Lord Hay of Ballyore

Experimental estimates published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report around 207,000 workers in the Republic of Ireland were supported by exports to the UK in 2018 (latest year for which estimates are available).

More timely estimates for June 2022 or estimates for employment supported by total trade between the Republic of Ireland and the UK (exports plus imports), are not available.

Source: OECD Trade in Employment (2021 ed.) database, https://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/trade-in-employment.htm

The number of fatal casualties in reported accidents on motorways, dual carriageways, and single carriageways in Great Britain for each year since 2017 can be found in the table below.

There is no obligation for leisure craft owners to report accidents directly to the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) so the data provided to answer this question cannot be considered complete.

Further, unless the accident was fully investigated, it is only possible to state that alcohol was a factor in the accident, not that it was causal.

In the last three years, the MAIB have been notified of eight accidents where alcohol was a factor, none of these accidents required a full investigation.

The Government recognises the challenging circumstances facing the aviation industry as a result of Covid-19 and businesses across the sector can draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the Chancellor. We continue to take a flexible approach and keep all impacts and policies under review.

In total, we estimate that by the end of April 2021 the air transport sector (airlines, airports and related services) will have benefited from around £7 billion of Government support since the start of the pandemic. This includes support through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The extension of Government-backed loans and furlough payments announced at the budget build on this and will help ensure this vital and vibrant part of the UK economy is ready to bounce back in the wake of the pandemic.

The aviation sector is vital to our future as a global trading nation, playing a critical role in local economies, including in Northern Ireland. The national measures taken in response to COVID-19 have been unprecedented, enabling airlines, airports and ground handlers to benefit from a very significant amount of taxpayer support. This includes, but is not limited to, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and financing facilities. The Government is also working on a strategic framework for the medium and long-term recovery of the aviation sector in the form of a recovery plan.

Airport policy is devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive (NIE). NIE has provided business rates relief to airports in Northern Ireland worth £2.2 million. NIE are continuing to consider appropriate support for airports in Northern Ireland.

The Government is in regular contact with the aviation sector to understand their passenger forecasts and financial projections, including regarding the impact of COVID-19 over the Christmas period. Airlines are putting in appropriate operations to meet any increase in demand over Christmas, during which the Government have has agreed to lift travel restrictions from 23 – 27 December.

Firms can also continue to draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the Chancellor, including schemes to raise capital, tax deferrals, and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

The Government announced on 5 November that the CJRS will be extended until March 2021 and furloughed employees will continue to receive 80% of their current salary. This will continue to protect jobs across in the UK in the difficult winter months.

The national restrictions as a result of the pandemic have not changed the way we engage regularly with the sector. We continue an open dialogue as we work towards our shared ambition of getting aviation up and running again in a safe and secure way.

The Government has consistently said that the best way to support people’s living standards is through good work, better skills, and higher wages. To that end the Government has taken decisive action to make work pay by cutting the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, meaning that claimants will be able to keep more of their earnings. At the same time, we have also increased the Work Allowance by £500 a year, this is the amount that households with children or a household member with limited capability for work can earn before their Universal Credit award starts to be tapered, meaning many claimants will be able to earn over £550 each month before their Universal Credit begins to be reduced.

The taper is applied to earnings net of tax, national insurance contributions, including the proposed increase from April, and 100 per cent occupational/personal pension contributions.

Reducing the taper rate from 63% to 55% means that the marginal effective tax rate for someone paying basic rate tax and national insurance will fall from around 75% before these changes to under 70% in 22-23 (this is after accounting for the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy).

In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the earnings threshold where people start paying National Insurance would increase to £12,570 from 6 July, which is worth over £330 a year for employees.

Existing powers to disregard redress payments for the purposes of means-tested benefits, which are provided for by the Historical Institutional Abuse Act (Northern Ireland) 2019, only cover claimants living within Northern Ireland.

The Government is currently considering how best to address this issue for those who happen to live elsewhere in the UK.

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Dissolution. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

Throughout Great Britain, the Department for Work and Pensions through the Rapid Response Service (RRS) gives support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with redundancy. This includes those in the retail and hospitality sector.

The range of support available from Jobcentre Plus and partners may include:

• Connecting people to jobs in the labour market.
• Help with job search including CV writing, interview skills, where to find jobs and how to apply for them.
• Help to identify transferable skills and skills gaps (linked to the local labour market)

Moreover, the Government has announced and implemented the Plan for Jobs measures to create, support and protect jobs, and help everyone to find a job, whoever they are and wherever they live in Great Britain.

The Plan for Jobs measures cover support for youth (Kickstart/DWP Youth Offer) including skills and apprenticeships, for individuals recently made unemployed (Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme), as well as support for those who maybe unemployed for over 12 months (Restart).

The package of measures is underpinned by the extra 13,500 work coaches who have been successfully recruited, who can provide personalised support at the point of need.

