Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases have been referred for the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions regarding a prosecution under the Suicide Act 1861 in the last ten years.
Answered by Lord Hermer - Attorney General
From 1 April 2009 up to 31 March 2025, manual records indicate there have been 199 cases referred to the CPS by law enforcement partners that have been recorded as encouraging or assisting suicide. The DPP has provided consent to prosecute in six cases. Five of these cases have been successfully prosecuted, and one was acquitted after trial. These figures are published on the CPS website and will next be updated in April 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of ministers in fulfilling their duties under section 20 of the Environment Act 2021 regarding statements on bills containing new environmental law, and what consideration they have given to creating mechanisms to challenge incorrect or misleading statements.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In making a statement under the Environment Act 2021 Section 20, as with all other statements ministers make to either House, ministers are bound by the Ministerial Code which requires them to provide accurate and truthful information to Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 20 November (HL11652), what projects for reform of occupational health services are funded through the Small Business Research Initiative; how much funding was provided to each of those projects, and whether they will place a copy of the self-reported outcomes of those projects in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The fund for stimulating innovation in occupational health (OH) funded five projects in Phase 2. Up to £300,000, inclusive of VAT, was allocated for each contract, to develop a prototype and undertake field testing for up to 12 months. The following table shows the projects to reform OH, their actual spend, and the project participant’s name:
Participant name | Project title | Actual spend |
WELLICS LTD | The enhancement and trialling of an innovative platform to improve SMEs' ability to provide occupational health services to their workforce and measure improved performance in the workplace | £296,200 |
KINSEED LIMITED | SwiftCare - INFORMATION SYSTEMS for HEALTH AND WORK | £299,347 |
| A smart digital OH portal and employee-facing app to bring the benefits of occupational health to individuals, micro and SME companies - initially addressing those employees with Long COVID of the overall total of 2,200,000 patients in the UK. | £262,956 |
LATUS HEALTH LTD | Remote access occupational health support system | £287,945 |
ARMOUR LABS LTD | Digital Healthcare Navigation for the Modern Workforce | £300,000 |
Further details on each of the projects have been published on the Innovate UK transparency page.
Following the normal practice of Innovate UK, projects will not be required to deposit their self-reported outcomes in the Library of the House due to commercial confidentiality considerations.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they conduct fingerprint checks on (1) prisoners, (2) convicts and (3) those on remand, upon being released from prison.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) does not require fingerprint checks to be conducted routinely at the point of release for prisoners, convicted individuals, or those held on remand. Where biometric data, such as fingerprints, is available, it will be checked as part of identity assurance during release procedures. The same discharge policy applies to remand prisoners who are released following a court appearance.
Dame Lynne Owens is conducting an independent review which will consider whether current discharge processes are robust and make recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) appointments, (2) tests, and (3) operations, were delivered by independent providers for NHS patients in 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Independent sector providers have a role to play in supporting the National Health Service as trusted partners to recover elective services by using additional capacity to tackle the backlog whilst delivering value for money.
Independent sector providers delivered 5,098,290 outpatient appointments in 2024/25. This includes first and follow-up appointments.
They delivered 2,099,923 tests in 2024/25. This includes only the 15 key diagnostic tests that form the Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activity dataset and excludes activity subcontracted from NHS trusts where responsibility for the pathway remains with the NHS trust.
There were 986,480 inpatient admissions in independent sector providers in 2024/25. This includes ordinary electives and day case electives.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether the Procedure and Privileges Committee has considered, or will consider, how members of the House of Lords can challenge the accuracy of statements made by Ministers on the face of the Bill under section 20(3) of the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Following the passage of the Environment Act 2021 the Procedure and Privileges Committee added a factual paragraph to the 2022 edition of The Companion to the Standing Orders (now paragraph 8.28), which summarises the procedure laid down in section 20 of that Act. The Procedure and Privileges Committee has not sought to prescribe how noble Lords can challenge the accuracy of such statements, but all the normal procedures of the House, including asking written or oral questions, tabling questions for short debate and raising issues during proceedings on Government bills, are available to them.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of research projects funded through the Small Business Research Initiative regarding reform to occupational health services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Projects funded through the Small Business Research Initiative have submitted self-reported outcomes to the Government for internal assessment. The reports suggest that the fund has helped to stimulate innovation in the occupational health market and encouraged the development of new models of occupational health tailored to the self-employed and small to medium enterprises with better use of technology.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish minutes of the meetings of the Occupational Health Taskforce chaired by Dame Carol Black.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Occupational Health Taskforce, chaired by Dame Carol Black, was established and last convened under the previous Government. The Taskforce brought together experts from across health, business, and academia to develop a voluntary framework for occupational health provision.
The Taskforce operated as an expert advisory group rather than a formal decision-making body and there are no plans to publish minutes of the Taskforce meetings that took place in 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to update the Mental Capacity Act 2005 by bringing into force uncommenced sections of (1) the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019, and (2) the Powers of Attorney Act 2023, and on what timescale.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice has overall responsibility for the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. The Act provides a framework for making decisions on behalf of adults who are unable to do so for themselves.
The Department for Health and Social Care is responsible for the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019. This provides for a new system of safeguards (Liberty Protection Safeguards, or LPS) in care and treatment settings when a person lacks capacity and cannot consent to a deprivation of liberty.
The Government announced on 18 October the intention to consult on LPS. This consultation is planned to take place in 2026.
The Powers of Attorney Act 2023 introduced several provisions to enable modernisation of the Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) system, to increase safeguards in the process and improve access to LPAs. This is a complex project and it is important we take the time to get the new service design right. We will give more information in due course about readiness for testing the modernised service.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede on 10 April (HL6224), whether they have now started preparing a shadow body of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has not started preparing a shadow body of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner. The Government remains neutral on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill which is still under consideration by Parliament.