13 APPG memberships (as of 6 Oct 2021)
British Overseas Territories, Broadband and Digital Communication, Dark Skies, Fair Business Banking, Future of Aviation, Hydrogen, Media, Motor, New and Advanced Technologies, Technology and National Security, Weddings, Wilton Park, Wine of Great Britain3 Former APPG memberships
Beer, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Overseas Territoriesvoted Aye - in line with the party majority
One of 313 Conservative Aye votes vs 0 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 321 Noes - 220
Will the Prime Minister accept the thanks of the House for deepening collaboration with some of our oldest allies and …
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people admitted to hospital with covid-19 (a) …
A Bill to require dog keepers to register a dog’s DNA on a database; to make provision about such databases …
17:16
Name of donor: The Goodwood Estate Company Ltd
Address of donor: Goodwood House, Chichester PO18 0PX
Amount of donation or …
Division Voting information
Andrew Griffith voted No - against a party majority and against the House
One of 41 Conservative No votes vs 47 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 55 Noes - 52
Andrew Griffith voted No - against a party majority and against the House
One of 77 Conservative No votes vs 222 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 431 Noes - 89
Debates during the 2019 Parliament
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
Sparring Partners
(18 debate interactions)
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
(12 debate interactions)
Department Debates
(34 debate contributions)
(28 debate contributions)
(21 debate contributions)
(19 debate contributions)
Legislation Debates
(1,734 words contributed)
(1,293 words contributed)
(983 words contributed)
Arundel and South Downs Petitions
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
of 17,148 signatures (0.91%)
of 19,160 signatures (0.52%)
of 39,310 signatures (0.47%)
of 32,572 signatures (0.42%)
of 59,241 signatures (0.40%)
of 364,749 signatures (0.10%)
of 106,070 signatures (0.24%)
of 77,547 signatures (0.33%)
of 169,631 signatures (0.14%)
of 59,241 signatures (0.40%)
Latest EDMs signed by Andrew Griffith
Commons initiatives
These initiatives were driven by Andrew Griffith, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Andrew Griffith has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Andrew Griffith has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
2 Bills introduced by Andrew Griffith
A Bill to require dog keepers to register a dog’s DNA on a database; to make provision about such databases and about the information held on them; and for connected purposes.
Friday 18th March 2022
A Bill to make vehicle registration offences under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 attract driving record penalty points; and for connected purposes.
Andrew Griffith has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
148 Written Questions in the current parliament
(View all written questions)The CPS does not maintain a central record of prosecutions which involved trespass. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Trespass is not of itself a criminal offence. However, there are some offences in which trespass is an essential element. The tables below set out the most common examples of such offences, where a prosecution commenced in the Sussex Police Force Area and in England, during each of the last three years.
Offences recorded in the CPS Case Management Information System are those which reached a hearing. There is no indication of the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.
It should be noted that the figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It may be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence.
TABLE (A) SUSSEX POLICE FORCE AREA
|
| 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 61(4) } | Failing to comply with a police direction to leave land | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 62B } | Failure to comply with a direction under s62A to leave land: alternative site available | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 63 } | Failure to comply with a direction to leave land: attending or preparing for a rave | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 65 } | Failing to comply with a direction not to proceed to a rave | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 68 } | Aggravated trespass | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 69 } | Failing to comply with a direction: aggravated trespass | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 76 } | Trespassing during the currency of an interim possession order (“IPO”) | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 6 } | Violence to secure entry | 24 | 20 | 19 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 7 } | Adverse occupation of residential premises. | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 8 } | Trespassing with a weapon of offence | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 9 } | Trespassing on premises of a foreign mission | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Firearms Act 1968 { 20(1) of and Schedule 6 } | Trespass in a building with a firearm or imitation firearm | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Firearms Act 1968 { 20(2) of and Schedule 6 } | Trespass on land with a firearm | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Public Order Act 1986 { 14B(3) and (7) } | Inciting another knowingly to take part in a prohibited assembly | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Public Order Act 1986 { 14C(3) and (5) } | Failing to comply with a direction: trespassory assembly. | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment Act 2012 { 144(1) and (5) } | Squatting in residential premises. | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System |
TABLE (B) ENGLAND
|
| 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 61(4) } | Failing to comply with a police direction to leave land | 0 | 8 | 1 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 62B } | Failure to comply with a direction under s62A to leave land: alternative site available | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 63 } | Failure to comply with a direction to leave land: attending or preparing for a rave | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 65 } | Failing to comply with a direction not to proceed to a rave | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 68 } | Aggravated trespass | 38 | 45 | 114 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 69 } | Failing to comply with a direction: aggravated trespass | 17 | 40 | 36 |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 { 76 } | Trespassing during the currency of an interim possession order (“IPO”) | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 6 } | Violence to secure entry | 1,413 | 1,271 | 1,081 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 7 } | Adverse occupation of residential premises. | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 8 } | Trespassing with a weapon of offence | 5 | 4 | 2 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 9 } | Trespassing on premises of a foreign mission | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Firearms Act 1968 { 20(1) of and Schedule 6 } | Trespass in a building with a firearm or imitation firearm | 5 | 0 | 2 |
Firearms Act 1968 { 20(2) of and Schedule 6 } | Trespass on land with a firearm | 4 | 4 | 5 |
Public Order Act 1986 { 14B(3) and (7) } | Inciting another knowingly to take part in a prohibited assembly | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Public Order Act 1986 { 14C(3) and (5) } | Failing to comply with a direction: trespassory assembly. | 21 | 1 | 3 |
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment Act 2012 { 144(1) and (5) } | Squatting in residential premises. | 30 | 39 | 25 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System |
Paymaster General
Spending Review 2020 placed a renewed focus on outcomes and tied spending and performance closely together. To implement this approach, the government has developed provisional priority outcomes for each UK government department, including a number of cross-cutting outcomes. The government has also identified a set of provisional metrics for each outcome against which progress towards delivering the outcomes will be measured.
Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
11 Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Questions
(View all Andrew Griffith's BEIS questions)In the Chichester (West Sussex) constituency as of 15 November, 118 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £24,286,975. In the same constituency, 2106 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £63,038,524.
In the Arundel and South Downs constituency as of 15 November, 127 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £22,734,238. In the same constituency, 2089 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £61,589,232.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
In the Chichester (West Sussex) constituency as of 15 November, 118 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £24,286,975. In the same constituency, 2106 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £63,038,524.
In the Arundel and South Downs constituency as of 15 November, 127 loans were offered under the CBILS scheme to a value of £22,734,238. In the same constituency, 2089 loans were offered under the BBLS scheme to a value of £61,589,232.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
The UK Space Agency is monitoring progress across all potential UK spaceports, and are aiming for the first UK launches to take place in 2022.
UK Space Agency awarded £7.35m to Virgin Orbit to support their plans to launch from Cornwall, with the spaceport being delivered separately by Spaceport Cornwall. The UK Space Agency engage regularly with Cornwall Spaceport as part of their oversight of the Virgin Orbit grant and they have recently finalised their Airport Development Implementation Plan for approval. Once approved, works can commence on airport development to meet the requirements for launch operations.
The Government also provided £2.5m to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to develop Space Hub Sutherland in Scotland, and £5.5m to Orbex to build a new rocket to launch from Sutherland. HIE have successfully secured planning approval from Highland Council, and Orbex are making good progress with developing their launch vehicle.
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government provides a range of support measures for the digital economy and the tech sector. From its inception in 2014, the UK’s ten-year National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP) is set to provide £1bn public and private funding for the development of quantum technologies.
The programme funds a range of activities to support the growth of the quantum computing industry, including £61m for collaborative technology development through the quantum technology hubs. The Quantum Computing and Simulation (QCS) Hub has 17 academic and 29 industrial partners across the breadth of the UK. The QCS Hub comprises a partnership resource fund to aid collaborations with new partners and to overcome potential commercialisation problems in the emerging QC landscape.
The Wave 3 Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge (ISCF) funds projects to support commercialisation, and supply chain development, or bring consortia together to explore applications (representing c£35m for quantum computing and related components to-date).
Within the recently launched National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) £93m has been allocated to help deliver quantum computing capabilities for the UK and support the growth of the industry. The vision is to be a world class centre, where government, academia and industry work collaboratively to develop quantum computing, securing this strategically important technology for the benefit of the UK.
The Centre will support the development of a quantum ready economy; one that can take advantage of the opportunities presented by quantum computing to generate and retain value across the economy, achieve societal benefits and maintain national security.
In addition, two EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships are focussed on growing the quantum computing software industry in the UK and developing quantum computing hardware (between UCL and Google (£1.9m), and between St Andrews and MSquared (£1.4m).
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Industrial Strategy AI and Data Grand Challenge sets out the Government’s vision to make the UK a global centre for AI and data innovation, which includes developing the skills that will contribute to building the best environment for AI development and deployment.
In addition, The AI Sector Deal brings together commitments from Government, Industry and Academia in a near £0.95bn package of support to promote the adoption and use of AI.
The attached Annex lists the achievements so far under the Sector Deal.
We are refreshing the Industrial Strategy to reflect the UK’s changing priorities, our new relationship with the European Union and responding to the ongoing global pandemic. It will build on our achievements, enable the UK to maintain its position as a world leader in AI and support ground-breaking innovations, whilst helping to drive economic growth across the country.
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We have committed to publish a UK hydrogen strategy in early 2021 and development is well under way.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is Chair of the Climate Action Implementation Cabinet Committee (CAI) which covers issues relating to net zero. BEIS officials and I also continue to work across Government departments, bilaterally and through governance arrangements at official level. This includes the Climate National Strategy Implementation Group, reporting to the Cabinet Secretary involving Directors General across Whitehall, chaired by the DG Energy Transformation & Clean Growth and the Hydrogen Advisory Council, co-chaired by myself as Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, and Sinead Lynch, UK Country Chair of Shell launched in July 2020.
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Government is committed to the development of hydrogen as a decarbonised energy carrier for the UK and are currently developing our strategic approach to hydrogen. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is Chair of the Climate Action Implementation Cabinet Committee (CAI) which covers topics including hydrogen. BEIS officials and I also continue to work across government departments, including an on-going review of governance arrangements, to ensure we work effectively to develop new policy to help bring forward the technologies and supply chain we will need to grow the UK hydrogen economy.
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
We are exploring ways to promote UK hydrogen activity and enhance international cooperation at COP26.
