Adam Afriyie

In England, cafes and restaurants can remain open for takeaway and deliveries. This means that customers can enter the premises to place and collect their order. COVID-secure businesses can continue to sell goods online or via click-and-collect. If a business is able to trade goods in a COVID-secure manner while following the new national restrictions, and all of the other trade requirements behind selling another good, they can. For example, a cafe could sell ceramic mugs to customers.

Off licenses and licensed shops selling alcohol, including breweries, are permitted to remain open during the new national restrictions in place from 5 November.

Wraysbury, Eton, Old Windsor and the Windsor constituency fall within areas that are commercially active. Currently 95.5% of the constituency of Windsor have access to Superfast broadband, which is only slightly below the UK average of 96.7%.

An Openreach Superfast contract has been completed to increase the provision of full-fibre broadband to residents and businesses in Windsor. A Gigaclear contract is also in progress and moving forwards, having previously been held up by a wayleave for Windsor Great Park.

Windsor constituents have made use of the national Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme too, having applied for 52 vouchers worth more than £102k. Up to £210 million is available through the new UK Gigabit Voucher, launched on 8 April for any eligible homes or businesses.

Following the launch of Project Gigabit in March, the government will begin the roll out of gigabit-capable broadband to hard-to-reach places in the UK. East Berkshire is part of Lot 26 in phase 2 and Building Digital UK will begin a rolling Open Market Review (OMR) process from June 2021 to give us a national view of commercial build plans for the following three years.

Telecoms providers will be asked to provide existing and planned coverage at an individual premise level and we will use this information, following appropriate due diligence, to create a complete picture of forecast gigabit-capable infrastructure coverage for the UK. The OMR process will validate and update existing maps to account for any amendments to existing coverage and/or plans for broadband infrastructure.

The OMR will be followed by a Public Review to ensure that the views of anyone involved in network building are captured and considered. This will be publicised via Gov.uk and the local authority website.

Wraysbury, Eton, Old Windsor and the Windsor constituency fall within areas that are commercially active. Currently 95.5% of the constituency of Windsor have access to Superfast broadband, which is only slightly below the UK average of 96.7%.

An Openreach Superfast contract has been completed to increase the provision of full-fibre broadband to residents and businesses in Windsor. A Gigaclear contract is also in progress and moving forwards, having previously been held up by a wayleave for Windsor Great Park.

Windsor constituents have made use of the national Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme too, having applied for 52 vouchers worth more than £102k. Up to £210 million is available through the new UK Gigabit Voucher, launched on 8 April for any eligible homes or businesses.

Following the launch of Project Gigabit in March, the government will begin the roll out of gigabit-capable broadband to hard-to-reach places in the UK. East Berkshire is part of Lot 26 in phase 2 and Building Digital UK will begin a rolling Open Market Review (OMR) process from June 2021 to give us a national view of commercial build plans for the following three years.

Telecoms providers will be asked to provide existing and planned coverage at an individual premise level and we will use this information, following appropriate due diligence, to create a complete picture of forecast gigabit-capable infrastructure coverage for the UK. The OMR process will validate and update existing maps to account for any amendments to existing coverage and/or plans for broadband infrastructure.

The OMR will be followed by a Public Review to ensure that the views of anyone involved in network building are captured and considered. This will be publicised via Gov.uk and the local authority website.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we made sure that people could exercise at least once a day even during the height of lockdown - and why we opened up grassroots sport and leisure facilities as soon as it was safe to do so.

Nobody wanted to be in the position of having to introduce further National Restrictions. However as the Prime Minister said, with the virus spreading faster than expected we cannot allow our health system to be overwhelmed. Therefore, from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December indoor and outdoor leisure will need to close. The National Restrictions are designed to get the R rate under control through limiting social contact and reducing transmissions.

In order for these measures to have the greatest impact, we will all need to sacrifice doing some things that we would otherwise like to do, for a short period of time. We have not introduced further exemptions because when you unpick at one activity the effectiveness of the whole package is compromised. As soon as we're in a position to start lifting restrictions, grassroots sports will be one of the first to return.

On Saturday 31 October 2020, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced new national restrictions from Thursday 5 November 2020 until Wednesday 2 December 2020 to control the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. On 4 November 2020, the Department for Education published guidance for schools and nurseries regarding the impact of these restrictions. The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020.

