Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact of working from home on efficiency and outcomes in NHS England.

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

It is for NHS England to decide the best way to recruit and retain staff whilst also promoting productive outcomes. NHS England will continue to model their ways of working on what allows them to maximise outcomes, and work with optimal efficiency.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact of working from home on efficiency and outcomes in the Civil Service.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

There are a wide range of studies available on the clear benefits of hybrid working, which have been used to inform the expectation for 60% office attendance for Civil Servants. The government renewed their commitment to the 60% office attendance mandate on the 24th October, and has resumed quarterly publication of office occupancy data to support this.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to conduct a formal analysis of the impact of working from home on (1) productivity, and (2) the economy.

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

We do not have any plans to conduct an analysis of the impact of home working in isolation. However, we will monitor the impact of the flexible working reforms which came into force in April 2024, and further changes planned though the Employment Rights Bill.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the work of the UK Infrastructure Bank.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

On 14 October the Chancellor announced the creation of the National Wealth Fund (NWF). Building on the UK Infrastructure Bank’s leadership and expertise, the NWF will go further to catalyse more private investment.

To mobilise private investment at pace, the Government has turbocharged the NWF to be more catalytic by equipping it with the financial products, mandate and risk capital to catalyse private capital most effectively. It will have a total capitalisation of £27.8bn, inheriting UKIB’s existing capitalisation with an additional £5.8bn which will be committed over this Parliament.

Going forward, the NWF will have a broader mandate, extending beyond infrastructure to support delivery of the wider Industrial Strategy in areas where there is an undersupply in private finance, working alongside the British Business Bank.

It will take a proactive approach, with increased resources and focus to conduct more outreach, identifying expanded project pipelines and structure innovative transactions. It will also have a strong regional mandate to unleash the full potential of our cities and regions. These changes will ensure that the NWF can catalyse additional investment, delivering impactful projects and unlocking growth opportunities across the UK.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government which councils in England are in special measures as of 8 October, and what is the level of overspending in each such council.

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

Given the noble Lord’s question on overspending, I have interpreted the use of the term ‘special measures’ to refer to the statutory intervention framework relating to councils’ Best Value Duty and to the operation of the previous Government’s Exceptional Financial Support framework.

As of 8 October 2024, six councils are currently subject to statutory interventions for best value failure, details of which councils can be found on the gov.uk website. Under the previous Government’s Exceptional Financial Support framework, additional support was most recently agreed for nineteen councils in February 2024. Details of the amounts agreed, including for previous years, can be found on the gov.uk website.

Councils are responsible for their own financial management, and the Department does not monitor their day-to-day business. For those councils subject to statutory intervention, Commissioners or Improvement Panels appointed by the Government will have a role overseeing delivery of council improvement plans, including in relation to financial management.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the private funding received by think tanks operating in the (1) political, and (2) economic, policy areas in England and Wales; and whether they have any plans to reform the (a) funding regime, or (b) declarations of sources of funding, for such think tanks.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

It is for each individual think tank to publicise and declare their sources of funding. The Government believes that think tanks can play a legitimate part in public policy development, so long as their activity is conducted transparently and ethically in order to maintain the highest standards in public life.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of Baroness Blake of Leeds on 9 October (HL Deb col 2091), whether it remains the Government’s position that civil servants are expected to work in the workplace for a minimum of three days a week; and what plans, if any, they have to change this.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

Current Civil Service guidance requires Civil Servants to attend the office or work face-to-face with colleagues at least 60% of the time. There are no plans to change those requirements.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the risks of human consumption of salmon bred and farmed within UK waters.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Fish and fishery products farmed for consumption in the UK must meet the requirements of food hygiene and contaminants and residues legislation. Responsibility for verifying food business operators comply with the legislation is delegated to Local Authorities who carry out official controls. The Veterinary Medicine Directorate’s National Statutory Surveillance plan monitors residues of veterinary medicines, prohibited substances, and various contaminants in products of animal origin, including farmed salmon. The Food Standards Agency is not aware of any evidence to indicate that fish farmed in the UK are unsafe to eat.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether there are categories of employed payers of income tax and national insurance who are not included in the category of “working people”.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to not raising taxes on working people, which is why it is not increasing the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, their National Insurance contributions or VAT.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what definitions they intend by the use of the terms “small business”, “family business” and “family farm” in the Autumn Budget.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Small businesses are vital to high streets and communities, and essential to the success of the government’s growth mission. The UK has a wide variety of businesses, which interact with the tax system in different ways. As a result, the characteristics of a small business can vary depending on the nature of the specific policy. The eligibility or applicability of individual policies will be set out in the relevant documentation for those policies.

