Written Statements

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

Thursday 2 March 2023

Ajax Armoured Vehicle

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Defence Procurement (Alex Chalk)]

As part of my commitment to keep Parliament informed on the programme, I wish to provide a further update on the Ajax equipment project being delivered as part of the armoured cavalry programme. Ajax reliability and growth trials commenced on 31 January 2023 and are progressing as expected, with more than 1,390 km driven and four battlefield mission tests completed as of 28 February 2023.

[HCWS596]

Independent Review of Veterans Welfare Services

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families (Dr Andrew Murrison)]

This is a joint statement from me and the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Johnny Mercer)

We are pleased to inform the House that we have commissioned a review of the role and scope of welfare provision for veterans, including by the Ministry of Defence under the Veterans UK banner. Much has changed in this sector’s landscape over the last three years and expectations from within the armed forces community have changed too. The time is now right for us to take a fresh look at our support to ensure that we are meeting the needs of this community.

This review will build on the positive work already being undertaken across Government under the strategy for our veterans, including the Ministry of Defence’s £40 million digitisation project, which will significantly improve customer service and the process for managing claims through the MOD. This review will encompass the MOD’S veterans’ welfare services, as well as the Northern Ireland veterans support office, and the Government’s role in the veterans’ gateway and how they fit into wider Government support to veterans. It will also align with the reviews of the armed forces compensation scheme and veterans advisory and pensions committees that are due to report in the spring. The review will be led by a senior civil servant, with the independent veterans’ adviser and other key stakeholders providing advice and will last approximately three months. A copy of the review and the Government response will be placed in the Library of the House.

[HCWS593]

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Claire Coutinho)]

Today, I am proud to announce publication of the “Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan”. This is a joint publication with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This plan sets out the next steps we will take to deliver a more positive experience for children, young people and families.

Our “Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Green Paper”, published in March 2022, set out proposals to deliver a more inclusive system. What we heard through the consultation on the proposals set out in the Green Paper—particularly from parents and families—gives us confidence to establish a new national SEND and alternative provision system with the mission to:

fulfil children’s potential: children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or attending alternative provision will enjoy their childhood, achieve their goals and be well prepared for adulthood and employment;

build parents’ trust: parents and carers experience a fairer, easily navigable system (across education, health and care) that restores their confidence that their children will get the right support, in the right place, at the right time;

provide financial sustainability: local leaders make the best use of record investment in the high needs budget to meet children and young people’s needs and improve outcomes, placing local authorities on a stable financial footing.

The improvement plan sets out that we will establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities from birth to age 25 so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for their next step, whether that is employment, higher education or adult services.

To deliver consistent experience regardless of the school a child attends, where they live or their family background, we will develop new national special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision standards, covering early years, school, and post-16 provision, setting out what types of support should be available and who should be responsible for making sure this happens, based on the best possible evidence. This will include clarity on the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings. This will give families confidence and clarity on how their children’s needs will be met.

New practice guides, based on the best available evidence, will equip frontline professionals to identify needs early, accurately, and consistently so that the right support can be put in place. We will give families greater confidence that their child will be supported to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local setting.

A few weeks ago I launched “Stable Homes, Built on Love”, an implementation strategy and consultation which sets out our plans to transform children’s social care. We have worked closely to ensure that these two sets of reforms lock tightly together, putting families at the heart of the system of help and support.

We are building a confident, expert workforce across education, health and care to ensure children get the early support they need to fulfil their potential. We will introduce a new special educational needs co-ordinator national professional qualification for schools to give these vital staff with the knowledge, training and practical skills to support children with special educational needs. We are also already offering training for up to 5,000 new early years special educational needs co-ordinators.

We are also investing £21 million to train 400 educational psychologists to provide expert advice on supporting individual needs. We will extend funding, by up to an additional £6 million, for specialist taskforces which work directly in alternative provision schools and include for example mental health professionals, family workers, and speech and language therapists.

We are delivering a new approach to alternative provision, so it is used as an intervention for young people to stay in or return quickly to mainstream, instead of being a destination. Alternative provision settings will need to follow the new national standards, which will set out how the new approach should be delivered, and will form a critical part of local partnerships and inclusion plans.

