Written Statements

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

Wednesday 21 June 2023

Sports Grounds Safety Authority Public Body Review and DCMS Response

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stuart Andrew)]

I wish to inform the House that the Government have today published the report from the independent public body review of the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport response to this review.

The Government launched a full organisational review of the SGSA in February 2022. The review of the SGSA was an independent review and formed part of the Public Bodies Review Programme which delivers against the commitments made in the declaration on government reform to increase the effectiveness of these organisations, to ensure they are set up in the best possible way to deliver and to ensure that government works better for the citizens it serves.

The review sets out clear and comprehensive recommendations, which will enable us to undertake a programme of reform which will build on the existing strengths and expertise of the SGSA, thus ensuring that the safety of spectators across sports and the live events sector remains of paramount importance.

We have published a full response to the review, which sets out our response to each of the recommendations. The Government accept all of the review’s recommendations but recognises that reform requires careful consideration and further detailed work, including legislative change before implementation. The programme of work set out in the response will ensure that any changes do not compromise the excellent work already carried out by the SGSA and instead build on the organisation's strengths and expertise.

The SGSA is regarded as a world leader in sports ground safety and we are hugely grateful to the SGSA for taking part in this review. We would also like to extend our thanks to David Rossington for dedicating much time and consideration to this review, and for producing a clear and well-evidenced report.

[HCWS870]

Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries (Mark Spencer)]

The sustainable farming incentive is an important element of our new and improved offer for farmers through the agricultural transition. It pays farmers for actions that support food production and can help improve farm productivity and resilience, while also protecting and improving the environment. This includes actions relating to soil health, hedgerow management, providing food and habitats for wildlife, and managing pests and nutrients.

When adopted at scale by farmers, these actions will make a significant contribution to our statutory environment and climate targets, and also support our objectives to maintain food production and improve farm productivity. This includes our aim published in the environmental improvement plan of between 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers adopting nature friendly farming on at least 10-15% of their land by 2030.

We are taking an agile, incremental approach to rolling out environmental land management schemes as we phase out land-based subsidies. This involves working with farmers and acting on their feedback to refine our policies and schemes, as we recently set out for upland and tenant farmers. This is essential when delivering a complex and important programme of reforms.

As part of this approach, we have made a number of improvements to the 2023 offer based on learning from our pilot and the initial rollout of the scheme in 2022.

Today we are confirming the final details of the sustainable farming incentive 2023 offer, as well as the final detail on the SFI management payment, and how those already in the scheme agreements can access the offer this year. From August this year, we will accept applications for a total of 23 paid-for actions in the scheme. The application process is straightforward and quick, and we will pay farmers every quarter starting in the fourth month of their agreement. This builds on the prospectus published in January setting out significant detail across our new farming schemes.

We are introducing twice as many new actions this year as we originally planned and making the scheme even more flexible for farmers. As we introduce more actions, farmers will be able to upgrade their agreement to add more actions and add more land.

The offer includes a management payment to cover the costs of taking part in an agri-environment scheme, which particularly benefits smaller farms. It also includes an extra payment for farmers on common land to recognise the costs of managing agreements involving multiple parties on commons.

For tenant farmers, along with other improvements we have made in response to Baroness Rock’s review, there are short—three year—agreement lengths that do not require landlord consent, and those on shorter, rolling tenancies can join the scheme and leave without penalty if they lose management control of the land.

To allow a smooth transition to our updated offer, we have closed applications to the existing scheme (SFI 2022) until the new offer opens for applications in August. Those in our pilot, or already in an SFI agreement, can access the new offer and we will write to all agreement holders to advise them. This is part of our commitment to ensure that those who enter our schemes early are not made worse off by improvements we make as the transition progresses.

[HCWS872]

Animal Welfare

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

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

The UK has some of the highest animal welfare standards worldwide and since 2010 animal welfare has been one of the Government’s priorities.

We have raised standards for farm animal welfare, including by introducing CCTV in all slaughterhouses. We have significantly enhanced companion animal welfare, including by revamping the local authority licensing regime for commercial pet services including selling, dog breeding, boarding, and animal displays. We have brought in valuable new protections for wild animals, including by passing the Ivory Act 2018, one of the toughest bans on elephant ivory sales in the world.

In our 2019 manifesto, we set out an unprecedented package of welfare improvements, many of which we have already delivered. For example, we have increased the penalties for those convicted of animal cruelty; we have passed the Animal Welfare Sentience Act 2022 and launched a dedicated Committee; we have made microchipping compulsory for cats as well as dogs; and we have announced the extension of the Ivory Act to cover five more endangered species.

In 2021, we published our ambitious and comprehensive action plan for animal welfare. This set out an array of future reforms for this Parliament and beyond, including a ban on the import and export of shark fins, which just last week passed its Third Reading in the House of Lords.

