Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment has been made of civilian casualties from US and UK military action in Yemen (1) since March and (2) between January 2024 and January 2025.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In planning its operations, the Ministry of Defence takes the greatest possible care to minimise the risk of civilian casualties. Every mission carried out by Royal Air Force aircraft is assessed carefully, including for any evidence that civilian casualties resulting from British military action have been caused. All instances must be confirmed to Parliament.
On 29 April, UK forces participated in a joint operation with US forces against a Houthi military target in Yemen which careful intelligence analysis had identified was being used to manufacture long-range attack drones. This was the first UK strike on the Houthis since 30 May 2024, and was again conducted in self-defence and in line with the UK's longstanding policy.
We do not comment on other nations' military operations.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they made of potential risks to civilians in advance of airstrikes in Yemen on 29 April.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Ahead of the UK strikes in Yemen on 29 April, the utmost care was taken during planning to minimise any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure.
This included conducting the strikes in the hours of darkness, as this was a feasible precaution available during this particular mission to further mitigate any such risks.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the British airstrikes conducted in Yemen on 29 April were in support of Operation Poseidon Archer or Operation Rough Rider.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
We do not comment on other nations’ military operations but can confirm that the UK airstrike on 29 April 2025 was conducted against a Houthi military target in Yemen. The action was undertaken jointly with the US to uphold the freedom of navigation.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many times in each of the last five years the NHS applied for a warrant to remove patients from a hospital bed.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England do not hold this information. The statutory guidance on hospital discharge procedures, Hospital discharge and community support guidance, published in January 2024, sets out how local areas should plan and implement hospital discharge in order to support safe and timely discharge for all individuals. Further information on this guidance is available on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what impact the changes to student visa routes introduced in January, which prevent international students studying on undergraduate courses bringing family members to the UK, have had on visa application numbers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes information on monthly Sponsored Study visa applications in the ‘Monthly entry clearance visa applications release’.
[Monthly entry clearance visa applications - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)]
Data on Sponsored Study visa applications from main applicants and dependants can be found in the accompanying dataset.
[Monthly monitoring of entry clearance visa applications - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)].
The Home Office also publishes quarterly data on Sponsored Study visas in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’ [Immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)]. Data on visa applications, by applicant type and nationality, are published in table Vis_D01 of ‘Entry clearance visas granted outside the UK’ [Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)]. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to Q2 (April to July) 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’ [immigration - Research and statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)].
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many National Insurance numbers were issued to citizens of (1) the European Union, and (2) all other countries, within the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes quarterly statistics on National Insurance number allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK with the latest statistics to June 2024 available by world area and country on Stat-Xplore. The number issued in the 12 months to June 2024 by world areas is shown in the table below.
NINO Registrations To Adult Overseas Nationals Entering The UK
Nationality | Rolling year end June 2023/24 |
European Union | 69,927 |
Non-European Union (Other Europe) | 49,302 |
Asia | 544,241 |
Rest of the World | 261,711 |
Other / unknown | 14,857 |
Total | 940,039 |
Source: Stat-Xplore
Note: Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data. Totals may not sum due to the disclosure control applied.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the announcement on 4 March of the establishment of an inquiry into third party litigation funding, when they expect to announce the terms of reference, the members of the inquiry panel and the timing of the review.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Lord Chancellor has invited the Civil Justice Council, the body responsible for overseeing and co-ordinating the modernisation of the civil justice system, to undertake a review of third-party litigation funding in England and Wales. The CJC has agreed to undertake the review and will be announcing terms of reference and other information shortly.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number of full time equivalent personnel employed by DEFRA to administer farming and horticultural grants and subsidies in England on the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Defra’s Grants Hub data does not hold a ‘Farming & Horticulture’ flag so it would not be possible to quickly pull together a list of schemes in scope of this question.
Manually reviewing the schemes and deciding if they fit or not, without a standard definition of what counts as ‘Farming & Horticulture’, would require a degree of personal judgement and therefore yield some inaccuracy. It would then be necessary to validate the list with teams to ensure they are ‘Farming & Horticulture’ grants.
From experience of similar requests, this would push the cost to disproportionate (ie greater than the HMT-set limit of £850 for a PQ answer).
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number of (1) farmers, and (2) their direct employees, for the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Farmers are defined here as full time and part time principal farmers, business partners, directors and spouses. All other agricultural workers are defined here as regular employees, salaried managers and casual workers who were working on the holding on 1 June 2023.
Agricultural workforce in England in 2023
| 2023 |
|
Farmers | 178,696 |
|
All other agricultural workers | 113,705 |
|
Total agricultural workforce | 292,401 |
|
Notes
(a) Commercial holdings are those registered with the Rural Payments Agency for payments or livestock purposes and with significant levels of farming activity (as recorded in responses to the Defra June Survey of Agriculture or the Cattle Tracing System). Holdings are only included if they have more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.
Full data series for agricultural workforce are published here for England. A copy is attached to this answer.
Similar figures for the UK are available at gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker when the list of fees charged to promoters of private bills was last reviewed.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The current level of Private Bill fees was agreed to by the House on 27 March 2000, and the consequent amendments to Private Business Standing Orders agreed to on 24 July 2000, following a recommendation of the Select Committee of House of Lords’ Offices (4th Report, Session 1999-2000, HL Paper 45). A review of private legislation fees charged to promoters and applicants, as set out in the Table of fees in Private Business Standing Orders, is planned to take place this year.