Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the readiness of the UK Armed Forces for action in the Indo-Pacific region.

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

The Carrier Strike Group deployment is a key focus for the UK as it travels to the Indo-Pacific region later this year. The UK also operates two persistently deployed Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessels in the region, and holds a permanent British Army garrison in Brunei.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in developing their industrial strategy; and whether they remain on track to publish the full strategy in 2025.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Last October, the Government launched a consultation on how we can make the UK the most attractive country for business investment and drive long-term growth across the UK through targeted measures to support eight growth-driving sectors.

The consultation received more than 27,000 answers, from over 3,000 organisations and individuals. Detailed analysis and engagement are being conducted to distil themes, develop policy interventions, and identify opportunities to take a partnership approach to tackling barriers. Advice is also being provided by the new Industrial Strategy Advisory Council.

The full Industrial Strategy alongside Sector Plans for the growth-driving sectors, will be published alongside the multi-year Spending Review, as planned.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on the use of physician associates in roles previously held by qualified doctors, and how many physician associates have worked in the NHS in England in each of the past five years.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is clear that physician associates (PAs) are not doctors. PAs must always work under the supervision of a fully trained and experienced doctor, working with them, not replacing them.

NHS Employers provide a checklist for employers to follow when looking at recruiting medical associate professionals (MAPs). The checklist sets out that “MAPs are not doctors and cannot and must not replace doctors. They must not be considered as ‘equivalent to’ certain grades of doctor”.

We do not hold complete data on PA numbers for each of the last five years. However, the following table provides figures for the number of full time equivalent (FTE) PAs employed in both National Health Service trusts and primary care from 2019 to 2024:

Sources: NHS England’s NHS Workforce Statistics, General Practice Workforce Statistics, and Primary Care Quarterly Workforce Update.

Notes:

• data is only published for PAs employed in hospitals and other core organisation settings, such as commissioning bodies, from 2020 onwards, and is based on the job role held in the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system used by the NHS; and
• PAs in primary care settings may be employed directly by general practices or may be employed through other routes, such as by primary care networks. Data is only available for PAs employed directly by general practices prior to 2021, and as such there will be an under count of the total number across primary care.

The Government has commissioned Professor Gillian Leng CBE to lead an independent review of the physician and anaesthesia associate professions. It will consider the safety of the roles and their contribution to multidisciplinary healthcare teams. The conclusions of the review will inform the workforce plan to deliver the 10-Year Health Plan.

The review will consider the approach that was adopted in England to support the safe introduction, employment, and deployment of these new roles.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on the transfer of functions carried out by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to the UK Health Security Agency's new site in Harlow in Essex, including an explanation of the delay to this project, when it is expected to be completed, and whether anyone has been found responsible for this delay and held to account.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Science Hub Programme aims to upgrade and modernise the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) high-containment facilities, to ensure that we can continue to protect the nation's health in the long-term. This programme will not impact the location of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, which will remain at the Porton Down site.

The Government has noted the delay to the project and is urgently assessing the available options. These include moving the majority of the UKHSA’s Porton Down facilities to Harlow, and refurbishing existing facilities at Porton Down and Colindale. The decision-making process will be concluded in the ongoing Spending Review. We have also reformed the governance of the programme to establish clear lines of accountability.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in negotiations on a bilateral trade deal with the United States of America.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

We continue to have productive discussions with the US on securing a wider economic deal, including through a call between the Prime Minister and President Trump on 18 April. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has also been engaging with the US Administration including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to discuss this.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, since 11 March, how many meetings ministers of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have had with Unite representatives and on what dates; and which ministers and Unite officials were present at those meetings.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Details of external ministerial meetings, including their date, attendees, and purpose, are declared and published on gov.uk on a quarterly basis.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how long the trial of the provision of tasers to prison officers will last, in which prison it will take place, and how many prison officers will be armed with tasers during the trial.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The operational trial of the use of Conductive Energy Devices (CEDs, commonly known as “tasers”) will commence in summer 2025 and continue until there is sufficient evidence to provide a basis for recommendations to the Lord Chancellor. Officers in the Operational Response and Resilience Unit (ORRU) in HM Prison and Probation Service will be equipped with CEDs when attending certain incidents across the adult male estate.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to combat the abuse of ketamine.

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

The Government is extremely concerned by the rising use of ketamine in the UK and its dangerous impact on people's health, which may be significantly underestimated by those who use the drug. That is why I have written to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), setting out those concerns and seeking their advice on reclassifying ketamine as a Class A substance. We will carefully consider the ACMD’s recommendations before making any decision on how to proceed.

The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID) has briefed local authorities and treatment systems on data on ketamine use and harm, and guidance on prevention, harm reduction and treatment interventions. In addition, OHID has been supporting local authorities in increasing access to and retention in drug treatment through the public health grant and the significant increases in treatment funding. As a result, and in response to increased prevalence, the treatment system is responding and the number of adults entering treatment for ketamine use is 11 times higher than a decade ago (Dec 2013 - Nov 24) and proportion of children and young people under the age of 18 young people accessing help in relation to ketamine has increased from under 1% in 2015-16 to 9% in November 2024.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what categories of information, such as name, address, date of birth, they routinely capture about foreign national offenders, and how they store and access this information.

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

Biodata to establish nationality and identity is obtained and stored on the digital case-working system Atlas. Atlas provides caseworkers access to all the data that they need to manage and progress foreign national offender cases.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much public funding they have provided to public inquires in each of the last five years; and which are the current and anticipated (beginning in 2025) public inquiries to which they are providing, or are expecting to provide, support or funding.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Since 2020, His Majesty’s Government has supported 16 public inquiries under the Inquiries Act 2005. The Cabinet Office does not centrally hold data on the yearly public funding to inquiries as each Government Department is responsible for the inquiries they sponsor.

Four inquiries have been established so far in 2025. The Independent inquiry into Manston short-term holding facility and the Stockport Inquiry will be sponsored by the Home Office, the Nottingham Inquiry will be sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, and the Patrick Finucane Inquiry by the Northern Ireland Office.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff have been assigned to work on negotiations or policy for the Chagos Islands agreement with Mauritius, including staff reassigned from other teams; what are the salary bands of those staff; and how many staff have been seconded to the FCDO from other departments for that work.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

It would be difficult to assess how many officials are working on these issues, given that we do not record and measure the amount of time spent on any one topic where an official covers a range of matters.