Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have received from the Welsh Government about the devolution of responsibility for the police service in Wales to Senedd Cymru; and on what dates they received those representations.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Secretary of State for Wales and her Cabinet colleagues engage with Welsh Ministers frequently on a wide range of issues, including the future of devolution in key policy areas. Established intergovernmental mechanisms also provide ongoing opportunities for the UK and Welsh Governments to engage on matters relating to policing, and to ensure that Welsh priorities are fully considered within the existing devolution settlement.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the speech by the First Minister of Wales on 22 January about devolution, what consideration they have given to introducing a constitutional reform bill to define the responsibilities of the Welsh Government in law.
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 devolution settlement. It is in our shared interests that the settlement clearly defines the responsibilities of our respective governments and that it delivers for the people of Wales.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the Welsh Government, and (2) the Scottish Government, about restricting or banning children from accessing social media; and what assessment they have made of the extent to which that ban in Wales and Scotland is the responsibility of those devolved administrations.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The majority of the Online Safety Act extends and applies to the whole of the United Kingdom, and most measures in the government’s consultation on children’s use of social media will too. The Government wrote to the devolved administrations ahead of the consultation announcement to inform them of the upcoming consultation and to welcome their views.
The consultation will be accompanied by a national conversation, and we want to hear from children and parents right across the UK, including in the devolved administrations. Every voice matters in shaping what comes next.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total annual expenditure on coastal protection against erosion by the sea, broken down by how much was spent in (1) England, (2) Scotland, (3) Wales, and (4) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Coastal erosion risk management is a devolved responsibility; therefore, this response applies only to England.
Between April 2024 and March 2026, around £609 million will be invested in schemes that reduce risk from coastal erosion, sea flooding, and tidal flooding. Approximately £102 million of this is allocated to projects where coastal erosion is the primary risk, £56 million for 2024/2025 and £46 million for 2025/2026. Some projects reduce risk from multiple risk sources, so there may be some projects with coastal benefits that may not be included in these figures.
Further to this, on 28 January, the Government announced £30 million for Coastal Adaptation Pilots which will deliver advanced adaptation actions such as selective property purchases and the development of long-term financing solutions in East Riding of Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. The funding will also deliver smaller adaptation actions, such as relocating or adapting community buildings, and early warning systems in other places facing coastal erosion across England.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many staff are employed at each of the prisons in Wales; and how many of those staff are Welsh speakers.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of staff and self-reported Welsh language speakers in each Welsh prison can be found in the table below:
| Welsh Speaking | Non-Welsh Speaking | Unknown | Total |
Swansea | 23 | 27 | 274 | 324 |
Berwyn | 28 | 80 | 640 | 748 |
Cardiff | 14 | 42 | 361 | 417 |
Usk/Prescoed | 10 | 53 | 190 | 253 |
Total | 75 | 202 | 1,465 | 1,742 |
Headcount of staff in post on 30 September 2025.
Whether staff can speak Welsh is a self-reported variable, with the vast majority of staff not reporting this information, so the true numbers of Welsh speakers is likely to be higher.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the gross domestic product per capita was in (1) Wales, (2) England, (3) Scotland, (4) Northern Ireland, and (5) the United Kingdom, in (a) 2000, (b) 2005, (c) 2010, (d) 2015, (e) 2020, and (f) 2025.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter below from the Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics.
Lord Wigley
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
28 January 2026
Dear Lord Wigley,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the gross domestic product per capita was in (1) Wales, (2) England, (3) Scotland, (4) Northern Ireland, and (5) the United Kingdom, in (a) 2000, (b) 2005, (c) 2010, (d) 2015, (e) 2020, and (f) 2025 (HL13812).
The figures requested, shown in Table 1, are taken from the Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK 1998 to 2023 release, which is the latest annual publication of regional gross domestic product (GDP) estimates. We are unable to provide figures for 2025 currently, so we have given estimates for 2023 instead.
All the estimates in our regional GDP release are consistent with those for the UK published in the preceding UK National Accounts, the Blue Book. The current edition is consistent with Blue Book 2024, and for comparability we have reported UK figures from that edition in this response. Please note that more recent estimates for the UK have subsequently been published by the UK National Accounts, but those estimates will lack direct comparability with the estimates we have for nations of the UK.
GDP per capita is calculated by dividing the total GDP for a nation by its total resident population, using the ONS mid-year population estimates. GDP for the UK includes some activity that cannot be assigned to any region, which we call extra-regio. This activity includes offshore oil and gas extraction, the activities of UK embassies abroad and UK armed forces posted overseas. For direct comparability with estimates for individual UK nations we advise use of GDP per capita for the UK less extra-regio, which removes this unallocated element of UK GDP.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Table 1: Gross domestic product per capita (£ pounds)
| 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2023 |
Wales | 13,709 | 17,094 | 18,649 | 21,979 | 23,883 | 29,316 |
England | 18,933 | 23,389 | 25,933 | 30,045 | 32,153 | 40,382 |
Scotland | 16,455 | 21,387 | 24,076 | 27,797 | 28,996 | 37,192 |
Northern Ireland | 15,086 | 18,949 | 19,857 | 22,830 | 25,040 | 32,944 |
UK less extra-regio | 18,352 | 22,784 | 25,249 | 29,273 | 31,308 | 39,403 |
United Kingdom | 18,693 | 23,153 | 25,630 | 29,434 | 31,491 | 39,845 |
Source: ONS, Gross domestic product per capita in current market prices
2. GDP for the UK includes some activity that cannot be assigned to any region, which we call extra-region.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many UK citizens are permanently resident in Greenland.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
There is no general requirement for British travellers or residents to register with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) when they go overseas, and the FCDO does not therefore collect data on the number in each location.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people were (1) killed, or (2) seriously injured, in road traffic accidents in England in the most recent year for which statistics are available; and what the comparable figures were for (1) 5 years, and (2) 10 years, earlier.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Data on road collisions involving personal injury are reported to the Department by police forces in Great Britain via the STATS19 system. The latest year for which data is available is 2024.
The number of killed or seriously injured casualties in reported road traffic collisions in England are shown in the table:
Severity | 2014 | 2019 | 2024 |
Killed | 1,472 | 1,489 | 1,353 |
Serious | 28,197 | 24,773 | 26,697 |
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to designate the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station site as a nuclear research site for developing and producing radioisotopes for medical purposes.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) through Nuclear Restoration Services, are decommissioning the legacy facility and own the land at Trawsfynydd. The NDA engages parties to explore maximising national and local value with the land that it owns.
The responsibility for the supply of medical radioisotopes sites with the Department of Health and Social Care. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero provides support to other government department’s exploring nuclear medicine projects.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have received from the government of Wales about devolving responsibility for the Crown Estate's activities in Wales to Senedd Cymru.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has regular discussions with the Welsh Government at official and ministerial level on a range of issues. This has included a request from the Welsh Government that the UK Government considers devolution of the management of The Crown Estate in Wales.