Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many landowners claim annually through the tax-exempt heritage assets scheme; and how much they claim each year.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Conditional exemption from Inheritance Tax is available for transfers during lifetime or on death of land of outstanding scenic, historic, or scientific interest, buildings of outstanding historic or architectural interest and land protecting the setting of an outstanding building together with objects and collections of national, artistic, historic or scientific interest.
Information on how many landowners claim annually through the tax-exempt heritage assets scheme, and how much they claim each year, is not centrally collated. However, HMRC publishes annual official statistics on Inheritance Tax liabilities at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics. Table 12.2 has information on the number of estates claiming reliefs and exemptions.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individual cases they have been involved in in the past three years concerning (1) the arrest of UK nationals or their immediate family in Eritrea, (2) deaths of UK nationals or their immediate family in Eritrea, and (3) the imprisonment of UK nationals or their immediate family in Eritrea.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The British Embassy in Asmara provides consular support to British Nationals in Eritrea, alongside neighbouring countries providing remote support. As such, our case management system does not enable us to isolate all consular assistance cases from within Eritrea. However, we can isolate some cases managed in Eritrea, and the number of these is less than five. When a figure is five or less, we do not publish a breakdown which may risk identifying individuals involved. British Nationals planning to visit or already in Eritrea can visit the FCDO travel advice pages for Eritrea and sign up to email alerts.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Eritrea about human rights in that country over the past three years.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We consistently raise human rights with the Eritrean Government through our Embassy in Asmara and during senior official visits including in June 2024 by the UK's Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and The Red Sea. We also engage with the Government at the multilateral level, including at the Human Rights Council.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many properties were purchased by Serco in the first six months of 2024 to house asylum seekers; and what criteria is used to determine how, when and where to purchase such property.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office cannot comment on commercial arrangements that are confidential. Data on the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated is published at Gov.UK.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they last made an assessment of the situation in Eritrea in determining whether individuals from that country meet the eligibility criteria for asylum in the UK; and what discussions they have had with European counterparts in the past three years concerning these criteria.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office’s most recent country policy and information note (CPIN) on Eritrea, which sets out our general assessment of asylum claims based on a fear of avoiding national service and leaving the country illegally, was published in September 2021. The CPIN is publicly available on GOV.UK.
We maintain a regular dialogue with European counterparts on a wide range of asylum issues.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much was or will be allocated in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's budget for the development of nuclear fusion in (1) 2023, (2) 2024, (3) 2025, (4) 2026, and (5) 2027.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is responsible for the development of fusion. In 2023/24 the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero provided £248.3m of Grant in Aid to the UKAEA, as set out in the UKAEA’s 2023/24 Annual Report and Accounts which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukaea-annual-report-and-accounts-202324-hc175
Confirmation of the amount of funding for 2025/26 will be shared in due course. A Spending Review will conclude in Spring 2025 which will set budgets for 2026/27 and beyond.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the dental health patient enrolment waiting list in each NHS integrated care board in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally. Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice and there is no single waiting list, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly, and may operate local waiting list arrangements. NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK website profiles up to date, so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which NHS Trusts have provided training regarding antisemitism since January 2023, and to how many participants.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally by the Department. Tackling antisemitism in the National Health Service is essential and NHS England has already rolled out antisemitism awareness training to staff across the NHS, provided by the Antisemitism Policy Trust.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current level of national shortage of skilled (1) bricklayers, (2) roofers, (3) plasterers, (4) carpenters, and (5) electricians.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is working with industry to increase the capacity of skilled workers, including those in the trade professions, to deliver its infrastructure, housing and wider built environment objectives. It is essential that all construction trades working within the built environment have the right level of skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours, as required by the Building Safety Act.
The Government has already announced the introduction of Skills England which will be crucial to providing high quality training to the next generation of construction workers to deliver the built environment we need.
We do not currently have the specific and accurate information on shortages. The Department for Business and Trade is working across Government to understand the full impacts on shortages for the construction sector and the built environment and infrastructure commitments that the Government has set out.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children in England (1) never attend school, and (2) do not regularly attend school.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department collects data on children missing education from local authorities on a voluntary basis. This includes compulsory school aged children not registered at school or otherwise receiving suitable education. The latest figures are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education. In autumn 2023/24, there were an estimated 33,000 children missing education, which includes adjustments made for non-response and is based on a figure of 30,400 reported by 94% of local authorities.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will legislate for local authority registers of children not in school. This will include a duty on parents to provide the necessary information for these registers if their child is eligible, which would improve the accuracy of data and ensure that fewer children slip under the radar when they are not in school.
Pupil absence is collected in the school census. The latest figures are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.
The department publishes figures on the number of pupils who are persistently absent, which means missing 10% or more of possible sessions, and severely absent, which means missing 50% or more of possible sessions. In autumn 2023/24, 19.4% of pupil enrolments were persistently absent (1.4 million pupil enrolments) and 2.0% of pupil enrolments were severely absent (142,000 pupil enrolments).
It should be noted that ‘regular attendance’ is defined as having no absence, apart from absence due to attendance at a dual-registration or approved educational activity. This information is not readily available.
School level information also forms part of the pupil absence publication. Absence rates for all schools in England in autumn 2023/24 is attached. The data requested is available in the attached table.