Andrew Percy

The number of defibrillators held in buildings managed by the Department is as follows:

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) does not manage any buildings. The GEO shares premises with the Department for Education. We refer the Honourable Member for Brigg and Goole to the answer submitted by that department to PQ Number 22555.

I assume my hon. Friend means the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which is the trade deal between the EU and Canada and this is the subject on which I will be answering.

Analysis suggests that, as a result of CETA, UK exports to Canada will increase by 29% and Canadian exports to the UK will increase by 15%. In the long run, the benefit to the UK economy will be of the order of £1.3 billion per annum.

UK Trade and Investment will promote to British businesses all the new opportunities arising from CETA through a range of marketing activities across the UK and through the network of UK Posts in Canada. An accompanying guide will translate the agreement into an easily accessible document to help businesses identify potential benefits, including the tariff liberalisation on manufactured goods and food and drink products; greater access to government procurement contracts in all provinces at all levels of the Canadian government, including British Columbia and Alberta; and longer patent protection provided for pharmaceutical companies to protect R&D investment.

Recent major investments in the north of England include Siemens and APB’s investment in Hull, Offshore Structure Britain in Teesside and JDR Cables in Hartlepool. There has also been significant investment in operations and maintenance facilities. These investments are helping to deliver high quality and long term jobs to the region.

Provisional 2014/15 data show that there were 105,800 apprenticeships starts in the healthcare sector.

We are committed to delivering employer-led apprenticeship reforms, and will continue working with employers, developing more high quality apprenticeships that are responsive to the needs of business.

The Healthcare Trailblazer, supported by Skills for Health, NHS Trusts and private organisations, has published two new healthcare apprenticeship standards, and more are in development.

The UK is taking an ambitious approach to tackling modern slavery internationally, working to deepen cooperation with countries from where we receive high numbers of victims and with countries of high prevalence in order to support their efforts.

Later this month the Crown Prosecution Service will host an international summit for Prosecutors General from 21 countries around the world. It is an ambitious summit which aims to increase activity, identify ways to better support victims and witnesses, and establishing a strong, active international network to tackle the crime of Modern Slavery.

Additionally, there are already 30 specialist prosecutors based overseas, building capability in local criminal justice systems to tackle serious and organised crime, including that of Modern Slavery.

Staff in the Government Legal Department (GLD) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate who are based at One Kemble Street, have access to two defibrillators which are held by the landlord in their reception areas. GLD client based staff have access to whatever provision is made by those who manage the buildings occupied by their host Department.

The Attorney General’s Office does not currently have access to a defibrillator in its 20 Victoria Street office.

The Serious Fraud Office has access to two automated external defibrillators at their offices in Cockspur Street.

The Crown Prosecution Service does not provide defibrillators in any of its buildings. However, some staff may have access to defibrillators provided by other tenants or the buildings managing agent in buildings that they occupy.

Electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level. There are already measures in place designed to enhance the security of postal voting.

In response to (the then) Sir Eric Pickles report on electoral fraud, the Government accepted recommendations to strengthen the postal vote system and, in line with our manifesto commitment, we are working to reform postal voting to ensure our elections are secure.

The Government will look for opportunities to introduce measures that will restrict the handling of postal votes by people who may seek to abuse or subvert them. We will also look to introduce controls on the return of postal votes via polling stations, which has been a cause for concern in past elections.

Under section 113 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1983 it is an offence for a person to give money or a gift to any other person in order to induce them to vote or to refrain from voting at an election. There is a similar offence at section 114 of the RPA 1983 in relation to the treating of voters.

Furthermore, the Bribery Act 2010 (the Act) replaced an old and outmoded mix of common and statutory law and was designed to provide the courts, prosecutors and investigators the tools they needed to tackle bribery in the UK and overseas in the 21st century. The Act reflects the UK's continued commitment to combat bribery and provides a modern, comprehensive scheme of bribery offences.

If anyone has evidence of abuse of the electoral system, this should be reported to the Returning Officer or the Police who have powers to investigate.

We will continue to keep electoral law under review to ensure the electoral system is safe and secure.

Carillion’s insolvency has made it clear that government should think about whether there is a need to make changes which will safeguard against an event of this scale happening again. To that end, we are currently undertaking an internal lessons learned exercise and will be considering a range of inputs before deciding what changes, if any, need to be made to public outsourcing policies and procedures.

At the request of the Prime Minister, the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is currently carrying out a review of the intimidation of Parliamentary candidates, including those who stood at the 2017 General Election. The Committee will be publishing its report ‘Intimidation in Public Life: A Review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life’ on Wednesday 13 December. The Government will consider the report and its recommendations carefully.

The Government Digital Service has lead responsibility for digital and technology guidance and standards in central Government, through the Digital by Default Service Standard, Government Service Design Manual and Technology Code of Practice. All Government departments are required to follow the standards and guidance when developing new IT and digital solutions. All standards and guidance are fully open and other organisations are welcome to follow the good practice set out in these documents.

Although my department makes no formal assessment of the uptake of these standards and guidance beyond central government, we assure that central government meets these standards through spending controls and service assessments and via the monitoring of service performance on GOV.UK to assure that high quality services are delivered to users.

Department for Business and Trade ministers and officials are in regular contact with the ceramics sector, specifically brick manufacturers to discuss current and future priorities around energy costs, decarbonisation, and competitiveness.

The Department for Business and trade estimates that the ceramics industry was worth £1.1 billion in 2021¹. Over the last five years, the ceramics industry has represented 0.1% of UK GDP².

1- ONS Annual Business Survey accessed here

2- ONS Gross Value Added accessed here

Government plans to consult shortly on eligibility for potential support for facilitating the transition from unabated biomass generation to power bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.

Government is assessing whether transitional support, such as a bridging mechanism, may be appropriate for facilitating the transition from unabated biomass generation to power Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage.

The Government is considering whether transitional support may be appropriate for when existing arrangements end for electricity generators using biomass. The Government will consider whether public consultation may be appropriate as part of this process.

The Department has held preliminary discussions with biomass generators that passed the power bioenergy with carbon capture and storage project submission process about the potential merits of a bridging mechanism.

The Government is committed to working with the ceramics industry to support decarbonisation. Innovative ceramics fuel mixes were supported through the Industrial Fuel Switching competition, with £300,000 for hydrogen trials in Stoke. On 5 June the Government launched the Local Industrial Decarbonisation Plans competition, which will provide support to local areas and could further support initiatives for ceramic decarbonisation. Funding for deployment of low carbon technologies, and for feasibility /engineering studies, is also available through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.

The Secretary of State is considering in detail the advice that Ofcom has provided. The Secretary of State will make regulations as soon as reasonably practicable, in line with Schedule 11 of the Act.

More broadly, all user-to-user services in scope of the Online Safety Act – including online forums of any size – will be required to comply with the illegal safety duties and take steps to remove illegal content. The strongest protections in the Act are for children and where these services are likely to be accessed by children, they must also protect children from a wider range of harmful content. Targeted duties on search services, to minimise illegal search results, will also reduce traffic to websites, including online forums, that host illegal material.