Amanda Martin

The Secretary of State continues to follow the process stated in his letter of 12 July 2024 to AQUIND Limited and the Ministry of Defence regarding considering the MOD’s representations. The 12 July 2024 letter and further updates can be found on the Planning Inspectorate’s website for the AQUIND Interconnector planning application. There is no statutory deadline for determining this application.

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

I have been meeting regularly with energy suppliers to outline my expectations of the standard of service that they should provide, including supporting vulnerable consumers.

In August, I met with 13 suppliers – including the six largest suppliers – and encouraged them to build on the Voluntary Debt Commitment from last year and go further in supporting vulnerable customers this winter.

The Government has no plans to introduce a social energy tariff this winter. It expects energy suppliers to do everything they can to support customers who are struggling with bills, especially vulnerable customers.

This government will champion the ambitions of all children and ensure that background is not a barrier to success. In the department’s Children’s Wellbeing Bill, we will set out our plans to raise standards for all children in social care and will ensure that they are supported to thrive.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill delivers on the Government’s commitment to bring criminal charges against persistent lawbreakers.

Through the Bill, the maximum penalty for obstruction of investigations by the regulators will be strengthened to include imprisonment for up to two years in all cases, and it will be possible for cases to be heard either in the Crown Court or the Magistrates Court. In addition, the Bill will provide for potential imprisonment where the obstruction is attributable to the consent, connivance or neglect of a senior officer of the company.

As part of our nationwide Pension Credit campaign, the Department has engaged with all councils in Great Britain, including Portsmouth City Council, via the regular LA Welfare Direct bulletins.

The LA Welfare Direct 8/2024 bulletin in August featured a ‘call to action’, asking local authorities to help promote Pension Credit during the Pension Credit Week of Action and offering them the opportunity to request our promotional materials. The latest LA Welfare Direct 12/2024 bulletin also included a reminder about the 21 December Pension Credit backdating deadline to qualify for either a Winter Fuel Payment or Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

In response to our call to action over 160 councils across Great Britain have supported our Pension Credit campaign either on social media, or by distributing the promotional material we have provided. We know that Portsmouth City Council are one of the councils that has promoted Pension Credit on social media using our campaign messages.

The local DWP strategic relationship team have also shared the campaign promotional material directly with Portsmouth City Council and attended a recent Tackling Poverty Partnership event to help raise awareness of our campaign.

The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.

The Government is working at pace to deliver these new initiatives. The Government’s spending plans will be set out at the next Spending Review.

The Government has committed to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. We will bring forward details of future investment at the Spending Review.

Minister Ali set out on 10 September that the Government will publish shortly additional research on the supply and demand for supported housing. We will set out our plans for supported housing in due course.