theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-06-23 conversation_50
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-06-23 conversation_50

Lord Jamieson:To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they have produced on whether (1) elected representatives and political parties and (2) community groups have to obtain a licence or make a payment to a local authority to have a street stall in a public place. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: The provision and administration of street trading and highways licences are the responsibility of Local Authorities under either the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 or the London Local Authorities Act 1990, depending on their location. The Government has not issued guidance on application to political parties or community groups. However, signposting to local authority guidance is provided via gov.uk.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Booth:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 10 April (HL6032), what estimate they have made of the annual cost of the Building Standards Regulatory Body. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: Currently building standards are regulated by the Building Safety Regulator. The annual net cost of Building Safety Regulator is expected to be £43m for 2025/26.

Government has accepted the recommendation made in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 report to create a ‘single construction regulator’ for the building system. Proposals for design of the future regulator will be published and consulted on later this year.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Jamieson:To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance has been issued on whether municipal electoral returning officers and electoral registration officers are deemed to be local authorities in relation to the re-use of public sector information regime. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to Question UIN 41457 on 3 April.

PQ 41457 (pdf, 80.1KB)
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard:To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average length of time it takes for the Building Safety Regulator to complete its approval process following application for building control approval. \p Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: The Building Safety Regulator currently has 360 employees which equates to 350.4 full-time equivalent, with an additional 8 staff who are contractor staff filling roles until they are permanently filled.

Additional funding has been provided to the Building Safety Regulator from government to support a further recruitment campaign. This will enable the recruitment of a further 190 staff which will increase staffing levels to full complement.

The overall average length of time taken for the Building Safety Regulator to complete its approval process following applications for building control approval is currently 23.3 weeks.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-06-23 conversation_54
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Baroness Janke:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to revise the shortage occupation list to include key removals and storage industry roles to address skills shortages in the sector. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Immigration White paper, published 12 May, set out proposed reforms in a number of areas, including to the shortage occupation list, further details of which will be set out in due course.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Campbell-Savours:To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have on the incidence of sham marriages in the United Kingdom. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Government takes abuse of the spouse and partner immigration routes very seriously and is clear that family migration must be based on a genuine and subsisting marriage or relationship. The marriage referral and investigation scheme (the Scheme), introduced across the UK under the Immigration Act 2014, requires that all proposed marriages and civil partnerships where one or both parties could gain an immigration advantage from it are referred to the Home Office.

Under the Scheme, where we have reasonable grounds to suspect a sham relationship, the marriage notice period will be extended to allow for further investigation, and for enforcement or casework action to be taken where appropriate.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the waiting period before an asylum seeker with an outstanding asylum claim can access jobs on the Shortage Occupation List or the Immigration Salary List to six months. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Home Office’s priority remains to ensure that employers and employees who play by the rules are not undercut by people working illegally, or by unscrupulous employers exploiting their labour.

We have repeatedly resisted calls to relax our policy position on asylum seeker permission to work. Allowing asylum seekers the right to work sooner than under the current rules could enable migrants to bypass established work visa routes, and may act as an incentive for people to travel here illegally via dangerous routes. Asylum seekers do not need to make dangerous journeys to seek employment in the UK. There are various legal routes for those seeking to work in the UK under the Points Based System.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Baroness Janke:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of value added tax (VAT) thresholds on competition in the removals and storage industry; and whether they plan to lower the threshold to align with European economies and tackle VAT avoidance in the sector. \p Lord Livermore: Consideration of changes to the VAT threshold would have to carefully balance the potential benefits to businesses, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues.

The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events in the context of the overall public finances. The Government keeps all taxes under review.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Agnew of Oulton:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have contingency plans to ensure the continued operation of the Enterprise Tax Management Platform beyond the scheduled end of vendor support in 2027. \p Lord Livermore: HMRC has established the Enterprise Tax Management Platform Regeneration Programme, with the responsibility of safeguarding the future of HMRC’s Enterprise Tax Management Platform beyond the scheduled end of vendor support in 2027.

