Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether patients with a cancer diagnosis will have access to local genomic testing; and if so, what is the timeline for that access to be in place.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 10-Year Health Plan committed to every cancer patient having the choice to receive a comprehensive genomic analysis and molecular profiling, where appropriate. The NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) ensures equitable access to genomic testing for cancer patients across England through seven regional GMS geographies working with Cancer Alliances and National Health Service trusts. Genomic testing is delivered by a national network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs, guided by the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes over 200 cancer indications for a range of genomic tests, including whole genome sequencing. In 2025/26, NHS England is continuing its Cancer Genomics Improvement Programme for a second year to deliver quality improvement initiatives, education, local engagement, and to establish Cellular Pathology Genomic Centres to streamline cancer genomics pathways and accelerate genomic testing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential merits of including broader value elements, such as societal and economic benefits, in the health technology assessment of vaccines.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department works closely with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to design, implement, and deliver programmes offering high levels of long-term protection against preventable diseases.

When doing so, the Department takes into consideration the expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent departmental expert committee. The JCVI bases its advice and recommendations on evidence of the burden of disease, of vaccine safety and efficacy, and of the impact and cost effectiveness of immunisation strategies.

Broader socio-economic factors such as productivity costs from illness, improved educational attainment from reduced school absences, and out-of-pocket expenses and opportunity costs from attending a vaccination may be highlighted by the JCVI or other colleagues across the tripartite to inform policy-making.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the safety measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 apply to conversational interactions between users and artificial intelligence chatbots where an online search has not been conducted.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

AI chatbots that allow users to share content with one another are regulated by the Online Safety Act. This is in addition to chatbots which search live websites to provide results. Over 100,000 services are in scope of the Act including many services with chatbots.

These services must protect users from illegal content, and they must protect children from harmful and age-inappropriate content. The Government has been clear that we will act to address new and emerging AI harms. For example, government is tackling the disgusting harm of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse with a new offence to criminalise AI models which have been optimised for this purpose. The Secretary of State has also commissioned the department to see what gaps there are if any, in coverage of the Online Safety Act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for a personalised approach to testing for patients.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to delivering a personalised approach to testing, including genomic testing, as part of its 10-Year Health Plan. The National Health Service will introduce a genomics population health service by 2035, including newborn genomic screening and polygenic risk scoring, both subject to evidence and funding, to enable earlier, tailored interventions. Genomic testing in the NHS in England is already delivered through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS). A national network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, including both whole genome sequencing (WGS) and non-WGS testing. A robust and evidence-based process and policy is in place to ensure that genomic testing continues to be available for all patients for whom it would be of clinical benefit. As part of the NHS GMS testing strategy, there is increasing use of cutting edge, high throughput comprehensive sequencing technologies to ensure efficiency. These measures will transform diagnostic services and treatment across the NHS to make them increasingly individualised, while empowering patients and improving outcomes.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 30 October (HL11477), whether they will keep the flooding spending formula under regular review as the evidence base for the effectiveness of natural flood management techniques grows.

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

Delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, we are investing record levels in flood protection. Over the next Spending Review period (2026/27 to 2028/29), £4.2 billion will be allocated to build new flood schemes and maintain and repair existing defences across the country. This equates to an average of £1.4 billion per year, a 5% increase on the current average of £1.33 billion for 2024/25 and 2025/26. Further details will be published in due course, including the split between capital and revenue funding.

Natural flood management (NFM) plays a vital role in reducing flood risk while delivering wider benefits for people, communities, and the environment. That is why we will be investing at least £300m in NFM over ten years – the highest figure to date for the floods programme. We have also removed barriers that previously held back these projects. Working closely with the Environment Agency, we will explore opportunities to enable more landscape-scale NFM through partnership working and strengthen the evidence base for these interventions.

To ensure the new funding policy delivers effective outcomes, including NFM, we will review its impact after three years.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they are having with the technology industry to ensure artificial intelligence models are tested robustly before deployment, and to embed safeguards such as suicide prevention into model development.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Government has ongoing partnerships with artificial intelligence developers to ensure the safety of the models they develop. It is essential that AI models are appropriately tested to ensure safeguards are robust, possible harms are considered and risks mitigated, to ensure the British public are protected.

The role of the AI Security Institute (AISI) is to build an evidence base of these risks, to inform government decision making and help make AI more secure and reliable. AISI works in close collaboration with AI companies to assess model safeguards and suggest mitigations. To date, AISI has tested over 30 models from leading AI companies, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic. AISI’s findings lead to tangible changes to AI models before deployment, reducing the risk from day one.

Once deployed, many AI services are captured by the Online Safety Act 2023, which places robust duties on all in-scope user-to-user and search services, including those deploying generative artificial intelligence chatbots, to prevent users from encountering illegal suicide and self-harm content. These duties apply regardless of whether content is created by AI or by humans.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the risks of harm from generative artificial intelligence and chatbots.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Generative AI services, including AI chatbots, which allow users to share content with one another or search live websites to provide search results, are regulated under the Online Safety Act. In-scope services are required to protect all users from illegal content and children from encountering harmful content, including where it is AI generated.

The Government will not hesitate to act where required – for example we have introduced an offence in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise AI models which have been optimised to create child sexual abuse material.

Responding to the AI Action Plan, the Government committed to work with regulators to boost their AI capabilities. We are committed to ensuring our rule book is up to date and future-proofed so the UK is prepared for the changes AI will bring.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to recommendation 11 of An independent review of Defra’s regulatory landscape, published on 2 April, which environmental regulations will be in scope of the rolling programme of regulatory reform.

