Catherine West

Following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017 the Government commissioned the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety led by Dame Judith Hackitt. The report highlighted the need to transform the fire and building safety regime and recommended that “some minimum requirements around fire safety will need to be addressed when local planning authorities are determining planning applications and will require input from those with the relevant expertise.”

The review took into consideration the experience of other countries’ building regulatory frameworks. It noted that many of the concerns recognised with the English regulatory framework were shared across different countries. This included deviations from designs, potential conflicts of interest for third-party inspectors, lack of adequate competence, as well as lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. The review’s findings and subsequent recommendations were also informed by case studies from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Finland, the outcome of which was to move towards a culture of shared responsibility in how our planning system approaches building and fire safety.

In response to the review’s recommendations, the Government introduced new requirements known as planning gateway one on 1st August 2020, which require the developer to submit a fire statement setting out fire safety considerations specific to the development with a relevant application for planning permission for development which involves one or more relevant buildings.

Relevant buildings under planning gateway one must contain two or more dwellings or educational accommodation and meet the height condition of 18 metres or more, or 7 or more storeys.

These changes are intended to help ensure that applicants and decision-makers consider planning issues relevant to fire safety, bringing forward-thinking on fire safety matters as they relate to land use planning to the earliest possible stage in the development process and result in better schemes which fully integrate thinking on fire safety.

Additional guidance on fire safety and high-residential buildings can be found in the following planning practice guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fire-safety-and-high-rise-residential-buildings-from-1-august-2021

Following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017 the Government commissioned the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety led by Dame Judith Hackitt. The report highlighted the need to transform the fire and building safety regime and recommended that “some minimum requirements around fire safety will need to be addressed when local planning authorities are determining planning applications and will require input from those with the relevant expertise.”

The review took into consideration the experience of other countries’ building regulatory frameworks. It noted that many of the concerns recognised with the English regulatory framework were shared across different countries. This included deviations from designs, potential conflicts of interest for third-party inspectors, lack of adequate competence, as well as lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. The review’s findings and subsequent recommendations were also informed by case studies from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Finland, the outcome of which was to move towards a culture of shared responsibility in how our planning system approaches building and fire safety.

In response to the review’s recommendations, the Government introduced new requirements known as planning gateway one on 1st August 2020, which require the developer to submit a fire statement setting out fire safety considerations specific to the development with a relevant application for planning permission for development which involves one or more relevant buildings.

Relevant buildings under planning gateway one must contain two or more dwellings or educational accommodation and meet the height condition of 18 metres or more, or 7 or more storeys.

These changes are intended to help ensure that applicants and decision-makers consider planning issues relevant to fire safety, bringing forward-thinking on fire safety matters as they relate to land use planning to the earliest possible stage in the development process and result in better schemes which fully integrate thinking on fire safety.

Additional guidance on fire safety and high-residential buildings can be found in the following planning practice guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fire-safety-and-high-rise-residential-buildings-from-1-august-2021

My Department has put in place a range of schemes to support low income homeowners. This includes the means-tested Disabled Facilities Grant that helps meet the cost of home adaptations for disabled people of all ages and tenures to live safely and independently at home. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy also runs a number of programmes to support homeowners to improve the energy performance of their homes, including the Home Upgrade Grant and Energy Company Obligation schemes.

We are committed to make sure that rough sleepers will be offered the support they need to get off the streets and are protected from the cold this winter.

We are providing over £70 million to support rough sleeping services in London this year through the Rough Sleeping Initiative 2021/22.

On top of the significant Rough Sleeping Initiative investment, the Winter Pressures Fund (WPF) was announced on 29 October 2021 as part of a wider winter funding announcement. WPF is a £10 million fund targeted to 35 local authorities, 16 of them in London, who have the highest numbers of rough sleepers, from the 2020 Rough Sleeper Snapshot, or the highest number of un-housed non-UK nationals.

DLUHC have and continue working closely with London councils, and the Greater London Authority, and we are discussing with both of them the provision of pan-London winter capacity.

The Department is providing over £71.5 million across Greater London, this is more than a 100% increase from the £34.6 million provided in 20/21 and is providing over 2,800 bed spaces and more than 700 support staff.

The Government announced a £1.5 billion pot of additional business rates relief for properties affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that have not otherwise been eligible for support linked to business rates. The £1.5 billion fund will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19 and are ineligible for existing support linked to business rates. Local authorities will use their knowledge of local businesses and the local economy to make awards.

My Department will publish guidance to help local authorities set up their local schemes once the legislation relating to COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances provisions has passed. The Government will support local authorities to do this as quickly as possible, including through new burdens funding.

The Government announced a £1.5 billion pot of additional business rates relief for properties affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that have not otherwise been eligible for support linked to business rates. The £1.5 billion fund will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19 and are ineligible for existing support linked to business rates. Local authorities will use their knowledge of local businesses and the local economy to make awards.

My Department will publish guidance to help local authorities set up their local schemes once the legislation relating to COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances provisions has passed. The Government will support local authorities to do this as quickly as possible, including through new burdens funding.

The Government has committed to exploring the merits of introducing a national landlord register in England as part of a commitment to drive up standards in privately rented accommodation. We are engaging with a range of stakeholders and potential users of a register such as private landlords, local authority enforcement officers, letting agents and private tenants to inform this work. We will publish a White Paper in 2022 that will set out our proposals for private rented sector reform.

The Government announced a £1.5 billion pot of additional business rates relief for properties affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that have not otherwise been eligible for support linked to business rates. The £1.5 billion fund will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19 and are ineligible for existing support linked to business rates. Local authorities will use their knowledge of local businesses and the local economy to make awards.

My Department will publish guidance to help local authorities set up their local schemes once the legislation relating to COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances provisions has passed. The Government will support local authorities to do this as quickly as possible, including through new burdens funding.

In Glasgow, COP26 made progress on the issue of loss and damage. It agreed to establish a process to discuss the funding of actions to avert, minimise and address loss and damage. It also recognised that funding for loss and damage already flows from a number of sources and called for this to be scaled up. COP further agreed on practical steps to deliver technical assistance to countries to set the needs they have and the action required on loss and damage.

In our Presidency year, we will be taking forward the decision made at COP, facilitating and encouraging further progress on the issue of loss and damage.

A public inquiry examining the proposal for a new coking coal mine in Cumbria took place in September and October. Following the close of that inquiry, the independent planning Inspector is preparing a report for Ministers to consider.

At both Ministerial and official level, we continue to raise the need for finance and action on loss and damage, noting that relevant finance for averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage comes from sources under and outside the UNFCCC.

As COP26 incoming Presidency, the UK has convened seven consultations which have devoted substantial time to the issue of operationalising the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage and included the question of finance to enable its work. The COP President also convened dedicated Ministerial sessions on loss and damage at the July Ministerial in London and at PreCOP. At these sessions, the issue of finance was discussed, including the post-2025 goal, with a view to political leaders providing the strategic framing for negotiator-level discussions at COP26.

As part of the COP25 Presidency and incoming COP26 Presidency joint informal work plan on finance, we have undertaken informal negotiator-level consultations on the post-2025 climate finance goal with all Parties that have expressed an interest. Public reflections notes on these engagements are available on the UNFCCC website. The COP26 Presidency role is to facilitate balanced progress on this item in Glasgow, reflecting the positions of all Parties as best possible.

As Members will be aware, the Secretary of State is currently considering the best way forward on planning reforms and we will announce next steps in due course.

However, the hon lady will be aware that we are already taking action to ensure the homes we build are fit for the future through the Future Homes Standard and the 2021 interim uplift to the energy efficiency standards for new homes. And last week the Government published its Net Zero Strategy, setting out our commitments to enable local areas to deliver net zero.

It is important to be clear that a Voter Card will only be necessary where electors do not already possess one of the wide range of forms of identification that will be acceptable. Many blind and partially sighted people who choose to vote in person will likely find they already possess such a form of identification. However, where electors do not possess this, local authorities will be legally obliged to provide a Voter Card free of charge.

We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and a wide range of charities and civil society organisations, to make sure that the requirement to provide photographic identification at the polling station is rolled out in a way that is inclusive for all voters.

This will include continued engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), which is a member of the Government's expert Accessibility of Elections Working Group.

It is important to be clear that a Voter Card will only be necessary where electors do not already possess one of the wide range of forms of identification that will be acceptable. Many blind and partially sighted people who choose to vote in person will likely find they already possess such a form of identification. However, where electors do not possess this, local authorities will be legally obliged to provide a Voter Card free of charge.

We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and a wide range of charities and civil society organisations, to make sure that the requirement to provide photographic identification at the polling station is rolled out in a way that is inclusive for all voters.

This will include continued engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), which is a member of the Government's expert Accessibility of Elections Working Group.

We are currently developing plans related to the makeup of the COP26 UK delegation. It is too early to confirm names at this stage.

The UK has committed to championing diversity and inclusion throughout our COP26 Presidency and all civil servants in the Cabinet Office COP26 unit have been appointed in line with civil service guidance and rules. In the COP Unit, 45% of the senior management team in the COP26 unit are women. In 2020, the Prime Minister appointed Anne-Marie Treveylan as the COP26 Adaptation and Resilience Champion.

I welcomed the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, to London on Monday 8 March 2021, his first international visit since his appointment. We discussed the new US Administration’s climate ambition and our joint efforts to ensure that COP26 is a success. Our discussion built on previous conversations I have had with Secretary Kerry and with Gina McCarthy, US National Climate Advisor.

I refer the hon. Member to the joint statement on climate change from myself and Special Envoy Kerry published on GOV.UK on Tuesday 9 March 2021. The UK and US will be working closely together to ensure that President Biden’s Leaders’ Summit on Climate on 22 April and the UK-hosted G7 build momentum on the way to COP26 in Glasgow.

I refer the hon. Members to the answer given to PQ 88289 on 21 September 2020.

The government outlined its approach to Audiovisual Media Services Directive in its public consultation launched in May 2019, and confirmed plans for implementation in its response in February 2020.

The Register of Lords' interests can be accessed on the parliamentary website at the following address:

https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-financial-interests/house-of-lords-commissioner-for-standards-/register-of-lords-interests/

How donations to Members of the House of Lords are regulated and what interest needs to be disclosed in the Register of Interests is a matter for the House of Lords.

Throughout the pandemic, we have consistently adapted our response as we have learnt more about the virus and how best to tackle it. Decisions on when to lift restrictions, and in which order, seek to strike a balance between the epidemiological evidence and advice, the impact lockdown is having on people’s health (including mental health and disproportionate impacts on certain groups), wellbeing, and the economy. Scientific evidence supporting the government response to coronavirus is regularly published here - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

On 22 February the Government published its 'COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021'

roadmap to recovery. The roadmap outlines four steps for cautiously easing restrictions across England. The first measures of Step 1 took place on the 8th March. Schools breaking up for the Easter holidays will provide an opportunity for further, limited relaxation particularly in outdoor settings where there is less risk. Therefore from 29 March, outdoor sports and leisure facilities will reopen and organised sport (for adults and children) will resume.

The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of our country.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

This Government is fully committed to transparency, and ensuring all requests for Freedom of Information (FOI) are handled appropriately. All requests are considered in an applicant-blind manner, regardless of - for example - the occupation of the applicant. The Cabinet Office FOI process complies with relevant protections under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Under section 45 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Cabinet Minister issues a Code of Practice, available on gov.uk, which provides guidance and advice to public authorities on the handling of Freedom of Information Requests. In addition, and in line with practice since 2005, the Cabinet Office provides advice to Departments, to ensure cases are handled consistently, and sensitive material handled appropriately. A Clearing House was established in 2004 and has operated in different forms since the FOI Act came into force in January 2005 as an advice centre to coordinate complex requests across Whitehall. There is now no stand alone Clearing House team, but coordination functions are carried out by a number of staff members who have a range of wider responsibilities. Policy responsibility for Freedom of Information transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Cabinet Office in 2015.

Correspondence is a vitally important interface with members of the public, Members of Parliament and Peers, and should be given the highest priority.

The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence. Departments have seen a significant increase in correspondence during the pandemic but are required to provide a substantial response to all correspondence from MPs and Peers in 20 days. Departments are not required to keep a record of the average response time. The Cabinet Office responded to 58% of MP and Peer correspondence within 20 days between April - June 2020, and to the remaining correspondence as quickly as possible. Officials are working to improve response time.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner had statutory oversight of the Consolidated Guidance and reported on it annually to the Prime Minister. I refer the Honourable Member to section 10.19 of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s 2018 annual report where the (then) Commissioner explained why it was not appropriate to publish these details.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner's 2018 Annual Report can be found at:

https://www.ipco.org.uk/docs/IPCO%20Annual%20Report%202018%20final.pdf

The Government does not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner had statutory oversight of the Consolidated Guidance and reported on it annually to the Prime Minister. I refer the Honourable Member to section 10.19 of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s 2018 annual report where the (then) Commissioner explained why it was not appropriate to publish these details.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner's 2018 Annual Report can be found at:

https://www.ipco.org.uk/docs/IPCO%20Annual%20Report%202018%20final.pdf

The Government does not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner had statutory oversight of the Consolidated Guidance and reported on it annually to the Prime Minister. I refer the Honourable Member to section 10.19 of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s 2018 annual report where the (then) Commissioner explained why it was not appropriate to publish these details.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner's 2018 Annual Report can be found at:

https://www.ipco.org.uk/docs/IPCO%20Annual%20Report%202018%20final.pdf

The Government does not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

The final reports of the four Boundary Commissions in the 2018 Boundary Review were submitted to the Government and laid before Parliament in September 2018.

The Government will continue to monitor closely the current legal proceedings in relation to the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland’s final report.

As we set out in our manifesto, the Government will ensure we have updated and equal parliamentary boundaries, making sure every vote counts the same.

The Heat and Buildings Strategy sets out how the Government is taking ‘no-regrets’ action now for decarbonising domestic heating supply, particularly on heat pumps, whilst supporting ongoing trials and other research and innovation on our future heating systems, including on hydrogen. The Government will make a decision on the potential role for hydrogen in heating buildings by 2026, learning from the Hydrogen Village pilot. Heat pump technology will play a key role in all scenarios, so for those who want to install them now, the government is supporting them to do so.

