Written Statements

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

Tuesday 19 December 2017

European Union Opt-in Decision: Cash Controls Regulation

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mel Stride)]

The UK’s justice and home affairs (JHA) opt-in was triggered by three articles in a proposed regulation amending EU regulation 1889/2005 on controls on cash entering or leaving the union. In the proposed regulation, provisions in article 6 oblige member states to collect information, and those in articles 8 and 9 oblige member states to share information. The Government considered that the competence for the EU to act in these areas stems from article 87 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union.

The Government decided that it is in the UK’s interest to opt in to the justice and home affairs obligations within this regulation as the provisions strengthen the existing regulations, and will enhance border security without imposing disproportionate burdens on business. The proposed new regulation will reinforce the existing controls of cash moving across EU borders, bringing these controls in line with international norms and best practices for addressing evolving forms of criminality. Until the UK leaves the EU it remains a full and participating member. We will continue to work with the EU institutions, with the aim of ensuring that UK objectives are preserved as the negotiations progress on any compromise text.

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School Revenue Funding Settlement: 2018-19

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb)]

Today I am confirming the school and early years funding allocations for 2018-19. This announcement covers the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), the Education Services Grant (ESG) protections for academies, and the pupil premium. This is supported by the additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs over the next two years that the Secretary of State for Education announced in July.

As previously announced, the distribution of the DSG to local authorities will be set out in four blocks for each authority: a schools block, a high needs block, an early years block, and the new central school services block.

On 14 September, the Secretary of State for Education announced a new national funding formula for schools and high needs from April 2018. This follows the introduction of a national funding formula for early years in April 2017. This is an historic reform. The new national funding formulae will direct resources where they are most needed, helping to ensure that every child has the high quality education that they deserve, wherever they live.

The schools block has been allocated between local authorities on the basis of the primary and secondary units of funding published in September 2017.

The allocations for the high needs block have been updated with the latest pupil numbers, following the publication of provisional allocations in September indicating how much each local authority was likely to receive. The high needs block supports provision for pupils and students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), up to the age of 25, and alternative provision for pupils who cannot receive their education in schools.

The new central school services block which funds local authorities for their ongoing responsibilities for both academies and maintained schools has also been allocated on the basis of the latest pupil numbers, in line with September’s announcement.

The early years block comprises funding for: the free early education entitlements for 3 and 4-year-olds and disadvantaged 2-year-olds, supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools; the early years pupil premium, and the disability access fund. The early years national funding formula rates for 3 and 4-year-olds for 2018-19 were published on 17 November, and today we have announced initial allocations for this block.

We will maintain the ESG protections in 2018-19 at their current rates, to protect academies from excessive changes in funding as a result of the ending of the ESG.

The pupil premium per pupil amounts will be protected at the current rates, with the exception of the pupil premium plus, which will increase from £1,900 per pupil to £2,300, as previously announced. The amounts for 2018-19 will be:

Relationships, and Sex, Education

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Education (Justine Greening)]

Through the Children and Social Work Act 2017 we legislated to place a duty on the Secretary of State for Education to make regulations requiring:

All schools providing primary education in England to teach age-appropriate “relationships education” to pupils receiving primary education; and

All schools providing secondary education in England to teach age-appropriate “relationships and sex education” to pupils receiving secondary education.

The Act also created a power for the Government to make regulations requiring personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) to be taught in all schools. It is already compulsory in all independent schools.

I am today launching a call for evidence to gather the views of teachers, parents, and most importantly, young people to help us shape relationships education in primary school and relationships and sex education in secondary school. Our aim is to help our young people to stay safe and be better prepared to face the challenges of the modern world.

The current statutory guidance for teaching relationships and sex education was last set in 2000. It needs updating to reflect today’s world as it does not address risks to children that have emerged over the last 17 years, including cyber-bullying, “sexting” and staying safe online. The call for evidence will invite views on age-appropriate content that builds young people’s knowledge and understanding over time, including:

how to recognise, understand and build healthy relationships, including self-respect and respect for others, commitment, boundaries and consent, tolerance, and how to manage conflict, and also how to recognise unhealthy relationships, addressing issues such as bullying, coercion and exploitation;

understanding different types of relationships, including friendships, family relationships, dealing with strangers and, at secondary school, intimate relationships;

safety online, including use of social media, cyber-bullying, sexting; and,

how relationships may affect health and wellbeing, including the importance of good mental health and resilience.

