Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of 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 published 14 April 2025, whether they will publish a tax return for the outgoing Prime Minister after he has left office.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Publication of tax returns is a matter for individuals.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the outgoing Prime Minister wrote a note of advice to the new Prime Minister.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government does not disclose details of personal correspondence, including confirming whether it has or has not been received. The former Prime Minister has given his wholehearted support to his successor.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish a "Number 10 North" in Manchester; and, if so, how often the Prime Minister intends to work there.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

I refer the Noble Lord to the Written Statement provided by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 21 July 2026, HLWS298.

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.

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