COP provides an ideal platform to showcase UK's unique hydrogen opportunities. Harnessing UK geographical advantages such as offshore wind resource and potential CO2 storage for low carbon hydrogen production, with deployment across the energy system to enable deep decarbonisation in line with our net zero commitment.
Options under discussion include demonstration of hydrogen appliances developed under the Hy4Heat programme, as part of the BEIS Energy Innovation Portfolio; representation from leading UK hydrogen companies and projects; and discussion of international cooperation to accelerate clean energy innovation, including hydrogen. We will continue to develop this thinking in the coming months.
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The inaugural meeting of the Hydrogen Advisory Council (HAC) was on 20 July 2020. It is expected to meet quarterly for at least the next two years with the next meeting scheduled on 14 October 2020.
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Coast to Capital Backing Business Grant is a £2 million fund set up to provide grants to independent small businesses and social enterprises (excluding charities) in Coast to Capital who have been affected by COVID-19 and was established to complement the schemes established by HM government.
The Scheme is administered by the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership and they will hold the information relating to the scheme recipients. They can be contacted at: funding@coast2capital.org.uk
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
6 Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Questions
(View all Andrew Griffith's DCMS questions)The government recognises the significant cultural and economic value of cinemas, and has supported them through both sector-specific and economy-wide measures. In the first round of the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, more than 200 independent cinemas have so far received funding from a £30m pot. This funding was administered by the BFI on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, as part of the biggest ever single investment in this country’s cultural sectors.
£1,037,554 from the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas has so far been allocated to cinemas across Sussex, with £643,083 in West Sussex and £394,471 in East Sussex. There have been no applications received from cinemas in the Arundel and South Downs constituency, West Sussex. Further to this funding, we announced in December that cinemas will be able to apply for another £14 million in grants as part of the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund in 2021. This will support cinemas as they transition back to a viable and sustainable way of operating in the months ahead.
In addition to the Culture Recovery Fund, most cinemas will have benefited from economy-wide measures including the VAT cut on tickets and concessions, a business rates holiday, access to Bounce Back Loans, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Local Restrictions Support Grants.
The government is committed to supporting local and regional newspapers as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. Local newspapers have benefited from a number of recent interventions, including the extension of business rates relief for local newspapers in England for an additional five years; the investment of £2 million in the Future News Fund; and the zero-rating of VAT on e-newspapers.
During the pandemic, many newspapers have also benefited from a unique and unprecedented government advertising partnership, designed to deliver important messages to UK citizens. Newspapers received up to £35 million additional government advertising revenue as part of the first phase of our coronavirus communications campaign. The campaign has subsequently been extended with at least 60% funding going to smaller regional and local titles.
Looking ahead, the government announced in November 2020 that it will establish a new pro-competition regime for digital markets. At the heart of this will be a mandatory code of conduct to govern the relationships between dominant firms and those that rely on their services, including news publishers. The code will be a significant intervention in the government’s effort to support the sustainability of the news publishing industry, helping to rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely.
We will continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining high-quality news journalism at a local level.
The Government wants the UK to have high-quality mobile coverage where people live, work and travel, and we are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage further to 95% of the UK.
That is why the Government announced on 9 March 2020 that it had agreed the £1 billion Shared Rural Network deal with the mobile network operators. This landmark deal will see operators collectively increase mobile phone coverage throughout the UK to 95% by the end of 2025, underpinned by legally binding coverage commitments.
Since signing the agreement, however, initial radio plans have been submitted to the regulator, Ofcom, and an open, fair and transparent competitive procurement process for the publicly funded elements of the programme has commenced.
We are currently unable to provide any details on the precise location or number of new or upgraded masts that may be delivered in rural areas of West Sussex as a result of the programme. However, I have personally encouraged operators to be transparent about their plans.
My Department is taking a number of steps to support the rural tourism sector through COVID-19 and beyond, including in Sussex.
Tourism businesses in Sussex will have benefited from the unprecedented pan-economic measures we have put in place during COVID, including the VAT cut for tourism and hospitality activities, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, various grant and loan schemes, as well as business rates relief for the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors.
Launched in 2016, the £45m Discover England Fund has supported the development of internationally focused tourism products across England, including many with a rural focus. The ‘England’s Coast’ project highlights the South East’s coastal tourism offer, while the National Park Experience Collection contains rural itineraries for the South Downs National Park.
Between April and July, VisitEngland’s £1.3 million Destination Management Organisation Resilience Fund supported local tourism organisations in the West Midlands. Tourism South East received £25,914 from through this fund.
VisitEngland and my officials remain in close contact with regional tourism stakeholders to monitor the impact of COVID-19 and related restrictions. We also continue to work closely with the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs on how we can most effectively support rural tourism’s recovery.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
We currently split Sussex into East and West when collecting data. According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000011), 97.3% of premises in East Sussex could access superfast speeds and 13.2% had access to gigabit capable speeds, which is up from 0.5% in 2016. Only 0.8% of premises have access to less than 10Mbps, which makes them eligible for the Universal Service obligation (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/uso). Fast, reliable broadband has been instrumental in helping businesses and communities cope with the pressures caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency. It has enabled businesses to continue trading, diversify their offer and assist residents to work from home by allowing everyday activities to become digital.
In East Sussex, the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme has issued vouchers worth £562,272 to deliver gigabit-speed broadband to 852 premises. Many more projects are in the pipeline to receive DCMS support.
DCMS continues to work with Sussex Local Bodies to deliver gigabit-capable broadband solutions through its other programme such as the Superfast programme, which has been delivering gigabit speeds for several years.
West Sussex is similar with 97.2% of premises with access to Superfast and 14% with access to gigabit capable speeds. 0.9% are eligible for the USO (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E10000032)
West Sussex is committed to its rural digital agenda and has been working with DCMS and suppliers to accelerate coverage in some of the hardest to reach areas of the county.
The DCMS Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, which West Sussex is “topping up” to support rural communities, has attracted great interest. So far 28 community projects have registered with DCMS meaning around 2000 premises are able to benefit from the scheme with £1.1m being profiled to date and a further 26 community projects are seeking quotes.
Arundel and South Downs constituency (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14000534) currently has 93% of premises with the ability to access superfast speeds which is up from 7% in 1012. Currently 8% can access gigabit speeds.
Mid Sussex also has an ongoing Local Full Fibre Network Programme (LFFN) with an investment of £2.2m. The project focuses on developing new fibre and ducting for a scaffold ring in Burgess Hill and a connection to the Brighton Digital Exchange and the creation of a new Digital Exchange in Burgess Hill.
Mid Sussex District Council has also been successful in securing £3.2M of funding through the Getting Britain Building fund from MHCLG. This is to build a Rural Connectivity Full Fibre Network between Burgess Hill and Brighton, across the South Downs.
This project will complement and leverage the DCMS Local Full Fibre Network Programme investment across Burgess Hill. The gigabit capable network will connect 7 rural towns and is within 200m of over 20,000 rural households. The network will be completed by March 2022.
The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. As of Monday 8 February 2021, this includes over 980,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities.
All schools, academy trusts and local authorities have now been given the opportunity to order devices. Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, academy trusts or local authorities to lend to children and young people who need them most during the current COVID-19 restrictions.
Figures on the number of devices delivered, broken down by local authority and academy trust are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/laptops-and-tablets-data.
Where schools need additional devices above their allocations they should contact the Department’s service team at covid.technology@education.gov.uk. They should include the number of disadvantaged pupils in Years 3 to 11 who require support and an explanation of how they have gathered this evidence.
The Department is also able to supply routers and mobile data through this scheme. We have partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home. We are grateful to EE, O2, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, BT Mobile and Lycamobile for their collaboration. We are currently engaged with additional mobile network operators and continue to invite a range of mobile network providers to support the offer.
The Department has delivered 54,000 4G wireless routers for pupils and care leavers without connection at home, have secured an additional 19,000 routers which we are distributing now and will be procuring more in the next few weeks.
We understand that this is a difficult and uncertain time for students, and we are working with the sector to make sure that all reasonable efforts are being made to enable all students to continue their studies and provide the support required for them to do so. Importantly, and following the national lockdown announcement, we have prioritised the return to face-to-face teaching for courses which are most important to be delivered in-person in order to support the pipeline of future key workers. All other courses should be delivered online until at least mid-February. We are working to ensure that all students are able to return to university as soon as it is safe to do so and we will provide further advice on this as soon as we can.
Our expectation, during these challenging times is that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and the Office for Students (OfS) will continue to actively monitor universities to ensure that quality of provision is maintained and accessible for all. That said, I know the sector has put in significant resources and worked hard to provide and prepare learning materials for this academic year and there are some fantastic and innovative approaches to delivering high-quality online learning.
We are also working with universities and the Professional, Statutory, and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs) to explore what extra measures they have, or will need, to put in place to ensure that students continue to graduate with PSRB accredited degrees.
Students undertaking courses that would normally require attendance on-site will qualify for loans for living costs in the 2020/21 academic year, even if universities are providing course lectures and/or tutorials online due to the COVID-19 outbreak, provided students continue to engage with their higher education provider.
Students who suspend their studies for a variety of reasons, including shielding, can apply to Student Finance England for their living costs support to be continued while they are absent from their course. Students who suspend their studies due to illness automatically receive living costs support for the first 60 days of their illness.
Students who have applied for a loan for living costs for the 2020/21 academic year and have been awarded a lower amount than the maximum and believe their household income for the current tax year (2020/21) will drop by at least 15% compared to the household income they provided when they were initially assessed, can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
In these exceptional circumstances, we recognise that some students may face financial hardship or experience mental health issues. We have asked universities to prioritise mental health support, and ensure that students required to self-isolate receive the support they need. To support with this, we have worked closely with the OfS to help clarify that providers can draw upon existing funding to increase hardship funds and support disadvantaged students impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Providers are able to use OfS Student Premium funding worth around £256 million for this academic year towards student hardship funds. We are also currently making available up to £20 million of additional hardship funding to support those that need it most, particularly disadvantaged students. In addition, the £3 million OfS funded mental health and well-being platform, Student Space, has been extended for the whole of the 2020/21 academic year to provide extra support during these unprecedented times. The platform is designed to work alongside existing services. I also continually engage with Vice Chancellors and sector representatives, reinforcing at every opportunity that student welfare should remain a priority.
We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust sector guidance and support where necessary.
Minister of State (Department for Education) (Higher and Further Education)
The government is committed to promoting opportunity throughout the UK.