The Government continues to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of children and young people and will not be closing early years settings, schools, further education colleges or universities.

The Government is committed to all pupils receiving a high-quality education. Music, including one-to-one lessons, can be undertaken in school, college, or university so long as safety precautions are undertaken.

Advice is provided in the full opening guidance which sets out how teaching music can be conducted safely in schools. This includes visits by peripatetic teachers for the purposes of one-to-one music lessons, such as tutors from music education hubs.

Where provision is taking place before or after the school day, this should only operate where the provision is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, search for work, or attend education or training, or where the provision is used for the purposes of respite care, including for vulnerable children.

Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education (which could include, for example, private tutors, tuition centres, supplementary schools) may also continue to operate.

All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes, should close for face to face provision but can offer remote education for the duration of the national restrictions.

The Department for Education's EdTech Strategy, 'Realising the potential of technology in education', aims to support educational providers to embed and use technology effectively to support teacher workload reductions, cost savings and improved student outcomes. This includes supporting schools and colleges to spread best practice in effective technology use through our Demonstrator Programme, which is due to launch in the Spring.

The Demonstrator Programme will help tech enabled schools and colleges to provide peer-to-peer support to other schools to help them use technology in the most effective way.

According to the regulations you may leave your home for the purpose of caring for or exercising your pet and other animals you own or keep. It is acceptable to leave your home where this is reasonably necessary for animal welfare reasons. Veterinary practices, pet shops and dog grooming salons are not on the list of businesses that are required to close.

Travelling to a boarding kennel or cattery to admit or collect your pet also meets the conditions whereby you are allowed to leave your home when reasonably necessary for animal welfare reasons. Equally, pet owners could ask if the boarding kennel or cattery could bring their pet back home to them.

The Canine and Feline Sector Group has issued advice for pet businesses, including dog and other pet groomers, and animal boarding establishments, on how to operate safely within the new restrictions; this includes a protocol for the handover of pets. All admission and return of pets should be by appointment only to ensure social distancing can be applied. Some providers will operate a collection and drop-off service.

Agricultural workers are the foundation of our nation's food supply. The new Lockdown Regulations that were approved on Wednesday 4 November by Parliament make allowances for those who cannot work from home to continue attending the workplace. This includes agricultural workers and those working across the food supply chain. Provisions for safe working should be in place at their places of work to ensure that they are COVID-secure, with guidance for both employers and workers to follow available on the GOV.UK website.

The Government is investing a record £5.2 billion of capital funding in the flood and coastal defence programme from 2021-27. As well as central Government funding there are a number of other funding sources for flood and coastal erosion risk management. Partnership funding can be secured from a range of sources including through local levy, local beneficiaries, partners and growth funds. The Environment Agency (EA) may issue levies to the lead local flood authority for an area (local levy) subject to approval of the relevant Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. In 2018/19, £35.5 million of local levy funding was raised by the EA in this way.

Coastal authorities may carry out coast protection work in accordance with a works scheme under the Coast Protection Act 1949. This Act provides coastal authorities with powers to levy coast protection charges from those with an interest in the land that would benefit from the coast protection works.

The Government published a long-term Policy Statement in July 2020 setting out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. The Policy Statement includes more than 40 actions which we will take to?accelerate progress to?better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion in the face of more frequent extreme weather as a result of climate change.

As part of this, the Government has committed to consider options to expand and promote the use of local powers which local authorities can access to secure additional funding to manage flood and coastal erosion risk. We have also committed to explore the actions which the Government can take to support the right conditions for local investment where there is appetite to do so.

We recognise and appreciate our dedicated farmers who continue to work tirelessly during this challenging time to keep our nation fed.

Public health remains the UK's top priority, which is why we make changes to the Travel Corridor list as necessary.

Those arriving from countries not included on the flight corridor exemption list - except for those travellers exempt from UK border rules - must self-isolate for 14 days upon their return.

Farmers and farm workers are not included in this exemption list and must therefore self-isolate. However, there are special arrangements in place for seasonal horticultural workers that enables them to go straight to the farm where they are working and commence work immediately whilst self-isolating.

