Andrew Jones

All Government’s business support schemes are open to eligible businesses including female entrepreneurs.

The Start-Up Loans programme has provided more than 31,000 loans, worth over £245m, to female entrepreneurs as of October 2020.

Additionally, we continue to work with the private sector to deliver the eight initiatives of the Rose Review. Great progress has been made over the past year with joint NatWest and Be the Business launching the ‘Rose Review Female Entrepreneurs Mentoring Programme’ on 27 October.

The Government introduced the Online Safety Bill to Parliament on 17 March. Through the Bill, the largest social media companies will need to take robust action to tackle fraud, including fraudulent online advertisements. This will ensure that people using the largest platforms are protected from scams, and ensure these services do not profit from illegal activity.

We have also launched a consultation on proposals for wider reform of online advertising regulations, including in relation to fraud.

Access to Work have recruited more people and redeployed existing colleagues to support the processing of applications. We have also reviewed our processes and looked to streamline, where we can, to speed up decision making. Alongside that, we are continuing to transform the service through digitalisation and aim to introduce an online claims portal and an improved application process in the Spring. Whilst we still have a number of newer colleagues in training, these activities are showing positive results with an improvement in processing times and increases in clearances.

There are a range of Government initiatives supporting disabled people, and people with health conditions, to start, stay and succeed in work. These include:

• Increasing Work Coach support in Jobcentres for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance;
• Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;
• The Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, providing tailored and personalised support for participants;
• Access to Work grants towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;
• Disability Confident encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues employees face in the workplace;
• The Information and Advice Service providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting and managing health and disability in the workplace; and
• Support in partnership between DWP and the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies services, which combines psychological treatment and employment support for people with mental health conditions.

Last month we co-hosted a donor conference with the UN, Qatar and Germany. This raised over $2.4 billion for the UN’s humanitarian appeal.

Ahead of the summit, the Foreign Secretary announced the UK’s pledge of £286 million for Afghanistan this financial year.

The Foreign Secretary has committed to prioritising funding for women and girls. In Afghanistan, we will ensure at least 50% of those we reach with our aid should be women and girls.

Reducing the national debt is one the Prime Minister’s five priorities and will provide the foundations for sustainable growth. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed in March that the government is on track to deliver this, meeting our fiscal rules with underlying debt falling as a percentage of GDP in 2027-28. We have shown we will take the difficult but necessary decisions to ensure that debt is falling.

The Ministry of Defence is investing more than £6.6 billion in research and development over the next four years to ensure our Armed Forces have the technologies and skills they need to meet new and emerging threats.

In addition, the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy includes commitments to work with industry to nurture and develop relevant skills in the sectors.

The Ministry of Defence already supports over 390,000 jobs in the UK and in 2019, the UK won £11billion worth of export orders. The multi-year defence settlement will protect this important contribution and build on it by investing in cutting edge capabilities, research and development.

The Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper to be published this Autumn will set out our transformative plans for economic recovery and renewal, and for levelling up opportunity, prosperity, and well-being across the country. Whilst traditionally various population ranges for unitary councils have been referred to, where a unitary council is proposed its particular circumstances need to be considered when assessing whether its population would be appropriate.