Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the rules that apply to hospitals on Do Not Resuscitate decisions; whether in all relevant cases patients are explicitly asked to agree on their use; and whether they have any plans to tighten rules around such use.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) is a medical decision made by a qualified clinician.
A DNACPR decision is made on an individual, namely person by person, basis, and should, wherever possible, involve the person concerned or, where the person lacks capacity, their families, carers, guardians or other legally recognised advocates. Guidance from clinical bodies such as the British Medical Association, The Resuscitation Council UK and Royal College of Nursing reflects this.
In 2021, the Department established a Ministerial Oversight Group, responsible for the delivery and required changes to ensure adherence to guidance across the system about how DNACPRs are used. As part of this work, a set of Universal Principles for Advance Care Planning were jointly published in March 2022 by a coalition of partner organisations across health and social care. The principles can be applied in all settings to support people; their families and professionals share the same understanding and expectations for DNACPR decisions.
Patient-facing guidance setting out how DNACPR decisions should be made and how individuals or their families can get support if they have concerns about a DNACPR, including second opinions and review, is provided on NHS.UK in an online-only format.
Currently, no active work is being undertaken to revise DNACPR guidance.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Smarter Regulatory Framework, in particular the impact of the repeal of retained EU law under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, on promoting sustainable economic growth and the international competitiveness of the UK’s financial services sector.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of the most recent update in July 2025, HM Treasury has repealed, amended, or replaced 51% of assimilated law it is responsible for, as set out in the Retained EU law and Assimilated Law Dashboard. The great majority of this is financial services legislation.
In the last 12 months, HM Treasury has made SIs to replace the EU’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation, and the EU’s Short Selling Regulation.
Sustainable economic growth is a priority of the government. That is why the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, published on 15 July 2025, sets out the government’s approach to delivering a regulatory environment for financial services that is proportionate, predictable, and internationally competitive.
The government has sought to deliver this approach in a way that minimises disruption and produces the most streamlined and accessible framework for firms and creates an agile, workable and coherent regime. For example, through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Designated Activities) (Supervision and Enforcement) Regulations 2025, which make it easier for the FCA to consistently supervise activities and enforce rules that replace key parts of EU law.
The financial services regulators already have significant rule-making powers, and the government worked closely with them in determining its approach to replacing retained EU law, to ensure that regulators are ready to take on additional responsibilities. It is for regulators like the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Policy Committee, as well as the Financial Conduct Authority, to determine their approach to these new responsibilities They are funded via a levy on financial services firms, and it is their responsibility to set their own funding requirements each year, following consultation, to ensure that they are able to carry out their functions.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of transferring detailed responsibilities from retained EU law to the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Policy Committee; and how they intend to ensure coherence and consistency across the UK’s financial regulatory framework.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of the most recent update in July 2025, HM Treasury has repealed, amended, or replaced 51% of assimilated law it is responsible for, as set out in the Retained EU law and Assimilated Law Dashboard. The great majority of this is financial services legislation.
In the last 12 months, HM Treasury has made SIs to replace the EU’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation, and the EU’s Short Selling Regulation.
Sustainable economic growth is a priority of the government. That is why the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, published on 15 July 2025, sets out the government’s approach to delivering a regulatory environment for financial services that is proportionate, predictable, and internationally competitive.
The government has sought to deliver this approach in a way that minimises disruption and produces the most streamlined and accessible framework for firms and creates an agile, workable and coherent regime. For example, through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Designated Activities) (Supervision and Enforcement) Regulations 2025, which make it easier for the FCA to consistently supervise activities and enforce rules that replace key parts of EU law.
The financial services regulators already have significant rule-making powers, and the government worked closely with them in determining its approach to replacing retained EU law, to ensure that regulators are ready to take on additional responsibilities. It is for regulators like the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Policy Committee, as well as the Financial Conduct Authority, to determine their approach to these new responsibilities They are funded via a levy on financial services firms, and it is their responsibility to set their own funding requirements each year, following consultation, to ensure that they are able to carry out their functions.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the capacity and resources available to the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Policy Committee to carry out the additional responsibilities transferred to them under the Smarter Regulatory Framework.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of the most recent update in July 2025, HM Treasury has repealed, amended, or replaced 51% of assimilated law it is responsible for, as set out in the Retained EU law and Assimilated Law Dashboard. The great majority of this is financial services legislation.
In the last 12 months, HM Treasury has made SIs to replace the EU’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation, and the EU’s Short Selling Regulation.
Sustainable economic growth is a priority of the government. That is why the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, published on 15 July 2025, sets out the government’s approach to delivering a regulatory environment for financial services that is proportionate, predictable, and internationally competitive.
The government has sought to deliver this approach in a way that minimises disruption and produces the most streamlined and accessible framework for firms and creates an agile, workable and coherent regime. For example, through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Designated Activities) (Supervision and Enforcement) Regulations 2025, which make it easier for the FCA to consistently supervise activities and enforce rules that replace key parts of EU law.