The Social Mobility Commission – an arm’s length body sponsored by the Department for Education – has a statutory responsibility to monitor social mobility in the United Kingdom and to promote social mobility in England. It carries out this responsibility by appraising action on social mobility via their annual monitoring report laid in Parliament, making recommendations to the government and conducting other evidence-based research reports they publish throughout the year. The Social Mobility Commission’s reports are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/social-mobility-commission.
A child’s earliest years are crucial to boosting economic and social mobility, which is why the government has invested in childcare places for the most disadvantaged 2 year olds, who are eligible for 15 hours of free childcare a week to give them a great start in life. Over one million disadvantaged 2 year olds have benefited from 15 hours of free childcare since the programme began in September 2013. Early years settings will continue to benefit from a planned £3.6 billion funding in the 2020-21 financial year to create free early education and childcare places for children.
Likewise, a world-class education system that works for everyone is the best way to give everyone the chance to make the most of their talents and give them the foundations to live happy and independent lives. That is why the government is investing over £7 billion more in schools by the 2022-23 financial year, compared to the 2019-20 financial year, plus additional funding to cover pension costs.
To support young people’s employment prospects, the government is investing £500 million in a package of support to ensure young people have the skills and training to go on to high-quality, secure and fulfilling employment. Adult skills are key in supporting the economy and tackling disadvantage. Starting next year, the government is providing £3 billion (£2.5 billion for England) for the National Skills Fund to help people learn valuable skills and prepare for the economy of the future.
To address economic mobility, this government is committed to levelling up opportunities across the UK, supporting people into employment and those on low pay. In its Plan for Jobs, the government has announced unprecedented support to help unemployed people in Great Britain find a job, and the 2020 Spending Review provides additional funding to build on this commitment. A link to the Plan for Jobs scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/a-plan-for-jobs-2020.
For those on low pay, the government is making progress towards its long-term ambition for the National Living Wage (NLW) to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024. In April 2021, workers on the NLW will see a pay increase to £8.91 an hour, a rise of 2.2%.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
West Sussex are receiving an extra £29.7 million in the financial year 2020-21 through the schools National Funding Formula (NFF). This is equivalent to an increase of 5.6% in per pupil funding, compared to last year – above the national average of 4.2%.
West Sussex also attract an extra £23.9 million in the provisional schools NFF allocations for the financial year 2021-22. This is equivalent to an increase of 3.8% in per pupil funding, compared to last year– above the national average of 3.1%.
The NFF continues to distribute funding fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. The formula is levelling up school funding and delivering resources where they are needed most, while ensuring that every school is attracting at least 2% more pupil-led funding per pupil.
Next year, every primary school will also receive at least £4,000 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £5,150 per pupil, delivering on the government’s pledge to level up the lowest funded schools. On top of that, all schools will receive additional funds to cover additional teachers’ pay and pension costs. This adds a further £180 and £265 respectively to the minimum per pupil amounts.
In the financial year 2021-22 we are also increasing the extra support the NFF provides for small and remote schools, primarily serving rural communities. Primary schools attracting this funding will be allocated up to £45,000 through the NFF’s sparsity factor– a significant increase from £26,000 this year. This will be the first step towards further expanding the support the NFF offers small and remote schools, with further changes planned from the financial year 2022-23.
The performance of the OfS is closely monitored at all times by the department and its board, as set out in the framework document between the OfS and the department and in line with the ‘Partnerships with arm's length bodies: code of good practice’.
The framework document between the OfS and the department is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/189e6e2a-65eb-4cc5-9ad3-bfb149185b69/ofs-framework-document-review-2019.pdf. The ‘Partnerships with arm's length bodies: code of good practice’ is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/partnerships-with-arms-length-bodies-code-of-good-practice.
Minister of State (Department for Education) (Higher and Further Education)
12 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Questions
(View all Andrew Griffith's Defra questions)The independent Review of Protected Landscapes, led by Julian Glover, set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Government welcomes this ambition and is committed to increasing opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy the benefits of spending meaningful time in our national landscapes in England. We are carefully considering the recommendations and working with partner organisations to inform and develop our response to the review, which we will publish in due course.
The £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund, which launched in September 2020, will kickstart a programme of nature-based projects to restore nature, tackle climate change and connect people with the natural environment. Some of these projects will help deliver on Glover recommendations, such as the proposal to give every child a night under the stars in a national landscape.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency carries out an annual programme of routine maintenance works on the River Adur and Arun which have been completed for this financial year. The programme will resume from April 2021.
In 2020 the Environment Agency received additional Government funding to repair assets that were damaged during the 2019/20 winter storms and floods. This funding has been used to repair flood embankments on the River Arun in the following locations: Hardham (south of Pulborough), Greatham and many locations along the River Stor.
The Environment Agency is also working with partners and local communities in both river catchments to implement the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Strategy.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Restoring England’s internationally important chalk streams is a Government priority. In October last year I co-hosted a conference bringing together key partners whose actions are needed to achieve that priority. A chalk streams working group has been formed and is developing an action plan, a first draft of which will be presented to Government later this year.
A number of river systems drain the South Downs but in many cases only the headwaters would be considered to be chalk streams. The main exceptions are the Itchen and Meon which are sizeable rivers with strong chalk stream character. The Itchen is notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation from source to sea for its national and international importance as chalk stream habitat.
More broadly, River Basin Management Plans set out the actions that are required by a range of organisations and sectors to improve the water environment at a local scale. In addition, the Nitrates (Pollution Prevention) Regulations 2015 and the Farming Rules for Water (2018) aim to reduce agricultural loadings to the natural environment. The Environment Agency is addressing the issue of unsustainable water abstraction, which may also impact on the health of a chalk stream.
Chalk streams are habitats of principal importance under Section 41 of The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, alongside other important river types. The Act requires that the Secretary of State takes steps, as appear to be reasonably practicable, to further the conservation of these habitat types, and promote the taking of similar steps by others. Natural England and the Environment Agency work closely with public bodies and other landowners and stakeholders to advise on and support better protection and restoration of chalk streams, in the South Downs and more widely.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The new Storm Overflows Taskforce established between the Government, the water industry, regulators and environmental NGOs will set out clear proposals to address the harm and frequency of sewage discharged into our rivers and other waterways from storm overflows. The Taskforce has commissioned a research project to gather a comprehensive evidence base about the costs, benefits and feasibility of different options. This research project is due to be completed in the spring.
Additionally, we are working with stakeholders through a new national working group to develop a chalk steam action plan to restore and protect England’s chalk streams.
The working group will be considering all available options on providing further protection of chalk streams and will be reporting its recommendations later in the year.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has completed Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) schemes totalling approximately £90 million at Littlehampton and Arundel on the River Arun and at Shoreham on the River Adur during the current 6 year capital investment programme (2015-2021).
Further capital investment is planned over the following 6 years, subject to confirmation of funding. On the River Adur, works to benefit communities at Beeding and Bramber will involve ‘upstream’ natural flood management with habitat creation. The EA will also repair and refurbish flood defences at Burgess Hill. For the River Arun catchment, investment is scheduled at Liss, at the Warnham Mill reservoir at Horsham and along the west bank of the Arun at Littlehampton. The EA is also supporting Local Authority works at Shoreham and Angmering.
The EA will continue to carry out maintenance at ‘high flood risk’ locations along the Arun and Adur rivers, and to provide advice to landowners undertaking their own watercourse maintenance.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is engaging with National Park Authorities on a range of matters including the delivery of the 25-year Environment Plan and the Landscapes Review recommendations. There have been no recent discussions with National Park Authorities on the specific issue of strengthening protections against light pollution.
The government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through controls in the planning system; the statutory nuisance regime, and when improvements are made to street lighting.
My department has worked with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Transport to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework policies include consideration of the impact of light pollution from artificial light on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation, including where there may be impacts on wildlife and eco-systems.
We strongly welcome the designation of the South Downs National Park as an International Dark Sky Reserve, one of only 16 in the world. As a result of this designation the South Downs National Park Local Plan, adopted on 2 July 2019, has incorporated local policies to protect dark skies. We welcome the adoption of local policies for dark sky protection and understand their extension to other National Parks is under consideration.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government currently has no plans to require manufacturers to install mesh filters on new washing machines but is working with industry to encourage improved environmental outcomes and reduce water pollution. We will continue to assess new and emerging evidence and?consider the need for legislation in the future if industry approaches are not successful.
With our world leading microbeads ban in place, we are exploring how other microplastic sources enter our marine environment. In 2018 we pledged £200,000 for scientists at the University of Plymouth to explore how microfibres and tyre particles enter our waterways and oceans. The findings of their research include that particles released from vehicle tyres could be a significant and previously largely unrecorded source of microplastics in the marine environment (GOV.UK press release). The Government has also launched the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Alliance to help address marine plastic pollution across the Commonwealth.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through controls in the planning system; the statutory nuisance regime, and when improvements are made to street lighting.
My department has worked with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Transport to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework policies include consideration of the impact of light pollution from artificial light on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation, including where there may be impacts on wildlife and eco-systems.
Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan will also deliver benefits including promoting access to stargazing.
Across the UK's 15 National Parks there are a number of locations that have been awarded International Dark Sky Reserve or Dark Sky Discovery Site status. Defra has no formal role in the Dark Sky designation process as it is non-governmental and non-statutory. The Independent Review of Landscapes recommended, ‘A night under the stars in a national landscape for every child.’ The Government has welcomed the Review and will respond in due course. We are committed to increasing opportunities for people of all ages to enjoy the benefits of spending meaningful time in our national landscapes in England.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) Near Shore Trawling Byelaw has not yet come to Defra for consideration and therefore no decision has yet been taken as to whether to confirm the byelaw. It is currently going through the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) quality assurance process in accordance with statutory best practice guidance on IFCA byelaws and we understand that the MMO reverted to Sussex IFCA with comments in June. Once the byelaw has been submitted by the MMO to the Secretary of State for a decision as to confirmation, Defra will review the full byelaw package, including the results of the byelaw consultation, in accordance with the statutory guidance.
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Covid-19 represents a significant challenge to daily life and every part of the economy, including the ornamental horticulture sector. The Government continues to work closely with representatives from the horticulture industry to understand the short-term and long-term impacts on the sector. We have recently received new data on the financial position of the sector following the reopening of garden centres on 13 May. Once we have reviewed that data we will respond to the Horticultural Trades Association’s proposal.
