Lord Wigley

The R&R Client Board published the strategic case for the R&R Programme in March 2024. This sets out that three options for how to deliver the R&R works to the Palace (including full decant, continued presence and ehanced maintenance and improvement) will be developed in detail. This detailed work, which will include estimated costs and timescales as well as risks and mitigations for all three options, is expected to be presented to the Houses by the end of 2025 to enable an evidence-based decision on how best to restore the Palace.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of HL6457 is attached.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

8 April 2025

Dear Lord Wigley,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what are the latest employee activity rates for (1) England and each of the regions of England, (2) Northern Ireland, (3) Scotland, (4) Wales, and (5) the United Kingdom as a whole (HL6457).

An employee activity rate measures the amount of time employees spend engaged in productive billable work, versus non-billable activities. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not collect any information from businesses on their estimated employee activity rates.

We can estimate the proportion of the population aged from 16 to 64 years, that are employed as employees, which may be interpreted as an employee activity rate.

The ONS uses the Annual Population Survey (APS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK, to estimates of the number of employees in the regions and countries of the UK and the proportion of the population aged from 16 to 64 years that this represents.

Table 1 contains APS estimates of the number of employees aged 16 to 64 years and the proportion of the population of that age this represents, for the regions and countries of the UK, for the period October 2023 to September 2024, the latest data currently available. Table 1 should be read in conjunction with the advice on quality contained in the footnotes of this response.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Number of employees aged 16 to 64 years and the proportion of the population of that age that represents, for the regions and countries of the UK, October 2023 to September 2024[1].

Source: Annual Population Survey

[1]The ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting approach mean that labour market statistics based on both the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the APS are considered ’official statistics in development’ until further review. Because of increased volatility of LFS and APS estimates, estimates of change should be treated with additional caution. The APS estimates have not been weighted to the same populations as the LFS. Therefore, all APS tables will be inconsistent with those used for LFS in the latest periods.

Since July 2024, no discussion has been held with the Royal Household by the government about the inclusion of a symbolic representation of Wales on the royal standard.

There are currently 10 statutory public inquiries established by HM Government under the Inquiries Act 2005 still active. Each inquiry has a sponsor department whose role includes covering ongoing costs. The duration of an inquiry is a matter for the inquiry chair, who usually has target dates for completion.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

4 December 2024

Dear Lord Wigley,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 19 November (HL2370), what are the latest figures for employee activity rates for the regions of England (HL3125).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. The responses allow us to estimate how many people are in employment, and how many of those are in employment as employees, as opposed to other forms of employment such as self-employed.

Due to the current smaller sample sizes being achieved by the LFS, recent estimates are showing increased volatility and should be treated with additional caution.

The latest available estimates (July to September 2024) of the rates of employees for people aged 16 to 64 years, determined as the percentage of the population in employment as an employee, resident in each of England’s nine regions, are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Rates of employees, people aged 16 to 64 years, regions in England, not seasonally adjusted.

Source: Labour Force Survey

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Our priority is to pay compensation as quickly as possible. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is working to put in place a claim service that is simple and secure. We expect the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to begin making payments to people who are infected by the end of this year.

For people diagnosed with an eligible infection before 1 April 2025, the Scheme will remain open to applications until 31 March 2031. For people diagnosed after 1 April 2025, the Scheme will remain open to applications for 6 years from the person’s date of diagnosis.

Horizon redress applications continue to be received and no deadlines have yet been set for them. However the Department’s target for the schemes which it administers is to respond to 90% of full claims within 40 working days. We hope, for example, to have settled nearly all cases in the GLO scheme by the end of 2025.

The Government remains committed to providing fair redress to all victims affected by this scandal as quickly as possible. We continue to encourage those victims who have not yet submitted a claim for redress to come forward. As of 31 March 2025, the total amount of redress paid to victims across all schemes has increased by more than three and a half times with £892 million having now been paid to over 6,200 claimants across all schemes.

Wales is a prime destination for foreign direct investment from the United States.

Many companies are operating in the manufacturing sector. A number of US-owned companies are operating in Wales’ world leading compound semiconductor cluster, including KLA and Vishay. Both companies have recently announced large investments in South Wales driven by our world-class research facilities and skilled workforce.

The information is not held centrally.