The Government want, to ensure that, in future, heat pumps are no more expensive to buy and run for consumers, the fossil fuel boilers. Households will benefit from £5,000 government grants through the £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme to help install low-carbon heating systems, part of more than £3.9 billion of new funding to decarbonise heat and buildings. With this transition taking place over the next 14 years, no-one will be forced to remove their existing fossil fuel boilers. This will enable homeowners to easily make green choices gradually and in an affordable, practical and fair way,

A £60m innovation fund has been launched to make clean heat systems smaller and easier to install and cheaper to run. This will support the Government’s new target for all new heating systems installed in UK homes by 2035 to be either using low-carbon technologies, such as electric heat pumps, or supporting new technologies like hydrogen-ready boilers, where the government is confident it can supply clean, green fuel.

This is commercially sensitive information that relates to a company’s production costs and sales. It is not appropriate to provide estimated figures at this time.  Details of our support will be published in the 2021-22 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts which will be available on gov.uk.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have been in regular contact with the regulator, Ofgem, and energy suppliers.

On 20 September 2021, a roundtable was held with leading energy suppliers and consumer groups to hear about the challenges they currently face.

A further roundtable was held on 21 September 2021 with smaller and challenger energy suppliers.

Ofgem updates the energy price cap to reflect changes in underlying costs, such as purchasing wholesale gas and electricity prices, which are global markets. Wholesale prices are increasing, but the energy price cap still saves 15 million households on default tariffs up to £100 a year.

Ofgem updates the energy price cap to reflect changes in underlying costs, such as purchasing wholesale gas and electricity prices, which are global markets. Wholesale prices are increasing, but the energy price cap still saves 15 million households on default tariffs up to £100 a year.

The Government continues to support low income and fuel poor households with their energy bills through the Warm Home Discount which provides eligible households with £140 off their bills. In addition, Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments will help ensure those most vulnerable are better able to heat their homes over the colder months.

The Ten Point Plan is part of my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister's mission to level up across the country, mobilising £12 billion of government investment to create and support up to 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs in the UK, and spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.

At every step on the path to Net Zero, we will put affordability and fairness at the heart of our reforms.

The development proposal from Cambo is being scrutinised in line with robust regulatory procedures and no decision has yet been taken by OGA yet.

The UK is leading the way in the energy transition and this year the UK published the North Sea Transition Deal – the UK is the only G7 country to have agreed a landmark deal to support the oil and gas industry’s transition to green energy by 2050 while at the same time supporting 40,000 jobs.

The Environmental Statement submitted by Siccar Point Energy E&P Limited considers the potential environmental impacts associated with the proposed project of the Cambo Phase 1 Field Development. That Environmental Statement is currently being assessed by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) in accordance with the Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Production, Unloading and Storage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2020.

As we move towards net-zero, oil and gas will play a smaller, but still an important role in meeting UK energy demand. All scenarios proposed by the Climate Change Committee setting out how we could meet our 2050 net zero emissions target include continuing demand for oil and natural gas.

The IEA report acknowledges that continued investment in existing sources of hydrocarbons will be required to meet the world’s energy demands on the pathway to net zero.

Looking forward, the Government will introduce a climate compatibility checkpoint which will be used to assess whether any future licensing rounds remain in keeping with our climate goals. We have committed to launching this checkpoint by the end of 2021.

In relation to coal powered generation, in June, we announced the deadline for phasing out unabated coal generation in Great Britain will be brought forward to 1 October 2024 as part of our drive to go further and faster in decarbonising the power sector as we work towards net zero emissions by 2050.

We have already taken steps to improve the rights of workers by legislating to close a loophole which sees agency workers employed on cheaper rates than permanent workers, by quadrupling the maximum fine for employers who treat their workers badly, and by giving all workers the right to receive a statement of their rights from day one. On top of this, in the past year alone, the Government has taken action to support workers by increasing pay for around 2 million workers and enabling workers to carry over more annual leave, due to the pandemic.

The Government also spends around £35 million on state enforcement of employment rights for vulnerable workers. Over the past year, a multiagency taskforce (Operation TACIT) has been operating in Leicester to tackle allegation of abuse in the city's garment factories, which has visited over 300 premises and taken appropriate enforcement action where necessary, as well as working with Leicester City Council to engage with the community and increase whistleblower confidence.

The maximum value of our contract with Deloitte is £200,000, excluding VAT. The cost covers the initial provision of information, and three subsequent reviews to maintain this information, to ensure it remains accurate and is of use to businesses.

Hospitality venues have a legal requirement to support NHS Test and Trace by keeping a record of all their customers, visitors and staff for 21 days. Customers can check in using the NHS COVID-19 app, but venues must also make sure that there is a method of checking in that does not rely on the customer using a smartphone or other technology, in order not to digitally exclude people without digital access.

The Government expects businesses to be open and transparent in responding to consumers’ interest in where and how the products they source have been manufactured, including the use of raw materials. Since the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act, we have seen more businesses open up about their supply chains, identify high-risk areas and introduce tailored steps to support vulnerable workers.

UK listed companies are required to report on social and environmental impacts material to their business, including information about supply chains, where this is necessary for an understanding of the business as part of annual reports.

The Government response to the Transparency in Supply Chains consultation, published on 22 September 2020, committed to taking forwards an ambitious package of changes to strengthen and future-proof the Modern Slavery Act’s transparency legislation, including:

• Extending the reporting requirement to public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more.
• Mandating the specific reporting topics statements must cover.
• Requiring organisations to publish their statement on the new Government digital reporting service.
• Setting a single reporting deadline by which all modern slavery statements must be published.
• Considering enforcement options in line with the ongoing development of the Single Enforcement Body for Employment rights.

Under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to require businesses to report on how they prevent modern slavery in their operations. Following consultation, the Home Office has announced a series of measures to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act. Organisations will be required to include information about their organisation’s structure and supply chains in their modern slavery statement or to explicitly state that their statement omits this information. These new measures will be introduced once parliamentary time allows.

The Government has been engaging with the British Retail Consortium on their proposals for a licensing scheme, and with Traidcraft on the Garment Trade Adjudicator to understand the impact that further regulation would have.

BEIS and the Home Office are also working in partnership with the industry through the Apparel and General Merchandise Public and Private Protocol, a partnership between enforcement bodies and industry partners, including, the British Retail Consortium, UK Fashion and the Textile Association. This is aimed at tackling all forms of labour exploitation in the garment industry.

The impacts of climate change are not equally distributed across people or communities, and it is well-established that existing social inequalities result in a disproportionate negative impact of climate change among disadvantaged groups. BEIS has committed to improving how it takes account of equality, diversity and inclusion in its policy-making, to develop our interventions in a more inclusive way. We comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty by considering the equality impacts of our climate policies on different protected characteristics – including BAME communities. BEIS will be setting out more detail on the work it is undertaking across its responsibilities, including climate change, to build understanding and take actions to reduce inequalities in areas relating to its responsibilities.

In the most recent data from the ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, covering the period 3-14 February, 48% of working adults stated that they had worked from home because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the last seven days. This figure is up from 46% the week previously.

As detailed in my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s announcement on 22 February and the publication of the COVID-19 response roadmap, the Stay at Home requirement remains in place until 29 March. Until that point it is important that people stay at home wherever possible to minimise the risk of transmission.

People will no longer be legally required to Stay at Home from 29 March although the guidance will set out at that stage that people should continue to work from home where they can. Government will continue to reinforce these messages when engaging with businesses and representative organisations across a range of different sectors.

The Government has developed Safer Working Guidance with employers and trade unions, and employers are encouraged to discuss their COVID-19 risk assessment and mitigation measures with trade unions.

The Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme opened for application on 30 September 2020. As of 31 January, 69,053 grant applications have been received. Applications¹, given by region in England, are as follows:

• North East: 2,593
• North West: 12,098
• Yorkshire and the Humber: 9,712
• East Midlands: 6,698
• West Midlands: 8,556
• East of England: 7,401
• Greater London: 6,491
• South East: 8,369
• South West: 6,696

¹ There is a discrepancy between the quoted total number of grant applications (69,053) and total English regional grant applications (68,614). This is due to 439 applications not listing an English region.

The original funding for the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme was announced as a short-term stimulus, for use in the 2020/21 financial year only. In the 2020 Spending Review, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £320 million of funding for the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme for 2021/22, as part of funding allocated to make homes and buildings more energy efficient and less carbon intensive.

This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s thriving cultural industries, and that is why it pushed for ambitious arrangements to make it easier for performers and artists to perform across Europe as part of the negotiations on our future relationship with the EU.

This Government proposed to the EU that musicians, and their technical staff, be added to the list of permitted activities for short-term business visitors in the entry and temporary stay chapter of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This would have allowed musicians and their staff to travel and perform in the EU more easily, without needing work-permits.

The UK’s legal texts reflected this position, as the EU has now acknowledged. These texts are confidential negotiating documents and it is not appropriate for them to be published.

This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s thriving cultural industries, and that is why it pushed for ambitious arrangements to make it easier for performers and artists to perform across Europe as part of the negotiations on our future relationship with the EU.

This Government proposed to the EU that musicians, and their technical staff, be added to the list of permitted activities for short-term business visitors in the entry and temporary stay chapter of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This would have allowed musicians and their staff to travel and perform in the EU more easily, without needing work-permits.

As with legal text shared in confidence with trading partners, publishing correspondence between departments related to the development of legal text for trade agreements would not be appropriate as this correspondence would have been provided in confidence.

The Local Authority Delivery and Vouchers schemes have been designed to work alongside each other whilst reflecting the differences in delivery methods. Both schemes’ primary objective is to provide a short-term economic stimulus.

BEIS has allocated Local Authority Delivery funding to 55 projects totalling £74.3m of expenditure for delivery by March 2021, which can play an important role in sustaining and creating jobs in all regions of England.

BEIS anticipates funding in excess of £124m of LAD scheme projects imminently with a delivery date of September 2021, and a further £300m is allocated to the regional Local Energy Hubs for delivery by December 2021.

These staggered dates intend to balance the aim of the scheme to support economic recovery whilst being pragmatic over delivery timescales.

The UK’s climate change framework enables the Government to determine how best to balance emissions reductions across the economy. Emissions are managed within the Government’s overall strategy for meeting carbon budgets and the 2050 net zero target, as part of an economy-wide transition.

The UK follows the agreed international approach for estimating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, which is for countries to report the emissions produced within their territories.

The Climate Change Act defines UK emissions as being those of greenhouse gases from sources within the UK, i.e. consistent with international reporting practice. Therefore all emissions from UK sources, including those produced in energy production through waste incineration, are accounted for.

Since 2017, the Government has invested approximately £1 billion through two Life Sciences Sector Deals, helping to generate significant levels of industry investment in the UK.

At Budget this year, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the Life Sciences Investment Programme (LSIP), a new dedicated investment programme of up to £600 million of joint Government and industry investment. The LSIP aims to unlock the potential of the UK’s best health and life science innovations, allowing companies to grow in the UK.

This reflects the Government’s manifesto commitment to make the UK the leading global hub for life sciences.

The UK welcomes President-elect Biden’s commitment to re-join the Paris Agreement and to put the US on a path to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

As the incoming Presidency of the G7 and COP26, we look forward to working with the new US administration to address the urgent challenge of climate change and to encourage countries across the world to increase their climate ambition.

Manufacturing key materials and goods is critical for our economy. The Department has been engaging with industry and suppliers throughout the pandemic to understand the impacts on production and what support is needed in order for businesses to remain operational.

We have put in place an unprecedented package of Government support to help manufacturers with business continuity and to enable any businesses that may have had to pause production to get back up and running as soon as they are able. The sector has so far benefitted from £2 billion in Government-backed finance through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme; £2.3 billion through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme; and £4.78 billion to manufacturers through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The current licensing framework, which Ofgem operate and enforce, already allows electricity generators to apply for a licence to sell energy to consumers. A supplier licence allows the licensee to supply electricity to domestic and non-domestic premises, or non-domestic premises only. It also bestows upon them certain obligations towards consumers through standard licence conditions (SLC) and also charges to be passed onto consumers, such as network costs and the cost of Government policies. In addition, the licensee is required to maintain, become party to, or comply with the industry codes that underpin the wholesale and retail markets.

Nonetheless, Ofgem recognises that a one size fits all licensing framework may be too prescriptive for some business models and introduced a Licence Lite which allows aspiring suppliers or distributed energy generators to apply for a supply licence and receive a direction which relieves them from the obligation in SLC 11.2 – compliance with industry codes. In addition, Ofgem have introduced a regulatory sandbox in which innovators can try new products and business models.

Government and Ofgem are reviewing the licensing framework in light of changing business models and our commitment to reach Net Zero. We want to ensure that the regulatory regime continues to protect consumers and is flexible in response to a changing energy system.

We are confident we can reach a deal and will continue to work hard to reach an agreement with the EU, for as long as there is a constructive process ongoing. The Political Declaration sets out our ambition for a zero tariff and zero quota Free Trade Agreement.

Extensive engagement has taken place and continues between the Government and the automotive sector on future trade negotiations. We shall continue to work with companies over the next few months to ensure that they are well prepared for the end of the transition period.

In addition, the Government has a long-standing programme of support to maintain the competitiveness of the UK automotive sector.

We have provided guidance on how to work safely in a number of different working environments, such as offices, factories, and working outdoors – so that employers can use the guidance which is most relevant to them. Ensuring the safety of all workers is at the forefront of this guidance. Our approach is clinically led, based on the expert advice of the UK’s Chief Medical Officer for England, the NHS and Public Health England. We are led by the evolving science in this work and as the scientific and medical advice changes, the guidance will be updated to reflect this.

Where workers already wear PPE for protection against non-COVID risks, such as dust, they should continue to wear this PPE.

The best way to manage the risk of COVID-19 is to implement robust social distancing measures and other physical controls. Outside of a clinical setting there is very little evidence to support the use of PPE and we would anticipate that an employer’s risk assessment and risk management decisions would reflect that the role of PPE in providing additional protection is extremely limited.

We recommend that PPE is not used in working environments where it would not normally be required. Good hygiene and minimising social contact remain the most effective way of managing the risks of COVID-19. However, if an employers’ risk assessment does show that PPE is required, employers must provide this PPE free of charge to employees.

Employers should consult with unions and employees when carrying out their risk assessment to make sure their concerns can be taken into account. If employees continue to have concerns, they can raise them with union safety representatives, or ultimately with the organisation responsibility for enforcement in their workplace, either the Health and Safety Executive or their local authority.

