Alison Bennett

There is a robust regulatory framework that addresses the health and safety risks associated with grid-scale battery storage. Specifically, the Health and Safety at Work Act and secondary legislation places legal duties on employers to manage risks to employees and anyone else who may be affected. It is the policy of the Health and Safety Executive to continue to review its regulatory framework to make sure it works in a time of innovation.

The government is not responsible for setting or making recommendations about teacher pay in further education (FE) colleges, including sixth form colleges which unlike 16-19 academies are part of the statutory FE sector.

The Autumn Budget 2024 set out the government’s commitment to skills, by providing an additional £300 million revenue funding for FE to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. The department recognises the vital role that FE teachers and providers play in equipping learners with the opportunities and skills they need to succeed in their education. The department will set out in due course how this funding will be distributed.

This builds on our investment to extend targeted retention incentive payments of up to £6,000 after tax to eligible early career FE teachers in key subject areas, including in sixth form colleges. The department is also delivering funding to support those young people who do not pass mathematics and English GCSE at 16, who are predominantly studying in FE.

The department has continued to offer financial incentives for those undertaking teacher training for the FE sector in priority subject areas. For the 2024/2025 academic year, training bursaries are worth up to £30,000 each, tax free, with further information about schemes for future years in due course. Additionally, we are supporting industry professionals to enter the teaching workforce through our Taking Teaching Further programme.

We recognise that autistic people face particular barriers to employment, which is reflected in a poor overall employment rate. In our plan to make work pay, we committed to raising awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace.

Our forthcoming employment White Paper considers how to improve employment outcomes and experiences for disabled people and people with health conditions. We are exploring how we can build on the earlier, independent, Buckland Review which was focused more narrowly on autism and employment, to improve understanding and support for all neurodivergent people at work.

We also have a range of specialist initiatives which can provide support to neurodivergent people to get back into work and stay in work, including support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.

Employers will also be a large part of our success in this work. Our current support to employers includes a digital information service for employers, and the Disability Confident scheme. We will be considering how to enhance our work with employers in the months ahead.

We are committed to improving care and support for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). We recognise how devastating the symptoms can be, and the significant impact they can have on patients and their families.

The Department has reconvened the ME/CFS Task and Finish Group, including senior Department and cross-Government officials, ME/CFS specialists and representatives from NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the devolved administrations, and ME/CFS charities and organisations. With stakeholder engagement via the ME/CFS Task and Finish Group, we are developing the final delivery plan for ME/CFS, which we aim to publish by the end of March. The plan will focus on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease.

The Department is also working with NHS England to develop an e-learning programme on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. Sessions one and two of the e-learning programme are now available. The third session will become available later in 2025.

The Medical Schools Council will promote the NHS England e-learning programme on ME/CFS to all United Kingdom medical schools, and encourage those medical schools to provide undergraduates with direct patient experience of ME/CFS. The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of medical schools, and it is important that education is reenforced at different stages of medical training. Royal colleges play an important role in this. The GMC has included ME/CFS in the content map for the new national exam, so all medical schools will need to teach it as a subject.

NHS England is currently undertaking a stocktake, commissioned in September 2024 and due at the end of January 2025, that will provide a more accurate, in-depth overview of the position of post-COVID-19 services across England. The scope of this commission has been extended to include ME/CFS services.

Department officials regularly discuss a range of topics with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including progress with specific appraisals, such as for sipavibart.

The NICE started its appraisal of the medicine sipavibart for preventing COVID-19, ahead of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) decision on whether it should be licensed in the United Kingdom, with the aim of publishing guidance as soon as possible, if a licence was granted. At present, the NICE appraisal is suspended as AstraZeneca has been unable to provide an evidence submission as planned. The NICE is currently awaiting notification from AstraZeneca on when it can make a submission, and will update stakeholders in due course.

If sipavibart is recommended as clinically and cost effective by the NICE, the National Health Service in England will be legally required to fund sipavibart for eligible patients in line with the NICE’s recommendations, normally within three months of final guidance being published.

Ensuring that the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic within our approach to pandemic preparedness.

Whilst we cannot predict the exact timing or characteristics of a future pandemic, the Department acknowledges the disproportionate impact of pandemics on particular groups, including the immunocompromised and those who are otherwise clinically vulnerable.

The Department’s new strategic approach to pandemic preparedness recognises that pandemic planning needs to take account of all health inequalities.

COVID-19 tests and treatments are a National Health Service role at the present time. The UK Health Security Agency and NHS partners have met recently to discuss system wide communications on the testing and treatment pathways for COVID-19, to ensure that those who are eligible can access these without delay.

There are currently no discussions planned with representatives of Forgotten Lives UK.

As part of the 2023 England Rare Disease Action Plan, NHS England’s Genomics Education Programme has developed GeNotes, to increase the awareness of genetic and rare diseases amongst healthcare professionals. GeNotes puts information on genetic and rare diseases at the fingertips of healthcare professionals, including general practitioners. The GeNotes resource has a cardiology speciality section and includes several pages on cardiomyopathies. Further information on GeNotes more generally and about the cardiology speciality section specifically is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.genomicseducation.hee.nhs.uk/genotes/

https://www.genomicseducation.hee.nhs.uk/genotes/cardiology/

Furthermore, cardiac networks of care, established locally to ensure joined up patient pathways, provide support in raising awareness of inherited cardiac conditions, including cardiomyopathy, across healthcare providers, in accordance with the services specification for inherited cardiac conditions, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions-all-ages/

A Tax Information and Impact Note that covers the Employer National Insurance changes was published by HMRC on 13 November.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance costs. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional Employer National Insurance contributions as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care and wider local government spending as part of the Budget process in the usual way.

The government is providing a real-terms increase in core local government spending power of around 3.2% in 2025-26, including at least £600m of new grant funding provided to social care, which can be used to address the range of pressures facing the sector.

A Tax Information and Impact Note that covers the Employer National Insurance changes was published by HMRC on 13 November.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance costs. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional Employer National Insurance contributions as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care and wider local government spending as part of the Budget process in the usual way.

The government is providing a real-terms increase in core local government spending power of around 3.2% in 2025-26, including at least £600m of new grant funding provided to social care, which can be used to address the range of pressures facing the sector.

A Tax Information and Impact Note that covers the Employer National Insurance changes was published by HMRC on 13 November.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance costs. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional Employer National Insurance contributions as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care and wider local government spending as part of the Budget process in the usual way.

The government is providing a real-terms increase in core local government spending power of around 3.2% in 2025-26, including at least £600m of new grant funding provided to social care, which can be used to address the range of pressures facing the sector.

A Tax Information and Impact Note that covers the Employer National Insurance changes was published by HMRC on 13 November.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance costs. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional Employer National Insurance contributions as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care and wider local government spending as part of the Budget process in the usual way.

The government is providing a real-terms increase in core local government spending power of around 3.2% in 2025-26, including at least £600m of new grant funding provided to social care, which can be used to address the range of pressures facing the sector.

Legislation concerning the abolition of the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) was included in Finance Act 2024. The legislation introduced transitional arrangements including Transitional Tax-Free Amount Certificates (TTFACs). Guidance was published alongside the legislation.

Further regulations to address some discrete technical areas were laid on 7^th and 9^th of October 2024, with effect from 18^th November (subject to parliamentary process). Once effective, they will apply retrospectively from 6^th April 2024 onwards.

Further information will be provided in HMRC’s November newsletter and HMRC’s existing guidance will be updated in due course.