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Covid-19 represents a significant challenge to daily life and every part of the economy, including the ornamental horticulture sector. The Government continues to work closely with representatives from the horticulture industry to understand the short-term and long-term impacts on the sector. We have recently received new data on the financial position of the sector following the reopening of garden centres on 13 May. Once we have reviewed that data we will respond to the Horticultural Trades Association’s proposal.
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer my Hon. Friend for Arundel and South Downs to the answer I gave him on 19 October 2020, UIN: 101331. My Department continues to work hard to negotiate free trade and continuity deals across the world, which will benefit sectors such as English and Welsh wine and are widely supported by industry including the Wine & Spirit Trade Association and WineGB. Going forward, we plan to support wineries at major international events in the US, Germany and Japan and will connect wineries with international influencers and buyers.
The UK Space Agency’s most recent estimates are that between 2016 and 2017, the UK Space sector’s exports amounted to £5.5 billion. In 2016/17, the industry directly contributed £5.7 billion of GVA (in current prices) to UK economic output – equivalent to 38% of space industry income and 0.29% of total UK GDP.
Looking ahead, the Department for International Trade is leading the development of a support plan in coordination with other government departments to enable more small and medium-sized space enterprises to export, and the sector to build back better from the impacts of Covid-19.
There is no routinely collected data to estimate the value of UK genomics sector exports. However, data published by the Office for Life Sciences in August 2020 indicate that the sector has an annual turnover of £2.3 billion. Genomics remains a priority sector for the department and we are working closely with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the new national genomic healthcare strategy “Genome UK: the future of healthcare”. We are proactively supporting UK companies and organisations to secure exports in this field and are engaged with key players across the industry, including major trade associations and senior industry figures.
The Department for International Trade does not hold figures which quantify the export value of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector. The UK is the largest recipient of AI investment in Europe and third in the world and the UK Government is actively supporting the development of its AI industry to ensure that this position is maintained and enhanced. The Government continues to support the UK technology sector where, in 2019, the value of digital goods exports was £17.4bn while digital services exports in 2018 were £51.4bn (latest available full year figures).
Clean transport is a key sector, as recognised by the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution. The Department for International Trade is working across Whitehall and with industry to secure investment into the sector, grow UK capability, and export. Clean transport covers multiple technologies that are at various stages of development and as such, a total assessment of the value of the clean transport sector has not been made.
Our Rt Hon. Friend the Prime Minister has identified health, climate change, and global free trade as key priorities for the United Kingdom’s Presidency of the G7 in 2021.
Working with our G7 partners, we will work for a strong, sustained response to the pandemic and other global challenges, including strengthening global supply chains and the multilateral trading system. In addition, to help make sure that the global free trading system on which our economies are based remains fair, competitive and secure, our Rt Hon. Friend has announced a Panel on Economic Resilience too.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for International Trade)
Latest ONS figures report that the UK’s inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stock reached £1.5 trillion in 2018, a new record. According to UNCTAD, the UK held the 2nd highest FDI stock in the world in 2019, after the USA.
The Financial Times FDI Report found that the UK hosted more greenfield FDI projects than any other European country in 2019, with 1,271 landed ahead of Germany at 702 and Spain with 658.
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) impact assessment shows that all parts of the United Kingdom could benefit from the CEPA. Output in the South East could increase by 0.07%, equivalent to £177 million in 2017 terms.
CEPA could benefit farmers and food producers in Sussex through lower tariffs than would have been the case without an agreement. It also allows more UK goods to access preferential tariffs than the EU-Japan Agreement, thanks to new rules of origin. New protections for more iconic South East products such as English sparkling wine or Kentish Ale goods may also be possible.
The CEPA contains a dedicated Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) chapter to ensure that SMEs are provided with the tools and resources necessary to seize the opportunities of exporting to Japan.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) works closely with all United Kingdom business and wider stakeholders to address their interests including through our Trade Advisory Groups. DIT’s International Trade Advisors are already engaging with SMEs in the South East about benefits and opportunities of this agreement.
Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) impact assessment shows that all parts of the United Kingdom could benefit from the CEPA. Output in the South East could increase by 0.07%, equivalent to £177 million in 2017 terms.
CEPA could benefit farmers and food producers in Sussex through lower tariffs than would have been the case without an agreement. It also allows more UK goods to access preferential tariffs than the EU-Japan Agreement, thanks to new rules of origin. New protections for more iconic South East products such as English sparkling wine or Kentish Ale goods may also be possible.
The CEPA contains a dedicated Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) chapter to ensure that SMEs are provided with the tools and resources necessary to seize the opportunities of exporting to Japan.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) works closely with all United Kingdom business and wider stakeholders to address their interests including through our Trade Advisory Groups. DIT’s International Trade Advisors are already engaging with SMEs in the South East about benefits and opportunities of this agreement.
Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) impact assessment shows that all parts of the United Kingdom could benefit from the CEPA. Output in the South East could increase by 0.07%, equivalent to £177 million in 2017 terms.
CEPA could benefit farmers and food producers in Sussex through lower tariffs than would have been the case without an agreement. It also allows more UK goods to access preferential tariffs than the EU-Japan Agreement, thanks to new rules of origin. New protections for more iconic South East products such as English sparkling wine or Kentish Ale goods may also be possible.
The CEPA contains a dedicated Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) chapter to ensure that SMEs are provided with the tools and resources necessary to seize the opportunities of exporting to Japan.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) works closely with all United Kingdom business and wider stakeholders to address their interests including through our Trade Advisory Groups. DIT’s International Trade Advisors are already engaging with SMEs in the South East about benefits and opportunities of this agreement.
Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
UK trade was performing strongly before the pandemic, with exports increasing 4.4% to £690.8bn last year and increasing year-on-year since 2016. According to UNCTAD the UK was the only one of the world’s ten largest exporting countries to increase exports in 2019, overtaking France to become the fifth largest exporter. Latest figures show the value of UK exports in the 12 months to September 2020 was £626.8bn, down 7.9% on the same period last year.
The published final stage impact assessment shows that all UK regions and nations are estimated to increase output as a result of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (UK-Japan CEPA). Government analysis indicates that the UK-Japan CEPA could boost the economy in the South East by approximately 0.07% in the long-run (equivalent to £177 million based on 2017 gross value added). It should be noted that these monetised value estimates are to be interpreted as indicative magnitudes not precise estimates or forecasts. The analysis does not include a breakdown of the economic value of the deal for Sussex nor an aggregated economic value for England.
Minister of State (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
On 22 June we launched, with Defra, and the support of the UK wine industry a Food and Drink Bounce Back Package. The package offers export support tailored towards the English Wine industry and includes masterclasses, webinars, virtual meet-the-buyer events and support from UK Export Finance. DIT is in regular contact with the wineries’ Trade Association, WineGB and sits on their Export Committee as we prepare for new opportunities presented by FTAs. Under a UK-Japan?FTA, English wines will continue to benefit from lower tariffs into Japan.
I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer given to the Hon. Gentleman, the Member for Ceredigion (Ben Lake) on 9 September (UIN 85097).
The Department for International Trade (DIT) has spent the amounts listed below for catering and hospitality in the financial years 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. This cost includes both the UK and overseas.
The breakdown is as follows:
| Financial Year | Amount |
| April 2017 - March 2018 | £118,579.00 |
| April 2018 - March 2019 | £158,236.00 |
| April 2019 – March 2020 | £207,652.07 |
| Total | £484,467.07 |
Staff at the DIT are located across more than one hundred countries and as we prepare to leave the EU, our ministers and DIT staff regularly travel overseas to build relationships with key global trading partners and the Department provides hospitality or diplomatic entertainment on trade issues.
This includes through the 14 trade working groups we have set up across 21 countries to advance the UK's trade and investment relationships and scope out the potential for future free trade agreements. The figures include overseas spending.
Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
It is not possible to separate the cost of English wine, or wine from other countries, from ‘other catering and hospitality costs’ in the Department’s finance system. As a representative department, small amounts of alcohol may be served at external events where there is a clear business need and it is appropriate given the importance of the occasion and standing of the guests, but we do not keep a separate record of this. Departmental policy states that expenditure should be kept as low as possible, and within specified limits.
Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
As part of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, Government has committed £20 million to support the development of clean maritime technologies. This programme builds on the vision set out in the Clean Maritime Plan, published in 2019, and underlines our commitment to addressing emissions from this sector while supporting green growth.
In addition, the Government has made good progress on delivering its commitments in the Clean Maritime Plan, including by: launching a round of grants and a clean maritime call of £1.5m to support innovation in clean maritime; undertaking research considering the role of maritime clusters in delivering clean growth; and, exploring the inclusion of maritime elements in the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) for public consultation later this year.
Further plans on the decarbonisation of the maritime sector will be included in the forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan. This will set out a credible and ambitious pathway to delivering transport’s contribution to carbon budgets and meet Net Zero by 2050.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department’s initial trials of a prototype acoustic camera have concluded. The Government anticipates the results will be published in the spring following a re-phasing of the work due to pressures arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Data on fatal road accidents is collected via the STATS19 reporting system. It is not possible to directly identify accidents involving anti-social driving.
As part of the STATS19 collection, police officers attending an accident are able to assign contributory factors, which are grouped into nine categories, including ‘injudicious action’. The injudicious action category includes factors related to speed, following too close or disobeying road signs or markings.
Of the 224 fatal reported personal injury road accidents in the Sussex police force between 2015 and 2019 where a police officer attended the scene and at least one contributory factor was assigned, 40 had at least one ‘injudicious action’ factor assigned.
The number of contributory factors assigned in each category is shown in the table.
Contributory factors assigned to fatal reported personal injury road accidents: Sussex police force 2015-20191
| Number | Percentage |
Road environment contributed | 17 | 8% |
Vehicle defects | 3 | 1% |
Injudicious action | 40 | 18% |
Driver/Rider error or reaction | 140 | 63% |
Impairment or distraction | 77 | 34% |
Behaviour or inexperience | 72 | 32% |
Vision affected by external factors | 5 | 2% |
Pedestrian only (casualty or uninjured) | 36 | 16% |
Special codes | 10 | 4% |
Any contributory factor | 224 | 100% |
1 Accidents where a police officer attended the scene and at least one contributory factor was assigned. Factors can be assigned in more than one category for an accident.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The key recommendations from the West Sussex Connectivity Study included better spacing of services and increasing capacity on services into Brighton in the morning peak.