Package travel agencies are required to comply with The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, which protect consumers who have bought package holidays. Consumers are entitled to a refund?if forced to cancel a package holiday due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, which should be issued?within 14 days, depending on the nature of the contract in place. BEIS officials have held regular discussions with travel and tourism sector representatives, travel businesses and consumer advocacy bodies to assess the impact of cancellations made in light of the covid-19 outbreak. Further information on the rights and responsibilities of consumers and businesses was published on 30 April by the Competition and Markets Authority who have also set up a covid-19 taskforce for consumers seeking refunds.

Under Gas Supplier Licence Condition 29 (SLC29) Gas Suppliers are required on request to carry out free annual gas safety checks to certain vulnerable domestic customers living in non-rented premises.

In the current circumstances, Ofgem does not consider it is necessary for it to relax Condition 29 because gas suppliers undertake their free annual gas safety checks only on request by and with the permission of the customer.

This position is held under the current circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic provided that relevant parties follow the Government guidance, public health advice and safety legislation more generally. Ofgem’s Chief Executive Jonathan Brearley wrote to the energy supply companies on 8 April 2020 setting out the expectations of them during the COVID-19 outbreak and reminding them of their primary need to follow this guidance, public health advice and safety legislation.

The Government is closely monitoring developments in relation to potential economic impacts on the UK economy, including on individuals, individual businesses, supply chains and for consumers.

We want to make sure our welfare system works quickly and effectively to provide security for people.

Self-employed individuals who are not eligible to receive sick pay may be able to claim Universal Credit and/or new style Employment and Support Allowance. For the duration of the outbreak, the requirements of the Universal Credit Minimum Income Floor will be temporarily relaxed for those who have COVID-19 or are self-isolating according to government advice. The Government have announced additional financial support which includes £330bn in loans and £20bn in other aid, business rates holiday and grants for retailers and pubs.

A dedicated helpline has been set up to help self-employed individuals in financial distress and with outstanding tax liabilities receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time To Pay service. These arrangements are agreed on a case-by-case basis and are tailored to individual circumstances and liabilities. HMRC’s new dedicated COVID-19 helpline can be contacted from 11 March 2020 for advice and support. To ensure ongoing support, HMRC have made a further 2,000 experienced call handlers available to support firms and individuals when needed.

At the end of 2019 36% of all prepayment meters were smart meters in pre-payment mode, which enable energy consumers to top up without needing to leave their homes.

There are existing general protections for traditional prepayment meter customers who are unable to access top-up outlets, including emergency credit if credit has been exhausted on the meter. Suppliers also operate a friendly hour’s policy, when supply would not be interrupted, normally during evenings, weekends and Bank Holidays.

For traditional prepayment meters, suppliers can also send pre-loaded keycards to customers to provide additional credit, where consumers need to self-isolate for a longer period of time. The consumer would need to inform their supplier that they need assistance.

The Department is actively engaging with Ofgem and industry to ensure all customers receive the support they need.

HM Land Registry (HMLR) receives 120,000 applications per day, of which 95% are processed within the service standard of 5 days for register updates (to an existing title) and 25 days for more complex applications that require the creation of a new title (for example on the first registration of a property or a new lease). There is a backlog of some complex casework involving the creation of a new title, which account for 5% of applications.

HMLR recognise that this situation needs addressing and are implementing plans to reduce the waiting times for those cases. These applications relate to an already completed property transaction but HMLR will expedite cases where necessary to avoid adverse impacts on customers.

This Government is committed to meeting net zero by 2050, and in 2019, the Government became the first major economy in the world to have legislated for a net zero target to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. We agree with the Committee on Climate Change’s view on the importance of a diverse mix of power generation sources to achieve that with renewables providing the majority of our electricity by 2050 alongside firm low carbon power from sources such as nuclear, and gas or biomass generation with carbon capture and storage.

The Government has introduced many initiatives to increase the supply of renewable energy production in the UK and with this support, carbon emissions have reduced by 42%, while the economy has grown by 73% since 1990. We have also seen rapid deployment of solar PV over the last 8 years, with over 99% of the UK’s solar PV capacity deployed since May 2010 and half of the world’s offshore wind deploying in the UK. We have committed up to £557m of annual support for future Contracts for Difference, providing developers with the confidence they need to invest in bringing forward new projects and we are supporting our world-leading offshore wind industry through the 2019 sector deal.

In order to support smaller scale renewable electricity generation, the Government introduced the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) on 1 January, which gives small scale low-carbon electricity generators, such as homes with solar panels, the right to be paid for the renewable electricity they export to the grid. Unlike the previous Feed-in Tariff scheme, the SEG is a market-driven mechanism. It paves the way to projects being deployed without subsidies.

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) supports the transition to low-carbon heating in the UK, helping generate renewable heat for schools, hospitals and more than 12,000 social housing properties. The scheme is designed to bridge the gap between the cost of fossil fuel heat sources and renewable heat alternatives through financial support for owners of participating installations. The RHI helps to sustain and build the supply-chains needed to deliver our aspirations for renewable heat in 2020 and beyond

We are working to develop a new policy framework for the long-term decarbonisation of heat. We have committed to publishing a policy roadmap in summer 2020. This will set out the programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions in the first half of 2020 on how we achieve mass transition to low carbon heating.

The government plans to publish an Energy White Paper in 2020, which will address the transformation of the energy system in line with our net zero commitment and will set out the importance of affordable energy in support of a high productivity economy.

British Gas are introducing a minimum top up of £5 for most of their prepayment customers starting on 1 January. This is a commercial decision of British Gas. Although a £5 minimum top up is not uncommon practice amongst suppliers, there are many that offer a minimum top up of £1.

BEIS officials are liaising with Ofgem to confirm whether they were given prior notification of British Gas’ decision, and also that British Gas has met its obligation to treat customers fairly and ensure that each customer was provided with information about the assistance and advice that is available to them.

Customers are protected through the price caps on standard variable and prepayment meter tariffs. A key challenge now is for suppliers to put the consumer first and improve their customer service.

The creative industries contributed approximately £116bn to the UK economy in 2019. The Government has recognised the sector as one of the key sectors to drive growth across the country in the Chancellor’s Plan for Growth.

We are actively supporting the creative industries through a range of initiatives such as:

• £4m towards the Creative Scale-Up programme which seeks to help creative businesses expand their operations.

• £39m towards the Creative Clusters programme through UKRI which connects businesses and academia to take advantage of the most recent research and innovations so they can grow.

• £33m towards the Audience of the Future which encouraged creative businesses to use innovative new technologies to reach new audiences.

• £20m towards the first round of the Cultural Development Fund to support business growth and productivity through investment in cultural and creative infrastructure via five projects in places like Wakefield and Worcester, in addition to a further £18.5m for a second round as part of the landmark Cultural Investment Fund, launched in May 2021.

• HMG committed over £2m to the Creative Careers Programme which aims to address aspirational and informational barriers to entry amongst young people and their carers. To date over 115,000 young people have engaged with the programme at over 1500 schools in England and Wales.

• Continuing to work with industry through the Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board to increase exports in the creative industries.

• The Government supports trade promotion in the CIs through DIT’s export hubs, the Internationalisation Fund, the Export Academy. All this support will feature in the Creative Industries Export Campaign which will encourage both new exporters and companies wanting to look at new export markets to take advantage of the fantastic opportunities available to the UK as an independent trading nation.

• The Government is also looking carefully at options for an Export Office.

This government recognises the importance of the UK’s creative and cultural industries, not only to the economy and international reputation of the United Kingdom, but also to the wellbeing and enrichment of its people.

The British people voted to take back control of our borders and end free movement with the EU in the 2016 referendum. That was a key part of the manifesto on which the Government won the 2019 election and is reflected in the agreement. It was inevitable therefore that there would be changes in the arrangements under which creative workers work in the EU.

UK performers, artists, and musicians are of course still able to tour and perform in the EU, and vice versa. As the Secretary of State has said, we have moved at pace and with urgency and have provided much greater clarity about the current position. We are committed to supporting the sectors as they get to grips with the changes to systems and processes. This includes the development of sector specific ‘landing pages’ for GOV.UK, aimed at the creative sectors, which will allow cultural and creative professionals to easily locate and access guidance that is relevant to them. We are also engaging directly with Member States to ensure their guidance on their visa and work permit requirements is clear and accessible.

Separately, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commissioned Deloitte to provide enhanced guidance on EU Member State immigration systems for GOV.UK to help businesses navigate the new business travel rules, following the end of the Transition Period. The guidance is deliberately sector-neutral, but it does capture any mention of sector-specific rules that feature on Member State websites. So far, 15 country guides have been published, representing more than three quarters of UK services exports to the EU, Norway and Switzerland by value. The remainder will follow in the coming weeks.

This government recognises the importance of the UK’s creative and cultural industries, not only to the economy and international reputation of the United Kingdom, but also to the wellbeing and enrichment of its people.

The British people voted to take back control of our borders and end free movement with the EU in the 2016 referendum. That was a key part of the manifesto on which the Government won the 2019 election and is reflected in the agreement. It was inevitable therefore that there would be changes in the arrangements under which creative workers work in the EU.

UK performers, artists, and musicians are of course still able to tour and perform in the EU, and vice versa. As the Secretary of State has said, we have moved at pace and with urgency and have provided much greater clarity about the current position. We are committed to supporting the sectors as they get to grips with the changes to systems and processes. This includes the development of sector specific ‘landing pages’ for GOV.UK, aimed at the creative sectors, which will allow cultural and creative professionals to easily locate and access guidance that is relevant to them. We are also engaging directly with Member States to ensure their guidance on their visa and work permit requirements is clear and accessible.

Separately, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commissioned Deloitte to provide enhanced guidance on EU Member State immigration systems for GOV.UK to help businesses navigate the new business travel rules, following the end of the Transition Period. The guidance is deliberately sector-neutral, but it does capture any mention of sector-specific rules that feature on Member State websites. So far, 15 country guides have been published, representing more than three quarters of UK services exports to the EU, Norway and Switzerland by value. The remainder will follow in the coming weeks.

I know that the restrictions on singing are frustrating to large numbers of amateur choirs and performance groups across the country and that many people have made sacrifices in order to drive down infections and protect the NHS over the last year. I am aware that singing can have great benefits for both physical and mental health. I can assure you that everyone across the government wants to ease these restrictions as soon as possible.

We will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. Further detail on step 4 will be set out as soon as possible.

The Government is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in sport and physical activity, including swimming. Our strategy ‘Sporting Future’ sets out a clear ambition to increase levels of physical activity amongst under-represented groups, working closely with the sector to achieve this. We support the efforts of groups helping to promote diversity and inclusion in sport, including the Black Swimming Association who are working to increase swimming participation levels for black swimmers.

Sport England, DCMS's arm’s length body for grassroots sport in England, recently launched their new ten year strategy, Uniting the Movement. This reinforced their commitment to diversifying participation and tackling inequalities in sport and physical activity. Sport England have invested £12.6 million in Swim England to promote participation in swimming, including support for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Recently Swim England and the Black Swimming Association have announced a partnership to further increase numbers of participation in aquatic activity, which we welcome.

The EU’s customs legislation, the Union Customs Code, provides that relief from import duty can be given for portable musical instruments temporarily imported by travellers in order to be used as professional equipment, without the need to submit a formal customs declaration. The UK has an equivalent provision for similar movements into the UK. The management of EU import and export procedures are the responsibility of the customs authorities of the Member States. It is therefore important that individuals or businesses confirm the processes at their port of arrival and any conditions or procedures that may apply.

Officials in the Border and Protocol Delivery Group (BPDG) engage on a regular basis with the EU custom authorities. DCMS will continue to work with BPDG and the sector to engage with relevant customs authorities to address any issues facing musicians.

The government is committed to a free and independent press, and does not intervene in what the press can and cannot publish. We are clear, however, that with this freedom, comes responsibility, which media organisations must take seriously. It is important that there exists an independent self regulatory regime to ensure that the press adheres to a wide set of clear and appropriate standards, and to offer individuals a means of redress where these are not met.

The majority of traditional publishers—including 95% of national newspapers by circulation—are members of The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). A small number of publishers have joined The Independent Monitor for the Press (IMPRESS). These regulators issue codes of conduct which provide guidelines on a range of areas including discrimination, and set out the rules that members have agreed to follow.

Ofcom, the UK’s independent broadcast regulator, sets clear rules in its Broadcasting Code for licensed broadcasters to meet to ensure UK audiences are adequately protected from harmful material.

In addition, the government has been clear that more needs to be done to ensure safety online. Therefore this government is introducing new Online Harms legislation. This will require companies to tackle abuse on their services and take reasonable steps to protect users’ safety online. Users will be better able to report abuse, and should expect to receive appropriate support from the relevant platform if they do so.

To help protect telecoms consumers, the Government strengthened Ofcom’s powers through the Digital Economy Act 2017. As a result, in April 2019, Ofcom introduced a voluntary automatic compensation scheme for customers of broadband and landline services for when things go wrong, such as missed engineer appointments, delayed start of a service or delayed repairs. BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Zen Internet, Utility Warehouse and Hyperoptic have all signed up to the scheme. The scheme is designed to help ensure customers receive appropriate redress when things go wrong and, over time, incentivise companies to improve their service.

Since its launch, Ofcom has been monitoring the scheme through regular engagement with the signatory companies, Openreach and with telecoms alternative dispute resolution providers. Under the voluntary agreement, signatories are also required to provide information to Ofcom, such as volumes of issues and the amounts of compensation paid. Following a review of the scheme in August 2020, Ofcom concluded that the scheme was launched successfully, that it covered around 80% of the broadband market, and that it had increased compensation payments to consumers where repairs or installations had been delayed.

The Government recognises the importance of digital connectivity, particularly during this difficult period. For repairs, broadband providers are able to send new equipment to their consumers via postal delivery or using click and collect services, and telecoms engineers are able to visit residential properties to instal or fix broadband connections under the current Covid-19 guidelines.

More broadly, Ofcom has rules in place, known as general conditions, which all providers must follow, that mandate communication providers to have procedures and policies in place to identify and support vulnerable consumers. Under these industry rules, providers must provide a priority fault repair service for disabled consumers of landline, broadband and mobile services.

