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1713739

	registered interest
	date	24/04/2024
	answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
	hansard heading	School Milk
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what are the reasons for administering the Nursery Milk Scheme to children only until their fifth birthday rather than until the end of the academic year in which that birthday falls.
	tabling member printed	Lord Watson of Invergowrie
	uin	HL4089
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The Nursery Milk Scheme allows early years childcare settings such as childminders and nurseries to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk to children under five years old who attend their childcare setting for at least two hours per day. Schools are also allowed to claim under this scheme in respect of pupils under the age of five years old. There are no current plans to extend the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover other school pupils.</p><p>The School Food Standards require lower-fat or lactose free milk to be available in all schools. From the age of five years old onwards, pupils eligible for benefits-based free school meals are eligible for free school milk. In addition, the school milk subsidy scheme subsidises the cost of milk and certain milk products for children in primary and secondary schools including over fives. This means that participating schools can sell the products in schools at a lower price. More information on this scheme is available on GOV.UK in an online-only format.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 29/04/2024 16:41:17 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
	tabling member	1241 label Biography information for Lord Watson of Invergowrie

1713284

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Seeds
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure there are no delays by the Animal and Plant Health Agency in processing applications for new seed varieties; and when they will determine the causes of the current backlog of applications so that in future new varieties are made available to UK growers in a timely manner.
	tabling member printed	The Earl of Caithness
	uin	HL4025
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The backlog of applications for variety listing following EU exit has now largely been resolved.</p><p> </p><p>The Animal and Plant Health Agency and Defra are working closely with stakeholders to monitor the processes involved in variety listing and are currently instigating improvements and resilience in the system.</p><p> </p><p>The UK authorities are working together to develop the first UK Plant Variety and Seeds strategy. Following a Call for Ideas and further industry engagement, additional improvements in the plant variety listing process are anticipated.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 29/04/2024 14:40:41 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
	tabling member	3310 label Biography information for The Earl of Caithness

1713285

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Equality
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government why the Department for Education maintains named individuals' religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability information from Higher Education equality monitoring data, rather than retaining the information as anonymised statistics.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green
	uin	HL4026
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The department does not directly collect information from higher education institutions concerning the religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of students. However, the department does receive these variables from Jisc (and previously the Higher Education Statistics Authority) as part of the student records that they share with the department.</p><p> </p><p>The information is held at a named level to enable this data to effectively function as a longitudinal research source, which can be used to compare educational pathways with other (non-educational) outcomes later in life. This will provide an evidence base against which society can evaluate and monitor the impact of education and training on outcomes and support government decision-making to improve services and ensure equality of opportunity for all irrespective of background or circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>While individual identifiers are retained by the department for matching purposes, at all times the department will minimise the processing of, and access to, instant or meaningful identifiers. Access to named data within the department is restricted to a small number of data professionals with responsibility for matching this data with other sources and creating pseudonymised, or aggregated, versions of the data which are subsequently used for research and statistics.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 14:52:46 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4725 label Biography information for Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green

1713294

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Loans
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of interest rate charges on Government student loan financing, following research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which showed that higher interest rates will add more than £10 billion per year to the cost of England’s student loan system.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL4035
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.</p><p>Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.</p><p>The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23</a>.</p><p>The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.</p><p>The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.</p><p>The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.</p><p>Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.</p><p>The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - The Government Financial Reporting Manual.pdf title The Government Financial Reporting Manual 2 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment.pdf title Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document grouped question UIN HL4036 question first answered 29/04/2024 15:08:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1713295

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Loans
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of changes to the student loan repayment system, introduced in August 2023, on female students.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL4036
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.</p><p>Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.</p><p>The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23</a>.</p><p>The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.</p><p>The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.</p><p>The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.</p><p>Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.</p><p>The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - The Government Financial Reporting Manual.pdf title The Government Financial Reporting Manual 2 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment.pdf title Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document grouped question UIN HL4035 question first answered 29/04/2024 15:08:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1713296

