The disorder in Ballymena last year was shocking and unacceptable. There is no place for racism or violence of any kind in Northern Ireland. One of the characteristics of this country is that we treat people with equality, respect and dignity, regardless of where they come from.

Following the disorder in Ballymena, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland spoke with community organisations supporting the Roma community and the Romanian Ambassador to the UK to ensure those impacted were receiving appropriate support. Following the disorder in June of this year, he has also spoken directly with Northern Ireland Party Leaders, and Northern Ireland Office officials engaged with the Consulate General of Romania. I have also visited Ballymena since the riots and met with community groups.

Northern Ireland Office officials remain active in cross-Government forums to prevent the recurrence of unrest. The UK Government is committed to supporting the Northern Ireland Executive to develop strategies to strengthen community cohesion and prevent disorder in future.

The Government understands the importance of insurance in building the financial resilience of consumers and protecting them when things go wrong. The Government engages with a wide range of interest groups as part of its work to ensure insurance markets work well for consumers. The Government exchanged correspondence with Friends, Families and Travellers on the issue of access to insurance in late 2025.

While insurers make commercial decisions on whether to offer cover, and at what price, they must comply with relevant legislation and regulatory rules. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination based on protected characteristics, such as race. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also requires firms to treat customers fairly under its rules and, where necessary, has robust powers to take action against firms that do not comply with its rules.

Neighbourhood health underpins delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan. It will bring together integrated neighbourhood teams of professionals and partners closer to people’s home, to work together to support people and places to improve their health and wellbeing. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan, which will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

We expect the design and delivery of neighbourhood health to be locally led, including for integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs). However, INTs can include allied health professionals like speech and language therapists if this reflects the specific needs of the local population.

The adult neurology service specification, published by NHS England, sets out the standards expected of specialised neurology services commissioned across England, including multidisciplinary care, timely access to diagnostics, and coordinated pathways for people with complex neurological conditions such as primary progressive aphasia. Specialised neurology services are commissioned against these national specifications, and providers are expected to deliver care in line with these requirements.

NHS England requires all commissioned specialised neurology centres to have regard to the service specification and to embed its standards within clinical practice. Implementation is supported through contractual arrangements and service development discussions between NHS England and providers, recognising that local service configuration and patient need may shape the way in which requirements are delivered in practice.

Compliance with service specifications is monitored through a structured combination of contractual obligations, routine data reporting, and external regulatory oversight. In addition, national improvement programmes, such as Getting It Right First Time, support the reduction of unwarranted variation and promote adherence to best practice, including for people with rarer neurological conditions such as primary progressive aphasia.

Together, these arrangements help to ensure that patients receive high-quality, evidence-based care in line with nationally defined standards, while allowing services to be delivered in a way that reflects local clinical pathways and patient needs.

Under section 26 of the Children and Families Act 2014, local authorities and Integrated Care Boards have an existing duty to jointly commission the arrangements for the education, health and care of children and young people with Special educational needs and disability (SEND) in the local area.

In the SEND consultation, the government asked how to ensure the most effective use of SEND local partnerships through the SEND reforms. Partnership working includes the existing joint commissioning arrangements between local authorities and Integrated Care Boards.

The consultation has now closed. The department is carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation alongside feedback from over 200 engagement events we held over 12 weeks and will set out our response in due course.

The Government recognises the important role of insurance products in building financial resilience of consumers and giving households the ability to weather financial shocks.

This is why promoting financial resilience through insurance is a key focus in the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy. The Strategy was published last year and sets out a range of ambitious measures for industry and the Government to improve financial inclusion and resilience for underserved groups across the UK. This includes interventions to support the uptake of contents insurance among social renters, and better support individuals to find the right cover through signposting initiatives.

The Government engaged with a range of consumer representatives, including people with lived experience, throughout the development of the Strategy to ensure it is informed by a wide range of experience and perspectives. The Government is committed to continuing to engage closely with a range of organisations to ensure the Strategy represents a diverse range of consumer needs.

Individual insurers may take a different view of the relevant factors in determining whether they will offer insurance and at what price. Consumers may wish to contact the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), who can offer guidance on how to look across the insurance market for the best deals and may be able to provide names of specialist brokers.

I thank my noble friend for that. I will not direct the movement of ponies or any other livestock from this Dispatch Box, but it is an interesting idea. I am sure that Natural England and lots of people on Dartmoor—commoners, graziers and others—would like to keep all their ponies there. But it is an interesting idea.

My noble friend is right to emphasise the importance of protecting all those with protected characteristics and stamping down on all sources that stir up hatred and division, whether that is online or offline. The Online Safety Act requires platforms to remove illegal content, including threats that stir up hatred based on race, religion or sexual orientation. My noble friend is right to highlight the importance of that to many different groups.

The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

The Government is committed to improving care for everyone with dementia, including those with Primary Progressive Aphasia, which is why we have funded the work of the Dementia 100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for busy system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia.

A number of experts, including those with expertise in speech and language therapy and dementia care, provided independent, desktop analysis of the tool and this invaluable feedback was integrated into the tool. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool can be found on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website.

Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

The Government is committed to improving care for everyone with dementia, including those with Primary Progressive Aphasia, which is why we have funded the work of the Dementia 100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for busy system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia.

A number of experts, including those with expertise in speech and language therapy and dementia care, provided independent, desktop analysis of the tool and this invaluable feedback was integrated into the tool. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool is available on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website.

It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths. Our 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out a reimagined service designed to tackle inequalities in both access and outcomes, including our ambitious commitment to halve the healthy life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest regions.

NHS England has launched a Maternity and Neonatal Equalities dashboard that brings together key information to address health inequalities in maternity and neonatal care services from a range of data sources, with breakdowns by ethnicity and deprivation to make health inequalities visible, measurable, and actionable in maternity and neonatal services.

NHS England is implementing a new anti-discrimination programme, which aims to ensure all service users and their families will receive care free from discrimination and racism, and all staff will experience a work environment free from discrimination and racism. All trusts are expected to have completed the programme by 2027.

We have legislated to modernise the Mental Health Act to strengthen choice, autonomy and rights, and ensure people are treated with dignity and respect. The Government is also committed to delivering the cross-sector Suicide Prevention Strategy for England (2023 to 2028), including its ambition to improve evidence and better understand national trends and suicide rates in particular groups, including people who are Gypsy, Roma or Travellers.

The Government and NHS England have announced a three-year Neighbourhood Early Diagnosis Fund as part of £200 million investment for Cancer Alliances to tackle inequalities in screening and early diagnosis in deprived and underserved areas. Core20PLUS5 also includes early cancer diagnosis as a priority area for accelerated improvement.

The Department recognises inequalities exist across the cardiovascular disease (CVD) pathway. The Department and NHS England are working together to develop a CVD Modern Service Framework which will support, evidence-led consistent, high quality and equitable care.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has noted the published research but has not made a full assessment of the study, which is based on a small number of stoves. Currently, there are limited studies that have investigated benzene concentrations in United Kingdom homes. Further research is needed to better understand exposure to indoor air pollutants and the effects on health.

Reducing emissions of pollutants and ensuring adequate ventilation within indoor environments are important. The UKHSA continues to consider and evaluate the evidence of exposure to indoor air pollutants and the potential health effects.

The government is committed to high standards of English and maths and funds apprentices aged 16-18 at the start of their training to achieve English and maths qualifications, if they do not already hold suitable equivalent qualifications, in order to complete their apprenticeship.

This is consistent with our expectation that all young people should have a further meaningful opportunity to secure English and maths qualifications post-16, where they do not already hold them. This can be a GCSE or functional skills qualification.

Further flexibility is in place for apprentices with a learning difficulty and/or disability where there is evidence this is likely to be a barrier to them completing their apprenticeship. In these cases, they are able to achieve an entry level 3 functional skills qualification to complete. Since August 2024, this flexibility has been available to apprentices with a learning difficulty and/or disability but without an Education Health and Care Plan.

As with all apprenticeship policies, we continue to monitor the impact of the English and maths requirements, to ensure they are striking the right balance.

The department recognises the issues faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and young people, and how schools and others can make a positive difference.

We are currently reviewing the report’s findings alongside existing evidence on school exclusions and ethnic disparities. This assessment will inform our ongoing work to ensure that behaviour and attendance policies are applied fairly and that schools are supported to meet the needs of all pupils, including Roma communities.

Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must not discriminate against pupils on the basis of their ethnic background. We have already published guidance for schools on complying with this duty.

I refer the noble Baroness to the answer I gave to question HL13613 on 2 February 2026.

There is already robust regulation in place to detect leaks and odourised gas. Gas Industry standards are set by the relevant industry standard setting bodies, for example, the Institute for Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM), British Standards Institute (BSI) and Liquid Gas UK.

The Health and Safety Executive has regulatory responsibility for public health-related standards in commercial premises, but not in domestic homes.

At 31 March 2025, there were 740 Gypsy Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage Children Looked After. This represents 0.9% of all children looked after. The Office for National Statistics 2021 census reported that Roma and White Gypsy or Irish Traveller children account for 0.4% of the child population.

The Families First Partnership Programme, backed by £2.4 billion over three years, is delivering national reforms to Family Help, Multi‑Agency Child Protection, and Family Group Decision Making. Funding is ringfenced for prevention, with local authorities deciding how best to support vulnerable children, young people, and families, including those of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

The government aims to shift children’s social care toward earlier intervention. Central to this is the development of multi‑disciplinary Family Help teams working within communities to provide early, wraparound support. These reforms aim to improve outcomes, prevent escalation of need, and reduce long‑term costs by safely decreasing the number of children entering care.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary for the Office of National Statistics.

The Rt Hon. The Baroness Whitaker

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

09 March 2026

Dear Baroness Whitaker,

As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what steps are being taken to improve the accuracy, consistency, and disaggregation of ethnicity data relating to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities across public services, following research set out in the Advicenow briefing Unpacking imperfect data: Roma overrepresentation and the need for analytical precision, published in November 2025, indicating that current data practices prevent a reliable understanding of levels of need and representation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children in care (HL15068).