This work continues to be funded as a Government Major Project Portfolio programme, with a scheduled live implementation date of May 2029. Extended support will be available from 2027 to 2030 to support the transition to a new platform. HMRC has been preparing for the end of vendor support by ensuring a robust IT strategy and roadmap is in place.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Goodman of Wycombe:To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the 1.1 million trees planted in round 1 of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund have survived, what monitoring processes are in place to track the survival rate, and what estimate they have made of the cost per surviving tree. \p Baroness Hayman of Ullock: The Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) was an £80 million fund over two rounds to support nature recovery and conservation across England between 2020 and 2023. It was developed by the last government in response to COVID-19 and administered on behalf of Defra by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Comprehensive independent evaluation reports for both rounds are available on the NLHF website.

GRCF projects were not required to undergo independent auditing or verification of outcomes. NLHF actively monitored all projects in delivery through quarterly reporting procedures, including meetings, site visits and photographic evidence. Grantees were required to undertake a project evaluation, commissioning external independent evaluation providers in most cases.

NLHF commissioned a separate independent programme level evaluation report for each round of GRCF. No instances of discrepancies or inflated reporting by grant recipients were identified.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Goodman of Wycombe:To ask His Majesty's Government what total quantified estimate they have made of fraud and error in the Culture Recovery Fund; what methodology, including statistical sampling or independent audit verification, they used to calculate that estimate; and how that methodology has evolved since the start of the fund. \p Baroness Twycross: While the department has recently updated data on detected fraud and error, there is no overall quantified estimate of total (detected and undetected) fraud and error for the CRF.

For the core grant programmes delivered by Arts Council England, British Film Institute, and National Lottery Heritage Fund, and DCMS’s loans programme: fraud risk assessment, due diligence, upfront eligibility verification and post award sampling of grants took place across the Fund. This was either conducted or reviewed by independent auditors, however, the methodologies were not all based on statistical sampling so can not be brought together.

The total fraud and error detected across the CRF programmes is £12.9 million, consisting mainly of dual funding with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and breaches of terms and conditions. Of this, £10.3 million has been recovered.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-23)

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Lord Goodman of Wycombe:To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the fraud and error of the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme; what processes are in place to identify, quantify and mitigate fraud and error in that scheme; and how much has been recovered as a result of those processes as of the most recent date available. \p Baroness Twycross: External auditors were appointed to review the level of fraud and error in the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, which ran between October 2020 and April 2022 under the previous Government. This was an indemnity scheme with robust checks at application and claims stages by the scheme administrator and loss adjusters.

The evaluation found an error rate of less than 1%, and did not identify any fraud. The supplier concluded that the scheme had strong governance controls in place reducing the risk of fraud, and the rate of error was within expectations, particularly in the context of a pandemic where there is a need to prioritise speed and financial support to organisations. Errors were reviewed by the administrator and corrected where appropriate within the terms of the scheme, with £2240 recovered accounting for the majority of the error rate.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_1
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Baroness Hodgson of Abinger:To ask His Majesty's Government how many personal, establishment and project licences issued under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 were revoked as a result of non-compliance incidents in each year from 2013 to 2023. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Regulator for the use of animals in science publishes an annual report that includes all non-compliance cases for personal, project and establishment licences and subsequent enforcement actions taken (see: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#annual-reports).

The Regulator does not compile separate data on revocations of licences as a result of non-compliances.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_2
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Baroness Hodgson of Abinger:To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Animals in Science Regulation Unit’s annual report 2023, published on 17 December 2024, what assessment they have made of the adequacy of sanctions issued in response to non-compliance incidents that resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, animals; and what consideration they have given to the use of licence revocation as a sanction. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU) has published its compliance framework which explains how it identifies and investigates potential incidents of non-compliance and decides on appropriate and proportionate measures and remedies where non-compliance has been found to occur.