Ofcom has also recently published a vulnerability guide for providers, setting out their expectations and good practice on how vulnerable telecoms consumers should be supported. This includes steps providers can take to identify vulnerable consumers, and an expectation that all providers implement specialist teams in order to provide extra support for vulnerable consumers.

In accordance with the guidance issued by HM Revenue & Customs, the national museums - as publicly funded bodies - are expected to consult their sponsor department before applying to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. In recognition of their reliance on self-generated income which would normally supplement their Grant in Aid from government, DCMS has agreed that the national museums and galleries may furlough staff where it is necessary and proportionate to do so, and in such a way that ensures value for public money.

To protect telecoms consumers the government has strengthened Ofcom’s powers through the Digital Economy Act 2017. As a result, in April 2019, Ofcom introduced a voluntary automatic compensation scheme for customers of broadband and landline services for when things go wrong, such as missed engineer appointments, delayed start of a service or delayed repairs. BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Zen Internet, Utility Warehouse and Hyperoptic have all signed up to the scheme.

The scheme is designed to help ensure customers receive appropriate redress when things go wrong and, over time, incentivise companies to improve their service. Following a review of the scheme in August 2020 Ofcom concluded that the scheme was launched successfully, that it now covers around 80% of the broadband market and that it has increased compensation payments to consumers where repairs or installations had been delayed.

Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. It is important that sports clubs remain accessible for people from all backgrounds as we make efforts to return to normality after the Covid lockdown period.

Sport England have announced a £210 million package of support to help community clubs through this crisis.

Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. It is important that sports clubs remain accessible for people from all backgrounds as we make efforts to return to normality after the Covid lockdown period.

Government guidance on team sports is available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-phased-return-of-sport-and-recreation/return-to-recreational-team-sport-framework#team-sport-guidance

Guidance on indoor sports is available: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/providers-of-grassroots-sport-and-gym-leisure-facilities

General guidance is available on line at :www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus

This guidance includes advice on existing rules on social distancing and hygiene, and updates on those rules when they change with the evolving situation.

On 13 August, the Government announced that indoor play and indoor soft play venues can open from 15 August. We have also been working with BALPPA, the trade body that represents the industry to develop guidance that lays out detailed measures that should be taken by indoor play and indoor soft play operators to make venues COVID-secure. These include closing ball pits and sensory areas, reducing capacity of venues and soft play frames, regular deep cleaning, pre-bookable timed sessions, increased sanitation, and a rigorous process to support track and trace. Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active and the Government is committed to reopening facilities as soon as it is safe to do so. Since 4 July other indoor facilities, including some indoor games, recreation and entertainment venues have reopened.

As with all aspects of the Government’s response to COVID-19, we continue to be guided by public health considerations to ensure that as restrictions are eased people can return to activity safely.

The consideration of different venues and the activities involved are underpinned by understanding the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with particular activities.

We recognise the importance of re-opening our indoor and outdoor pools and we agree that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. There are concerns about transmission around points of contact within such facilities, like changing rooms due to the high volume of contacts. As such, we need to provide reassurance that these facilities will be safe, and are working hard to achieve this in the coming weeks.

We are holding regular discussions with representatives from the leisure sector and national sports organisations including swimming to develop guidance that will support them to open their facilities in a timely and safe manner once lockdown measures are eased.

The Government is actively working towards a safe way to re-open these facilities, with supporting guidance.

We recognise the importance of re-opening our indoor and outdoor pools and agree that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy both mentally and physically. We are holding regular discussions with representatives from the leisure sector and national sports organisations including swimming to develop guidance that will support them to open their facilities in a timely and safe manner once lockdown measures are eased.

The consideration of different venues and the activities involved are underpinned by understanding the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with particular activities. There are concerns about transmission around points of contact within such facilities, like changing rooms due to the high volume of contacts. As such, we need to provide reassurance that these facilities will be safe, and are working hard to achieve this in the coming weeks.

We recognise the importance of re-opening our indoor and outdoor pools and agree that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy both mentally and physically. We are holding regular discussions with representatives from the leisure sector and national sports organisations including swimming to develop guidance that will support them to open their facilities in a timely and safe manner once lockdown measures are eased.

The consideration of different venues and the activities involved are underpinned by understanding the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with particular activities. There are concerns about transmission around points of contact within such facilities, like changing rooms due to the high volume of contacts. As such, we need to provide reassurance that these facilities will be safe, and are working hard to achieve this in the coming weeks.

The consideration of different venues and the activities involved are underpinned by understanding the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with particular activities.

We recognise the importance of re-opening our indoor and outdoor pools and we agree that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. There are concerns about transmission around points of contact within such facilities, like changing rooms due to the high volume of contacts. As such, we need to provide reassurance that these facilities will be safe, and are working hard to achieve this in the coming weeks.

The Government is actively working towards a safe way to re-open these facilities, with supporting guidance.

BAME charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises play a vital role in supporting communities throughout the country. Their work has become even more critical in the response to this unprecedented crisis.

Government recognises that organisations require extra support in order to continue their vital work while experiencing significant pressures due to Covid-19, through either, or both, a loss of income and increasing demand for services increases.

This is why the government has made an unprecedented £750 million package of support available, specifically for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. The Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) forms a central part of this package, and is being administered through the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF). £200 million has now been made available for TNLCF to distribute and they are engaging extensively with BAME organisations to improve the reach of the Fund.

A diverse advisory panel has been set up to assist in the distribution process for the Fund. DCMS will continue to work closely to assess how we can support BAME charities and social enterprises in doing their important work. The Minister for Civil Society holds a fortnightly roundtable to hear directly from BAME civil society organisations to highlight concerns and responses to Covid-19. DCMS will continue to work closely to assess how we can support BAME charities and social enterprises in doing their important work.

Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active and the Government is committed to reopening facilities, including outside gyms and sport pitches as soon as it is safe to do so.

We are holding regular discussions with representatives from across the sport sector to develop guidance that will support them to open their facilities in a timely and safe manner once lockdown measures are eased.

As with all aspects of the Government’s response to Covid-19, we will be guided by the science to ensure that as restrictions are eased people can return to activity safely.

We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many of DCMS’ sectors including the creative industries, which is why the Government has announced unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency.

DCMS is engaging with a range of departments to support the economic response, and ensuring that the needs of its sectors, and those who work in them, are fully understood. DCMS will continue to work with these valuable sectors to understand the difficulties they face and help them access support through these challenging times and through recovery.

To ensure we are assisting all our sectors as effectively as possible, regular ministerially-chaired roundtables are held with business representative organisations as well as trade associations from across the Creative Industries. In addition, officials are in regular contact with stakeholders from these sectors, and we continue to speak with HM Treasury colleagues to ensure that the full spectrum of government support reaches the UK's world-leading media and Creative Industries.

As set out on 1 May, the Government is making a further £617m available through a Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund to support small businesses previously outside the scope of existing business grant funding schemes. Grants up to a maximum of £25,000 will be available and the allocation of funding will be at the discretion of local authorities.

On 11 May, the government published updated guidance on lockdown measures, including updates on how people can be active in outdoor spaces and on outdoor sports courts as long as they participate by themselves, or with members from their same household, or two metres apart from one member of another household.

The government has made it clear that it will adopt a phased approach based on scientific and medical advice, and that the primary goal is to protect public health. The government is in discussions with representatives from the sport and physical activity sector about the steps required to restart grassroots sport and will update the public when it is deemed safe to open up indoor facilities such as swimming pools, leisure centres and gyms.

It is vital that people continue to be active throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to support their physical and mental wellbeing. It is also important that those people who have to overcome specific barriers to getting active are supported as far as possible to continue to engage in activity.

The Government has not undertaken a specific assessment of the effect of swimming pool closure on this group of people. However, Sport England is gathering data on the impact of lockdown restrictions on different demographic groups via a weekly survey. It has also launched its ‘Join the Movement’ campaign which provides resources and tips via its #stayinworkout hub on how people can access activities that best meet their needs whilst maintaining social distancing.

Football clubs are the heart of local communities, they have unique social value and many with a great history.

We will continue to liaise closely with the sector as the situation develops.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport does not hold any information on the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) plans to reduce funding for championship clubs. The stewardship of rugby union in England is the responsibility of the RFU, as the National Governing Body for the sport. The Government expects good governance from all our sports bodies, as set out in the sports governance code.

Through Sport England, government has invested £11.53m into grassroots rugby union in the three years to 2018/19. This includes investment in both the RFU as the national governing body for the sport, together with investment in specific community rugby union projects. Over this time period, Sport England has invested a further £12.61m in multi-sport projects where rugby union is one of the sports benefitting.

We are committed to cracking down on unacceptable behaviour in the ticketing market and improving fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the existing ticketing information requirement in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and have introduced a new criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets online than that allowed.

We support the work of enforcement agencies in this area, such as the Competition and Markets Authority, National Trading Standards, and the advertising industry's own regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority.

Recent announcements of enforcement action by these agencies demonstrate that we are prepared to go after those who flout the law or abuse the ticketing market.

Between April 2010 and March 2019, The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has provided over £870m in Exchequer funding to Sport England, the arms-length body of government responsible for investing in and supporting grassroots sport in England. The table below provides a year-by-year breakdown.

Details of DCMS's Exchequer funding to other policy areas can be found in the department's annual reports which are available online.

At 31 December 2019 DCMS employed 1,264 Civil Servants, 50 of whom worked directly on projects relating to sport. A significant number of staff cannot be directly linked to digital, culture, media or sport as they are either part of the corporate centre (e.g Finance and HR), part of cross-cutting teams working across multiple policy areas (e.g the department’s Central Analytical Team) or part of teams which aren’t directly linked to any of these areas (e.g. the Office for Civil Society and the Gambling team).

This information relates to Civil Servants on DCMS’ payroll. This includes permanent staff, those on fixed-term contracts, those on paid loan/secondment in/out of DCMS and those on paid maternity leave. DCMS also sponsors a number of Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) which work on projects related to sport, including Sport England, the Birmingham Organising Committee for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Sports Grounds Safety Authority, UK Anti-Doping, and UK Sport. Their total staff numbers are as follows:

As set out in our manifesto, the government is already committed to work with fans and clubs towards introducing safe standing. To deliver this we will be relying upon the expertise of the Sports Grounds Safety Authority to ensure existing levels of safety are maintained, and I welcome the latest findings from research they have commissioned in this area.

Over a million people watch live football at a ground every week, and this an issue many feel passionately about, but it is imperative that watching football continues to be safe. The SGSA will continue to gather evidence over the remainder of this season and work with the relevant authorities, clubs and fans to deliver our commitments.

Government commissioned an independent consortium to carry out a meta-evaluation of the benefits of London 2012. These reports are published on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/london-2012-meta-evaluation) and cover a broad range of research areas such as grassroots sport participation economic benefits, sustainability standards and the impact on volunteering.

Government, in conjunction with the Mayor of London, published four annual reports on legacy between 2013 and 2016. These described legacy benefits in the areas of sport and physical activity, economic impact, communities, East London regeneration and the impact from the Paralympics. Again, these reports are available on GOV.UK via https://www.gov.uk/society-and-culture/2012-olympic-and-paralympic-legacy.

Government is committed to making sure that everyone regardless of ability or background feels able to take part in sport and physical activity. Government’s Sporting Future strategy committed to increasing levels of physical activity regardless of the type of sport or activity.

Over 2017-21, through Sport England, government is investing over £17m in British Cycling to support the growth of grassroots cycling and cycling talent.

Since 2017, Sport England has separately invested more than £4.5m directly in grassroots cycling projects to support the growth of cycling at local level.

Government is also investing up to £15m in off-road cycling facilities to help drive a legacy from the 2019 UCI Road World Cycling Championships held in Yorkshire.

Almost £2 billion is projected to be invested in cycling and walking infrastructure over the 5 years from 2016/17 to 2020/21, and spending in England has doubled from £3.50 per head to around £7 per head over the current Spending Review period.

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government; therefore, the government has no role in deciding whether BBC services, such as the BBC Red Button teletext service, should be continued.

It is the BBC’s responsibility to assess the potential effect of the closure of the BBC Red Button service on older people. The Government welcomes the BBC's decision to pause the closure of the Red Button service, ahead of its review of the impact of the closure on the most vulnerable including the elderly, and deaf and blind licence fee payers.

Government is committed to helping elderly people acquire basic digital skills.

Through the £400,000 Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, the Government is supporting projects aimed at addressing the digital exclusion of older and disabled people. One pilot, led by Uttlesford Council for Voluntary Service, is developing “smart homes” for elderly people to improve their digital skills, supported by their peers and younger ‘digital buddies’.

Government funds the Future Digital Inclusion programme delivered through Online Centres based in libraries and other community spaces. This supports some of the hardest to reach groups in society, including older people. Over the last five years, the programme has supported over 1.3 million adult learners to engage with digital technology and develop their basic digital skills in community settings.

Libraries are a vital source of advice and support on digital skills. Government invested £2.6m to enable 99% of libraries in England to offer free wifi to users; and older people can also gain access and support in using computers and other technology.

Government ensures its services are accessible by design and for the services it provides, has committed to ensuring that assistance is always available for those who are not online. Government departments are mandated to provide assisted digital (offline) support for their services where it is required.

The National Living Wage is the statutory minimum wage for those aged 25 and over, and the Government is committed to ensuring that everyone entitled to the National Living Wage receives it.

It is up to individual businesses to decide whether they would like to pay employees under the age of 25, the National Living Wage.

Homophobia or any form of discrimination has no place in football or society, and we want sport to be at the forefront of promoting equality.

On 15 January, I met with the Football Association and discussed their progress on combatting discrimination in football, including their work improving reporting mechanisms at grassroots levels. Whilst progress has been made, there is still more to do and we will be calling in all the footballing authorities for a further update about their work on this important issue.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport supports the work of Sport England (our national sport council) with the national governing bodies of individual sports and sport organisations on anti-homophobia initiatives aimed at encouraging inclusion, for example Stonewall's Rainbow Laces Campaign. Government is determined to show support for LGBT+ equality and inclusivity in sport, on and off the pitch.

The Gambling Commission has broad and flexible powers to set licence conditions and take action where there is evidence of harm, including the power to suspend or revoke a licence, impose financial penalties or prosecute criminal offences.

The Government has committed to review the Gambling Act 2005 to make sure it is fit for the digital age. We will announce further details in due course.

