Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many students from the UK participated in the Erasmus programme in the last year in which the UK was part of the programme; and which nation or English region those students were from.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2020, there were 16,437 UK higher education student mobilities through Erasmus+. Of these, 75.8% were from England, 16.5% from Scotland, 4.3% from Wales, and 3.4% from Northern Ireland. Participation was lower than in preceding years, likely due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that police have adequate powers to detain vehicles with number plates that are non-readable by automatic number plate recognition systems in order to assess whether the vehicle or driver have committed other offences.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government takes road safety extremely seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads, as well as tackling behaviours that make our roads less safe. We have tough penalties and rigorous enforcement in place to deter offending behaviour. The government published the Road Safety Strategy on 7 January which consults on a number of motoring offences, including tougher enforcement to tackle illegal number plates. Police have a suite of powers to deal with vehicles being driven illegally, anti-socially or carelessly and without insurance or a driving licence. These powers include seizure and disposal of vehicles involved in offences. Police also have the power to stop a vehicle so that further investigation of potential offences can take place.The Government is also working with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the police and industry to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to supporting the smelting of scrap copper in the UK instead of exportation.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Government recognises copper’s importance, which is why DBT designated copper a growth mineral in the Critical Minerals (CM) Strategy and funded a study by the CM Intelligence Centre assessing copper scrap and waste flows, to help inform circularity in the UK.
This government is committed to transitioning towards a circular economy where resources are in use for longer and waste is designed out. Defra will soon publish a Circular Economy Growth Plan setting out how government will deliver a more circular and more prosperous economy. We will consider the evidence for action right across the economy and evaluate interventions needed.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to maintain combat aircraft manufacturing and assembly capacity in the UK.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy recognises combat air as a priority national security sub-sector, requiring a degree of autonomy in the UK. The Defence Industrial Strategy underlines this government's commitment to maintaining sovereign capabilities across the Defence enterprise. The United Kingdom already has a world-class combat air production and manufacturing ecosystem, supported through large-scale international partnerships as well as targeted domestic investment.
Steps taken to maintain this capacity include the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), supporting export campaigns of Typhoon aircraft, upgrading our own combat aircraft, and continuing our investment in the global F-35 programme.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the security risk and the impact on the resilience of the defence industry of the construction of vessels in China or Vietnam for the Defence Maritime Next Generation Service program.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The construction locations of vessels being procured as part of the Defence Marine Services Next Generation In-Port Services contract do not present a risk to the security of the United Kingdom. Future maintenance of the vessels will take place in the UK.
The Government is stepping up its support for sovereign shipbuilding capabilities. The Procurement Act 2023 provides greater scope to strengthen supply chain visibility and drive social value. All options in and around this legislation are being explored to support the UK shipbuilding industry. In addition, the forthcoming Shipbuilding and Maritime Technology Action Plan will describe the new approach to oversight of ship and boatbuilding programmes across the strategic breadth of Government procurement.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of British manufacturing content Rolls Royce committed to in their submission for the contract for small modular reactors.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham
As set out on 24 December (HL12986), Great British Energy-Nuclear's (GBE-N) ambition is for 70% British built products across a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) fleet, including both on-site and off-site activity.
The GBE-N SMR Technology Selection Process evaluated bids against technical, economic, and social value criteria, though any specific commitments would remain subject to final government approvals and GBE-N entering into contract with Rolls-Royce SMR.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government where the RCH 155 artillery platform will be manufactured.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Early Capability Demonstrator platforms of the RCH155, two for Germany and one for the UK, will be built in Germany for joint testing.
The project remains in its assessment phase and a production contract has not yet been placed.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish a new framework for a private sector route to market for advanced nuclear technologies.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham
The government will provide a framework that will set out a pathway for privately led advanced nuclear projects, this framework will be published early this year.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many work visas were issued to residents of China last year.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa type, nationality and year in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on grants of work visas to Chinese nationals are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of September 2025.
Please note that nationals of China may be resident in other countries at the point of application.
Chinese (main applicants) were granted 4499 work visas in 2024, including 1699 in the skilled worker category.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Vallance of Balham of 9 December (HL12318), whether the 70 per cent of United Kingdom content applies to only offsite manufactured plant or includes on-site construction costs and materials.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham
As set out on 9 December (HL12318), Great British Energy-Nuclear's (GBE-N) ambition is for 70% British built products across the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) fleet. GBE-N’s ambition encompasses both on-site and off-site activity.
While it would not be appropriate to speculate at this time on specific commercial contracts, subject to final government approvals and contract signature with Rolls-Royce SMR, GBE-N will continue to consider how the UK supply chain can support the deployment of SMRs.