Baroness Walmsley

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee to respond on his behalf. Following careful consideration, the provision of halal products when weighed against demand, is unfortunately not viable in terms of costs, logistics and supplier management.

Upon request for events, the Catering and Retail Service (CRS) can provide pre-stunned halal meat and poultry from certified and trusted suppliers that meet the standards for recognised accreditation schemes such as the RSPCA’s Freedom Food and Red Tractor.

CRS fully understand that all its customers do have wider individual requirements which it aims to cater for. In doing so CRS provide weekly changing menus in our cafeterias and table service restaurants offering an increased array of vegan and vegetarian options which continue to grow in popularity.

The National Underground Asset Register is a digital map of underground pipes and cables that is primarily aimed to support safe digging through the creation of a secure, auditable, trusted and sustainable platform that will support greater data sharing of underground assets such as water and gas pipes and electricity cables.

There are no plans to introduce a legal obligation to require housebuilders, commercial developers and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions.

EU State aid rules no longer apply to subsidies granted from 1 January 2021 in the UK, except for aid within scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, including aid under Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. However, public authorities must comply with our international commitments on subsidies in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation agreement (TCA), and other trade agreements, as well as the World Trade Organisation rules on subsidies.

Since the 1 January 2020, subject to any applicable exemptions, a subsidy in scope of the TCA must follow and apply the principles and prohibitions in the agreement before it can be awarded. The TCA also requires certain information about the subsidy award to be made publicly available. The Department has developed a new publicly accessible transparency database for public authorities to record subsidies, which will be launched shortly. An interested Party can take steps for the award of the subsidy to be Judicially Reviewed if they consider that the public authority has not complied with its duties under the TCA or acted in a way that is inconsistent with general public law principles (for example, if the public authority acted unlawfully, irrationally, or with procedural unfairness).

On 3 February, the Government published a consultation on the design of the future UK subsidy regime. This consultation invites views from stakeholders on a number of areas, including oversight and enforcement in the subsidy control regime. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the Government will bring forward legislation in due course and before the end of the year.

Until the end of the Transition Period, the European Commission could investigate the effect on UK markets of a breach of EU competition law. To avoid a delay to enforcement, the Withdrawal Agreement gave the European Commission jurisdiction to complete its investigations that relate to UK markets if they began before the end of the Transition Period. The Competition and Markets Authority can work with the European Commission on these cases in the way it could before the end of the Transition Period.

We know that the restrictions on singing are frustrating to large numbers of amateur choirs and performance groups across the country and that many people have made sacrifices in order to drive down infections and protect the NHS over the last year.

It is important that we take a cautious approach in easing restrictions. We have followed the views of public health experts on singing. We are aware, through the NERVTAG and PERFORM studies that singing can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission through the spread of aerosol droplets. This was backed up by a consensus statement from SAGE, resulting in the suggested principles of safer singing being published.

We will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. Further detail on step 4 will be set out as soon as possible.

The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap and seeing a million more disabled people in work by 2027. We support disabled people, including people with fluctuating and hidden health conditions, to return to work through programmes such as the Work and Health Programme and the new Intensive Personalised Employment Support Programme.

Access to Work supports people with a disability or health condition that affects the way they do their job to enter, sustain and progress in their employment. The scheme offers individually tailored support and advice, including a discretionary grant of up to £59,200 per year to cover costs above the level of employers’ statutory obligation to provide reasonable adjustments.

We will publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020. This will look at ways to improve the benefits system, opportunities and access for disabled people in terms of housing, education, transport and jobs.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency publish the proportion of nursing entrants to undergraduate courses that are no longer in higher education. The following table shows the proportion of United Kingdom domiciled undergraduate nursing entrants who are no longer in higher education 2019/20. The rates in will not include students that have transferred to a course in another subject. Non-continuation rates are not available at the level of specific nursing professions.

Source: The Higher Education Statistics Agency Non-continuation rates 2022.

The United Kingdom has received sufficient supply of vaccines to meet the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s current advice for the autumn booster vaccination programme. This includes Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, with Novavax where no other UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine is deemed clinically suitable. These vaccines, which the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved for use in the UK, are currently in deployment.

The majority of the Government’s contracts with developers contain flexibilities to ensure that the UK can receive updated vaccines being produced, including the recently regulated bivalent mRNA vaccines, which provide broader protection against variants and variant-specific vaccines. We remain in regular contact with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the future supply of vaccines to the UK.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) continues to monitor COVID-19 epidemiology and evaluate data from the United Kingdom and globally in order to provide advice to the Government on potential vaccination programmes. However, as this is an ongoing process, we are unable to confirm a specific timetable.

The minutes of the JCVI’s meetings, where advice to the Government is discussed, is published in an online only format at GOV.UK.

The United Kingdom’s national immunisation programmes are co-ordinated to improve access at general practices, clinics and pharmacies through working with stakeholders. NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are working with regional teams on communications to support higher vaccine uptake, including under-served communities; people with long term health conditions; and pregnant women. Those eligible for COVID-19 and flu vaccines include people over 50 years old, health and social care workers and those aged from six months for flu and five years old for COVID-19 in the relevant clinical risk groups. The flu vaccine is also being offered to healthy children aged two to 11 years old and some secondary school children.

From 5 September to 17 October 2022, over 8.5 million COVID-19 autumn booster doses have been administered in England. We are ensuring that COVID-19 vaccination appointments being offered 3,100 sites, including more than 1,680 community pharmacies and 80 hospital hubs.

We will set out further details about measures on weight management later in the year.