Schools will continue to have flexibility over how they teach these subjects so that they can ensure their approach is sensitive to the needs of their pupils and, in the case of faith schools, in accordance with the tenets of their faith. Schools will ensure that parents are fully consulted on their approach. As now, primary schools do not have to teach sex education and the Government have no proposal to change this, but if primary schools do choose to teach sex education, parents will be able to withdraw their children from these lessons.

We are also seeking views on the future of PSHE. The call for evidence will close on 12 February 2018. It forms part of the wider engagement process we are conducting with the education sector and other experts to inform the development of these subjects. The engagement process, supported by our education adviser, executive headteacher Ian Bauckham CBE, will be followed by a formal consultation on draft regulations and guidance before regulations are laid in the House for debate.

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Surface Water Management

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

I would like to update the House on the work the Government are doing to consider the long-term arrangements for surface water management.

Following the national flood resilience review we are better prepared this winter for flooding from all sources: the Environment Agency now has 25 miles of mobile flood barriers, 250 mobile pumps and 500,000 sandbags. These flood barriers and mobile pumps are ready to go anywhere in the country. This allows us to respond rapidly and flexibly to help protect communities, homes and businesses.

The Budget announced an additional £76 million to be spent on flood and coastal defence schemes over the next three years. This boosts flood defence investment to over £2.6 billion by 2021. Our flood defence programme is protecting more and more homes across the country, and we have 100,000 homes better protected by the 350 new schemes completed in the last two years.

As well as being prepared for this winter, it is right that we look ahead to future challenges, including in relation to surface water management. Surface water flooding occurs when excessive rainfall from storms overwhelms local drainage capacities. Changing weather patterns and population growth will have impacts on the risk of surface water flooding going forward.

Local councils have clear statutory responsibilities as lead local flood authorities to manage surface water flood risks and work in partnership with other risk management authorities, including highways authorities and water companies—who have a duty to effectively drain their area. Power and communications companies also have roles in managing the risks of disruption to essential services.

In response to the commitment in the national flood resilience review to look at issues affecting surface water in 2017, we have been working across Government to consider ways in which surface water management may need to be strengthened.

We have analysed information from a wide range of sources to inform this work. For example, looking at current flooding and drainage plans, undertaking local case studies, holding discussions at national stakeholder events and working with Water UK’s 21st-century drainage programme.

We also need to take account of ongoing work by the National Infrastructure Commission and the adaptation sub-committee as well as the soon-to-be published report of DCLG’s review of sustainable drainage systems in planning policy. As well as reducing the risk of surface water flooding, sustainable drainage can deliver water quality, biodiversity and amenity benefits, helping to make great places to live.

Using this evidence we have identified five key actions—set out below. Proposals to support these areas will be considered by the inter-ministerial group on flooding early next year with a report outlining actions and an implementation timetable published in spring 2018.

In January 2018 my Department will co-host an event with Water UK to present our findings so far. Stakeholders will be able to contribute in shaping future actions. One of the main themes will be the collaboration of local authorities and other risk management authorities in delivering their statutory responsibilities and achieving the best outcomes for surface water management.

Five action areas

National position: This year Government added the risk of surface water flooding to the national risk register within the “high risk” banding. We will develop a clear national planning scenario for surface water flood risk based on plausible extreme rainfall events. This will be tested by a panel of experts who will give an independent assessment of its suitability and its application to existing surface water risk maps and national objectives.

Effective collaborative working: Our local case studies identified some very effective partnership working by risk management authorities. We will use the findings to work with others to build on this, including using the review of the national flood and coastal erosion strategy to ensure best practice is shared and priorities are aligned. The work of Water UK’s 21st-century drainage programme is a great start in this respect as they begin to develop over the coming months the framework for drainage and wastewater management plans. The content of these long-term plans will require exactly the kind of engagement and consultation with a range of organisations that will help foster greater partnership working and common goals and aims.

Skills: Our research has shown that it is important to maintain the right balance of surface water flood and drainage skills at the local level. This project has identified some particular concerns, for example in relation to drainage engineering skills as well as staff retention and succession planning. We will work with others on actions to address skills and capacity issues.

Maps and data: The Environment Agency is reviewing the current and future data needs for the mapping and modelling of surface water flooding. They aim to improve the availability, consistency and accuracy of data across the range of bodies involved.

Forecasting: The Met Office and Environment Agency are carrying out a review on how improvements in surface water forecasting and communication can be made to make the best use of the information produced across the Met Office, Flood Forecasting Centre and Environment Agency.

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General Affairs Council: December 2017

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Mr Steve Baker)]

Lord Callanan, Minister of State for Exiting the European Union, has made the following statement:

I represented the UK at the General Affairs Council (GAC) meeting in Brussels on 12 December. The main items on the agenda were: preparations for the December European Council on 14 and 15 December; a follow-up to the October European Council; legislative programming, covering the joint declaration on legislative priorities for 2018-19; and the European semester, focusing on the annual growth survey.

