Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel over the seizure of the UNESCO archaeological site at Sebastia on the West Bank, including the traditional burial place of St John the Baptist, for the new Shomron National Park.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
In response to the various questions raised, I refer the Lord Bishop to the answer provided on 19 December 2025 in response to Question HL12787. Specifically on the issue of the E1 settlement, I also refer him to the answer provided in the House of Commons on 3 September 2025 in response to Question 71442, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:
On 21 August, the Foreign Secretary and 26 international partners joined a statement condemning the E1 settlement development. The Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom was also summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in response to the plans. The decision by the Israeli Higher Planning Committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, East of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and, if implemented, would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution. We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms. The Israeli government must stop settlement construction in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has held with the Home Office on a whole-system review of vehicle registration mark security to address organised crime.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) are considering options to ensure a more robust and auditable Register of Number Plate Supplier (RNPS) process which would enable more stringent checks on suppliers. This includes consideration of the relevant legislation, fees, structure, resources and funding to help ensure sufficient auditing capability.
The DVLA is also working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Home Office and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime. This includes options for making number plates more secure. The Department and the DVLA acknowledge the impact illegal number plates have on law enforcement and the effectiveness of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems.
The Home Office is responsible for the national ANPR service and issues guidance on its use as part of the national ANPR standards for policing and law enforcement. Therefore, the Department for Transport has not made an assessment of the impacts on ANPR operations.
The Government published its Road Safety Strategy on 7 January, setting out its vision for a safer future on our roads for all. As part of this, the Department has published a consultation which seeks views on the introduction of penalty points and vehicle seizure for the offence of being in charge of a motor vehicle with an incorrect/altered/false number plate. Further consideration to potential changes will be given following the consultation.
The DVLA continually seeks opportunities to improve the accuracy of the vehicle register and to innovate and enhance its digital services. The DVLA is currently consider the requirement for legislative amendments which may be needed to facilitate updates and improvements to vehicle services.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether any further financial support is planned for individuals in the culture and arts sector.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government believes that British artists and creators are second-to-none and is committed to giving them security and a regulatory and fiscal environment where creativity can flourish. Arts Council England, a Department for Culture, Media and Sport arm’s length body, receives grant-in-aid funding and money from National Lottery Good Causes to enable it to fund individuals and organisations in the culture and arts sector.
Arts Council England currently provides a number of funds open to individuals including National Lottery Project Grants and Developing Your Creative Practice. Arts Council England expects to launch the next round of Developing Your Creative Practice in April 2026. Between rounds of Developing Your Creative Practice, Arts Council England introduced dedicated R&D funding for individuals, as part of the National Lottery Project Grants under £30,000 strand.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to A UK Cyber Growth Action Plan – Final Report (Command Paper CP 1406, September 2025), what progress her Department has made against this suggestion; and what metrics her Department plans to use to measure progress in embedding cyber skills more broadly across education, business, and regional initiatives.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We received the Cyber Growth Action Plan in September and are now working to incorporate the recommendations in the new National Cyber Action Plan. In the meantime, we have launched the £187m TechFirst programme to develop and support students across the UK to enter the cyber workforce alongside the wider digital and tech frontier industries. We also continue to support key initiatives such as the UK Cyber Security Council to standardise and embed cyber professional standards; Cyber Local grants to support regional efforts to support businesses and schools and Cyber Essentials certification scheme to help organisations protect themselves against the most common cyber security threats.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed police reforms on the integration of Mayoral Combined Authorities and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Police Reform White Paper, published on 26 January 2026, represents the most significant reforms to policing in England and Wales since the service was professionalised nearly 200 years ago. Proposals will focus local forces on local crime, while strengthening our ability to tackle serious and organised crime and threats to national security by creating a new national force, the National Police Service. The White Paper also sets out an ambition to significantly reduce the number of police forces by the end of the next Parliament.
As part of these reforms, the Police and Crime Commissioner Model will be abolished at the end of their current term of office in May 2028. We will transfer policing governance to mayors of strategic authorities wherever possible, or to elected council leaders where it is not, through Policing and Crime Boards.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 21 January (HL13311), whether they have formally lodged a statement at the United Nations and with China about a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in the case of Jimmy Lai; and if not, whether they intend to do so.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
Following Beijing's imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong, the UK declared China to be in a state of ongoing non-compliance with the Joint Declaration. The UK raised concerns about the NSL and Joint Declaration during the 2020 UN Human Rights Council sessions. This government has repeatedly called for China to return to its commitments under the Joint Declaration, for the NSL to be repealed, and for an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it, including British national Jimmy Lai.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what guidance his Department provides on escalation mechanisms available to communities where an electricity network operator has acknowledged non-compliance with permitted noise levels but remediation has not been delivered.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
For operational infrastructure, in England and Wales any noise concerns should be raised to local planning authorities in line with the Environmental Protection Act 1990. You can report an noise nuisance via: Report a noise nuisance to your council - GOV.UK. For Scotland, powers in this act relating to noise and statutory nuisance are devolved to Scottish Government.
In England and Wales where a project meets the threshold for an Environmental Impact Assessment, developers are required to assess and mitigate noise impacts. They are similarly required to do so at the planning stage in accordance with the National Policy Statement EN‑5 and the National Planning Policy Framework.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has undertaken of the potential impact of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency winter wellness campaigns during the last five years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The main Government health winter campaigns are run by the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England, which the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) supports.
The MHRA also runs annual winter campaigns to raise public awareness of medicines and medical devices safety that achieves media coverage and social media engagement.
For example, the MHRA’s 2025/26 campaign provided five public safety tips covering medicines and medical devices. It achieved media coverage in national print and online, regional and trade press, as well as an interview on BBC One Breakfast.
The MHRA created and posted social media content throughout this period which was seen approximately 50,000 times. The MHRA also worked with key stakeholders, such as the National Fire Chiefs Council, to help amplify safety messages.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made on trends of indoor air pollution.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Air Quality Expert Group state that there is a challenge of establishing overall trends in indoor air pollution due to limited monitoring and heterogeneity of indoor environments.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is actively addressing this evidence gap through its involvement in two research hubs, headed by UK Research and Innovation and the Medical Research Council, the Child and Adolescent Health Impacts of Learning Indoor Environments under Net Zero Hub, also known as the CHILI, Hub, and the Indoor HABItability during the Transition to Net Zero Housing Hub, also known as the INHABIT, Hub. In addition, the UKHSA contributes to the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Health Protection Research Unit on Climate Change and Health Security Theme on Healthy Indoor Environments. Collectively these projects aim to strengthen the evidence base on the impact of climate change policies on indoor exposure to air pollution and will include monitoring of indoor environments.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ghost plates pose on (a) national security and (b) the ability of hostile or organised criminal actors to evade detection by ANPR technology; and whether she has commissioned a cross-government review on the potential impact of the use of illegal plates on investigative leads, including those related to violent crime, terrorism, and serious organised criminal activity.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Under the new Road Safety Strategy, published on 7 January by the Department for Transport, the Government has announced firm action to tackle illegal or ‘ghost’ numberplates. This includes consulting on tougher penalties, including penalty points and vehicle seizure, more robust checks on number plate suppliers, and higher industry standards for numberplates. We also intend to commission targeted research to explore the potential use of artificial intelligence to identify illegal plates.
In addition, the Government has pledged £2.7m for each of the next three years to support a roads policing innovation programme. As part of this innovation programme, the Department for Transport and Home Office are working in collaboration with National Police Chiefs' Council and others to consider new approaches to tackling the issue of illegal plate usage.