Work is ongoing between the Department and Network Rail to develop these proposals further and make the case for them to enter the Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline so that initial assessment and development can occur.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government recognises the challenging times facing the aviation sector due to Covid-19. The sector is crucial to the UK’s economy and businesses across the sector can draw on the unprecedented package of economic measures that have been put in place during this time. This includes a Bank of England scheme for firms to raise capital (CCFF), business interruption loan guarantee schemes, Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, and financial support for employees (the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme). Overall, we estimate that the air transport sector will have received around £2.5 to £3bn of support through the CCFF and Job Retention Scheme by the end of March 2021.
The Government also recently announced the Airports and Ground Operators’ Support Scheme (AGOSS) and the Test to Release scheme, both of which will benefit the sector. AGOSS will provide support for eligible businesses, up to the equivalent of their business rates liabilities in the 2020/21 financial year, subject to certain conditions and a cap per claimant of £8m.
Finally, if businesses across the sector find themselves in severe and urgent financial difficulties as a result of Covid-19, even following the Government’s cross-economy interventions, then the Government remains open to discussions about bespoke financial support but only as a last resort.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are developing a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan to achieve net zero emissions across all modes of transport, which we expect to publish in Spring 2021. It will set out a credible and ambitious pathway to delivering transport’s contribution to carbon budgets and meet net zero by 2050.
We have already taken significant steps and the Government is going further and faster to decarbonise transport by phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and, from 2035, all new cars and vans must be zero emissions at the tailpipe. Between 2030 and 2035, any new cars and vans sold that emit from the tailpipe must have significant zero emission capability, for example plug in and full hybrids.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to improving access to transport in rural areas.
The Government pays almost £260 million per year in Bus Service Operators Grant, which benefits passengers by helping operators keep fares down, and enabling operators to run services that might otherwise be unprofitable and could lead to cancellation, particularly in rural areas.
There is currently a ‘Call for Evidence’ open to seek ideas on what we could include within a Future of Transport Rural Strategy. Views are being sought on: trends in rural areas, opportunities from innovation for rural areas and the approach government could take to help shape these opportunities.
We are also developing a National Bus Strategy for England, which will focus on the needs of passengers so that more people have access to bus services that meet their needs. The Government recognises the importance of good transport links for the sustainability and independence of communities, particularly in rural areas, and the Strategy will set out how national and local government, and the private sector will come together to support this.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A bid was made to the second round of the Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund to restore the Arundel Chord. We announced outcomes for bids to Round 2 on the 25th November 2020 and feedback was provided in writing to sponsoring MPs. Our discussion and assessment found that while this proposal may be suitable for Ideas Funding in principle, the case needs strengthening. Officials in the Department are able to render assistance to scheme sponsors going forward.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We remain committed to improving accessibility at stations and £383m has been allocated to extend the Access for All programme until 2024. Since 2012 nine stations in Sussex have benefitted from the programme, including tactile paving for visually impaired passengers and platform humps to reduce the stepping distance to the train. Hassocks also received two lifts to provide step free access at the station.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s initial trials of a prototype acoustic camera have concluded. The outcome of the trial is currently being considered, including what further development would be required to enable the technology to be used for more targeted and efficient enforcement.
It is too early in the development of the device to provide a plan for its introduction, but we are optimistic that it will provide an effective enforcement tool in the future.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Earlier this year, Network Rail completed and published the West Sussex Connectivity Study. This study focused on identifying long term improvements that could be pursued on the Arun Valley Line and West Coastway Line (between Brighton and Chichester). A range of potential train service, timetable, and infrastructure options have been identified that could improve connectivity between towns and local stations in West Sussex. Network Rail are considering if a case can be made to develop these options further, which would be assessed in line with the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline process.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport is providing West Sussex County Council with over £23 million through the Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund for highway maintenance this financial year. It is for the Council to decide on how this funding is utilised based on their highway asset management strategy, needs and priorities.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Department announced £175 million of active travel funding for local authorities on 13 November, including an allocation of £2,351,250 for West Sussex. In addition this summer West Sussex received £781,000 from the first tranche of the Emergency Active Travel Fund. The Department has also funded the development of the West Sussex Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The number of fatal reported personal injury road accidents in the Sussex police force and England between 2015 and 2019 can be found in the table below.
The latest annual published statistics are for 2019. The final data on reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain for 2020 will be published in September 2021.
Reported fatal road accidents, Sussex and England, 2015 to 2019 | |||||
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Year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Number of fatal road accidents in Sussex1 | 41 | 52 | 50 | 43 | 42 |
Number of fatal road accidents in England | 1,373 | 1,425 | 1,437 | 1,427 | 1,403 |
Source: DfT, STATS19 | |||||
1 Includes East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. | |||||
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK Government recognises the impact Covid-19 has had on the aviation sector. In addition to the unprecedented cross-economy package of support, which the aviation sector has utilised extensively, we have put in place several measures to help the sector.
The department has worked closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to develop temporary regulatory exemptions around licensing and training in light of Covid-19 restrictions, including that enable Pilots to maintain currency through virtual classroom training and flight simulator devices.
The department is working to maximise the use of the existing support measures such as DWP’s Flexible Support Fund and Rapid Response Service to support aviation workers, and working with industry on options to support skills.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Restoring Your Railway programme prioritises levelling-up and restoring connections to communities across the country including where lines and stations were closed in the Beeching cuts.
The second round of the Ideas Fund received 51 applications including for the Arundel Chord, sponsored by the Hon Member.
We will be announcing the outcome of the second round of the Ideas Fund in the coming weeks.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Arundel Chord could provide some limited and infrequent benefits as a ‘diversionary route’ – a view confirmed in Network Rail’s Spring 2020 West Sussex Connectivity Study. As such, there is no active consideration of the Arundel Chord proposals.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The second round of the Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund received 51 applications and the expert Panel have made recommendations on which schemes should be considered for funding.
We will be announcing the outcome of the second round of the Ideas Fund in the coming weeks.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government supports the use of new technologies and further electrification to decarbonise the railway and help us meet our net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target. Network Rail is currently working to determine which parts of the network could be best suited to hydrogen or battery trains and which could be best suited to further electrification.
The Department supports development of rail hydrogen technology and has contributed £750,000 to facilitate trials of the UK’s first hydrogen-powered train, HydroFLEX.
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The UK is well placed to be a leader in hydrogen fuel cell powered transportation and we are supporting hydrogen where the market favours its use. The UK has one of the largest hydrogen refuelling station networks in Europe. Our £23m Hydrogen for Transport Programme is increasing the number of publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling stations. The programme is delivering new refuelling stations, upgrading some existing stations as well as deploying hundreds of new hydrogen vehicles.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no such discussions with the Governments of those specific states about the potential for creating an air bridge with said countries. However, the Government is working closely with industry to explore this concept. This includes work with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines and airports.
The acoustic camera trial is completed and the results are awaiting publication. Preliminary indications are that the device can identify individual vehicles in certain circumstances and assign noise levels to them but further development is needed to improve accuracy.
The technology has the potential to identify excessively noisy vehicles, however, there are still difficulties in measuring noise in an uncontrolled environment to be overcome.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Department does not collect data on the value of freight by mode of transport.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Department does not collect data on the value of freight by mode of transport.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
From 3 February we will remove the 30 job minimum requirement for applications to the Kickstart Scheme. This will make the scheme accessible to even more employers, giving them choice about whether to apply directly or via one of over 600 approved Kickstart Gateways. We continue to engage with employers to maintain the high interest in the scheme with over 120,000 jobs approved to date.
For many employers Kickstart gateways will still play an important role. They can offer help with the necessary wrap around support for the young person, training and applications or can provide a route into the scheme for organisations without a PAYE system.
Sole traders and those without a PAYE system can continue to apply through the Gateway set up in partnership between FSB and AWV.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
For several years the DWP has taken action to ensure that sustainable investment by pension funds is both possible and encouraged. This has been in several different ways.
In 2018 we brought forward the ESG Regulations. These require trustees of schemes with 100 or more members to publish a policy on environmental considerations including climate change, and defined contribution schemes are required to publically report annually on how they have implemented their policy. This policy was expanded upon in 2019.
In 2020 the Government brought in the Pension Schemes Bill; Section 124 provides powers to impose a wide range of climate-related requirements, including to report in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and to take account of the Paris Agreement goal. This is a world first. This, the first pensions-related bill to specifically cover climate change, completed its passage of Parliament on 19th January 2021. We will bring forward detailed draft regulations and statutory guidance to in the coming days. Subject to approval by Parliament, these duties will come into force in October 2021.
Whilst many schemes can and do invest in environmentally sustainable opportunities within the charge cap, the Government is seeking to make it easier for pension scheme trustees to invest in ‘productive finance’ that funds infrastructure, small businesses and the transition to ‘net zero’. To that end we have consulted upon changes to the rules and requirements relating to the investment by pension funds in illiquid investments.
The fragmentation of the UK pensions market is holding us back. The Government will introduce changes in October of this year to drive consolidation of the UK Defined Contribution pensions market. Without a faster rate of consolidation and greater scale, members of smaller schemes simply cannot benefit from the potential returns and greater diversification that investments such as green infrastructure or the sustainable businesses of the future can offer.
Finally, the government is also creating a Green Gilt to provide another investment vehicle for pension funds in sustainable investments.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I want the UK to be the best place for women to start a business. As much as £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men.
My officials at the Government Equalities Office have supported the Minister for Women to host a roundtable for a diverse range of female entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey. I was delighted to support the recent report published by the Female Founders Forum Project, showcasing successful female entrepreneurs who are powering the UK’s recovery.
The government’s Start-Up Loans programme has provided more than 31,000 loans, worth over £245 million, to women, as of October 2020.
In response to the Rose Review the government has set out an ambition to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by 50% by 2030, equivalent to nearly 600,000 additional female entrepreneurs.
Minister for Equalities
We are working through multilateral channels, such as the G7 and G20, and with the World Health Organization and international partners, including industry. We are discussing collaborative approaches to supporting vaccine development, manufacturing scale-up, and future distribution to meet both domestic and international needs, including for the world’s poorest countries.
Secretary of State for Education
Public Health England (PHE) manages vaccine stocks by ‘first expiry first out’. This means that stock with the shortest expiry date is identified against orders and sent to National Health Service sites for administration into patients before longer dated stock. This is a standard process employed across all vaccine stocks managed by PHE for the national immunisation programme.
Secretary of State for Education
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.
