Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number and value of UK properties held by (1) direct trust ownership, (2) UK companies held via a trust, and (3) overseas companies held via a trust

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This information is not held by MHCLG, DBT or HM Land Registry.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what lessons they have taken from the report by the Poverty and Environment Trust, Overwhelmed and Oversubscribed, published in August; and what is the timetable for bringing forward legislation to establish local supply rights for community energy schemes.

Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This Government is hugely ambitious about the role that local energy will play in achieving our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.

Officials read the report with interest and thank the Poverty and Environment Trust for their work on it.

Alongside delivering the 2025/26 Great British Energy Community Fund, Great British Energy is expected to work closely with Community Energy Groups, providing commercial, technical and project-planning assistance to increase their capability and capacity to build a pipeline of successful projects in their local areas, in addition to feasibility funding support.

We recognise the requests to take steps to better enable local energy markets and trading to lower bills, support renewables and increase the resilience of the electricity networks. The Department is currently investigating barriers to local supply, and is working with Ofgem, Great British Energy and relevant stakeholders to find solutions that work in the best interests of local generators and consumers.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for covering property developers under money-laundering regulations; and what plans they have to ensure that property developers are regulated for such purposes.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government published its most recent National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing in July 2025, which included an assessment of risks for property developers.

While property developers more generally are not in scope of the Money Laundering Regulations, the regulations do apply to estate agencies, and to property developers that make their sales via a separate legal entity. Other property developers fall in scope of the regulations via their financial services and products. The scope of the Money Laundering Regulations is set to ensure that those sectors most at risk of being abused to facilitate money laundering have appropriate, risk-based controls in place to protect themselves, while avoiding undue burdens on businesses and customers.

The Government intends to develop a new public-private strategy focused on anti-money laundering and asset recovery in the coming months. This will respond to the risks identified in the National Risk Assessment, including consideration of whether any further measures are needed to address vulnerabilities in higher risk sectors.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to reporting by The Guardian on 30 October that HMRC had sent more than 23,000 letters about stopping child benefit following overseas travel, what data sources they used; what checks they made about the legality of this use; and whether a sudden rise in the stopping of child benefit led to any internal assessment of procedures.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Child Benefit is paid to over 6.9 million families, supporting 11.9 million children. It is one of the most widely accessed benefits in the UK.

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce error and fraud in the Child Benefit system, HMRC ran a pilot from March 2024 to December 2024 using international travel data, provided by the Home Office, to identify Child Benefit claimants who may no longer satisfy residency-related eligibility criteria. This pilot saw thousands of people who had left the UK but carried on claiming Child Benefit removed from the system, preventing around £17m in incorrect payments.

This led to the expansion of the measure and investment in an additional 180 counter-fraud staff, announced at the Autumn Budget 2024. This is expected to save £350 million over the next five years.

The legal basis for disclosing information between HMRC and the Home Office for the purpose of tackling fraud is in Chapter 4 of the Digital Economy Act (“DEA”) 2017. HMRC has robust governance processes in place to assess its legal use of these powers to disclose and receive information from other public bodies.

In expanding the process over the past few months, a check of HMRC PAYE systems to look for continuing UK employment was excluded on around 23,500 enquiries. HMRC has now reinstated the employment check, conducted the check on all open cases, reinstated payments automatically without any need for claimant contact and backdated those payments.

HMRC is asking claimants under enquiry who believe they are still eligible to call the number in the letter they received. HMRC has set up a dedicated team to handle cases swiftly. Where eligibility is confirmed, payments will resume and HMRC will make backdated payments, so there will be no loss of entitlement. By the end of November, HMRC will have written to all claimants who have not yet made contact to provide them with a further 4 weeks to make contact.

HMRC is taking further steps to strengthen the process for this exercise and will no longer suspend payments at the outset of an enquiry. HMRC will give all claimants at least one month to evidence their entitlement first. Claimants will then be given a further month to respond before a decision to terminate their award is considered. HMRC has also introduced an upfront check to identify claimants from Northern Ireland whose exit from the UK was to the Republic of Ireland and will not issue enquiries on these claimants as part of this exercise. HMRC will streamline what is asked of claimants during these enquiries to confirm their ongoing eligibility for Child Benefit, and will continue to iterate the process where its monitoring and learning suggests that it should make further changes.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scoping review published in Animal Welfare on 4 November, The canine welfare, public health and environmental impact of systemic under-regulation within the UK puppy trade; and what action they will take to address the issues highlighted in it.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As outlined in our manifesto, the Government will end puppy smuggling and bring an end to puppy farming. To deliver this we are supporting the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill which will close loopholes in the non-commercial pet travel rules that are abused by unscrupulous traders and give the Government powers to prevent the supply of low-welfare pets to the United Kingdom.