Government recognises the great importance of sport and physical activity for disabled people who take part, at both the grassroots and elite levels. Government’s strategy for sport and physical activity, ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for An Active Nation’, aims to create a more physically active nation, where people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the benefits that sport and physical activity can provide. The strategy focuses on people in groups that are currently less likely to take part in sport and physical activity, which includes disabled people.

Sport England, our national sport council, invests in programmes that help disabled people get active and make sport more inclusive of their needs. They also ensure that programmes for disabled people are included across each of their investment programmes. Since 2016 they have invested almost £40m to support disabled people to get more active.

On 27 January I made a statement announcing our decision to add all future Paralympic Games to Ofcom’s list of “protected” sport events, meaning the Games will remain free to watch, rather than be subject to a subscription service or be paid for. This will enable the Games to reach the widest possible audience, and aims to increase visibility of para-sports globally. The full statement is available to read here: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2020-01-27/HCWS66/.

The School Sport and Activity Action Plan sets out our commitment to ensuring that all children and young people have access to at least 60 minutes of high quality PE and physical activity every day. We are working closely with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care and will publish more detail on our ambitious plans later this year.

I regularly meet with Sport England who are investing over £190m into physical activity for children and young people over 2017-2021. This includes programmes such as the £40m Families Fund, which encourages low-income families with children to do sport and physical activity together. Sport England is also investing up to £125m to improve sports facilities across England.

The Government is aware of concerns that entertainment products, such as some video games, could encourage gambling-like behaviour. We have committed to review the Gambling Act 2005 to make sure it is fit for the digital age, and to consider concerns about loot boxes. We will announce further details in due course.

The government recognises that there is no place for homophobia or any other kind of discrimination in sport. The government’s sport strategy ‘Sporting Future’ set out our intention to encourage as many people and groups to enjoy sport as participants, spectators and in the workforce, including the LGBT community.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport supports the work of Sport England (our national sport council) with the national governing bodies of individual sports and LGBT-focused sport organisations on anti-homophobia initiatives aimed at encouraging inclusion, for example Stonewall's Rainbow Laces Campaign.

Sport England have also commissioned Pride Sports to produce an in-depth report looking at barriers to LGBT participation including volunteering, provision, and attitudes and behaviours. This will also include a comprehensive look at LGBT participation, and a report on LGBT sport infrastructure across the country. Following this Sport England will consider what further steps could be taken to support LGBT participation.

The government is clear that racism has no place in sport or society at large. The sport and physical activity strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ has diversity and inclusion at its heart. Government remains supportive of a number of anti-racism initiatives that work with sports bodies from grassroots to the elite, including Show Racism the Red Card and Kick it Out.

Over the past year the government has led debates in the House of Commons on tackling racism in sport (on 22nd May 2019 and 12th July 2019), and hosted an Anti-Racism Summit in February 2019. This led to the three main English football organisations making clear commitments to tackle racism in football stadia from July 2019. The Sports Minister met with the FA last week and discussed their progress in delivering against these commitments, and will be calling in all the footballing authorities for a further update about their work on this important issue. Further to these commitments, ministers and officials continue to speak to the FA and relevant football bodies to explore what more can be done.

Grassroots sport clubs receive support in tackling racism from our national sport council, Sport England, who provide free support and learning in running a club through its "Club Matters" programme.

We are working with the football authorities and supporters’ groups to deliver the government’s commitment to move towards introducing areas of standing in football stadia currently subject to the all-seater policy. I will be setting out the government’s next steps once I have considered the findings of the independent research commissioned by the Sports Grounds Safety Authority into the management of standing at football, the associated safety risks, and how these can be mitigated.

Football clubs are the heart of local communities, they have unique social value and many with a great history. It is vital they are protected and fans should have their voices heard.

We have committed to a fan led review of football governance, which will include consideration of the Owners’ and Directors’ test. I recently met with the EFL to discuss the progress of their own review into club governance and we will take this into account as we decide the scope and structure of a government review.

Our delivery partner, Randstad, has approved 38 Tuition Partners to provide high-quality, subsidised tuition to schools in the current academic year: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/tuition-partners/approved-tuition-partners/. These organisations were recruited via an open competition to meet the necessary quality standards.

The programme ensures that additional support has been allocated to regions with the largest numbers of disadvantaged pupils and in regions where access to tutoring has historically been lower. This will cover all the locations across the UK geographically.

Schools can access high-quality tutoring from an approved list of tutoring providers known as tuition partners. Each tuition partner has been robustly assessed and has passed a set of quality, safeguarding and evaluation standards. Tuition partners offer a range of subjects and provide targeted support for pupils in small group or one-to-one sessions. This offers additional tutoring capacity to schools, especially where this is scarce. It is a flexible service for schools and its selection of providers can tailor their expertise to support pupil needs.

Although there is no requirement to be vaccinated in order to study at university in England, it is important that students engage with the vaccination programme to protect themselves and those around them and to break chains of transmission.

International students can be vaccinated in the UK free of charge. They should be encouraged to register with a GP and get an NHS number. They can also request to book COVID-19 vaccination appointments as unregistered patients through local GP practices.

International students must pay regard to and comply with border measures that have been introduced to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-quarantine-when-you-arrive-in-england. They should refer to the latest information on country risk levels which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england.

NHS England has produced Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for students, which includes information about vaccinations that international students might have received before coming to England. The FAQ is available here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/covid-19-vaccination-programme-faqs-on-second-doses/.

Asymptomatic Tests will continue to be provided free of charge by NHS Test and Trace to Higher Education Providers for testing on return and home testing until the end of September when this will be reviewed subject to the latest public health advice. Students should test twice on their arrival at an on-site testing facility or at home. Students should then continue to test twice a week until the end of September.

Higher Education providers have been supported with the recovery of costs for the set up and running of asymptomatic testing sites. Cost recovery for tests performed at test sites will continue until the end of September, when ongoing testing arrangements will be reviewed.

Home testing will be delivered through a collect model, meaning that students and staff are advised to collect their home testing kits from a location on campus, which could be an existing asymptomatic testing site or any other site considered suitable. Please note there is no cost recovery for the set up and running of LFD collect sites, which are not otherwise testing sites.

In November 2020, the government established the Green Jobs Taskforce, comprising individuals from industry, academia, unions and the education and skills sector. It was tasked with assembling evidence on the skills needed in the green economy and setting out independent recommendations for how government, industry and a wide range of stakeholders might work together to meet the green skills challenge and grasp the opportunities presented by the transition to net zero.

The taskforce’s final report was published on 14 July. We will consider its recommendations carefully ahead of setting out, later in the year, our Net Zero Strategy.

In England, the reforms to the skills system set out in the recently published Skills for Jobs white paper provide the foundation on which we can build. This programme of reform, which places employers at the centre of our technical education system, includes the introduction of new T Levels, flexible apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and occupational traineeships. Earlier in the year, we marked a major milestone in the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, with the rollout of almost 400 qualifications which are now available and fully funded for any adult who has not already achieved a level 3 (A level equivalent) qualification. We will ensure that these programmes include supporting more people to get the skills they need to move into green jobs and consider where we might need to go further or faster to fill identified skills gaps.

We are already making progress. The Skills Bootcamps will, from July this year, support flexible training in key green sectors such as construction and nuclear. A Green Apprenticeship Advisory Panel is identifying existing apprenticeships that best support green career pathways and our Free Courses for Jobs offer is supporting more adults to study fully funded qualifications in subject areas crucial for green jobs, such as construction, forestry and engineering. The new Emerging Skills Electrification Project will foresight cutting-edge skills in the battery/electrification sector, develop short, modular content to meet the needs of employers and upskill the teaching workforce.

Through our new compulsory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, pupils can learn about how to stay safe and healthy, and how to positively manage their academic, personal and social lives.

Body image and mental wellbeing are explicitly covered in the RSHE curriculum and, at secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss eating disorders when teaching these topics. However, schools are not medical professionals. It is important that school staff understand eating disorders to inform the pastoral support that they offer to pupils and how to seek specialist support where it is needed, particularly as there has been an increase in referrals to eating disorder services during the COVID-19 outbreak. The government’s £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme funded advisers in every local authority in England, reaching up to 15,000 schools with free expert training, support and resources for education staff to help them understand and respond to the mental wellbeing issues faced by children and young people. The department is providing an additional £7 million in this financial year to extend that support with an additional focus on directing schools towards the right local support.

Higher education providers are autonomous bodies, independent from the government and have a responsibility to support students with mental health conditions. They are well placed to identify the needs of their particular student body, including those who may have eating disorders. It is for each provider to determine what welfare and counselling services are needed by its students.

The government has set up the first waiting time standard for children and young people eating disorder services so that 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases, and within four weeks for routine cases. In the 2021-22 financial year, NHS England will receive around an additional £500 million to support recovery, which includes £79 million to expand children’s mental health services significantly, including allowing 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services.

Schools can offer transitional, taster or open days to pupils from other schools within the existing framework of restrictions.

Schools should complete thorough risk assessments before running transitional, taster and open days in schools, to ensure that they are run in line with their system of controls and align with the advice contained within school guidance and the roadmap out of lockdown: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak?priority-taxon=b350e61d-1db9-4cc2-bb44-fab02882ac25 and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021/covid-19-response-spring-2021-summary#step-3---not-before-17-may.

This means that traditional transitional days are unlikely to be feasible this year, but the Department is keen not to restrict individual schools from designing events which maintain the integrity of bubbles and adhere to the system of controls in place.

Tracing close contacts of those who test positive for COVID-19 remains important for preventing the transmission of COVID-19. The Department’s priority is to keep as many children as possible in face to face education. While in some cases a whole class might be required to self-isolate, many schools are using seating plans and other means to minimise the number of individuals that need to isolate.

Where pupils are required to self-isolate, schools are still required to provide 3 to 5 hours of remote education per day depending on their Key Stage. This includes either recorded or live direct teaching as well as time for pupils to work independently to complete assignments that have been set.

To support schools in delivering remote education throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department has delivered over 1.3 million laptops and tablets to schools, local authorities and academy trusts for disadvantaged children and young people.

The Department remains committed to helping all pupils make up education lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. That is why we have announced an extra £1.4 billion to support education recovery for children aged 2 to 19 in schools, colleges and early years, in addition to the £1.7 billion already announced.

Swimming and water safety is a vital life skill, which is why it is a mandatory part of the curriculum for physical education at primary school. The Department recognises that children have missed out on opportunities to learn to swim due to COVID-19 restrictions. We are working closely with Swim England and other swimming and water safety organisations to support pupils to return safely to swimming and to promote water safety education. This includes an additional £10.1 million to improve use of school sport facilities, including swimming pools.

Water safety education is a priority for the summer period to enable children to know how to be safe in and around water. The Department has made new virtual water safety lessons available through Oak National Academy and has supported the Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week 2021.

The Department regularly considers advice from a number of different sources, including the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), Public Health England (PHE), and the Joint Biosecurity Centre to ensure policies are guided by the most up to date scientific evidence.

The scientific evidence papers from SAGE meetings are published in tranches and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

The Children’s Task and Finish Working Group, established by SAGE, provides consolidated scientific health advice to the Government. Advice from this group is used by the Department to understand the impacts of infection control measures in schools.

Alongside the March 2021 announcement of the full return to school, the Department published the following evidence summary: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963639/DfE_Evidence_summary_COVID-19_-_children__young_people_and_education_settings.pdf.

The decision on the length of time required for self-isolation following identification of a positive case is based on the latest public health advice received from PHE. Policy is subject to continuous review, and the Department will continue to work with colleagues in PHE and other relevant bodies to determine whether any changes to self-isolation policy are appropriate as soon as the public health advice allows.

An ongoing study led by PHE and NHS Test and Trace will help increase understanding of how effective daily contact testing could be for people who are contacts of positive COVID-19 cases. It could be used as an alternative to self-isolation.

The Department has not received specific scientific advice on events such as proms and open days. Schools should continue to assess risk and implement the system of controls set out in our guidance, including when considering any events. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance#system-of-controls, and in the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021.

The Department has worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England (PHE) to develop guidance. Implementing the system of controls creates a safer environment for pupils and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. Working with PHE, the Department continually reviews the measures, which are informed by the latest scientific evidence and advice, and updates the guidance for schools accordingly.

The Department is working closely with Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector, to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, and to continue to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE supported system of controls.

The Department continues to review the ventilation requirements in the system of controls including considering whether monitoring Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) levels would be appropriate. We are working with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and NHS Test and Trace on a pilot project to measure CO₂ levels in typical classrooms to enable us to provide more nuanced guidance to the sector. We will continue to consider updating our guidance as results from this pilot project emerge.

Current evidence recommends that the way to control COVID-19 is the same, even with the current new variants. The PHE supported system of controls which have been in use throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, which includes ventilation, continue to be the right measures to take.

PHE keeps all these controls under review, based on the latest evidence. Schools and colleges therefore need to continue to implement these controls. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/education-and-childcare. Additional guidance from the Health and Safety Executive on air conditioning and ventilation during the COVID-19 outbreak can be found here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/index.htm.

Any form of harassment, violence or sexual assault is abhorrent and unacceptable anywhere in society, including in our universities which should be safe and inclusive environments. The government urges university leaders to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to all harassment and sexual misconduct and improve the systems for reporting incidents.

Higher education (HE) providers have clear responsibilities, including under the Equality Act 2010, and should have robust policies and procedures in place to comply with the law, and to investigate and swiftly address reports of sexual misconduct. Any student who feels that their complaint has not been dealt with appropriately or satisfactorily can escalate their complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. Students also can and should inform the police if they believe the law has been broken. The government expects providers to support students in making a decision about the way forward, including whether to make a report to the police.

It is important that providers break down barriers to reporting and that students feel safe and able to report incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence. The government urges HE providers to collect comprehensive accurate data on harassment incidents, and continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite of the potential for this to lead to initial spikes in reported instances.

The Office for Students (OfS) statement of expectations on harassment and sexual misconduct was published on 19 April 2021 and is a useful tool for providers, who should ensure their policies and processes reflect the expectations set out within the statement. As part of its next steps on harassment and hate crime, the OfS has indicated that it will consider options for connecting the statement of expectations to its conditions of registration.

