Lord Bishop of Southwark

His Majesty’s Government is proud of the partnership between the British Museum, the Getty Museum and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities. HM Government supports the protection of cultural heritage – particularly in regions at risk from conflict, instability and climate change – through the Cultural Protection Fund, which includes support for training and education.

Since its inception, the Cultural Protection Fund has supported and continues to support a number of projects in both Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. This included the Iraq Scheme which from 2015 to 2021 trained over 50 staff from the State Board of Antiquities. The Girsu Project builds on the legacy of the scheme and we congratulate the British Museum for its part in recent excavations in Tello.

In November 2022, 17 new Cultural Protection Fund projects were awarded funding. Four of these will support the preservation of cultural heritage in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. The projects include archaeological training, safeguarding folk music, and the preservation of maritime craft and life in the wetlands of Southern Iraq.

All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.

The Criteria provide a thorough risk assessment framework and the Export Control Joint Unit will not issue an export licence to any destination where to do so would be inconsistent with the Criteria.

The Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel and Gaza. We can and do respond quickly and flexibly to changing international circumstances. All licences are kept under careful and continual review as standard. We are able to amend, suspend or revoke extant licences and refuse new licence applications as circumstances require.

The Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel and Gaza. The Government can and does respond quickly and flexibly to changing international circumstances.

All export licences are kept under careful and continual review as standard. We are able to amend, suspend or revoke extant licences and refuse new licence applications as circumstances require.

We are aware of the report provided by LSE, University of Warwick and the Centre for Public Data. We consider its methodology to be highly misleading. It has arbitrarily used a different definition of ‘beneficial owner’ from that in the Economic Crime Act 2022. This means that it counts as ‘non-compliant’ many overseas entities who have provided the required information.

As of 7 September 2023, over 29,000 overseas entities have registered with Companies House. So far, over 1,200 warning notices have been issues to unregistered overseas entities. Warning notices are a pre-cursor to the imposition of a financial penalty. Financial penalties to the value of around £660,000 have so far been issued. The Government currently has no plans to publish a list of unregistered entities.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the rise in global energy prices and supply chain issues have strained all corners of the UK economy including manufacturing.

Manufacturing has recovered since the pandemic with output in 2021 almost 10% above its 2019 level while many comparably sized EU member states were still below 2019 levels. While manufacturing output has since declined it remains higher than at any time before the pandemic.

The Government is committed to supporting the UK’s world-class manufacturing sector and is working closely with businesses during this challenging global economic context.

The Scheme for 2025 to 2026 will close on 31st March 2026 or once the £23 million budget has been reached, whichever is earlier. In order to ensure the scheme is available to as many listed places of worship as possible, within this context, we do not feel it is appropriate to reassess the cap for this financial year.

As announced on 22 January, from April 2026, the Places of Worship Renewal Fund will introduce to a more targeted model aimed at places of worship in areas of greatest need, ensuring that every pound of taxpayers' money is leveraged to secure the future of our heritage while supporting the government's wider missions for national renewal and community cohesion.

Government has allocated up to £23 million to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme in 2025/26. This year’s scheme will end on 31 March 2026 or when the budget is exhausted, whichever is the sooner.

Applications can be made throughout the year and are paid on a weekly basis. In order to help applicants plan, we publish an online tracker showing remaining funding. This indicates remaining budget and is not an underspend. We typically see an upsurge in claims towards the end of the financial year.

Altering the scheme's established criteria during the course of the financial year would not be fair on those organisations whose claims have already been paid, or on those who intend to claim later in the year and may find budget unavailable. We do not have plans to amend or remove the cap.

The Government is committed to preventing the sale of looted antiquities. Through our International Cultural Heritage Protection programme, we work closely with international partners, including the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), Blue Shield International and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on projects to prevent the trafficking and sale of looted antiquities, including those from Syria.

We have a range of provisions in international and domestic UK law, including criminal offences, to protect cultural objects from unlawful removal and illicit trade. UK authorities work with the UK art market and online selling platforms, such as eBay, to combat the sale of stolen and looted cultural objects. The Government encourages anyone who believes that a cultural object has been stolen or looted to raise it with the appropriate authorities.

The Seasonal Worker visa route was specifically designed to support the horticulture sector in the United Kingdom where growers typically require higher volumes of labour, for relatively short-term periods of time, in line with seasonal production peaks.