Year-on-year figures are usually provided due to changes in the number of doctors throughout the year being linked to the recruitment and training cycles. The following table shows the change in the number of doctors employed in Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust from both September 2019 and December 2019 to September 2020, full-time equivalent.
HCHS doctors | Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust |
Change since December 2019 | 45 (6.1%) | 4 (6.2%) |
Change since September 2019 | 60 (8.4%) | 4 (6.7%) |
Source: NHS Digital NHS HCHS workforce statistics
Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.
It is usual to provide year-on-year figures due to changes in the number of doctors throughout the year being linked to the recruitment and training cycles. The following table shows the change in the number of nurses and health visitors employed in Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust from both September and December 2019 to September 2020, full-time equivalent.
Nurse and health visitors | Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust |
Change since December 2019 | 66 (4.4%) | 24 (1.9%) |
Change since September 2019 | 106 (7.2%) | 36 (3.0%) |
Source: NHS Digital NHS HCHS workforce statistics
Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The FCDO has a key role in delivering a successful COP including in securing international business co-operation in tackling climate change. The Foreign Secretary and FCDO Ministers raise climate change in their engagements with businesses, and our diplomatic network are regularly engaging companies across the globe. These efforts to drive action from businesses and investors on climate change are complemented by the work of Nigel Topping, as the UN High Level Action Champion for COP26 and Mark Carney as the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance.
At the UK co-hosted Climate Ambition Summit in December, a number of leading firms came forward with major pledges. For instance Apple pledged carbon neutrality for its supply chain and products by 2030.At the same summit, the UK launched the Race to Resilience: a campaign which brings together businesses and insurance companies, alongside mayors, community leaders and others, to commit to building resilience to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of 4 billion people who are vulnerable to climate risks.
Tackling climate change is a key priority for the UK. The Government is committed to working with countries across the world to unlock their renewable energy potential and support their transition towards net zero emissions.
The Government provides extensive support for countries to tackle emissions and cope with the impacts of climate change. Since 2011, we have supported 66 million people to cope with climate change and avoided 31 million tonnes of emissions thanks to our international climate finance - which we have committed to doubling to £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26.
British High Commissions and Embassies serve wine produced in a range of locations, including Great Britain, but we do not centrally hold details of the wine that is served or procured by our Posts overseas. However, I fully support the UK wine industry and will encourage our Posts across the globe to stock UK products.
Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister without Portfolio)
English wine made up approximately 10% of the overall stock of the Government Hospitality wine cellar as of 31st March 2020. Wines from other countries constituted about 88% of the cellar stock.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The proportion of English wines purchased for the Government Hospitality wine cellar varies year on year, but generally increases eg. in 2018-19 49% of the wine purchased was English or Welsh. In 2019-20 that proportion increased to 73% of the wine purchased.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to ending the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050. As a step towards this, the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution was announced alongside the 2020 Autumn Spending Review.
The Ten Point Plan will mobilise £12 billion of Government investment for the green industries of the future and accelerate the UK’s path to Net Zero. This Government investment will spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.
Minister for Equalities
Throughout this crisis, the government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods while also supporting businesses and public services across the UK. To do this, the government has put in place an economic package of support which will provide businesses and individuals with certainty over the coming months, even as measures to prevent further spread of the virus change. The government has spent over £280 billion this year to provide this support.
Businesses forced to close can claim grants of up to £3,000 per month, based on their rateable value, through the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed). They can also claim a one-off grant of up to £9,000, in addition to the monthly grant. Local authorities will also be given an additional £500 million discretionary funding to support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding (worth £20 per head of population) which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies and help businesses impacted.
Businesses are also able to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which was introduced to help employers whose operations have been affected by COVID-19 retain their employees and protect the UK economy. All businesses across the UK can access the scheme, which will run until the end of April 2021, with employees receiving 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 per month.
Businesses have also received billions in loans, tax deferrals, Business Rates relief, and general and sector-specific grants. Individuals and families have benefited from increased welfare payments, enhanced Statutory Sick Pay, a stay on repossession proceedings and mortgage holidays.
Minister for Equalities
The Prime Minister and Chancellor chaired the first meeting of the new Build Back Better Business Council on 18 January. Here, the Chancellor laid out the three key pillars of the government’s plan to drive growth beyond the pandemic: investing in infrastructure, skills and innovation.
This is in addition to the unprecedented fiscal action set out by the Chancellor at January’s Economic Update, taken to support jobs and businesses through the crisis, in order to minimise short term and long-term damage to the economy.
The Government has provided over £280bn of fiscal stimulus through the UK’s comprehensive economic support plan. By doing this, we continue to provide comparable or greater support than all our international peers across almost all areas of economic policy.
This support provides a bridge for people and businesses until the economy reopens, giving them a chance to rebuild and grow again in the future.
Minister for Equalities
HMRC have published statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The statistics can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-coronavirus-covid-19-statistics.
For the period July to October 2020, the CJRS was closed to claims for employments not already furloughed and supported by the scheme except in certain exceptional circumstances. The total number of employments supported by the scheme up to that point was published in August and can be found on GOV.UK at the link provided below. The total number of employments at any time between March and June in West Sussex is 133,000. The equivalent figure for Arundel and South Downs constituency is 14,100. These figures are based on each employee’s residential address.
These statistics can be found here in full: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-august-2020
The value of claims split by Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency is not available. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme provides funds to PAYE schemes to support employers to pay a proportion of the wages of furloughed staff. The registered address for PAYE schemes can be in a different area to that where their employees live and work. In addition, for PAYE schemes claiming for between 1 and 99 employments there was no requirement to specify the amount claimed for each employment. As a consequence it is not possible to provide reliable figures for the monetary value of the support provided by geographical area.
We are delivering on the people’s priorities by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023.
Police Uplift data is published quarterly and the latest release covers recruitment data from the start of the Programme in October 2019 to September 2020.
At 30 September 2020, Sussex Police had recruited 129 additional officers through the Police Uplift Programme and has therefore met its year one uplift allocation. The force also recruited 40 additional officers through other means during this period.
I am extremely grateful to those brave men and women who have signed up to join the police and keep our communities safe.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
This Government is determined to crack down on the county lines gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities.
That is why we are delivering a £25m programme of investment to help put a stop to these ruthless gangs. Our overall package launched in October last year and includes: expanding the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre; increased disruption on the rail networks by the British Transport Police County Lines Taskforce; operational activity against high harm lines in the three major exporting force areas (the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, West Midlands); investment in new technology; and increased support for victims. Our funding has supported joint operations across England and Wales, including with Sussex Police.
Our investment is already delivering results. Following the £5m we invested in 2019-2020, pilot police forces and British Transport Police have closed nearly 140 deal lines, seized cash and drugs with a total value of over £3 million, and made over 100 weapons seizures between November 2019 and March 2020.
In addition, between 2019 and 2021 we are investing £1.76m for the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner to develop a multi-agency Violence Reduction Unit which brings together police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and others to identify the drivers of serious violence, including county lines, and put in place a multi-agency response.
We have also invested £2.2million over 2019 and 2021 to ‘surge’ the operational police response to serious violence in Sussex - this has included collaborative work between Sussex Police and British Transport Police to target county lines activity on the rail network, leading to weapons seizures and arrests of key offenders.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
This Government is determined to turn the tide on knife crime in all areas, wherever it occurs. Across England and Wales, we are recruiting 20,000 more police officers over the next three years and increasing sentences for violent criminals. We have made it easier for the police to use enhanced stop and search powers and we will introduce a new court order, Serious Violence Reduction Orders, to make it easier for the police to stop and search those who have been convicted of knife crime. In addition, we have legislated through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 to give the police more powers and to ensure knives are less likely to make their way on to the streets and we will introduce new Knife Crime Prevention Orders, a preventative order which will provide an additional tool for police to help steer those most at risk away from serious violence. We will also be introducing new legislation to place a duty on the police, councils and health authorities to work together to prevent and tackle serious violence.
Over the last 12 months, we have increased police funding, by £1 billion this year and announced that the amount of funding available to the policing system in 2020 to 2021 will increase by more than £1.1 billion. Sussex Police have received £309.9 Million in 2020-21, an increase of 7.6% from 2019-20 and have recruited 114 additional officers under uplift (as at end of June 2020).
We have also announced a targeted £25 million to tackle county lines drug gangs, given the links between drugs, county lines and serious violence.
This government has committed £76.5 million in 2020/21 to address the drivers of serious violence at the local level and significantly bolster the police response in the 18 Police Force areas most affected by serious violence across England and Wales. This builds on the £100 million invested in the previous year. Of this, Sussex Police has been allocated £2.2 million over two years to pay for a surge in police operational activity, such as increased patrols in greater numbers for longer periods of times, as well as new equipment and technology, improved intelligence and targeting, and an enhanced investigative response. A further £1.8m from the Fund was invested in developing Sussex Police’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).
VRUs will be distributing a further £2.9 million to hundreds of frontline charities working on violence prevention projects which support vulnerable children and young people. More than 300 charities will share in the financial assistance, which is part of the £750 million package of support for charities announced by the Chancellor in April. Sussex VRU received £74,720 and is also supporting 9 charities.
In addition to the Serious Violence Fund, in 2018 we invested £200 million in early intervention and prevention support initiatives over 10 years to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). In Sussex, one project has been offered funding for £93,500 under the Covid grant round.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
The offences covered by sections 42, 43 and 59 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 are not notifiable offences and therefore do not require the police to inform the Home Office for statistical purposes.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
The offences covered by sections 42, 43 and 59 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 are not notifiable offences and therefore do not require the police to inform the Home Office for statistical purposes.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of recorded Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued for vehicular noise offences, including a breakdown by Police Force Area. The latest available data are here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/841256/fixed-penalty-notices-police-powers-procedures-mar19-hosb2519-tables.ods
The data that the Home Office holds will not cover all offences under Section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 for non-compliance with Regulation 97 of the Road Vehicles Regulations 1986. Offences may be dealt with in ways other than FPNs, such as by issuing a vehicle rectification notice or through seizure of the vehicle if it has other serious defects.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) spent £19.2 billion with UK industry and commerce in 2018-19, directly supporting around 119,000 jobs in the UK and indirectly supporting many thousands more.
In South East England, during the same time period, MOD expenditure with industry and commerce was £4,581million supporting around 27,500 jobs.
The MOD does not publish data on a county basis.
Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
7 Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Questions
(View all Andrew Griffith's DLUHC questions)Provisional local government finance settlement allocations for local authorities in England in 2021-22 were published on 17 December. The provisional allocations for local authorities in Sussex can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-provisional-local-government-finance-settlement-2021-to-2022.
I intend to bring forward a final settlement for debate and a vote in the House shortly.
This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful as the nation responds to the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Government has provided a comprehensive package of support of £200 billion to help businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. This package includes the small business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments.
We are also delivering the £50 million Reopening High Streets Safely Fund to support local authorities with rolling out extra measures to support their business communities and have introduced measures protecting commercial tenants from eviction if they are unable to pay their rent.
The High Street Task Force is also playing a vital role in supporting the recovery of our local economies, through providing intelligence and evidence to support government in its response to the Covid-19 outbreak through the creation of monthly reports, a series of webinars to help support local recovery frameworks, and Covid-specific resources in the High Street Task Force’s online resource library.
We are promoting local economic growth in West Sussex through:
- Over £16 million from the Getting Building Fund via the Coast to Capital LEP.
- Awarding the Coast to Capital LEP with £292 million over six years through the Local Growth Fund to drive regional development.
- Selecting Crawley as one of 101 places to develop a Town Deal with Government.
Across England, the Government is supporting local partners to deliver local economic growth through:
- A new £4 billion Levelling Up Fund for England. This will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery, with £600 million available in 2021/22.
- Providing £220 million additional UK funding to help local areas prepare over 2021/22 for introduction of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, to support our communities to pilot programmes and new approaches.
- 101 prospective Town Deals across England as part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund to level up towns and regions across England.
- Allocating £1 billion of the Towns Fund to support the Future High Streets Fund competition, which aims to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that drives growth and ensures future sustainability.
- Delivering a minimum of 10 Freeports. Successful bidders will be announced in Spring 2021 and the first Freeports will be designated in late 2021.
For 2020-21, we have now committed over £7.2 billion for local authorities to fund their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, even before the extension of the Contain Outbreak Management Fund for those authorities under the highest level of restriction – potentially worth over £200 million a month – which was announced as part of the Covid-19 Winter Plan. This is part of an unprecedented package of support for local authorities to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, including measures worth an estimated c. £3 billion of additional support next year. This takes the total support committed to councils in England to tackle the impacts of Covid-19 to over £10 billion.
Councils in the Arundel and and South Downs constituency have been allocated over £96 million in funding from Government, including over £53 million in unringfenced funding, and over £13 million from the Contain Outbreak Management Fund.
Looking ahead to next year, Spending Review 2020 provides councils with the funding and stability to support vital social care services and tackle Covid-19. Local authorities will be able to access an additional £2.2 billion in resources to support Adult and Children’s Social Care and maintain universal services. In addition, we are providing over £1.5 billion in unringfenced grant for ongoing Covid-19 pressures and extending support to offset the income losses councils are experiencing.
Provisional allocations for the annual local government finance settlement for local authorities in Sussex will be announced shortly.
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to prioritise brownfield land for development wherever possible. Local authorities are best placed to assess individual sites: each authority is required to publish a register of its developable brownfield suitable for new homes. My Department will shortly issue a national map of the land identified in these registers. We also provide significant practical support for the take-up of brownfield, such as:
- The £400 million Brownfield Fund for seven Mayoral Combined Authorities - West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region, Sheffield City Region, North of Tyne, and Tees Valley - that will enable around 26,000 new homes on brownfield land.
- The £5 billion Home Building Fund, providing loans for new housing in two ways: the £2 billion long-term fund supports delivery of larger sites, mostly brownfield, through loans for infrastructure and site preparation; the £3 billion short-term loan fund supports small and medium enterprises, custom builders and construction innovators to build housing, including some on brownfield.
- Revision of Permitted Development and Use Class rules to encourage re-use of previously developed land by allowing two new storeys for new homes on top of purpose-built blocks of flats; new space on top of houses in certain circumstances; and conversion or replacement of disused commercial, industrial and other buildings with residential, if well-designed and sustainably located.
- The Housing Infrastructure Fund, which has allocated nearly £4.1 billion for provision of infrastructure for housing projects, including some on brownfield.
- The £10 billion Single Housing Infrastructure Fund, to help with provision of roads, schools and other infrastructure for housing schemes, which may include some on brownfield.
- Land Remediation Relief, which cuts tax for companies cleaning up contaminated land.
Minister of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local planning policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution from artificial light. The Framework is supported by our planning guidance, revised in November last year, which sets out how environmental and other impacts of light pollution should be considered in the planning system. Local planning authorities must take the Framework into account when preparing their plans, and its policies - including those on light pollution - also need to be taken into account in making individual planning decisions. The Planning for the Future White Paper includes proposals for strengthening the way that environmental issues are considered through the planning system. These proposals are now being consulted on and the Government is encouraging feedback from individuals and organisations as part of its assessment of the proposed measures.
Minister of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
On 1st February, the Government announced an additional £40m for victims’ services. This funding will include £9.7m for Domestic Abuse, £16m to further expand the availability of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers and this funding will be available for two years, and £800k for Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors (FLOWS), a digital tool that helps victims of domestic abuse to apply for emergency protection from the courts.
In 2020/21, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) provided £1.85m in core grant funding to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Sussex, for local commissioning of support services for victims of crime, including Domestic Abuse. In addition, MoJ provided £842,538 in emergency COVID-19 funding last year to Sussex PCC to provide additional support for Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence service providers. It is not possible to disaggregate spending on victims of Domestic Abuse from the total funding, as victims of Domestic Abuse are supported by specific providers as well as providers offering a range of services. PCCs also spend money from other sources outside of the MoJ grant on victims’ services including Domestic Abuse.
For 2021/22, the MoJ has committed to match the same levels of funding for the Core Victims Grant for PCCs to ensure that victims of Domestic Abuse continue to receive the support they need.
Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
As set out in the government’s White Paper, A Smarter Approach to Sentencing, published on 16 September, we will be increasing the maximum penalties for causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs to life imprisonment. We will also create a new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving. We will introduce legislation on these changes in the near future.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The number of offenders convicted for offences under section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 at courts in Sussex and England between 2015 and 2019 can be found in the table below.
Number of offenders convicted for offences under section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 at courts in Sussex and England, 2015 to 20191,2,3 | |||||||||||
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England | 40 | 34 | 63 | 79 | 105 |
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of which in Sussex | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
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Source: Ministry of Justice court proceedings database |
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1) The figures given in the table relate to defendants for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. | |||||||||||
2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. | |||||||||||
3) Police Force Areas provide breakdowns of where offences were dealt with (not where they were committed). | |||||||||||
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for offences in England and Wales for the years 2013 to 2019. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here:
The Home Office offence code 81403 includes information on offences under section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994, however please note that this offence code also includes a very low volume of offences (typically 1 or 2 a year) under sections 45 and 59 of the legislation.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on offences. The offences covered by sections 42, 43 and 59 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 are not notifiable offences and therefore do not require the police to inform the Home Office for statistical purposes. The Home Office therefore are also not able to report on the number of crimes associated with these sections of the Act.
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for offences in England and Wales for the years 2013 to 2019. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here:
In the ‘Offence Code’ filter, select ‘81403’ in the drop-down menu to filter for the offence of non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.
In the ‘Police Force Area’ filter, select the relevant police force areas required.
After doing the above, the number of convictions for non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 between 2013-2018 can be seen in row 32 of the resulting pivot table.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on offences. The offences covered by sections 42, 43 and 59 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 are not notifiable offences and therefore do not require the police to inform the Home Office for statistical purposes. The Home Office therefore are also not able to report on the number of crimes associated with these sections of the Act.
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for offences in England and Wales for the years 2013 to 2019. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here:
In the ‘Offence Code’ filter, select ‘81403’ in the drop-down menu to filter for the offence of non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.
In the ‘Police Force Area’ filter, select the relevant police force areas required.
After doing the above, the number of convictions for non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 between 2013-2018 can be seen in row 32 of the resulting pivot table.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on offences. The offences covered by sections 42, 43 and 59 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 are not notifiable offences and therefore do not require the police to inform the Home Office for statistical purposes. The Home Office therefore are also not able to report on the number of crimes associated with these sections of the Act.
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for offences in England and Wales for the years 2013 to 2019. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here:
In the ‘Offence Code’ filter, select ‘81403’ in the drop-down menu to filter for the offence of non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.
In the ‘Police Force Area’ filter, select the relevant police force areas required.
After doing the above, the number of convictions for non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 between 2013-2018 can be seen in row 32 of the resulting pivot table.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Ministry of Justice has published data up to December 2019. The number of convictions under section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 for non-compliance with Regulation 97 of the Road Vehicles Regulations 1986 in (a) Sussex and (b) England since 2015 are provided in the accompanying table.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for hare coursing offences in England and Wales for the years 2013 to 2018. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804510/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2018.xlsx
Related offences include:
Participating in a hare coursing event
Attending a hare coursing event
Knowingly facilitating a hare coursing event
Permitting land to be used for the purpose of a hare coursing event
Permitting etc a dog to participate in a hare coursing event
Search for ‘hare coursing’ in the Detailed offence filter and select the offences of interest. Any years which are not listed have no prosecutions, convictions or sentences.
The data for 2019 will be published in May 2020.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has always stressed the importance of the Union. This year is the centenary of Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom as we know it today, and the Government is committed to levelling up across all four nations of the UK.
The £400m New Deal and the £562m in City and Growth Deals will boost economic growth, with Deals covering the whole of Northern Ireland. This includes the Derry-Londonderry and Strabane City Deal that the Government signed Heads of Terms for in February.
Northern Ireland will also benefit from the Community Renewal Fund, the Levelling Up Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. We will continue working tirelessly for our family of nations going forward.
Minister of State (Education)
The pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge to the Northern Ireland economy and to the UK as a whole. Throughout the crisis the Government’s priority has been to protect lives and livelihoods.
We have taken robust action to support individuals and businesses in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland businesses and individuals have benefited from UK-wide support schemes and policies, including the Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, the 5% reduced rate of VAT for the hospitality sector, and government backed loan schemes, such as Bounce Back Loans and the Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Around one in four jobs in Northern Ireland have been supported by the UK Government’s employment support package, with around 250,000 people benefiting from the furlough scheme and almost 80,000 self-employed supported through SEISS. In addition, £1.3bn in government-backed loans has been issued to almost 35,000 businesses in Northern Ireland.