The government has been working with and through the OfS and Universities UK (UUK) in recent years to improve the way the HE sector tackles sexual harassment and misconduct in HE. The department holds regular meetings with UUK and the OfS specifically on matters of sexual harassment and misconduct in HE, including in relation to progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the UUK 2016 Changing the Culture Framework. This framework was published by the UUK Harassment and Hate Crime Taskforce, which was set up in September 2015 at the government’s request.

Since 2016, a total investment of £4.7 million, match funded by HE providers, has been invested by the OfS and its predecessor, funding 119 safeguarding projects. £2.45 million of this was given to 63 projects specifically focused on tackling sexual and gender-based violence in higher education.

Despite these efforts, evidence (including testimonials on the Everyone’s Invited website) demonstrates that a significant change is still needed. The government is deeply concerned to see the disturbing testimonies which reference experiences within HE settings. The government will continue to work closely with the sector and its regulator, the OfS, to ensure students feel safe within HE providers, and that providers have robust policies and procedures in place to address incidents.

The government remains committed to working with the sector to prevent and tackle sexual harassment and assault.

Physical Education (PE) plays a key role in pupils’ physical and mental wellbeing. It is a foundation subject in the National Curriculum at all four key stages and we expect schools to teach it to all pupils as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.

During COVID-19 restrictions schools have the flexibility to decide how PE will be provided to pupils whilst following their measures of control. The Department’s guidance sets out how schools can continue to provide PE, including making it clear that indoor lessons are allowed. It also signposts advice from the Association for Physical Education and the Youth Sport Trust is supporting schools to adapt the teaching of PE. Remote physical education lessons are also available from Oak National Academy.

We are also working closely with Swim England and Royal Life Saving Society UK to support schools to continue to provide swimming and water safety lessons for their pupils, which is a compulsory part of the primary PE national curriculum.

Schools are advised against all educational visits at this time. The Department is working on advice for schools, nurseries and colleges on the planning and booking of residential trips when it is safe to do so and in line with the Government’s roadmap to recovery, as set out in: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021/covid-19-response-spring-2021. The advice will be published shortly.

The government remains committed to ensuring that all individuals with the potential to benefit can access higher education and will provide an update on Alternative Student Finance in due course.

The government undertook equalities assessments on access to student finance for individuals of Muslim faith in November 2015 when introducing regulations to move from a system of maintenance grants to loans. Further analysis was published in May 2016 during the passage of the Higher Education and Research Bill. The assessments can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482110/bis-15-639-student-finance-equality-analysis.pdf and https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524226/bis-16-281-he-research-bill-equality-analysis.pdf.

The Government has committed to a catch-up package worth £1 billion. This includes a universal ‘catch-up premium’ worth £650 million to support schools to make up for the impact of time outside of the classroom. The universal catch-up premium funding will be delivered in three payments across the 2020/2021 academic year in the autumn, late spring, and summer term. The first payment (25% of total) has been made to schools, providing the following amounts: (a) £24,218,670 for London, (b) £716,980 for Haringey and (c) £397,260 for Hornsey and Wood Green. Total payments of the 2020/2021 catch-up premium are provisionally set for each constituency: (a) London will receive £96,874,680, (b) Haringey will receive £2,867,920 and (c) Hornsey and Wood Green will receive £1,589,040.

On 27 January 2021, the Government announced a further £300 million of new funding for high-quality tutoring to help children and young people catch up. The Government will be working in collaboration with the education sector to develop specific initiatives for summer schools and a COVID-19 premium to support catch up, alongside developing a long-term plan to support pupils to catch up over the course of this Parliament. Further detail on this funding and support will be confirmed in due course.

The Department for Education will do whatever it can to make sure no child – whatever their background or location – falls behind as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. We know that young carers may be particularly vulnerable during this time, and ensuring that vulnerable children and young people remain protected is our top priority

Educational settings remain open and safe for vulnerable children and young people. The definition of vulnerable children and young people includes those who have been assessed as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who are therefore in need of continued education provision – including young carers amongst others. Local authority duties to assess the needs of young carers, under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, remain unchanged.

The government has provided over £11 million to the See, Hear, Respond programme, to support vulnerable children and young people whose usual support networks have been impacted by the outbreak, including young carers as a target group. The programme provides a range of support, including online counselling and helping children and young people stay connected with school.

The government announced £1 billion of catch-up funding to support children and young people. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020/2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to support those children and young people who need it the most.

Additionally, the ongoing £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return training programme, offered to every school and college in England, is helping support pupil wellbeing, resilience and recovery in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The training supports staff working in schools and colleges to respond to the additional pressures some children and young people may be feeling as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is in addition to requirements set out in statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ for school designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role, including a good understanding and alertness to the needs of young carers. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.

The government has continued to support unpaid carers by providing funding to Carers UK to: extend their support phoneline; provide funding to the Carers Trust to make onward grants to provide support to unpaid carers experiencing loneliness during the COVID-19 outbreak; work with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to publish guidance on reopening day services which we know provide important respite to carers; ensure unpaid carers can continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they need to self-isolate and recognised time providing emotional support as part of the 35 hours a week Carer’s Allowance care threshold.

The government has published guidance for both schools and local authorities on how best to support families and protect vulnerable children during the COVID-19 outbreak, alongside guidance for young people with caring responsibilities. The guidance includes information on how and where they can get help and support, including encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, about their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them.

The Department for Education will do whatever it can to make sure no child – whatever their background or location – falls behind as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. We know that young carers may be particularly vulnerable during this time, and ensuring that vulnerable children and young people remain protected is our top priority

Educational settings remain open and safe for vulnerable children and young people. The definition of vulnerable children and young people includes those who have been assessed as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who are therefore in need of continued education provision – including young carers amongst others. Local authority duties to assess the needs of young carers, under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, remain unchanged.

The government has provided over £11 million to the See, Hear, Respond programme, to support vulnerable children and young people whose usual support networks have been impacted by the outbreak, including young carers as a target group. The programme provides a range of support, including online counselling and helping children and young people stay connected with school.

The government announced £1 billion of catch-up funding to support children and young people. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020/2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to support those children and young people who need it the most.

Additionally, the ongoing £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return training programme, offered to every school and college in England, is helping support pupil wellbeing, resilience and recovery in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The training supports staff working in schools and colleges to respond to the additional pressures some children and young people may be feeling as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is in addition to requirements set out in statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ for school designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role, including a good understanding and alertness to the needs of young carers. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.

The government has continued to support unpaid carers by providing funding to Carers UK to: extend their support phoneline; provide funding to the Carers Trust to make onward grants to provide support to unpaid carers experiencing loneliness during the COVID-19 outbreak; work with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to publish guidance on reopening day services which we know provide important respite to carers; ensure unpaid carers can continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they need to self-isolate and recognised time providing emotional support as part of the 35 hours a week Carer’s Allowance care threshold.

The government has published guidance for both schools and local authorities on how best to support families and protect vulnerable children during the COVID-19 outbreak, alongside guidance for young people with caring responsibilities. The guidance includes information on how and where they can get help and support, including encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, about their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them.

The Department for Education does not collect data on local authority allocation of training.

The government provides a range of guidance on safeguarding children and for foster parents and agencies, including:

• ‘Working together to safeguard children’, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2;
• ‘Keeping children safe in education’, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912592/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_Sep_2020.pdf#:~:text=Safeguarding%20and%20promoting%20the%20welfare%20of%20children%20is,enable%20all%20children%20to%20have%20the%20best%20outcomes;
• ‘Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards’, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192705/NMS_Fostering_Services.pdf;
• and ‘Fostering’, available here: https://www.gov.uk/childcare-parenting/fostering.

The Department for Education will do whatever it can to make sure no child – whatever their background or location – falls behind as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. We know that young carers may be particularly vulnerable during this time, and ensuring that vulnerable children and young people remain protected is our top priority

Educational settings remain open and safe for vulnerable children and young people. The definition of vulnerable children and young people includes those who have been assessed as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who are therefore in need of continued education provision – including young carers amongst others. Local authority duties to assess the needs of young carers, under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, remain unchanged.

The government has provided over £11 million to the See, Hear, Respond programme, to support vulnerable children and young people whose usual support networks have been impacted by the outbreak, including young carers as a target group. The programme provides a range of support, including online counselling and helping children and young people stay connected with school.

The government announced £1 billion of catch-up funding to support children and young people. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020/2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to support those children and young people who need it the most.

Additionally, the ongoing £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return training programme, offered to every school and college in England, is helping support pupil wellbeing, resilience and recovery in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The training supports staff working in schools and colleges to respond to the additional pressures some children and young people may be feeling as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is in addition to requirements set out in statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ for school designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role, including a good understanding and alertness to the needs of young carers. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.

The government has continued to support unpaid carers by providing funding to Carers UK to: extend their support phoneline; provide funding to the Carers Trust to make onward grants to provide support to unpaid carers experiencing loneliness during the COVID-19 outbreak; work with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to publish guidance on reopening day services which we know provide important respite to carers; ensure unpaid carers can continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they need to self-isolate and recognised time providing emotional support as part of the 35 hours a week Carer’s Allowance care threshold.

The government has published guidance for both schools and local authorities on how best to support families and protect vulnerable children during the COVID-19 outbreak, alongside guidance for young people with caring responsibilities. The guidance includes information on how and where they can get help and support, including encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, about their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them.

The government assessed the merits of a sharia-compliant alternative finance product, including the views of students and other stakeholders, as part of the response to the consultation published in September 2014. The consultation response is at the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/349899/bis-14-984-government-response-to-a-consultation-on-a-sharia-compliant-alternative-finance-product.pdf.

The new Green Jobs Taskforce, which was launched on 12 November 2020, has been set up to help the UK build back greener and deliver the skilled workforce needed to reach net zero emissions by 2050. This is a joint initiative between the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Education. Working with employers and relevant stakeholders, the Taskforce will develop an action plan to support 2 million good-quality, green jobs and the skills needed by 2030, supporting the UK to transition to a net zero economy and deliver a green recovery.

The Taskforce, which also includes members from the construction and retrofit sectors such as the Construction Industry Training Board and Retrofit Works, will represent views of businesses, employees and the skills sector. Involvement in this work will not be limited only to Taskforce members, and there will be opportunities for a wider set of stakeholders, including the private sector, to contribute.

Investment from the National Skills Fund will support the government’s commitment to green jobs. Starting this year, the government is investing £2.5 billion (£3 billion, when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) in the National Skills Fund. This is a significant investment and has the potential to deliver new opportunities to generations of adults who may have been previously left behind.

From the National Skills Fund, we are investing £95 million over the current spending review period to support any adult aged 24 and over who want to achieve their first full level 3 qualification – equivalent to 2 A levels, or a technical certificate or diploma – to access nearly 400 fully funded courses. The offer includes a range of qualifications that are valuable across the economy in multiple sectors (for example, digital skills, accountancy and engineering skills).

There are specific qualifications included on the course list which will contribute to developing retrofitting skills (for example, a diploma in Installing Electrotechnical Systems and Equipment or a diploma in Engineering Construction Lifting, Positioning and Installing Structures, Plant and Equipment).

Through the National Skills Fund we have also introduced the Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving adults aged 19 and over the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer.

From April 2021 we are investing a further £43 million through the National Skills Fund to support this expansion of Skills Bootcamps in England. This will enable us to assist employers across England to fill their in-demand vacancies and we anticipate training upwards of 25,000 individuals. The Bootcamps were initially focused on digital skills but are now being expanded to also cover technical skills training, including engineering and construction.

The training undertaken by adults completing relevant Skills Bootcamps courses can help adults gain the skills required to work towards further training and employment in retrofitting. Furthermore, education providers and employers can put forward bids as part of our technical skills bootcamps to establish a bootcamp with the aim of training people in retrofit skills.

These level 3 and Skills Bootcamps offers will be followed by other investments from the National Skills Fund over the course of this Parliament. The government plans to consult on the National Skills Fund in spring 2021 to ensure that we develop a fund that helps adults learn valuable skills and prepares them for the economy of the future.

The Government has announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a Catch up Premium worth a total of £650 million, to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Head teachers have discretion over how to use this funding to best support the needs of their pupils, but we expect them to prioritise those who need the most catch up support. The Catch up Premium guidance is clear that schools should ensure that they provide appropriate transparency for parents in terms of how the premium is spent. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium.

Schools are held accountable for the outcomes they achieve with all their funding, including through Ofsted inspections and by governors and trustees, and this will be no exception.

A new national lockdown has come into effect and schools should only allow vulnerable children and the children of critical workers to attend face to face education. All other pupils will be taught remotely.

We know that receiving face to face education is best for children’s mental health and for their educational achievement, and we will review the restrictions on schools to ensure that children and young people return to face to face education as soon as the pressures on the NHS are easing. Limiting attendance at this time is about reducing the number of contacts that people have with other households, given the rapidly rising numbers of cases across the country and the intense pressure on the NHS.

For those pupils and staff still attending school, the system of protective measures that we have asked schools to implement continues to mean that any risks are well managed and controlled.

Fostering can be hugely rewarding, but also challenging, demanding skills and dedication. The statutory framework and National Minimum Standards (NMS) clearly set out that all foster carers must receive the training and development they need to carry out their role effectively. The NMS are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192705/NMS_Fostering_Services.pdf.

Under NMS 6, there is an expectation that fostering services will promote the physical, emotional, and psychological health of children in foster care and NMS 20 covers the requirements around training and development of foster carers. These are essential for placement stability, and foster carers should receive the right training to meet the needs of the children in their care. They should have access to different or new training to develop their skills as need arises before and during placement. The Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care (TSD) sets out the minimum expectations of training for foster carers, and is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/287957/TSD_standards_guidance_for_supervisors.pdf. It is up to local fostering services to determine what training they offer, to whom and when, but information about that offer should be available to all foster carers.

As outlined in the guidance for education and childcare settings on new national restrictions from 5 November, out-of-school activities such as private tuition may continue to operate during the period of national restrictions. However, providers of these activities who are operating out of their own homes or private studios, should ensure they are only being accessed for face-to-face provision by parents if their primary purpose is registered childcare, or where they are providing other activities for children, where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work or search for work, or to undertake training or education; or for the purposes of respite care. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#ooss.

Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education, which could include private tutors, may also continue to operate for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions.

Tutors that continue to operate face-to-face provision during this period should continue to undertake risk assessments and implement the system of controls set out in the protective measures for holiday clubs and after-school clubs and other out-of-school clubs for children during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak guidance, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

Providers operating out of other people’s homes should also implement the guidance on working safely in other people’s homes, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes.