The Government announced a range of reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 supporting small businesses. These include:

• increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,500,
• freezing the small businesses multiplier (used for properties with a rateable value below £51,000) for 2025-26, and extending the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) business rates relief for 1-year at 40% (up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business),
• committing in the Corporate Tax Roadmap to maintain the Small Profits Rate and marginal relief at their current rates and thresholds, as well as maintaining the £1 million Annual Investment Allowance.
• Despite the difficult fiscal inheritance, we have been able to protect key business support programmes like Growth Hubs while increasing funding for Made Smarter Adoption, and allocating £250m to the British Business Bank’s small business programmes in 2025-26.

It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates will be affected by the changes to APR and BPR. Up to around 520 of these are expected to relate to claims for APR (including those that also claim for BPR), and this number falls to around 430 when claims that include AIM shares are excluded. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 November (HL1572), what assessment they have received, if any, from NHS England regarding the impact of working from home on efficiency and outcomes in that organisation.

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

The Department does not set NHS England’s working from home policies, and it has not received any assessment from NHS England regarding the impact of working from home on efficiency and outcomes.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of electronic tagging to monitor convicted criminals sentenced to punishment in the community.

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

There are lots of different types of Electronic Monitoring (EM) and effectiveness is dependent on a number of factors. Some of the EM technology is relatively new and so the Department is undertaking a comprehensive EM expansion programme designed to evaluate the effectiveness of EM on specific cohorts of individuals. We are robustly evaluating the effectiveness of each of the four projects (Acquisitive Crime – targeting burglars, robbers and thieves, Licence Variation, Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence, and Alcohol Monitoring on Licence) to better understand the impacts of different forms of EM.

Evaluations will start to be published from the beginning of 2025. We are unable to predict the conclusions of these evaluations, which will be reviewed by an independent peer reviewer.

There is clear evidence that alcohol monitoring devices positively affect behaviour during the period of monitoring. England and Wales have a comprehensive programme of alcohol monitoring in place compared with international comparators. Since their introduction, alcohol monitoring tags have demonstrated a 97% compliance rate.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of (1) curfew tags, (2) location tags, and (3) alcohol tags, respectively.

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

There are lots of different types of Electronic Monitoring (EM) and effectiveness is dependent on a number of factors. Some of the EM technology is relatively new and so the Department is undertaking a comprehensive EM expansion programme designed to evaluate the effectiveness of EM on specific cohorts of individuals. We are robustly evaluating the effectiveness of each of the four projects (Acquisitive Crime – targeting burglars, robbers and thieves, Licence Variation, Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence, and Alcohol Monitoring on Licence) to better understand the impacts of different forms of EM.

Evaluations will start to be published from the beginning of 2025. We are unable to predict the conclusions of these evaluations, which will be reviewed by an independent peer reviewer.

There is clear evidence that alcohol monitoring devices positively affect behaviour during the period of monitoring. England and Wales have a comprehensive programme of alcohol monitoring in place compared with international comparators. Since their introduction, alcohol monitoring tags have demonstrated a 97% compliance rate.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of breaches of conditions in past 12 months associated with (1) curfew tags, (2) location tags, and (3) alcohol tags, respectively.

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

To establish the number of those with an electronic monitoring requirement that have breached their electronic monitoring condition, or other licence conditions in the past 12 months would require a review of thousands of individual case records held on prison and probation systems. This information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Found: commissioners: • Lord Tugendhat (Conservative) • Lord Kinnock (Labour)35 HOUSE OF LORDS LIAISON COMMITTEE • Lord Patten