Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government when they last discussed the request of the Rapa Nui to return the Hoa Hakananai'a with the trustees of the British Museum; and what offers, if any, they have made to the trustees to facilitate this.
Answered by Baroness Mackenzie of Sherwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Ministers regularly hold wide-ranging discussions with the Director of the British Museum, however this matter has not arisen since July 2024, and no such offers have been made.
The British Museum operates independently of the government. Decisions relating to the care and management of its collections, including the Hoa Hakananai'a, are a matter for its trustees. The British Museum’s governing legislation, the British Museum Act 1963, prohibits the museum from disposing of objects in its collection, unless, broadly, they are duplicates or unfit for retention. The two exceptions to this are for objects taken during the Nazi-era, and human remains less than 1000 years old. The Government has no plans to change the law.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any adverse impacts on the UK's international reputation by the retention of the Hoa Hakananai'a by the British Museum; and when this matter was last raised by the government of Chile.
Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Museum operates independently of the Government, and decisions relating to the care and management of its collections are a matter for the Museum's Trustees. Government representatives have discussed issues relating to Hoa Hakananai'a with the British Museum, most recently in June 2025.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the sale of a mummified human head and a dangerous tribal skull from Borneo by On the Square Emporium Ltd in Belfast, whether they have any plans to restrict the sale of human remains by auction houses.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is aware of the distress caused by the sale of human remains, via auction or any other means, and finds this activity abhorrent.
Under the current framework it is for auction houses to decide whether to prohibit sales of human remains, taking into account their own professional standards. We expect those involved to strongly consider the ethical implications of this activity. All human remains should be treated with respect and dignity.
We recognise that further work is needed to understand these specific issues and their scope. We remain committed to exploring ways to protect the safety and dignity of the deceased, including the treatment of human remains over 100 years old.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the powers and performance of the Care Quality Commission in inspecting supported accommodation for people with autism, in the light of the death of Chanté Lloyd-Buckingham.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have not made a formal assessment of the adequacy of the powers and performance of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in inspecting supported accommodation for people with autism.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, a provider must register with the CQC if they provide a regulated activity. More specifically, supported living providers need to register with the CQC if they carry out the regulated activity of ‘personal care’. The CQC’s guidance Housing with Care provides further information on regulated activities and how they apply in the context of supported living services. A copy of the CQC’s guidance is attached.
The Government is tackling poor quality supported housing to ensure that residents get the care and support they need and is committed to the reforms set out in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 (the Act). The Act was enacted to address gaps in regulation and set standards for the support provided to prevent exploitation in the sector, ensuring that all providers deliver safe housing and necessary support services.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government consulted on proposals for implementing the measures set out in the Act between February and May 2025. These include the introduction of new National Supported Housing Standards for all supported housing settings, enforced through a licensing regime, and a proposal to link the payment of higher rates of Housing Benefit to licensing in England. We are working to issue the Government response to the consultation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are aware of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery holding human remains in either their original or modified form; and whether they understand any such remains to have been among the items stolen from the museum's archive in September.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
DCMS was alerted by Arts Council England at the end of October to a recent theft incident involving a storage facility operated by Bristol Museums. Fuller details about the scale of that incident were provided by the museum in mid December, at the time a police appeal was launched, following a museum-led audit. The museum holds human remains, however the department is not aware of any human remains being amongst the items stolen.
Museums in England operate independently from the government, and subscribe to ethical codes produced by the sector, and so it is for the museum’s leadership team to ensure the proper care of human remains, with policies kept under review. DCMS’ Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums covers the curation, care and display of human remains in museums, and recommends both the active management and monitoring of human remains storage, and adherence to suitable standards of security, access management and environmental conditions.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the arrangements for the storage of human remains at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery; and whether it complies with the relevant guidance.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
DCMS was alerted by Arts Council England at the end of October to a recent theft incident involving a storage facility operated by Bristol Museums. Fuller details about the scale of that incident were provided by the museum in mid December, at the time a police appeal was launched, following a museum-led audit. The museum holds human remains, however the department is not aware of any human remains being amongst the items stolen.
Museums in England operate independently from the government, and subscribe to ethical codes produced by the sector, and so it is for the museum’s leadership team to ensure the proper care of human remains, with policies kept under review. DCMS’ Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums covers the curation, care and display of human remains in museums, and recommends both the active management and monitoring of human remains storage, and adherence to suitable standards of security, access management and environmental conditions.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they were first advised of the theft in September 2025 of artefacts from the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery archive.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
DCMS was alerted by Arts Council England at the end of October to a recent theft incident involving a storage facility operated by Bristol Museums. Fuller details about the scale of that incident were provided by the museum in mid December, at the time a police appeal was launched, following a museum-led audit. The museum holds human remains, however the department is not aware of any human remains being amongst the items stolen.
