Written questions by Brickell.

What headcount cap has she set for the National Crime Agency for financial year (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.

The Home Secretary has not set headcount caps for the National Crime Agency.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure the financial stability of the British Council.

This Government is committed to a successful British Council that is financially stable. Our funding to the British Council underlines our support. The FCDO will provide the British Council with £162.5 million Grant-in-Aid in 2024/25. Funding for 2025/26 will be announced in due course.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the meeting between the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Indo-Pacific and Hong Kong’s Convenor of the Executive Council on the human rights situation in Hong Kong.

I met Regina Ip on 31 October. Human rights were raised as part of the discussion. The UK will continue to speak often and candidly with Hong Kong authorities across both areas of contention as well as areas for cooperation. Engagement with representatives of Hong Kong and China is pragmatic and necessary to support UK interests.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on implementing a deposit return scheme.

This Government is committed to delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in October 2027, as agreed with the devolved Governments of the UK, and in accordance with the Joint Policy Statement published in April 2024. We plan to lay the DRS regulations for England/Northern Ireland before Parliament in late 2024 and for them to come into force in early 2025 (assuming parliamentary time allows) and for the Deposit Management Organisation (DMO), who will run the scheme, to be appointed in April 2025 as planned.

When his Department plans to publish the 2025 edition of the National Risk Register; and whether she plans to enable Parliament to (a) feed into and (b) scrutinise that register.

The UK is facing an ever-changing and growing set of risks. All risks in the National Risk Register, which is the public-facing version of the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity.The National Risk Register will be updated in the coming months.Lead government departments are responsible for providing updates and use the latest evidence and analysis to ensure the government’s assessment of risks reflects the risk landscape.The Government is committed to opportunities for openness and scrutiny, for example, the opportunity to discuss risk assessment at the Public Accounts Committee on Extreme Weather events in February 2024.

What his planned timetable is for the review of the whistleblowing framework.

The Employment Rights Bill delivers on the government's commitment to strengthening protections for whistleblowers, by updating protections for women who report sexual harassment at work. The Government is keen to work with organisations and individuals who have ideas on how to strengthen the whistleblowing framework and we will consider options to review the whistleblowing framework in due course.

How many electronic money institutions have (a) had their activities restricted and (b) been de-authorised following an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority.

This question is a matter for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which is an independent, non-governmental body. The FCA will respond to the Honourable Member by letter and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2024 to Question 8363, what minimum requirements his Department set out as being an expectation in any legitimate interest access regime for public registers of beneficial ownership in the Overseas Territories.

Tackling illicit finance in the UK, as well as in our Overseas Territories (OTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) is a priority for this Government. We consider publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership (PARBOs) a vital tool for combatting financial secrecy. I have been clear to OT leaders that full PARBOs are our ultimate expectation. Where a legitimate interest access regime is implemented as an interim step, I have set out minimum requirements, and the UK's belief that any legitimate interest registers should be delivered with the maximum degree of access and transparency. I was delighted Montserrat joined Gibraltar in launching a full PARBO on 11 October. We are continuing to engage with OTs, and I will discuss this with leaders at the Joint Ministerial Council next week. I am looking forward to further progress on this by other OTs in the very near future.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of (a) Suspicious Activity Reports and (b) Defence Against Money Laundering Suspicious Activity Reports from electronic payment providers.

HM Treasury’s Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 place requirements onto electronic payment providers to establish policies, controls and procedures to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing.HM Treasury works closely with the National Crime Agency, who are responsible for collecting and interpreting Suspicious Activity Reports and other intelligence, and with the Financial Conduct Authority, who supervise authorised electronic payment providers, to monitor the threat. The government will be publishing an updated assessment of the risks in its upcoming update to the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment.

If he will expand the list of prescribed people for whistleblowing to include (a) job applicants, (b) trustees, (c) independent contractors and (d) trade union representatives.

The whistleblowing framework enables workers to seek redress if they are dismissed or suffer detriment because they have made a ‘protected disclosure’. The standard employment law definition of worker has been extended to provide whistleblowing protections to NHS job applicants and other categories of worker such as trainees, agency workers and certain NHS workers. The government has no plans to extend the protections more generally but to qualify for protection, the worker must make their disclosure in accordance with the Employment Rights Act 1996, which can include making it to a ‘prescribed person’. DBT regularly updates the list of prescribed persons.