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

Dan Corry’s review of Defra’s regulatory landscape recommends that the Department scope a rolling programme of reform for specific regulations, suggesting several early priorities for reform. Work is ongoing to establish where improvements are most needed and where legislation would be required. In the meantime, the Department continues to lay statutory instruments on a regular basis to deliver environmental improvements and commitments.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 30 October (HL11477), how much of the £4.2 billion spending review commitment for flood defences will be made up of capital spending.

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

Delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, we are investing record levels in flood protection. Over the next Spending Review period (2026/27 to 2028/29), £4.2 billion will be allocated to build new flood schemes and maintain and repair existing defences across the country. This equates to an average of £1.4 billion per year, a 5% increase on the current average of £1.33 billion for 2024/25 and 2025/26. Further details will be published in due course, including the split between capital and revenue funding.

Natural flood management (NFM) plays a vital role in reducing flood risk while delivering wider benefits for people, communities, and the environment. That is why we will be investing at least £300m in NFM over ten years – the highest figure to date for the floods programme. We have also removed barriers that previously held back these projects. Working closely with the Environment Agency, we will explore opportunities to enable more landscape-scale NFM through partnership working and strengthen the evidence base for these interventions.

To ensure the new funding policy delivers effective outcomes, including NFM, we will review its impact after three years.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will compensate individuals and families who have suffered from the effects of sodium valproate in the past 30 years, and if so, when.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 13 October (HL Deb cols 9–10), what plans they have to introduce an 18-week referral-to-treatment target for dementia to ensure parity with other conditions and to address current waiting times.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We will deliver the first ever Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.

The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.

In developing the Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework, we are engaging with a wide group of partners to understand what should be included to ensure the best outcomes for people living with dementia. As part of this exercise, we will consider what interventions should be supported to improve diagnosis waiting times, which we know are too long in many areas. We are considering all options to help reduce variation, including reviewing metrics and targets.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence about (1) updating the baseline cost-effectiveness threshold, and (2) changing the reference case discount rate.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department regularly has discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about a range of issues. NICE is responsible for the methods and processes that it uses in the development of its guidance and recommendations and has processes in place to keep its methods and processes under review.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Northern Ireland Executive and the Justice Minister in Northern Ireland regarding proposed amendments to the Sentencing Code and the parts of the Sentencing Bill that relate to Northern Ireland; and whether a Legislative Consent Motion will be required for that Bill.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministry of Justice officials have engaged officials in the Northern Ireland Executive in relation to a range of Bill measures and amendments that apply in Northern Ireland, including on sentences with a fixed licence period.

A Legislative Consent Motion is not required with respect to Northern Ireland.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish a response to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report of February 2024 regarding funding redress issues for those harmed by pelvic mesh and sodium valproate.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likely impact on Northern Ireland and its participation in the Single Electricity Market of the introduction of the European Union's carbon border adjustment mechanism on 1 January 2026; and what discussions they have had with the European Union about an interim arrangement for Northern Ireland.

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

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will enter its definitive regime from January 2026 applies to imports of electricity and certain goods into the EU.

The EU CBAM does not apply in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland-based power generators are already part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in order to maintain the arrangements underpinning the Single Electricity Market. Electricity sent to Northern Ireland from Great Britain is not affected by the EU CBAM.

If businesses are moving electricity to Ireland or elsewhere in the EU, they may need to provide information to their EU-based importer to help them meet their requirements under the EU CBAM. The UK will continue to engage closely with the EU as it finalises the CBAM.

UK businesses should stay informed about developments regarding the EU CBAM, the Department for Business and Trade offers a comprehensive support package through business.gov.uk.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Sentencing Code in England and Wales.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Sentencing Code came into force in December 2020 and was the product of a Law Commission project that involved extensive public consultation. Prior to its creation sentencing procedural law was significantly convoluted, spanning across multiple different pieces of legislation. The Code consolidated the law in this area, helping make it more accessible.

More broadly, the Government keeps the sentencing framework under regular review. In October 2024, we commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review, led by former Lord Chancellor Rt. Hon. David Gauke. The Sentencing Bill, currently being considered before Parliament, implements many of the Review’s recommendations.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Taskforce for Lung Health, A Modern Service Framework for Respiratory, published on 18 November.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is aware of the Taskforce for Lung Health’s report calling for a modern service framework for respiratory health, including the impact of respiratory conditions on mortality rates, emergency admissions, inequalities, and productivity.

Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia.

The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks, including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of a modern service framework for respiratory care on tackling health inequalities.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is aware of the Taskforce for Lung Health’s report calling for a modern service framework for respiratory health, including the impact of respiratory conditions on mortality rates, emergency admissions, inequalities, and productivity.

Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia.

The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks, including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to undertake public consultation on the next England Trees Action Plan; and when will the new England Trees Action Plan be published.

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

The Environmental Improvement Plan 2025 sets out that the government will publish a new Trees Action Plan in 2026. The Trees Action Plan will set out how the government will invest over £1 billion this parliament into tree planting and the forestry sector to achieve our new 2030 interim tree canopy and woodland cover target, improve the resilience and condition of our trees and woodlands, and deliver multiple benefits for nature, climate, people and the economy.

We are working closely with industry, researchers and other stakeholders to shape the vision, priorities and content of the plan. We will continue to actively engage and collaborate with these and other stakeholders.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made in the Department for Transport’s consideration of a review of L-Category licensing, as referred to by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport in February at the Motorcycle Industry Association annual conference; and when they expect to publish further details on the review’s scope and timetable.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The Government treats road safety seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We are considering plans to review the existing requirements for motorcycle training, testing, and licensing that take account of both long-standing plans in the Department for Transport and the Driver Vehicle and Standards Agency, and proposals received from the motorcycle sector. The Road Safety Strategy is under development and will include a broad range of policies. We intend to publish the Strategy this year.

Found: Lord Hope of Craighead Baroness Browning Baroness Pitkeathley Lord Crisp Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick