Lord Wills

The regulatory measures in the Precision Breeding Act are designed to safeguard animal welfare and ensure that the health and welfare of relevant animals (defined as vertebrates) will not be adversely affected by any trait that results from precision breeding. We are considering the requirements for this regulatory framework and have commissioned three research projects from Scotland's Rural College to support this.

The scientific advice is that precision bred organisms pose no greater risk to the environment or health than traditionally bred organisms. This advice is consistent across scientific sources and is supported by expert advisory committees and institutions, such as the European Food Safety Authority.

There are provisions in the Precision Breeding Act to introduce regulations to ensure that food and feed from precision bred organisms is safe.

Defra economists, with oversight by the Chief Economist, compiled the Department’s De Minimis Assessment of the impacts of The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025. The assessment was based on published independent market research and academic studies, and reports by economic institutions.

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government took the cost pressures facing adult social care, including changes to employer National Insurance Contributions and increases to the National Living Wage, into account as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the 2024 Autumn Budget process.

To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26.

In addition, the Spending Review 2025 allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance is the accompanying statutory guidance for local authorities and partner agencies, which sets out the principles that should underpin market shaping and commissioning activity, including a focus on outcomes and wellbeing.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) assesses how well local authorities are delivering their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including those related to market shaping and commissioning. To date, the CQC has published over 60 assessment reports, which are publicly available on the CQC’s website. To date, none have yet been found to be failing in its market shaping duty. If the CQC identifies that a local authority has failed to deliver one or more of its Care Act duties, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting MP) has legal powers to intervene.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance is the accompanying statutory guidance for local authorities and partner agencies, which sets out the principles that should underpin market shaping and commissioning activity, including a focus on outcomes and wellbeing.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) assesses how well local authorities are delivering their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including those related to market shaping and commissioning. To date, the CQC has published over 60 assessment reports, which are publicly available on the CQC’s website. To date, none have yet been found to be failing in its market shaping duty. If the CQC identifies that a local authority has failed to deliver one or more of its Care Act duties, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting MP) has legal powers to intervene.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all people. In meeting this duty, local authorities must consider ways of promoting a workforce with the appropriate skills and working conditions. Local authorities should work with care providers on an ongoing basis to arrive at a shared understanding of what it costs to run high quality and sustainable care provision, taking into account local circumstances.

We expect local authorities to pay sustainable fee rates that meet the costs of delivering care, which is why the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund will provide over £1 billion for adult social care to local authorities over 2025/26. This can be used to target increasing fee rates paid to adult social care.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets, and ensure that people have a range of high-quality, sustainable and person-centred adult social care and support options available to them, and that they can access the services that best meet their needs.  Care providers entering and exiting is a normal part of a functioning market, and local authorities should have appropriate contingency plans in place depending on the services being provided.

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Market Oversight Scheme monitors the financial health of typically the largest and potentially most difficult-to-replace providers in the adult social care sector. The CQC will notify local authorities if they consider it likely that any provider’s services will be disrupted because of business failure.   Since January 2024, there have been no such notifications.

The number of adult social care providers deregistered by the CQC from 1 January 2024, broken down by local authority, is shown in the attached table.

Family members rightly expect that the pathology taken in respect of their loved ones will be explained to them and their questions answered, and the report made clear that more needs to be done on engagement and support for families.

Following the publication of the report "The Patronising Disposition of Unaccountable Power: Independent Review of Forensic Pathology", my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department confirmed that the Government accepts the six recommended points of action as I reported in my statement of 11 September 2024.

Officials are now working at pace on an action plan to respond in detail to those recommended points of action including updating some existing detailed guidance for pathologists which is now out for stakeholder consultation. This work will be completed in in the summer of this year and will include advice on any statutory measures which Ministers will consider carefully. The Government will report back in due course with our response to the recommendations.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer to Question UIN 62367 on 2 July 2025.

The Government is committed to placing victims at the heart of processes that follow a major incident, which is why we are establishing the Independent Public Advocate. We are on track for the successful candidate to take up their position in the Summer.

The public appointment campaign to appoint the Standing Advocate of the IPA was launched on 24 September 2024 and is nearing completion. Interviews concluded on 14 February, and we will announce the preferred candidate shortly.

As this public appointment is made by Ministers and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the recruitment process must comply with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

The candidate will be subject to a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing by the Justice Select Committee.

The Government is committed to placing victims at the heart of processes that follow a major incident, which is why we are establishing the Independent Public Advocate. We are on track for the successful candidate to take up their position in the Summer.

The public appointment campaign to appoint the Standing Advocate of the IPA was launched on 24 September 2024 and is nearing completion. Interviews concluded on 14 February, and we will announce the preferred candidate shortly.

As this public appointment is made by Ministers and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the recruitment process must comply with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

The candidate will be subject to a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing by the Justice Select Committee.

The Government is committed to placing victims at the heart of processes that follow a major incident, which is why we are establishing the Independent Public Advocate. We are on track for the successful candidate to take up their position in the Summer.

The public appointment campaign to appoint the Standing Advocate of the IPA was launched on 24 September 2024 and is nearing completion. Interviews concluded on 14 February, and we will announce the preferred candidate shortly.

As this public appointment is made by Ministers and regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the recruitment process must comply with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

The candidate will be subject to a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing by the Justice Select Committee.