What progress she has made on plans to create a whistleblowing incentive program within the Serious Fraud Office.

This Government is committed to cracking down on serious fraud and economic crime.The Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has expressed support for the incentivisation of whistleblowers and the SFO Strategy 2024-29 committed to explore options for achieving this, working with partners in the UK and abroad.The Government will continue to work with the SFO to understand what reforms could be made to help them deliver their mission as effectively as possible.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report entitled Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan published by the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan on 6 September 2024.

Following publication of its first report in September, the UK co-led the renewal on 9 October 2024 of the Fact-Finding Mission's mandate for a further year. The UK will continue to use its position as penholder at the Security Council and the Human Rights Council to keep a spotlight on the human rights situation in Sudan. During the 120-day UN Security Council session on Sudan on 28 October, the UK called on the warring parties to urgently facilitate humanitarian access, and we have also called on Member States to refrain from external interference, including our explanation of vote following the adoption of resolution 2750 on 11 September to renew the UN Darfur arms embargo and sanctions regime. The UK welcomes the Secretary-General's recommendations on protection of civilians, which was requested in UK-led resolution 2736 as an important step for prioritising protection of civilians in the conflict. It concluded that conditions for the successful deployment of a Protection of Civilians force, as recommended in the FFM's report, do not currently exist.

Representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will require All Party Parliamentary Groups to publish a list of all their members.

APPGs are already required to publish a list of all their members. The reporting requirements for APPGs are set out in the Guide to the APPG Rules. Paragraph 67(b) of the Guide to the Rules requires APPGs to publish on their website, or provide on request if they do not have a website, a list of its members (both parliamentary and external).Changes to the APPG Rules are approved by the House on the recommendation of the Committee on Standards. The Committee on Standards, not the House of Commons Commission, is responsible for updating and issuing the Guide to the APPG Rules.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the (a) potential risk of the use of e-payment platforms for money laundering and (b) likelihood that those platforms are used to launder criminal money originating from Russia.

This government is committed to supporting safe innovation within our financial technology sectors. The UK’s 2020 National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing judged that payment and e-money services were at medium risk of money laundering. Reflecting this risk, payment service providers and electric money institutions offering e-payment platforms in the UK are required to be authorised by the FCA, and supervised to ensure they meet the anti-money laundering requirements set out in the Money Laundering Regulations. The government is continuing to monitor this risk, and intends to publish an updated National Risk Assessment next year.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) placing the House of Lords Appointment Commission (HOLAC) on a statutory footing, (b) providing HOLAC with a right of veto where candidates are not deemed fit and proper, (c) requiring the publication of supporting rationale for HOLAC decision making and (d) requiring increased scrutiny of proposed appointments where candidates have (i) acted as a fundraiser for and (ii) made sizeable financial contributions to a political party.

The Government committed in its manifesto to reform the process of appointments to the House of Lords to ensure the quality of new appointments and to seek to improve the national and regional balance of the second chamber and is actively considering how this can be achieved.This Government has also already introduced the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill. This Bill delivers the Government’s manifesto commitment to bring about an immediate reform by removing the right of the remaining hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.

Whether he plans to reform the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments by (a) making it statutory, (b) providing it with greater enforcement powers and (c) increasing its level of resourcing.

The government has committed to reviewing and updating the Business Appointment Rules. An update on this work will be provided in due course.

What steps he is taking to increase levels of retention in the NHS workforce.

Every day, millions of NHS staff go the extra mile to make a broken system work as well as it can for their patients.As we develop our ten-year plan for the NHS - and the Long Term Workforce Plan that will support it – a critical concern will be ensuring we have the modern, positive, and supportive working environment needed to retain them, motivate them and enable them to provide the high quality care they want to give to patients.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to extend the right to roam.

Our countryside and green spaces are a source of great national pride, but too many across the country are left without access to the great outdoors. That is why the last Labour Government expanded public access by introducing the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which provided the public a right of access to large areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England. 2024 marks 75 years since the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, which secured public access and preserved natural beauty. This Government will continue to increase access to nature for families to enjoy, boosting people’s mental and physical health and leaving a legacy for generations to come. We will create nine new National River Walks, plant three new National Forests and empower communities to create new parks and green spaces in their communities with a new Community Right to Buy. We will announce further details on our plans for improving access to nature in due course.