Lord Birt

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established to consider whether important institutions — including the Anglican Church — had taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse. The Inquiry published a report, entitled “The Anglican Church - Safeguarding in the Church of England and the Church of Wales”. The report, published in October 2020, is available on the Inquiry’s website, alongside the response to its recommendations from the Church of England and the Church of Wales. The response by the Church of England was considered by the House of Bishops on 19 October 2020 and a unanimous vote supported and accepted all of the Inquiry’s recommendations, particularly the two most significant themes arising from the report; firstly, proper redress for victims and survivors, and secondly, greater independence in safeguarding decision making.

The Chair of the Inquiry, Professor Alexis Jay, subsequently conducted an independent review, on behalf of the Church of England, into the future of Church Safeguarding, which was published in February 2024. The Government does not plan to establish a further inquiry.

The Prime Minister is committed to restoring confidence in government and ensuring ministers are held to the highest standards. Under his leadership, this Government will ensure the highest standards of integrity and honesty. When meeting with his new Cabinet for the first time, the Prime Minister was clear about the standards he expects of them and their ministerial teams.

He will issue a Ministerial Code in due course which will set out the standards of behaviour expected of ministers. As public office holders, ministers are also bound by the Nolan Principles. One such principle that applies is leadership, under which ministers are required to “treat others with respect”.

Ministers' special advisers are contractually required to abide by the standards set out in the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, which includes the requirement to “establish mutual relationships of confidence and trust” with civil servants.

The Government is currently focused on looking forwards and resetting the relationship with our European friends. As such the Prime Minister hosted 45 leaders from across Europe to the European Political Community on Thursday 18 July, to enhance cooperation on European security and other shared challenges the continent faces. Publicly available research on the interactions between the UK-EU relationship and the UK economy is widely accessible.

A consultation was held under the previous administration on whether a transitional, or ‘bridging’, support should be provided for large-scale biomass generators when their current subsidies end. No decision has been taken on proposed support. Any decision will be subject to robust analysis and the Government is considering a range of factors to inform its decision.

The Government only supports sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that complies with our sustainability criteria. The 2023 Biomass Strategy contained a commitment to consult on developing and implementing a cross-sector sustainability framework to enable greater consistency across sectors. Next steps on this will be announced in due course.

Following the conclusion of Ofgem’s investigation, the Government is considering the findings.

Ofgem published their conclusions on an investigation into Drax’s compliance with sustainability standards on 29 August 2024. The investigation found that whilst Drax complied with the standards, it failed to report data accurately. Government expects full compliance with all regulatory obligations and the size of Drax’s redress payment, at £25 million, underscores the robustness of the regulatory system.

The 2023 Biomass Strategy contained a commitment to consult on developing and implementing a cross-sector sustainability framework to enable greater consistency across sectors. Next steps on this will be announced in due course.

CCUS will be vital to this government’s commitment to create good jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands, ensuring a just transition for the industries based in the North Sea, and accelerating towards Net Zero.

The historic investment we recently announced in Carbon Capture and Storage in the North-West and North-East is just the start, representing a vote of confidence in this technology and burgeoning industry. We have been engaging with the Track-1 and Track-2 clusters to understand their deployment and expansion plans, and we will have more to say on future projects in the coming months.

The Government understands the important role our public service broadcasters (PSBs) play not only within the TV sector, but also in terms of their wider economic and democratic contribution in the United Kingdom.

We are committed to working constructively with our PSBs so that they can continue to inform, educate and entertain across the UK. More broadly, this Government will work towards opening up more opportunities for people in all parts of the UK to work in broadcast programming and we recognise the important role PSBs have in supporting this aim.

The Media Act – which received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024 – will give our PSBs greater flexibility in how they contribute to the remit, making it easier for them to make their content available on a wider range of free-to-air platforms, as well as ensuring PSB content remains easy to find as viewers increasingly shift online.

Ofcom, as the independent broadcasting regulator, is responsible for monitoring the performance of PSBs against their remit and obligations. It also has a statutory duty to undertake a review of the PSB system at least every five years under the Communications Act 2003 with a view to maintaining and strengthening the quality of public service television in the United Kingdom. We expect Ofcom to launch their PSB review in the coming months and look forward to receiving its report next year.

