Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prescriptions for (1) finasteride, and (2) dutasteride, have been issued in the NHS in each year since 2014.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the requested information in each calendar year between 2014 and 2024, as well as between January and November 2025, and that has been dispensed in England regardless of where prescribed:
Period | Finasteride | Dutasteride |
2014 | 2,717,411 | 352,211 |
2015 | 2,954,990 | 325,232 |
2016 | 3,176,498 | 311,415 |
2017 | 3,360,103 | 294,715 |
2018 | 3,564,023 | 301,071 |
2019 | 3,762,144 | 296,300 |
2020 | 3,864,669 | 289,198 |
2021 | 3,900,062 | 275,907 |
2022 | 4,052,091 | 278,755 |
2023 | 4,230,844 | 282,205 |
2024 | 4,463,271 | 284,220 |
January-November 2025 | 4,108,900 | 259,432 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority, Prescription Costs Analysis (PCA)
Notes:
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the scope and time frame is of their review into the UK’s reservation on Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention; when consideration of this matter first began; why the review has been delayed; and whether the outcomes of the review will be made public.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we’ve made it our mission to halve it in a decade. We are deploying the full power of the state through our VAWG Strategy, which was published on 18th December 2025
The government has signed the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in, demonstrating to women in the UK and to our partners overseas our commitment to tackling violence against women and girls. Many members who have ratified the convention have also made reservations on specific articles of the convention. We are currently reviewing our policies that support migrant victims of domestic abuse. This includes considering whether it is appropriate to maintain, partially lift or remove our reservation on Article 59. While the review is ongoing, we are unable to provide any further details.
The reservation does not mean migrant victims are unsupported. We have introduced several policy changes to better support migrant victims of domestic abuse. This includes expanding immediate settlement provisions to cover cases of transnational marriage abandonment and broadening the eligibility for periods of leave independent of the abuser under the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC). We have also implemented the Support for Migrant Victims scheme which helps migrant victims of domestic abuse with No Recourse to Public Funds. The scheme is delivered by Southall Black Sisters and their delivery partners, and provides support for migrant victims of domestic abuse, including accommodation, subsistence, counselling and immigration support. Our total investment for 2025/26 is £2.4m.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking in response to the deaths, injuries, arrests and incarcerations during the protests in Iran, including sanctions, travel bans and initiating investigations into potential international crimes.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Noble Lord to Baroness Chapman's oral repeat of the Foreign Secretary's statement on 15 January.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the attacks on a hospital in Ilam, Iran, and the reports that tear gas was used to abduct wounded protestors.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Noble Lord to Baroness Chapman's oral repeat of the Foreign Secretary's statement on 15 January.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 5 January (HL13151), where the information about whether the conviction of Jimmy Lai represents a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration is located in the statement or response in the House of Lords on 17 December 2025 (HL Deb cols 798–806).
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
At Column 799, in the Foreign Secretary's statement.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the reporting of the value of frozen assets from Daesh was stopped; and whether they plan to resume that reporting.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, has released the value of frozen funds from its Annual Frozen Asset Review exercise in each OFSI Annual Review since 2017.
OFSI published in its 2024-2025 Annual Review that £19.3 million in assets across multiple sanctions regimes have been reported as frozen as of September 2024.
This is an aggregated total of all entities and individuals listed on the Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets under non specified regimes including the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida regime.