Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the independent report Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2025: infections, published on 4 December 2025, what action they plan to take in response to the specific additional recommendation about the link between agricultural use of novel fungicides and the spread of resistant strains of fungi with the capacity to cause serious disease.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government recognises the importance of carefully managing pesticide use, including fungicides, to protect the environment and human health and address the risks of resistance.
During the plant protection product approvals process, the Health and Safety Executive considers the potential for resistance development in the target pest organism. Where resistance is known or anticipated, limitations are placed on product use to mitigate resistance developing. Defra is also funding work by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board which provides farmers best practice to minimise the risk of resistance emerging.
Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Department of Health and Social Care has provided over £12 million in funding over the last five years for research into fungal infections and tackling antifungal resistance. Defra has also co-funded a research programme for UK Research and Innovation on ‘Transdisciplinary research to tackle antimicrobial resistance’.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is routinely monitoring threats from antifungal resistance. The National Mycology Reference Laboratory performs antifungal susceptibility testing of fungi from human infections from across the UK. UKHSA also monitors antifungal susceptibility testing data for fungal yeast pathogens isolated from blood samples from local microbiology laboratories in England. Trends are published annually.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent the use of Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories as safe havens for ultra-high net worth individuals with significant political exposure; and how they are enforcing any preventative efforts.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Corruption and illicit finance undermine effective governance in the UK and penalise legitimate UK businesses overseas.
While the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are distinct, largely self-governing jurisdictions with elected governments responsible for their own domestic affairs, the UK Government is committed to working with these international financial centres to tackle corruption and prevent money laundering.
The Home Office and the Foreign Office work with the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to help strengthen their approaches to beneficial ownership transparency. The Government’s ultimate expectation remains the introduction of publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership registers; however, the steps they are taking to implement legitimate interest access to their registers are welcome. Minister Doughty recently met with the Overseas Territories at the Joint Ministerial Council; the communique, which was published on November 28 2025, outlines the Overseas Territories’ progress.
This remains a priority for the UK government, reflected in a commitment within the recently published 2025 Anti-Corruption Strategy to strengthen beneficial ownership transparency across the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.
The UK also supports the Crown Dependencies and all Overseas Territories with financial centres commitment to uphold international tax standards, including the tax transparency framework and the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Framework.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce explicit requirements in the pesticide approval process to assess evidence on antifungal cross-resistance in non-target fungi; and what timetable they have set for any such changes.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Currently HSE considers the potential for resistance development in the target pest organism during the plant protection product approvals process. Where resistance is known or anticipated, HSE place specific limitations on the use of the product to help mitigate the likelihood and speed of resistance development. There are currently no plans to make changes to the process for regulating plant protection products.
Nevertheless, this Government recognises the dangers of anti-microbial resistance, including cross-resistance from fungicides. Defra is taking action to address the risks of resistance building by empowering farmers to make informed decisions as they manage pests, weeds and diseases. We have funded a roadshow, led by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), that is delivering practical advice to help farmers and agronomists to minimise the risk of resistance developing. This will run until March 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to follow the plan set out in the English Aquaculture Strategy, published in November 2020, in particular the target of a 75 per cent increase in seafood consumption by 2040.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to supporting the sustainable, industry‑led growth of the aquaculture sector, and the English Aquaculture Strategy sets out the aquaculture sector’s ambitions for 2040.
We have no plans for a legally binding food production target, but as we develop plans to support delivery of the food strategy outcomes, we are focussed on securing resilient domestic production that supports good growth and enhances domestic food security.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to ensure the provision of children's hospice services in London in the light of the planned closure of Richard House on 18 December; and what plans they have to prevent that closure.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children’s hospices, also play in providing support to seriously children at end of life and their loved ones.
I recognise that the closure of Richard House Children’s Hospice will be a worrying time for the parents, carers, and children who use the services at Richard House, as well as for the staff and volunteers.
I am heartened to hear that Haven House Children’s Hospice will be welcoming children and families currently supported by Richard House Children’s Hospice, with support from the North East London Integrated Care Board.
More widely, we have been supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. This amounts to approximately £2.8 million for children’s hospices in London.
Furthermore, children and young people’s hospices have received £26 million in revenue funding for 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £5.65 million for children’s hospices in London. I am delighted that earlier this autumn we were able to confirm the continuation of this funding for children and young people’s hospices for the next three financial years. This amounts to approximately £80 million over that period.
We also recently announced that the Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in our 10-Year Health Plan.
We want to consider, as part of the MSF, contracting and commissioning arrangements, in line with our shift to strategic commissioning. In the long term, this will aid sustainability and help hospices’ ability to plan ahead.