All cases of non-compliance are thoroughly investigated, and the outcomes are published in ASRU's annual report.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_3
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Weir of Ballyholme:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they can provide an update on their process of considering a reclassification of the drug ketamine. \p Lord Hanson of Flint: The Government wrote to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on 14 January to commission updated advice on ketamine, including whether it should be reclassified to become a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

This letter is published on GOV.UK. Updated harms assessment of ketamine: commissioning letter - GOV.UK

We will carefully consider the ACMD’s recommendations before making any decision.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_4
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Agnew of Oulton:To ask His Majesty's Government what penalties or sanctions apply to contracting authorities that fail to publish pipeline notices under section 93 of the Procurement Act 2023. \p Baroness Twycross: Pipeline notices are required to be published under the Procurement Act 2023 (the Act). Where a contracting authority has a third-party spend of more than £100 million, it is required to publish a pipeline notice for every procurement with an estimated value of more than £2 million.

Information published in procurement notices will be viewable, free of charge, in an accessible format. It will be clear which contracting authorities are publishing the pipeline notice in the pipeline view on the central digital platform.

The Procurement Review Unit (PRU), established to exercise the procurement oversight powers in Part 10 of the Act, may investigate a contracting authority's compliance with the Act. Non-compliance, including failure to publish a pipeline notice, may lead to an investigation and the results may be published by the PRU. The PRU may make recommendations to the contracting authority in order for them to achieve compliance. The contracting authority must have due regard to these recommendations and may be required to submit a progress report if directed by the PRU.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Viscount Younger of Leckie:To ask His Majesty's Government how much of the funding announced for NHS talking therapies in the Get Britain Working White Paper, published on 26 November 2024, is in addition to that announced in the Autumn Statement 2023. \p Baroness Merron: The Government inherited a £22 billion black hole in the nation’s finances, which has required necessary choices around spending priorities. Despite this backdrop, we were determined to identify the funding required to support additional places for NHS Talking Therapies and individual placement and support schemes.

The Get Britain Working White Paper confirms the Government’s commitment to expand access to both services, to help thousands of people with common or severe mental illness to find and keep employment
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_6
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Mendelsohn:To ask His Majesty's Government whether the 10-Year Cancer Plan for England will ensure that blood cancer patients receive the most optimal treatment, regardless of where they live. \p Baroness Merron: The Government has been clear that there should be a national cancer plan, and we are now in discussions about what form it should take, including how we will ensure that cancer patients across England receive the most optimal treatment. We will develop and publish the 10-Year Health Plan before publishing a new national cancer plan, and will provide updates in due course.

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for all patients across England.

The Department is committing to this by improving waiting times for cancer treatment, starting by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support faster diagnosis and access to treatment. In addition, NHS England has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. From NHS England’s national evaluation, blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

The Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials, and ensuring that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to NHS patients, including those with blood cancer.

In September 2024, NHS England announced a new targeted treatment, Quizartinib, to be prescribed to newly diagnosed patients with a specific type of leukaemia, boosting their chance of remission and long-term survival, made available through NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund, which fast-tracks new innovative cancer treatments into standard care. This followed a previous announcement in August 2024, announcing the new treatment, Zanubrutini, for those with marginal zone lymphoma, which could halt the progression of their cancer and provide an alternative to further rounds of chemotherapy.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Mackinlay of Richborough:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to require acute trusts to report on numbers of sepsis cases and outcomes. \p Baroness Merron: There is a lack of reliable estimates of the incidence and prevalence of sepsis cases due to inconsistency in the definitions used to describe sepsis, and differences in the coding between professionals and organisations in the United Kingdom. The Department continues to work with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to improve our understanding of sepsis data and to monitor trends in infection incidence and deaths from sepsis, which are complex and multifactorial.

Although it is not the main purpose of NHS England’s dataset, the data NHS England currently collects provides information on the number of admissions and discharges for sepsis, as well as the number of deaths. At this time, there are no plans to require trusts to report on the number of sepsis cases and outcomes.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes data on the number of death registrations where sepsis was the underlying cause of death, and where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, in England and Wales between 2001 and 2023. The copy of the published ONS data for deaths involving sepsis in England and Wales between 2001 and 2023 is attached.

