Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of kidney transplants, including through increasing organ donation rates, improving family consent, supporting living donation, and maximising the use of donated kidneys.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organisation responsible for organ donation services in the United Kingdom.
NHSBT, working with the Department and NHS England, delivers a multi‑channel programme of activity to increase organ donation, improve family consent, and maximise the impact of both deceased and living donation. This includes:
year-round communications and engagement, combining national campaigns, digital marketing, and partnership working. High-profile moments, such as Organ Donation Week, Living Donation Week, and World Kidney Day, are supported by media activity across a variety of channels, directing audiences to trusted information and to register their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register;
partnerships, including with National Health Service organisations, charities, community, and advocacy groups, which aim to reach people at key moments through trusted channels. For example, a functionality has been introduced recently on the front page of the NHS App, making it easier for people to record, review, and share their organ donation decision as part of routine interactions with NHS services;
targeted community engagement, supported by NHSBT’s Community Grants Programme, helps improve understanding of organ donation and family consent in communities with greater transplant need or lower consent rates; and
work to maximise the use of donated kidneys, including new assessment and recovery centres, which are currently being piloted and will use machine perfusion technology to preserve and assess kidneys for longer, alongside trust utilisation strategies to help transplant centres and hospitals identify and address local barriers to using suitable organs.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address practical barriers to home dialysis, including through patient education and choice, assisted peritoneal dialysis, community nursing support, reimbursement of utility costs, addressing storage and housing constraints, and transport incentives that may favour in-centre dialysis.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The updated service specification will be published in due course. It will support ongoing action to increase home dialysis provision in line with the Renal Services Transformation Programme ambition for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home, including through strengthened early patient education, standardised pre-dialysis pathways, and multidisciplinary care models that enable shared decision-making.
The specification will include defined metrics for commissioned providers, including the proportion of dialysis patients receiving home-based therapies, supporting formal assessment against the ambition of achieving at least 20% uptake.
This is complemented by improvements to operational processes, including home assessments and installation pathways, to ensure patients can access home therapies in a timely and consistent way.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how NHS England's target for 20 per cent of dialysis patients to receive treatment at home will be implemented, monitored and encouraged through the updated renal service specification; and what mechanisms will be used to support integrated care boards, renal networks and providers to increase home dialysis uptake.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The updated service specification will be published in due course. It will support ongoing action to increase home dialysis provision in line with the Renal Services Transformation Programme ambition for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home, including through strengthened early patient education, standardised pre-dialysis pathways, and multidisciplinary care models that enable shared decision-making.
The specification will include defined metrics for commissioned providers, including the proportion of dialysis patients receiving home-based therapies, supporting formal assessment against the ambition of achieving at least 20% uptake.
This is complemented by improvements to operational processes, including home assessments and installation pathways, to ensure patients can access home therapies in a timely and consistent way.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards increasing the proportion of kidney dialysis patients able to receive treatment at home, including through implementation of the NHS "three shifts" agenda from hospital to community care.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest UK Renal Registry report in 2025 shows that the uptake of home dialysis has increased, with continued progress in expanding home therapies, which account for around 15–20% of dialysis patients. A copy of the report is attached.
NHS England, renal networks, providers and patient organisations are working together to continue to increase access to home-based therapies.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when NHS England plans to publish the updated renal service specification; and what steps they are taking to ensure the specification supports increased access to home dialysis therapies and improved patient choice.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The specification is being worked on by NHS England in line with its national service specification methods process. Stakeholder testing was recently undertaken. The timing of full publication has yet to be decided upon as the feedback from stakeholders is being considered, alongside any changes required. NHS England will set out the expected date of publication as soon as this is available.
NHS England is increasing access to home-based therapies through the Renal Services Transformation Toolkit (2023), which aims for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home. The specification will support the 20% ambition.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take, if any, to introduce legislation to raise standards in the British press.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
In the UK, there is a self-regulatory system for the press, which is independent from Government. This is important for press freedom and to ensure the public has access to accurate and trustworthy information from a range of different sources. However, with this freedom comes responsibility. We expect publishers to operate within the bounds of the law and adhere to high ethical and professional standards, as well as ensure appropriate routes to redress if these standards are not met.
Looking ahead, we are closely following trends in media consumption and are carefully considering the best route forward to safeguard public trust in our news media. There are currently no plans for legislation on press standards.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Prime Minister has agreed a date to meet with victims of press abuse.
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)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer of 02 February, Official Report, PQ HC107285:
PQ 107285: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Prime Minister has agreed a date to meet with victims of press abuse, following his remarks at the Liaison Committee on 15 December 2025.
Answer: Officials from the Prime Minister’s Office are in contact with representatives of the group to arrange a meeting.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to review the honours system for non-British taxpayers.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
UK honours may be awarded to British and foreign nationals either based in the UK, or those who contribute to the United Kingdom while based overseas. All nominees are subject to a range of probity checks, the outcomes of which are considered by the honours committees, alongside other relevant factors, when making their final recommendations.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to ask the Civil Aviation Authority to review whether charges at airports and on flights, such as excess baggage fees, are fair.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The CAA is independently responsible for regulating airport charges within the overall legislative framework for economic regulation set out in the Civil Aviation Act 2012. Regulation is based on an assessment of an airport’s market power with the purpose of protecting the consumer. Currently two airports meet this market power test - Heathrow and Gatwick - with regulatory arrangements in place for both.
The CAA does not hold statutory competition functions in relation to airline markets: these are held by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on civil servants giving evidence to House of Lords committees, and under what circumstances a request for such evidence may be declined.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The Government, including the Civil Service, is committed to being as accommodating as possible when requests are made by Select Committees. The Cabinet Office has dedicated guidance for Civil Servants about giving evidence to House of Lords Select Committees. Officials will always carefully consider requests to give evidence. When they do accept such invitations, they require Ministerial agreement and are there to represent the Minister's views.
In the event that a Select Committee requests a named civil servant from a department and the department feels that they are not the most appropriate person to represent the Minister, the department has the right to suggest an alternative to the Committee. There may be rare examples where the Department and Ministers feel an official is unable to attend, but the guidance is clear that if a Department considers it is unable to meet any requests from the Select Committee, they should inform the Committee as soon as practicably possible and set out the reasons why.
As Leader of the House of Lords, I have made it clear to my Ministerial Colleagues, that Ministers in both Houses should make every effort to facilitate Select Committee requests, including evidence session attendance.