Lord Grocott

There have been five such cases since 2010, including the motion on 29 January 2024 relating to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. The other four bills, along with the dates they were debated on second reading, were the Health and Social Care Bill (11-12 October 2011); the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill (3-4 June 2013); the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Bill (4 November 2014); and the Illegal Migration Bill (10 May 2023).

All those on the register of hereditary peers maintained under Standing Order 9(4) who were members of the House before the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 indicated their willingness to stand in hereditary peer by-elections, either before the first edition of the Register was issued on 13 November 2002, or subsequently. Hereditary peers who have succeeded to their titles since 1999 are required to petition the House to “direct the Clerk of the Parliaments to enter [them] on the register of hereditary peers who wish to stand in any by-election for election to Your Lordships’ House”.

Every peer on the register is contacted before each by-election to ask if they wish to be a candidate, and if a peer no longer wishes to be included on the register, they can request that their name be removed from it at any time.

The Register of Hereditary Peers (HL Paper 2) was first published on 13 November 2002, and is published at the start of each session of Parliament. The table below gives the year in which each peer was first listed in the Register as published at the start of each Session.

*Peers who have been added to the register since the most recent edition of HL Paper 2 was published on 10 May 2022.

The information is given in the attached table. Hereditary peers who have been successful candidates in by-elections, and who are therefore no longer included in the Register, are not listed. The ‘by-election name’ in each case is the title of the former member whose death or resignation from the House precipitated the by-election.

The costs incurred in conducting the five most recent hereditary peer by-elections are set out in the table below. Three of these ballots were for two vacancies.

These costs represent the fees to be paid to Civica, the contractor that supports the Administration in conducting by-elections. They exclude the cost of time spent by House of Lords staff, for whom such work forms part of their normal duties, which cannot therefore be costed separately.

The full list of ministers can be found on gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-november-2023

The ministers currently appointed who are not in receipt of a ministerial salary are: Richard Holden MP, Rt Hon John Glen MP, Baroness Nevile-Rolfe DBE CMG, Lord Ahmad, Rt Hon Lord Benyon, the Earl of Minto, Lord Bellamy KC, Rt Hon Sir John Whittingdale OBE MP, Andrew Griffith MP, Viscount Camrose, Lord Markham CBE, Rt Hon Earl Howe CBE, Lord Johnson CBE, Lord Offord of Garvel, Baroness Barran MBE, and Baroness Swinburne.

The Cabinet Office does not collate this data centrally. Notwithstanding, to assist the noble Lord’s scrutiny, a list has been compiled from public information. The 10 year period used is 4 October 2013 - 4 October 2023.

Where Ministers were in post on 4 October 2013, our calculations have used the start of their tenure, which may precede that date.

The Cabinet Office does not calculate the average tenure of ministerial office. However, details of ministerial office-holders are on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers. Details of the previous holders of each ministerial post dating back to 2010 are also available by selecting each ministerial role on this webpage, then 'previous holders’.

Details on how many private members' bills starting in both the House of Commons and House of Lords from the 2019 General Election to the 2021-22 session are available on the Parliament website at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04568/. In the current parliamentary session the following private members' bills have reached Royal Assent:

In addition, the following private members' bills are awaiting Royal Assent. These bills originated in the House of Commons:

• Child Support (Enforcement) Bill

• Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill

• Equipment Theft (Prevention) Bill

Publicly available information shows that 87 peerages have been created on the advice of Rt Hon Boris Johnson. 44 of these were Conservative, 13 were Labour and 19 were Crossbench. Ultimately it is for the Prime Minister to recommend to the Sovereign which individuals ought to be appointed to the House of Lords.

There are currently 36 Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys and information as below.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 2^nd November 2021, the Government remains committed to establishing a new beneficial ownership register of overseas entities that own UK property. This register will help combat money laundering and achieve greater transparency in the UK property market. We will legislate when parliamentary time allows.

Public appointments made by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education are published on the Public Appointment Order in Council; please see the attached document. The appointments are publicly announced on GOV.UK and can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-non-executive-appointments. The order includes those roles where official sign off by the King and/or the Prime Minister is required.

In May 2020, there are 2,675 secondary academies, free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs), out of a total of 3,453 state-funded secondary schools. This is 77% of all secondary schools. Please note that the number of secondary schools includes middle deemed secondary schools, 16+ schools, all through schools and secondary schools.

Academy trusts may comprise of either one phase of education, or multiple phases of education. The table below provides the number of academies within academy trusts that have at least one secondary academy. The number of academies within these trusts also includes primary, special and alternative provision (AP) academies, free schools, studio schools and UTCs.

Table 1: Number of academy trusts, by size of academy trust, and number of academies within those trusts

Source: Get information about schools, taken from 1 May 2020.

In May 2020, there are 2,675 secondary academies, free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs), out of a total of 3,453 state-funded secondary schools. This is 77% of all secondary schools. Please note that the number of secondary schools includes middle deemed secondary schools, 16+ schools, all through schools and secondary schools.

