Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 27 March (HL15802), whether they plan to close the national investigation into water and sewerage service companies launched in November 2021 after the consideration of the three pending charges for the second defendant water company.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The three pending charges all relate to Environment Act 1995 Section 110 charges for failing to provide records required within the national investigation into water and sewerage service companies launched in November 2021. They are not the main focus of the investigation which deals with discharges to the environment when not meeting flow to full treatment and insufficient rainfall.
There are no plans to close the investigation after the three charges pending against the second defendant have been settled.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 26 March (HL15523), whether they monitor the percentage of new style Employment and Support Allowance applications that are made for the primary condition of poor mental health.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department monitors the primary conditions recorded for new style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) applications. While primary conditions at application are not routinely published, these can be proxied through analysis of the claimants who are in the assessment phase of ESA, which is the first three months of the claim. The percentage of claimants in this phase with the main disabling condition ‘mental and behavioural’ is available on Stat-Xplore and reproduced in the table below:
Percentage of ESA Assessment Phase caseloads by main disabling condition:
| August 2024 | August 2025 |
ESA Assessment Phase with main disabling condition 'mental and behavioural disorders' | 24% | 24% |
ESA Assessment Phase with main disabling condition other than 'mental and behavioural disorders' | 76% | 76% |
* The latest available data is for August 2025.
* All new applications made to new style ESA are placed into “Assessment Phase”. This lasts for the first 13 weeks of an ESA claim.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the Department of Health and Social Care will update the direct ministerial appointments portal with their appointments in 2026.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department publishes information on Direct Ministerial Appointments on the GOV.UK website and expects to move publication to the portal from April 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask The Senior Deputy Speaker what has been the average cost to the House for sitting on a Friday in this session of Parliament.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Average attendance for a sitting Friday in the 2024-26 Parliamentary Session to date is 267 Members, with an average cost in members’ allowances claims for those dates of £84,248.00.
Outside of Members’ allowance claims, the approximate net cost of catering services on a sitting Friday estimated to rise at 3pm are approximately £2,530. This is to provide the additional catering services required, (that would normally be closed on a non-sitting Friday), namely; Peers Dining Room, Peers Guest Room and Peers Long Room. There are additionally approximately £4,500 in police overtime costs.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support the incorporation of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework into UK corporate reporting and decision-making practices; and what is the timetable for incorporating this framework.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government continues to be a strong supporter of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Defra funds the Green Finance Institute to support UK companies to engage with the TNFD’s recommendations and the UK now has the second highest number of TNFD adopters globally.
The Government has also been a strong supporter of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) since it launched with the goal of creating a global baseline for sustainability reporting standards. The Government has established a process for assessing and endorsing the ISSB’s standards for the UK context and recently published the UK versions of the ISSB’s first two standards: UK SRS S1 and UK SRS S2. ISSB is now progressing work on standard-setting for nature, drawing on the work of the TNFD, and aims to publish a draft later this year. Defra, DBT and the Financial Reporting Council are following the ISSB’s work on standard-setting for nature and stands ready to use the established process to assess and endorse it when it is finalised.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there has been an increase in successful claims of new style Employment Support Allowance in the past three years; and if so, what assessment they have made of the reasons for that increase.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The volume of New Style Employment and Support Allowance (NS ESA) new claims awarded has not increased in the past three years.
NS ESA new claims awarded:
Financial year | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 to September 2025 |
ESA new claims awarded | 115,380 | 113,110 | 104,870 | 45,710 |
*Data is taken from internal Management Information. Volumes have been rounded to the nearest ten.
*Volumes for 2025/26 only include awards made between April 2025 and September 2025, therefore are not comparable to 2022/23 – 2024/25.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Environment Agency has finished its investigation into Healthcare Environmental Services regarding disposal of waste in relation to the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The matter is under an advanced stage of review by the Environment Agency (EA). This is a complex case requiring the consideration of matters arising across jurisdictions and parallel legal proceedings. It is not appropriate to comment further until the EA’s review of the matter has been concluded.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask The Senior Deputy Speaker why the Parliament Now app will no longer be supported from late March.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The ParliamentNow app is based on out-of-date technology that is no longer supported on the Apple and Google app stores, making it a potential security risk.
There are very few users of the app - the ParliamentNow app has on average 160 monthly users, compared to 51,000 monthly views of the equivalent webpages. Maintaining a standalone app is a disproportionate use of Parliament’s resources, when all the information is readily available on the website https://now.parliament.uk/.
While the ParliamentNow app is being decommissioned, and will no longer be supported from late March, the Parliament Now website will continue to be available at https://now.parliament.uk/.The website delivers a more accessible and future-proof service, better supporting reliable use with both current and emerging assistive technologies.
App-like shortcuts for the website can be set up on tablets and mobile devices to take users directly to the relevant content and provide all the same information, without the requirement for a bespoke mobile app. Instructions on how to set up an Annunciator icon on your phone can be found on ParliNet and support for members is available from the Parliamentary Digital Service Drop-In and Support Desk.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much financial borrowing has been enabled by NHS trusts due to their foundation trust status in the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold a comprehensive breakdown of National Health Service foundation trusts (FTs) borrowing from commercial lenders, so it is not possible to answer the specific question asked.
However, the Department provides financing for FTs in the form of Public Dividend Capital at 3.5% dividend rate and loans at interest rates at below market rates.
The lower costs and lower risks, for example terms relating to default of commercial borrowing, of obtaining finance from the Department has meant that commercial borrowing has not been typically needed.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many charges have brought by the Environment Agency with regards to their national criminal investigation into water and sewerage service companies launched on 18 November 2021.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There have been six charges involving two defendant water companies. This includes one conviction and two related acquittals for one defendant, Anglian Water Services Ltd. The other defendant has three charges pending.