Ben Maguire

The next statutory review of the Pubs Code and Pubs Code Adjudicator, as required by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and associated regulations, will cover the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025. The review will commence once the current review period has ended.

The Secretary of State is required to publish a report of the findings of the review and lay a copy of the report before Parliament as soon as practicable after the end of the review period.

The Department for Business and Trade recognises the critical importance of the marine economy to the UK, facilitating around 95% of the country’s trade in goods, directly employing 227,000 people and generating over £55bn in business turnover in 2019. This sector also plays a vital role in advancing the UK’s sustainability goals - highlighted by the Department for Transport's recent announcement of a further £30m investment into the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition. My department works closely with the sector to support new investment opportunities and to help achieve sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth.

UK businesses exporting medical devices to the EU should comply with EU General Safety and Performance Requirements (GSPR), which outline the criteria for medical and in vitro diagnostic devices marketed in the EU. These apply under the EU Medical Device Regulations (MDR) and the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR), which came into force in 2017.

Responsibility for interpreting and providing guidance on EU legislation rests with the European Commission. For detailed guidance, businesses should refer to the European Commission's website. UK Government continue to assess implementation milestones of MDR and IVDR. Businesses experiencing EU market access issues, may seek support via the UK Export Support Service.

I appreciate that for some businesses, the updated EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) will require changes, and we take these concerns very seriously. Government is supporting small businesses to understand GPSR and is engaging directly with businesses to assess the regulation’s impact.

We have published guidance on GPSR’s application in Northern Ireland, which we will keep under review. The responsibility for interpreting EU legislation lies with the European Commission. The Commission have published their own business guidance and impact assessment of the regulation.

Small businesses exporting to the EU may also wish to contact the Government’s Export Support Service.

The Government is supporting small businesses to understand and comply with the new EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR). We published information on GOV.UK regarding its application in Northern Ireland, which we regularly review, and continue engaging directly with businesses. Since October, the UK Export Academy has delivered five free online GPSR training sessions, with over 2,600 attendees.

The responsibility for interpreting and providing guidance on EU legislation rests with the European Commission. Exporters to the EU should consult EU guidance and may also contact the Government’s Export Support Service.

There are a strong set of consumer law duties that apply to builders like any other trader in the UK, and the Government believes that dealing with rogue builders is primarily a matter of effective enforcement of that legislation. To this end DBT is strengthening consumer law enforcement through the implementation of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The Act gives the CMA new administrative powers, and the CMA and courts the ability to impose significant monetary penalties on businesses which exploit their customers.

The £381 million Local EV Infrastructure Fund supports local authorities to work with industry and transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking.

The funding, backed by substantial private investment, will support the installation of tens of thousands of local chargers, ensuring the rollout continues at pace to support drivers in every part of the country.

The Government continues to provide funding to local authorities, small businesses, schools and residential properties to support the installations of tens of thousands of public and domestic electric vehicle chargepoints.

The Government is also making it easier, quicker and cheaper to install chargepoints. In December the Government announced: further changes to planning legislation to facilitate off-street chargepoint installations and to allow the use of street works permits for quicker charger deployment; guidance to help local authorities with cross-pavement charging solutions; and guidance to address common issues around EV infrastructure and grid connections.

The Secretary of State does not intend to commission a separate independent review of alternative renewable energy technologies. DESNZ monitors new developments through the Net Zero Innovation Programme.

Additionally, since 2012 the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund has received proposals for alternative technologies, which are reviewed independently.

The link to more of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/energy-entrepeneurs-fund

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

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

Poor internet access can pose significant challenges for rural and urban communities alike, which is why the government is determined to improve access and promote digital participation.

The Government is committed to improving broadband access in rural areas through Project Gigabit, which is delivering gigabit capable connectivity for millions of rural homes.

While we expect most premises will be covered by commercial activity or Project Gigabit, for those parts of the UK where this is not possible, government is considering alternative ways to improve connectivity.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

The structure of the high needs national funding formula (NFF) is largely unchanged in the 2025/26 financial year as the government needs time to consider what changes are necessary, both to make sure that we establish a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed and to support any SEND reforms.

Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Of that total, Cornwall County Council is being allocated over £86 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £7.1 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 8.7% increase per head of their 2 to 18 year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation. We have also announced £740 million high needs capital funding for the 2025/26 financial year. We will confirm plans to allocate this funding to local authorities later in the spring.

In addition to the DSG, local authorities will also receive a separate core schools budget grant (CSBG), and funding in respect of the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, in the 2025/26 financial year. This CSBG continues the separate grants payable this year, which are to help special schools and alternative provision with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases and other staff pay increases. Individual local authorities’ allocations of this funding for 2025/26 will be published in due course.

The government is dedicated to increasing children's accessibility to physical education (PE) and sport provision, by protecting PE time and supporting grassroots clubs to expand access to sports for all girls and boys. Through the department’s independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review, we will seek to deliver a curriculum which is rich, broad and inclusive, ensuring all children and young people have the best start in life and have equal opportunities to participate in high-quality PE, sports and physical activities.

Information on future funding will be shared in due course.

The government is dedicated to increasing children's accessibility to physical education (PE) and sport provision, by protecting PE time and supporting grassroots clubs to expand access to sports for all girls and boys. Through the department’s independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review, we will seek to deliver a curriculum which is rich, broad and inclusive, ensuring all children and young people have the best start in life and have equal opportunities to participate in high-quality PE, sports and physical activities.

Information on future funding will be shared in due course.