Document for HL4213 (xlsx, 30.1KB)
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to implement efficient and integrated diagnosis and care pathways for patients with peripheral arterial disease. \p Baroness Merron: The NHS.UK website has publicly available information on the condition, risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment of peripheral arterial disease, in an online only format. NHS England commissions vascular arterial care from a number of specialist centres to ensure the appropriate management of peripheral arterial disease. The Vascular Disease Clinical Reference Group works closely with Getting It Right First Time, and the respective professional societies, to review patient outcomes and support commissioned providers in the delivery of high-quality care for patients. NHS England also commissioned a two-year Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme during 2022 to 2024, which incentivised the adoption of the Vascular Peripheral Arterial Disease Quality Improvement Framework, to support timely interventions for revascularisation.

NHS England also commissions the National Vascular Registry, which provides information on the quality and outcomes of care for adults who had major vascular procedures in National Health Service hospitals. It aims to support vascular services to provide high quality of care for these people, and shares examples of good practice as well as highlighting areas which merit further investigation in order to improve care.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_9
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Kamall:To ask His Majesty's Government, following their decision to cancel the cap on social care costs, what plans they have to raise public awareness of the availability of 'immediate needs annuity' and 'deferred needs annuity' policies offered by insurance companies to allow individuals to fund their later life social care costs. \p Baroness Merron: The Government inherited an undeliverable commitment to implement charging reforms in October 2025, as funding was not guaranteed and preparations for full rollout were not on track. Whilst there are no current plans to promote specific private insurance products for funding future social care costs, we have announced the independent Casey Commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.

The Commission will consider the long-term transformation of adult social care, including what long-term and sustainable funding solutions should look like. It will build on the expert proposals of other reviews, including that of Sir Andrew Dilnot, into care funding and support.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_10
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Scriven:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of value for money of NHS trusts paying £6.2 million annually from revenue budgets to NHS Providers. \p Baroness Merron: The Department has made no such assessment, as the responsibility for spending decisions rests with individual National Health Service trusts.

As public bodies, NHS trusts should maintain the highest standards of rigour, value for money, and propriety in the use of public funding. All spending must contribute to organisational objectives and support the delivery of high-quality patient care.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Bradley:To ask His Majesty's Government what are the names of the current healthcare providers for each prison in England. \p Baroness Merron: Due to the size of the data, a table showing the names of the current healthcare providers for each prison in England is attached. This does not include providers sub-contracted to provide services for substance use, neurodiversity, mental health, or dental, amongst other services.

HL4237 Table (docx, 24.8KB)
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Alton of Liverpool:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to increase multi-year funding to support the most food-insecure people in Sudan and Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: Ministers will consider Official Development Assistance allocations for 2025/26 over the coming months, and we will publish them in the Annual Report & Accounts in summer 2025. The next phase of the Spending Review will set departmental budgets from 2026/27 to 2029/30.

