Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to disrupt Iranian financial and weapons supply networks supporting the Houthis, including the transfer of missiles and drones used in attacks against UK allies and regional partners.
Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Iran's political, military and financial support to proxies and partners, including the Houthis, contributes to instability across the Middle East and often violates relevant UN Security Council resolutions. In response, the UK is working with allies and partners to counter these threats.
We are considering a range of further actions to disrupt Houthi supply and financing networks, while using our position as UN Security Council penholder on Yemen to strengthen the international response. UN Security Council Resolution 2216 imposes a targeted arms embargo, while the 2140 sanctions regime provides measures against those threatening Yemen's peace, security and stability. As penholder, we are looking to strengthen these mechanisms, including action to tackle maritime weapons smuggling and the supply of components that enhance Houthi military capabilities.
We are also supporting the Yemen Coast Guard through the Yemen Maritime Security Partnership, including with equipment and patrol vessels to strengthen its capacity to conduct maritime interdictions, combat smuggling and disrupt illicit weapons flows to the Houthis. We continue to work closely with the Government of Yemen, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and international partners.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Bank of England press release Tripartite Commission Holdings of Nazi Gold at the Bank of England, published on 8 May 1997, what became of the (1) 114,637.213 troy ounces of fine gold, and (2) two Prussian State Mint gold bars; whether any of those holdings were subsequently disposed of, on what dates and to whom; and whether any of that gold is physically held in the Bank of England’s vaults as of October 2026.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Bank of England has confirmed that it no longer holds any gold recovered from Nazi Germany by the Tripartite Commission.[1]
Asked by: Lord Pickles (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 removal of patients from NHS waiting lists who have not completed treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answer provided in the House of Commons on 15 June 2026 in response to Question 2077, which – for ease of reference – has been reproduced below:
NHS England publishes monthly Referral to Treatment (RTT) data, including information on completed pathways and overall changes to the waiting list. In 2025/26, 21.8 million pathways were removed from the waiting list. Of these, 18.6 million were completed pathways, an increase of 2.8% compared to 2024/25, the highest ever recorded. The remaining 3.18 million were recorded as “unreported removals”. On average, over 85% of removals from the RTT waiting list are completed pathways. This can include patients starting their first definitive treatment, a period of active monitoring, a clinical decision not to treat, or a patient declining a treatment.
Validation is a routine part of providers’ waiting list management which ensures that patients are on the best pathway to meet their needs, that they still need their appointments and that patient records are accurate. This includes checking for duplicate appointments. Validation is not the same as unreported removals. The Department does not hold data on the number of patient pathways removed from the elective waiting list in all the ways requested, including identification of duplicate appointments. However, data on instances where a patient died before treatment is collected through the Waiting List Minimum Data Set (WLMDS). The WLMDS is unpublished management information, subject to less validation than the monthly official statistics and totals do not match between the two sources.
In 2025, there were 77,874 removals from the waiting list where the patient died before treatment. The cause of death is unknown and, in many cases, will not relate to the condition for which the patient was awaiting treatment.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (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 efficacy of increasing resident doctors’ pay to stop strikes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new resident doctor pay and training settlement in England was accepted by British Medical Association Resident Doctors Committee members on behalf of resident doctors in England on 29 June, following the cancellation of their proposed strike action from 15 to 19 June. Under this deal, resident doctors will benefit from improved pay scales, better working conditions, enhanced career progression, and up to 4,500 new training places over the next three years.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (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 costs of abolishing NHS England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is committed to delivering better value for taxpayers and better services for patients, and the integration of NHS England into the Department is an important step towards achieving these aims. We expect that integrating NHS England into the Department, alongside the restructuring of integrated care boards, could deliver up to £1 billion in annual savings by the end of the Parliament, driven primarily by reductions in headcount against a March 2025 baseline. Expenditure on the transformation will be reported in our Annual Accounts in the normal way.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering the introduction of a levy to fund adult social care.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Prime Minister has set out his commitment to end decades of political drift on social care and fix the system with a National Care Service that gives people dignity, security and the support they deserve.
Reforms to social care will be fully and sustainably funded – the government will meet its fiscal rules. However, it is right that Baroness Casey’s Commission, which will now report in summer 2027, considers all options for the National Care Service. Funding options will be an important part of that conversation, and the government is not going to pre-empt Baroness Casey’s work.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of school closures on educational outcomes; and what support they are offering to students whose school has closed.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department recognises that the decision to close a school is difficult and sensitive and expects alternatives to closure to be explored before a decision is made. Where closure is considered the right option, the department expects proposers to minimise disruption to pupils’ education during the closure process and to support a smooth transition to alternative educational provision.
The evidence does not suggest a simple causal link between school closures and educational outcomes. However, we know that falling pupil numbers can create pressures on school finances, staffing and curriculum delivery, which may lead to closure being considered along with other options. The department is considering the impact of demographic change on educational outcomes, including for disadvantaged pupils, in line with recommendations made by the National Audit Office.
Proposers and local authorities should work together to ensure there are alternative places available for pupils, suitable transport arrangements and support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities as part of closure plans. Where the proposer is an academy trust, the department scrutinises these plans before agreeing to closure.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the terms of repayment for student loans.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is taking decisive action to better support disadvantaged students, make things fairer for graduates, and create a more flexible, responsive post-16 education system through the introduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement in January 2027.
Since 2024, we have raised the Plan 2 repayment threshold twice, protected borrowers from the risk of inflation shocks by capping interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 loans at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year, and future-proofed maintenance loans by committing to increase them every year in-line with forecast inflation. Further, we are making care leavers automatically eligible for the maximum rate of maintenance loan, and we will be reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants in the2028/29 academic year, funded by a levy on providers for international students.
We will continue to look for ways to make the system fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers in a financially sustainable way.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of regional differences in the recruitment and retention of teachers across England.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has now achieved 71.6% of the 6,500 additional teachers target. There are 4,654 more teachers - 3,008 more teachers in secondary and special schools in 2025/26 and 1,646 more teachers in further education, than in 2024/25. Latest data also reported one of the lowest leaver rates on record of 8.5% and a record 17,740 teachers returning to the classroom.
While the department does not routinely publish recruitment and retention rates at a regional level, trends in the full-time equivalent teacher workforce suggest that regions have broadly followed the national pattern over time.
Information on the school workforce in England, including teacher recruitment and retention, is published annually in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical release, available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of teachers in England who qualified in each year since 2018 remained in the profession five years later.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has now achieved 71.6% of the 6,500 additional teachers target. There are 4,654 more teachers - 3,008 more teachers in secondary and special schools in 2025/26 and 1,646 more teachers in further education, than in 2024/25. Latest data also reported one of the lowest leaver rates on record of 8.5% and a record 17,740 teachers returning to the classroom.
While the department does not routinely publish recruitment and retention rates at a regional level, trends in the full-time equivalent teacher workforce suggest that regions have broadly followed the national pattern over time.
Information on the school workforce in England, including teacher recruitment and retention, is published annually in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical release, available on GOV.UK.