The financial services regulators already have significant rule-making powers, and the government worked closely with them in determining its approach to replacing retained EU law, to ensure that regulators are ready to take on additional responsibilities. It is for regulators like the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Policy Committee, as well as the Financial Conduct Authority, to determine their approach to these new responsibilities They are funded via a levy on financial services firms, and it is their responsibility to set their own funding requirements each year, following consultation, to ensure that they are able to carry out their functions.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in bringing forward statutory instruments under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to replace retained EU law as part of the Smarter Regulatory Framework; and what is the expected timetable for completion of this process.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of the most recent update in July 2025, HM Treasury has repealed, amended, or replaced 51% of assimilated law it is responsible for, as set out in the Retained EU law and Assimilated Law Dashboard. The great majority of this is financial services legislation.
In the last 12 months, HM Treasury has made SIs to replace the EU’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation, and the EU’s Short Selling Regulation.
Sustainable economic growth is a priority of the government. That is why the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, published on 15 July 2025, sets out the government’s approach to delivering a regulatory environment for financial services that is proportionate, predictable, and internationally competitive.
The government has sought to deliver this approach in a way that minimises disruption and produces the most streamlined and accessible framework for firms and creates an agile, workable and coherent regime. For example, through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Designated Activities) (Supervision and Enforcement) Regulations 2025, which make it easier for the FCA to consistently supervise activities and enforce rules that replace key parts of EU law.
The financial services regulators already have significant rule-making powers, and the government worked closely with them in determining its approach to replacing retained EU law, to ensure that regulators are ready to take on additional responsibilities. It is for regulators like the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Policy Committee, as well as the Financial Conduct Authority, to determine their approach to these new responsibilities They are funded via a levy on financial services firms, and it is their responsibility to set their own funding requirements each year, following consultation, to ensure that they are able to carry out their functions.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that Ministers occupying official residences pay the second homes premium on council tax, where that residence is not their primary residence and where the local authority levies such a premium on dwellings; and whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the current guidance given to Ministers on paying council tax on official residences, other than the Ministerial Code.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Ministers who are allocated an official residence are reminded of their responsibility for all personal tax liabilities, including council tax, in line with the principles of the Ministerial Code.
As has been the case for successive administrations, where a minister occupies an official residence as a second home, the responsibility for payment of council tax falls to the responsible Department.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of paragraph 2.75 of the OBR's Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report, published on 8 July, which states that the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions increases fiscal risk as gilt holdings fall; and the finding that this will lead to an in increase in debt interest spending of £22 billion in today's terms.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We have seen gradual changes to the structure of the pension market as a result of the shift from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution schemes. Overall demand for gilts has, however, remained resilient throughout these periods of changing investor patterns and, as the OBR notes, these changes are widely known.
The government deliberately maintains a varied gilt issuance strategy to promote a well-diversified investor base, so that it is not overly reliant on demand from just one type of investor. Continuing to do so means that we expect that overall demand will remain robust in the future, even if there are changes in the demand patterns of particular investor groups.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions and of the tax changes in the Autumn Budget 2024 on private sector investment.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Forecasting the economy, including the impact of Government policy decisions, is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The OBR does not routinely publish estimates of the impact of individual policy measures on private sector investment. The October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook – in particular paragraphs 3.67 to 3.73 – discuss the impact of the Budget package as a whole on the economy. [1]
[1] You can access the link to the October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook here: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ratio of dependents, young and old, to the working age population (dependency ratio); and the risk to the long-term economic sustainability of the public finances posed by an ageing population and a declining birth rate.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is the Government's official forecaster responsible for assessing the UK economic and fiscal outlook. Its annual publication the Fiscal Risks and Sustainability (FRS) report incorporates biennial long-term projections and analysis of major potential fiscal risks.
In their July 2025 FRS report, the OBR identified that the ageing of the UK population and the associated decline in average health as risks to the UK’s fiscal outlook. Both are expected to increase health spending pressures over the longer-term, with the projected rise in spending on the state pension being the second-largest increase in non-interest spending after health in the OBR’s long-term projections. These are underpinned by OBR judgements on old-age and young-age dependency ratios.
In the last Autumn Budget, the government set out a clear fiscal strategy to stabilise the public finances and underpin growth. This involved introducing new fiscal rules which provide stability, put the public finances on a sustainable path and ensure our public services are sustainably funded.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of banks and other financial institutions declining to provide financial services to UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises which operate in the defence industry.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises that access to banking services is vital for people and businesses across the UK. It is this government's firm position that no firm should be denied access to banking services solely on the grounds they work in defence. The upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy will have small and medium-sized enterprises at its heart and will lay out the steps the Government is taking to support them.
We continue to monitor wider access to bank account provision but recognise this is largely a commercial matter. Firms have strict obligations to ensure the legitimacy of a business and protect against financial crime.