The Government Statistical Service’s (GSS) harmonisation team oversees the development and review of harmonised standards [1] for statistical data collection across the public sector. In developing harmonised standards, the GSS harmonisation team considers the data needed to inform policy, for equalities monitoring and for service delivery. This enhances the value from public sector data collections by improving the comparability and coherence of statistics across sources. We acknowledge the difficulty in data collection and disaggregation for some populations, particularly where sample sizes are small.

The current ethnicity harmonised standard [2] is based on the 2011 Census questions across the UK. The questions were reviewed and adjusted so they could be used in the 2021 Census for England and Wales, the 2021 Census for Northern Ireland, and the 2022 Census for Scotland. In these censuses, the category “Gypsy or Irish Traveller” was included as a tick box in England, Wales, and Scotland. In Northern Ireland, this category was tailored specifically to “Irish Traveller”. As part of the 2021 census updates, “Roma” was included as a separate tick box option in all nations.

The GSS is currently reviewing the harmonised standard on ethnicity, with the intention to encourage consistent and inclusive data collection across the Government Statistical Service. As part of the review, the team recently ran a public consultation [3] to gather evidence of user, community, and respondent need for additional tick boxes in the new ethnicity harmonised standard; ethnic groups represented in existing response options, as described above, will be retained.

The proposed new ethnicity harmonised standard for online data collection will be published by the end of 2026. We have published wider detail on the programme of work online [4]. We are working closely with departments and organisations across government to encourage adoption of the harmonised standard and support its effective implementation.

While we encourage data collectors in the GSS to align to harmonised standards, they are not compelled to do so. Some non-statistical data collectors in the public sector and beyond also align, though due to operational constraints sometimes this alignment is not always to the latest standard. Meanwhile, the GSS recognises that some data collectors choose not to align because their needs for data differ. This is why the options for responding to ethnicity questions vary across different data collectors.

Additionally, a team within the UK Statistics Authority is conducting qualitative research with Roma communities in England and Wales, due to be published later this year. The findings will support a more nuanced understanding of their lived experience and specific needs, as well as providing insights to inform statistical producers in considering how Roma identity is represented and captured in data in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Darren Tierney

[1] https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/government-statistical-service-and-statistician-group/user-f

[2] https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/ethnicity-harmonised-standard/

[3] https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/harmonisation/gss-ethnicity-harmonisation-consultation/

[4] https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/review-of-the-ethnicity-harmonised-standard-overview-of-our-redesign-research-to-date/

My Lords, I am not sure that I can do better than to quote from the Law Commission report, which looked specifically at this issue. It said that it would be anomalous and unfair to privilege these non-religious belief organisations over religious groups, which are subject to greater legal regulation. In particular, it would be very difficult to justify why the fewest restrictions should be applied to the newest categories. It is for that reason that the Government are not going to use the order-making power to single out humanists.

The Government’s ambition is to transform young people’s prospects, by ensuring every one of them, including those from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, has the chance to earn or learn through a Youth Guarantee. We have already taken the first steps towards delivering a Youth Guarantee through the launch of eight place-based Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England in Spring 2025. These trailblazers are testing innovative approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people aged 18-21 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET.

At the budget, we announced the expansion of the Youth Guarantee, backed by £820 million investment over the next three years to reach almost 900,000 young people. This includes expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, offering a dedicated session and follow-up support to 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. In addition, it will provide guaranteed jobs to around 55,000 young people aged 18-21.

The DWP Place‑based toolkit helps Jobcentre Plus Districts to understand their local populations, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and identify how best to support their needs. This includes bringing together information about local people, employers, partners, labour market trends, and available funding to help tailor support effectively.

Apprenticeship starts by the Gypsy or Irish traveller ethnicity group are published here (see attached): 'Learner Characteristics Ethnicity - Starts, Achievements, Participation by Age, Level, Ethnicity, Sex, LLDD' from 'Apprenticeships', Permanent data table - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK.

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The Government’s ambition is to transform young people’s prospects, by ensuring every one of them, including those from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, has the chance to earn or learn through a Youth Guarantee. We have already taken the first steps towards delivering a Youth Guarantee through the launch of eight place-based Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England in Spring 2025. These trailblazers are testing innovative approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people aged 18-21 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET.

At the budget, we announced the expansion of the Youth Guarantee, backed by £820 million investment over the next three years to reach almost 900,000 young people. This includes expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, offering a dedicated session and follow-up support to 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. In addition, it will provide guaranteed jobs to around 55,000 young people aged 18-21.

The DWP Place‑based toolkit helps Jobcentre Plus Districts to understand their local populations, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and identify how best to support their needs. This includes bringing together information about local people, employers, partners, labour market trends, and available funding to help tailor support effectively.

Apprenticeship starts by the Gypsy or Irish traveller ethnicity group are published here (see attached): 'Learner Characteristics Ethnicity - Starts, Achievements, Participation by Age, Level, Ethnicity, Sex, LLDD' from 'Apprenticeships', Permanent data table - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK.

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