Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their  response to civilian casualties in Iran caused by the military action by the United States and Israel; and what steps they are taking to support Iranian people by providing aid and continued access to information channels.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential for an increase in refugees from Iran; and what steps they are taking to establish safe and legal routes, and humanitarian assistance, to those seeking to leave Iran.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of military action by the United States against Iran on the level of military assistance to Ukraine.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compliance of military action by the United States of America against Iran with Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to work with regional partners, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Turkey, to encourage the United States of America and Iran to find a diplomatic solution to war.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prioritise the safety of UK nationals, diplomats and military personnel in the Middle East, including their safe passage out of the region.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the diplomatic progress made in the negotiations between the United States of America and Iran before the start of US military action against Iran.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of the United States about the limitations and risks of military action in Iran.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the Lord Bishop to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March and 5 March, where he addressed all these questions in detail. It is for the United States or any other foreign government to demonstrate the compliance of its own actions with the UN Charter, not for the UK.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent being drawn into offensive military action against Iran.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The UK did not participate in the initial strikes carried out by Israel and the USA. It is the longstanding British Government position that the best way forward for the region and the world is a negotiated settlement with Iran, where they give up their nuclear ambitions. Despite this, Iran has attacked British personnel and bases, civilians, and countries that did not participate in the initial strikes.

All activity so far conducted by the UK has been for defensive purposes; however, the best way to end the threat posed by Iran’s reckless and indiscriminate attacks is to destroy the missiles and launchers at source. That is why the Prime Minister agreed to a US request for permission to use British bases to conduct defensive operations to take out Iranian missiles before they are fired at our people and our allies.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish the National Centre for Social Research evaluation of the pilot move on period for newly recognised refugees to leave asylum accommodation.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The evaluation report cannot be shared externally until we have two satisfactory external peer reviews. Once approved, the report will be published on GOV.UK as part of the Home Office Research Series.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether a refugee with newly granted refugee status requires (1) an e-visa, or (2) an asylum decision letter, to apply for Universal Credit.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

A newly granted refugee will have digital status (e-visa) at the point a positive decision is made; the Home Office will create the eVisa account on behalf of the newly granted refugee, and the individual can commence the move on process and access some key services prior to their eVisa account being created. Individuals can use their Application Registration Card (ARC) along with the asylum decision letter to access benefits.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of the United States about risks to Iran's territorial integrity of arming separatist groups in Iran.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

I refer the right reverend Prelate to the public and parliamentary statements made by the Prime Minister on 28 February, 1 March, 2 March (repeated in the House of Lords, Official Report, Volume 853, Column. 1076) and 5 March, where he set out in depth the UK's position on this conflict.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support SME builders in order to diversify the housebuilding sector.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Small and medium sized housebuilders are essential to meeting the government’s housing ambitions and supporting local economies. The government is acting to support SME housebuilders by increasing their access to land, providing further financial assistance and easing the burden of regulation.

To that end, the new £16 billion National Housing Bank, which launched on 1 April, is designed to unlock £53 billion of private investment and support the building of over 500,000 new homes including through loans and financial support for SMEs. We have also doubled the ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme to boost SME access to finance.

We are making more Homes England land available to the sector through SME-only land sales with less bureaucratic sales process.

We have also committed to simplifying the planning system with proposals for a new medium site size definition with corresponding policy and regulatory easements to help SME housebuilders thrive and grow.

The government continues to engage closely with SME developers and representative bodies to better understand the barriers they face and ensure the sector can play a greater role in delivering new homes.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to speed up housing delivery on stalled sites where planning has been granted but development has not started.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

In May 2025, the government published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built. It can be found on gov.uk here.

On the same day, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential developments, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. That consultation can be found on gov.uk here.

We are now analysing the responses to both consultations, and we will set out our next steps in due course.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we consulted on a new NPPF. The consultation on the revised Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals designed to ensure major development proposals are capable of being implemented within a reasonable period – taking into account tenure mix, local market conditions and development history of the site.

We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to resettle refugees through community sponsorship and humanitarian programmes.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

In the Restoring Order and Control policy statement, published in November 2025, the Government committed to transforming its approach to safe and legal routes. This included the creation of a named sponsorship scheme and capped routes for refugee and displaced students to come to the UK to study or for work.

The delivery of the new routes will support the Government’s overall objective of providing an orderly and controlled system of safe and legal routes that is aligned with community capacity to welcome refugees.

Work is underway to deliver the new routes. Further details will be set out in due course.