As announced on 24 December 2021, the Seasonal Worker visa route will continue to operate until at least the end of 2024. A total of 40,000 visas are available in 2022, of which 38,000 were for horticulture with the remaining 2,000 allocated to poultry workers in the run up to Christmas. HM Government is carefully considering the position on visa quotas for 2023 and we will say more in due course.

HM Government closely monitors the Seasonal Worker visa route to ensure its effective operation, and works closely with industry to make sure that the workforce requirements for the food and farming sector are understood across government.

The UK maintains regular contact with the Israeli authorities, and we most recently raised our concerns about the situation in Gaza with the office for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) last week. UK officials expressed concern about the health system in Gaza, and reiterated the importance of unimpeded access and protection for humanitarian goods and personnel. Officials also urged COGAT to allow fuel to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing and to approve medical permits for the injured.

We are working closely with other donors to ensure that where money has been pledged to the Regional Crisis and Resilience Plan, and its equivalent inside Syria, these pledges are fulfilled.

The European Union leads on tracking and public reporting of money pledged for the Syria Crisis. The UK continues to participate fully in feeding into these reports and encourages other donors to do so as well.

The Government’s representation at the upcoming Brussels Conference: Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region is currently under consideration.

The European Union leads on tracking and public reporting of money pledged for the Syria Crisis. The UK continues to participate fully in feeding into these reports and encourages other donors to do so as well.

DFID country allocations for 2018 and 2019 are yet to be determined. However, we remain at the forefront in delivering on pledges. In 2017, the UK met its pledge for the regional Syria Crisis Response, disbursing £508 million, or 102% of our pledge against the commitment of £500 million made at the April 2017 Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region conference.

The Government will also continue to provide assistance to support Syrian refugees in the neighbouring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Our humanitarian aid operates under International Humanitarian Law and is provided based on need. As such it is available to people of all faiths and of none. All our partners carry out comprehensive vulnerability assessments to ensure aid is reaching those most in need, including those from religious minorities as it is already recognised that religion may be a factor in causing vulnerability. DFID and UK missions overseas have regular conversations with UNHCR on these matters.

HM Government is clear that more trade does not have to come at the expense of our values. Despite our varying approach to agreements with partners, we will always have open discussions on a range of issues, including rights and responsibilities.

The Government recognises the challenges unpaid carers are facing and is determined to provide them with the help and support they need and deserve. It is looking closely at how the benefit system currently does this.

Universal Credit provides support to carers on low incomes, whether they are in paid employment or not. Carer’s Allowance, by contrast, is available to all unpaid carers, provided they are not in ‘gainful employment’. This is currently defined as having earnings not exceeding £151 a week net of allowable expenses. This level is reviewed annually alongside the Secretary of State’s statutory review of State pension and benefit rates. Many Carer’s Allowance recipients are in households also receiving Universal Credit, where the structure of tapers and work allowances (where applicable) effectively takes precedence over ‘gainful employment’ test in Carer’s Allowance.

With respect to overpayments of Carer’s Allowance due to the interaction with earnings, the Government is moving quickly to understand exactly what has gone wrong so that it can set out its plan to put things right.

The Government recognises the invaluable service provided by the millions of unpaid carers across the country who provide care and continuity of support for vulnerable people every day. It recognises the challenges they face and is determined to provide them with the support they deserve.

The Government welcomes the report published by Carers UK, and is considering its findings. Ministers were pleased to meet with the organisation, and with carers, to discuss the issues raised shortly after publication of the report.

More broadly, in respect of overpayments of Carer’s Allowance, the Government is moving quickly to understand exactly what has gone wrong so that it can set out its plan to put things right.

As part of the government’s Back to Work Plan we have launched and plan to deliver a range of other support which will put in place an offer to a broader range of disabled people, for example, Universal Support will support up to 100,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers to employment per year, once fully rolled out, helping them to find, enter, and remain in work.

The Work and Health Programme (WHP) has supported 300k people since it was introduced in 2017 to the end of November 2023, of whom over 130k have entered employment in this time. More recently WHP Pioneer, which is part of the first phase of Universal Support, aims to support up to 25k people through DWP contracts. The next publication of WHP Statistics on Gov.UK is due at the end of May 2024.

