Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many officials (1) in total, and (2) in number of full-time equivalent staff, have been involved in supporting the promoters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the Ministry of Justice since November 2020.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of full-time equivalent staff involved in providing technical drafting support and workability advice to the Sponsors of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has fluctuated since January 2025. As of 1 September 2025, there were 3.7 full-time equivalent (FTE) officials in the Ministry of Justice.
Where required, contributions on specific issues may have been sought from other teams; however, the FTE cannot be accurately quantified for these issues.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many GP practices returned more than 1000 HSA4 forms which record an abortion by medicine administered at home in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether the form was returned by a general practice.
The HSA4 form does capture information on the hospital or clinic where the termination took place, and whether any medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. However, the publication of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many GP practices returned more than 100 HSA4 forms which record an abortion by medicine administered at home in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether the form was returned by a general practice.
The HSA4 form does capture information on the hospital or clinic where the termination took place, and whether any medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. However, the publication of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals received medicines for abortion at home via post in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether abortion medicine was sent via the post, and so the Department does not hold this information.
The HSA4 form does capture whether the medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. This information is published in the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales for the years 2018 to 2022. However, publication of the abortion statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the UK's natural capital accounts.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) is being legislated under Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The NRF will provide a more streamlined experience for developers and better outcomes for protected habitats and species.
The benefit of the NRF to the UK’s natural capital accounts will depend upon the specific Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) that are brought forward under its provisions. The requirement for an EDP to meet the overall improvement test before it can be made by the Secretary of State, supported by robust monitoring, reporting, and remediation safeguards, will ensure a positive impact.
An impact assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was published on 6 May 2025 and may be referred to for further details of the expected outcomes of the Bill.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 30 June (HL8647), whether they plan to include in their statistics abortions undertaken through abortion pills by post, and if so, how.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a legal requirement that all abortions performed in England and Wales, including early medical abortions (EMA) at home, are notified to the Chief Medical Officers for England and Wales respectively, within 14 days of the procedure via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form captures information on where the EMA pills were taken, but not whether they were delivered by post or collected from the clinic.
Statistics on home use of EMA pills for residents of England and Wales are already published by the Department in the annual Abortion Statistics for England and Wales publication. These statistics are published in the main commentary and the additional data tables of the publication. From 2019 to 2022, the statistics on home use of EMA pills were derived using the place of termination information on the HSA4.
In 2022, Parliament voted to permanently approve use of one or both pills for EMA up to 10 weeks at home, following a telephone or e-consultation with a clinician for residents in England and Wales. Following this, in April 2023, new questions were added to the HSA4 form, to capture information on where the abortion medications were taken. Statistics on home use of EMA pills in future publications, from 2023 onwards, will be based on these new questions.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 23 July (HL9109), whether they will now answer the question put; namely, where the first 10 Neighbourhood Health Centres will be located, and when will those centres open.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have written to integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities to invite applications from local places to participate in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP). As part of this, we have requested initial information on local assets that could host neighbourhood health centres (NHCs). ICBs will be key here as strategic commissioners in identifying where NHCs are required and defining their requirements in the context of other supporting infrastructure in the local area.
Applications should be submitted by 8 August 2025; our 10-Year Health Plan sets out we will start in some of the communities where healthy life expectancy is lowest, delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government where the first 10 Neighbourhood Health Centres will be located, and when will those centres open.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future, and we recognise that delivering high quality NHS healthcare requires the right infrastructure in the right places.
That is why over the course of our 10-Year Health Plan, we will establish over 200 neighbourhood health centres nationwide, with 40 to 50 expected over the course of this Parliament.
We will start in some of the most deprived communities, using public capital to update and refurbish existing, under-used buildings, delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of bookmakers promoting more harmful online gaming products over sports betting as a result of the proposed Remote Betting and Gaming Duty.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is consulting on proposals to simplify the current gambling tax system by merging the three taxes that cover remote gambling, including online gambling, into one. The Government welcomes views from stakeholders as part of the consultation process.
The Government will consider all evidence provided as part of the consultation before taking a final decision on the proposed reform.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect HMP Millsike to be operating at full capacity.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMP Millsike officially opened in March 2025 and received the first cohort of prisoners on 23 April. To ensure stability, the prison will ramp up to full capacity gradually and is intended to be at full capacity by spring 2026. Ramp up will be strictly monitored and can be adjusted or paused should the safety or stability of the prison require it.