Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many officials (1) in total, and (2) in number of full-time equivalent staff, have been involved in supporting the promoters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the Department of Health and Social Care since November 2020.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of full-time equivalent staff working on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has fluctuated since January 2025; there was not a team working on this bill prior to this, and any work on assisted dying was delivered through existing policy teams. The primary function of the team now in place is to fulfil the Government’s duty to the statute book, with regards to the legal and technical coherence of the bill. This includes providing technical drafting support and advising on workability of the legislation, as well as supporting Ministers to fulfil their duties to Parliament, such as responding to questions and correspondence and Parliamentary debates and committee hearing. Matters of policy have remained solely for the Sponsoring Members, Kim Leadbeater MP in the House of Commons and Lord Falconer in the House of Lords, to determine.
As of 1 September 2025, there were 11.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) officials in the Department of Health and Social Care Bill Team, at its largest the Bill Team was 16.8 FTEs. Where required, contributions on specific issues may have been sought from other teams, however the FTE cannot be accurately quantified for these issues.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which Minister within the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is responsible for ocean policy and legislation.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Minister for the Indo-Pacific and Minister for Equalities has overall responsibility for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Legal Directorate, which includes Ocean Policy Unit, but some ocean policy issues have previously been covered by other Ministers. Ministerial leads on legislation are allocated on a case-by-case basis. The Minister for the Indo-Pacific and Minister for Equalities is responsible for the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Bill.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) arrests, (2) charges, (3) prosecutions, and (4) convictions, have been made under the Suicide Act 1961 in the past ten years.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice collates data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for specific offences, including those under section 2 (1) of the Suicide Act 1961 which are shown below:
Values | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2023 | 2024 |
Proceeded against | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Convicted | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
This data is held on a principal-offence basis and therefore reports information relating to the most serious offence that a defendant was dealt with for. Arrests and police charges data are held by the Home Office.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care have had with promoters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill since November 2020.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers in the Department have had 15 meetings with the sponsors of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, namely the Hon. Member Kim Leadbeater and Lord Falconer of Thoroton.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings ministers in the Ministry of Justice have had with promoters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill since November 2020.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers in the Ministry of Justice have had 12 meetings with the Sponsors of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Kim Leadbeater MP and Lord Falconer of Thoroton).
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many officials (1) in total, and (2) in number of full-time equivalent staff, have been involved in supporting the promoters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the Ministry of Justice since November 2020.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of full-time equivalent staff involved in providing technical drafting support and workability advice to the Sponsors of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has fluctuated since January 2025. As of 1 September 2025, there were 3.7 full-time equivalent (FTE) officials in the Ministry of Justice.
Where required, contributions on specific issues may have been sought from other teams; however, the FTE cannot be accurately quantified for these issues.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many GP practices returned more than 1000 HSA4 forms which record an abortion by medicine administered at home in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether the form was returned by a general practice.
The HSA4 form does capture information on the hospital or clinic where the termination took place, and whether any medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. However, the publication of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, 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 GP practices returned more than 100 HSA4 forms which record an abortion by medicine administered at home in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether the form was returned by a general practice.
The HSA4 form does capture information on the hospital or clinic where the termination took place, and whether any medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. However, the publication of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, 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 individuals received medicines for abortion at home via post in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether abortion medicine was sent via the post, and so the Department does not hold this information.
The HSA4 form does capture whether the medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. This information is published in the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales for the years 2018 to 2022. However, publication of the abortion statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, in due course.
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 impact of Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on the UK's natural capital accounts.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) is being legislated under Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The NRF will provide a more streamlined experience for developers and better outcomes for protected habitats and species.
The benefit of the NRF to the UK’s natural capital accounts will depend upon the specific Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) that are brought forward under its provisions. The requirement for an EDP to meet the overall improvement test before it can be made by the Secretary of State, supported by robust monitoring, reporting, and remediation safeguards, will ensure a positive impact.
An impact assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was published on 6 May 2025 and may be referred to for further details of the expected outcomes of the Bill.