This Government has no plans at this time to reintroduce a dog licensing scheme, as mandatory microchipping already provides a national registration framework for linking dogs to their keepers.

The UK is providing up to £5 million to support the most urgent humanitarian needs in Nepal, announced on 27 August by the Prime Minister. The funding will support the Government of Nepal's response efforts through a combination of UN, Red Cross and NGO interventions, alongside local and international responders providing emergency assistance. This includes £750,000 through the Red Cross movement for emergency assistance such as clean water, shelter and medical support; £1 million through Start Fund Nepal to help local organisations deliver lifesaving aid; £3 million through the UN to meet urgent humanitarian needs including shelter, WASH and Protection; and up to £250,000 to deploy UK humanitarian experts to strengthen coordination and the effective delivery of assistance. The UK has also deployed specialist humanitarian experts to Nepal to support and coordinate the response efforts. Following the floods, I visited Nepal to meet with the Nepalese government, UN and other agencies.

VAT registered schools, like all VAT registered businesses, are entitled to recover VAT incurred on the goods and services they purchase and use in making taxable supplies. Costs relating to non-business activities cannot be recovered as input tax. There is no special provision to allow recovery of VAT incurred for non-business activities.

Where Combined Cadet Forces related costs also support the broader educational provision, schools may be able to deduct a portion of the VAT incurred on the associated costs.

HMRC has published guidance specifically for private schools, including how they can recover VAT on costs.

Interest rates on student loans have been consistently linked to a widely recognised and adopted measure of inflation. Interest rates are set in legislation in reference to the Retail Price Index (RPI) from the previous March and are applied annually on 1 September until 31 August.

The Office for National Statistics has undertaken a substantial programme of work over the past two years to enhance how inflation is measured and this will be carried over into student loans. The Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed that from 2030 at the earliest, movements in RPI will be aligned with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Further details are available at:

https://obr.uk/box/the-long-run-difference-between-rpi-and-cpi-inflation/.

Following the review on post-18 education and funding, Plan 5 terms and conditions were introduced for new students in England who started their studies from the academic year 2023/24.

Interest on Plan 5 student loans is charged at the Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation only (currently 3.2%), meaning graduates will not repay more than they borrow in real terms. As an additional borrower protection, interest rates are automatically capped by the prevailing market rate for comparable unsecured personal loans, ensuring borrowers are protected if market conditions change.

It is reasonable to ask those graduates who do benefit financially from higher education to contribute towards the cost of their studies. Borrowers earning below the repayment threshold of £25,000 per year are not required to repay anything. Any outstanding loan including interest built up is cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.

The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 (AV Act) sets out a comprehensive legal framework with safety at its core. The ongoing Call for Evidence, “Developing the Automated Vehicles Regulatory Framework”, aims to gather information from a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that future development of this work is thoroughly grounded in expertise from across the sector.

Throughout this work we will continue to utilise the experience and best practice of international partners. In particular, ongoing deployments of automated vehicles in the United States will enable practical lessons to be learned from interactions with a wide range of road users and the general public.

The Automated Passenger Services (APS) permitting scheme has been accelerated to spring 2026. As the scheme has not yet been introduced, no permits have been issued.

Operators and technology developers announcing their ambitions to operate pilot deployments under the APS permitting scheme is a vote of confidence in Great Britain’s regulation of self-driving vehicles.

There are 22 different weapons prohibited as offensive weapons, and they include items such as knuckledusters, curved swords and truncheons. This legislation is kept under constant review and on 24 September 2024 we added zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes to the list, and more recently, from 1 August 2025 we banned ninja swords. It is illegal to sell, manufacture, import or possess these weapons. It is currently possible to own specifically prohibited weapons if a legal defence applies, such as the weapon is owned for sporting purposes, is made by hand according to certain specifications, is of historical importance, or if it’s owned for the purpose of making it available to a museum.

On 16 December 2026 the Government launched a public consultation on plans to introduce a comprehensive licensing scheme for those who sell knives or other bladed articles, including importers, retailers and private sellers, making them subject to strict regulations and conditions. The consultation closes on 24 February and is available on GOV.UK: Licensing for knife sales - GOV.UK. This follows recommendations made in Commander Clayman’s Independent End-to-End Review of Online Knife Sales to introduce a registration scheme for knife sellers and an ‘import licensing scheme to prohibit unlicensed importation of knives and prohibited weapons’.