Relevant guidance outlining this advice can be found here:

Travel corridors:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors

Travellers exempt from border rules in the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules

Government is continuing to work closely with the waste industry, including operators of incineration and EFW plants such as Lakeside, to understand the impact of Covid-19 on the sector and to provide the necessary and appropriate support to ensure the provision of services.

The Chancellor announced unprecedented support for businesses in general, including a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, deferral of VAT payments for firms until the end of June and £330 billion of Government-backed and guaranteed loans including a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

Early in the pandemic, Defra worked with the waste industry to develop an online platform to facilitate the sharing of resources between local authorities and commercial operators. The platform, WasteSupport, was launched on 16 April. In addition, the Environment Agency has been taking a proportionate approach to regulation and published a number of COVID-19 Regulatory Position Statements, to address specific concerns around compliance with permit conditions, for instance on exceeding waste storage limits at permitted sites. These can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/covid-19-regulatory-position-statements

Throughout the outbreak, we have worked closely with the NHS to monitor the position in relation to clinical waste. We have clear, sensible contingency plans in place and continue to keep the position under review.

Defra has worked with local government, other Government departments and the waste industry to produce and publish guidance to help local authorities manage their waste collection services and household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The guidance on reopening HWRCs was developed in conjunction with Public Health England and the Home Office and sets out how to operate HWRCs in a way that protects human health while?maintaining safe systems of working. The HWRC guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-to-local-authorities-on-prioritising-waste-collections/managing-household-waste-and-recycling-centres-hwrcs-in-england-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic

Since publication of our guidance nearly all local authorities are now able to offer a HWRC service and local householders can make trips to these sites as needed.?Weekly surveys indicate that, due to the hard work of those in the sector, nearly all English authorities are operating household waste collections as normal, with only a small percentage reporting minor disruption.

The Minister for Regional Growth and I wrote to local authorities on 5 May to thank those working to deliver waste services during the Covid-19 outbreak for the vital role they are playing in protecting the environment, public amenity and people’s health. We wrote a further letter on 28 June asking local authorities to ensure that as much access as possible is provided to HWRC services where this can be done safely.

We have put in place generous grant funding schemes to support chargepoint infrastructure on residential streets and across the wider roads network. The Government and industry have supported the installation of over 18,000 publicly available charging devices across the whole of the UK. This includes over 3,200 rapid devices – one of the largest networks in Europe.

There are over 370 rapid and ultra-rapid chargepoints across 97% of motorway service areas in England. Today, a driver is never more than 25 miles away from a rapid chargepoint anywhere along England's motorways and major A roads. By 2023, we aim to have at least six high powered, open access chargepoints at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having ten to twelve. By 2035, we expect the number to increase to around 6,000 high powered chargers across the network. To help achieve these ambitions, the Government announced the Rapid Charging Fund in March 2020, as part of a £500 million commitment to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in England. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) had a devolved authority (DA) roundtable in November 2019 with officials from all DAs, where we discussed progress and shared lessons, including around rapid chargepoint rollout. The OLEV are working with Welsh officials to organise a workshop in Wales, where local authorities can hear about and discuss best practice to supporting zero emission vehicle uptake in their areas.

The first £70 million investment through the £400 million public-private Chargepoint Infrastructure Investment Fund will create 3,000 new rapid chargepoints, more than doubling the number of rapid chargepoints across the UK by 2024.

The Department for Transport works closely with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure that effectively mitigating cyber security risks is a core part of electric vehicle (EV) chargepoint policy. The Government has commissioned work assessing the cyber security risk associated with the emerging energy system, including electric vehicle chargepoints. The output from this work will inform policy, including the development of relevant standards or regulatory approaches to mitigate cyber security risks.

In 2019, the Government consulted on regulations under the Automated Electric Vehicles Act (AEVA) for private, smart EV chargepoints. We proposed that these regulations will require compliance with device-level standards, to help ensure devices are cyber secure. These regulations are due to be laid next year. The Government will also shortly be consulting on using other powers under the AEVA to improve the consumer experience of public chargepoints, including opening chargepoint data. Cyber security will be considered as part of any future regulatory framework.

No such estimate has been made. The Department believes that the market is often better placed to encourage the private sector to invest in and operate a self-sustaining public network supported by the right policy framework. The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act (AEVA) provides the Government with a range of powers to improve the charging experience for current and future users, including compelling fuel retailers to install chargepoints.

