Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to facilitate the transfer of water between regions in England to ensure adequate water supplies in areas experiencing increased water stress.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies set out how they plan to continue to supply water to their customers through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs) which include demand management and new water resources infrastructure, including transfers.
£104 billion of private sector investment has been secured which will fund essential infrastructure including large scale water transfers.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to detect and prevent the production and sale of illegal ghost registration plates for vehicles.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to tackling number plate crime. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) works closely with police forces and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.
Under its Road Safety Strategy, the Department for Transport is reviewing motoring offences. It has consulted on introducing penalty points and vehicle seizure for those in charge of a vehicle displaying an incorrect, altered or false number plate. The consultation closed on 11 May and responses are being considered.
The DVLA is also considering how to make the Register of Number Plate Suppliers more robust and auditable, enabling tighter checks on suppliers and the plates they provide. This includes reviewing the scheme’s fees, structure, resources and funding.
Working with the British Standards Institution, the DVLA has developed targeted amendments to the British Standard for number plates. These would prohibit raised or “ghost” characteristics and require finished plates to be flat, directly addressing the products of greatest concern. Work is under way to bring these changes into law.
The Department has also funded a new National Roads Policing Coordination Centre to help police forces share intelligence, collaborate more effectively and use data and technology to target those using illegal number plates.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to detect the users of ghost registration plates and to ensure that the users are subject to appropriate penalties.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to tackling number plate crime. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) works closely with police forces and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.
Under its Road Safety Strategy, the Department for Transport is reviewing motoring offences. It has consulted on introducing penalty points and vehicle seizure for those in charge of a vehicle displaying an incorrect, altered or false number plate. The consultation closed on 11 May and responses are being considered.
The DVLA is also considering how to make the Register of Number Plate Suppliers more robust and auditable, enabling tighter checks on suppliers and the plates they provide. This includes reviewing the scheme’s fees, structure, resources and funding.
Working with the British Standards Institution, the DVLA has developed targeted amendments to the British Standard for number plates. These would prohibit raised or “ghost” characteristics and require finished plates to be flat, directly addressing the products of greatest concern. Work is under way to bring these changes into law.
The Department has also funded a new National Roads Policing Coordination Centre to help police forces share intelligence, collaborate more effectively and use data and technology to target those using illegal number plates.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much (1) the Ministry of Justice, and (2) HM Courts & Tribunals Service, spent on translation and interpretation services last year; and what plans they have, if any, to increase the use of AI in the provision of translation and interpretation services.
Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is provided below, in relation to contract spend only.
Lot 1 – Spoken Language
(1) Total contract spend for 2025: £30,127,536.45
(2) HMCTS contract spend for 2025: £28,036,414.07
T&T – Translation & Transcription
(1) Total contract spend for 2025: £2,988,335.45
(2) HMCTS contract spend for 2025: £139,916.83
The Ministry of Justice is exploring how artificial intelligence can support translation and interpretation services, including through work led by the Justice AI Unit. This includes AI-assisted interpretation for non-legal conversations in prisons and AI-assisted translation of publications, with human quality assurance of translated material. The Ministry of Justice’s new language services contracts, which came into effect on 5 October 2026, include clear contractual obligations for suppliers to engage in, monitor, and report on their use of AI and innovation, including impacts on interpreting availability and accuracy.
Any wider use would be informed by robust evaluation of the technology’s accuracy, consistency and suitability across different languages and settings, alongside consideration of data protection, security and appropriate human oversight. This evidence would inform decisions on whether, and in which circumstances, increased use is appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much the Home Office spent on translation and interpretation services last year; and what plans they have, if any, to increase the use of AI in the provision of translation and interpretation services.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office uses interpretation and translation services to support the delivery of its operational responsibilities. The information requested is not centrally held and could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office is exploring opportunities to increase the use of AI-enabled translation and interpretation where this can improve efficiency and service quality. This includes work to assess potential applications and future delivery options.
Any increased use of AI will be subject to appropriate evaluation, governance and approval, with human involvement retained where appropriate to the circumstances.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they are making use of AI to detect abnormal levels of patient outcomes across hospital trusts.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Federated Data Platform (FDP) is a data and workflow platform, that includes some artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Some products and analytical tools running on or connected to the platform may use predictive analytics, machine learning or other advanced analytical techniques where appropriate safeguards are in place. It also supports earlier identification of operational pressures and risks through near real-time visibility of demand, capacity, flow and performance.
One specific example is the Maternity Outcomes Signal System which is migrating to the FDP. This uses near real-time data to indicate higher than expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and brain injury, allowing more timely action to be taken when standards deteriorate. This delivers on a recommendation in Bill Kirkup’s report on maternity and neonatal services in East Kent and has been developed with his input.
The 10-Year Health Plan also stipulates that we will establish a national AI-led early warning capability through the FDP. This future capability will analyse data to help identify where quality issues may be emerging across the National Health Service, providing additional insight to support the Care Quality Commission and other relevant bodies in identifying areas that may warrant further review.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that electricity networks are adopting new technologies to more effectively utilise existing network infrastructure.
Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises the importance of making the best use of existing network infrastructure alongside investing in additional capacity. Ofgem’s regulatory framework supports innovation, and the Government is working with Ofgem and NESO to encourage innovative network technologies. One example, Dynamic Line Rating, uses real-time data to calculate overhead line capacity, helping operators manage network constraints. All three transmission owners have confirmed plans for further rollout. DLR is estimated to have saved £36 million in constraint costs in 2025-2026. Additionally, DESNZ is procuring an independent review of barriers to smart grid innovation and comparing UK technology adoption with networks abroad.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the threat to financial stability of the increase in private credit lending.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Private markets, including private credit, play a vital role in providing financing to the real economy. They support innovation and diversify funding sources.
As the Bank of England have said, the growth of private markets also brings new vulnerabilities, including from the sectors’ increasing complexity, use of leverage, opacity, and interconnectedness with the wider financial system.
HM Treasury continues to work closely with the regulators to understand these risks. In the 2025 remit letter to the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee, the Committee were asked to continue to consider risks in private markets. The Bank of England has since launched its private markets System‑Wide Exploratory Scenario – a world-leading exercise to deepen understanding of vulnerabilities in private markets.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - 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 28 April (HL16679), what progress they have made in collecting the necessary data on poultry procurement and deciding what further action is needed.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has commissioned research to better understand the extent to which public sec-tor settings are serving food, including poultry, from local and sustainable sources. This research is currently underway, and we expect the work to be completed by Summer 2027.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of disruptions to the international flow of gas, whether they are reassessing the level of gas storage necessary for UK energy resilience.
Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is confident in our gas security of supply, thanks to our diverse range of supply sources, including domestic production, Norwegian imports, interconnectors with continental Europe, and significant LNG import capacity, which are supported by storage.
Gas storage provided 5% of our supply last winter. However, government recognises our infrastructure needs, including gas storage, may evolve during the energy transition. Government set out plans to explore whether support for the gas sector, including new infrastructure, is required, and will update in due course.