Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to make publicly funded data accumulated by Agrimetrics available; and whether access to that data will be cost-free.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Between 2016 and 2024, Agrimetrics Ltd. received £27 million public funding through Innovate UK.
Agrimetrics Ltd. was not set up to generate or make data publicly available but used the funding to create a data platform that allowed businesses to host, integrate and analyse agri-food data.
The data on the platform was provided by a variety of different public and private sector organisations, who retained ownership, rather than Agrimetrics Ltd. This approach maximised the engagement of private sector data owners. Of the data sources used, some were already freely available, and some for a fee. We are unable to comment on what data will continue to be available as Agrimetrics Ltd. was an independent organisation and the government does not have access to the data it hosted.
The infrastructure provided value to business in the Agrifood sector over the years it was funded, however due to the speed of technological changes in this sector funding the platform no longer represented value for money. Innovate UK ceased providing Agrimetrics with core funding on 31 March 2024.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the level of public investment was in Agrimetrics from 2015 until it ceased operations.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Between 2016 and 2024, Agrimetrics Ltd. received £27 million public funding through Innovate UK.
Agrimetrics Ltd. was not set up to generate or make data publicly available but used the funding to create a data platform that allowed businesses to host, integrate and analyse agri-food data.
The data on the platform was provided by a variety of different public and private sector organisations, who retained ownership, rather than Agrimetrics Ltd. This approach maximised the engagement of private sector data owners. Of the data sources used, some were already freely available, and some for a fee. We are unable to comment on what data will continue to be available as Agrimetrics Ltd. was an independent organisation and the government does not have access to the data it hosted.
The infrastructure provided value to business in the Agrifood sector over the years it was funded, however due to the speed of technological changes in this sector funding the platform no longer represented value for money. Innovate UK ceased providing Agrimetrics with core funding on 31 March 2024.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 11 November (HL11422), whether they will now answer the question put, namely whether the Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance has been sent to devolved administrations in draft.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Minister is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Devolved Governments at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
Consultation with Welsh and Scottish Ministers is required if, or in so far as, the Code relates to a duty imposed by or under the Public Sector Equality Duty. As part of the consultation, the draft Code has been shared with the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Equality and Human Rights Commission's guidance on single-sex spaces following the Supreme Court decision requires either a general impact statement or a regulatory impact statement; and who makes the decision.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lord to my contribution in Hansard, Volume 849, column 1924: debated on Wednesday 5 November 2025: Equality and Human Rights Commission: Draft Updated Code of Practice:
"…the EHRC has not been asked to carry out a full regulatory impact assessment, but rather to provide a minimum proportionate cost assessment to evidence exclusion from a full regulatory impact assessment and enable us to take an informed decision. Understanding costs and impacts is not new; it would have been a consideration in the 2011 code.”
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Equality and Human Rights Commission's guidance on single-sex spaces following the Supreme Court decision has been sent to the devolved administrations in draft.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The EHRC has submitted its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to the Government. The Code addresses a broad range of issues for service providers, beyond those relating to single sex spaces. The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Code will be laid before Parliament.
Under Section 14 of the Equality Act 2006, the Secretary of State is required to consult with Scottish and Welsh Ministers at relevant stages in this process. Ministers are following this process.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they spend on iodine fortification programmes via international aid.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) does not directly fund traditional iodine fortification programmes but currently supports a range of nutritionally impactful interventions, including home fortification and supplementation containing iodine. Through our support to initiatives like the Child Nutrition Fund, a platform that aims to transform how nutrition is financed and delivered, the fund intends to contribute to reaching 320 million children and women annually with essential nutrition services by 2030. FCDO is also a long-standing and significant funder of CGIAR, which drives progress on biofortified crops. With UK support, 300 million people were estimated as consuming CGIAR-supported biofortified foods by 2024.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they have taken since the publication of National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2023: report on 11 June, in particular in regard to the finding that females of reproductive age in the UK have less than the World Health Organization thresholds for adequate iodine concentration.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest National Diet and Nutrition Survey showed that iodine levels in urine in women of reproductive age, 16 to 49 years old, were below the World Health Organisation threshold for adequacy, indicating insufficient iodine intake. Similar findings were seen in men aged 19 to 64 years old and girls aged 11 to 18 years old.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) maintains a watching brief on emerging evidence on iodine and health, including the iodine status of women of reproductive age in the United Kingdom. The SACN considered the topic of iodine at its horizon scans in 2022 and 2024 and agreed to add this topic to its work programme, with work on iodine due to start in 2026.
Government advice remains that individuals should be able to obtain all the iodine they need from a balanced diet, as depicted in The Eatwell Guide.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, what action they are taking to secure and ensure safe spaces for females.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government has always supported the protection of single-sex spaces to ensure women’s safety, privacy and dignity.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission as Britain’s independent equality watchdog has revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations (the Code) following a six-week consultation. The Code includes practical guidance for service providers, associations and those delivering public functions on how they should comply with the Equality Act 2010, following the Supreme Court ruling.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Code will be laid before Parliament. Parliament will then have 40 sitting days to consider the Code.
More widely, the Government is continuing to deliver on our commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. This includes embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces under ‘Raneem’s Law’, to help improve the police response to domestic abuse; taking steps to tackle spiking including introducing a new criminal offence; widening the use of stalking protection orders; and in July announcing £53m investment over the next four years to further tackle domestic abuse.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have not yet laid the advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission regarding the rules on safe spaces for women as defined by the Supreme Court.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Minister will lay it before Parliament. Parliament will then have a 40 day period to consider the Code.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the staff of an NHS hospital to which an A&E patient has been admitted have access to that patient's records kept at their usual NHS hospital.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Connecting Care Records programme ensures that authorised health and care professionals in England have safe and secure access to the person-related information that they need to provide care when they need it, where they need it, and how they need it. Every integrated care board has a Connecting Care Record, but the information that can be seen in an accident and emergency department will depend on the local approach.
The Government is developing a single patient record which will enable all providers delivering care to access the information they need and which will also end the need for patients to have to repeat their medical history when interacting with the National Health Service.