Museums in England operate independently from the government, and subscribe to ethical codes produced by the sector, and so it is for the museum’s leadership team to ensure the proper care of human remains, with policies kept under review. DCMS’ Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums covers the curation, care and display of human remains in museums, and recommends both the active management and monitoring of human remains storage, and adherence to suitable standards of security, access management and environmental conditions.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the levels of recruitment and retention of prison officers in England and Wales; and how many positions are vacant due to retirement, resignation or ill health.
Answered by Lord Timpson
We know that sufficient and skilled frontline staffing is fundamental to delivering safe, secure, and rehabilitative prisons. We remain committed to ensuring prisons are sufficiently resourced and that we retain and build levels of experience.
Substantive recruitment efforts will continue at all prisons where vacancies exist or are projected, with targeted interventions applied to those prisons with the most need. We closely monitor staffing levels across the estate, including at a regional level, and look to provide short-term tactical support where possible. Where establishments feel that their staffing levels will affect stability or regime, there are a number of ways they can maximise the use of their own resource and seek support from other establishments in the short term, through processes managed nationally at Agency level.
HMPPS has a retention strategy in place which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle, and staff engagement at work. Alongside the strategy a retention toolkit has been introduced which identifies local, regional, and national interventions against the drivers of attrition, which are utilised by establishments to ensure that they are embedding individual Retention Plans.
HMPPS publishes the following data as part of the HMPPS Workforce quarterly statistics for prison officers. This includes:
The number of prison officers appointed to HMPPS annually, consisting of direct new recruits and existing staff who converted to a band 3 officer grade;
Resignation rates cover the rate for those who voluntarily resigned from the organisation;
Leaving rates covers the rate for all leavers and all reasons for leaving, including deaths, resignation, dismissals and redundancies; and,
Reasons for leaving for prison officers.
This data can be accessed via the following link: HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: HM Prison & Probation Service workforce quarterly: September 2025 - GOV.UK:. Table 1 below gives an overview of Band 3-5 prison officer joiners, leavers, leaving rate and resignation rate: 2019/20 to 2024/25:
Table 1: Band 3-5 prison officer joiners, leavers, leaving rate and resignation rate: 2019/20 to 2024/25
12 months to end of… | Number of joiners | Number of leavers | Leaving rate | Resignation rate |
Mar-20 | 2,317 | 2,852 | 12.2% | 8.0% |
Mar-21 | 2,410 | 2,116 | 9.2% | 5.4% |
Mar-22 | 3,845 | 3,386 | 14.5% | 10.9% |
Mar-23 | 4,314 | 3,331 | 14.6% | 9.7% |
Mar-24 | 4,821 | 3,170 | 13.2% | 8.5% |
Mar-25 | 2,416 | 3,047 | 12.5% | 8.3% |
Sep-25 | 1,971 | 2,622 | 10.9% | 7.0% |
HMPPS also publishes the difference between Staff in Post (SIP) and Target Staffing Figures (TSF) for Band 3 to 5 Prison Officers at establishment and national level in the Annex of the workforce quarterly publication (Table 4 of the Prison and Probation Officer Recruitment Annex, which can also be accessed via the link above). There was a difference of 1,225 FTE between the SIP and TSF for Band 3-5 prison officers in HMPPS at the end of September 2025. We are unable to attribute specific vacancies to reasons for leaving and as such, cannot calculate a breakdown of vacancies by reasons for leaving.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prison officers in England and Wales were recruited from (1) the Commonwealth, and (2) the European Union, in each of the last three years for which figures are available; and how many of these earn in excess of £41,700 a year.
Answered by Lord Timpson
The Ministry of Justice does not hold the requested data in a single central system. Information on nationality, new joiners, and salary is recorded across separate administrative systems, and linking these datasets accurately would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prison officers in England and Wales hold work visas which are due to expire in 2026; and what assessment they have made of the effect of this on the morale of staff and good order within the prison estate.
Answered by Lord Timpson
The Ministry of Justice holds data pertaining to employees who have limited leave to remain. This data includes all employees, past or present, for whom this would be the case, but there is no functionality to withdraw any ex-employees from the data other than manually checking every file. To provide an accurate response to the question would be of disproportionate cost.
We are clear that net migration, as a whole must, come down. We will of course provide support to those affected by the changes to Immigration Rules, and anyone with a Skilled Worker visa can be considered for an extension where possible.
We are working with Home Office colleagues to consider the impact of the reforms and options to ensure the safety and stability of our prisons. We know that sufficient and skilled frontline staffing is fundamental to delivering safe, secure, and rehabilitative prison regimes.