DWP continue to learn and iterate our approach as we progress our Move to Universal Credit activity. We remain committed to ensuring that the transition to Universal Credit works as smoothly as possible for all customers, including enhanced customer support for vulnerable customers.

Our latest insight publication is available on GOV.UK - Move to Universal Credit – insight on Tax Credit migrations and initial Discovery activity for wider benefit cohorts.

The Department for Work and Pensions has not undertaken any specific assessment but notes that the analysis included in the report is based on the Social Metric Commission’s (SMC) measure of poverty.

The Government accepts that the SMC’s approach offers a more expansive view of inescapable costs, and alternative income sources will add new insight to the understanding of poverty. In March 2023, the Department for Work and Pensions announced plans to resume work developing an experimental measure of poverty based on the SMC’s innovative work. The Government already publishes national statistics on low income using a range of measures.

The Government’s focus is firmly on supporting people into and to progress in work. Our approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty.  The latest statistics show that working age adults living in workless households were over 7 times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working age adults in households where all adults work. To help people into work our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options, including face-to-face time with work coaches and interview assistance. We are also addressing progression barriers through our comprehensive package of childcare support, our in work progression offer, and changes to the administrative earnings threshold which ensure that more claimants can benefit from work coach support.

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help. Overall, we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023-24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of bills. From April 2023, everyone who receives a state benefit or pension will have seen their benefit rates increase by 10.1%.

There are approximately 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the United Kingdom, and the overwhelming majority are in good supply. The medicine supply chain is complex, global, and highly regulated, and supply issues can be caused by a range of factors. For example, suppliers can encounter manufacturing problems, difficulty accessing raw materials, and surges in demand. These are commonly cited as the drivers of the recent supply issues, which have affected many countries, not just the UK.

Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues, we have a range of well-established tools and processes to mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product, expediting regulatory procedures, sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of Serious Shortage Protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals, so they can advise and support their patients.

The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) gives an overall profile of almost £2 billion over two years. Local authorities can choose to use the funding to increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increase adult social care workforce capacity and retention, and reduce adult social care waiting times.

In 2023/34, a total of £927 million was made available to local authorities via MSIF, with a further £1.05 billion being made available in 2024/25. The funding has been distributed using the adult social care relative needs formula. Full local authority allocations for 2024/25 are available in the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund Grant Determination 2024 to 2025 on GOV.UK in an online-only format.

We are concerned by increasing tensions and instability across the West Bank. The UK has consistently made clear to the Government of Israel that any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic make-up of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international law. The UK remains firmly committed to a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a sovereign, viable and free Palestine. We continue to engage with Israeli counterparts on developments in the West Bank.

We remain deeply concerned about the Government of Israel's continuing and extensive use of administrative detention. We have raised our concerns with the Israeli authorities and made clear that they must act in accordance with international law.

We welcome the Israeli Supreme Court's ruling underscoring the importance of lawful access to detainees. The UK continues to call on the Government of Israel to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) immediate and unfettered access to all detention facilities.

We remain deeply concerned about the Government of Israel's continuing and extensive use of administrative detention. We have raised our concerns with the Israeli authorities and made clear that they must act in accordance with international law.

We welcome the Israeli Supreme Court's ruling underscoring the importance of lawful access to detainees. The UK continues to call on the Government of Israel to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) immediate and unfettered access to all detention facilities.

In response to the various questions raised, I refer the Lord Bishop to the answer provided on 19 December 2025 in response to Question HL12787. Specifically on the issue of the E1 settlement, I also refer him to the answer provided in the House of Commons on 3 September 2025 in response to Question 71442, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:

On 21 August, the Foreign Secretary and 26 international partners joined a statement condemning the E1 settlement development. The Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom was also summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in response to the plans. The decision by the Israeli Higher Planning Committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, East of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and, if implemented, would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution. We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms. The Israeli government must stop settlement construction in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

In response to the various questions raised, I refer the Lord Bishop to the answer provided on 19 December 2025 in response to Question HL12787. Specifically on the issue of the E1 settlement, I also refer him to the answer provided in the House of Commons on 3 September 2025 in response to Question 71442, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:

On 21 August, the Foreign Secretary and 26 international partners joined a statement condemning the E1 settlement development. The Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom was also summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in response to the plans. The decision by the Israeli Higher Planning Committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, East of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and, if implemented, would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution. We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms. The Israeli government must stop settlement construction in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.