Lord Mendelsohn:To ask His Majesty's Government what explanations they have received from the police regarding the length of time taken to investigate the cases of the five suspected Rwandan war criminals currently living in the UK following the judgment in Government of Rwanda v Nteziryayo &amp; Others [2017] EWHC 1912 (Admin), and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of those police investigations. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: I refer Lord Mendelsohn to UIN 249920 and UIN HL787, where similar questions were posed.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) War Crimes Unit is a dedicated specialist unit which investigates and prosecutes people living in the UK suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in line with universal jurisdiction and the CPS Counter Terrorism Division has the responsibility for prosecuting such crimes. Criminal investigations are an operational matter for law-enforcement agencies, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further.

I would invite Lord Mendelsohn to consider referring the second part of the question to the Attorney General and the Metropolitan Police for a response.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_30
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_30

Lord Mendelsohn:To ask His Majesty's Government what information they have about the five Rwandan genocide suspects named in an extradition judgment and currently living in the UK. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: I refer Lord Mendelsohn to UIN 249920 and UIN HL787, where similar questions were posed.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) War Crimes Unit is a dedicated specialist unit which investigates and prosecutes people living in the UK suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in line with universal jurisdiction and the CPS Counter Terrorism Division has the responsibility for prosecuting such crimes. Criminal investigations are an operational matter for law-enforcement agencies, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further.

I would invite Lord Mendelsohn to consider referring the second part of the question to the Attorney General and the Metropolitan Police for a response.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_31
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_31

Lord Sikka:To ask His Majesty's Government how many corporations have been prosecuted and convicted for tax evasion under the Criminal Finances Act 2017. \p Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede: The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of offences including for tax evasion under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. This can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

Since its introduction, there have been no prosecutions or convictions of corporations for the following two specific tax evasion offences recorded under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 in England and Wales:

1) Relevant body fail to prevent facilitation of UK tax evasion; and,

2) Relevant body fail to prevent facilitation of foreign tax evasion offence.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_32
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_32

Lord Patten:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the service provided by South Western Railway between London and Yeovil. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: There are currently no plans to review the service between London and Yeovil. South-Western Railway is in continued contact with the Department regarding its service provision, including on the West of England line on which Yeovil sits. When reviewing services, the Department needs to assess business cases and balance demand with value for the taxpayer in its considerations.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_33
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_33

Lord Blencathra:To ask His Majesty's Government what was the business justification and cost of creating a new taxi rank at Euston station, and what representations they have received from taxi drivers who find it too difficult to use. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: The taxi rank was relocated in April 2024 to enable the construction of the HS2 station. A number of studies were carried out to find a suitable location, concluding with the choice of Euston Square Gardens East which was agreed with Camden Council, Network Rail (NR) and Transport for London (TfL).

TfL have received representations from taxi drivers relating to issues accessing the rank from the west due to a banned left turn in to Eversholt Street and Churchway. These left turns were banned to improve road safety and to help manage traffic flow along the Inner London Ring Road.

Access was worsened for a temporary period prior to Christmas 2024 whilst urgent road works took place on Upper Woburn Place.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_34
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_34

Lord Wigley:To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the reduction of the general speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour in built-up residential areas in England. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: There has not been any consideration given to reducing the general speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour in built-up residential areas in England.

It is for local authorities to decide where reduced speed limits will be effective on the roads they manage, and consultation and community support should be at the heart of the process.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_35
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-02-10 conversation_35

Lord Blencathra:To ask His Majesty's Government what consultation they had with (1) disabled users, and (2) the London taxi trade, before the creation of new taxi rank at Euston station. \p Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill: It was necessary to move the taxi rank from its previous Euston Square Gardens West location to enable construction of the HS2 station. The design of the new eastern rank, and its access, was the subject of extensive engagement with the taxi trade.

The final design was reviewed by the Network Rail’s Built Environment Accessibility Panel, an independent panel of experts that supports NR to plan spaces and places for everyone. It was also reviewed by HS2 Ltd’s Inclusive Design Lead, and NR Accessibility Lead.

The designated Mobility Assistance Taxi Bays remain on the western Euston Gardens site to cater for passengers with restricted mobility, as required by Network Rail.