Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who do not work for NHS England have been granted access rights to identifiable patient data on or via the Federated Data Platform, broken down by the firm or organisation that employs them.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Data Integration Tenant is NHS England’s secure platform for collecting and managing national health and care data. It replaces multiple legacy systems with one unified, secure process, reducing burden for National Health Service teams while ensuring the right data is available at the right time to support faster decisions and safer care. Data is pseudonymised using Privacy Enhancing Technologies and then routed to the National NHS Federated Data Platform where it is used for analysis, insights, and decision-making.
There are three Palantir contractors with administrative permissions under the instruction of NHS England as the data controller.
In addition, data engineering activities are carried out by twenty-two non-NHS England contractors, nineteen employed by Palantir or the supplier consortium, one employed by Mastek, and two by NHS trusts. They have limited project-based access under the instruction of NHS England. Individual access is strictly role‑based depending on the project and is time limited.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the performance of a firm under other government and public sector contracts can or cannot be taken into account when deciding to which firm to award a new contract to.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Procurement Act 2023 expands the grounds for excluding suppliers for poor performance on any contract involving a public authority. In addition to the previous applicable exclusion grounds, which required contract breach or termination, authorities can now also exclude suppliers who failed to rectify poor performance under a contract with a public authority despite an opportunity to do so, provided the issue is continuing or likely to recur. To inform these decisions, performance data is shared via public notices for contracts awarded under the Procurement Act, and a new centralised debarment list records certain suppliers who may or must be excluded. Contracting authorities must assess suppliers individually for exclusion prior to contract award.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS staff have declined to work on the Federated Data Platform due to concerns about the role of Palantir in the project.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information across the National Health Service into a single secure environment to allow staff to better co-ordinate care, through managing theatre time better, or improving the speed of a cancer diagnosis, or allowing the quicker discharge of a patient from hospital.
To date, 24 integrated care board clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP.
Information on how many NHS staff have declined to work on the NHS FDP is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the social media platform X has been selected for promotion in the standard signatures on many official Whitehall emails; why other social networks are not mentioned; and what plans they have to review the preference given to X.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There is no single, mandatory, cross-government email signature standard, as each department has localised branding and IT systems.
The Government continually reviews the selection of communication channels to ensure we reach audiences where they are.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 24 March (HL15443), what steps the Attorney General Office's has taken in the last year to meet its legal duty to keep under review the question of when uncommenced legislation that falls within its area of responsibility should be brought into force.
Answered by Lord Hermer - Attorney General
Whilst the Law Officers sit on the Parliamentary Business and Legislation Committee, the Attorney General’s Office does not, itself, have legislation that falls within its areas of policy responsibility. Questions as to the commencement of legislation should be directed to the Government departments with policy responsibility.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 24 March (HL15443), what steps the Office of the Advocate General for Scotland has taken in the last year to meet its legal duty to keep under review the question of when uncommenced legislation that falls within its area of responsibility should be brought into force.
Answered by Lord Hermer - Attorney General
The Office of the Advocate General, along with supporting the Advocate General as a Law Officer, is the Scottish legal team for other UK Government departments. Decisions about the implementation of uncommenced legislation are made by the UK Government department with responsibility for the legislation in question
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 24 March (HL15443), what steps the Scotland Office has taken in the last year to meet its legal duty to keep under review the question of when uncommenced legislation that falls within its area of responsibility should be brought into force.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Cluny - Advocate General for Scotland
The Scotland Office undertakes to review legislative provisions falling under its area of responsibility which have not yet been commenced. Relevant officials are responsible for the effective management of legislation within their area, including, if applicable, uncommenced legislation. In relation to primary legislation, the Scotland Office reports annually on the Scotland Act 2016.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the 51st Report of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (HL Paper 263, Session 2024–26), published on 12 February, what progress they have made in bringing forward regulations under the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 to ensure that fees charged by the Marine Management Organisation fully recover the costs of processing harbour orders; and what is the timescale for any remaining steps that need to be taken.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
MMO and DfT are currently progressing a draft consultation and associated documents to consult with the sector in the summer 2026. In parallel stakeholder engagement will be undertaken and work will be completed to draft the appropriate regulation with a view to implementing a new structure during 2027.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 24 March (HL15443), what steps the Wales Office has taken in the last year to meet its legal duty to keep under review the question of when uncommenced legislation that falls within its area of responsibility should be brought into force.
Answered by Lord Katz - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Wales Office works closely with other government departments to keep the status of uncommenced legislation falling within areas of its responsibility under review. Decisions on commencement are taken in the normal course of policy making.
Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 24 March (HL15443), what steps the Northern Ireland Office has taken in the last year to meet its legal duty to keep under review the question of when uncommenced legislation that falls within its area of responsibility should be brought into force.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Northern Ireland Office regularly reviews the commencement of its legislation.
Responsibility resides with Northern Ireland Office policy teams to monitor the status of provisions, and to advise on the most appropriate timings for when they should be brought into force.
This is underpinned by established guidance on post-legislative scrutiny.