We are considering the most effective way to end puppy farming, including assessing a range of evidence, and will set out next steps in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are planning to review the design and adequacy of the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Fair Dealings Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024 include a statutory review provision requiring an assessment of the regulatory provisions and a published report outlining the conclusions.

The review will consider whether the Regulations are meeting their intended objectives, how effectively those objectives are being achieved, and whether they remain appropriate. The review will be carried out in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings the Agriculture Supply Chain Adjudicator and Grocery Code Adjudicator have had since the former adjudicator was established to share information and discuss food supply chain issues that may cross between them, and what were the outcomes of the meetings.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As of 17 November 2025, the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator (ASCA) has received 1 formal complaint relating to areas of a milk purchase contract that was alleged to be not compliant with the requirements of the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024. ASCA led an informal resolution which was fully agreed between the complainant and the processor resulting in an amended milk purchase contract being provided to the producer. No formal intervention was required from the ASCA as the complaint was withdrawn by the producer.

The ‘in confidence’ ASCA email channel was established to ensure producers could raise issues to the ASCA without fear of identification or reprisal. This was identified as a key barrier for producers to raise their concerns in an earlier ASCA survey. No formal complaints have been raised via this channel, but the ASCA has received over 15 separate issues in confidence. The confidential feedback has been used by ASCA to raise specific and anonymised issues with industry where possible.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases have been brought to the Agriculture Supply Chain Adjudicator under the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024; what was the nature of the code breaches alleged; and what were the outcomes of the cases.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As of 17 November 2025, the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator (ASCA) has received 1 formal complaint relating to areas of a milk purchase contract that was alleged to be not compliant with the requirements of the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024. ASCA led an informal resolution which was fully agreed between the complainant and the processor resulting in an amended milk purchase contract being provided to the producer. No formal intervention was required from the ASCA as the complaint was withdrawn by the producer.

The ‘in confidence’ ASCA email channel was established to ensure producers could raise issues to the ASCA without fear of identification or reprisal. This was identified as a key barrier for producers to raise their concerns in an earlier ASCA survey. No formal complaints have been raised via this channel, but the ASCA has received over 15 separate issues in confidence. The confidential feedback has been used by ASCA to raise specific and anonymised issues with industry where possible.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints have been received through the Agriculture Supply Chain Adjudicator's confidential email account, and what actions have been taken as a result.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As of 17 November 2025, the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator (ASCA) has received 1 formal complaint relating to areas of a milk purchase contract that was alleged to be not compliant with the requirements of the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024. ASCA led an informal resolution which was fully agreed between the complainant and the processor resulting in an amended milk purchase contract being provided to the producer. No formal intervention was required from the ASCA as the complaint was withdrawn by the producer.

The ‘in confidence’ ASCA email channel was established to ensure producers could raise issues to the ASCA without fear of identification or reprisal. This was identified as a key barrier for producers to raise their concerns in an earlier ASCA survey. No formal complaints have been raised via this channel, but the ASCA has received over 15 separate issues in confidence. The confidential feedback has been used by ASCA to raise specific and anonymised issues with industry where possible.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of gas and oil lobbyists at the 30th United Nations climate change conference, and what steps they are taking to prevent those lobbyists from attending future climate conferences.

Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The UNFCCC Secretariat, its Presiding officers, and the annually nominated COP Presidency are jointly responsible for upholding the standards that govern participation at COP meetings, relating to impartiality and transparency.

The UK continues to champion a transparent, inclusive, and effective UNFCCC process that supports enhanced ambition and strengthened implementation of the Paris Agreement and COP outcomes.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to deliver on the ambitions of the International Fungal Conservation Pledge through domestic policies; and what assessment they have made of the merits of action to better protect fungi.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK Government co-launched the pledge with the Chilean Government and remains committed to promoting action that recognises the vital role fungi plays in the ecosystem. Domestically, Natural England are leading a consortium of experts (including Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot, RBG Kew, Aberystwyth University, the British Mycological Society) to develop the first Great Britain Red List of non-lichenised fungi in 15 years, identifying species most at risk and requiring protection. In August, Natural England published the Threatened Species Recovery Actions (TSRA) which includes measures for 155 fungi and lichen species, alongside work on reintroductions and improving data access. UK government also supports the new Network for Fungal Conservation, which brings together agencies, NGOs and experts to embed fungi in nature recovery plans. The UK is also playing a leading role in research that will enhance our understanding of the evolution of fungi and the role they play in ecosystems, including through work at RBG Kew, where Defra funding is supporting the DNA sequencing of the world's largest fungarium (collection of fungi). Internationally, we are leading a proposal to ensure fungi are better recognised within the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at this year’s Conference of the Parties (CoP20) and continue to engage with experts through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Found: Letter dated 17/11/2025 from Baroness Anderson of Stoke on Trent to Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle