Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - 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 5 January (HL13176), what safeguards they plan to put in place to ensure that integrated care boards are subject to proper scrutiny, particularly in relation to the incorporation of patient engagement work into the commissioning of services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards currently have a statutory duty in relation to public involvement and consultation and are subject to an annual assessment by NHS England of their functions.
The abolition of Healthwatch England and Local HealthWatch arrangements will require primary legislation and is subject to the will of Parliament.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK accelerates £200 million of funding for deployment to Ukraine as air defence support stepped up, published on 9 January 2026, how much of that funding has been spent as of 21 January 2026.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The UK does not routinely provide detailed updates on the costs of supporting operations.
Planning for the Multinational Force for Ukraine continues at pace, but we will not be drawn into further details of any future UK Armed Forces deployment, due to the risk to operational security.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what their rationale is for increasing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) cost-effectiveness thresholds for assessing new medicines to £25–30,000 per quality-adjusted life year; and whether they plan to apply the same proportionate increases to the NICE cost-effectiveness thresholds for highly specialised technologies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have reached a landmark agreement with the United States of America that secures a preferential tariff rate of 0% for all pharmaceuticals exports to the US for at least three years, and preferential terms for the United Kingdom’s medical technology exports, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technology. This means that, unlike anywhere else in the world, life sciences companies exporting medicines from the UK to the US will face no tariffs to do so, protecting jobs and investment in the UK.
The agreement will see the National Health Service invest approximately 25% more in innovative treatments which will be achieved through an increase to the standard cost-effectiveness threshold that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) uses and a change to the way in which NICE values health benefits to better reflect societal preferences.
There are currently no plans to increase the cost‑effectiveness threshold for the highly specialised technologies (HST) programme. The HST programme already operates at a much higher threshold than standard NICE technology appraisals, reflecting the challenges of bringing treatments for very rare conditions to market, and NICE has been able to recommend nearly all the treatments that have been evaluated through the HST programme for NHS use.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of adjusting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence cost-effectiveness thresholds for highly specialised technology in line with the new single technology appraisal cost-effectiveness thresholds due to come into effect from April.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have reached a landmark agreement with the United States of America that secures a preferential tariff rate of 0% for all pharmaceuticals exports to the US for at least three years, and preferential terms for the United Kingdom’s medical technology exports, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technology. This means that, unlike anywhere else in the world, life sciences companies exporting medicines from the UK to the US will face no tariffs to do so, protecting jobs and investment in the UK.
The agreement will see the National Health Service invest approximately 25% more in innovative treatments which will be achieved through an increase to the standard cost-effectiveness threshold that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) uses and a change to the way in which NICE values health benefits to better reflect societal preferences.
There are currently no plans to increase the cost‑effectiveness threshold for the highly specialised technologies (HST) programme. The HST programme already operates at a much higher threshold than standard NICE technology appraisals, reflecting the challenges of bringing treatments for very rare conditions to market, and NICE has been able to recommend nearly all the treatments that have been evaluated through the HST programme for NHS use.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increasing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence highly specialised technology cost-effectiveness threshold on patient access to rare disease medicines.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have reached a landmark agreement with the United States of America that secures a preferential tariff rate of 0% for all pharmaceuticals exports to the US for at least three years, and preferential terms for the United Kingdom’s medical technology exports, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technology. This means that, unlike anywhere else in the world, life sciences companies exporting medicines from the UK to the US will face no tariffs to do so, protecting jobs and investment in the UK.
The agreement will see the National Health Service invest approximately 25% more in innovative treatments which will be achieved through an increase to the standard cost-effectiveness threshold that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) uses and a change to the way in which NICE values health benefits to better reflect societal preferences.
There are currently no plans to increase the cost‑effectiveness threshold for the highly specialised technologies (HST) programme. The HST programme already operates at a much higher threshold than standard NICE technology appraisals, reflecting the challenges of bringing treatments for very rare conditions to market, and NICE has been able to recommend nearly all the treatments that have been evaluated through the HST programme for NHS use.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 16 September 2025 (HL10149), what plans they have to disburse all the remaining funds in the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme by raising the cap on individual claims retrospectively in the final weeks of the scheme.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Scheme for 2025 to 2026 will close on 31st March 2026 or once the £23 million budget has been reached, whichever is earlier. In order to ensure the scheme is available to as many listed places of worship as possible, within this context, we do not feel it is appropriate to reassess the cap for this financial year.
As announced on 22 January, from April 2026, the Places of Worship Renewal Fund will introduce to a more targeted model aimed at places of worship in areas of greatest need, ensuring that every pound of taxpayers' money is leveraged to secure the future of our heritage while supporting the government's wider missions for national renewal and community cohesion.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) proportion and (b) number of people imprisoned for death by dangerous driving obtain a driving licence within five years after release.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The information requested is not held. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is not informed when an individual is released from prison, and endorsements ordered upon conviction by the courts for the offences of causing death by careless driving or causing death by dangerous driving are removed from the driver’s record after four years in line with the retention periods for these offences.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she will publish The Schools White Paper covering SEND matters.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
To create a reformed special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system that will stand the test of time, we have undertaken a national engagement campaign on SEND reform, building on extensive engagement over the past year with children, young people, parents and professionals.
The upcoming Schools White Paper will outline our proposed SEND reforms and will be followed by a formal consultation and further engagement.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of making UK AISI / Thorn's guidance entitled Recommended Practice for AI-G CSEA Prevention, published in December 2025, mandatory for AI developers to prevent the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the importance of tackling AI-generated CSAM. Creating, possessing, or distributing CSAM, including AI Generated CSAM, is illegal. The Online Safety Act requires services to proactively identify and remove this content. We are taking further action in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise CSAM image generators, and to ensure AI developers can directly test for and address vulnerabilities in their models which enable the production of CSAM.
The AISI / Thorn joint publication guidance (Recommended Practice for AI-G CSEA Prevention) sets out practical steps that AI developers, model hosting services and others in the AI ecosystem can take to reduce the risk that their systems are misused to generate CSAM. This guidance is informed by input from industry and child protection organisations, and many of the world’s leading AI developers (including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta) have signed up to the principles of earlier forms of this guidance.
The Government is clear: no option is off the table when it comes to protecting the online safety of users in the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that patients with rare cancers are not without access to potentially life extending treatments while national appraisal and commissioning processes are ongoing.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants to ensure that all National Health Service patients, including patients with rare cancers, are able to benefit from rapid access to effective new medicines in a way that represents value to the taxpayer.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) aims wherever possible to issue recommendations for the NHS on new medicines close to the time of licensing so that patients have rapid access to clinically and cost-effective medicines. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE within three months of the publication of final guidance. NHS England funds NICE-recommended cancer medicines through the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of positive draft NICE guidance, bringing forward patient access by approximately five months than would otherwise be the case.
The measures that we announced in the Life Sciences Sector Plan will further streamline the licensing and NICE appraisal processes reducing the time between marketing authorisation and national funding decisions.