Trade between the UK and Argentina was worth £2 billion in the 12 months to June 2024 with our top goods exports including beverages, pharmaceuticals and manufactured goods. In October, the Secretary of State met his Argentine counterpart, the first trade-related bilateral ministerial meeting between both governments since 2019. They agreed to work together to strengthen our trade relationship further including in areas such as services, customs, and education. This will build on our existing cooperation this year which saw the largest delegation from Argentina in 20 years to London’s Metal Exchange Week in September.

The UK has a strong civil nuclear relationship with the Republic of Korea, including an annual Civil Nuclear Dialogue, where officials from both governments discuss shared challenges and opportunities to collaborate.

The Government have not yet taken a decision on Zonal or Reformed National pricing. Zonal pricing has the potential to reduce bills for consumer across Great Britain, and we are currently conducting quantitative and distributional analysis to understand the impacts of zonal market design options on consumers, including those in Wales. A cost-benefit analysis will also inform policy decisions and help conclude how effectively the options meet the objectives.

Zonal pricing could be implemented with varying degrees of consumer exposure. We are working closely with the Welsh Government to understand how any potential REMA reforms could impact Welsh consumers and industry, and this will be taken into account as part of the final decision-making process.

There have been two nuclear reactors located in Wales; both are now being decommissioned. The nuclear power plant on the Trawsfynydd site came offline in 1991 and the plant on the Wylfa site in Anglesey stopped generating electricity in 2015. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) regulate nuclear sites in Great Britain and publish a map of licensed sites on their website at www.onr.org.uk/our-work/map-of-sites-and-facilities/. GE Healthcare operated a Nuclear Licensed site in Cardiff which was used for radiopharmaceutical manufacture and de-licensed in 2019. There was no reactor present on this site.

Hydroelectric power accounts for 2% of the UK’s electricity generation. A majority of hydroelectric output is generated in Scotland.

In 2023, annual figures show that:

3% of hydroelectricity was generated in England*

7% of hydroelectricity was generated in Wales*

90% of hydroelectricity was generated in Scotland*

Latest data available on hydroelectric generation is available via the DESNZ publication, Energy Trends December 2024, Table ET 6.1: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6762b0d6cdb5e64b69e30735/ET_6.1_DEC_24.xlsx. This table shows annual generation (latest data 2023) of hydroelectricity in GWh, by country, on which the above information is based.

*Rounded to the nearest hundred.

There are over 6,000 disused coal tips in Britain with 2,573 located in Wales. The majority of tips are in local authority or private ownership which includes legal responsibilities. Welsh Government released details of their work programme to address the tips issue including inspections/maintenance. https://www.gov.wales/coal-tip-safety

There is no central tips record in England or Scotland. The geological makeup of tip locations in Scotland and England, and previous reprofiling/restoration, has left a lower risk profile. The Mining Remediation Authority has contacted all Local Authorities reminding them of their responsibilities relating to the management of coal tips, offering support where required.

Based on the latest available data from VisitBritain and the International Passenger Survey (IPS), the UK received 38 million inbound visitors in 2023, of which Wales received 892,000 visits.

The Media Act 2024 gives commercial radio greater flexibility to organise its programmes to meet the changing needs of its audiences. While decisions on changes to local radio services are ultimately matters for commercial radio companies, we are disappointed in recent decisions which have resulted in the end of Welsh language programmes.

The Government is a strong supporter of Welsh language broadcasting and will consider the wider implications on Welsh language radio with the Welsh Government and other stakeholders in Wales. Neither I nor any DCMS Ministers have had any direct discussions on this matter with Global.

While tourism in Wales is devolved to the Welsh Government, VisitBritain, an arm’s length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, retains responsibility for marketing Great Britain on the international stage.

Visit Wales leads on the development of a tourism brand specifically for Wales, while VisitBritain works with Visit Wales to ensure that these brand values are reflected in the broader GREAT Campaign, which highlights a number of the many destinations and experiences on offer across Wales.

VisitBritain champions Wales as a distinguished travel destination, emphasizing its rich cultural heritage and landscape. VisitBritain also promotes UNESCO heritage sites on its website, including Wales slate communities.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

Earlier this year, the department announced an initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, which is a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a £10,000 tax free bursary to encourage trainees to teach music.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer of 16 December 2024 to Question 19397.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

In the 2023/24 financial year, the department allocated £200,000 through the Strengthening Chess in Primary Schools grant, supporting primary schools to improve their pupils’ access to chess.

More broadly, at the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion next year.