A provisional report of the meeting and the conclusions adopted can be found on the Council of the European Union’s website at:

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/gac/2017/12/12/

Preparation of the European Council, 14 to 15 December 2017

The presidency introduced the agenda for the December European Council, which included: defence; social, culture and education; migration; and external relations. I intervened to welcome the draft December conclusions as short and well balanced.

On the defence agenda item, the Council were informed that NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg would attend the DEC to discuss EU-NATO co-operation. I intervened to emphasise the importance of EU-NATO co-operation. I also welcomed swift progress on the permanent structured co-operation (PESCO) and the attention given to the European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP).

Ministers exchanged views on the conclusions for the social, education and culture agenda item. I stressed the importance of subsidiarity in this area and noted that economic strength and the creation of jobs are the best way to deliver social protection.

Under the migration agenda item, Ministers discussed the common European asylum system (CEAS).

October European Council follow-up

Commission Vice-President Timmermans updated Ministers on the successful replenishment of the EU Africa trust fund (EUTF), which had exceeded the €110 million target set by leaders in October. Vice-President Timmermans also updated that cuts to Turkey’s pre-accession funding were a reflection of political developments in the country.

Legislative programming—joint declaration on interinstitutional programming

The Council approved the joint declaration on the EU’s legislative priorities for 2018-19. The wpriorities, which include views on annual interinstitutional programming, are due to be signed by the Presidents of the European Council, Commission and Parliament.

European semester 2018—annual growth survey

The Commission introduced the annual growth survey, which set out its priorities for action at national and EU-level over the next 12 months to support economic growth and employment.

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Policing

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service (Mr Nick Hurd)]

I have today placed in the Library my proposals for the aggregate amount of grant to local policing bodies in England and Wales for 2018-19, for the approval of the House. Copies are also available in the Vote Office. The Welsh Government are also setting out today its proposals for the allocation of funding in 2018-19 for local policing bodies in Wales.

The Government are committed to protecting the public and providing the resources necessary for the police to do their critical work. That is why I have visited or spoken with every police force in England and Wales to better understand the demands they face and how these can best be managed. I have met with many rank and file officers, as well as Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). I pay tribute to the hard work of police officers up and down the country who put the safety of others before their own and help make our communities more secure.

We in Government and the police leadership must support frontline police officers and staff to ensure they have the resources, modern equipment and skills they need to deliver their responsibility to the public. To achieve this, the police funding settlement has four objectives:

Greater public investment in both local and CT, to help the police respond to shifts in both crime and the terrorist threat.

Empowering locally accountable PCCs to have greater flexibility to set their own local funding.

Challenging and supporting police leaders to be more efficient, more productive with officers’ time and transparent in their use of public money.

Maintaining substantial Government investment in national programmes that will upgrade police capabilities and help them be more effective in managing extra demand.

The background to this settlement is one of a shift in the pattern of demand on police time and resources. It remains true that crime as traditionally measured by the independent crime survey for England and Wales—widely regarded as the best long-term measure of the crime people experience—is down by more than a third since 2010 and 70% since its peak in 1995.



However, we need to recognise that there have been material changes in the demands on policing since the 2015 spending review. Demand on the police from crimes reported to them has grown and shifted to more complex and resource intensive work such as investigating child sexual exploitation and modern slavery. At the same time the terrorist threat has changed. The 24% growth in recorded crime since 2014-15 comes from more victims having the confidence to come forward and report previously hidden crimes, better recording practices by the police—both of which are to be welcomed—but also includes some concerning increases in violent crime.

The Government have listened to the police and recognised the demands they face. Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, total police funding has increased by over half a billion pounds including increased investment in transformation and technology. In this settlement, we propose to increase total investment in the police system by up to £450 million year on year in 2018-19.

In 2018-19, we will provide each PCC with the same amount of core Government grant funding as in 2017-18. Protecting police grant means PCCs retain the full benefit from any additional local council tax income. Alongside this, we are providing further flexibility to PCCs in England to increase their band D precept by up to £12 in 2018-19 without the need to call a local referendum. This is equivalent to up to £1 per month for a typical band D household.

These changes to referendum principles give PCCs the flexibility to make the right choices for their local area, and will enable an increase in funding to PCCs of up to around £270 million next year. It means that each PCC who uses this flexibility will be able to increase their direct resource funding by at least an estimated 1.6% (which maintains funding in real terms). The overall force level impact is set out at the accompanying table 1, and Home Office grant levels are set out at table 3.

