LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme: Recruitment of Independent Panel and Appeals Board
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Minister for Veterans and People (Al Carns)
The LGBT financial recognition scheme includes two types of payments: the “LGBT FRS Dismissed or Discharged Payment” and the “LGBT FRS Impact Payment”. The impact payment is available to all those who experienced pain and suffering directly related to the ban on homosexuality in the armed forces, including harassment, invasive investigations and imprisonment There will be three tariff bands: level one or £1,000-£5,000; level two or £5,000-£10,000, and level three or £10,000-£20,000 and this will be determined by an independent panel who have now been appointed.
The independent panel will consist of Lord Paddick, chair, Alison Brown OBE, Frances Castle MBE, Dr Matthew Gould, Hannah Graf MBE, Craig Jones MBE, Caroline Paige MBE, Annabel Poate-Joyner and Emma Riley. The independent panel will sit as the chair plus four members, except in exceptional circumstances.
An appeals process has also been set up for both the “LGBT FRS Dismissed or Discharged Payment” and the “LGBT FRS Impact Payment”.
The appeals board will consist of Douglas Bosphore-Ward MBE, chair, Judith Henry, Rachel Ruxton, and Professor Tracy Myhill. The appeals board will sit as the chair plus two members, except in exceptional circumstances.
Both independent panel and appeals board members are appointed for a period of two years as direct ministerial appointments.
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Roll-out of Early Years and Childcare
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Stephen Morgan)
This Government’s plan for change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life, breaking the link between background and opportunity. We are ensuring that families in every community across the country can access affordable childcare places that deliver high-quality early education.
We have set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn. We will measure our progress through 75% of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.
From 12 May, all eligible working parents of children who will be at least nine months old on or before 31 August can apply for 30 hours of Government-funded childcare for September 2025 as part of the next phase of the Government’s childcare expansion.
The increase in childcare places is already having a hugely positive impact on parents and children. Around half a million children have already accessed places, and the findings from our childcare experiences survey shows the positive impact of providing more Government-funded childcare places for more children in the first two phases of our roll-out. An overwhelming majority of parents —97%—who received a childcare eligibility code have gone on to claim the childcare offered, and 93% of parents were able to secure their first choice of provider. Families with lower incomes have seen the biggest benefits, with one in five households earning between £20,000 and £40,000—and 14% of respondents overall—increasing their working hours.
The crucial role that all early years providers and local authorities play in delivering the childcare expansion ensures that families across the country can access the support they need.
This roll-out includes up to 6,000 new nursery places in schools across the country, backed by £37 million, with up to 4,000 available from this September, helping to grow our vibrant childcare market, which gives parents access to affordable and high-quality provision where they need it.
Parents who currently receive 15 hours for working families should reconfirm as usual and the code will work for the 30-hours offer in September, providing they remain eligible. Codes need to be reconfirmed every three months, so if parents have applied prior to June, they may need to reconfirm their code before taking up a place in September.
Floor space requirements
We are removing barriers for early years settings to help them meet the demand for approximately 60,000 places by September 2025. To help achieve this, we are consulting on potential changes to the early years foundation stage statutory framework to include free-flow outdoor space in the current indoor space requirements. This includes considering whether there should be a cap on how much providers can use this to increase their capacity to try to mitigate potential risks to overcrowding. This change to the EYFS could help some nurseries to increase capacity safely and efficiently where the physical structure permits.
This proposed change is in response to the Department’s November 2023 “Pulse surveys of childcare and early years providers”, in which the majority of providers —70%—said they would be likely to use flexibilities in space requirements while ensuring continued high-quality provision for children.
Outdoor play provides huge benefits to children—including improved memory and problem-solving skills, the development of social skills like self-regulation and negotiation, and better mental and physical health—and it boosts school-readiness and learning. By consulting on this change, we will ensure that we can support nurseries to expanding their capacity while maintaining the highest standards of safety and quality in early education.
The consultation can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/space-requirements-in-early-years-childcare-settings-in-england
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Sustainable Farming Incentive 2024
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Daniel Zeichner)
This Government inherited farming schemes which were underspent, meaning millions of pounds were not going to farming businesses.
As set out in the plan for change, the Government are focused on supporting our farmers, driving rural economic growth and boosting Britain’s food security. Now is the right time for a reset via the reformed sustainable farming incentive offer, which will support farmers, deliver for nature and target public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature.
In October, the Labour Government outlined plans to invest a record £5 billion into farming, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history.
As a result of this investment, a record number of farmers are now in farming schemes, and more money is being paid to more farmers under the SFI than ever before.
Earlier this year, the Government have successfully allocated the entire SFI budget and could therefore no longer accept new applications for the scheme.
There are more than 37,000 live SFI agreements currently in place, under which money continues to be paid to farmers this year and over future years.
However, an error was made when the current scheme was closed to new applications, the budget having been allocated.