In November 2024, the UK announced a further £113 million of aid. With this announcement, the UK has doubled our aid to £226.5 million.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_13
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Alton of Liverpool:To ask His Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to secure guarantees from Sudan’s warring parties for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: The UK continues to raise the critical issue of humanitarian access. We did this recently at the UN Security Council on 19 December 2024 and 6 January 2025, where we called for the warring parties to lift bureaucratic impediments and let aid get to those who need it. The Minister for Development has also engaged directly with the new Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, on the UN response. The UK Special Representative, Richard Crowder, met the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Burhan, during his first visit to Sudan and lobbied against current impediments such as visas. On 25 November 2024, the Foreign Secretary chaired a Sudan meeting with G7 and Arab Quint Foreign Ministers to discuss joint steps to improve humanitarian access and increase aid.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Bates:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to mark the 80th anniversary of the First Session of the United Nations General Assembly held in the Methodist Central Hall and the First Session of the United Nations Security Council held in Church House in January 1946 in Westminster. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: We await confirmation from the United Nations of plans to mark the 80th anniversary of the UN this September. Once plans are confirmed, the UK will look to use this moment to demonstrate our commitment to multilateralism. The FCDO will liaise with relevant stakeholders such as civil society and UNA-UK when considering any UK based events to mark this anniversary.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Baroness Hoey:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to make representations to the government of the United States about recognising Somililand. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: The UK, alongside others in the international community, does not recognise Somaliland's unilateral declaration of independence. We believe that the settlement of Somaliland's status is an issue for Somalia and Somaliland to decide through a consultative process and dialogue, in which we encourage both Mogadishu and Hargeisa to engage.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Oates:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to encourage a ceasefire and an end to the conflict in Sudan. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: The UK is actively working towards ending the conflict in Sudan. The Foreign Secretary has spoken with regional partners to explore how the UK can assist international mediation efforts. Richard Crowder, UK Special Representative to Sudan, visited Port Sudan in December 2024 - the UK's first official visit to the county since outbreak of conflict in April 2023. He pressed for a resolution to the conflict, and for all parties to engage constructively in mediation talks, including by complying with the Jeddah Declaration of Commitments to Protect Civilians. We also continue to lead efforts in the UN Security Council to support peace and to keep international spotlight on this crisis.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Oates:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to increase multi-year funding to support food insecure people in Sudan, and food insecure Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: Ministers will consider Official Development Assistance allocations for 2025/26 over the coming months, and we will publish them in the Annual Report & Accounts in summer 2025. The next phase of the Spending Review will set departmental budgets from 2026/27 to 2029/30.

In November 2024, the UK announced a further £113 million of aid. With this announcement, the UK has doubled our aid to £226.5 million.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_18
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Oates:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to secure guarantees from warring parties in Sudan for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: The UK continues to raise the critical issue of humanitarian access. We did this recently at the UN Security Council on 19 December 2024 and 6 January 2025, where we called for the warring parties to lift bureaucratic impediments and let aid get to those who need it. The Minister for Development has also engaged directly with the new Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, on the UN response. The UK Special Representative, Richard Crowder, met the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Burhan, during his first visit to Sudan and lobbied against current impediments such as visas. On 25 November 2024, the Foreign Secretary chaired a Sudan meeting with G7 and Arab Quint Foreign Ministers to discuss joint steps to improve humanitarian access and increase aid. In November 2024, the UK co-led a protection of civilians resolution at the UN Security Council with Sierra Leone, which also called for parties to the conflict to agree humanitarian pauses, and ensure the delivery of adequate humanitarian aid. This received unanimous Council support, apart from Russia who chose to veto it.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Inglewood:To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure the British Council will not sell its art collection. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: The British Council's Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible for the British Council's financial sustainability.

The Government highly values the British Council as a UK soft power asset and is committed to working with the British Council to ensure its financial sustainability. The FCDO is exploring all options with the British Council and the Treasury to ensure this.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Lexden:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of allegations that Indonesian armed forces are using chemical weapons against the people of West Papua. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: HMG is not aware of any recent allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Indonesia.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Baroness Blower:To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the United Kingdom and other international partners can protect minority communities in Syria. \p Lord Collins of Highbury: As part of our intensive diplomatic engagement with international partners, and in discussions with the interim Syrian authorities, we have consistently advocated for an inclusive political transition and underlined the importance of protecting the rights of religious and ethnic minorities. The Foreign Secretary raised this most recently with interim Foreign Minister Al Shaybani at the International Contact Group for Syria in Riyadh on 12 January. We want to see a political transition process which leads to an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government. We will continue to work with our international partners in support of this.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

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Lord Swire:To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Ambassador of North Korea about the deployment and loss of life of their soldiers in Ukraine. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: The North Korean Chargé d'Affaires was summoned to FCDO on 29 October 2024 where FCDO officials raised reports of North Korean troops arriving in Russia. We outlined the UK's position of unequivocally supporting Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity, condemned Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and warned that DPRK would likely suffer heavy casualties. We called for DPRK to immediately cease its support of Putin's war, either through the deployment of DPRK troops, or the provision of munitions. We continue to engage with the DPRK embassy on a regular basis.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_23
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_23

The Lord Bishop of St Albans:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to meet the four UK-based pro-democracy campaigners who had bounties placed on them by the Hong Kong Police on 24 December 2024. \p Baroness Chapman of Darlington: On 15 January, the Foreign Secretary and Minister West met the four Hong Kong campaigners residing in the UK who were targeted with arrest warrants by the Hong Kong police on 24 December.

