Alex Mayer

The Department for Business and Trade are currently assessing progress across the programme of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) currently under negotiation and determining which matters will be raised in negotiations. The Department's trade deals will be aligned with our industrial strategy and designed to bring prosperity to communities across the country and fulfil our mission of securing the highest sustained growth in the G7.

The UK maintains the right to regulate public services, including the education sector, in all our trade agreements. FTA commitments typically do not prevent treaty partners from imposing domestic restrictions on academic freedom.

Small-scale electricity generation sites can benefit from an exemption, which means that they do not require a licence from Ofgem to generate electricity or to supply to local customers. Ofgem has further flexibility to grant supply licences to generation sites that are above the exemptions threshold when they are restricted to specified local areas.

Through the Warm Homes Plan, we will invest an extra £6.6 billion over the next five years in clean heat and energy efficiency, upgrading five million homes through solutions like low carbon heating and improved insulation. We will set out the full details of our Warm Homes Plan, and the approach to Net Zero Buildings more broadly, after the completion of the Spending Review Process.

Government is working at pace with Ofgem, the Electricity System Operator (ESO), and network companies to accelerate electricity network connections. The ESO is developing proposals with stakeholders to raise requirements to obtain and retain a connection agreement. Under these proposals, stalled or speculative projects that cannot demonstrate sufficient progress would be removed from the connection queue and capacity reallocated to viable projects.

The ESO expects to submit its proposals to Ofgem in December 2024, for a decision in spring 2025.

Connection customers are already permitted to co-locate different technologies through a single connection point.

Heat batteries are one of the most promising alternative electric heating technologies, because they utilise time of use tariffs, do not require outside space and are cheaper to install than heat pumps in some circumstance. However, heat batteries are also less efficient than heat pumps and will therefore use more energy to meet the same heating demand. This can add to the burden on the electricity network, as well as resulting in higher bills for property owners. The Government will continue to make further assessments of heat batteries as the supporting evidence base develops.

Ofcom is the UK’s independent regulator for online safety. Social media platforms and search services will have duties to tackle animal abuse content under the Online Safety Act (OSA). Ofcom recently published its proposals for how these providers should tackle animal cruelty content under their (OSA) ‘illegal content duties’ (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/illegal-harms-further-consultation-torture-and-animal-cruelty).

Government ministers and officials regularly discuss online safety matters including the implementation of the Online Safety Act and its protections against animal cruelty.

According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, 86% of premises in the Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard constituency currently have access to a gigabit-capable connection.

The Government is committed to improving mobile coverage across the UK. Ofcom’s most recent coverage data for the former constituency of South West Bedfordshire shows 98% 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile network operators and that 5G is available from at least one mobile network operator outside 93% of premises.

I am aware that Ofcom’s coverage data does not always reflect consumers’ experience of mobile networks at a local level. I understand that Ofcom has an ongoing programme of work to improve the accuracy of its reporting on mobile coverage and I am taking a close interest in the outcome of this work.

Alongside this, the Government intends to reform the planning system in a way that - amongst other things - will make it easier to build digital infrastructure.

Regulations are in place which require developers of new build homes, including new-build housing estates, in England to install the infrastructure necessary for gigabit-capable broadband connectivity. There is currently no equivalent provision relating to mobile coverage. The government is committed to updating national planning policy to ensure the planning system meets the needs of a modern economy, and this includes making it easier to build digital and mobile infrastructure.

As I set out during the Westminster Hall debate on the Paris 2024 Olympics Team GB Legacy, which took place on 3 September, the Government is fully committed to multi-year funding for our elite sport system and enabling our athletes to excel on the world stage. This means supporting them financially to match and build on their success in Paris, helping them to deliver at LA 2028. We will set out further details at the Spending Review.

The Government also recognises that high-quality, inclusive facilities help ensure everyone has access to sport. We will continue to support grassroots sport including through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme that will invest £123 million across the UK this year.

We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s-length body, Sport England – which annually invests over £250 million of National Lottery and Government money. Sport England’s newly established Movement Fund offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most.

This Government recognises that sport facilities are at the beating heart of communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help clubs to get more people active and by backing these clubs, the Government will support more people participating wherever they live.

We will continue to support grassroots sport including through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme that will invest £123 million across the UK this year.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arms Length Body, Sport England - which invests an average of £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year.

Over the last five years Bedfordshire has received over £8.8 million and Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard constituency has received over £192,000 from Sport England to support projects which facilitate participation in grassroots sport.