Each year schools receive core funding from the department to cover their expenditures. These expenditures could include teacher salaries, school lunches, electronic resources, art and craft supplies, or any other number of items.

It is for headteachers to decide how best to manage their budgets, including spending on the promotion of extracurricular activities such as chess. This funding is not ringfenced.

Schools may also choose to utilise their pupil premium funding to support enrichment. The pupil premium grant is funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England. Schools must use this funding in line with the menu of approaches which are based on the evidence of how best to improve attainment for disadvantaged pupils. This includes the flexibility to use pupil premium to tackle non-academic barriers to success, including providing enrichment opportunities to benefit those pupils who may not be able to have access otherwise.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), now part of the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), collects and publishes data on student enrolments across all UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on full person equivalents enrolled in different subject areas, categorised using the HE coding of subjects system. Counts of enrolments across all subjects from 2019/20 to 2022/23 are published in Table 49 of HESA’s Student Data, which can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-49.

Table 49 can be used to determine that in the 2022/23 academic year, there were 31,030 HE enrolments in ‘mathematics’ across 75 English HE providers and 31,405 HE enrolments in ‘music’ across 106 English HE providers. There were 58 HE providers in England that had enrolments in both ‘mathematics’ and ‘music’ in 2022/23.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The numbers of entries in A level music in the 2014/15 and 2022/23 academic years are published by the department in the ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results’ statistical release. There were 6,709 A level music entries in 2014/15 and 4,911 A level music entries in 2022/23

These numbers include all A level entries by students aged 16 to 18 in England in that academic year.

The Severn to Thames Transfer is part of the RAPID programme and this means it will receive regulatory oversight as the owners (Severn Trent Water, Thames Water and United Utilities) continue to investigate and develop this potential strategic regional option (SRO). The Severn to Thames Transfer progressed through gate two in June 2023 after it was assessed by the RAPID partner regulators (Ofwat, EA and DWI). It was decided that this SRO should continue to be developed towards gate three.

The Severn to Thames Transfer is not currently a preferred option in water companies' water resource management plans (WRMPs). However, at PR24 Ofwat decided that the Severn to Thames Transfer should continue to be developed. This is because securing our future water supply is of critical importance, and therefore it is crucial that there is contingency within the system.

In the event that the Severn Thames Transfer is progressed, it is likely to involve a pipeline connection of the River Severn to the River Thames to enable the transfer of up to 500Ml/d raw water to the Southeast during times of drought.

This Government is committed to building stronger ties and working collaboratively with the Welsh Government on shared priorities including tackling pollution, restoring nature and supporting our farmers.

Effective regulations play an important part in reducing diffuse agricultural pollution and cleaning up our waters, as well as supporting improvements to farm businesses. Both governments are working closely with regulators, local farmers and other key partners in England and Wales on these issues, for example by working with local farmers and environmental NGOs, alongside the Wye Nutrient Management Board and the Wye Catchment Partnership who are leading efforts to tackle pollution in the Wye.

Additionally, the Environment Agency also works with farmers through advice-led enforcement to improve compliance. These inspections are targeted to areas of the greatest risk, including the catchments of protected sites.

Research is ongoing to identify mechanisms for improving water quality in the Wye. This will take a collaborative “living labs” approach where data is collected on and by working farm businesses working alongside academics/researchers to assess how farmers can best manage their nutrients and reduce pressures on the River Wye. The project will be multi-disciplinary, bringing in social research and economics as well as natural science.

Defra is the Lead Government Department in England for flooding and works with the Environment Agency (EA) and Met Office to maintain a flood warning system for England.

The responsibility for flood warning systems in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rests with the equivalent organisations to Defra and the EA in the Devolved Governments. The responsibility for storm warning systems in the UK is held by the Met Office.

Between September and mid-January 2025 over 1,400 Flood Warnings were issued in England. Defra, the EA and the Met Office regularly assess the effectiveness of their flood warning systems in England including after major events like Storm Bert and Storm Darragh. These assessments take various forms, including working with Local Resilience Forums in post incident reviews as well as annual performance reports under the Flood & Water Management Act 2010.

Defra, the EA and the Met Office continuously work to improve flood warning services, including by developing the capability of world leading Flood Forecast Centre. Examples of this work include a trial of Rapid Flood Guidance which took place in 2024, and which is currently being evaluated.

For too long, customers have been let down and water companies have discharged record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

That is why we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will strengthen regulation, including delivering new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bringing criminal charges against persistent law breakers.

