Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between local housing allowance rates and the availability of affordable accommodation in the private rental sector.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) determines the maximum financial support available for renters in the private rented sector. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions reviewed LHA at the 2025 Autumn Budget and announced that rates would be maintained at their current levels for 2026/27. A range of factors, such as rent levels and the housing markets across the country were considered against the fiscal context and the level of housing support that Government provides overall.
Renters receiving housing support who face a shortfall in meeting their rent costs can apply for a Crisis and Resilience Fund Housing Payment from local authorities in England.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask The Leader of the House when she expects a Written Answer to be given to the question asked by Lord Young of Cookham on 11 June (HL905).
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The question was answered by the Department for Education on the 14th July 2026. I apologise for the delay and have reminded the department of the need to meet the response target of 10 working days.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will respond to the House of Lords Social Mobility Policy Committee report Social Mobility: Local Roots, Lasting Change, published on 18 November 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The House of Lords Social Mobility Policy Committee report 'Social Mobility: Local Roots, Lasting Change' will be responded to by 23 July 2026.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask The Leader of the House how many House of Lords Select Committee reports have not been responded to by His Majesty’s Government within the recommended time since September 2024.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Since September 2024 there have been 29 House of Lords Select Committee Reports which have not been responded to by His Majesty’s Government within the recommended time. This does not include responses to Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, Constitution Committee or Joint Committee on Human Rights reports as they are usually published in time for particular stages of bills rather than the usual two month period. My office regularly follows up with departments who fail to meet the recommended response period.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish their response to the report of the Social Mobility Policy Committee Social Mobility: Local Roots, Lasting Change, published on 18 November 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is grateful for the work of the committee in producing this report. We are considering our response and will be publishing it in due course.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal from The Share Foundation for automatic release of Child Trust Funds at 21 years old.
Answered by Lord Livermore
The government is aware of suggestions that a system could be developed for paying out the savings held in matured Child Trust Fund (CTF) accounts that have not been accessed by the account owners by the age of 21.
The savings in these accounts belong to the account owners and are held by private sector CTF providers. The government does not have authority to close the accounts or to access and transfer the savings in them. The infrastructure required to implement the proposal does not currently exist within government departments or CTF providers.
The Government is committed to reuniting all young adults with their CTFs. HMRC works with CTF providers, industry representatives and others such as the University and Colleges Admissions service, to explore ways of enabling account owners to be aware of and trace their accounts.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish a roadmap to a smoke-free Britain, as set out in the 10 Year Health Plan for England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out our ambition for a smoke-free United Kingdom and to protect future generations from the harms of tobacco and nicotine addiction. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is currently in committee stage in the House of Lords.
There are no plans to develop a roadmap at this time, but we will keep this under review. Our attention and focus must be on delivering this legislation and on designing the regulations that follow.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps are being taken to ensure that ringfenced NHS funding for children's hospices is available beyond 2025–26; and to increase this funding to £30 million per year by 2030.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to activate "street votes", as legislated for in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, contains provisions allowing for the introduction of Street Votes. The government has no intention to bring those provisions into effect.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential merits of mobility hubs for increasing public transport usage for (1) disabled people, and (2) non-disabled people.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The government is committed to improving public transport services so they are more inclusive and disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity.
The government has announced significant investment in public transport, which can be used by local authorities to improve accessibility. At the Autumn 2024 Budget, we confirmed £955 million to protect and improve bus services. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve their bus services can be used in whichever way they wish to improve services for passengers, including establishing new mobility hubs in their areas.
The government reaffirmed its commitment to investing in public transport long-term at the Spending Review (SR). We confirmed additional funding from 26/27 to maintain and improve bus services and £2.3 billion through the Local Transport Grant over the Spending Review period for local transport improvements, funding could be used to invest in measures like mobility hubs.
The government has also committed to publishing an Integrated National Transport Strategy (INTS) later this year. Accessibility is at the forefront of the government’s public transport reforms and will be an important consideration as the Department develops the INTS.