Employment support is transferred to Northern Ireland, so this support is provided by the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.

While no formal assessment has been made, we have committed to invest at least an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24, including community mental health support.

In 2020/21, we provided £500 million to accelerate plans to improve National Health Service mental health provision. This included £15 million for prevention and early intervention in over 250 local projects promoting better mental health and wellbeing in 40 of the most deprived local authority areas in England. We also provided an additional £10.2 million to support mental health charities, including Samaritans and the Campaign Against Living Miserably in response to the pandemic.

No specific assessment has been made. However, in 2021/22 we have invested £10.5 million to improve autism diagnostic and post-diagnostic pathways. In 2022/2023, we will develop guidance and support to embed effective post-diagnostic pathways.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for services and support for people with dementia. We would expect CCGs to commission services which take into account the relevant guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines and the dementia care pathway, which provides standards to improve the delivery and quality of care. Following a dementia diagnosis, patients should receive information on local services and access to relevant advice and support.

In 2021/22, the Government allocated £17 million to NHS England and NHS Improvement to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. This funding was made available to CCGs in June 2021. Later this year, we will set out plans for dementia in England.

In 2021/22, the Government allocated £17 million to NHS England and NHS Improvement to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. This funding was made available to clinical commissioning groups in June 2021.

Following a dementia diagnosis, patients should receive information on local services and access to relevant advice and support. We will continue to support carers to provide care as they would wish and to do so in a way that supports their own health and wellbeing, access to education, employment and life choices. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any carer who appears to have a need for support.

Later this year, we will set out plans for dementia in England. The new strategy will include a focus on improving the experience of being diagnosed and living with dementia, both for people with dementia and their carers.

No recent assessment has been made. However, between 2015/16 and 2019/20, the Government’s expenditure on all types of dementia research, including for Alzheimer’s disease, was approximately £420 million. We will set out plans for dementia in England for future years in a new strategy to be published later this year. The strategy will include the ambitions for all types of dementia research

We maintain an open and regular dialogue with the Government of the United States of America about a range of issues, including diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.

As well as addressing the immediate challenges of COVID-19, the Government recognises the importance of acting now to create the conditions for an investment-led recovery driven by private sector growth.

Stimulating private sector investment will create jobs, drive innovation, and revitalise local areas and regions across the UK. This is central to the Government’s plan to secure a strong recovery and the Budget announced a package of measures to achieve this, including the new super-deduction to support business investment.

The Office for National Statistics, as part of the Quarterly National Accounts, published revised outturn figures for business investment in Q1 2021. In real and seasonally-adjusted terms, business investment fell by 10.7 per cent (£5.4 billion) in Q1 2021 compared to the previous quarter, or by 16.9 per cent (£9.2 billion) compared to Q1 2020.

At Spring Budget 2021, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which produces forecasts on the economy and public finances, revised upwardly the medium-term business investment outlook, expecting a return to its pre-crisis level in Q2 2022.

In the March 2021 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the OBR highlighted the potential impact of the super deduction:

“As a temporary measure, it provides companies with a very strong incentive to bring forward investment from future periods to take advantage of the temporarily much more generous allowances. We assume that at its peak in 2022-23, this will raise the level of business investment by around 10 per cent (equivalent to around £20 billion a year) as spending is brought forward.”

The Northern Ireland Protocol is clear that Northern Ireland is fully part of the UK’s customs territory. As such, there should be no tariffs on internal UK trade and tariffs should only be charged if goods are destined for Ireland or the EU Single Market more broadly, or if there is a genuine and substantial risk of them ending up there. Traders are able to declare goods ‘not at risk’ and therefore face no duty if their goods are for sale to, or final use by, end consumers located in the UK that are brought into Northern Ireland by a trader authorised under the UK Trader Scheme.

The Government has also made full use of provisions in the Protocol to waive tariffs on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, even where they are classified as ‘at risk’ of entering the EU market. In addition, the Government will establish a reimbursement scheme for goods that attract a tariff, but which can subsequently be shown to have remained in the UK customs territory.

In order to help traders moving goods, the Government has also provided £270 million to support businesses trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland through the Trader Support Service. More than 39,000 traders have registered for this free to use service which provides education for traders and can complete customs declarations on their behalf.

The Government announced at Budget 2021 that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will continue until September, with a fourth and a final fifth grant. This provides certainty to business as the economy reopens and means the SEISS will continue to be one of the most generous schemes for the self-employed in the world.

The fourth SEISS grant was available to claim from late April to 1 June, and was worth 80% of average trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months’ worth of annual profits, and capped at £7,500 in total.

The fifth and final SEISS grant, covering May to September, will include a turnover test  in order to ensure that the most generous support is targeted at those who need it most. This will determine whether individuals can continue to receive a grant worth 80% of three months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500 or a 30% grant, capped at £2,850.