As the Minister updated the House on 25 May, we will be taking forward the measures in the Kept Animals Bill individually during the remainder of the Parliament. As a first step, yesterday the Government launched a four-week public consultation seeking views on a new licensing scheme for privately owned primates in England and new draft standards for the care and management of these primates. The needs of these creatures are extremely complex and by requiring all privately owned primates to be kept to zoo-level standards, we will ban primates being kept as if they were pets.

Following the consultation, we will introduce the secondary legislation this year, quicker than would have been possible had we continued with the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. This will deliver on another commitment from our manifesto and our action plan.

The Government remain fully committed to delivering the remaining manifesto commitments and maintaining our strong track record on animal welfare, both in the course of this Parliament and beyond.

[HCWS871]

New Loan Guarantees to Support Ukraine

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Leo Docherty)]

Today I have laid a departmental minute which describes a new liability the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is undertaking to support the economic stability of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

It is normal practice, when a Government Department proposes to undertake a contingent liability in excess of £300,000 for which there is no specific statutory authority, for the Minister concerned to present a departmental minute to Parliament giving particulars of the liability created and explaining the circumstances; and to refrain from incurring the liability until 14 parliamentary sitting days after the issue of the statement, except in cases of special urgency.

This departmental minute sets out details of a new liability undertaken by the FCDO. The liability is a commitment to guarantee up to $3 billion of additional lending by the World Bank to the Government of Ukraine. This new commitment to Ukraine, which would likely be split into several separate guarantees, will create a contingent liability of up to $5.6 billion (£4.6 billion) (once interest payments are accounted for). Once existing UK guarantees to support Ukraine are accounted for, the maximum amount which could be demanded from the UK in a single year would be approximately £402 million. The guarantees will be denominated in USD. I have separately notified the Chairs of the Public Accounts Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and International Development Committee.

The FCDO will guarantee both principal and interest repayments from Ukraine to the World Bank. A UK pay-out would be triggered if the Government of Ukraine misses a repayment by 180 days.

The exact length of the liabilities will be linked to the financial terms agreed between the World Bank, and the Government of Ukraine. The World Bank’s lending is expected to have a maturity of 29 years and a seven-year grace period during which only interest payments are due.

The war has placed huge pressures on Ukraine’s economy. The international finance community, including development banks such as the World Bank, is playing a key role in providing rapid financial support. Ukraine’s IMF programme is helping to mobilise combined donor support worth $115 billion over the next four years—up to 2027.¹ This package is promoting macroeconomic and financial stability, hailing a shift from ad-hoc unpredictable funding to effective multi-year assistance. The UK’s latest set of loan guarantees will form a part of this package and will help enable the World Bank to continue providing reliable and significant financial support at a critical time.

The exact length of the liability created by this commitment will be linked to the financial terms agreed between the World Bank and the Government of Ukraine.

HM Treasury has approved this new contingent liability in principle with the FCDO. It is also normal practice that any contingent liabilities should not be incurred until 14 sitting days after Parliament has been notified of the Government’s intention to incur a contingent liability. If any Member of the House has questions or objections, please do get in touch.

A copy of the departmental minute has been placed in the House Library.

¹ https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2022/12/21/Ukraine-Program-Monitoring-with-Board-Involvement-Press-Release-Staff-Report-and-Statement-527288

[HCWS873]

Visiting in Care Homes, Hospitals and Hospices Consultation

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately)]

In collaboration with my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care (Will Quince), and my hon. Friend the Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy (Maria Caulfield), I am making this statement for the benefit of all members of Parliament to bring their attention to the Government consultation on visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices.

Ensuring that care home residents and hospital and hospice patients maintain contact with loved ones is vital to the health and wellbeing of people receiving care or treatment. Friends and family also provide invaluable practical support and advocacy for those receiving treatment. However, the Government have heard from Members across both Houses, members of the public and campaigners of continued instances of loved ones being denied contact following the lifting of restrictions introduced during the covid-19 pandemic.

Restrictions were implemented during the pandemic to help prevent the spread of covid-19 in health and care settings. While those restrictions were in place at the time to keep people safe and control the risk of transmission from a virus that was not yet well understood, we recognise how detrimental it was for loved ones to have been kept apart and to not have had friends and family advocating on behalf of patients and care home residents. We constantly sought to enable safe visiting wherever possible and made it clear that end-of-life visiting should always be possible. Our guidance is now clear that visiting should be encouraged and facilitated in line with efforts to return to normal.

The Government recognise the efforts that so many health and care settings have made to implement guidance and facilitate visits. NHS England has guidance in place which sets a minimum expectation for visiting in inpatient, outpatient, diagnostic service settings and the emergency department, that hospitals should facilitate a minimum of two visitors to visit patients for at least one hour per day, ideally for longer. Compliance with this guidance is now a requirement in their standard contract for all providers of NHS services.