During the meeting, the Foreign Secretary and Minister West made it clear that the safety of the UK's Hong Kong community is a priority. This followed the Foreign Secretary's public statement on Christmas Eve condemning the Hong Kong police's targeting of individuals for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

The Government will continue to stand with and support members of the Hong Kong community who have relocated to the UK.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_24
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_24

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester:To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure survivors of domestic abuse are exempt from fees associated with child maintenance. \p Baroness Sherlock: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) removed the £20 application fee in February 2024. This has removed any requirement to report domestic abuse. It has also removed one of the affordability barriers for parents who wish to apply to the scheme.

A consultation on proposed reforms to the CMS was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. This included:

The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are currently analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_25
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_25

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester:To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the review of calculations of child maintenance. \p Baroness Sherlock: The Department has been conducting a review of the child maintenance calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose and reflects today’s social trends. This process is ongoing and no date for announcing the outcome has yet been set. When it is, any changes will be subject to extensive consultation and legislation brought forward where necessary for approval.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_26
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_26

The Lord Bishop of Newcastle:To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Centre for Social Justice report Lonely Nation - Part 4: Loneliness and food banks, published in December 2024, which found that over twice as many people who use food banks feel lonely most of the time compared to all adults, what steps they are taking to address loneliness and social isolation as a root cause of food bank usage. \p Baroness Sherlock: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) supports DCMS in their work to tackle Loneliness and social isolation through Jobcentres, who carry out an important role in identifying people at risk of loneliness, directing people to tailored support such as social prescribing, volunteering opportunities, befriending schemes and other local community opportunities and helping them to return to, or prepare to return to the labour market.

More specifically, the Jobcentre network promote local opportunities relevant to those at risk of Loneliness such as the Warm Welcome Spaces in the community.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_27
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_27

Lord Lee of Trafford:To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are satisfied that UK military bases in the Middle East, particularly RAF Akrotiri, have appropriate protection. \p Lord Coaker: We take the security of all our bases overseas seriously and take appropriate measures for their protection. This process is continually kept under review.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_28
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_28

Earl Attlee:To ask His Majesty's Government what is the established liability for Staff Officer 2 Military posts across the Ministry of Defence; and how many officers from all three services with a substantive rank of major or equivalent are available to fill them. \p Lord Coaker: The following table provides a breakdown, by Service, of the numbers of OF-3 UK Regular Armed Forces personnel (Army Major and equivalent), as at 1 October 2024. Please note that we do not routinely release workforce requirement figures for reasons of operational security.

OF-3 (Army Major and equivalent) by Substantive Rank

1 October 2024

UK Regular Forces

7,747

Royal Navy/Royal Marines

1,732

Army

4,048

Royal Air Force

1,967

Source: Analysis (Tri-Service)

Table notes:
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_29
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_29

Earl Attlee:To ask His Majesty's Government how many Staff Officer 2 Military posts are vacant at (1) Army Headquarters and (2) the Defence Equipment and Support organisation. \p Lord Coaker: The Department continues to fill the highest priority roles first in accordance with current and future output requirements. I am withholding the information as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_30
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_30

Lord West of Spithead:To ask His Majesty's Government whether any decisions have been made to convert the Reserve Forces and Cadets Associations into a non-departmental public body in advance of the strategic defence review; and whether members been asked to agree to such a proposal. \p Lord Coaker: The 2019 Review of the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs) was published on 24 March 2020 and placed in the Library of the House. The Review recommended that the Council of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (CRFCA) and the 13 RFCAs should be merged into a single Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), with a National Office and a set of regional organisations. The views of the membership were taken into account as part of the review which can be found at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-reserve-forces-cadets-associations-2019.