The Environment Agency received three self-reported pollution incidents from United Utilities relating to operations at Glebe Road Pumping Station, Windermere. These were reported on 26 January, 29 February and 21 May 2024.

The Environment Agency has launched an investigation into the sewage discharges at this Pumping Station and is examining further evidence received from the company. If United Utilities is found to be in breach of an environmental permit, the Environment Agency will take the appropriate enforcement action up to and including a criminal prosecution.

The Environment Agency (EA) is carrying out an investigation into United Utilities’ (UU) discharges into Lake Windermere.

The investigation concerns three separate incidents that were self-reported by UU. One of these incidents was a retrospective report of pollution.

Where a breach of a UU permit has occurred, the EA will take the appropriate enforcement action in accordance with its enforcement and sanctions policy.

Companies are being held to strict requirements by the regulators, demanding significantly higher spend on environmental enhancement than in the previous price review.

On 11 July, the Secretary of State met with water company bosses to set out our expectations for the sector, just six days after my Cabinet appointment. Alongside this, this Government announced a series of initial steps towards ending the crisis in the water sector.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will give Ofwat further powers to hold water companies to account where they do not deliver for customers and the environment.

This Bill is just the start of the fundamental and much broader transformation that this Government will lead for the water industry.

The Government will launch a review to shape further legislation that will fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.

The Government is committed to ensuring that public charging is accessible for all, and it is vital that consumers can charge hassle-free. Under the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 chargepoint operators are required to offer contactless payment options for all new chargepoints of 8 kW and above, as well as all chargepoints of 50 kW and above, old and new.

These regulations have been designed to ensure that contactless payment methods are available across a large part of the public charge point network, where they will bring most significant and immediate benefits to consumers.

Whether a roundabout is suitable for any location is entirely a matter for the relevant highway authority to decide upon, taking into account local factors including safety. They are also responsible for reviewing any such installations should concerns arise. National Highways publishes detailed advice on the design of roundabouts in the ‘Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB)’. Use of DMRB is mandatory for the Strategic Road Network, but is available as guidance for all highway authorities.

RAC’s pothole estimate was based on 81 local authority responses to a Freedom of Information request carried out in 2023. The Department agrees that pothole formation occurs more frequently in the winter months, where increased water and ice cause ingress and subsequent road defects to occur.

Whilst the Department does not require notification when highway authorities discover, receive reports of, or repair individual defects on the local highway network, local highway authorities are required to provide road condition information to the Department annually as part of the data obligations set out in the Single Data List. The Department publishes this information on gov.uk as part of its annual statistical releases.

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network. At Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of nearly 50% compared to the current financial year. The Government will confirm funding allocations to English local highway authorities in due course.

The Department for Transport (DfT) allocates this funding to local highways authorities so they can most effectively spend this funding on maintaining and improving their respective network, based upon their local knowledge, circumstances, and priorities. It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, but the DfT strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes. This considers all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes.

There are no plans to review the current arrangements.

The 25 pence a week Age Addition is part of the old State Pension, for those who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016. It is paid with the basic State Pension, when somebody reaches the age of 80.

The Age Addition is not part of the new State Pension, but for those people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, the 25 pence Age Addition under the existing rules will continue.

The Department keeps abreast of the findings of research and analysis that covers different countries, for example that produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. However, as a result of the time it takes to obtain and process data from different countries, the most recent trends will not necessarily be reflected in these sources. Once the latest data is available this will feed into policy development as appropriate.

Phase One of the Pensions Investment Review closely considered international evidence from the Australian and Canadian pension systems. Evidence was particularly considered around the benefits of scale, asset allocations and consolidation. This was published in the Pension Investment Review and supplementary analytical document, available here:
Pensions Investment Review: interim report, consultations and evidence - GOV.UK

The analysis found:

i) 46% of Canadian pension assets and 55% of Australian pension assets are invested domestically, across all asset types.

ii) Information is not available on the exact geographies of all investments across all asset classes, nor the returns these have earned at geographical level.

iii) Canada allocates 11% of its assets to infrastructure and 13% to property. In Australia, it is estimated around 8% of its pension funds are invested in infrastructure and 7% in property.

iv) Australian pension schemes invest around 3 times more in infrastructure and 10 times more in private equity.