The UK Government has also provided £3 billion in additional funding to the Northern Ireland Executive to support its response to Covid-19. This has funded a range of economic interventions locally, including business rates relief, grants for businesses, and tailored support for certain sectors, such as hospitality, which have been disproportionately impacted.
These policies have kept people in work, supported their incomes and supported businesses, delivering one of the most generous and comprehensive packages of support globally.
As measures to control the virus change, it is right that Government support should also evolve. The Government keeps all policies under review, and will continue to work with businesses and representative groups to inform our efforts to support businesses.
Minister of State (Education)
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government has supported businesses and employees throughout Northern Ireland. I have regular discussions with HM Treasury on economic support, and am grateful for the generous support that has been given so far.
Northern Ireland has benefited from the UK Government’s employment support package, with around one in four jobs in Northern Ireland protected by this, as well as loans and support of over £1.3billion to more than 34,000 firms across Northern Ireland. A UK-wide VAT cut and the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme have ensured that the world renowned hospitality industry of Northern Ireland can support its 65,000 workers.
In the current financial year, the UK Government also provided the Executive with £2.8 billion to respond to Covid-19. The Executive has used some of this to support businesses in Northern Ireland. In the recent Spending Review, the Chancellor announced an additional £0.5 billion of further funding for the Executive for Covid-19 in 2021/22.
Minister of State (Education)
Northern Ireland is brimming with potential, including world-class goods and services and as a fantastic place to work, live and visit. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, we saw exports from Northern Ireland increasing and we are confident this will be re-established.
The UK Government is committed to supporting the NI Executive to see economic growth return and we will work closely with the Executive so that Northern Ireland and its businesses can seize the opportunities ahead, including new trading relationships. An important part of this will be working with the Department for International Trade and with the Executive authorities, including the Department for the Economy and Invest NI to champion Northern Ireland around the world as we look to see Northern Ireland’s exports increase.
Throughout the year ahead, and particularly in Northern Ireland’s centenary year, the Government will be doing everything it can to support Northern Ireland’s economic recovery and to promote its trade. As part of this, the Secretary of State is looking forward to welcoming the Board of Trade to Northern Ireland early next year.
Minister of State (Education)
Northern Ireland Office Ministers have engaged extensively and regularly with Northern Ireland business representatives and businesses through a programme of business roundtable events; individual business engagements; and webinars to inform the UK Government response to Covid-19 and economic recovery in Northern Ireland. When Covid restrictions have allowed, we have also visited Northern Ireland businesses to hear first-hand their experience and the experience of employees at this challenging time.
This Government will do everything it can to help people and businesses through this extraordinary time and businesses in Northern Ireland will continue to benefit from the Furlough Scheme, VAT reductions and the extension of bounce back loans, which have all been extended to the end of March 2021.
Businesses in Northern Ireland have always exhibited a tremendous resilience and ability to bounce back from adversity, and I have been impressed by their resilience and adaptability through this crisis. We will continue to work closely with businesses, with the Northern Ireland Executive and other local partners to get the Northern Ireland economy back up and running, to lay the foundations for economic growth and to seize the opportunities ahead.
Minister of State (Education)
The Treasury is providing unprecedented support for jobs and businesses across the UK in the face of coronavirus, including an unprecedented £8.6bn upfront guarantee to the Scottish Government. Scotland’s Budget will increase by over £2.4bn during the next financial year.
This is on top of the UK-wide schemes, such as the support for workers, self-employed people and the British Business Bank-administered business loan schemes.
Where policy responsibilities are devolved, the Scottish Government can use this very substantial additional funding to grow the economy, improve public services and support people and businesses across Scotland. I urge the Scottish Government to take swift action to make sure that the funding is made available as soon as possible.
The unprecedented package of measures we have put in place to support all parts of the country shows the clear benefits for Scotland of being part of a strong United Kingdom.
Secretary of State for Scotland
I have frequent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the opportunities which COP26 offers for businesses in Scotland and the whole of the UK. The Government is committed to delivering an ‘all of UK’ COP26 in Glasgow. All parts of the UK will have important roles to play in ensuring the summit’s success. We are working with the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive to ensure an inclusive and ambitious summit for the whole of the UK.
The UK Government is committed to leading the way in tackling climate change working with all countries and with civil society, companies and people on the frontline of climate change, in the UK and globally, to inspire action ahead of COP26. The COP26 Business Leaders group brings together key internationally focused businesses across a broad range of sectors who are taking positive climate action. We are inviting businesses from every corner of the UK to join us in the Race to Zero. Race To Zero is a global initiative, backed by science-based targets, to commit businesses, cities, regions, investors and universities to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the very latest.
I am encouraged by the engagement that we have seen so far and look forward to continuing to work with businesses to maximise the opportunities which the summit brings.
Secretary of State for Scotland
My Department works closely with the Department for International Trade (DIT) to ensure Scottish businesses and Scottish products are promoted across the Globe. DIT has recently launched a UK Trade Hub based in Edinburgh’s Queen Elizabeth House to support Scottish businesses. This new Trade Hub will be dedicated to helping businesses in Scotland thrive and grow internationally, providing much-needed support for thousands of companies in these economically challenging times and helping businesses in Scotland recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
DIT has an extensive global reach and expertise that will add value to the services already provided by Scottish Development International (SDI). Businesses will be able to utilise the UK Government’s global networks, expertise and influence, as well as world-leading credit agency UK Export Finance (UKEF), to grow their overseas trade and build back from the impact of coronavirus.
Trade is crucial to the UK’s recovery from coronavirus and will be the foundation of our relationships across the globe after the transition period ends. I want to ensure that businesses in Scotland benefit from our new trade deals with the world’s biggest markets, as we remove barriers they previously faced.
We have ambitious goals for British trade, and aim to have 80 per cent of UK trade covered by free trade agreements within the next three years. We have already agreed the UK-Japan Free Trade Agreement which has paved the way for more UK goods to be protected – increasing geographical indications (GIs) from just seven under the terms of the EU-Japan deal to around 70 under our new agreement.
This will not only mean that products like Scotch Whisky will enjoy continued protection under the agreement, but also additional products, such as Arbroath Smokies and Stornoway Black Pudding could be protected in Japan from next year. This would allow producers in Scotland to have their products’ unique heritage protected and could lead to improved recognition of key Scottish brands in the Japanese market.
The UK Government is also making strong progress in our negotiations with the USA, Australia and New Zealand. We are committed to working closely with the Devolved Administrations to deliver an independent trade policy that works for the whole of the United Kingdom.
Secretary of State for Scotland
My ministerial team and I have regular discussions with Scottish businesses and trade bodies.
Scottish businesses of all sizes are benefitting from the UK-wide Covid-19 support measures, with over £2.9 billion in loans taken out by nearly 80,000 Scottish businesses, over 290,000 claims worth around £770 million made through the UK-wide Self Employment Income Support Scheme, and our furlough scheme continuing to benefit workers and businesses in Scotland.
In addition to these UK-wide measures, the Scottish Government has received an additional £7.2 billion to support Scotland’s response to Covid-19.
Secretary of State for Scotland
The UK Government regularly engages with the Scottish Government and Space Hub Sutherland on their plans to build the vertical launch site at Melness. The launch site is expected to create up to 250 jobs, 61 of which will be in the Caithness and Sutherland area.
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate them on receiving planning permission earlier this year and I look forward to seeing how the proposal develops in future.
Secretary of State for Scotland
My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland is in regular contact with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and all members of the Cabinet to discuss how best the UK Government can support Scottish businesses during the Covid-19 crisis.
As well as an additional £3.8 billion in funding for the Scottish Government through the Barnett Formula, the furlough and self-employed support schemes have saved more than three quarters of a million jobs in Scotland.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
We signed a Final Deal Agreement for the North Wales Growth Deal on 17 December 2020. We also successfully agreed Heads of Terms for a Mid Wales Growth Deal on 22 December with a view to negotiating a Final Deal Agreement. When this is signed, it will mean that the whole of Wales will be covered by £790m of UK Government City and Growth Deal funding. The Government is committed to ensuring that these deals deliver economic growth and jobs across the whole of Wales and I will continue to work closely with my colleagues to enable that to happen.
Secretary of State for Wales
The UK Government is focused on supporting Welsh businesses and jobs through the Covid-19 outbreak. We have provided over £1.3 billion in Bounce Back Loans, £374 million in Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans, £523 million through the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, as well as £20 million through the Future Fund.
The UK Government has also protected over 400,000 Welsh jobs through the Job Retention Scheme, introduced VAT deferrals and VAT cuts for the tourism industry, provided an additional £9.3 billion to the welfare system across the UK, and created new innovative schemes such as ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ from which Wales has benefitted to the value of £13 million.
On top of this direct support we have provided the Welsh Government with a £5.2 billion funding guarantee for the current financial year to help tackle coronavirus. The Welsh Government will also receive an additional £1.3 billion next year, including £770 million for tackling the pandemic.
Secretary of State for Wales
I have regular discussions with my Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the UK Government’s support for jobs and businesses in Wales during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Wales is benefitting directly from UK Government support to enable businesses and employees to get through the covid-19 outbreak. Our Coronavirus Business Loan Scheme has supported over 1,600 Welsh businesses; we have backed 48,000 bounce back loans; our Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has protected over 401,000 jobs and our Self-Employed Income Support Scheme has helped over 113,000 self-employed people in Wales. The UK Government has also guaranteed £5 billion in further funding to the Welsh Government for 2020-21 to support its response to the virus.
At the Spending Review 2020, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed an additional £1.3 billion for the Welsh Government for 2021-22, including £770m to support the response to Covid-19. This demonstrates that we are taking the steps needed to support businesses in Wales and right across the UK.
Secretary of State for Wales
My Department works closely with the Department for International Trade to support Welsh businesses and promote Welsh Exports. The UK Government is working to secure new opportunities through free trade agreements and market access agreements. The recently signed Japan and Canada trade agreements will give Welsh businesses greater opportunities to export. The UK Government has negotiated a return to market access to the USA for British beef exports which resulted in beef from Merthyr Tydfil being exported to the USA in September for the first time in over 20 years.
When COVID restrictions allow, I look forward to promoting Welsh exports in person.
Secretary of State for Wales
I have regular discussions with a wide range of Welsh businesses and business representative organisations about the effects of Covid-19 and economic recovery.
It is clear that thriving businesses are critical to economic growth and the Government has provided unprecedented levels of support to businesses across the UK to ensure that we are in the best possible place to drive economic recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Secretary of State for Wales