Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether their sector-specific approach to developing regulation on artificial intelligence will include consideration of the challenges of machine translation, which cuts across all sectors.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Whilst it is true that machine translation has applications across many sectors, the risks posed by machine translation will be driven by the context of where, how and why it is used.

Under our context specific approach, we recognise that our existing expert regulators are best placed to apply rules to the use of AI – including machine translation - in the contexts they know better than anyone else.

We are also committed to ensuring that regulators have the right expertise and resources to make proportionate and informed regulatory decisions about AI in their sectors.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government how they will be participating in the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Colombia.

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

The Secretary of State for Defra, The Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Nature), Mary Creagh CBE MP, will be taking part in the official High-Level Segment of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) in Colombia. Minister Creagh is also scheduled to remain in Colombia after the conclusion of this segment to support the final negotiations. The UK will also be represented at CBD COP16 by a team of negotiators from Defra and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have held any discussions with the government of Colombia about the increased conflict in Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria; and, if so, what was the outcome.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We are working with the Colombian Government and others on implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement, including the Ethnic Chapter. Through funding to civil society organisations and the OHCHR (UN Human Rights Office), the UK is supporting the protection of the Wiwa indigenous peoples in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta with strategic litigation and self-protection mechanisms. Embassy officials visited the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in October and raised their concern about the security situation with local authorities.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, as penholder on the United Nations Security Council for Colombia, of the social-legal dialogue between the government of Colombia and the AGC/Clan del Golfo.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As penholder on Colombia at the UN Security Council, the UK is continuing its long-term support to Colombian efforts to achieve a sustainable and long-lasting peace, via the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement and the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. The Government of Colombia has appointed its representatives to the talks with the Gulf Clan (AGC/Clan del Golfo). The UK is monitoring the progress of the talks and its impacts on communities, including in collaboration with the UN.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have had any discussions with the government of Colombia about increasing protection for the Wiwa indigenous peoples currently being displaced by high-impact, armed organised crime groups; and, if so, what was the outcome.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Supporting Colombia in its commitment to secure a lasting peace is an important priority of this Government. We continue to urge Colombia to take further steps to protect all vulnerable groups including indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities most affected by conflict. We remain concerned at the violence facing the Wiwa community. Through funding to civil society organisations and the UN Human Rights Office, the UK supports the protection of the Wiwa indigenous peoples with strategic litigation and self-protection mechanisms. In October, Embassy officials visited Wiwa communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and discussed the security situation with local authorities.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the state of the peace talks between the government of Colombia and the Segunda Marquetalia.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK supports Colombian efforts to achieve a sustainable and long-lasting peace, including the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement and the mandate of the UN Verification Mission. The government of Colombia has concluded the first round of dialogues with the Segunda Marquetalia, agreed on the model for the talks and the progressive implementation on the agreements reached. The UK continues to monitor and assess the progress of the talks in terms of the ceasefire, the security situation, and the impact on communities. The Foreign Secretary met with Foreign Minister Murillo in September, to reiterate the UK's commitment towards the peace processes in Colombia.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision to suspend peace talks between the government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK supported the expansion of the UN Verification Mission to include the National Liberation Army (ELN). We are monitoring the impacts of the suspension of the ceasefire, with a particular focus on the impacts on communities. We call upon the ELN to work towards peace, re-commit to dialogue and re-establish a ceasefire. As penholder for Colombia at the UN Security Council, the UK had a key role coordinating international support in expanding the mandate of the UN Verification Mission to verify the ceasefire with the ELN.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to conduct a consultation on the proposed amendments to the Victims’ Code which were agreed during the passage of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024.

Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

We aim to consult on the revised Victims’ Code early next year as part of our commitment to ensure that victims and survivors of crime have the information and support they need.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to issue guidance to the Office for Students and institutions of higher education that modern foreign languages should be classified as strategically vulnerable subjects and fall within category C1 of the Strategic Priorities Grant.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

In the 2024/25 academic year, over half of the £1.4 billion recurrent funding to higher education providers allocated through the Strategic Priorities Grant is supporting the provision of strategically important high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy and high-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, for example medicine and dentistry, science, engineering. This is in recognition of the higher costs of teaching those subjects.

The department will continue to work with the Office for Students (OfS) to ensure that costs of provision are assessed. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, will issue guidance to the OfS in due course setting out her funding priorities for 2025/26.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reduction in the number of university degree courses on modern foreign languages.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), now part of Jisc, collects and publishes data on student enrolments across all UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on full person equivalents enrolled in different subject areas, categorised using the HE coding of subjects system. Counts of enrolments across all subjects from 2019/20 to 2022/23 are published in Table 52 of HESA’s Student Data, which can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.

Table 52 can be used to determine that there were 34,840 entrants to a HE course in ‘language and area studies’ in the 2022/23 academic year and of these, 11,245 were studying a language or culture other than English, down by 12% from 2020/21. In the absence of a clear definition of ‘modern foreign languages’, all non-English languages have been included for completeness.

Analysing the HESA student record, the department estimates that there were 4,845 courses in ‘languages and area studies’, excluding English studies, with at least one enrolment in 2022/23, down from 5,590 in 2020/21. The HESA data only includes courses where students have enrolled, so it is not possible to quantify the number of courses being offered with no enrolments.

HE providers are autonomous and independent institutions. This means they are ultimately responsible for the decisions that they make with regards to which courses they choose to deliver.

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Found: am Watch the meeting Members present: Lord De Mauley (The Chair); Lord Bruce of Bennachie; Baroness Coussins

The House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee will be launching an inquiry into the future of UK-US relations.