Lord Murray of Blidworth

The Cabinet Office Board has met twice since 4 July 2024.

The department has had eight meetings since 4 July 2024, which will rise to nine by the end of this calendar year (2025).

Local authorities are responsible for accommodating all children in care and care leavers aged 16 or 17. When care leavers reach age 18, local authorities do not have an automatic duty to accommodate them. However, they do have continuing duties to help all care leavers, including former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) care leavers, to make a successful transition from care to independence, including providing them with a personal adviser, whose role includes helping them to secure suitable accommodation.

Where a young person is in foster care immediately before their eighteenth birthday, local authorities have a duty to support them to ‘stay put’ with their former foster carer to age 21. Around half of eligible young people choose to ‘stay put’ when they turn 18. This includes providing financial support to meet all reasonable costs of supporting the young person.

If a decision is made that a former UASC care leaver does not have leave to remain in the UK and is ‘appeal rights exhausted’, and does not have recourse to public funds, local authorities must undertake a human rights assessment to determine whether failing to provide support would leave them destitute and infringe their human rights. If the local authority determines that support is necessary, they can provide accommodation and a subsistence allowance to cover living costs.

The Department has held two departmental board meetings since 4 July 2024. Further details on departmental board meetings are published in the Department's published annual report and accounts.

Details of the attendees, and number of meetings, for all top-level boards and committees at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) are published on an annual basis in the FCDO annual report and accounts. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Management Board, chaired by the Permanent Under-Secretary, has met 6 times since 4 July 2024.

We remain severely concerned by democratic backsliding in Georgia, including restrictions on free speech and policing of protests. The Minister of State for Europe and North America raised these issues directly with Georgian Dream Foreign Minister Botchorishvili on 16 October and with Georgian Dream 1st Deputy Foreign Minister Zurabashvili on 21 October, and the UK is also supporting efforts in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Council of Europe to press Georgia to adhere to democratic norms.

The Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 24/25 includes information on how many times the Departmental Board met during that financial year. Information on the number of meetings held in the 25/26 financial year will be published in next year’s Annual Report and Accounts. Home Office Board met twice in the time mentioned.

Of the 871 small boat seizures referenced in the relevant Written Answer, all were seized during or after Channel crossings.

Border Force do not hold data on the number of seizures prior to use in Channel crossings.

This information requested is not available in an accessible format and could only be collated at a disproportionate cost.

Since 4 July 2024, Border Force has seized a total of 871 small boats used to make dangerous and unnecessary crossings of the Channel.

Since 4 July 2024, Border Force has seized a total of 871 small boats used to make dangerous and unnecessary crossings of the Channel.

Since 4 July 2024, the Defence Board has met six times under the Chairmanship of the Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt Hon John Healey MP.

The Secretary of State has given the Defence Board a clear mandate to debate and monitor progress against the Department's highest priorities, which include People, implementation of the Strategic Defence Review, Defence Reform, and the Defence budget and Investment Plan.

The Defence Board is expected to meet at least four times annually in line with the corporate governance code of good practice.

The Government recognises the important role that mediation can play in resolving commercial disputes and promoting access to justice, alongside other dispute resolution methods such as litigation and arbitration.

The UK signed the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (known as the Singapore Convention) in May 2023. The Government is currently consulting stakeholders in the UK legal and mediation sectors, and other experts, on how the Convention could be implemented in domestic law. We are committed to ratifying the Convention once all the necessary domestic implementing measures are in place.