Alicia Kearns

For management and staffing purposes the Prime Minister’s Office is part of the Cabinet Office. All staff in the Prime Minister’s Office support the work of the Prime Minister to ensure the effective running of government.

No company in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain. The Department for Business and Trade will continue to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the UK's existing measures, alongside the impacts of new policy tools that are emerging, to ensure it can best tackle forced labour in supply chains, and work with businesses and international partners to understand the impact of measures to combat forced labour.

The Government opposes all forms of forced labour and is determined to ensure that all UK business do everything in their power to remove any instances of it from their supply chains. However, the UK Government does not hold data about the supply chains of individual companies.

Solar Energy UK, who co-chair the Solar Taskforce, is leading the industry’s response on this matter by developing and launching the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI), in partnership with Solar Power Europe. Members of the SSI have committed to applying its traceability standards and audits, while encouraging its adoption throughout their supply chain.

The UK Government does not hold data about the supply chains of individual companies.

The Solar Roadmap, to be published in Spring 2025, will outline the actions required develop supply chains that are resilient, sustainable, and free from forced labour.

The UK’s main solar industry trade association – Solar Energy UK, who co-chair the Solar Taskforce - is leading the industry’s response on this matter by developing and launching the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI), in partnership with Solar Power Europe. Members of the SSI have committed to applying its traceability standards and audits, while encouraging its adoption throughout their supply chain.

No company operating in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain. We are working with colleagues across Government to tackle the issue of Uyghur forced labour in supply chains.

The Solar Taskforce is focussed on identifying and taking forward the actions needed to develop supply chains that are resilient, sustainable and free from forced labour. This will support the significant increases in deployment of solar panels needed to meet our ambition of radically increasing solar deployment by 2030. Recommendations from the Solar Taskforce will be contained in the Solar Roadmap, which will be published in due course.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero officials are analysing the responses received for the Home Energy Model: Future Homes Standard assessment consultation. The Government will publish the government response to the consultation in due course.

Loft insulation installed under government schemes must be compliant with the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2030 and 2035 standard documents to reduce the risks and unintended consequences associated with poor-quality installations. The British Standards Institute (BSI), who publish PAS 2030 and 2035, will consider how to address more innovative products that do not fit within existing annexes in their next update.

Independent impartial government advice in relation to energy efficiency measures and clean heat technologies is available at https://www.gov.uk/improve-energy-efficiency, a national phoneline and over 30 in-person advice projects across England.

The award of a £71.5 million Project Gigabit contract to the broadband supplier CityFibre to connect around 38,600 rural and hard-to-reach premises across Leicestershire and Warwickshire will deliver fast, reliable broadband, with the work due to commence in August. This contract includes homes and businesses in the Rutland and Stamford constituency that would otherwise miss out on a gigabit-capable connection. Parts of Rutland and Stamford are also set to benefit from other Project Gigabit contracts, including the £68.6 million contract that CityFibre is delivering across Cambridgeshire and surrounding areas.

The British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) is the representative body for the UK plant breeding industry. In the collection of royalty fees and farm saved seed payments, the BSPB are acting as independent agents of various breeders and are not contracted by Government to undertake this work. Therefore, any queries on the payment of royalty fees should be made to the BSPB.

The Plant Varieties Act 1997 provides an exemption from making farm saved seed payments if the farmer meets the definition of a small farmer as defined in the Act.

Regulation 3(2)(a) of The Plant Breeders’ Rights (Farm Saved Seed) (Specified Information) Regulations 1998 provides an obligation on a small farmer to inform the rights holder that they are exempt from farm saved seed payments. Therefore, a small farmer must inform the BSPB that they meet the exemption for it to be applied. The arrangements for small farmers are publicised through various sources including gov.uk and via the BSPB.

National Highways has completed a number of safety improvements to the A1 near Stamford in recent years, such as resurfacing, associated road markings, and improved lighting and signage. National Highways will undertake further work south of Grantham commencing this autumn.

The Pension Credit data that is used is based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024, in order to be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payments statistics. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Rutland and Stamford is a newly formed constituency. Therefore, data on Rutland and Stamford constituency is not currently available. The new constituency of Rutland and Stamford includes the following areas: The County of Rutland and the parts of Harborough District, including Thurnby, from the abolished constituency of Rutland and Melton, as well as the town of Stamford and surrounding areas from Grantham and Stamford, which has been largely replaced by Grantham and Bourne. To obtain the below estimates for Rutland and Stamford constituency, data on the previous Rutland and Melton constituency and Grantham and Stamford constituency have been combined.

Before the change in eligibility requirements, an estimated 48,351 people in Rutland and Stamford constituency were eligible for and received Winter Fuel Payments, based on 22/23 Winter Fuel Payment statistics. After the change in eligibility requirements, it is estimated that around 3,365 people in Rutland and Stamford constituency will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, based on Feb-24 Pension Credit statistics. This is essentially the number of Pension Credit recipients in Rutland and Stamford constituency and is used as an indicator of how many pensioners will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payment.

The above estimates are likely to be an overestimate as the new Rutland and Stamford constituency consists of some of the areas of the previous Rutland and Melton constituency and the previous Grantham and Stamford constituency, not all.

Also, the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or local authorities.

Furthermore, the published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals will be higher (i.e., taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).

In addition to that, Pension Credit claimants are the majority of those that will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, not all. There are other pensioners who are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (as they claim other means tested benefits) but they are not considered in these figures as it is not possible to do so.

Source:

The Winter Fuel Payments statistics are published here:

Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Pension Credit data is published here: Pension Credit – Data from May 2018

The Department regularly engages with and consults stakeholders, including providers and people with lived experience of care and support services, to ensure that a wide range of views are taken into account through all stages of the policy life cycle. This includes holding regular meetings and provider forums, working with partners in the sector, and also running formal public consultations, as necessary.