However, we know that some restrictions continued beyond the lockdown periods and continue to hear of instances where loved ones are unable to see each other for prolonged periods or provide support when someone is attending hospital. We understand the harm this can cause to the health and well-being of those receiving care as well as how distressing this is for their friends and families visiting and, in many cases, providing vital care to loved ones.

The Government are therefore announcing a consultation today that sets out our proposals for going further to tackle this issue. The consultation document outlines the current position, including current Government guidance and data on visiting in health and care settings, as well as further details on current regulations, the Government proposals, the questions for respondents, how to respond and next steps.

Current regulations

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (CQC Regulations) set out fundamental standards which must be upheld by all Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered providers. CQC assesses health and care providers against the fundamental standards and other requirements set out in CQC Regulations. Providers are required to comply with certain fundamental standards of care which implicitly cover visiting.

Although visiting is not explicitly mentioned in the current CQC regulations, it is considered best practice that visiting is not normally restricted, and that any restrictions should be reasonable, proportionate and time limited. CQC has enforcement powers to protect people who use regulated services from harm, the risk of harm, and to protect people’s rights and welfare.

In addition to the fundamental standards, other legislation may allow individuals to take legal action against their providers, set out in further detail in the consultation document.

Policy intention and proposal

DHSC wants to ensure that visiting is protected and that it remains a priority. We are therefore considering putting visiting on a statutory footing. It is important that any visiting requirement is workable, reasonable and proportionate. We therefore propose to do this by introducing secondary legislation to amend CQC Regulations to include a specific visiting requirement. This could be done either by introducing a new regulation specifically for visiting, or by amending an existing regulation to include visiting, such as “person centred care” or “dignity and respect”.

We want the legislation to have as far reach as possible and our proposal is therefore for the new visiting requirement to cover CQC-registered health and care settings. This would include NHS and independent providers—both acute and mental health—care homes and hospices.

This consultation relates to visits from family, friends and volunteers such as befrienders and includes accompanying patients attending outpatient or diagnostic appointments and emergency departments at hospitals. It is not about access to visiting professionals, and any change made regarding visiting would not override pre-existing statutory arrangements regarding visiting professionals, such as the entitlement for people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 to meet independent mental health advocates (IMHAs) in private if they wish to.

Through this consultation we will hear directly from those most likely to be affected by this policy proposal and will gather the evidence required to determine what action should be taken on visiting in health and care settings.

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DWP Estate: Decommissioning of Temporary Jobcentres

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies)]

Jobcentres provide an essential service for those looking for, or wanting to progress in, work. This Department continues its commitment to provide local personalised support for customers and families and remains committed to striking the right balance between providing these essential services and delivering value for money for the taxpayer.

As part of its transformational programme, the Department has also committed to improving its estate to provide a better space for colleagues and customers, which will improve the opportunities, services and environments of many of the Jobcentres we are retaining.

In the written statement of 8 February 2023, the Department announced the decommissioning of 20 temporary Jobcentres (Phase 1). These temporary Jobcentres (or the expansion of space in established Jobcentres) were put in place in direct response to the anticipated pressures on the labour market during the pandemic. The Department secured time-limited funding to rapidly introduce this additional space to deliver a temporary expansion to the existing network of 639 established Jobcentre sites and provide more work coaches to support claimants. The temporary expansion of the Jobcentre estate enabled us to drive forward our plan for jobs, helping people back into the labour market, right across the UK.

The Department re-affirmed its commitment to reducing its Jobcentre estate back to pre-pandemic levels by decommissioning temporary Jobcentres, or the additional space in established Jobcentres, in a phased approach, where the increased capacity is no longer needed. Several of the temporary sites, where they offer better, more suitable accommodation than our existing offices—and provide better value for money for the taxpayer—will be retained. Established Jobcentres will move into these buildings.

In the written statement of 17 May 2023, the Department announced the decommissioning of a further 19 sites—phase 2. It also detailed subsequent phases would follow. The Department is today announcing a third phase of decommissioning, which consists of 36 sites, listed below. Subsequent phases will follow throughout 2023 and 2024 and Parliament will be kept updated.

The Department continues to support and update colleagues affected by these changes in a timely and sensitive manner. Furthermore, the Department continues its ongoing engagement with relevant stakeholders on the planned changes.

Letters are being sent to each MP with changes in their constituency to explain what this means for their local Jobcentre, its staff, and their constituents.

The decommissioning of these temporary Jobcentres will not reduce our levels of service, or access to face-to-face appointments. Customers will return to being served by their established Jobcentre and there will be no reduction in the number of work coaches supporting customers as a result of the decommissioning.

This Department remains committed to updating Parliament on our work to ensure both our staff and customers are operating in buildings and environments fit for the future.

The 36 temporary Jobcentres to be formally decommissioned are: