Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost to the NHS of the resident doctors' strike between 25–30 July, including cover for absent staff, disruption and catch-up work.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The five-day resident doctor strike in July 2025 had an estimated cost to the National Health Service of around £240 million and this is a starting estimate for the planned November strike. The costs were lower than in July 2024 as a result of lower turnout. We continue to update estimates as new data becomes available, in line with receiving business as usual financial data from NHS systems.
The NHS has tried and tested plans in place to minimise disruption and will work with partners to ensure safe care for patients continues to be available and emergency services continue to operate.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government by what date they expect the abolition of NHS England to be completed.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will deliver on the planned timetable of bringing NHS England back into the Department within two years, a move that will put an end to the duplication of two organisations doing the same job.
The abolition of NHS England requires primary legislation, and as such is subject to the will of Parliament. We are working with the Leader of the House and business managers to ensure an appropriate timetable that enables us to work towards the two-year delivery timetable already announced.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total value of known life-sciences investments in the UK that have been cancelled or paused since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Through delivery of the Life Sciences Sector Plan, and the wider Industrial Strategy, this Government is taking targeted action to address the global challenges that life sciences companies face and unlock economic growth. Challenges include global competition and global commercial uncertainty.
Our ambition is that the UK will be the leading Life Sciences economy in Europe by 2030 and the third most important globally, behind the US and China only, by 2035. We have already started delivering on key actions, investing up to £600 million in the Health Data Research Service alongside Wellcome, committing over £650 million in Genomics England and up to £354 million in Our Future Health, and launching the £50 million Life Sciences Transformational R&D Investment Fund pilot.
Alongside these commitments, we have continued to see transformative investments into the UK made by Life Sciences companies. For example: in May 2025, BioNTech committed up to £1 billion as part of a ten-year investment on top of their existing strategic partnership with the Government; in August, Eli Lilly invested £35 million in the Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme; and in October, Convatec announced plans to invest £500 million in a new R&D facility in Manchester.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish the data on which they based the decision to withdraw funding for Anglian Water's waste water treatment plant relocation.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The cost to government of relocating the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant with funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund had increased from £277m to over £700m. This was unaffordable within the programme budget, and a decision was made, in line with standard Housing Infrastructure Fund processes, to withdraw the funding.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to make additional funding available to strengthen cybersecurity in the light of the rise in "highly significant" cyber-attacks reported by the National Cyber Security Centre.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to strengthening cyber security across the UK, which is why the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides a range of tools, guidance and support to businesses to improve their cyber security. At this year's Spending Review, the government provided a real terms uplift of £0.6bn to the Single Intelligence Account, which funds the critical cybersecurity work conducted by the NCSC, in recognition of its importance.
The Security Minister was one of the ministers who wrote to chief executives and chairs of the FTSE 350 last month asking them to make cyber security a top priority, noting the need for a collective response to this threat. The CEO of NCSC warned that cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience. He urged businesses to act with urgency and make cyber resilience a board-level responsibility to defend against the escalating threat.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of regional variations in the uptake of prostate specific antigen testing in men.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing is not offered on the National Health Service, and therefore the Department has not taken a formal assessment of uptake. However, men aged 50 years old or over can ask their general practitioner for a PSA test, even if they do not have symptoms. This applies to anyone aged 50 years old or over in any part of England.
Whilst it is recognised that the PSA test can be a valuable diagnostic tool in certain contexts, its limitations mean it is not currently recommended for population-level screening. To find better ways of testing for prostate cancer, the Government is investing £16 million into the Prostate Cancer UK-led TRANSFORM screening trial, which aims to identify more effective approaches for detecting prostate cancer earlier.
The UK National Screening Committee, which independently advises ministers, is also reviewing the evidence for both population-wide and targeted prostate cancer screening. Depending on the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation regarding screening for prostate cancer, an impact assessment may also be produced using the HM Treasury Green Book methodology, which considers wider social and economic impacts.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 19 September (HL10017), whether they will publish a list of the subsidy payments that do not provide returns on investment and as a result are being rapidly wound down.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are backing farmers with the largest nature-friendly budget in history to support farmers and land managers to help restore nature and boost farm productivity, which in turn protects food security and builds resilience to climate change. This means carrying on the transition away from area-based payments and towards paying to deliver public goods.
We are winding down subsidy payments that do not provide returns on investment and increasing funding in Environmental Land Management schemes, from £1.8 billion in 2025/26 to more than £2 billion a year by 2028/29.
Continuing to phase out delinked payments will enable us to invest more in environmental schemes that will make a significant contribution to our Environment Act targets and will ensure that funding is targeted where it can have the greatest impact.
Furthermore, the latest FCP annual report (attached) sets out what FCP schemes delivered over 2024/25.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many officials were working on the Farming and Countryside Programme on (1) 4 July 2024, and (2) 16 September 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Delivery of the Farming & Countryside programme spans across many organisations within the Defra group, and we use our resource flexibly according to demand.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current overspends in systems in the NHS, and the impact of those overspends on winter resilience.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of July 2025, there is a total system overspend of £172 million, which includes some of the impact of industrial action and reflects held back deficit support funding. The issues are very concentrated, with six systems accounting for more than half of the total overspend. At the same point last year, systems had overspent by £487 million, so we are seeing strong signs of improvement following the changes made as part of the NHS Financial Reset.
Overspends must be addressed through improved financial management and they should not undermine the National Health Service’s ability to respond to winter pressures. As set out in the 2025/26 Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, the NHS is focused on improvements that will see the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care performance this winter, including improved hospital flow, reduced ambulance handover times, and improved vaccination uptake among frontline staff.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many times the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has met the NHS Staff Council since 1 January.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Minister of State for Health meet regularly with individual Agenda for Change (AfC) trade union leaders and with representatives of NHS organisations to discuss matters affecting the NHS workforce.
It is not usual practice for Ministers to attend NHS Staff Council meetings, which are used to discuss policy issues affecting the AfC workforce and to maintain the NHS terms and conditions of service. Accordingly, there have been no meetings between the Secretary of State and the NHS Staff Council as a whole since 1 January.
Both ministers have written to the NHS Staff Council on issues relating to AfC pay, terms, and conditions since 1 January, and Department officials continue to attend meetings of the NHS Staff Council.