We recognise that the recent announcement from British Airways will be very distressing news for employees and their families.

The Department for Transport is engaging on a regular basis with airlines, unions and Public Health England on the application of public health measures in aviation

The Chancellor has set out unprecedented support for workers of airline companies. Measures such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme are being used across the aviation industry to protect the sector against the Covid-19 economic crisis.

These measures, alongside other Government support measures such as Coronavirus Large Business Loan Interruption Scheme and the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), are helping airlines of all sizes get through this crisis and beyond. The Chancellor has noted that under exceptional circumstances bespoke support could be provided to airlines.

The sale of oral tobacco is banned in the United Kingdom under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. The Department is undertaking a post implementation review of these regulations and is analysing the evidence base submitted through a public consultation and external research. This includes evidence on oral tobacco. The Department is due to publish its response later this year.

The Department has not been made aware of any proposals to hold a Western European Regional meeting.

The World Health Organisation hosts the Global Tobacco Regulators Forum meetings and does not make its papers publicly available. The meeting is attended by Department officials and we do not intend on publishing their notes from the meeting.

A comparative assessment of the scientific evidence on the impact on health of the use of smokeless tobacco products, such as Swedish snus, and smoking, is out of the scope of the Post Implementation Review (PIR) of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. The purpose of the PIR is to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the legislation in achieving its objectives along with any unintended consequences that may have occurred.

Oral tobacco products or snus are banned under The Tobacco and Related Product Regulations 2016.

The Department is currently undertaking a post implementation review of the Regulations which will consider if they have met their objectives or if any future regulatory changes should be considered. The report of the review will be published by the end of the year.

The Winter Economy Plan set out a package of targeted measures in response to the current economic context, which will enable businesses, including new businesses, to protect jobs, and manage their finances in the face of reduced or uncertain demand. This includes the extension of the temporary VAT reduced rate for hospitality and tourism, extending the application window of the access to finance schemes, and further support for employees and the self-employed, through the Coronavirus Job Retentions Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant Extension. Although it has not been possible to include those who have started trading since the start of the COVID outbreak in the SEISS, the SEISS is just one element of a comprehensive package of support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants. On 8 July, the Government also introduced the new Plan for Jobs which will make available up to £30 billion to assist in creating, supporting and protecting jobs.

More information about the full range of business support measures is available at www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

The UK is home to a world-leading Fintech sector and an impressive amount of talent and expertise in this area. The government knows that Fintech firms play an important role in the lending market, especially for smaller businesses.

I am grateful for the way the sector has responded to the current crisis by identifying opportunities where technology may support the Government’s response.

The British Business Bank (BBB) has so far accredited 28 Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) lenders, including several non-banks and alternative lenders. In addition, the BBB has in excess of 100 accredited lenders for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and this includes several UK Fintechs.

The UK’s approach to cryptoassets was outlined in the 2018 Cryptoassets Taskforce report, and in July last year the FCA set out its position in relation to the regulatory perimeter in this space. The government and regulators have since taken steps to continue encouraging responsible innovation in this area, while also mitigating risks to consumers and markets.

For instance, this January the Treasury transposed the cryptoasset provisions set out in the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD). This will combat the risk of cryptoassets being used for illicit activity, in support of the government’s aims for the sector.

More broadly, the government is committed to creating an environment where tech businesses can thrive by investing in areas such as talent, cutting-edge research and growth finance. Venture capital investment in the UK tech sector grew by 44 per cent in 2019, from £7.1bn to £10.1bn. This was a faster growth rate than both the US and China.

The financial regulators continue to provide a platform that facilitates innovation in this space. For example, the Financial Conduct Authority has accepted a significant number of DLT-based projects into its Regulatory Sandbox to help enable the adoption of this technology to deliver better financial services with appropriate consumer safeguards.

The Government has set an ambitious, legally binding target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the UK by 2050.

Although there are no plans at present to reduce the VAT charge on electric vehicles, the Government keeps all taxes under review and assesses them against a range of fiscal and environmental considerations. The Government already makes available an incentive for the public to purchase electric vehicles over conventional vehicles: the Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) provides grants of up to £3,500 for the purchase of a new battery electric vehicle. PiCG was launched in 2011 and has supported the purchase of around 170,000 Ultra Low Emission Vehicles.