Executives will no longer be able to take home eye-watering bonuses where companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability.

In October 2024, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, also launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. This is a wide-ranging review to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.

Over 170 countries met for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Busan from 25 November 2024 to 1 December 2024 to discuss a landmark treaty to end plastic pollution. While it is disappointing that no agreement was reached, the Committee decided it would resume the meeting for final negotiations in 2025.

The UK was one of 85 countries to endorse the Stand Up for Ambition statement calling for a global target to reduce the production of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels, phasing out the most harmful plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastics, ambitious and effective financing from all sources, and allowing the treaty to be strengthened over time. The UK also supported using the text proposed by the Chair as a basis for future negotiations.

We urgently need an ambitious international agreement to end plastic pollution that tackles the full life cycle of plastics. The Government is committed to moving to a circular economy for plastics - a future where we keep our resources in use for longer; waste is reduced; we accelerate the path to net zero, we see investment in critical infrastructure and green jobs; our economy prospers; and nature thrives.

There are currently 137 railway stations with step free access between the entrance/ exit and platforms in Greater London (this excludes those operated by Transport for London). Since April 2024, the Access for All programme has delivered step free access at 25 stations across Britain, with Newtown station in Powys being one of the most recent. This Government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognises the social and economic benefits this brings to communities.

Data on road injury collisions are reported by police using the STATS19 system. In STATS19, a fatality is defined as a death that occurred within 30 days of the collision. The rates of fatalities in road collisions in 2023 per million population for different parts of the United Kingdom are shown in the table below.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), the independent body responsible for investigating rail accidents in the UK, launched an investigation into the fatal accident at Talerddig, near Llanbrynmair in Powys, on 22 October 2024, the day after the accident. Once the investigation is complete, RAIB will publish an investigation report, which will highlight any recommendations or learning points.

Maintaining high safety levels on the railway remains a priority for this Government and we expect the relevant parts of the rail industry, including Network Rail, to act on any recommendations resulting from RAIB’s investigation.

The construction works at Old Oak Common are scheduled to take place in stages, with several planned possessions through to the early 2030’s, of which the most extensive will be over the Christmas periods. Network Rail’s current plans do not involve widespread weekend closures; while most of the construction work will take place during the Christmas period closures, it is expected only two of the four tracks will be available on the Great Western Mainline at times.

The Government is working with Network Rail, HS2 Ltd, Transport for London, and the train operating companies to minimise the impacts of disruption, synchronising the timing of works with other works planned on the route wherever possible and ensuring the continued operation of rail services.

During the All-Line Blocks where no trains will be able to go to London Paddington, a limited number of services will be diverted to London Euston (to continue to provide service access into Central London), and other trains will terminate at Reading or Ealing Broadway (where passengers can use London Underground services to continue their journey to Central London). As the minister responsible for the delivery of HS2 Phase 1, I understand that minor and preparatory works for Old Oak Common will proceed in parallel with routine maintenance on the line, while I expect that the significant possessions required to bring Old Oak Common into use will not happen for several years.

Our latest position on cost is noted in our December 2024 report to parliament. We are undertaking a full reset of the programme, led by the new CEO Mark Wild. Until that work is concluded we are unable to provide a robust assessment of outturn cost but will be reporting to parliament in due course.

Currently, the Government is considering the way forward on a wide range of matters, including fixed recoverable costs, and we will announce our position in due course.

As part of the written evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s inquiry into National Health Service litigation reform in 2022, following work with the Government Actuary's Department and NHS Resolution (NHSR), the Department advised that projections for the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) indicated that by 2029/30, annual cash payments for clinical negligence under the CNST could increase to £4.3 billion. The CNST, the largest clinical negligence scheme, covers all clinical negligence claims against member NHS bodies where the incident in question took place on or after 1 April 1995. The estimate does not include other smaller clinical negligence schemes run by NHSR. A copy of the Department’s full written evidence to the inquiry is attached.

The National Audit Office has announced that it is undertaking a review of clinical negligence costs this year, including an up-to-date assessment of how total cash costs may change in the future, and will publish its report in autumn 2025. Full details of the review can be found on the National Audit Office’s website, in an online only format.

The Department regularly engages with specialist clinicians, the British Nuclear Medicine Society, and the UK Radiopharmacy Group to assist in the management of supply issues with medical radioisotopes, including those used for treating cancer patients.