Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much of the £487 million transferred from the Crown Estate to the Consolidated Fund in 2025–26 was subsequently allocated for use by the Royal Family.

Answered by Lord Livermore

The Crown Estate’s revenue account profit is paid in full to the Consolidated Fund. In exchange, the Government provides the Sovereign Grant to support the Monarch’s official business. The Grant does not provide an income to any member of the royal family.

As set out in the Sovereign Grant Review published on 25 June 2026, the Royal Trustees have determined that a reference rate of 20.5 per cent is appropriate for the funding formula from 2027-28 onwards, which equates to a 2027-28 Grant amount of £99.9 million, a reduction against the £137.9 million in 2026-27.

As the Sovereign Grant Act 2011 currently restricts the Grant amount from being set lower than the preceding year’s amount, the Government has committed to bring forward legislation to enable the Grant for 2027-28 to be set at this lower amount, to reflect the adjustment now that the temporary additional funding for Buckingham Palace Reservicing is no longer needed.

Question

To ask The Senior Deputy Speaker, in respect of the evacuation of the House of Lords at 15:00pm on Thursday 2 July, (1) to what extent, if any, were members and staff of the House of Commons involved, (2) to what extent was the London Fire Brigade informed and involved, and (3) how long did the evacuation take, from the time of sounding the alarm to the last person leaving the building.

Answered by Lord McLoughlin

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The House of Commons was fully involved in the evacuation drill. For the purposes of evacuation, the Parliamentary Estate is treated as a single zone. Accordingly, the House of Commons Chamber was also evacuated during a debate.

The London Fire Brigade was informed in advance of the exercise. Its control room was notified and remained in contact throughout the drill. The local Borough Commander and the Station Commander from Soho were also informed. A representative from the London Fire Brigade's Risk Management Team attended and observed the exercise in order to provide feedback. In addition, the Chief Inspector from the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate attended to observe the evacuation.

The evacuation took a total of 15 minutes from commencement of the exercise until all members of the public and staff, excluding security personnel and designated observers, had left the building.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, for each of the last five calendar years, how many appeals have been made against magistrates' court decisions which have rejected defendants' claims of exceptional hardship in proceedings concerning drivers liable to disqualification under the totting-up provisions; and how many of those appeals were successful.

Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly data on appeals against magistrates’ court decisions heard in the Crown Court in the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly release which can be downloaded from the Criminal Court Statistics landing page here: Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK. Table C11 provides details of appeals heard at the Crown Court.

However, data is not centrally recorded on the specific grounds of appeal, including whether an appeal relates to the rejection of an exceptional hardship argument in proceedings concerning drivers liable to disqualification under the totting-up provisions.

This information may be contained within individual court records. However, identifying and reviewing relevant cases would require a manual examination of those records and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Found: stated that, “ports should be given a major role in telling everyone what their forecast is” (Lord Berkeley

Found: TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE M inutes of the 8th Meeting, held at 10am on Tuesday, 14 July 2026 P resent: Lord Berkeley

Found: TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE M inutes of the 7th Meeting, held at 10am on Tuesday, 7 July 2026 P resent: Lord Berkeley

Found: Innovation Tuesday 14 July 2026 10.20 am Watch the meeting Members present: Lord Mair (The Chair); Lord Berkeley

Found: and AI Tuesday 7 July 2026 10.15 am Watch the meeting Members present: Lord Mair (The Chair); Lord Berkeley

Found: stated that, “ports should be given a major role in telling everyone what their forecast is” (Lord Berkeley