Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what amount of interest has been paid to commercial banks on central bank reserves in each of the last ten years; and whether they have considered ending such payments.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data on the interest paid on central bank reserves backed by bonds held in the Asset Purchase Facility is made publicly available by the Office for National Statistics in its monthly Public Sector Finances publication.
Time period | Interest payable |
Dataset identifier code | MDD7 |
2015 | 1,872 |
2016 | 1,515 |
2017 | 1,501 |
2018 | 3,434 |
2019 | 3,374 |
2020 | 1,078 |
2021 | 941 |
2022 | 13,394 |
2023 | 38,233 |
2024 | 36,335 |
2025 | 25,910 |
These data refer to reserves backed only by bonds held in the Asset Purchase Facility. While data on total interest paid is not available, the Bank of England does publish the aggregate level of outstanding reserves and the Bank Rate.
Paying interest on reserves is an important part of the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy and there are no plans to change the way reserves are remunerated at the Bank of England.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what amounts associated with the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility are included in the cumulative government debt; and whether they plan to exclude them from the total.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Information on the contribution to debt from the Bank of England and Asset Purchase Facility are routinely published in the monthly Public Sector Finances statistical release. The latest release, published by the Office for National Statistics on 20th March, showed that the impact on government debt from Asset Purchase Facility gilt holdings was £85.1 billion at the end of February 2026.
The Government's fiscal rules target net financial debt (Public sector net financial liabilities), to prioritise investment to drive long-term growth while getting debt falling as a share of the economy. Net financial debt includes the Bank of England’s balance sheet activities, including the Asset Purchase Facility.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Sullivan Review’s recommendation that data on biological sex should be collected as the default and distinct from gender identity, what formal guidance and harmonised data standards the UK Statistics Authority and Office for National Statistics will issue for all public bodies and Government departments; and by when these standards will be published and mandated.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 25th February is attached.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Office for National Statistics has a timetable to implement the Sullivan Review’s recommendation that biological sex is collected as a distinct data variable in all Government statistical outputs.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 25th February is attached.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, further to the answer by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office of 29 October 2025, to Question 83801, on Peers and Members: Social Class, and to the answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent of 5 February 2026, to Question HL13977, on Civil Service: Unpaid Work, how should the children of peers self-certify their social class if they apply to the Civil Service Internship Scheme in the absence of a classification by the Office for National Statistics.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All candidates are required to complete the questions set by ONS for determining socio-economic background based on their individual circumstances. For parental occupation this is at the age the candidate was 14. This allows the Civil Service to make a determination on their eligibility based on their answers. This is the same approach as was used for Fast Stream Internships under the previous administration.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department was invited by the Office for National Statistics to provide evidence or input into its review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including Government Departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. This was supplemented by a programme of engagement activity, including with representatives of all government departments.
ONS have committed to providing an initial response to the public consultation in April, and a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026 will include more detailed information on the departments that responded to the consultation.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what evidence his Department submitted to the Office for National Statistics' review of the ethnicity harmonised standard, including in relation to the recording of Sikhs and Jewish people as ethnic groups.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
An initial response to the public consultation is due to be published in April, followed by a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026. This report will include all formal responses to the consultation, and the names of the organisations that responded.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Departments submitted evidence to the Office for National Statistics' review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 6th March is attached.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many industrial plants employing over 200 people have closed in the last year.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics.
Lord Redwood
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
26 March 2026
Dear Lord Redwood,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many industrial plants employing over 200 people have closed in the last year (HL15771).
It is not possible to answer the question as asked because these data are not available by the number of employees. However, by using the quarterly business demography dataset[1], it is possible to make an estimate of the number of businesses within the production industries which have closed in the last year.
The number of businesses within the production industries which have closed in the year 2025 is estimated to be 12,510.
The quarterly business demography statistical release is regarded as ‘official statistics in development’.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/businessdemographyquarterlyexperimentalstatisticsuk/latest
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled New UK–Nigeria partnership to speed up removals, published on 19 March 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that agreement on the time taken to remove individuals with no right to remain.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 18 March 2026, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a UK-Nigeria Migration Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nigerian Interior Minister, the Hon. Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
Under the terms of the MOU, the Home Office will be able to facilitate returns using a UK Letter travel document. This will ensure that we are able to swiftly conduct the return of those that no longer have a right to be in the UK. Home Office officials will work closely with the Nigerian authorities to monitor implementation.
MOUs are not legally binding but are routine mechanisms used to manage activity between the UK and foreign governments.
The Home Office publishes statistics on returns from the UK in the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release.
Foreign national offender (FNO) returns from the UK to Nigeria are published in Table Ret_D04 of the Returns detailed datasets with the most recent figures covering the period up to the end of December 2025.
The Home Office does not publish statistics on visa overstayer returns for any nationality. In addition, Nigeria does not appear in the nationality breakdown for failed asylum seeker (asylum related) returns as only the highest 10 nationalities are published.
These publication limitations apply only to those specific return categories and do not affect the published data on foreign national offender returns to Nigeria.