The government has pledged to protect physical education (PE) time and wants schools to offer a minimum of two hours of PE per week to their pupils. This government is committed to supporting schools to ensure this ambition is met, including through the PE and sports premium in primary schools.

In December 2023 the department asked primary and secondary school leaders how many minutes of compulsory PE teaching were timetabled for pupils in the autumn term in the 2023/2024 academic year. The findings are published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-and-college-voice-omnibus-surveys-for-2023-to-2024/school-and-college-voice-december-2023.

The government is committed to creating opportunities for all children to achieve and thrive. The department has not made an assessment of the merits of funding school trips to Parliament. It is for schools to decide whether to offer school trips to their pupils and what trips to offer. Schools receive pupil premium funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and may use this funding to support extracurricular activities, including school trips and associated transport costs. Schools may also ask parents to contribute towards the cost of school trips but may not make compulsory charges for trips which take place during school hours, or are part of the national curriculum, religious education or the syllabus for a public exam the pupil is being prepared for at the school.

The department recognises that the cost and availability of public transport can be an issue for some 16 to 19-year-olds when travelling to their college or sixth form.

It is the responsibility of local authorities to put in place transport arrangements to help young people aged 16 to 19 to access education or training, including those aged 19 to 24 with special educational needs, through appropriately prioritising their spending.

Many local authorities do offer some form of subsidised transport, for example, in North Cornwall, Cornwall Council offer discounted fares to all young people, and free transport for those with education, health and care plans to access relevant learning where eligible.

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund can be used for transport costs to support young people to access education and training. Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding how to distribute their bursary allocations to students, and for establishing what criteria to use.

To ensure that the distribution of this funding around the regions matches the needs of young people, we use up-to-date disadvantage data and focus more on the costs of transport, to ensure institutions get more Bursary Fund if their students are from more disadvantaged areas and/or travel a long way to attend. Institutions decide which young people receive bursaries and determine the level of financial support they receive. They develop their own eligibility criteria for access to the discretionary bursary fund and must publish information on this for students.

More generally, 16 to 19 funding allocations which go to a range of providers including colleges, incorporate funding to support disadvantaged students. This funding does not have specified delivery conditions and providers are free to choose the best ways to use this additional funding to attract, retain and support disadvantaged students, including offering travel support.

Adult education, for learners aged 19 years and above, is funded through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) and delivered through further education colleges, local authority adult education services, training providers and Institutes of Adult Learning. Providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use their ASF allocations to meet the needs of their communities.

Adult education is offered in college buildings, adult education centres, and accessible informal venues, such as libraries and community centres to meet local needs. It is for local providers to decide if a specific adult education centre is required for their community.

The government believes that local areas are best able to meet local needs, which is why it is committed to devolving the ASF to parts of the country that want a devolution deal. Cornwall is due to receive a devolution deal for the 2025/26 academic year and will be able to use their share of the ASF to best meet their needs, including on reviewing how their funding is best distributed locally to adult education providers.

The department is investing in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), which is worth £1.34 billion this academic year. The ASF fully or co-funds education and skills training for eligible adults aged 19 and above, from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

Currently, approximately 60% of the ASF is devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Mayor of London, acting where appropriate through the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is responsible for the remaining ASF in non-devolved areas.

Cornwall is currently a non-devolved area, meaning the ESFA grant funds the providers who decide the provision offered. The department believes that local areas should have more control over adult education in their areas. As such, the government has agreed a devolution deal with Cornwall which includes the devolution of the ASF from the 2025/26 academic year. This will provide the area with the ability to commission adult education to Cornwall residents.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Support for Budehaven Community School is the responsibility of Cornwall County Council as the maintaining local authority.

The department wants to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting children and young people with SEND through early identification, effective support, high quality teaching and effective allocation of resources. We will work with the sector as essential and valued partners to deliver our shared mission.

This government is clear that arts subjects should be part of every child’s education.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will advise on how the department delivers a broader curriculum for every child, including arts subjects and English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects. The department will also support children to study a creative or vocational subject to the age of 16 and ensure accountability measures reflect this.

Schools have autonomy over how they spend their core funding and can decide how to best allocate their resources for the benefit of their students. The department does not provide schools with dedicated or ring-fenced funding for either arts subjects or EBacc subjects. Schools do not report back on the funding they have allocated to different subjects.

Overall core revenue funding for schools totals almost £61.8 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. More specifically, through the Dedicated Schools Grant, Cornwall is receiving £406.3 million for mainstream schools in 2024/25.

The department has not made a formal assessment of the merits of broadening the free school meals (FSM) eligibility criteria. The department is committed to tackling the grave issue of child poverty, which has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. That is why the government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackling the root causes, and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new ministerial taskforce has been set up to begin work on the Child Poverty Strategy.

The department is also committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that all children have the freedom to achieve and thrive in education. To support this aim, the government is committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, to set children up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn, while supporting parents and carers to work.

The department has additionally invested in programmes which provide over three million children with free and nutritious meals. This includes FSM, which 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive, and universal infant free school meals, which will benefit around 1.3 million pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2.

The department publishes statistics on education, health and care (EHC) plans at local authority level, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. This includes information on children and young people not in school or further education, including those awaiting provision, in elective home education, in other arrangements, having had notice of their plan to cease, or Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). The number and proportion of children and young people with an EHC plan who were elsewhere than at school in Cornwall from 2020 to 2024, which includes the last 5 years of data available, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/6066ca5a-0309-412e-6920-08dca70c1109.

The data collection for EHC plans does not include information on previous Special Educational Needs (SEN) support identification.

Wider data on special educational needs, including information on the total number of pupils with EHC plans and SEN support at local authority level, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.