There are no current plans for a review of training for carers in the use of musical techniques to help support people living with dementia. However, the Department currently funds research on the use of musical techniques for people living with dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This includes a major study investigating how music therapy can reduce patient distress and physical assaults on National Health Service inpatient wards for people with dementia. The study is called MELODIC and will create a programme of music therapy which will be piloted in two NHS mental health wards at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline, Headaches: Diagnosis and management of headaches in young people and adults, updated in December 2021, sets out best practice for healthcare professionals in the care, treatment, and support of people who suffer from headaches, including migraines. It aims to improve the recognition and management of headaches and migraines.

At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with migraines, including the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit. The GIRFT Programme published a National Speciality Report, which makes several recommendations in relation to improving the recognition and diagnosis of migraines by general practitioners. Additionally, the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit sets out key priorities for improving care for patients with migraines, which includes correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders.

The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed two e-learning modules about migraines and cluster headaches, which aim to raise awareness amongst primary care clinicians about the different types of migraines and their associated symptoms, and how to differentiate.

Over the last four years, a new class of drugs, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors, has been made available on the National Health Service for the prevention and treatment of episodic and chronic migraines. On 15 May 2024, Atogepant became the latest CGRP inhibitor for which the NICE has published guidance. The NICE recommended Atogepant for use as a preventive medication for the treatment of migraines on the NHS in England.

NHS England is working to detect people at risk of kidney disease through the NHS Health Check Programme. The programme, which is available for everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 years old who are not already on a chronic disease register, assesses people’s health and risk of developing certain health problems. Using this information, patients are supported to make behavioural changes and access treatment which helps to prevent and detect kidney disease earlier.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed chronic kidney disease (CKD) and glomerulonephritis in 2011, concluding that a population-wide screening programme would not be recommended. The UK NSC has not looked at the evidence for a targeted programme. The UK NSC can be alerted to any new published peer-reviewed evidence which may suggest the case for a new screening programme. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-annual-call-submitting-a-screening-proposal/uk-nsc-annual-call-how-to-submit-a-proposal

The National Health Service provides access to tests and therapies to diagnose, code, and treat patients with early-stage CKD. NHS England, through the Renal Services Transformation Programme and regional renal networks, is implementing initiatives to provide better integrated care, reduce health inequalities, and focus on prevention and timely intervention for kidney disease. Regional renal clinical networks prioritise CKD diagnosis and prevention within their transformation ambitions, facilitating earlier treatment. This includes considerations to develop a unified approach to testing populations at risk of developing CKD, and includes raising awareness of diagnostic tools like urine albumin creatinine tests, enabling CKD diagnosis at stages 1 and 2. NHS England aims to improve awareness and access to these important urine and blood tests across primary and secondary care. In addition, the transformation programme launched a renal toolkit earlier last year, for use by systems, that outlines the principles to support better management of patients identified with CKD throughout their patient journey.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, Chronic kidney disease: Assessment and management [NG203], updated in November 2021, sets out best practice for clinicians in the diagnosis and management of CKD. The guidance covers the care and treatment of patients at risk of CKD. It includes recommendations on the monitoring of patients at risk of CKD and aims to prevent or delay the progression of the disease. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng203

As the Government works to fix the National Health Service, the public must begin to feel the difference in their daily lives. That is why, as part of the engagement exercise to support the development of the 10-Year Health Plan, there will be lots of easy ways for the public to express their views, with face-to-face events in every region, local conversations, and an online portal.

Working with Thinks Insight, integrated care systems, and the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, we will seek to reach demographics and communities who may experience barriers to being involved.

This will be the biggest conversation in the NHS’s history. We want to hear from a wide range of individuals, including the experiences of patients, carers, and health and care workers. We have ambitious plans to engage across the country, and want as many people as possible to share their views.

We are currently considering options for building on our ongoing accountability work in Syria. In the meantime, we will continue to support partners who are playing a pivotal role in developing a credible evidence base to record atrocities committed by the former regime and others. This year alone, we have committed £1.15 million to accountability and documentation related programmes. In addition, we will continue to work with our international partners and civil society to advocate for and support mechanisms such as the UN International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) and Independent Institution for Missing Persons (IIMP) to ensure that accountability is a core part of the transitional process.

The Government's priority is to work closely with our allies, including the US, to prevent instability in Syria, ensure civilians are protected and provide humanitarian assistance to those who need it, while shaping an inclusive and peaceful transfer of power following the fall of Assad's brutal regime. The FCDO keeps all sanctions listings and evidence under close review.

We are concerned by the growth of the Captagon industry, which as well as enriching the former Assad regime, is fuelling regional instability and generating vast revenues for criminal gangs and armed groups in Syria and across the region. We are working with international partners, including partners in the region, to raise awareness of the risks posed by Captagon. The UK has imposed sanctions on 11 individuals involved in facilitating the Captagon industry in Syria.

We are concerned by the growth of the Captagon industry, which as well as enriching the former Assad regime is fuelling regional instability and generating vast revenues for criminal gangs and armed groups in Syria and across the region. We are working with international partners, including partners in the region, to raise awareness of the risks posed by Captagon. The UK has imposed sanctions on 11 individuals involved in facilitating the Captagon industry in Syria.

The brutal history of chemical weapons use in Syria must never be repeated. We have been closely monitoring developments as they unfold and engaging with partners in the region and with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). We welcome Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's (HTS) statement that it will protect chemical weapons sites and will not use chemical weapons under any circumstances. Syria must now take the next step, which is to comply with the obligations set out under UN Security Council Resolution 2118 and the Chemical Weapons Convention and engage with the OPCW to declare fully its chemical weapons programme so that it can finally, and verifiably, be completely destroyed.