Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to set out in detail the Anti-Corruption Champion’s proposals concerning the development of tourism sectors in the British Overseas Territories; whether the territories were consulted before these recommendations were made or the related strategy launched; to what extent the success of such proposals depends on overseas territory participation; and whether His Majesty’s Treasury will provide financial or technical assistance to support their implementation.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK Government has regular discussions with the Overseas Territories (OTs) about ways in which they can strengthen and diversify their economies, attract increased investment, and improve transparency. The Anti-Corruption Champion's remarks on economic development, including opportunities in the tourism sector, are a welcome contribution to those discussions.
At the 2025 Joint Ministerial Council, we discussed with the OTs the infrastructure and credit finance offer from UK Export Finance (UKEF), and organised a business engagement session delivered with British Expertise International to enhance trade and investment links. We will continue to work in partnership with the OTs and consider requests for technical assistance, capacity building support, or, where eligible, financial instruments such as those available through UKEF. We remain committed to supporting the OTs in strengthening their economic resilience, and delivering sustainable long-term prosperity.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support, if any, they have provided to the British Virgin Islands in developing and implementing their public beneficial ownership registers.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
HMG has supported Overseas Territories (OT), including the British Virgin Islands, with the development and implementation of accessible registers of beneficial ownership by offering and providing clear requirements and expectations, legal analysis, legislative drafting support, technical workshops and by funding an expert non-governmental organisation (NGO), Open Ownership, to provide tailored support as necessary. Some OTs have received direct funding to help establish their registers, and we remain open to further requests. Minister Doughty's Written Ministerial Statement of 13 Jan 2026 provides an update on latest progress and agreements on next steps. The Government's ultimate expectation remains for the OTs to implement fully public registers of beneficial ownership.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to update the strategy set out in the White Paper, The Overseas Territories: Security, Success and Sustainability, published in June 2012.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
As per my written ministerial statement of 13 January (HLWS1237), the Joint Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025 agreed that the 2012 White Paper continues to serve as the foundation of the UK-Overseas Territories modern partnership, complemented by recent statements and agreements. The UK Government intends to develop a charter to underscore and refresh commitments around how the UK Government engages with the Overseas Territories as well as Compacts with those Overseas Territories which wish to agree them.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to include licensing of pilots, engineers and maintenance organisations in the aviation sector in reciprocal arrangements between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government has been clear that it will work to reset the relationship with Europe, to strengthen ties and tackle barriers to trade. Establishing an effective aviation licensing and approvals regime that supports UK aviation remains a priority for us, and the UK is keen to establish closer cooperation on personnel licensing and maintenance organisation approvals where possible to ease the current burden on UK and EU personnel and industry.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance his Department has issued to the (a) Valuation Office Agency and (b) District Valuer Service on assessing the market conditions for developing new GP practices in the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The District Valuer Service (DVS) is the specialist property arm of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), providing independent, impartial, valuation and professional property advice across the entire public sector, and where public money or public functions are involved.
HM Treasury has not issued any guidance to the VOA. The VOA uses recognised valuation approaches in line with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance.
The VOA provides the current market rent to enable the NHS to assess the financial value for money of newly proposed developments. This then enables the NHS to determine access to reimbursements. The role of the DVS is set out in the NHS Premises Cost Directions 2013, which is publicly available online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6520111caea2d0000d219939/nhs-general-medical-services-premises-costs-directions-2013.pdf
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many approvals of open market rent for new GP surgeries have been issued by District Valuers in each of the last five years for which information is available.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
We believe this question relates to ‘current market rent’ assessments of general practice (GP) properties undertaken by the District Valuer Service, which are provided to primary care organisations and integrated care boards under the Premises Cost Directions 2013. This helps to ensure agreed rent levels for these properties are in line with market conditions and provide value for money. It is then for integrated care boards, as part of their commissioning responsibilities for primary care, to consider applications for any new general practice surgeries, taking account of current market rent assessments.
While the Department does not hold this information on how many current market rent assessments for new GP surgeries the District Valuer Service has completed centrally, the Department does engage with NHS England and the District Valuer Service to ensure policy around rent reimbursements for GP surgeries is fit for purpose.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employment tribunal cases have been held involving HMRC staff in each of the last five years; and if he will provide a breakdown by type of dispute heard for each of those years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC's Raising and Resolving Concerns and Upholding our Standards of Conduct guidance aligns to the ACAS codes of practice. However, there will always be occasions where employees and ex-employees are dissatisfied with the outcome of the process.
Individuals have the right to submit a claim to an Employment Tribunal where the merits of the case will be considered.
HMRC will consider whether to defend the claim. However, if based on legal advice our chances of successfully defending a claim appear to be limited then HMRC will negotiate with the individuals’ legal representatives and aim to reach a settlement that provides value for money and protects the public purse. In all cases any settlement is in line with HMT’s Managing Public Money guidance.
If HMRC is unable to reach a settlement, then the case will proceed to a full hearing before the Tribunal.A hearing is held in a public forum and the outcome is freely available to members of the public and media via the Gov.uk site.
In the last 5 financial years HMRC has received an average of 149 Employment Tribunal cases per year.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the efficiency of the Respect at Work programme in HMRC.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC published an independent review about what it’s like to work at HMRC, Respect at Work Review in 2019. The review made a series of recommendations that HMRC implemented including significant changes to departmental policy, processes and practice.The programme closed at the end of March 2023 and ongoing work was absorbed into business as usual. As reported (on page 50) of HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts HMRC’s activities in 2022-23 included ‘delivering the remaining aspects of the Respect at Work Programme’.
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of employees in each regional centre of the Criminal Investigations Unit of HMRC have declared their ethnic origin as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC requests that staff voluntarily and confidentially record their ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender identity and carer details.
The recording of diversity information is not mandatory, but we ask all HMRC employees to consider the reasons why diversity information is important for individuals and the Organisation.
As a responsible employer, HMRC need to make sure that their policies and procedures do not discriminate against any particular group.
HMRC do not publish the information in the form requested. The ethnicity data that HMRC do publish is available in the Public Sector Equality Duty annual compliance report HMRC: Public Sector Equality Duty compliance 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and in the Annual Report & Accounts HMRC annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase equality of access to medical technologies for people with type one diabetes.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England have achieved their Long-Term Plan objective of 20% of all Type 1 diabetes patients in receipt of Flash Glucose Monitoring by April 21. Performance was 50% at June 2021 with an even distribution of access across all deprivation quintiles.
The ratio of prescribing Flash glucose monitoring between the most and least affluent areas has been reviewed and has reduced in every English region. When the programme started Flash was twice more likely to be prescribed to patients living in the most affluent areas, but current ratios show virtual parity between the most and least deprived patient groups across England.