All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes and that can offer remote education, should close for face-to-face provision for the duration of the national restrictions. This will minimise the amount of mixing between different groups of people and therefore reduce the risk of infection and transmission of the virus.

Local authorities are required, through the School Admissions Code and the School Information (England) Regulations 2008, to provide parents with information about all schools in their area ahead of application deadlines, through publishing a composite prospectus.

Traditionally, schools have also held open events and arranged visits for prospective parents in the autumn term. This year, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, schools have also had to consider how to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus.

On 2 July, we published guidance to help schools prepare for all pupils to return to school full time from the beginning of the autumn term. This guidance can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

This sets out a framework for school leaders to put in place a range of proportionate protective measures for children, staff and visitors. These include minimising contacts between groups and maintaining safe distance where possible; encouraging regular handwashing; and enhanced cleaning. As a result, face to face open events and visits are unlikely to be possible and schools are considering alternatives.

The provision of information to parents remains an important part of enabling them to make an informed choice about the schools they wish their children to attend.

The Department is aware that many schools have worked creatively to do this, but if a school does decide to hold a face to face event it is essential that a risk assessment is carried out and appropriate control measures are put in place, in line with the guidance.

The Department for Education aims to respond to all ministerial correspondence within 18 days of receipt. Due to the increase in correspondence received since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the average reply time (in working days) for ministerial letters due during each month from April to August this year exceeds the 18-day target, as set out in the table below:

It is important that children continue to remain fit and active and take part in the 60 minutes of daily physical activity recommended by the Chief Medical Officers wherever possible.

Schools have the flexibility to decide how physical education, sport and physical activity will be provided for their own students, following the measures in their system of controls. The Department’s guidance includes information on how schools can provide PE and opportunities for pupils to be active, including links to detailed advice from subject organisations. Schools are able to offer curricular and extra-curricular team sport, including contact sport, where there is approved guidance from national governing bodies. Guidance can be found via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

Schools are also able to open up their facilities for use by external sports clubs at evenings and weekends. In doing so, they should ensure they are considering carefully how such arrangements can operate within their wider protective measures and should also have regard to any other relevant government guidance. For example, when opening up sports facilities for external use, the guidance issued by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on working safely during the COVID-19 outbreak for providers of grassroots sport and gym or leisure facilities should be followed: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/providers-of-grassroots-sport-and-gym-leisure-facilities.

Schools and external providers should also consult the guidance produced for those who run community activities, holiday clubs, after-school clubs, tuition and other out-of-school provision for children: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

We have been working across Government to build a package of support measures to boost skills among those who will be hardest hit by the labour market impacts of COVID-19. On 8 July, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced measures across a range of targeted work-based training offers to support people to build the skills they need to get into work in all communities across the country. This amounts to investment of £1.6 billion in employment support schemes, which will substantially expand existing provision. This includes:

• £111 million to triple the number of traineeships;
• £17 million to triple the number of sector-based work academy placements;
• Paying businesses to take on new apprentices – an extra £2000 for each apprentice under 25 and £1,500 for apprentices over 25;
• £32m to help 269,000 more people receive advice from the National Careers Service;
• £101 million for school/college leavers to study high value courses when there are not employment opportunities available to them.

Over the course of this Parliament, we are also providing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) for a new National Skills Fund to help people learn new skills and prepare for the economy of the future.

We are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) (£1.34bn in 2019/20 and 2020/21). We will continue to explore options within adult education and will be making decisions on where we may be able to introduce flexibilities to aid the Post-Covid recovery.

In areas where we have devolved the AEB, it is for Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) / Greater London Authority (GLA) to determine funding arrangements for adult education for their residents. We do, however, appreciate the importance of sharing, and where appropriate, co-ordinating, responses to attempt to ensure that providers, of all types, do not have their funding disrupted as a result of COVID-19. We are continuing to keep MCAs and the GLA updated on our skills response to COVID-19 through weekly conversations.

Devolving the AEB enables MCAs to directly support adults in developing the skills that local employers need, reducing skills shortages, boosting productivity and economic prosperity, and improving wellbeing in communities.

Within the AEB funding formula we pay a disadvantage uplift to provide extra funding to support the most disadvantaged learners, recognising that they are sometimes more costly to recruit and retain. The uplift is based on the learner’s post code and results in a funding increase for learners living in the most deprived areas of the country, as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015. There is also an area cost uplift within the AEB funding formula which reflects the higher cost of delivering training provision in some parts of the country, such as London and the South East.

We fund education and training for 16 to 19 year olds through the National Funding Formula which includes extra funding for disadvantaged students. This funding is provided to institutions specifically for students with low prior attainment, or who live in the most disadvantaged areas. We also provide an area cost uplift to reflect the higher costs of delivering education in some parts of the country such as London and the South East.

We have been working across Government to build a package of support measures to boost skills among those who will be hardest hit by the labour market impacts of COVID-19. On 8 July, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced measures across a range of targeted work-based training offers to support people to build the skills they need to get into work in all communities across the country. This amounts to investment of £1.6 billion in employment support schemes, which will substantially expand existing provision. This includes:

• £111 million to triple the number of traineeships;
• £17 million to triple the number of sector-based work academy placements;
• Paying businesses to take on new apprentices – an extra £2000 for each apprentice under 25 and £1,500 for apprentices over 25;
• £32m to help 269,000 more people receive advice from the National Careers Service;
• £101 million for school/college leavers to study high value courses when there are not employment opportunities available to them.

Over the course of this Parliament, we are also providing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) for a new National Skills Fund to help people learn new skills and prepare for the economy of the future.

We are continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) (£1.34bn in 2019/20 and 2020/21). We will continue to explore options within adult education and will be making decisions on where we may be able to introduce flexibilities to aid the Post-Covid recovery.

In areas where we have devolved the AEB, it is for Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) / Greater London Authority (GLA) to determine funding arrangements for adult education for their residents. We do, however, appreciate the importance of sharing, and where appropriate, co-ordinating, responses to attempt to ensure that providers, of all types, do not have their funding disrupted as a result of COVID-19. We are continuing to keep MCAs and the GLA updated on our skills response to COVID-19 through weekly conversations.

Devolving the AEB enables MCAs to directly support adults in developing the skills that local employers need, reducing skills shortages, boosting productivity and economic prosperity, and improving wellbeing in communities.

Within the AEB funding formula we pay a disadvantage uplift to provide extra funding to support the most disadvantaged learners, recognising that they are sometimes more costly to recruit and retain. The uplift is based on the learner’s post code and results in a funding increase for learners living in the most deprived areas of the country, as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015. There is also an area cost uplift within the AEB funding formula which reflects the higher cost of delivering training provision in some parts of the country, such as London and the South East.

We fund education and training for 16 to 19 year olds through the National Funding Formula which includes extra funding for disadvantaged students. This funding is provided to institutions specifically for students with low prior attainment, or who live in the most disadvantaged areas. We also provide an area cost uplift to reflect the higher costs of delivering education in some parts of the country such as London and the South East.

Ensuring that vulnerable children remain protected is a top priority for the government. From the outset, we asked schools to remain open for children who are vulnerable, as well as children of critical workers. This remains the case as some year groups return to school.

The government has provided an unprecedented package of support for vulnerable children, including:

• Over £3.2 billion so far, with a further £500 million announced on 2 July, bringing the total to £3.7 billion of additional funding to support local authorities in meeting COVID-19 related pressures, including on children’s services.
• £1.6 million of funding for the NSPCC to help promote and expand their national UK helpline which provides advice and guidance and support to adults reporting safeguarding concerns. Since the start of the campaign on 4 May, the NSPCC helpline has seen the number of calls and emails grow by 66% and has made over 9,000 referrals, with one out of every 9 referrals going to emergency services such as the police and children’s social care.
• The Adoption Support Fund – £8 million to help families under pressure as a result of the outbreak.
• The Innovation Programme – more than £12 million for 14 projects tackling increased risk, for example from domestic violence and supporting teenagers at risk of exploitation.
• See, Hear, Respond – £7 million partnership of national children’s charities and local organisations to provide targeted support to vulnerable children, young people and their families who are affected by COVID-19.
• Laptops and tablets for children with social workers and care leavers to help them keep in touch with the services they need, as well as 4G internet devices for connecting to the internet. As of 30 June, over 200,000 laptops and tablets and over 47,000 4G wireless routers had been dispatched or delivered to local authorities and academy trusts.

Our Regional Education and Care Teams are working with local authorities directly to ensure the systems and processes for maintaining contact with vulnerable children are robust in every local authority in England.

We have also made temporary legislative changes to help reduce pressure on the system and enable children's services to continue to support vulnerable children during these unprecedented times.

Our latest guidance on supporting vulnerable children and young people during the COVID-19 outbreak was updated on 1 July and is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services.

The department has issued a suite of guidance to help and support schools and colleges. This includes interim safeguarding guidance, which is clear that schools and colleges should revise their child protection policies to reflect new arrangements. The guidance sets out that it is important that all staff who interact with children, including online, continue to look out for signs a child may be at risk. The safeguarding guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/safeguarding-and-remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

Schools and colleges should continue to have regard to statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education, as per their legislative duty or funding agreement requirements, or both.

We are providing £560 million of additional condition funding for the school system this year to support essential maintenance projects. This comes on top of over £1.4 billion capital funding already provided for school maintenance in the financial year 2020-21. We will set out details of how the additional capital funding will be allocated shortly.

As part of the condition funding already allocated this year, Highgate Wood Secondary School received £29,239 in Devolved Formula Capital funding to spend on its own capital priorities. Haringey local authority has also been allocated a School Condition Allocation of £2,959,147 to invest in condition priorities across its maintained schools, including Highgate Wood Secondary School. The school should discuss its needs with Haringey Council, so that they can be considered as part of local investment decisions.

The table below presents the latest weekly national figures for vulnerable children with an education, health and care (EHC) plan or social worker in attendance in England during May and June 2020.

The data is available at:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

Please note that the department has not produced separate figures for the primary and secondary phases.

We have also been monitoring contact between social workers and children in need and can confirm that the vast majority of those vulnerable children on a child protection plan have been seen or contacted by a social worker in the past four weeks.

Full guidance on the definition of vulnerable children and options for continued attendance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people.

[1] We estimate that the total number of vulnerable children with an EHC plan or social worker in England is 508,255.

Nurseries in maintained primary schools and maintained nursery schools are able to access the national voucher scheme where they have registered pupils who meet the benefits-related criteria, and who would usually receive education both before and after lunch. Private settings are not covered. Eligible children should receive vouchers at the same rate as school pupils. Newly eligible children will also be supported if they meet the above criteria and maintained nurseries and nursery schools should continue to accept free school meal applications.

As my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have both made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by Covid-19.

We expect universities to communicate clearly with residential students on rents for this period and to administer accommodation provision in a fair manner. A number of universities and large accommodation providers have waived rents for the summer term or released students early from their contracts.

Students will continue to receive scheduled payments of loans towards their living costs for the remainder of the current 2019/20 academic year.

Students who are tenants with individual private landlords can discuss with them the possibility of an early release from their tenancy agreement. Tenants without an agreed release are still liable for their rent and should pay this as usual.

If students face financial hardship and struggle to pay rent, support is available. In the first instance, they should speak to their landlord if they think they will have difficulty meeting a rental payment. In this unique context, tenants and landlords are encouraged to work together to put in place a rent payment scheme.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance on consumer contracts, cancellation and refunds affected by the Covid-19 outbreak: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds. This sets out the CMA’s view on how the law operates to help consumers understand their rights and help businesses treat their customers fairly. Students may be entitled to refunds from accommodation providers, depending on the terms of their contract and their particular circumstances. If students need help, organisations such as Citizens Advice offer a free service, providing information and support.

If a student thinks that their accommodation provider is treating them unfairly, they can raise a complaint under the accommodation codes of practice as long as their provider is a code member. The codes can be found at: https://www.thesac.org.uk/; https://www.unipol.org.uk/the-code/how-to-complain and: https://www.rla.org.uk/about/nrla-code-of-practice.shtml.

We expect universities to communicate clearly with residential students on rents for this period and administer accommodation provision in a fair manner. Department officials, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and I are in regular contact with universities and their representative bodies to learn about what they are doing to support students at this time and to guide as appropriate.

We are aware that a number of universities have waived rents for their students who were due to be staying in university halls for the summer term but will now not be doing so.

It is important to stress that accommodation providers should not have instructed any student to return home. If any accommodation provider did formally instruct a student to leave the property then it would be unacceptable to continue to charge student rents.

Students will continue to receive scheduled payments of loans towards their living costs for the remainder of the current, 2019/20, academic year. I have asked institutions to pay particular attention to the additional financial hardships that are being faced by student staff who have been reliant on income from campus-based jobs at this time. Students with a part-time employment contract should speak to their employer about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been set up to help pay staff wages and keep people in employment.

To ensure universities can support students who need it most, the Office for Students has relaxed rules on the student premium to top up hardship funds.

On 16 March, the Government announced that all exams due to take place in schools and colleges in England this summer would be cancelled as part of the fight to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The Department’s priority is to ensure that students can move on as planned to the next stage of their lives, including starting university, college or sixth form courses or apprenticeships in the autumn. For GCSE, A and AS level students, we will make sure they are awarded a grade which reflects their work. Our intention is that a grade will be awarded this summer based on the best available evidence, including any non-exam assessment that students have already completed. The qualifications regulator Ofqual is working urgently with the exam boards to set out proposals for how this process will work and more information will be provided as soon as possible. Given that exams will not be taking place, the normal special consideration arrangements will not apply to the awarding of grades this summer.

We recognise that some students may nevertheless feel disappointed that they haven’t been able to sit their exams. If they do not believe the correct process has been followed in their case, they will be able to appeal on that basis. In addition, if they do not feel their calculated grade reflects their performance, they will have the opportunity to sit an exam, once schools and colleges are open again. The existing special consideration arrangements will apply to any students who experience exceptional circumstances when sitting those exams: as we expect that many fewer students will be sitting the exams than in a normal exam series we are confident that the exam boards’ existing systems will be able to cope with the likely volume of such requests.

The latest Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) position advises against all but essential travel to Italy due to the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. The advice is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy.