I refer the noble Baroness to the Written Ministerial Statement HLWS1086, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of addressing environmental reservoirs of bacteria with antimicrobial resistance genes not currently captured by clinical or agricultural surveillance in future antimicrobial resistance surveillance strategies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2024 to 2029 United Kingdom antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan (NAP) includes research to improve understanding of AMR spread across humans, animals, agriculture, and the environment, to strengthen future AMR surveillance strategies.
The Environment Agency is conducting research into environmental transmission of AMR including monitoring novel forms of resistance, such as antifungal resistance and bioaerosols. The UK Health Security Agency’s modular ward will generate evidence on how the hospital environment contributes to the spread of AMR infection, with a focus on how risks associated with water and wastewater can be mitigated.
The Health Protection Research Unit on Healthcare Associated Infections and AMR led research on wastewater infrastructure in hospitals on AMR gene dissemination in humans and is exploring the impact of hospital wastewater in terms of perpetuating AMR.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households out of the total affected by the decision to end the two-child benefit cap will still experience a reduction in universal credit because of the overall benefit cap; and how many households affected will not experience any financial gain.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is internal analysis that is being quality assured to official statistics level. Plans to publish this in due course are ongoing.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to conduct a feasibility study on what percentage of imported plants can be grown in the UK; and if so, what steps they will take to develop an action plan for imported productive and ornamental trees.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of imported plants to support domestic horticultural production; and continues to work with the sector through regular engagement with the Environmental Horticulture Group—a coalition of industry leaders from across the sector—to support the production of trees and plants grown in the UK.
In 2024 the UK imported approximately 120 million trees, shrubs and bushes, down from 216 million in 2020. However, during the same period the net mass rose from 43 tonnes to 119 tonnes, indicating an increase in larger plants. We operate a robust, risk-based import regime to manage biosecurity risks and meet World Trade Organisation obligations.
Defra and the Forestry Commission are delivering measures to strengthen domestic tree production, including capital grants, knowledge sharing and sector collaboration. In 2025, up to £7.5 million was awarded through the Tree Production Innovation Fund, Seed Sourcing Grant and Tree Production Capital Grant. These initiatives ensure a reliable supply of high-quality, biosecure trees to meet the UK’s planting ambitions.
The Forestry Commission also publishes the annual Tree Supply Report, which shows that in 2024 more than 161 million saplings were grown in British forest nurseries.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Switzerland’s regulatory and supervisory framework offers protections equivalent to UK standards, particularly regarding (1) market integrity, (2) financial stability, and (3) consumer protection, so that UK markets are not exposed to additional or undue risk under the Berne Financial Services Agreement.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Berne Financial Services Agreement is an outcomes-based mutual recognition agreement. The Agreement will enhance cross-border trade in wholesale financial services between the UK and Switzerland. Specifically, the BFSA provides new cross-border market access for investment services from Switzerland into the UK and for (re)insurance from the UK into Switzerland.
The Agreement is underpinned by assessments, with the UK and Switzerland each assessing each other’s regulatory and supervisory regimes. The Treasury, Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England, and Prudential Regulation Authority undertook an assessment of the Swiss regime between 2022 and 2023. Recognition was given on the basis that both regimes achieved equivalent outcomes in terms of consumer protection, market integrity and financial stability.
The Agreement is also supported by a Memorandum of Understanding between the Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority, and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority signed on 22 September 2025, which sets out arrangements for supervisory cooperation and information sharing. These arrangements will facilitate ongoing dialogue, support the functioning of the Agreement, and ensure both sides can address risks or supervisory developments promptly.
Lastly, the Agreement provides safeguards for the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority to manage any residual risk as a result of new market access under the Agreement with regards to protecting financial stability, consumer protection, market integrity and compliance with the Agreement. The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority have been provided these powers through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Mutual Recognition Agreement) Switzerland Regulations 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) agricultural composting facilities, (2) green waste, and (3) crop residue piles, as potential reservoirs for azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus; and what plans they have to improve surveillance of that issue.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In support of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan commitments, the Environment Agency (EA) actively carries out research into environmental transmission and risks associated with antimicrobial resistance. This includes research on monitoring antifungal resistance and bioaerosols.
The EA recognises the potential human health impacts of bioaerosols, particularly on the respiratory system. The EA actively regulates bioaerosol risks from waste treatment, including open composting of green wastes and digestate fibres. Regulated activities must hold a permit. Higher risk facilities monitor bioaerosol emissions including aspergillus fumigatus. These controls developed from over a decade of research collaboration with the EA, academia and industry.
External crop residue storage (non-waste) at anaerobic digestion (AD) sites does not require a permit. However, Defra has recently concluded a consultation on regulatory reform to include non-waste AD facilities. The reform has potential scope to align non-waste AD with regulated waste AD under the Environmental Permitting Regulations.