We want children and young people who need an education, health and care plan or specialist provision, to get prompt access to the support they need, within a less adversarial system. We will reduce bureaucracy through new standardised education, health and care plans and promoting the use of digital technology.

I appreciate how crucial it is to have the right school places within the local area. To that end we are investing £2.6 billion between now and 2025 to fund new special and alternative provision places and improve existing provision. I can now announce we are opening 33 new special free schools, with a further 49 in the pipeline, and we will shortly be launching competitions to run those schools.

To support young people into employment, we will invest £18 million to double the capacity of the supported internships programme and continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions on the introduction of the adjustments passport so that employers know what support young people require. New guidance to support effective transitions, including into employment, will mean that young people are supported from day one.

I know how important it is that accountability is strengthened across the system so that everyone is held to account for delivering for children and young people with special educational needs or who require alternative provision. My Department will have a role in reviewing new local inclusion plans and will offer support and challenge where necessary. New Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Area SEND inspections, launched in January of this year, will have a greater focus on the outcomes and experiences of children, young people and families.

We will test our key reforms, such as national standards, through the creation of up to nine regional expert partnerships through our £70 million Change Programme. This will help build a strong evidence base to inform future funding and legislation and allow us to guard against unintended consequences.

Oversight of reform will be provided through a new National Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Implementation Board jointly chaired by me and the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield), who is the Minister responsible for mental health and the women’s health strategy.

[HCWS595]

Manchester Arena Inquiry Report: Volume 3

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Suella Braverman)]

Today the Manchester Arena inquiry has published the third and final volume (volume 3) of its report, which has been laid before the House. The report can be found at www.manchesterarenainquiry.org.uk and on gov.uk.

Volume 3 relates to the radicalisation of the perpetrator; the planning and preparation for the attack; and whether the attack could have been prevented.

The awful attack carried out on 22 May 2017 prematurely ended the lives of 22 people and fundamentally damaged many more. They and their loved ones are foremost in our thoughts today. I am grateful for the strength and courage of the victims’ families and the survivors, who bravely live with the consequences of the attack every day, and to all those who have shared their experiences with the inquiry.

I would also like to thank Sir John Saunders and his team who have spent more than three years investigating this atrocious attack. The Government are committed to maximising learning from the inquiry and will now carefully study the three volumes of findings and analysis and well over 150 recommendations and consider how best to take them forward.

[HCWS597]

Singapore Convention on Mediation: Government Response to Consultation

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mike Freer)]

My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice (Lord Christopher Bellamy KC), has made the following statement:

Today I am publishing the Government response to the consultation on the United Nations Convention on international settlement agreements resulting from mediation (New York, 2018) (the “Singapore Convention on Mediation").

In an increasingly globalised world, it is important that businesses have the confidence to trade across borders in the knowledge that private international law rules are in place to determine which country’s courts will hear a dispute raising cross-border issues (jurisdiction), which country’s law will apply (applicable law) and whether a judgment obtained in one country will be recognised and enforced in another (recognition and enforcement). These rules also establish procedures for cooperation in areas such as the taking of evidence, the service of legal documents and co-operation between competent authorities.

The Singapore convention on mediation (“the Convention") is a private international law agreement which provides a framework to allow for the recognition and enforcement of international commercial settlement agreements reached via mediation. It enables a party which has mediated their dispute to enforce the resulting cross-border mediated agreement in any country that is party to the convention without needing to commence an action for breach of contract.

The convention has garnered international support and recognition since it opened for signature in August 2019, with 55 countries having already signed it, including a number of the UK’s key trading partners and 18 of the UK’s fellow Commonwealth nations. The convention has been ratified by 10 countries to date, namely Fiji, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Ecuador, Honduras, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Singapore.

With this global reach, the convention presents opportunities for the UK to strengthen its relationships with our existing international partners and to establish new relationships. It will also reaffirm the UK’s intention to build upon its long history of leadership in international law-making fora such as the United Nations and the Hague Conference on private international law.