We are currently reviewing how to improve access to general practice (GP) appointments, including vaccination appointments accessed through the NHS App. NHS App teams undertake continual rounds of user testing and data monitoring on how the online booking journeys are performing, making changes when issues are identified.

97.8 million COVID-19 and flu vaccinations have been booked by the public through the National Booking System, with specifically 73% being booked through the website, 18% through the app, and 8% through a call centre, since its launch towards the end of June 2024. Alongside this, GPs directly invite registered patients into vaccination clinics using local booking systems.

We recognise that it can be challenging to balance accessing care with other responsibilities. That’s why we have committed to modernising the general practice (GP) booking system, making it easier for patients to communicate with their practice, and why we will ensure that anyone who wants a face-to-face appointment can receive one.

Integrated care boards must ensure that out-of-hours appointments are available to patients to help them access care at convenient times, for example on weekends, evenings or bank holidays.

We will make sure the future of GPs is sustainable by training thousands more GPs across the country to take the pressure off those currently working within the system, ensure increased capacity across the National Health Service, and secure a future pipeline of GPs.

Where parents or families are paying fees for their child to attend a private school, they will pay VAT on those fees following this change.

Whilst developing these policies, the government has carefully considered the impact that they will have on pupils and their families across both the state and private sector, as well as the impact they will have on state and private schools. Following scrutiny by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), details of the Government’s assessment of the expected impacts of these policy changes will be published at the Budget on 30 October in the usual way.

We applaud the BBC’s Scam Interceptors programme for the work they have done both to warn viewers in the UK about the risk of online and telephone scams, and to highlight the practices of organised fraud gangs, operating out of India and elsewhere.

The fraud threat to the UK is varied and we continue to work with key partners from across the globe to target fraud at its source and protect the UK public. This includes engaging with the Government of India directly to see what more can be done, including on law enforcement collaboration and sharing best practice on fraud prevention.

We have also introduced a series of sector charters with industry to agree voluntary actions to protect consumers from a range of fraud. This includes the Online Fraud Charter, signed by some of the largest online platforms and services. The Charter actions seek to improve blocking fraud at source, make reporting fraud easier and decreasing the time it takes to remove fraudulent content and advertisements.

There is no current intention to review the UK-US Extradition Treaty. The UK-US Extradition Treaty continues to produce tangible results, bringing justice to victims in both the UK and US.

The Government works closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime and the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group, which focuses on tackling vehicle crime. The working group which brings together representatives of the Government, policing, and vehicle manufacturers to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.

The Government keeps all legislation under review. We will be introducing a Crime and Policing Bill and will consider what measures are needed to support efforts to tackle and prevent vehicle crime.

The Government has committed to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. At the Budget we said that at the multi-year Spending Review next spring, we will set out details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and home-ownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for Social Rent. This funding will secure the pipeline of affordable homes and put us on the right path to delivering 1.5 million homes over this Parliament.

As part of the consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system, the Government is seeking views on implementing golden rules to ensure development in the Green Belt is in the public interest. These rules include a target of 50% affordable housing on land released from the Green Belt for residential development, which includes social housing. The consultation closed on the 24 September and officials in my department are currently analysing responses.

The Government has committed to delivering 1.5 million homes this Parliament, delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. We are proposing reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework that are designed to support the delivery of affordable housing, including ensuring that councils can prioritise the types of affordable homes their communities need. We have given councils greater flexibility to use their Right to Buy receipts to deliver replacement affordable housing (these flexibilities will be in place for an initial 24 months, subject to review). Further details will be announced in due course.

The Government has committed to delivering 1.5 million homes in this Parliament, delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. We will work with councils and housing associations to build capacity and ensure we build the homes people need.

We will also introduce ‘golden rules’ in relation to grey and Green Belt release, to ensure development benefits communities and nature, including targeting the delivery of 50 per cent affordable housing on these sites.