The Chancellor and the Home Secretary have agreed additional Government funding for counter-terrorism policing with a £50 million (7%) increase in like-for-like funding when compared to 2017-18. This will enable the counter-terrorism budget to increase to at least £757 million, including £29 million for an uplift in armed policing from the police transformation fund. This is a significant additional investment in the vital work of counter-terrorism police officers across the country. PCCs will be notified of force level allocations separately. These will not be made public for security reasons.

We will also increase investment in national policing priorities such as police technology and special grant by around £130 million compared to 2017-18.

The funding the Government provide for national police priorities, known as reallocations, supports crucial police reform. For example, since the launch of the transformation fund last year over £200 million of funding has been awarded for modernising policing and building capability, in addition to over £200 million awarded between 2013 and 2016 for the innovation fund. For example, we are investing over £40 million in regional organised crime unit capacity to uplift serious organised crime capability including undercover online capability to tackle child sexual abuse, and £8.5 million for tackling modern slavery, to drive nationally co-ordinated action, training and assessment.

We will continue to work in partnership with the police to help build the capabilities and skills they need to meet new challenges. To support these objectives, we are providing reallocations for the following national priorities in 2018-19 (as set out at table 2):

We will maintain the size of the police transformation fund at £175 million, which we expect to support an improvement in the leadership and culture of policing, the diversity of its workforce, protection of vulnerable people, cross-force specialist capabilities, exploitation of new technology and how we respond to changing threats.

We are also increasing funding for police technology to £495 million to support the new emergency services network (ESN), Home Office biometrics, the national law enforcement data service and the new national automatic number plate recognition service. These technology programmes will provide the national infrastructure that the police need for the modern communications and data requirements, and will deliver substantial financial savings and productivity gains in future.

We are providing £93 million for the discretionary police special grant contingency fund, which supports forces facing significant and exceptional events which might otherwise place them at significant financial risk (for example, helping forces respond to terrorist attacks). We are increasing funding in 2018-19 to reflect both an assessment of potential need after heavy demand for special grant this year, and the specific costs likely to be incurred for the policing operation at the Commonwealth summit.

Existing arm’s length bodies (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, the College of Policing, the Independent Police Complaints Commission as it becomes the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) will receive broadly the same level of funding as in 2017-18. Additional arm’s length body funding reflects the need to set up a new office for communications data authorisations following clarification by the courts of the legal requirements for independent scrutiny of requests for communications intercepts.

We will also continue to pay our private finance initiative obligations, support police bail reforms, and top up national crime agency funding and regional organised crime unit grants to ensure these are maintained at flat cash, in line with police grant.

As part of the settlement for police and crime commissioners and in addition to core Government funding, we will fund the following:

PCCs in England will continue to receive grants relating to the 2011-12, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 council tax freeze schemes. We will also provide local council tax support grant funding to PCCs in England. These will total £507 million in 2018-19. The Common Council of the City of London (on behalf of the City of London Police) and the Greater London Authority (on behalf of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) will also receive equivalent funding from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

The Metropolitan Police Service, through the Greater London Authority, will continue to receive national and international capital city (NICC) grant funding worth £173.6 million, and the City of London Police will also continue to receive NICC grant funding worth £4.5 million. This is in recognition of the unique and additional demands of policing the capital city. An additional grant of £0.9 million will be made to the Common Council of the City of London (on behalf of the City of London Police) to protect their direct resource funding in real terms as they do not raise a police precept.

PCCs will also receive capital grant of £45.9 million, which is the same amount as in 2017-18. Tables 4 and 5 set out the capital settlement.

The increase in 2018-19 funding to PCCs must be matched by a serious commitment from PCCs and chief constables to reform by improving productivity and efficiency to deliver a better, more transparent service to the public. Following my discussions with forces and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) efficiency findings, I have three clear priorities:

Seek and deliver further cost efficiencies. I welcome the progress forces have made against the £350 million procurement savings target set at spending review 2015. However, there is a lot more to do. We have helped to identify £100 million of potential savings in areas such as fleet, professional services and construction. Forces will need to make greater use of national procurement through lead forces to make these savings. We are providing support through the police transformation fund and we will also help establish a force-led national centre of excellence to drive down back-office costs, and make best use of estates.

