Written Statements

Friday 29th November 2024 Written Statements

Friday 29 November 2024

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

Friday 29th November 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security (Mr Douglas Alexander)]

On 27 and 28 November 2024, I attended the eighth meeting of the commission of the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership in Vancouver, Canada, where a number of issues were considered by CPTPP Ministers.

Future accessions to CPTPP

At the meeting, a formal commission decision was taken to commence a CPTPP accession process with Costa Rica via establishment of an accession working group.

CPTPP Ministers have reaffirmed on several instances that CPTPP is open to accession requests by economies that can satisfy the “Auckland principles”, namely;

preparedness to meet the agreement’s high standards;

a demonstrated pattern of complying with trade commitments; and

recognition that decisions are dependent on the consensus of the CPTPP parties.

Through extensive discussions and deliberations on all accession requests, the UK and other CPTPP members have identified that Costa Rica can satisfy the three Auckland principles. As such, in Vancouver, CPTPP Ministers formally decided to commence the accession process with Costa Rica and establish an accession working group.

This move demonstrates that CPTPP remains a living agreement, and one which is designed to expand and bring in new high standards economies. Over time this expansion process will grow the global reach of the agreement, creating further opportunities for CPTPP members.

It is expected that the first AWG meeting will take place in the first half of 2025, during Australia’s year as CPTPP chair. The UK will continue to work with CPTPP members to consider and discuss the remaining accession requests in accordance with the Auckland principles, and the establishment of an AWG for Costa Rica will not prevent this process.

To ensure that interested stakeholders are provided the opportunity to feed in views on the accession process of Costa Rica, today the Department for Business and Trade will launch a period of public engagement that will run across eight weeks, closing on 24 January 2025. During this period, we will ask stakeholders what issues they would like us to consider when engaging in discussions on whether Costa Rica should join CPTPP and the terms on which they should join. The link to the public engagement questionnaire can be found online at https://ditresearch.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2bnop4ZwgdoyNVk

CPTPP general review

In addition to discussing future accessions, CPTPP Ministers also discussed progress on the CPTPP general review during the meeting in Vancouver. The joint ministerial statement—known as the “Vancouver statement”—published following the meeting summarises the progress made in 2024, during the first phase of the general review, and sets out the forward workplan for 2025. In 2025 members will deepen their discussions on whether and how the agreement should be revised or updated to remain relevant to the trade and investment issues and challenges we all face today, including in a number of areas of particular interest to the UK. The Vancouver statement can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cptpp-joint-ministerial-statement-in-vancouver-canada-28-november-2024

The Department for Business and Trade has also today published a factual summary of responses received to the public engagement period on the general review which was carried out from January to February 2024. These responses continue to inform our ongoing engagement in the general review.

Entry into force

CPTPP Ministers at the meeting also warmly welcomed the impending entry into force of the agreement for the UK. In that vein, I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that the UK will accede to CPTPP on 15 December 2024 and that the agreement will come into force on this date with Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam, Peru, Malaysia and Brunei. Australia also recently ratified the UK’s accession protocol, on 25 October 2024, which means the agreement will enter into force with Australia on 24 December 2024. The deal will come into force with the remaining parties 60 days after they each ratify.

When the UK accedes, the CPTPP will become a truly global trade deal, bringing new opportunities for British businesses, supporting jobs across the entire UK, and shaping the future of international trading rules.

[HCWS267]

BBC Funding Model: Licence Fee and Simple Payment Plan

Friday 29th November 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)]

The Government are today providing an update on the short and long-term funding of the BBC.

The BBC is a vital British asset and makes a huge contribution to lives up and down the country. It supports our democracy, brings our communities together, and helps to shape and define our nation through telling stories about the lives of people in all parts of the UK. Continuing to make that contribution, and deliver the obligations placed upon it, requires that the BBC receives ongoing and sustainable public funding.

