The acceptance of the Rycroft recommendations means that the Government have accepted a whole range of measures on tightening

up political donations from overseas, crypto currency, reporting and transparency. We have yet to put those measures into effect, but we have accepted the recommendations and will bring forward legislation to give effect to them at the earliest opportunity. That will help everybody in this House, from His Majesty’s Opposition to the Government to other political parties represented here, to have that transparency. I look forward to taking that forward in due course.

The new SFI, which we announced fairly recently and which runs through to September, was very much aimed at smaller farms and those that do not already have an agreement. The fact that 50% has been allocated already shows that that was a very popular decision.

My noble friend is absolutely right that this is a long-term problem that has been going on for many years. Unfortunately, the water industry has simply not been held to account in

the way that it should have been, and that is why we are bringing in the clean water Bill and changing the regulator.

The updated service specification will be published in due course. It will support ongoing action to increase home dialysis provision in line with the Renal Services Transformation Programme ambition for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home, including through strengthened early patient education, standardised pre-dialysis pathways, and multidisciplinary care models that enable shared decision-making.

The specification will include defined metrics for commissioned providers, including the proportion of dialysis patients receiving home-based therapies, supporting formal assessment against the ambition of achieving at least 20% uptake.

This is complemented by improvements to operational processes, including home assessments and installation pathways, to ensure patients can access home therapies in a timely and consistent way.

The updated service specification will be published in due course. It will support ongoing action to increase home dialysis provision in line with the Renal Services Transformation Programme ambition for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home, including through strengthened early patient education, standardised pre-dialysis pathways, and multidisciplinary care models that enable shared decision-making.

The specification will include defined metrics for commissioned providers, including the proportion of dialysis patients receiving home-based therapies, supporting formal assessment against the ambition of achieving at least 20% uptake.

This is complemented by improvements to operational processes, including home assessments and installation pathways, to ensure patients can access home therapies in a timely and consistent way.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organisation responsible for organ donation services in the United Kingdom.

NHSBT, working with the Department and NHS England, delivers a multi‑channel programme of activity to increase organ donation, improve family consent, and maximise the impact of both deceased and living donation. This includes:

• year-round communications and engagement, combining national campaigns, digital marketing, and partnership working. High-profile moments, such as Organ Donation Week, Living Donation Week, and World Kidney Day, are supported by media activity across a variety of channels, directing audiences to trusted information and to register their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register;

• partnerships, including with National Health Service organisations, charities, community, and advocacy groups, which aim to reach people at key moments through trusted channels. For example, a functionality has been introduced recently on the front page of the NHS App, making it easier for people to record, review, and share their organ donation decision as part of routine interactions with NHS services;

• targeted community engagement, supported by NHSBT’s Community Grants Programme, helps improve understanding of organ donation and family consent in communities with greater transplant need or lower consent rates; and

• work to maximise the use of donated kidneys, including new assessment and recovery centres, which are currently being piloted and will use machine perfusion technology to preserve and assess kidneys for longer, alongside trust utilisation strategies to help transplant centres and hospitals identify and address local barriers to using suitable organs.

The Government have been clear that we expect robust action to be taken to protect the taxpayer, and we have fully supported the appropriate legal and insolvency processes being followed. As I understand it, PPE Medpro Ltd is now in liquidation, and matters related to the recovery of funds are therefore for the liquidators to pursue in line with their statutory duties. Any recoveries that can be made will be determined through those independent processes. It would not be appropriate for me to comment on those proceedings.

I must confess to my noble friend that I have not seen it, but I will seek it out. His point is really important. If we can get young autistic people—indeed, any autistic people—into work, I know that many employers will find that there is a huge benefit, not just to the individual but to the organisation. Sometimes, people simply do not know what to do. Line managers are key to this. Earlier this year, for example, my department funded some ACAS-run workshops—masterclasses on neurodiversity—for employers. They were free of charge for employers and aimed particularly at smaller companies to help them understand what it would be like, how to recruit

people and how to support them. We know that a lot of employers want to do the right thing, but sometimes just do not know how to do it. Our job is to make that as easy as possible.