A modern digitally enabled workforce that allows frontline officers to spend less time dealing with bureaucracy and more time preventing and fighting crime and protecting the public. If all forces could deliver the same one hour per officer per day of productivity benefits from mobile working as the best in a recent sample with eight forces, this has the potential to free up the equivalent of 11,000 extra officers nationally to provide the proactive policing that committed police officers want to deliver. We will work with policing to set up a specialist team to make sure all police forces have access to, and make use of, the best mobile working apps to enable forces to free up extra hours to spend at the frontline.

Greater transparency in how public money is used locally. It is necessary for police to hold financial reserves, including primarily for contingencies, emergencies and major change costs. As at March 2017 police forces held usable resource reserves of over £1.6 billion. This compares to £1.4 billion in 2011. Current reserves held represent 15% of annual police funding to PCCs. There are wide variations between forces with Gwent for example holding 42% and Northumbria holding 6%. This is public money and the public are entitled to more information around police plans for reserves and how those plans will support more effective policing. So we will be improving transparency around reserves in the new year through enhanced guidance and through national publication of comparable reserves data. HMICFRS are also consulting on plans for force management statements, which could make more information on police forces available to the public.

We will be entering into discussions with police leadership to agree milestones against these priorities that need to be achieved over 2018.

I have listened to the views of PCCs and Chief Constables, who have requested greater certainty about future funding to help more efficient financial planning. If the police deliver clear and substantial progress against the agreed milestones on productivity and efficiency in 2018, then the Government intend to maintain the protection of a broadly flat police grant in 2019-20 and repeat the same flexibility of the precept, i.e. allowing PCCs to increase their band D precept up to a further £12 in 2019-20.

I am grateful for the work of the core grant distribution review, earlier this year, which considered potential changes to the police funding formula. In the context of changing demand and following my engagement with police leaders, providing funding certainty for 2019-20 is my immediate priority. It is intended that the funding formula will be revisited at the next spending review.

Not only are we supporting the police by making sure they have enough resources but in other ways too, such as ensuring police have the full protection of the law when carrying out their duties. That is why we are supporting the Assaults on Emergency Workers Bill which will increase penalties available to those who attack emergency service workers. We are also helping frontline officers to tackle crime by making sure that officers feel able to pursue suspected criminals where it is appropriate to do so by reviewing the legislation, guidance and practice around police pursuits.

The Communities Secretary is announcing the council tax referendum principles for all local authorities in England in 2018-19, including those applicable to PCCs. After considering any representations, he will set out the final principles in a report to the House and seek approval for these in parallel with the Final Local Government Finance Report. Council tax in Wales is the responsibility of Welsh Ministers.

I have set out in a separate document the tables illustrating how we propose to allocate the police funding settlement between the different funding streams and between PCCs for 2018-19. These documents are intended to be read together.

Police grant tables can be viewed online at: http://www. parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statemwent/Commons/2017-12-19/HCWS372/ .

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Criminal Justice System: BAME Individuals

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr David Lidington)]

In 2016 the Prime Minister asked the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) to chair “An independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, BAME individuals in the CJS”. The review made 35 recommendations for the Government to implement, and today the Government publish their response.

The Government welcome the impetus that the Lammy review brings to the debate about ethnicity and race, and would like to thank the right hon. Member for Tottenham for his thorough and incisive research on the topic. We welcome the core principles detailed in the review—transparency, fairness, and responsibility—as a framework on which policy and practice should stand.

In the response, we have clearly outlined the actions we have taken or will take in relation to each recommendation. We have also examined the review to find ideas that, while not being explicit recommendations, nevertheless warrant greater attention and action.

There are already a number of steps the Government have taken in line with the review recommendations, announced at the publication of the race disparity audit. We are already moving to publish more and better data, and will adopt a co-ordinated approach to improving data quality to determine where disparities occur and why. In addition, the Government have adopted the principle of “explain or change” to identify and objectively assess disparities, and then decide whether and how changes need to be applied. We feel this principle is particularly valuable in relation to smaller groups in the criminal justice system, such as Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, and BAME women.

On a small number of the recommendations we have indicated that we need to proceed with caution, if significant barriers exist that prevent us from implementing a recommendation as it stands. Where this is the case, we aim to be transparent about the reasons and open to change, as circumstances alter.

Beyond the review’s recommendations, we will set up governance procedures to monitor our progress driven by a Race and Ethnicity Board of senior officials, chaired at the level of director general within the MoJ. It will update the Criminal Justice Board, of which I am chair. The Race and Ethnicity Board will consider and agree the scope and timelines for the work needed to reduce race disparities. This will include timings for the actions set out in the Government’s response.

These governance structures will cover the agenda articulated by he right hon. Member for Tottenham and will contribute to the Government’s wider work around tackling race disparities, and direct sustained effort to give this agenda the longevity it deserves.

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