Academy trusts may comprise of either one phase of education, or multiple phases of education. The table below provides the number of academies within academy trusts that have at least one secondary academy. The number of academies within these trusts also includes primary, special and alternative provision (AP) academies, free schools, studio schools and UTCs.

Table 1: Number of academy trusts, by size of academy trust, and number of academies within those trusts

Source: Get information about schools, taken from 1 May 2020.

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill goes further than Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU in a number of ways. In particular The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill introduces a proportionate accountability mechanism, involving the Animal Sentience Committee. It applies to all policy areas and has no exemptions.

The UK spends more than £5 billion in ODA in Africa each year, through both country specific bilateral programming and through UK funding to multilateral organisations.

Details of DFID spend are contained in Statistics on International Development. The most recent publication contains provisional aid spend for 2019 and shows DFID region or country specific bilateral official development assistance (ODA) spend in Africa in 2019 was £2.448 billion.

In addition to region/country specific bilateral ODA, £2.607 billion was spent on projects where it has not been possible to assign to any single recipient country or region. A proportion of this will have been spent in Africa.

DFID’s total ODA spend in 2019 was £11.107 billion.

Spend in Africa above does not include imputed shares of UK funding to the general core budgets of multilateral organisations. The latest spend numbers available are for 2018, and show the imputed UK share of Multilateral Net ODA spent in sub-Saharan Africa was £2.2 billion.

In 2019-20 the cost of the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme was £651,387. All costs incurred are subject to departmental restrictions and guidelines which apply to the programme’s use of public funds.

There are currently 36 Trade Envoys. A full list including their political affiliation is below.

There has been no change in title or accountability of the ‘Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys’, however the formal title is occasionally shortened to ‘Trade Envoys’ for brevity.

The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme supports British businesses overseas and attracts investment into the UK. The programme works in collaboration with other trade promotion activities, and it focuses on emerging and high growth markets where additional senior interactions can be valuable, or larger economies where multiple interactions at different levels are effective. Trade Envoys are appointed to markets where there are opportunities to increase bilateral trade.

The Department for International Trade is constantly reviewing suitable countries, regions, and markets to identify where the appointment of a Trade Envoy can be of greatest benefit to the trade and investment aims of the UK, with the Prime Minister ultimately making the decision to appoint.

In addition to our deal with the EU, we have secured trade agreements with 66 non-EU countries, covering £890 billion of trade in total (2019 data). These are:

Albania;

Antigua and Barbuda;

Barbados;

The Bahamas;

Belize;

Botswana;

Cameroon;

Canada;

Colombia;

Côte d’Ivoire (The Ivory Coast);

Costa Rica;

Chile;

Dominica;

The Dominican Republic;

Ecuador;

Egypt;

El Salvador;

Eswatini (Swaziland);

The Faroe Islands;

Fiji;

Ghana;

Grenada;

Guyana;

Guatemala;

Georgia;

Honduras;

Iceland;

Israel;

Japan;

Jordan;

Jamaica;

Kenya;

Kosovo;

Lebanon;

Lesotho;

Liechtenstein;

Mexico;

Morocco;

Moldova;

Mozambique;

Mauritius;

Nicaragua;

Norway;

North Macedonia;

Namibia;

Peru;

Panama;

Papua New Guinea;

The Palestinian Authority;

Saint Lucia;

St. Vincent and the Grenadines;

Samoa;

The Solomon Islands;

St. Kitts and Nevis;

The Seychelles;

South Africa;

Switzerland;

Singapore;

South Korea;

Suriname;

Trinidad and Tobago;

Tunisia;

Turkey;

Ukraine;

Vietnam; and

Zimbabwe.

As noted in the Parliamentary Report published in November 2023, to date £1bn (2019 prices) has been spent on the Phase 2a leg of HS2.

Under the Network North announcement, the Government has committed to delivering both schemes, both of which could be delivered quicker than Phase 2b of HS2 which was due to complete in 2041.

This is set out in the latest Parliamentary Report on HS2. The Department will continue to work with HS2 Ltd to bring early / enabling site activities to a safe stop and conclude any land remediation activities for the handing back of sites.

Information related to the spend to date on HS2, including Phase 2b Western Leg, was provided in the most recent Parliamentary Report published in November 2023.

To date, £0.7bn (2019 prices) has been spent on the Phase 2b Western Leg of the HS2 Programme. This funding was used to prepare the Phase 2b Western Leg Bill. Following the Network North announcement, Government is now considering options to repurpose this Bill in order to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The Department for Transport remains committed to providing regular updates to Parliament on the progress of the Programme with a further update expected in Spring 2024.

Following the Network North announcement, the Department for Transport is in the early stages of planning next steps, including delivery timelines, for individual schemes and is working closely with Network Rail and other delivery partners to develop and deliver on Government priorities. Further information will be set out in due course.