The NDPB implementation work was paused in March 2023 due to it failing to obtain a legislative slot in the last Parliament, but this work has now re-commenced.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_31
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_31

Lord Colgrain:To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to reintroducing prison farms with a view to the mental wellbeing of prisoners. \p Lord Timpson: HM Prison and Probation Service continues to operate five working farms which provide employment, skills, and produce for the internal market. Over 70 prisons offer horticultural training opportunities, which assist prisoners with gaining sector-specific skills and experiences.

We also recognise the value of farms, horticultural and land-based activity for improving wellbeing and addressing poor mental health. We continue to develop a range of opportunities for accessing farms and gardens to learn new positive skills, including growing food and environmental improvement.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_32
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_32

Lord Garnier:To ask His Majesty's Government how many people in prison were in custody on remand for longer than (1) six months, (2) one year, and (3) two years, on (a) 31 December 2022, (b) 31 December 2023, and (c) up to the current date. \p Lord Timpson: Information relating to the time spent on custodial remand is not centrally held by the Ministry of Justice. To obtain the data to answer this question would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_33
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_33

Lord Garnier:To ask His Majesty's Government how many additional months beyond tariff people serving an indeterminate sentence are held on average. \p Lord Timpson: The mean time that unreleased prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence (that is, a life or an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence) spent over tariff was 121 months, as of 30 September 2024. These prisoners are spending time beyond tariff because the Parole Board did not deem them safe to release.

Table 1 shows a breakdown of unreleased prisoners serving IPP sentences that are 15 years over tariff, as of 30 September 2024.

Years over tariff

Number of unreleased IPP prisoners

15

79

16

54

17

14

It is right that the IPP sentence was abolished, and this Government is determined that those serving the sentence get the support and opportunities they need to make further progress towards a safe and sustainable release.

We published the updated IPP Action Plan on 15 November, which puts a stronger emphasis on effective frontline delivery in our prisons. We are ensuring that prisoners serving IPP sentences have robust and effective sentence plans, which they are actively engaging with, and that they are in the correct prison to access the right interventions and rehabilitative services.
lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_34
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-01-27 conversation_34

Lord Garnier:To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence (1) were directed to remain in closed conditions, (2) received a recommendation for transfer to open conditions, and (3) were directed to be released at their first Parole Board hearing, in each year since 2005. \p Lord Timpson: The Parole Board publishes performance data annually. The period of time it covers is a financial year, 1 April to 31 March. Therefore, data is provided for a) 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 and b) 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The release outcomes are for all releases, whether following paper review or oral hearing and regardless of the number of parole reviews/hearings the prisoner has had. The Parole Board do not currently hold data for the number of life sentenced prisoners released at their first Parole Board hearing.

Life sentenced prisoners following a parole review (Member Case Assessment & Oral Hearing)

Year

Remain in custody

Recommendation for open

Release

2021/22

684

314

489

2022/23

600

230

464

The release outcomes are for all releases, whether following paper review or oral hearing, and regardless of the number of parole reviews/hearings the prisoner has had. The Parole Board does not currently hold data for the number of IPP sentenced prisoners released at their first Parole Board hearing.

IPP sentenced prisoners (Member Case Assessment & Oral Hearing)

Year

Remain in custody

Recommendation for open

Release

2005/6

No records

No records

No records

2006/7

44

2

6

2007/8

192

21

17

2008/9

390

105

43

2009/10

1,197

320

68

2010/11

1,789

612

140

2011/12

1,552

650

424

2012/13

1,555

662

511

2013/14

1,361

763

595

2014/15

1,074

641

625

2015/16

703

504

746

2016/17

576

468

905

2017/18

504

463

936

2018/19

523

326

893

2019/20

848

350

824

2020/21

840

336

865

2021/22

732

252

788

2022/23

665

186

657

2023/24

786

157

777