Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many drivers were trained for C+E heavy goods licences at the Defence School of Transport in Leconfield in the last year.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Between 31 August 2025 and 1 September 2026, 646 Category C+E licences were awarded following training at the Defence School of Transport in Leconfield. The award of a Category C+E licence marks successful completion of the training and has therefore been used as the measure for the number of drivers trained.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of productivity in the building industry; and what steps they are taking to improve it.

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

An ONS study in 2021 (Productivity in the construction industry, UK - Office for National Statistics) concluded that both the level of productivity, and the rate of productivity improvement in the construction sector, have historically been below that of the wider economy, and have not changed much in decades.

The Government is addressing this challenge through investing £625m in the Construction Skills Challenge, £85m in the Industrialising and Digitalising Construction Challenge, and has also worked with the industry to develop a Publicly Available Specification, PAS 4010, which will create a consistent approach to managing productivity improvement in the sector.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to resume uranium conversion in the UK.

Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government recognises the importance of conversion for our nuclear industry and has a stated ambition to re-establish conversion services in the UK. In 2023, through the Nuclear Fuel Fund, we invested £13m, match-funded by Westinghouse, into their conversion project at the Springfield’s site in Preston.

The UK continues to be supportive of this ambition, and the role UK based conversion can play in delivering secure and reliable fuel supply chains.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made with regard to their small modular reactor programme.

Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) is continuing to drive forward the UK’s flagship small modular reactor (SMR) programme.

GBE-N and Rolls-Royce SMR (RR SMR) entered into a Technology Partner contract earlier this year and are now jointly undertaking design work to progress the Gwyndod SMR project on Anglesey in North Wales.

GBE-N is also focused on reindustrialisation opportunities and delivering on its ambition that 70% of supply chain products are British built across the SMR fleet. To date, it has awarded nearly £900m in supply chain contracts, with over 70% going to UK-registered companies.

GBE-N is working closely with RR SMR on its supply chain plan; it was recently announced that Siemens Energy will support UK jobs by manufacturing RR SMR steam turbine components in Newcastle.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of structural steel and steel rebar procured for use in High Speed 2  was produced in the United Kingdom.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Based on the aggregated figures from all Steel demand returns from 2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive, 62% of total steel used across the project was UK sourced, increasing to 78% for reinforcement (rebar). Data including 2025/26 will be available in due course.

In line with the government’s new Steel Trade Measure and Strategy, which seeks to sustain and strengthen domestic steel production, HS2 will continue to be proactive in sourcing UK steel to meet future programme demand.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the total cost to date of the Undercover Policing Inquiry; and how much has been paid to the Chair, Sir John Mitting.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

As of 30 June 2026, the Undercover Policing Inquiry had incurred a total expenditure of £144,597,900.

The Chair’s remuneration forms part of the £28,931,400 published under “Inquiry staffing, including secretariat”.

The Inquiry publishes a quarterly breakdown of its costs on its website: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/about-the-inquiry/#costs.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the development of drought and heat tolerant varieties of crops for UK farmers.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Genetic technologies offer huge potential for British farmers, enabling development of crops that are more nutritious, resistant to pests and disease, resilient to climate change and more environmentally beneficial.

The department is supporting innovation through Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, funding a £12.5 million competition specifically for precision breeding, including drought resistant crops. Defra’s Genetic Improvement Networks Platform also supports £15m crop breeding R&D for priority climate resilience traits, including drought and heat.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to reduce and eliminate environmental, social and governance restrictions on access to finance for the UK defence industry.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

As set out in the SDR, DIS and DIP, we are developing the Defence Finance and Investment Strategy (DFIS), which is due to be published in Autumn 2026. The DFIS will address barriers to financing and investment in the sector – including supporting businesses access finance, in partnership with public financial institutions and private capital. To inform the DFIS, we have held working sessions on debanking and on Environmental, Social, and Governance considerations, working with regulators, industry, the financial sector and other Government departments.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Written Answer by Lord Leong on 9 July (HL1468), what steps they are taking to ensure that the 484 zero emission buses to be funded by additional bus funding will be built in the UK.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

While the Government cannot mandate the purchase of British-built buses, at the final UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel, Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) agreed to commit that a 10% minimum of social value criteria would apply in all future bus procurement exercises.

This means that when procuring buses, MCAs will consider the positive impact a manufacturer has on our society, the environment, and on the local community as part of their decision-making process.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in discussions regarding UK involvement in the proposed Defence, Security and Resilience Bank.

Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK and Canada share a common objective of strengthening Allied defence industrial capacity through closer international cooperation. The Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM) and Canada's proposed Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) are intended to address related challenges within the defence industrial ecosystem.

Following the joint-PM statement at the NATO Ankara summit in July, we committed to working closely with our Canadian allies on how the MDM and DSRB can work together, and we continue to do this.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 9 September (HL2269), why they cannot mandate the purchase of British-built buses given that funding is being provided by the HM Treasury.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

We are prevented from requiring that grant funding should be used to procure ‘British Built’ buses This prohibition is founded in long-standing World Trade Organization (WTO) law and also implements our commitments in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

However, while the Government cannot mandate the purchase of British-built buses, at the final UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel, Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) agreed to commit that a 10% minimum of social value criteria would apply in all future bus procurement exercises.  This means that when procuring buses, MCAs will consider the positive impact a manufacturer has on our society, the environment, and on the local community as part of their decision-making process.

UK-based bus manufacturers have benefited the most from the Department’s funding programmes, such as ZEBRA. It is estimated that over 60% of ZEBRA-supported buses will be procured from UK-based manufacturers.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to expand domestic capacity for the production of energetics and munitions; and what their estimated timeline is for achieving that expansion.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Government is taking forward the commitments set out in the Strategic Defence Review and the Defence Investment Plan to strengthen the United Kingdom's sovereign munitions and energetics manufacturing capability. This includes investment of £6 billion in munitions during this Parliament, including £1.5 billion to support an "always on" munitions production pipeline and the commitment to build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. The SDR munitions investment programme is intended to increase domestic production capacity, improve supply chain resilience and support the replenishment of munitions stockpiles. Delivery will be phased, with construction of the new facilities expected to be underway by 2030, with capability coming into service as individual projects mature.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) repair vessels for communication cables, and (2) repair crew for communication cables, are based in the UK.

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

Owners of subsea telecoms cables manage repair and maintenance through membership of commercial cable maintenance agreements. There are currently six cable repair vessels servicing the maintenance agreements in the Atlantic and Northern Europe, one of which is based in the UK (information collected via DSIT Request for Information April 2026). Government does not routinely hold information on the crewing of cable vessels, which varies by vessel and commercial operator. There is a privately owned UK-based facility that trains subsea cable repair technicians.

The Government recognises the importance of a UK-based and UK-flagged subsea telecoms cable repair vessel. DCMS is exploring options for securing this capability in the long term.

Found: Baroness Mobarik; Baroness Northover; Lord Oates; Baroness Paul of Shepherd’s Bush; Lord Peach; Lord Spellar