Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many British citizens living abroad are registered to vote in UK elections; and how many voted in the 2024 General Election.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases they have identified of the government of China attempting to gather information on the UK Government using freedom of information requests.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the Freedom of Information casework budget for the Information Commissioner's Office will be next year; and whether that budget will match the previous year's in real terms.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
While the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)’s sponsor department within government and provide ICO’s Freedom of Information (FOI) funding as a Grant-in-Aid, government policy for Freedom of Information sits with the Cabinet Office.
The government is committed to ensuring sufficient funding for the ICO’s FOI responsibilities. Spending review budget allocations until Financial Year 2028-29 will be finalised by DSIT and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement the first recommendation of the Rycroft Review: Report of the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics, published on 25 March, that there should be an annual cap on political donations from British voters living abroad; and if so, at what level they intend to set this cap.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
British citizens living overseas who are registered as overseas electors are permissible donors under electoral law and may donate to UK political parties.
Political parties are required to take all reasonable steps to check that donations come from permissible donors and to report donations above statutory thresholds to the Electoral Commission. It is a criminal offence to accept, facilitate or disguise an impermissible donation.
Following the publication of the independent Rycroft Review, the Government set out (attached) its intention to implement the Review’s first recommendation by introducing an annual cap of £100,000 on political donations from overseas electors.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what checks are carried out on the source of finance donated to political parties by British voters living abroad.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
British citizens living overseas who are registered as overseas electors are permissible donors under electoral law and may donate to UK political parties.
Political parties are required to take all reasonable steps to check that donations come from permissible donors and to report donations above statutory thresholds to the Electoral Commission. It is a criminal offence to accept, facilitate or disguise an impermissible donation.
Following the publication of the independent Rycroft Review, the Government set out (attached) its intention to implement the Review’s first recommendation by introducing an annual cap of £100,000 on political donations from overseas electors.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in (1) promoting the accountability of government and public authorities, and (2) encouraging public confidence in democratic politics.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to Freedom of Information and continues to monitor the performance and implementation of the Act to ensure it is operating as intended by Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the cost limit for freedom of information requests; and what assessment they have made of the impacts of doing so on civil liberties and press freedom.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The cost thresholds above which public authorities are not obliged to comply with a Freedom of Information request are set out in secondary legislation. Any changes to FOI legislation would be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the maximum amount of non-means-tested legal aid that they envisage being made available for each individual bereaved person and family at inquests in England and Wales for (1) legal assistance, and (2) advocacy, under the Public Office (Accountability) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Bill will provide non-means tested legal help and advocacy for bereaved families at inquests where a public authority is named as an interested person. As under the current system, the amount paid will depend on the work carried out by the provider on the inquest, which will be different for each case depending on its duration and complexity.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what level of legal aid they envisage being made available for each individual bereaved person and family at inquests in England and Wales for (1) legal help, and (2) advocacy, under the provisions of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill will provide non-means tested legal aid to bereaved family members at any inquests where a public authority is named as an interested person.
Under the Bill, an “individual” is defined as being a member of another individual’s family if they are relatives (whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership), they are cohabitants (as defined in Part 4 25 of the Family Law Act 1996), or one has parental responsibility for the other.
Legal aid consists of legal help and advocacy.
a. Legal help covers advice, assistance and preparation for an inquest but not advocacy at the hearing. Under the Bill’s expansion, multiple bereaved family members will be able to receive non-means tested legal help services where a public authority is named as an interested person.
b. Advocacy covers the instruction of an advocate (usually a barrister) to prepare for and attend the inquest hearing(s) to make submissions. The Bill limits advocacy funding to one member of each family – in practice, this level of service will be granted to the first family member to apply. We believe that one legally aided advocate should in most cases be sufficient to support each family through the inquest hearing and that it is reasonable to ask members of the same family to collaborate in the instruction of a single advocate.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of employer National Insurance contributions on the financial sustainability of regulated adult social care providers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government took the cost pressures facing adult social care, including changes to employer National Insurance Contributions and increases to the National Living Wage, into account as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the 2024 Autumn Budget process.
To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26.
In addition, the Spending Review 2025 allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.