The Government has no plans to set a specific target for the proportion of National Health Service doctors educated in the United Kingdom.

The Medical Training Prioritisation Bill, introduced to Parliament on 13 January 2026, delivers the Government’s commitment to prioritise UK medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant NHS experience for specialty training places. The bill will ensure a sustainable medical workforce that can meet the health needs of the future and give homegrown talent a path to become the next generation of NHS doctors.

The legal basis for postponing local elections is set out in section 87 of the Local Government Act 2000, which gives the Secretary of State, not local authorities, the power to change the year in which ordinary local elections are held by an order which is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

In order to inform his decisions on postponing the May 2026 elections, the Secretary of State wrote to councils on 18 December inviting leaders to set out if a postponement in their area would help release essential capacity to deliver local government reorganisation.

The Government recognises the vital role that the ports sector plays in supporting the government’s objectives on transport and infrastructure.

At the Budget in November 2025, the Government announced it would legislate to remove the Landfill Tax exemption for stabilisers used in dredged material from April 2027.

This decision followed a consultation on reforms to Landfill Tax during which the government engaged with a range of stakeholders, including representatives from the ports sector. This decision will not prevent the use of stabilisers, but it will encourage businesses to limit their use to what is necessary.

The Government does not expect the change to have a significant impact on flood risk management as most material removed during routine waterway maintenance of rivers and canals is reused locally and deposited adjacent to the channel, avoiding the need for disposal at landfill sites.

We are working to deliver the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) recommendation to grow the Cadet Forces by 30% by 2030. This will entail increasing cadet numbers both in community-based units, and in Combined Cadets Force (CCF) contingents in schools. The ‘30 by 30’ campaign will see an increase of over 40,000 cadets across the UK, providing the opportunity for many more young people to enjoy the fantastic benefits of the cadet experience.

Defence is considering ways of encouraging more young people to join the Cadet Forces. For the CCF, these may include the development of a Pathfinder Programme delivered in schools by accessing on-line resources and with limited equipment issued by the Ministry of Defence, as well as introducing a junior entry level to the CCF at age 11. These would give schools the opportunity to understand more about the benefits of the cadet experience for pupils whilst also attracting more young people.

The SDR also recommended that there should be a greater focus within the cadets on developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics skills and exploring modern technology. By ensuring that the cadet experience is relevant and valued by young people, we will attract more to join.

In England, the Office for Students (OfS) sets the maximum fundable limit for medical school places on an annual basis.

For the 2025/26 academic year, the OfS has published the maximum fundable limit at 8,126 for medical school places, with further information available on the OfS website, in an online only format. OfS will publish the limit for the 2026/27 academic year in due course.

The Government is committed to training the staff we need, including doctors, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. International staff, including doctors, remain an important part of our workforce but we are committed to building and increasing our domestic home-grown talent from across all of our communities.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed services set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

The University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) application process, which all applicants are subject to, cannot be streamlined or reduced for applicants who were members of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF). A UOTC Officer Cadet is attested into the British Army as a Group B Reservist and are required to complete and pass medical and security checks, which members of the CCF are not subject to when joining the CCF. The CCF is not part of the British Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve), it is a uniformed youth organisation, that is sponsored by the Ministry of Defence, and which operates in schools across the United Kingdom.

I refer the Noble Lord to the topical statement made by the Foreign Secretary in departmental oral questions on 2 December, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:

"May I send my condolences and those of the Government to all those who have lost loved ones in the deadly storms in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam? Many have lost homes and livelihoods. I praise the emergency responders who have worked tirelessly and are committed to helping those affected, often at great personal risk.

"In response to requests for support that we have already received, the UK is providing £1,000,000 to address immediate humanitarian needs in Sri Lanka and has contributed £800,000 in response to the multiple typhoons that have struck Vietnam. The UK is closely monitoring the situation and stands ready to provide further support as needed."

The sector is nascent but is expected to grow significantly; the global hydrogen market could exceed $1 trillion by 2050, with the UK well positioned to capture a substantial share.

We intend to publish a revised Hydrogen Strategy which will include the latest hydrogen jobs estimates and set out plans to optimise the job creation and economic benefits delivered by the UK hydrogen economy.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders across the hydrogen value chain; working together with industry and unions to identify actions that support the skills and workforce needs of the UK’s low carbon hydrogen economy.