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Wildlife: Conservation
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of animal population decline in other countries on the UK, following the WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 which showed that worldwide animal populations have declined by 69 per cent since 1970.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL4037
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2024 answer text <p>The UK is susceptible to impacts from animal population decline worldwide through global impacts on food supply and the increasing emergence and transmission of diseases. For example, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Pollinators Assessment showed that 35% of global crop production volume depends on animal pollination, while the IPBES Workshop report on Biodiversity and Pandemics showed that over 30% of emerging disease events are caused by land-use change and its impacts on wildlife. Healthy ecosystems are also vital for mitigating and adapting to climate change, thus animal population declines may also exacerbate the climate impacts felt by the UK, as set out in the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment. The UK Government with others continues to support the work of the IPBES and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to further understand these global impacts.</p><p> </p><p>A recently published report from the Green Finance Institute, entitled ‘Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK’, with direction from Defra and others, showed that about half of all UK nature-related risk comes from overseas, through supply chains and financial exposures. It showed that the combination of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation could lead to major economic shocks leading to UK Gross Domestic Product being up to 12% lower that it may otherwise have been by the 2030s (even lower when combined with climate impacts).</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 26/04/2024 13:43:36 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1713308

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
	hansard heading	Breast Cancer: Alcoholic Drinks
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the link between women’s increasing consumption of alcohol and incidences of breast cancer.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
	uin	HL4049
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Public Health England’s evidence review, <em>‘The Public Health Burden of Alcohol and the Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Alcohol Control Policies’</em>, which was published in 2016 and updated in 2018, found there is strong evidence for an association between alcohol consumption and female breast cancer, and that for breast cancer, any level of drinking increases your risk so there is no ‘safe’ level of drinking. A copy of the review is attached.</p><p>The Government believes in informing and empowering citizens and has a responsibility to provide the most up to date, clear information to enable people to make informed choices about their drinking. The 2016 United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines provide the public with the most up to date scientific information and highlight the risk of a range of health problems, including breast cancer, from alcohol consumption.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 29/04/2024 16:52:17 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham attachment 1 file name alcohol_public_health_burden_evidence_review_update_2018 (2).pdf title alcohol_public_health_burden_evidence_review
	tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

1713309

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
	hansard heading	Breastfeeding
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to put in place policies that encourage breastfeeding, including supportive work environments where women are able to breastfeed or express milk.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
	uin	HL4050
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government’s vision, set out in the policy paper, <em>The Best Start for Life: A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days</em>, is that every parent and carer has access to high quality infant feeding services in their local area. A copy of the paper is attached.</p><p>Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, we are investing £50 million in infant feeding services, enabling participating local authorities to design and deliver a blended offer of advice and support in line with local needs. The investment is being used to increase the range of advice and specialist support available, helping to ensure all mothers and families can meet their breastfeeding goals. We are also using programme investment to increase the capacity of the National Breastfeeding Helpline so that a greater number of families are able to access this support. In March 2024, we launched a trial of extended helpline opening hours so that support and advice will be available at any time of the day or night, every day of the year.</p><p>Regulations are in place that require employers to provide a suitable area for breastfeeding mothers. This must be hygienic and private so they can express milk if they choose to and include somewhere to store their milk.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 29/04/2024 16:47:06 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham attachment 1 file name The_best_start_for_life_a_vision_for_the_1_001_critical_days (9).pdf title The_best_start_for_life_a_vision
	tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

1712650

	registered interest
	date	22/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
	answering dept id	215
	answering dept short name	Energy Security and Net Zero
	answering dept sort name	Energy Security and Net Zero
	hansard heading	Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Eligibility
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish the evidence base used to underpin the decision, announced by Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in March in its Boiler Upgrade Scheme Consultation Response, that future grant applicants' compliance with Energy Performance Certificate recommendations will be optional.
	tabling member printed	Lord Stunell
	uin	HL4011
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government response to the consultation on amendments to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme sets out the responses received by industry stakeholders, including evidence to support the removal of the legal requirement to have no outstanding recommendations for cavity and loft insulation which was determined a barrier to access the scheme.</p> answering member printed Lord Callanan question first answered 24/04/2024 13:40:56 answering member 4336 label Biography information for Lord Callanan
	tabling member	445 label Biography information for Lord Stunell

1702568

	registered interest
	date	19/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Department for Education: Finance
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government which organisations (1) receiving funding through the Department for Education, or (2) holding contracts related to the work of the Department, between 1 January and 22 April have been notified of either (a) a reduction in, or (b) the cancellation of, their funding, broken down by category; which of those organisations will have funding withdrawn (i) in the current financial year, or (ii) over the next two financial years; and what is the total amount that will be withdrawn for such organisations over those periods.
	tabling member printed	Lord Blunkett
	uin	HL3970
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:33:26 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	395 label Biography information for Lord Blunkett