Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what information his Department holds on whether the First Minister of Scotland discussed reserved matters during his visit to Dublin in November 2025.

Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland

International affairs are reserved under the Scotland Act, and it is essential that the UK speaks with one voice overseas.

FCDO guidance on the overseas activity of devolved government ministers only covers ministerial-level engagement. Accordingly, UK Government officials were not involved in this meeting, and, therefore, hold no information on it.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he will publish the response to the consultation entitled Make Work Pay: trade union right of access, published on 23 October 2025.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Officials are in the process of reviewing the responses to the consultation, and the government will publish a formal response in due course.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Adam Smith Institute's report entitled Knock, Knock: The Effects of the New Union Access Regime on SMEs, published on 6 February 2026, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of that report’s findings of the potential impact of the proposed trade union access on the level costs for SMEs; and if he will make it his policy to implement the mitigations recommended in the report, including raising the trade union access threshold to businesses with a minimum headcount of 250 employees.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

My officials have considered the Adam Smith Institute’s report, alongside other relevant evidence, as part of the policy development process. Our consultation, Make Work Pay: trade union right of access, proposed an exemption for employers with fewer than 21 employees, with the aim of ensuring access is directed toward workplaces where recognition is most likely to be viable, while taking account of the practical implications for smaller employers.

We are currently reviewing responses to the consultation and will set out the Government’s final approach in our formal response, which will be published in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to integrate citizen science with statutory monitoring within Regional Systems Planners to more effectively monitor the water environment.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the recent Water White Paper, the Government committed to strengthening regional water planning to enable a more holistic, coordinated approach to water environment and supply planning. A fundamental part of this is supporting catchment partnerships across England, which are civil society-led and bring together cross-sectoral stakeholders to address water system issues at a local level. The value of citizen science as a key tool for catchment partnerships is widely recognised, and as such the Environment Agency has published the first ever Citizen Science Technical Advisory Framework to support and guide stakeholders when utilising citizen science. This ensures consistency and quality across the board and helps to identify where citizen science information can be used to inform the design of statutory monitoring programmes.

The Catchment Data Explorer brings together the evidence used in River Basin Management Plans, showing the status of our waters, the objectives we are working towards, and the reasons some places are not yet meeting them. Some of that evidence is already informed by citizen science, which add valuable local insight that helps build a fuller picture of what’s happening in our catchments. We are working closely with a wide range of partners to improve how we share data with each other, including to support catchment and regional planning reforms. As these collaborations grow, it will become easier to bring citizen generated evidence into our core decision making, helping us plan and manage the water environment in a more joined up and informed way.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether citizen science will be embedded in the (a) Water Reform Bill and (b) Transition Plan.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the recent Water White Paper, the Government committed to strengthening regional water planning to enable a more holistic, coordinated approach to water environment and supply planning. A fundamental part of this is supporting catchment partnerships across England, which are civil society-led and bring together cross-sectoral stakeholders to address water system issues at a local level. The value of citizen science as a key tool for catchment partnerships is widely recognised, and as such the Environment Agency has published the first ever Citizen Science Technical Advisory Framework to support and guide stakeholders when utilising citizen science. This ensures consistency and quality across the board and helps to identify where citizen science information can be used to inform the design of statutory monitoring programmes.

The Catchment Data Explorer brings together the evidence used in River Basin Management Plans, showing the status of our waters, the objectives we are working towards, and the reasons some places are not yet meeting them. Some of that evidence is already informed by citizen science, which add valuable local insight that helps build a fuller picture of what’s happening in our catchments. We are working closely with a wide range of partners to improve how we share data with each other, including to support catchment and regional planning reforms. As these collaborations grow, it will become easier to bring citizen generated evidence into our core decision making, helping us plan and manage the water environment in a more joined up and informed way.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the National Catchment Data Platform will include citizen science data.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the recent Water White Paper, the Government committed to strengthening regional water planning to enable a more holistic, coordinated approach to water environment and supply planning. A fundamental part of this is supporting catchment partnerships across England, which are civil society-led and bring together cross-sectoral stakeholders to address water system issues at a local level. The value of citizen science as a key tool for catchment partnerships is widely recognised, and as such the Environment Agency has published the first ever Citizen Science Technical Advisory Framework to support and guide stakeholders when utilising citizen science. This ensures consistency and quality across the board and helps to identify where citizen science information can be used to inform the design of statutory monitoring programmes.

The Catchment Data Explorer brings together the evidence used in River Basin Management Plans, showing the status of our waters, the objectives we are working towards, and the reasons some places are not yet meeting them. Some of that evidence is already informed by citizen science, which add valuable local insight that helps build a fuller picture of what’s happening in our catchments. We are working closely with a wide range of partners to improve how we share data with each other, including to support catchment and regional planning reforms. As these collaborations grow, it will become easier to bring citizen generated evidence into our core decision making, helping us plan and manage the water environment in a more joined up and informed way.