Mediation as a dispute resolution process is integral to the UK justice system. It can provide a cost-effective method of resolving disputes whilst also aiming to preserve important and potentially long-standing business relationships. It is estimated that commercial mediation can save businesses around £5.9 billion per year in management time, damaged relationships, lost productivity, and legal fees. In February 2023, the value of UK mediated cases each year was estimated at approximately £20 billion.

The convention provides a uniform framework for the effective recognition and enforcement of international mediated settlement agreements resulting from commercial disputes. Its non-reciprocal nature means that the settlement agreements that UK courts may be asked to enforce, as a party to the convention, do not need to have been concluded in the jurisdiction of another state party. Parties to international mediated settlement agreements will therefore be able to have their settlement agreements recognised and enforced in the UK under the convention rules, regardless of the jurisdiction in which they were reached. This wide application of the convention will reinforce and potentially increase the UK’s attractiveness as a respected jurisdiction for international dispute resolution.

The Government launched a public consultation in February 2022 to seek the views of the UK’s flourishing legal sector and mediation community on whether the UK should become a party to the convention. The majority of the responses were in favour of the UK joining the convention. In practical terms, many respondents noted that joining the convention will mean that where it might be necessary to enforce a mediated agreement, having a direct route for enforcement would be preferable to the current practice of having to enforce by way of a breach of contract or following a court order. Respondents also generally agreed that becoming party would signal the UK’s commitment to mediation, further enhance the UK’s status as an attractive international dispute resolution hub, promote the UK legal sector and increase the credibility of UK-based mediators.

For these reasons, the Government has concluded that it is the right time for the UK to become a party to the convention to provide for recognition and enforcement of international commercial mediation settlement agreements throughout the UK. This decision will be a clear signal to our international partners that the UK is committed to maintaining and strengthening its position as a centre for dispute resolution and to promote the UK’s flourishing legal and mediation sectors.

The UK will sign the convention as soon as possible, as an important signal of our intentions to remain a world leader in this area and as a clear indication of the UK's commitment to mediation. We will work to ratify at a later date once all necessary implementing legislation is in place and after the convention has been laid before Parliament under the terms of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

I invite you to consider the Government response to the consultation, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-singapore-convention-on-mediation.

[HCWS592]

Pensions Dashboard

Thursday 2nd March 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Laura Trott)]

Pensions dashboards will allow individuals to view information about their pensions, including state pension, in one place online. This will put savers in control and help reconnect them with their lost pension pots—for example, where a pension scheme has lost contact with a member—transforming how consumers think and plan for their retirement.

The pensions dashboards programme, under the supervision of the Money and Pensions Service, is responsible for delivering the digital architecture which underpins pensions dashboards. The project is a significant undertaking, requiring the development of new technology that will permit individuals to find their pensions by searching thousands of pension schemes which collectively hold millions of pensions records. The first connection deadline is currently 31 August 2023. However, additional time is required to deliver the complex technical solution to enable the connection of pension providers and schemes, in accordance with the connection deadlines set out in the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 and the Financial Conduct Authority’s corresponding pensions dashboard rules for pension providers. More time is needed to deliver this complex build, and for the pensions industry to help facilitate the successful connection of a wide range of different IT systems to the dashboards digital architecture.

Given these delays, I have initiated a reset of the pensions dashboards programme in which DWP will play a full role. The new Chair of the Programme Board will develop a new plan for delivery.

The framework set out in the regulations for pensions dashboards remains fit for purpose. DWP will legislate at the earliest opportunity to amend the timing of these obligations to provide clarity to schemes. We will ensure that the pensions industry has adequate time and the necessary technical information to prepare for any revised connection deadlines. I will provide a further update to the House before summer recess.

Pensions dashboards will be a vital tool to help savers plan for their retirement and the Government remain thoroughly committed to their delivery. I know this commitment is shared across the pensions industry. The huge consumer benefits of pensions dashboards are yet to be realised, but it is vital that the foundation upon which the dashboards ecosystem is built is safe, secure, and works for both the pensions industry users connecting to it and the end users of the service. While there are issues to work through, we must not lose sight of these benefits. It is essential that scheme preparation for pensions dashboards continues, and we will press ahead to deliver this technology.

[HCWS594]