Additionally, Bedfordshire received £5,305,046.28 in funding across 51 facilities through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, Park Tennis Court Programme and the Swimming Pool Support Fund. Of this amount, £1,798,441 was awarded across six facilities in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard, including £1,032,533 for a new artificial grass pitch and changing pavilion at Tithe Farm Road Recreation Ground. Full breakdowns of the facilities funded through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme and through the Park Tennis Court Programme are available on gov.uk, and a breakdown of facilities funded through the Swimming Pool Support Fund is available on the Sport England website.

The government has committed to legislate through the Children’s Wellbeing Bill to limit the number of items of branded uniform and PE kit that schools can require. This proposed legislation will go further than the current statutory guidance, which only requires schools to keep branded uniform items to a minimum.

The existing statutory guidance will be updated once the new legislation has received Royal Assent. This will ensure that both work together to ensure that schools will need to justify every piece of branded uniform they include in their uniform policy. This will put an end to schools still requiring large numbers of branded items.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering key stages 1 to 5, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.

The review will seek to deliver a curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to thrive. This includes embedding digital, oracy and life skills in their learning.

The review will consider the key digital skills needed for future life and critical thinking skills to ensure children are resilient to misinformation and extremist content online.

The government has launched an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review covering key stages 1 to 5, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review will consider the current qualification pathways available at key stage 4 and 5. A call for evidence will be published in the autumn which will set out the areas the review group would particularly welcome input from. More information about the review is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-curriculum-and-assessment-review.

Skills Bootcamps are a great way for learners and local areas to develop the skills they need and the department provides grant funding to 30 mayoral combined authorities and local areas to deliver Skills Bootcamps training that meets local skills’ priorities. In the 2023/24 financial year, the total value of grant funding contracts awarded was approximately £114 million.

The department continues to keep the sectors eligible for Skills Bootcamps funding under review.

On 11 July 2024, the Secretary of State announced consumers will gain new powers to hold water company bosses to account through new customer panels. For the first time in history, customers will have the power to summon board members and hold water executives to account.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will therefore give Ofwat the power to set rules requiring water companies to have arrangements in place for involving consumers in decision-making. The rules may include a requirement for persons representing the views of consumers to be members of a board, committee or panel of a relevant undertaker.

The Climate Change Act 2008 requires the Secretary of State to produce a National Adaptation Programme in response to the Government’s most recent Climate Change Risk Assessment, on a five-yearly cycle. The third National Adaptation Programme was published in July 2023. The fourth National Adaptation Programme will be published in 2028. The strategy for the fourth round of climate adaptation reporting under the Adaptation Reporting Power was published in July 2023. The fourth round of reporting is currently underway and due to close on 31^st December 2024. The review of the use of power will take place in 2025, ahead of a fifth round of reporting.

A public consultation on fairer food labelling was undertaken between March and May 2024. This sought views on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory methods of production labelling and looked at country of origin for a range of products including fish. The new Government is now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps and will publish a response to this consultation in due course.

Local authorities are often best placed to tackle local issues such as fly-tipping, and incidents can be reported to them by visiting the local authority's website. Individuals can get help on identifying the relevant local authority webpage at https://www.gov.uk/report-flytipping.

Local authorities are required to report fly-tipping incidents and enforcement actions to Defra, which the department have published annually since 2012, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env24-fly-tipping-incidents-and-actions-taken-in-england. This data isn't available at a constituency level and excludes the majority of private-land incidents.

All airport expansion proposals that are likely to have a significant effect on the environment must already be accompanied by an environmental impact assessment, as set out in planning legislation. These assessments will be taken into account by the local planning authority and/or Secretary of State in deciding whether or not to grant consent for the development.

The Department has funded a pilot version of the system led by Manchester City Council since 2021, which now covers nine authorities and around 1% of the national cashless parking market. The pilot has been successful.

Legislative proposals to reform the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence were laid in May. This Government intends to continue with these planned reforms and expect the necessary Debates to be held soon.

We have not had discussions with European counterparts on the proposed Directive relating to the upholding of Driving Disqualifications across the EU.

This Government is committed to securing the long-term future of the UK aviation sector, recognising the vital connectivity it provides between the UK and the rest of the world. Currently, the Department has no plans to introduce a new National Airport Strategy.

The Government has announced funding to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) for a further 6 months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025.

An additional £500 million will be provided to enable the extension of the HSF, including funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion, as usual.

As with previous HSF schemes, the Fund will be made available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England to provide discretionary support to those most in need.

The HSF scheme guidance and individual Local Authority funding allocations for the forthcoming extension will be announced as soon as possible ahead of the scheme beginning on 1 October 2024.

Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.