Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of public spending was accounted for by (1) national insurance-funded pensions, including the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme and the additional pension, and (2) UK health expenditure, in (a) 1996–97, (b) 2009–10, and (c) 2024–25.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The requested information is in the table below. The data presentation is consistent with PQ HL3608 that was tabled in November 2022.
| 1996-97 | 2009-10 | 2024-25 |
(1) National insurance-funded pensions (£billion) (1) | 32.0 | 66.8 | 136.4 |
as a percentage of Total Managed Expenditure | 9.75% | 9.28% | 10.56% |
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(2) UK Health Expenditure (£billion) (2) | 42.8 | 116.9 | 242.5 |
as a percentage of Total Managed Expenditure | 13.04% | 16.23% | 18.77% |
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Total Managed Expenditure (£billion) (3) | 328.2 | 720.3 | 1,291.8 |
Data Sources:
(1) Figures taken from benefit expenditure and caseload tables published by the Department of Work and Pensions. Figures for National insurance-funded pensions are in line with data provided in a similar PQ from November 2022.
(2) Data from 2009-10 onwards taken from Table 10 of the Public Spending Statistics (PSS) release of February 2026. Data for 1996-97 are taken from Table 4.2 of PESA 2020.
(3) Data originally published by the Office for National Statistics consistent with the February 2026 PSS release from HM Treasury.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the integration of buy now pay later services into digital payment platforms; and what steps they are taking to ensure that consumer credit regulation and affordability safeguards remain effective for the use of those services.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) products are increasingly embedded within digital payment platforms and are now widely offered to consumers at checkout. Millions of people across the UK have used BNPL products, which can help spread the cost of purchases. However, without regulation there are risks — particularly around unaffordable borrowing.
That is why, in July 2025, Parliament passed legislation to bring BNPL products within the scope of Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation. The new regulatory regime will come into force this July and last month, the FCA published its final rules for BNPL lending.
Under these rules, BNPL providers will be required to carry out affordability checks as well as provide consumers with clear and upfront information about costs and repayment obligations. Consumers will also benefit from stronger rights, including access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and protection under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, making it easier to obtain refunds where purchases go wrong. These new rules will ensure that BNPL products remain a useful payment option while protecting consumers from harm.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Livermore on 12 February (HL14156), what assessment framework is used to assess the effectiveness of due diligence checks on politically exposed persons undertaken by financial institutions in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The FCA is responsible for overseeing compliance by financial institutions with due diligence checks on politically exposed persons. The overall effectiveness of the UK’s anti-money laundering regime is assessed on a regular basis by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body for standard setting on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT). The methodology used by the FATF for assessments, including of the effectiveness of due diligence checks undertaken by financial institutions, is available online. [1] The next FATF assessment of the UK will take place by 2028.
[1] https://www.fatf-gafi.org/content/dam/fatf-gafi/methodology/FATF-Assessment-Methodology-2022.pdf
Asked by: Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much resource and capital was allocated to the Department of Education in the Spending Review 2025 for (1) 2026–27, (2) 2027–28, and (3) 2028–29; whether they have revised the spending allocations for that department at any point since the Spending Review 2025 on 11 June 2025; and if so, whether they will publish the revised spending allocations for capital and resource in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
All departments’ Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budgets are freely available on GOV.UK.
DfE’s DEL budgets allocated at the Spending Review 2025 were:
£bn | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
RDEL | 98.3 | 100.1 | 101.5 |
CDEL | 8.3 | 7.7 | 7.7 |
Revised budgets were published at the Autumn Budget in 2025:
£bn | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
RDEL | 98.3 | 100.2 | 101.0 |
CDEL | 8.3 | 7.7 | 7.7 |
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the launch of the London Stock Exchange's private securities market under the private intermittent securities and capital exchange system framework; and what assessment they have made of the impact of that market on UK capital formation for high-growth technology businesses.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
In May 2025, the Government delivered legislation to establish the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), which will support private firms to scale and grow.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has since approved two PISCES operators.
The Treasury and the FCA will jointly assess the efficacy of PISCES over the five-year sandbox period. Consideration will be given to the functioning of the legal and regulatory framework, as well as to the outcomes for market participants.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 23 February 2026, to Question 113125, on Erasmus+ programme, if he will publish or provide a relevant hyperlink to the technical amendments made.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The text of the Decision will be published on the GOV.UK, at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/specialised-committee-on-participation-in-union-programmes.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans her Department has to establish service standards to improve the effectiveness of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS); and pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2025 to Question 77954 on Financial Ombudsman Service, when she expects to publish a response to the consultation on improving the regulatory coherence between the FOS and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) sets itself performance targets in its annual Plans and Budgets publication.
Ensuring timely outcomes is one of the FOS’s main priorities for 2025-26, as outlined in its annual Plans and Budget publication on 1 April 2025.
In 2023-24, the FOS resolved over half of its cases within three months.
The FOS regularly publishes data on its casework, including progress against its annual performance targets. The latest complaints data is available at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/our-insight and its Annual Reports and Accounts can be found at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding/annual-reports-accounts
The government is considering the feedback received to its recent consultation on the FOS, and will publish a response soon.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 92 of the Strategic Defence Review, how many meetings officials from their Department have attended on the national conversation on defence and security; which directorate in their Department is responsible for the departmental contribution to that national conversation; and what the job title is of the official responsible.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Officials from HM Treasury work closely with other departments across Government – including the Ministry of Defence – to support the delivery of the vision outlined in the Strategic Defence Review.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to help support the spending power of those who are on the national minimum wage.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
From 1 April 2026, the National Living Wage will increase by 4.1% to £12.71 per hour for eligible workers aged 21 and over. This represents an increase of £900 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage, and is expected to directly benefit the spending power of around 2.4m low-paid workers.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department will examine whether the options chosen for the restoration and renewal programme have been developed in accordance with HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Parliament is responsible for the Restoration and Renewal programme.