Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to prepare for another global pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ensuring the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in our approach to pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to any infectious disease or other threat, rather than relying on plans for specific threats.
The Government is committed to learning the lessons from the UK COVID-19 Inquiry to protect and prepare us for the future. On 16 January 2025, the Government published its response to the inquiry’s module one report on resilience and preparedness. A copy of the response is attached. The Department has committed, as part of this response, to publishing a new pandemic preparedness strategy that will show how we are embedding our new approach to pandemic preparedness.
In the 2024 Autumn budget, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that £460 million of investment has been allocated to strengthen the UK’s pandemic preparedness and health protection, including replenishing personal protective equipment, vaccine, and medicines stockpiles.
In autumn 2025, the Department and the UK Health Security Agency conducted Exercise Pegasus, a national exercise on the UK’s preparedness for a pandemic. It tested our ability to respond to a pandemic, involving all regions and nations of the UK and thousands of participants. The exercise has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform our strategy and planning. The Government has committed to communicating the findings through the post-exercise report this winter.
An established clinical countermeasures programme is a core component of our pandemic preparedness and set of response capabilities. These countermeasures include personal protective equipment and hygiene consumables, as well as vaccines and therapeutics, such as influenza antivirals and antibiotics.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of due diligence checks on politically exposed persons undertaken by financial institutions in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is clear that the enhanced due diligence requirements contained in the Money Laundering Regulations in relation to politically exposed persons provide valuable, actionable intelligence on those who would seek to abuse their positions, including hostile states and organised criminals. This helps to protect the UK from money laundering and corruption.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the statement by Caroline Quinn, UK deputy political coordinator, at the United Nations Security Council meeting on 8 January, what technical assistance they provided to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' Syria missions in 2025.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
In 2025, the UK committed over £2.8 million to the OPCW to support Syrian led operations to identify and verifiably destroy Assad's legacy chemical weapons programme. The UK has also provided technical support to joint OPCW and Syrian government efforts to develop comprehensive destruction plans.
More broadly, we welcome the adoption of important OPCW decisions that will provide the procedural underpinning to enable the UK to support Syria meet its obligations to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and we continue to engage the OPCW and Syria to support these efforts.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ring-fence enhanced amounts of aid for survivors of sexual violence in conflict.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK Government's determination to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) around the world is resolute. Through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) the UK is committed to driving international action to support survivors, bring the perpetrators of these horrific crimes to justice, and end impunity.
The PSVI Programme has a £3.85 million budget for financial year 25/26 and allocations for future years will be announced in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to increase the amount of aid for survivors of sexual violence in conflict.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK Government's determination to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) around the world is resolute. Through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) the UK is committed to driving international action to support survivors, bring the perpetrators of these horrific crimes to justice, and end impunity.
The PSVI Programme has a £3.85 million budget for financial year 25/26 and allocations for future years will be announced in the normal way in due course.