I was not aware that people who had started an application and then saved it without submitting had been shown a “We’ve saved your application” screen containing two messages:
“If we need to close applications, we will give you six weeks’ notice. We will publicise this information on www.gov.uk and email you”. This message was shown in error due to a technical issue which meant that the message was carried over unintentionally from the online application used for the SFI 2023 offer.
“Your application will be available for two months for you to continue. If you have not submitted your application by then, we will delete it”. This message was intentional.
The first message should not have been included and I apologise for the confusion it caused.
I am addressing the situation and have remade the decision to close the SFI 2024 scheme to new applications, without notice, on 11 March 2025, taking into account the message that was published in error on the screen.
I have decided to allow applications to be made to the SFI 2024 scheme by those who had started an application within two months of 11 March 2025, but who had not submitted the application by that date. This is relevant to around 3,000 applications which were started on 12 January 2025 or later. Eligible applicants will be given a six-week window in which to make an application. My Department will shortly be contacting applicants who are eligible to let them know when this window will open and close.
Agreements will be offered to eligible applications subject to the following restrictions:
Only one application may be submitted per farm business.
Agreements will be offered up to a maximum value of £9,300 per year for the duration of the agreement—excluding the SFI management payment, which would not count towards the value limit. This maximum value reflects the median average agreement value for existing SFI 2024 agreements.
Agreement holders will not be able to add more land to “rotational” SFI actions after year 1 of their agreement.
I acknowledge that these restrictions are not part of the published SFI 2024 scheme. I have taken the decision to put these restrictions in place in order to be as fair and reasonable to the affected applicants as possible, while also ensuring the prudent use of public money and the wider public interest. Given that the budget for the SFI 2024 scheme has been fully allocated, any further agreements entered into under the SFI 2024 scheme will need to be funded from other areas of DEFRA’s departmental budget. I have therefore borne in mind the need to avoid creating unfairness to others or undermining other important objectives by unreasonably diverting funds from the wider farming and countryside programme.
My Department will announce further details on how this approach will be implemented shortly, including the timing of when applications from eligible applicants can start.
This decision does not change arrangements for small groups we previously announced would be able to make applications for agreements under the SFI 2024 scheme despite the closure of applications—namely farmers who were in the SFI pilot, assisted digital applications, and applicants with known system issues that prevented them from submitting applications. We will be contacting these groups shortly to explain the details of how this will be taken forward.
For all other farmers, SFI remains closed to new applications for the time being, pending the launch of the reformed SFI offer, which we will publish more detail about this summer. Work on this offer is already well under way. We are developing it in partnership with sector stakeholders, and the scheme will target public funds more effectively to meet the needs of both farmers and the environment.
Every penny committed through more than 37,000 live SFI agreements that were in place before 11 March will continue to be paid to farmers over the coming years. All eligible applications submitted before applications closed have been taken forward.
This decision will not impact the planned payment rate increase for farmers in higher level stewardship agreements, details of which are due to be released shortly.
We are investing £30 million to increase HLS payment rates so farmers in HLS agreements can continue to restore habitats, support rare species, preserve historical features and maintain traditional landscape features in our iconic countryside.
We are going further to develop a 25-year farming road map to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come with Baroness Minette Batters, former NFU President and farmer, appointed to lead a review of farm profitability.
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Nursing: Professional Regulation
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)
Nurses play a critical role in our healthcare system, and this Government recognise the vital role that nurses play in delivering safe, effective and compassionate care. Today we are proposing to protect the title “nurse” in law to ensure that only those registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council can use it, with limited exceptions.
The protection in law of certain professional titles is important for public safety. Protected titles are used by healthcare professionals to indicate their field of practice to patients and the public, providing assurance to the public that the person using that title is competent and safe to practise.
Currently, the title “registered nurse” is protected in law. However, the Government are aware of concerns, most recently raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) and the #ProtectNurse campaign, that this is not sufficient to safeguard the public, as it does not address the misuse of the title “nurse” by unregulated professionals.
This Government intend to amend the criminal offence of “misuse of professional titles” so that the title of “nurse” is protected. This amendment will be made as part of the Government’s professional regulation reform programme, which will modernise the legislative frameworks for the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Health and Care Professions Council during this Parliament.
As part of reforms to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s legislative framework, we will create a new protection of title offence, making it a criminal offence for an individual who is not a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council to call themselves a nurse.
The Government are aware that the term “nurse” is used across multiple professions, for example, “dental nurse”, “veterinary nurse” and “nursery nurse”. It is not our intention to prevent the legitimate use of the title “nurse” within these instances. The legislation will therefore include exemptions to allow other professionals to use the title legitimately, without the risk of prosecution.
The Government will continue to work with key stakeholders, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the devolved Governments, the Royal College of Nursing, trade unions, other professional representatives and the social care sector, on developing the protection of title offence.
This proposal demonstrates the Government’s respect for the nursing profession, dedication to patient safety and the pivotal role nurses have in our society.
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