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 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.

In the UK, there is a self-regulatory system for the press, which is independent from Government. This is important for press freedom and to ensure the public has access to accurate and trustworthy information from a range of different sources. However, with this freedom comes responsibility. We expect publishers to operate within the bounds of the law and adhere to high ethical and professional standards, as well as ensure appropriate routes to redress if these standards are not met.

Looking ahead, we are closely following trends in media consumption and are carefully considering the best route forward to safeguard public trust in our news media. There are currently no plans for legislation on press standards.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer of 02 February, Official Report, PQ HC107285:

PQ 107285: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Prime Minister has agreed a date to meet with victims of press abuse, following his remarks at the Liaison Committee on 15 December 2025.

Answer: Officials from the Prime Minister’s Office are in contact with representatives of the group to arrange a meeting.

UK honours may be awarded to British and foreign nationals either based in the UK, or those who contribute to the United Kingdom while based overseas. All nominees are subject to a range of probity checks, the outcomes of which are considered by the honours committees, alongside other relevant factors, when making their final recommendations.

The CAA is independently responsible for regulating airport charges within the overall legislative framework for economic regulation set out in the Civil Aviation Act 2012. Regulation is based on an assessment of an airport’s market power with the purpose of protecting the consumer. Currently two airports meet this market power test - Heathrow and Gatwick - with regulatory arrangements in place for both.

The CAA does not hold statutory competition functions in relation to airline markets: these are held by the Competition and Markets Authority.

The Government, including the Civil Service, is committed to being as accommodating as possible when requests are made by Select Committees. The Cabinet Office has dedicated guidance for Civil Servants about giving evidence to House of Lords Select Committees. Officials will always carefully consider requests to give evidence. When they do accept such invitations, they require Ministerial agreement and are there to represent the Minister's views.

In the event that a Select Committee requests a named civil servant from a department and the department feels that they are not the most appropriate person to represent the Minister, the department has the right to suggest an alternative to the Committee. There may be rare examples where the Department and Ministers feel an official is unable to attend, but the guidance is clear that if a Department considers it is unable to meet any requests from the Select Committee, they should inform the Committee as soon as practicably possible and set out the reasons why.

As Leader of the House of Lords, I have made it clear to my Ministerial Colleagues, that Ministers in both Houses should make every effort to facilitate Select Committee requests, including evidence session attendance.

His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.

That is why we are supporting them to develop the next generation of British talent, by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.

This is in addition to other government support provided to the live music sector, including over £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund since 2019.

Contemporary, operatic, and classical music subsectors receive funding through a wide variety of sources, including Arts Council England. Decisions made by the Arts Council about the allocation of funding are taken at arm's length from Government. Decisions are made in line with the Council’s ten-year strategy, which sets the direction for all of the artforms and sub-sectors it supports, including opera, contemporary, and classical music.

His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.

That is why we will support them to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The department works closely with interested parties and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive.

HM Government has provided significant support to the live music sector. This includes more than £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through the Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund via Arts Council England since 2019.

His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector, and are key to developing the future talent pipeline.

That is why we will support them to develop the next generation of British talent by providing an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s successful Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund, as announced in the Creative Industries Sector Vision on 14 June. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young, emerging and more diverse artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues of all sizes across the country. The department works closely with interested parties and across Government to ensure the live music sector continues to thrive.

HM Government has provided significant support to the live music sector. This includes more than £3 million during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund, and through the Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund via Arts Council England since 2019.

• The Home Office employs over 35,000 staff working across several large business areas including UK Border Force, HM Passport Office, UK Visas and Immigration and several other areas. Staff are employed across all parts of the UK as well as countries around the world doing a variety of policy and operational roles.
• The requirements for workplace attendance are managed at a local level in line with the Home Office Hybrid Working Policy. Under this, all staff are expected to attend the workplace within a framework of between 40%-100% of their contracted hours. Similar to other attendance requirements this is not centrally managed and is co-ordinated through the line management chain.
• Working from home is part of a suite of flexible working options which are non-contractual and flexible to meet the needs of the business and the individual. Collecting data on who can work from home would serve little purpose as our policy applies to all staff subject to the confines of their role.

Throughout the pandemic, all Civil Service employers have followed Government guidance in setting out their internal COVID-19 related policies. This includes complying with the Working Safely during Coronavirus: Guidance which sets out the key actions organisations should take to protect employees and customers in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading in workplaces, along with carrying out health and safety risk assessments that include the ongoing risk from COVID-19.

On 21 February 2022, the Government published their 'Covid-19 Response: Living with Covid-19' This document sets out how and when the remaining restrictions will be lifted in England. Government guidance was subsequently amended, including the Working Safely guidance.

The Government’s Working Safely guidance continues to require organisations to carry out a risk assessment which includes the risk from COVID-19. It also sets out additional actions organisations can take to protect employees and customers in the workplace, such as ensuring adequate ventilation, frequent cleaning, asking people to wash their hands frequently and asking people with COVID-19 to stay away. The guidance advises that people continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed settings where they come into contact with people they do not normally meet, when rates of transmission are high. Civil Service employers will continue to follow this guidance and align their policies accordingly.

Home Office staff conducts a wide range of roles requiring varying levels of attendance at the workplace. Our hybrid working model means that all staff, whose role permits, have the ability to work from home for a proportion of their working hours.

The FCDO does not collect information on the number of our staff working from home.

The following table shows the number of general practitioners who have retired from the NHS Pension Scheme in each year since 2019.

Source: NHS Business Authority

We responded to the noble Lord’s questions on 16 December and 29 December respectively.

An assessment of future expected retirement rates for National Health Service doctors is complex. Retirement is a personal choice and an individual may choose to retire for a range of reasons. While it is not possible to isolate a single factor which motivates retirement, we continue to monitor retirement patterns of doctors in the NHS.

In August 2019, there were 115,469 full time equivalent (FTE) Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) doctors working in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England and 126,625 in August 2021. There were 34,433 FTE doctors in general practice in England as at 30 September 2019 and 36,275 in September 2021.