Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ratify the Beijing Treaty for Audiovisual Performances, following their consultations in 2021 and 2023.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government keeps legal frameworks under review, including those relating to copyright and related rights, and data protection. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 contains a number of updates to the data protection framework. The Government's Report and Impact Assessment on AI and copyright, as required under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, was published on 18 March and can be found at GOV.UK.
Alongside this the Government is considering options for ratifying the Beijing Treaty and will announce its intended approach in due course. We will take the time to get this right and we will do so in a way that is in line with British interests and values.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what amounts associated with the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility are included in the cumulative government debt; and whether they plan to exclude them from the total.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Information on the contribution to debt from the Bank of England and Asset Purchase Facility are routinely published in the monthly Public Sector Finances statistical release. The latest release, published by the Office for National Statistics on 20th March, showed that the impact on government debt from Asset Purchase Facility gilt holdings was £85.1 billion at the end of February 2026.
The Government's fiscal rules target net financial debt (Public sector net financial liabilities), to prioritise investment to drive long-term growth while getting debt falling as a share of the economy. Net financial debt includes the Bank of England’s balance sheet activities, including the Asset Purchase Facility.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2026 to Question 105244 on Senior Civil Service: Training, if he will publish the training material for the content on inclusion in leadership.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Our leadership development materials use internal case studies and sensitive organisational data to address specific system-wide challenges.
To protect the privacy of this information and integrity, we do not publish these materials externally. We do, however, make the programme’s key themes and learning objectives available on the webpage of Accelerated Development Schemes on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide compensation for career damage and financial loss for victims in the infected blood scheme who were unable to complete or build on their training or qualifications.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Financial Loss award is designed to compensate for past and future financial losses suffered as a result of infection. For people infected with HIV or chronic Hepatitis infections, this is calculated based on the average anticipated loss of earnings they would have suffered as a result of their infection and subsequent treatment.
In some exceptional cases, infected people will have suffered greater financial losses as a result of their infection than they will be compensated for as part of their core route award. This might be, for example, where they had particularly high earnings prior to their infection. Infected people in this situation can apply for an Exceptional Loss award through the Scheme’s supplementary route, and if eligible, receive additional financial loss compensation to reflect their circumstances.
The Inquiry’s Additional Report included a recommendation to consult on whether these evidence requirements mean that some people who ought to be eligible for the award are prevented from accessing it, and whether there are ways to address this.
The consultation asked respondents to consider forms of evidence for loss of earnings, fairness for applicants to the Scheme, and the types of evidence the Infected Blood Compensation Authority could take into account when someone no longer has documentary evidence to prove they earned beyond what is provided for under the core route. The consultation closed on 22 January. The Minister for the Cabinet Office hopes to update Parliament soon on the changes the Government intends to make to the compensation scheme, as a result of the public consultation.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether building societies exercise their powers to terminate membership of their members fairly and proportionately.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is keen to ensure that regulation is proportionate and gives building societies the flexibility to choose what works best for them within the mutual model. It would be inappropriate for the Government to comment on specific governance decisions taken by a building society within the legal framework.
A building society's membership policy is set out in the society's rulebook. If an individual feels procedure has not been followed, they can raise a formal complaint with the building society directly.
Where termination of membership also results in loss of access to a payment service, further protections may also apply. In June 2025, the Government legislated to require payment service providers to give customers at least 90 days’ notice before closing their account or terminating a payment service and provide a sufficiently detailed and specific explanation so the customer can understand why it is being terminated. These rules come into force for relevant new contracts from April 2026 and will ensure more transparent and predictable access to payment services, giving customers the time and information they need to challenge decisions or find alternative arrangements.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 10 March (HL15172), on what date the guidance on speaking to the media was last updated.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer given in HL15172:
Question: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 3 February (HL13976), and with reference to paragraph 223 of the Cabinet Office Guide to Parliamentary Work and paragraph 1.6(d) of the Ministerial Code, what is the reason why current policy development prevents the publication of the previous guidance to the Civil Service about speaking to the media. HL15172
Answer: This guidance is currently under development in a live policy area. Premature release of this information would inhibit the free and frank provision of advice for policy development.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the speech, Move fast. Fix things, delivered on 20 January 2026 by the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, what proportion of the Senior Civil Service had (a) primary career experience in policy roles, (b) primary career experience in operational delivery roles and (c) prior private sector experience; and what the equivalent figures were in each of the previous five years as of 1 January 2026.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We are unable to provide a response as this information is not captured centrally at the application stage.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to revise regulation of shadow banks following the collapse of Market Financial Solutions.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Treasury continues to work closely with the Bank of England and the regulators to monitor and respond to developments in the non-bank financial sector. The Treasury keeps the regulatory framework under review and is closely engaged in international work to understand and mitigate financial stability risks in respect of non-banks, including at the Financial Stability Board and G7.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the value and volume of steel imported into the UK in each of the last three calendar years, broken down by country of origin; and what percentage of total steel imports each country accounted for in each year.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The data on imports of steel is given in the attached tables in Annex A (volume) and Annex B (value).
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as an Accredited National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com ).
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what date or dates the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary Cat Little wrote to departments asking them to retain electronic correspondence held on (1) government, and (2) non-government, devices relating to the Government response to the Humble Address of 4 February.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer you to the Government's response to the Urgent Question tabled on 12th February, the Written Ministerial Statement in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and repeated in the House of Lords that same day, and the Oral Statement on the 23rd February, in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, which set out an update on the Government's process and that Departments have been instructed to retain material that may be relevant to the motion.