Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Equality and Human Rights Commission's guidance on single-sex spaces following the Supreme Court decision requires either a general impact statement or a regulatory impact statement; and who makes the decision.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lord to my contribution in Hansard, Volume 849, column 1924: debated on Wednesday 5 November 2025: Equality and Human Rights Commission: Draft Updated Code of Practice:
"…the EHRC has not been asked to carry out a full regulatory impact assessment, but rather to provide a minimum proportionate cost assessment to evidence exclusion from a full regulatory impact assessment and enable us to take an informed decision. Understanding costs and impacts is not new; it would have been a consideration in the 2011 code.”
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Equality and Human Rights Commission's guidance on single-sex spaces following the Supreme Court decision has been sent to the devolved administrations in draft.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The EHRC has submitted its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to the Government. The Code addresses a broad range of issues for service providers, beyond those relating to single sex spaces. The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Code will be laid before Parliament.
Under Section 14 of the Equality Act 2006, the Secretary of State is required to consult with Scottish and Welsh Ministers at relevant stages in this process. Ministers are following this process.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they spend on iodine fortification programmes via international aid.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) does not directly fund traditional iodine fortification programmes but currently supports a range of nutritionally impactful interventions, including home fortification and supplementation containing iodine. Through our support to initiatives like the Child Nutrition Fund, a platform that aims to transform how nutrition is financed and delivered, the fund intends to contribute to reaching 320 million children and women annually with essential nutrition services by 2030. FCDO is also a long-standing and significant funder of CGIAR, which drives progress on biofortified crops. With UK support, 300 million people were estimated as consuming CGIAR-supported biofortified foods by 2024.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they have taken since the publication of National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2023: report on 11 June, in particular in regard to the finding that females of reproductive age in the UK have less than the World Health Organization thresholds for adequate iodine concentration.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest National Diet and Nutrition Survey showed that iodine levels in urine in women of reproductive age, 16 to 49 years old, were below the World Health Organisation threshold for adequacy, indicating insufficient iodine intake. Similar findings were seen in men aged 19 to 64 years old and girls aged 11 to 18 years old.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) maintains a watching brief on emerging evidence on iodine and health, including the iodine status of women of reproductive age in the United Kingdom. The SACN considered the topic of iodine at its horizon scans in 2022 and 2024 and agreed to add this topic to its work programme, with work on iodine due to start in 2026.
Government advice remains that individuals should be able to obtain all the iodine they need from a balanced diet, as depicted in The Eatwell Guide.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, what action they are taking to secure and ensure safe spaces for females.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government has always supported the protection of single-sex spaces to ensure women’s safety, privacy and dignity.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission as Britain’s independent equality watchdog has revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations (the Code) following a six-week consultation. The Code includes practical guidance for service providers, associations and those delivering public functions on how they should comply with the Equality Act 2010, following the Supreme Court ruling.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Code will be laid before Parliament. Parliament will then have 40 sitting days to consider the Code.
More widely, the Government is continuing to deliver on our commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. This includes embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces under ‘Raneem’s Law’, to help improve the police response to domestic abuse; taking steps to tackle spiking including introducing a new criminal offence; widening the use of stalking protection orders; and in July announcing £53m investment over the next four years to further tackle domestic abuse.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have not yet laid the advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission regarding the rules on safe spaces for women as defined by the Supreme Court.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Minister will lay it before Parliament. Parliament will then have a 40 day period to consider the Code.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the staff of an NHS hospital to which an A&E patient has been admitted have access to that patient's records kept at their usual NHS hospital.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Connecting Care Records programme ensures that authorised health and care professionals in England have safe and secure access to the person-related information that they need to provide care when they need it, where they need it, and how they need it. Every integrated care board has a Connecting Care Record, but the information that can be seen in an accident and emergency department will depend on the local approach.
The Government is developing a single patient record which will enable all providers delivering care to access the information they need and which will also end the need for patients to have to repeat their medical history when interacting with the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many ministers have been responsible for the Government contribution to the BBC World Service since July 2024; and when the current minister with that responsibility was appointed.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
A range of Ministers have answered questions and held meetings on the BBC World Service since July 2024 depending where, and at what level, those issues have been raised. The Minister for Multilateral and Human Rights is the current Minister responsible.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken since July 2024 to prevent (1) Russia, (2) China and (3) the United States of America, from interfering in future UK general elections.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We are committed to ensuring we have robust systems in place to defend the UK from foreign interference in UK democratic processes.
The Government has renewed the mandate of the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which brings together Government Ministers, representatives from law enforcement and the intelligence community, to coordinate work to protect UK political parties, elected officials and electoral infrastructure.
We continue to steer robust implementation of the National Security Act, introduced in 2023 to address evolving state threats to national security, including a new foreign interference offence.
The Government has operationalised the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, introduced under the National Security Act 2023. The scheme encourages transparency, deters harmful covert state threat activity and increases opportunity for earlier disruptions.
The Government has also published a new strategy for modern, secure and inclusive elections. This will strengthen oversight and safeguards against known and emerging threats, including foreign interference through covert political funding.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unexplained wealth orders have been made since July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2022 requires that the Home Office publish an annual report that sets out the number of unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) both applied for and obtained in a given period. The Act also sought to strengthen UWOs by enabling UWOs to be sought against property held in trust and other complex ownership structures, increasing the time available to law enforcement to review material provided in response to a UWO and reforming cost rules.
The previous report for the period May 2023-2024 can be found here. It states that two UWOs were applied for with one UWO obtained whilst the other had not received a judicial decision during the reporting period. A UWO applied for in the 2022-2023 reporting period was also obtained. The next report, covering May 2024 to May 2025 will be published shortly and, as per the Act, will set out the number of UWOs applied for in the period by relevant law enforcement agencies, as well as the number of orders made by the High Court.