Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to increase weekly pay for adults in full-time work in the regions of the UK with the lowest pay.

Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)

This Government is committed to raising living standards across every part of the UK, including in regions with the lowest pay. We are boosting productivity and regional growth by reforming the skills system, expanding apprenticeships, and delivering the Youth Guarantee so more people can access better-paid jobs.

We continue to raise pay through annual increases to the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW), in line with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. These increases directly benefit a higher share of workers in regions with the lowest pay, with 10.5% of workers in Wales benefitting from the 2026 increase, compared to 4.5% in London.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to evaluate the success of their homelessness strategy.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

We are taking a cross-government approach to delivering the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to oversee delivery of our strategy. The Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping works across government to maintain collaboration and assure delivery of the commitments in this strategy. The Group will receive quarterly data updates, tracking progress against the targets. We will also publish reports at least every two years that monitor progress on the implementation of measures set out in this strategy, including our national cross-government targets. Our headline targets include: eliminating the illegal use of B&Bs, halving long-term rough sleeping, and increasing prevention and relief rates.

More comprehensive information can be found in Chapter 7 of the National Plan to End Homelessness.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the supply of transitional accommodation for young people.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we consulted on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). That consultation can be found on gov.uk here. As part of this, we sought views on whether the planning system provides appropriate flexibility to support temporary accommodation affordable housing products, such as stepping stone housing, when considering matters such as space standards. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

I also refer the noble Baroness to the answer provided to Question UIN 1861 in the other place on 27 May 2026.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the median gross weekly pay for adults in full-time work in each region of the UK.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary for the Office for National Statistics.

Baroness Smith of Llanfaes

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

8 June 2026

Dear Baroness Smith,

As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the median gross weekly pay for adults in full-time work in each region of the UK is (HL529).

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. ASHE is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs' Pay as You Earn (PAYE) records.

Table 1 below shows the median gross weekly pay for full-time employee jobs on adult rates by region for April 2025[1], taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). April 2025 is the latest period for which ASHE estimates are available. As with any survey, estimates from ASHE are subject to a margin of uncertainty.

The April 2025 data is provisional and will be revised in line with normal practice for our October 2026 publication.

The information provided can be found in our latest publication Employee earnings in the UK: 2025[2] and in ASHE Table 3[3].

More timely data on average weekly earnings is published in our Average weekly earnings (AWE) in Great Britain publication[4]. Our AWE average weekly earnings are our short-term measure of employee earnings and provide an estimate of mean pay for full-time and part- time employees combined. While AWE does not provide median weekly pay for full-time employees and are not available at region level, the most recent data (first quarter of 2026), give an indication of how employee pay has grown in the last year. Our latest estimates from AWE indicate that annual growth in average regular earnings (excluding bonuses) in Great Britain was 3.4% in the three-month period to March 2026.

Table 1: Estimates of median gross weekly pay (£) for full-time employee jobs on adult rates by region, April 2025

Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings

Yours sincerely,

Darren Tierney

[1] Estimates for 2025 are provisional.

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2025

[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/regionbyoccupation2digitsocashetable3

[4]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/may2026

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consultations have they held with the devolved governments in relation to setting a minimum age for social media.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

On 2 March we launched a consultation on a range of measures in relation to children’s wellbeing online, including whether there should be a minimum age for social media and what age that should be.

We engaged with the devolved governments during the consultation process and Ministers also visited the devolved nations to hear from children and parents.

The government published a progress report on the consultation on 15 June announcing its intention to ban social media services from offering its services to under 16s. This will apply UK wide, and we will continue to engage with the devolved administrations as we develop the regulations.