As the media landscape undergoes the next generational shift, the BBC too must adapt and be supported to do so. The forthcoming charter review is a key opportunity to set the BBC up for success long into the future. It will look at a range of issues and, as a priority for this Government, will start a national conversation to make sure the BBC truly represents and delivers for every person in this country. Charter review will also look to uphold the BBC’s independence and ensure that it maintains the trust of the public.

As we address these vital issues about the future form of the BBC, we must also ensure that there is a sustainable funding model that is fair for those who pay for it. The Government are keeping an open mind about the future of the licence fee, but we are clear that the BBC’s funding and its operation are inseparable. As such, we will not be progressing the BBC funding model review set up by the previous Government, and we are disbanding the expert panel set up to support that review, to whom we are grateful for their previous input.

In its place, the Government will be taking forward this issue as part of the charter review process, since what the BBC does and its future role are fundamentally influenced by how it is funded. We firmly believe that the unique obligations placed on the BBC demand continued, sustainable public funding to support its vital work. We will work closely with the BBC, and engage with other broadcasters, stakeholders across the creative industries as well as the British public to inform our thinking. This will include the opportunity for stakeholders and audiences across the country to respond to the charter review public consultation before the new charter comes into effect in 2028.

The charter review will be about ensuring the BBC thrives well into the future and can command the support of the people who pay for it. To achieve this aim, we must ensure the BBC is properly and fairly supported. The Government are determined to get the charter review right and future-proof the BBC, but we can only deliver this if the BBC is on a stable financial footing for the remainder of this charter period. We will always take decisions on funding to provide certainty and stability to the BBC, reflecting our understanding of the pressures it faces, and ensuring those decisions deliver the best outcomes for licence fee payers.

To provide stability to the BBC and S4C over the remainder of this charter period, the licence fee will increase in line with CPI inflation, as required by the licence fee settlement agreed by the last Government in 2022. This means a £5 increase per household to £174.50 from April 2025—less than the £10.50 increase in the previous year. Based on our assumptions on future TV licence uptake, this increase will provide around £75 million more in licence fee income to support the BBC and S4C in delivering their essential public service remits, allowing them to continue to deliver world-class, educational and engaging programming.

This increase represents a return to the approach taken at the start of this charter period, using the average of CPI from the previous October to September. To provide certainty to the BBC, S4C and the public, the Government confirm that we intend to use this same approach for calculating uplifts in the remaining years of this charter period. We will introduce legislation to implement the April 2025 uplift when parliamentary time allows.

We have already set out concerns about the impact of TV licensing enforcement action on vulnerable households. While the Government strongly believe in public funding for the BBC, given the public good it serves, we are aware of the financial difficulties faced by some households, and committed to supporting them to spread the cost of the TV licence. For this reason the Government are also announcing today a significant extension to the simple payment plan.

For the BBC to be a truly national broadcaster, the BBC must be available even to those struggling. The simple payment plan is an existing scheme that helps households struggling to pay for their licence fee throughout the year. However, it is currently available to a limited number of households. We will introduce legislation, when parliamentary time allows, that BBC analysis suggests could double the number of households in financial hardship benefiting from the scheme to around 500,000 by the end of the charter period to support them to be able to access all the BBC offers. This forms part of a wider discussion I am having with the BBC and Ministry of Justice on how we can collectively reduce the impact of TV licensing enforcement action on women and vulnerable people.

[HCWS269]

Contingent Liability Continuation: Ukraine

Friday 29th November 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for the Armed Forces (Luke Pollard)]

I wish to inform the House that I am today laying a departmental minute to advise of an extension to an existing contingent liability associated with the provision of support to the armed forces of Ukraine.

Since the start of the Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, the UK has been at the forefront of international support to Ukraine, providing essential military capability to the armed forces of Ukraine. We have developed capabilities, working with UK industry, to increase the support to the armed forces of Ukraine to defend against the threat from Russia.