Further, the SEISS is just one element of a substantial package of support for the self-employed. At Budget, the temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance was extended for six months, and the Government also extended the suspension of the Minimum Income Floor for three months, to the end of July 2021, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award can continue to take into account their lower earnings. In addition to this, they may also have access to other elements of the package, including Restart Grants, the Recovery Loan scheme, business rates relief, and other business support schemes.

Following the Coronavirus outbreak, the Government worked quickly with lenders and financial regulators to give people access to payment holidays on their mortgages. This gives customers a much-needed respite period, where no repayments on these products are due. It was necessary to bring this temporary measure in, in order to give customers time to smooth out their finances that may have taken a hit by the pandemic. As borrowers still requiring assistance after 31 October could be in serious financial distress the FCA believe it is right that lenders are able to understand their financial position in order to lend responsibly

The FCA published guidance on mortgage payment holidays on 14 September setting out that firms should continue to provide support through tailored forbearance options for those borrowers that are facing ongoing financial difficulties. This could include granting new mortgage payment holidays. As part of this guidance any forbearance granted beyond 31 October will be reflected on the consumer’s credit file in the usual manner.

The Government also has support in place for qualifying borrowers that cannot afford their mortgage interest. Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) provides financial help to homeowners who qualify for an income related benefit. Claimants must be in receipt of Universal Credit for nine assessment periods (nine months), before receiving support through the SMI scheme. The loan is then repayable upon sale of the property. The primary purpose of SMI is to enable people to stay in their homes without fear of repossession.

Individuals suspected of terrorism-related offences can be arrested under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) or the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT). Those arrested under TACT cannot be released on police bail, while those arrested under PACE must be bailed once the grounds for detention no longer apply.

In the year to December 2021, of the 186 people arrested in Great Britain for terrorism-related activity, 32 people (17%) were arrested under section 41 TACT 2000 while 154 people (83%) were arrested under other legislation including PACE 1984.

The Government considers that the current legislative framework provides an important flexibility, allowing the police to make an operational judgement on the circumstances of each case, and allowing them to decide whether or not to arrest under PACE or TACT.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size and composition of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: Police workforce England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The latest officer numbers were released in the publication covering the situation as at 30 September 2020. Data covering the situation as at 31 March 2020 and previous years are available in open data format here: Police workforce open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The number of police officers (full time-equivalent, FTE) in the 43 territorial England and Wales forces as at 30 September 2019 is provided in the table below.

While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount) in England and Wales. Data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size and composition of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: Police workforce England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The latest officer numbers were released in the publication covering the situation as at 30 September 2020. Data covering the situation as at 31 March 2020 and previous years are available in open data format here: Police workforce open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The number of police officers (full time-equivalent, FTE) in the 43 territorial England and Wales forces as at 30 September 2020 is provided in the table below:

While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount) in England and Wales. Data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size and composition of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: Police workforce England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The latest police community support officer numbers were released in the publication covering the situation as at 30 September 2020. Data covering the situation as at 31 March 2020 and previous years are available in open data format here: Police workforce open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The number of police community support officers (full time-equivalent, FTE) in the 43 territorial England and Wales forces as at 30 September 2020 is provided in the table below:

While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount) in England and Wales. Data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics

I refer the noble Lord to the reply I gave on 2 September 2021 to Question HL2389 to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Warwick.

As at 10 September 2021, 87% of UK Armed Forces personnel had received at least one COVID vaccination and 67% were fully vaccinated. Given the age profile of our personnel, these rates are slightly ahead of comparable statistics for the general population. Defence continues to work to improve COVID vaccine uptake for all eligible personnel.

We are committed to the mental health and wellbeing of our Service personnel and recognise that Service life can cause stress. All Regular Service personnel are supported by dedicated medical services including mental health support. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) also provides a 24-hour mental health helpline for Serving personnel and their families to provide support for any mental health problems anytime, anywhere.

The available evidence indicates that the mental health of the Armed Forces is broadly comparable to that of the general population and we are working with the single Services, Defence Medical Services, and others to promote good mental fitness and breakdown stigma. As a supplement to existing provision, in April 2020 the MOD, in partnership with The Royal Foundation, launched HeadFIT, a mental fitness tool to support the Armed Forces community.

A copy of the list showing the land and buildings that are in the process of being disposed of by the Ministry of Defence has been placed in the Library of the House. The majority of these sites are still occupied whilst being prepared for disposal. However, 25 part or whole sites are currently vacant and have been physically handed over to Defence Infrastructure Organisation for disposal.

Whilst the Ministry of Defence records the medical employability and deployability of Service personnel, more specific information about the level of sickness absence in the Armed Forces is not held centrally. As at 1 June 2020, medical employability for the trained UK Armed Forces was 98 per cent.