I thank my noble friend. I had a fascinating conversation with a very young member of my private office. When I suggested to him that the Daily Express had once been in a Labour-leaning newspaper, he was a little surprised; that shows either my age or his.

There is an issue here around making sure that people have access to genuine information sources that are real and accurate. Like me, my noble friend will remember that, in the general election in 1997, more than 80% of people got their information from BBC sources—at least, I believe so; I should say that before I get myself in trouble again over statistics in this space—but that is not the case now. Most people get their news online, which is why we need to make sure that free and fair journalism is protected.

Yes, I agree with my noble friend, and that is why, throughout our education system, we have to tackle the elements that prevent children and young people fmaximising their potential in life from the very early stages. This is why we are investing in early years; it is why we have set a target to ensure more children are ready to benefit from school when they get there; and it is why we have focused on getting children back into school. It is why we are taking action to improve access to all routes of learning for young people post-16, and why we are widening access and participation in higher education for all students who can benefit from it.

As we discussed a little earlier this week in the House, advances are being made in the regulation in the measures that we are bringing forward to restrict social media companies in advertising or providing services to under-16s. There are the consultations that I mentioned by the OPSS on product safety, which go hand in hand with the importance of enforcement. The Secretary of State has written to Ofcom stressing the importance of that body enforcing effectively and prioritising, and has requested an enforcement strategy and framework to be available, so that that can be scrutinised by Parliament.

My noble friend is right that it is, as I have emphasised, already illegal to assault a child. He is also right to identify what we can most effectively do to prevent parents feeling that they need to resort to smacking in order to discipline or control their children. The £900 million that we are investing in the Best Start in Life centres, for example, is being used to develop parenting education on behaviour management. How do you set appropriate boundaries? What type of methods should you and could you use to discipline your children? That feels like a more constructive and wide-ranging response than a change in the law at this point.

I am grateful, but my noble friend will know that terrorism, international crime, cross-border migration frauds and all the issues that are exercising the British public, this House and the House of Commons have at their heart the need to co-operate across the European Union and with the United Kingdom as a whole. That is the Government’s objective in the European Union reset: to make sure that we can get the best deal possible on the issues that matter on the ground.

I cannot give my noble friend an answer to the specific question he asks, but the storage of water when it is available is critical. It was shocking to realise that we had not built a reservoir in the country for 30 years; we are now planning new reservoirs to store water. Also, during the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Act we talked about on-farm storage, for example; it is perfectly possible for farmers to develop storage on their own land so that they can keep water when it is plentiful for the times when it is not.

The latest UK Renal Registry report in 2025 shows that the uptake of home dialysis has increased, with continued progress in expanding home therapies, which account for around 15–20% of dialysis patients. A copy of the report is attached.

NHS England, renal networks, providers and patient organisations are working together to continue to increase access to home-based therapies.

The specification is being worked on by NHS England in line with its national service specification methods process. Stakeholder testing was recently undertaken. The timing of full publication has yet to be decided upon as the feedback from stakeholders is being considered, alongside any changes required. NHS England will set out the expected date of publication as soon as this is available.

NHS England is increasing access to home-based therapies through the Renal Services Transformation Toolkit (2023), which aims for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home. The specification will support the 20% ambition.

That is so often correct, I have to say to my noble friend. In this case, we are in a situation where we are doing all we can to drive up face-to-face assessments. The most important question is that we get everyone into work who possibly can work. The biggest crisis of our time is in relation to young people. That is where the Secretary of State has put his focus; he has prioritised addressing the million young people we have not in employment, education or training. That is why we are investing in the youth guarantee, in support for employers, in subsidies for wages and in making sure we go out there to find the challenges and get people into work. This Government are doing something about that problem.