Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of funding for community pharmacy services for 2025–26 and its adequacy to maintain current standards of service in rural areas.

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

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. We are committed to expanding the role of pharmacies and to better utilising the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists as we shift care from hospital to the community.

Now that the budget for Government has been set, we will shortly be resuming our consultation with Community Pharmacy England regarding the funding arrangements.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners are currently held in prisons on indeterminate sentences whose home addresses are recorded as being in Wales.

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

As of 30 September 2024, excluding those recalled to prison following release, there were 342 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who had a recorded home address in Wales.

As at 30 September 2024, there were a total 8,501 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences in custody in England and Wales, excluding those recalled to prison following release.

The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what conversations they have had with the Welsh Government about seeking to include statistics on the number of people resident in England who can speak, read or write in the Welsh language in the 2031 census.

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

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

18 November 2024

Dear Lord Wigley,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what conversations have been had with the Welsh Government about seeking to include statistics on the number of people resident in England who can speak, read or write in the Welsh language in the 2031 census (HL2487).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is developing its population and migration statistics by further expanding the range of data sources and methods it uses. A key focus of the Future Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS) Programme is continuing to expand the use of administrative data to produce population and migration statistics, working across the public sector to maximise the statistical value of its data assets. The FPMS will create a sustainable statistics system that will be flexible and dynamic in how it responds to the emerging issues of the day. The UK Statistics Authority (the Authority) plans to publish a recommendation to government in the coming months.

Decisions about the 2031 census have not yet been made. As such, topics for inclusion in a 2031 census have not formed part of the ONS’ discussions with the Welsh Government or other stakeholders. The FPMS programme has an ongoing programme of user needs engagement and carried out a consultation in 2023[1], which acknowledged the importance of collecting data on this topic. The consultation document categorised Welsh language skills as a topic for which further research is required into delivering statistics primarily based on administrative data. Welsh language is regarded as a priority characteristic within the FPMS programme with exploratory work on this topic ongoing. However, it is likely that data on Welsh language skills will predominantly come from sources relating to people resident in Wales.

In April 2023, the ONS and Welsh Government published a joint work plan on the coherence of Welsh language statistics produced from different sources[2]. The first project, to understand differences between Census 2021 and household survey estimates, has been completed. Other work outlined in the plan is ongoing, with the next priority looking at comparing Census 2021 with the Welsh School Census and other administrative sources. Welsh Government and ONS teams meet monthly to discuss progress and are arranging a secondment from Welsh Government to the ONS to support work on the planned projects. The ONS is also exploring the feasibility of producing Welsh language estimates through using existing administrative sources, with the involvement of Welsh Government.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1]https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/ons/futureofpopulationandmigrationstatistics/

[2]https://www.gov.wales/office-national-statistics-ons-and-welsh-government-joint-work-plan-coherence-welsh-language-statistics

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much money per head of population was paid by the Treasury to the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish Governments on the basis of the Barnett formula, in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

All devolved government settlements are growing in real terms in 2025-26.

The devolved governments’ Spending Review settlements for 2025-26 are the largest in real terms of any settlements since devolution. They are each receiving at least 20% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK. That translates into over £16 billion more in 2025-26.

The Barnett formula ensures broadly the same change in funding per person across the whole of the UK, while the underlying baseline funding broadly reflects higher needs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Fiscal Framework agreed between the UK and Welsh governments in 2016 added a needs-based factor into the Barnett formula to ensure Wales receives fair funding.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 19 November (HL2484), when they expect to announce the finalised terms for bids for new pump storage electricity generation projects, and when they expect final decisions on such bids to be made.

Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Finalised terms for applications to the Long Duration Electricity Storage (LDES) investment support scheme, which could include applications from Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) projects, will be set out in a Technical Decision Document to be published in the first quarter of 2025.

Ofgem is the delivery body for the LDES investment support scheme and has informed Government that it intends to open the scheme to a first round of applications in the second quarter of 2025 and is working with the aim of making decisions on initial applications in early 2026.

Question to the Wales Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have received from the Welsh Government regarding revising the Barnett formula.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Secretary of State for Wales regularly meets with the First Minister to discuss a variety of issues. There are ongoing discussions with the Welsh Government on their Fiscal Framework, and we remain committed to working in partnership with the Welsh Government to ensure the smooth delivery of their funding settlement.

The Welsh Government’s budget is growing in real terms in 2025-26 and is the largest settlement in real terms since the dawn of devolution at £21 billion. The Welsh Government receive over 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK.

Question to the Wales Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken in co-operation with the Welsh Government to ensure the availability of funding for the safeguarding of coal-tips in Wales.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

At the Budget, the UK Government allocated £25 million of funding in 2025/6 for essential work being undertaken by the Welsh Government to keep disused coal tips maintained and safe.

This is a clear demonstration of how the Government is committed to resetting the relationship with the Welsh Government based on trust and mutual respect.

As well as this, the Mining Remediation Authority continues to provide coal tip expert advice and undertake inspections on behalf of the Welsh Government on a cost recovery basis.

Question to the Wales Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with Welsh Ministers on establishing a medical radioisotope manufacturing plant at Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The UK Government has regular discussions with the Welsh Government on a range of issues including the Welsh Government’s Project ARTHUR, which is a proposal to establish a public sector laboratory for the supply of medical radioisotopes at the Trawsfynydd site in Gwynedd.

The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and technology met the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning on 16 October and 4 November respectively. Project ARTHUR was discussed at both meetings.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure the availability of medical radio-isotopes for the treatment of cancer patients in the UK.

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

The supply of radioisotopes has now returned to normal levels, and a Written Ministerial Statement was laid on 26 November to update Parliament. During the disruption to supply, the Department worked with industry, the devolved administrations, the National Health Service, members of the radiopharmaceutical community, and regulators to secure fair and equal access across the United Kingdom for patients, including for the treatment of cancer. Patients with the most critical needs were given priority.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many students were undertaking undergraduate degree courses at universities in England, at the most recent date for which figures are available, whose home addresses were in (1) Wales, (2) Scotland, and (3) Northern Ireland.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA – now part of JISC), is responsible for collecting and publishing data about UK higher education. The latest statistics refer to the 2022/23 academic year.

Figure 9 of HESA’s ‘Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2022/23’ reports the number of enrolments for UK providers based on student permanent address prior to study between the academic years 2018/19 and 2022/23 and is available by students’ study level. Figure 9 can be accessed at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb269/figure-9.

It is possible to filter the figures in the table to undergraduate degrees in English universities by setting the ‘Country of HE provider’ drop-down menu to ‘England’, and the ‘Level of study’ drop-down menu to ‘All undergraduate’.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to promote the UNESCO designated Slate communities in Wales as tourist attractions for visitors to the UK.

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

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.

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