Question

To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the Cabinet Office's style guide Writing about ethnicity, what assessment they have made of the use of (1) Global Majority, and (2) Global South in their communications.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The government has made no such assessment.

The Cabinet Office’s style guide ‘Writing about ethnicity’ describes the government’s preferred style for writing about ethnicity. This guidance is informed by categories in the independent Office for National Statistics’s harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government for what reason religion and belief is not included in the remit of the Office for Equality and Opportunity.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Office for Equality and Opportunity is responsible for the Equality Act 2010, including its protections against discrimination and harassment on the basis of religion or belief.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) leads the Government’s work to support and engage faith and belief groups and coordinates the Government’s work to tackle religious hatred.

This government celebrates the central role of faith and belief in our national life, and its contribution to building a more cohesive society where all communities feel safe. We seek to ensure that the voices of people of faith and belief are warmly welcomed and richly valued as we tackle the challenges we face together.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government on what grounds they have challenged the Information Commissioner’s instruction for them to publish data on foreign national offending between 2018 and 2024.

Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice are in the process of appealing the Information Commissioner Officer’s decision to the First-tier Tribunal, it would be prejudicial to live proceedings to release any of the requested information.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve labour productivity in the public sector.

Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government is taking a range of steps to improve labour productivity in the public sector - that is, to increase public services output per hour worked. I will touch on a few of them.

Central to this is investment in artificial intelligence and technology to reduce administrative burden and free up staff time for frontline delivery.
More broadly, the government is investing in productivity-enhancing reform across public services, including up to £10 billion for NHS technology and digital transformation, £2.1 billion to modernise HM Revenue and Customs' information technology and data infrastructure, and £1.9 billion for cross-cutting digital transformation across government.

The government is also committed to improving Civil Service productivity. This includes reducing bureaucracy by adopting digital technology and AI tools, streamlining approval processes, and establishing a higher-skilled civil service with stronger accountability for performance.

Through automation of routine administrative tasks, we are freeing up civil servants to focus on high-value casework and delivering better services to the public. For example, the incubator for AI (i.AI) tool "Consult", has publicly supported 38 consultations across 10 departments, saving tens of thousands of administrative hours and millions of pounds.

The Cabinet Secretary is also leading a wide-ranging review of the permanent Civil Service to set out a vision for its future as an efficient, world class institution serving the elected government of the day. The review will report before summer 2027. Its final report will include proposals to strengthen accountability and capability across the Civil Service, with a focus on delivery, innovation and productivity, and public trust.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in deporting foreign national offenders to (1) Albania, (2) Romania, (3) Poland, (4) Lithuania and (5) Jamaica, since July 2024.

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

We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.

Since this Government came to power over 11,700 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been returned, an increase of 41%, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.

The number of FNOs returned by nationality (of which ‘deportation’ is a legal subset) is published by the Home Office in the Immigration Systems Statistics quarterly release.

Please see table below of the top 10 FNO returns by nationality:

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 29 July (HL2207), what are the full terms of reference of the review of all Army associations with private members’ clubs; whether it applies to other parts of the Armed Forces; and whether they intend to publish the letter by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff to the Corps and Regimental Colonels.

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

I refer the noble Lord to the Answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Veterans and People (Calvin Bailey) in the House of Commons on 7 September 2026 to Question 20863, copied below, which set out the Government’s position on this matter. As that answer explained, this was not a centrally coordinated Army review and there were no centrally held terms of reference, single Army-wide timetable, or centrally produced final outcome or report. Therefore, there are no plans to publish the letter from the then Deputy Chief of the General Staff to Corps and Regimental Colonels.

"The then Deputy Chief of the General Staff directed Corps and Regimental Associations to conduct their own reviews of their affiliations with private members’ clubs, including whether any associated clubs have rules, policies or practices that may not align with Army values of equality and respect.

This was not a centrally coordinated Army review. Rather, Corps and Regimental Associations were asked to consider their own arrangements, reflecting the fact that such affiliations are informal, privately funded and managed at Association level. Where concerns were identified, Associations were requested to consider engaging with the relevant club to advocate for change, or to disassociate where appropriate.

As the reviews were for individual Corps and Regimental Associations to undertake, there are no centrally held terms of reference, no single Army-wide timetable for completion, and no centrally produced final outcome or report to publish. Ministers were not asked to approve a central review, and there is no plan to make a statement to Parliament on this matter."

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Blake of Leeds on 1 September (HL2208), were written submissions from organisations subject to the department’s policy of non-engagement substantively considered or disregarded by the working group.

Answered by Baroness Blake of Leeds - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

No organisations subject to the Government's policy of non-engagement were engaged by the Definition Working Group.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will list each contractor and supplier currently contracted by the Home Office’s Research Information and Communications Unit.

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

The following are suppliers currently contracted by the Home Office’s Research Information and Communications Unit:

Press Data Ltd

The Global Strategy Network

Human Digital Ltd

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Housing and Planning on 28 August (HC17454), whether it is permitted to fly (1) the Progress flag, or (2) the Progress flag with the Palestinian flag, without planning permission.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Outdoor flags which fall within Class H of Schedule 1 to The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisement) (England) Regulations 2007 can be flown without consent.

All other flags must either benefit from deemed consent or have obtained express consent from the relevant local planning authority.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 16 July (HL1590), whether criticism is Islamist practices is deemed to fall within the definition of racism.

Answered by Baroness Blake of Leeds - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Matters relating to discrimination, harassment and hate crime are governed by legislation, and the Government recognises the fundamental right to freedom of expression within the law. The Government has adopted a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility. The definition does not restrict lawful criticism, debate or even ridicule of religious ideas, including Islam, and is concerned with unacceptable behaviour towards people rather than the protection of belief systems.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the publication of then Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’s schedule of taxable sources of income and gains 2023–24 on 14 April 2025, whether the new Prime Minister will be publishing a tax return or similar information in due course.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Any publication of tax returns would be announced in the usual way.

Found: Q18 Lord Jackson of Peterborough: Liberals do tend to be on the left, in this country.

Found: Lord Barrow; Lord Brennan of Canton; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell; Lord Grantchester; Lord Jackson of Peterborough