Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the opportunities to mandate greater use of UK-made steel in publicly funded projects.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government wants to see more use of UK-made steel in public projects, whilst respecting our national and international legal obligations. The latest steel public procurement data shows that in the financial year 2024-2025, where all the steel required could be produced in the UK, 95% of the steel procured by central government buyers was UK produced.
That said, we continue to strengthen mechanisms to enable the public procurement of UK-made steel. Updated steel procurement guidance (Public Procurement Policy Notice 022) was introduced in June 2025 and requires all in-scope organisations for all new relevant steel procurements to consult UK Steel’s digital catalogue before making procurement decisions and encourages them to consider if the national security exemption under the Procurement Act applies.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the opportunities to support the UK steel industry through public procurement policies.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government wants to see more use of UK-made steel in public projects, whilst respecting our national and international legal obligations. The latest steel public procurement data shows that in the financial year 2024-2025, where all the steel required could be produced in the UK, 95% of the steel procured by central government buyers was UK produced.
That said, we continue to strengthen mechanisms to enable the public procurement of UK-made steel. Updated steel procurement guidance (Public Procurement Policy Notice 022) was introduced in June 2025 and requires all in-scope organisations for all new relevant steel procurements to consult UK Steel’s digital catalogue before making procurement decisions and encourages them to consider if the national security exemption under the Procurement Act applies.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that clinical academic posts are available in all regions of the UK.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, is the United Kingdom’s largest funder of clinical academic training, investing over £220 million each year in research training programmes.
We are working with the devolved administrations and stakeholders to ensure there is a comprehensive, clear, and rewarding career pathway for clinical academics in research.
We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to lower electricity prices in the UK following the uplift of the Network Charging Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In February the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published a response to consultations on proposals to amend the inflation indexation of the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariff schemes. Lowering levy costs through reforms such as these forms part of the work that government is doing to bear down on costs across the energy system to ensure that consumers do not see a net increase in their electricity bills as a result of this measure. More widely, at the last Budget government took an average of £150 of costs off household energy bills from this coming April.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure each region in England receives equal health research funding.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds health and care research via its research operational arm the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England. The Department is committed to ensuring that research is inclusive and representative of the population geographically and demographically. To support this, in November 2024 the Department made equity, diversity, and inclusion a condition of NIHR funding for all domestic research awards.
The NIHR is taking a number of steps to secure equitable allocation of health research funding including targeted programme design, long‑term capacity building in under‑served regions, such as new regional Commercial Research Delivery Centres, and place‑based research partnerships. In addition, from this April the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network, which supports all National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, is implementing a new national funding allocation model for NHS support costs and research delivery which will reduce regional variations in health research delivery investment.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure British steel manufacturers are not undercut by imported high emission steel manufacturers.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
A successful steel industry is critical to a vibrant and secure economy. The UK is taking action on industrial decarbonisation to meet net zero, but we recognise that imports into the UK will often not be subject to the same standards, creating a risk of carbon leakage. That is why the UK has committed to introduce a UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 1 January 2027. The CBAM will ensure that highly traded, carbon-intensive goods from sectors in scope (including the steel sector) that are imported into the UK, face a comparable carbon price to those produced domestically. This will support UK decarbonisation efforts to lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas, and give industry confidence to invest in the UK knowing their decarbonisation efforts will not be undermined.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen domestic supply chains for steel following the publication of the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 in September 2025.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The steel strategy, to be published in early 2026, will set out a long-term vision for a competitive, decarbonised sector, with the aim of attracting new private investment to secure UK steelmaking.
We’re providing up to £2.5 billion to rebuild the steel sector, delivered in part through the National Wealth Fund. This is in addition to the £500m we have invested in the transformation of Port Talbot. We have also taken direct action to protect steel production at British Steel and provided a £400 million increase to the investment at Sheffield Forgemasters.
In addition, we have cut electricity costs for steelmakers, changed procurement guidance so UK steel is considered for more public projects, and are working to protect our industry from unfair competition.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental impact of allowing steel importers to use global average emissions when selling steel to the UK; and what assessment they have made of the impact of this provision on competitiveness of UK steel producers.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK is taking rapid action on industrial decarbonisation to meet net zero, but we recognise that imports into the UK will often not be subject to the same standards, creating a risk of carbon leakage. That is why the UK has committed to introduce a UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 1 January 2027. The UK CBAM will use one global default emissions value per CBAM good where emissions are not or cannot be provided to determine the CBAM liability. We will work with HM Treasury to assess the impact of this approach and ensure we mitigate the risk of under-pricing the most emissions intensive imports when designing these values.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will involve an organisation representative from the children and young people's sector in the delivery of the plans for children and young people in the National Cancer Plan for England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, will ensure that young cancer patients and their families receive better support, across diagnosis, treatment, and patient experience.
The Department has worked closely with the Children and Young People (CYP) Cancer Taskforce, to develop ambitious commitments on CYP cancer in the National Cancer Plan. The taskforce brought together experts across a range of fields to identify ways to improve outcomes and patient experience for young cancer patients and has been committed to ensuring the voices of key charity stakeholders and patients are included.
That’s why the Government assembled a Charity Sub-Group and Patient Experience Panel to ensure this expertise fed directly into the work of the taskforce.
The Government is committed to continuing its work with key cancer partners to deliver the commitments outlined in the National Cancer Plan.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to work with Young Lives vs Cancer to deliver the travel fund for young cancer patients.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families across the United Kingdom.
Through the National Cancer Plan, the Government is committing up to £10 million a year to a new fund open to all children and young people in England with cancer and their families regardless of income, to support them with the cost of travelling to and from treatment. This commitment sits alongside wider action to transform cancer care for children and young people.
The Department has worked closely with the Children and Young People (CYP) Cancer Taskforce, to develop ambitious commitments on CYP cancer in the National Cancer Plan. The taskforce brought together experts across a range of fields to identify ways to improve outcomes and patient experience for young cancer patients and has been committed to ensuring the voices of key charity stakeholders and patients are included.
That’s why the Government assembled a Charity Sub-Group and Patient Experience Panel to ensure this expertise fed directly into the work of the taskforce.
The Government is committed to continuing its work with key cancer partners, including Young Lives vs Cancer, to deliver the commitments outlined in the National Cancer Plan.