The departmental minute describes the contingent liability that the Ministry of Defence will hold, which will provide an indemnity for any sums—including any legal or other associated costs—that UK defence industry might be liable to pay in relation to legal action brought against them by a third party in respect of liabilities arising from any damage to property, injury or loss of life from any unforeseen malfunction of a system operated by the armed forces of Ukraine.

The MOD and other stakeholders are taking all reasonable measures to mitigate the risk of injury and or damage and Defence legal advisers assess the likelihood of any risk arising as low. The maximum contingent liability held against the MOD is unquantifiable and will remain for the full service life of the system.

It is usual to allow a period of 14 sitting days prior to accepting a contingent liability, to provide Members of Parliament an opportunity to raise any objections.

This notification confirms the intention to extend a contingent liability that was initially agreed in July, during the pre-election period when Parliament had been dissolved and the normal process for notification of reportable contingent liabilities could not be followed. Further details are provided in the departmental minute.

[HCWS268]

HIV Action Plan: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Report

Friday 29th November 2024 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Andrew Gwynne)]

This Government are committed to ending new HIV transmissions within England by 2030. On 28 November, the Prime Minister made a significant down payment on this as he announced that emergency department opt-out testing for HIV will be extended to both extremely high and high prevalence areas during 2025-26, backed by £27 million of funding from the Department’s budgets, further confirming our determination.

I am pleased to update the House on the publication of the third annual report, “HIV Action Plan monitoring and evaluation framework 2024 report”. This report provides an annual overview to Parliament of the Government’s progress towards no new HIV transmissions within England by 2030, as committed to in the 2021 HIV action plan.

We are making progress towards our shared goals, and we should be encouraged by some of the highlights from the report.

HIV testing in sexual health services increased by 8% from 2022 showing greater rises in some key population groups, such as gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men where a 36% increase can be observed. This is coupled by a substantial progress to reduce new HIV diagnoses first made in England between 2019 and 2023, particularly among the same population group.

Overall, new HIV diagnoses first made in England fell by 12% from 2,801 in 2019 to 2,451 in 2022. However, this figure rose by 15% to 2,810 in 2023.

The blood borne virus opt-out testing in emergency department programme has been a great success and has helped us identify a significant proportion of new HIV diagnoses in 2023.

England continues to be one of the few countries in the world officially meeting the 95-95-95 targets when using the global measurement methods. However, in response to stakeholders’ suggestions, UKHSA adjusted the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, for the first time, so that they also account for people diagnosed but not in active HIV care and people for whom information on viral suppression was not reported. This new approach shows UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals were met in England in 2023 and partially met for the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals, with 96% of all those living with HIV being diagnosed, 94% of those diagnosed receiving treatment, and 92% of those treated being virally suppressed and thus unable to pass on the virus.

Due to success in HIV treatment, over half of people living with HIV are over the age of 50.

However, there is more work to be done to achieve our shared ambitions.

Inequalities are widening in access to HIV prevention interventions, treatment and ongoing care, quality of life and stigma across most demographic characteristics, in particular, age, ethnicity, gender identity and exposure. For example, among men exposed through sex with men, HIV diagnoses fell by 35% amongst white men between 2019 and 2023, whilst in men from ethnic minority backgrounds, there was an increase of diagnoses from 26% in 2019 to 33% in 2023.

Similarly, there has been a significant increase in identifying need for and initiation of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP): highest in white GBMSM and lowest in people from ethnic minority groups such as black African and black Caribbean.

As we reach the later stages in ending transmission, it is likely that identifying everyone living with the virus and narrowing inequalities will become more challenging. Our approach relies therefore on concerted efforts across the whole system.

The Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency, NHS England and a broad range of system partners in consultation with people living with HIV, their friends and families and the voluntary and community sector, are considering evidence from this report and working together to develop a new HIV action plan that will address these challenges. We aim to publish the plan in summer 2025.

I will keep Parliament updated on our progress and trust you will continue to support our shared goal of becoming the first country in the world to end HIV transmission.

[HCWS270]