As school trips to Italy would not be deemed essential travel, affected schools should check with their travel providers regarding securing refunds in the first instance. With the current FCO position, all schools signed up to the Risk Protection Arrangement for schools will be covered for any amounts they cannot recoup on trips to Italy, and other affected schools should contact their individual insurance providers.

No decision has been made to allocate Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) directly to Higher Education Providers.

The government always keeps the DSAs system under review, to ensure that it is fit for purpose and provides good value for money. We are considering the recommendations made on DSAs in the Tailored Review of the Student Loans Company.

The Government takes data privacy, especially the privacy of more vulnerable citizens such as children, extremely seriously. The ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ statutory guidance reflects the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, which makes clear that schools and colleges must have sufficient policies and procedures in place to meet their legal obligations, and secure pupils data protection and privacy.

The value of apprenticeship levy funds that expired from employers’ accounts in each month from May 2019 to January 2020 is set out in the table below:

Notes:

1. There was no expiry in September 2019 as this was cancelled due to an issue affecting apprenticeship payments. Cancelling expiry ensured employers and providers were not unfairly impacted as a result of this issue. All September 2019 expiry was therefore rolled forward into the process for October 2019.
2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest million.
3. Information is available at the end of each calendar month.

The funds in employers’ accounts reflect the ‘English percentage’ of an employer’s levy contribution and include a 10% top-up from government. Employers’ levy funds are available for them to use for 24 months before they begin to expire on a rolling, month-by-month basis. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds in their accounts, though they are able to do so. Funds that expire are no longer available for the employer to spend on apprenticeship training.

The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the Department for Education’s annual apprenticeship budget. The expiry of these levy funds does not, therefore, result in additional funds becoming available to the department or to HM Treasury.

The department’s ring-fenced apprenticeship budget was set in advance by HM Treasury for the current Spending Review period and is independent of the funds in levy payers’ accounts. In 2019-20, over £2.5 billion is available for investment in apprenticeships in England, which is double what was spent in 2010.

Our annual apprenticeship budget supports new apprenticeship starts both in levy-paying employers and non-levy paying employers as well as existing apprenticeships learners. Details of actual spend against the apprenticeships budget are published in the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s annual report and accounts.

There is a wide range of support services which children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents and carers can access.

Local authorities are required to make available local services which provide impartial information, advice and support to these families. The government has invested £20 million between June 2018 and March 2020 to improve the quality of these services and their accessibility. The funding also supports a national helpline and online service for families who have children and young people with SEND.

More broadly, it is the responsibility of schools and other educational establishments to ensure children and young people with SEND are identified and assessed, and that support is put in place to meet their needs. Some children and young people with SEND will need extra help and may require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. Local authorities are responsible for putting EHC plans in place and for ensuring that the support identified to meet the needs identified in plans is available.

The government has increased local authorities’ high needs funding by £780 million in 2020/21, boosting the budget by 12% and bringing the total spent on supporting those with the most complex needs to over £7 billion for 2020-21.

However, we recognise that there is work to be done to improve the SEND system, including access to support services and that is why we are conducting a review of the SEND system.

Increasing the number of young people who study science is important if we are to address the science technology engineering and maths (STEM) skills shortage and support the UK economy and its growth. Pupils’ experience of science in primary school can impact on their ambitions to pursue a STEM career.

This is why the Department has kept sciences a core subject from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 4. All state-maintained schools must teach the National Curriculum science programmes of study in full, with other state-funded schools such as academies required to teach science as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. In 2014 we introduced a new programme of study for primary science, providing sequenced year-by-year content to ensure appropriate introduction to key scientific concepts and clear articulation of subject knowledge required. The breadth of content ensures that the curriculum provides a strong foundation for further study at secondary school.

To support teachers in delivering excellent teaching in science, the Department funds a programme of high quality continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers. This includes our national network of over 40 Science Learning Partnerships, which deliver locally-led training to both primary and secondary teachers. Primary teachers are also eligible for Project Enthuse bursaries to attend residential CPD at the National STEM Learning Centre in York. The bursaries are targeted at schools most in need, including those with poor levels of progress or primary science leads who do not have post-16 science qualifications. Both programmes aim to improve teachers’ subject knowledge and the quality of science teaching.

The Department does not conduct a yearly designation of school land in this manner. The Department considers the circumstances of individual school sites as necessary, and in accordance with the statutory protections and requirements, should any movement, disposal, or change of use of that land occur.

The head count number of physical education (PE) teachers in service in state funded secondary schools in November 2010 to November 2018 is provided in the table attached.

While there is no formal register for PE teachers; for context, information is also shown on the percentage of hours spent teaching PE in each year and the percentage of hours of PE which are taught by a teacher with a relevant post A-Level qualification. A relevant post A-Level qualification is a Level 4 qualification or above in PE, sports science, sports physiology, sports psychology or dance (including ballet).

Information for teachers in primary schools is not available.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance is clear that schools and colleges should have in place robust systems for the safeguarding and protection of children. Staff should be alert to changes in children’s behaviour, which could indicate there is a safeguarding risk and they may be in need of help or protection. If staff have concerns about a child’s welfare, they should act immediately, following their own organisation’s child protection policy and taking advice from the designated safeguarding lead.

All schools must offer a broad and balanced curriculum, which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. Citizenship in the curriculum teaches pupils how to explore political and social issues critically, to weigh evidence, debate and to make reasoned arguments.

From September 2020, relationships education for all primary aged pupils and relationships and sex education for all secondary aged pupils will be compulsory. Health education will also be compulsory for all state funded pupils. The subjects are designed to equip young people for adult life and focus, for example, on building positive relationships, developing physical and mental health, identifying risks and knowing how to seek help when needed.

The information requested is not held centrally. We do not collect data on speech and language therapists, as specialist speech, language and communication support is not funded directly by the Department for Education. Speech and Language Therapists working with children are employed by local authorities, the health service or directly by schools.

Nevertheless, we are committed to supporting children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and recognise the importance of identifying SLCN early to enable the right support to be put in place and reduce the impact that SLCN may have in the longer term. For example, the department has funded a range of condition specific organisations to develop resources and training to equip the workforce, including specialist resources in relation to speech, language and communication skills.

Specific decisions on how many Speech and Language Therapists are employed by any local authority are a matter for the specific local authority. However, this government has increased local authorities’ high needs funding by £780 million in 2020/21, boosting the budget by 12% and bringing the total spent on supporting those with the most complex needs to over £7 billion for 2020/21.

The information requested is not held centrally. We do not collect data on speech and language therapists, as specialist speech, language and communication support is not funded directly by the Department for Education. Speech and Language Therapists working with children are employed by local authorities, the health service or directly by schools.

Nevertheless, we are committed to supporting children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and recognise the importance of identifying SLCN early to enable the right support to be put in place and reduce the impact that SLCN may have in the longer term. For example, the department has funded a range of condition specific organisations to develop resources and training to equip the workforce, including specialist resources in relation to speech, language and communication skills.

Specific decisions on how many Speech and Language Therapists are employed by any local authority are a matter for the specific local authority. However, this government has increased local authorities’ high needs funding by £780 million in 2020/21, boosting the budget by 12% and bringing the total spent on supporting those with the most complex needs to over £7 billion for 2020/21.

The recent use of the Learning Records Service (LRS) by a data broker was unauthorised and not sanctioned by the department. There was no data released about individual learners, only a confirmation or denial that a record existed.

Learning Record Service is designed to help learning providers verify their potential student’s previous educational achievements and their eligibility for additional funding.

Education Providers who wish to use the service must register with the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP). Once they are registered with UKRLP, Education Providers fill out an LRS registration form where their UKRLP data is verified, and sign the LRS provider agreement that states their data protection and security responsibilities.

We have temporarily disabled the service whilst our investigations are ongoing.

The government wants the public and higher education sectors to lead by example through reducing energy use and driving decarbonisation across the UK economy. Last year I published an article calling on Universities to lead the climate change debate:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/climate-change-carbon-neutral_uk_5d08a9cae4b0ea7c4a4f220b.

It is an important issue for universities to consider and we will continue to engage with them on this.

The Government’s new six-year flood defence programme will invest £5.2 billion in flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes between now and 2027, and will better protect 336,000 properties from flooding and coastal erosion. This will benefit urban areas as well as coastal and rural communities. Climate change projections are built into the design of new flood defences to make sure they are fit for the future and offer the appropriate level of protection to communities.

Surface water is one of the sources of flooding in urban areas and the Government is taking action to tackle this risk which is increasing due to climate change and population growth. The Government published a surface water management action plan in 2018 with 22 actions and we will soon publish an update on this work.

We have already changed our flood defence partnership funding rules to enable more surface water schemes and launched a £200 million innovation fund which includes actions to support surface water flood risk actions. We are putting water company Drainage and Wastewater Plans on a statutory footing through the Environment Bill, to ensure drainage and sewerage systems are resilient to withstand the current and future pressures on them. Lead Local Flood Authorities (county and unitary authorities) have the leadership role on surface water flood risk management.

The Government is in regular contact with the waste sector and local authorities to ensure we have up to date information about current waste collection vehicle staffing levels. We are aware of some current impacts that HGV driver shortages are having on recycling collections and continue to work with the Department for Transport and the other departments involved to consider all the available options.

The Government has already taken action on heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver shortages, including ramping up vocational test capacity so 3,000 practical tests are available each week. The Government has also confirmed funding of up to £7,000 per apprenticeships for people training to be a lorry driver.

There are also increased incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice across the economy as we recover from the pandemic. Employers will receive £3,000 for new apprentices of any age who join their organisation from 1 April to 30 September 2021.

The Government is also working with industry and supporting job seekers to take roles in the profession.

We are committed to increasing tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament. We published our ambitious England Trees Action Plan on 18 May which sets out our plans to at least treble tree planting rates in England in support of this, using more than £500m from the Nature for Climate Fund.

The irreplaceable nature of ancient and long-established woodlands is recognised in our 25 Year Environment Plan. We therefore strengthened the protection of ancient and veteran trees in 2018 through the National Planning Policy Framework and guidance to planners. These outline that developments should be refused if they would lead to the loss and deterioration of ancient and veteran trees unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and suitable compensation measures.

The Government will also introduce a new category of ‘Long Established Woodland’, which are woodlands that have been in situ since 1840, alongside ancient woodland. We will consult on the protections these woodlands are afforded in the planning system, recognising their high ecological and societal value.

We will also continue to lead efforts to build resilience to protect and enhance our trees, woods, and forests for the future, implementing the four environmental goals of the Tree Health Resilience Strategy: Extent, Connectivity, Diversity, and Condition. This includes launching a new Centre for Forest Protection which will help protect our trees, woodlands, and forests from the threats from pests and pathogens through the provision of better evidence.

We are aware of the recent news regarding Amazon and the alleged destruction of unsold stock and are closely monitoring the situation.

Businesses who handle waste including companies like Amazon are obliged to follow the waste hierarchy, under our Waste Regulations 2011, which requires action to prevent waste as the priority option. Failure to meet the legal obligation to take all reasonable steps to apply this can lead to enforcement action from the Environment Agency in England.

No business should be sending unwanted electricals to landfill or incineration. We have a producer responsibility system in place to ensure all waste electricals are collected and treated properly, in line with the waste hierarchy.

We in contact with Amazon regarding this issue, and have been absolutely clear that more goods must be reused or recycled to support the Government’s ambition to build a more circular economy. Ministers and officials will shortly be meeting with Amazon to discuss this further.

The historic UK-Australia trade deal agreed by the Prime Minister offers benefits for businesses, producers and consumers across the UK.

It cuts all tariffs on UK exports to Australia, whilst protecting UK agricultural sensitivities and upholding our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. We’ve negotiated strong safeguards and quotas in the deal to protect UK farmers, while supporting them to grow exports of top-quality British produce overseas.

The deal is a gateway to joining CPTPP, a high standard free trade agreement of 11 Pacific nations. This will create new export opportunities for British farmers to export to these high growth markets. The Government is committed to supporting the sector to capture the full benefits of the market access secured through our international trade agreements. We are working in lockstep with partners like the NFU, the AHDB and the Food and Drink Federation to deliver tailored support on the ground for these farmers and food producers through our Open Doors programme. The Minister for Trade Policy has discussed the agreement with his counterparts in the Devolved Administrations and will continue to do so, including through the Ministerial Forum for Trade. We are also looking at what further export support we can put in place.

The Government is also facilitating agricultural productivity improvements through our domestic reform programme in England. We are putting forward an ambitious package of measures that will focus on enabling investment, supporting innovation, facilitating structural changes, and increasing capability and skills. This includes a package of reforms to agricultural tenancy policy and the legislative framework which will give tenants more flexibility to adapt their business to change as we bring in a new domestic agriculture policy. We are also improving transparency in the supply chain to help food producers strengthen their position at the farm gate and seek a fairer return from the marketplace.

The irreplaceable nature of veteran trees and ancient woodlands is recognised in our 25 Year Environment Plan and further measures will be outlined in the Government's action plan on trees.

We have strengthened the protection of trees through the National Planning Policy Framework and guidance to planners. These outline that developments should be refused if they would lead to the loss or deterioration of ancient woodland and veteran trees, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and suitable compensation measures.

In addition, protection can be given to trees of particular significance by the local planning authority through a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). Placing a TPO on a tree or group of trees means the landowner would require local planning authority consent before working on or felling the protected trees.

Good progress has been made in water efficiency policy development. Some of our work was paused last winter, to support work on Covid-19. Our efficiency work now continues at pace and we are committed to publishing the Government response this spring, which sets out our ambition and a package of policies to reduce household water consumption.

We are committed to increasing tree planting and are setting out policies to achieve this in the Government’s action plan on trees, including planting and protecting trees in and around urban areas. We are already delivering on this through:

• £80 million of charity-led projects funded through the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, the first round of which supported a wide range of projects to protect, restore and connect people with nature, including a national street tree sponsorship scheme and tree planting around the NHS estate.
• The £10 million Urban Tree Challenge Fund, supporting planting of up to 134,000 trees, including 20,000 street trees.
• £12.1 million investment in England's ten Community Forests to create high quality, accessible woodlands around towns and cities.
• £2.5 million to pilot innovative means to grow trees outside woods, in partnership with Local Authorities.

This complements wider support for urban greening through:

• Creation of a Nature Recovery Network, connecting wildlife-rich places across our towns, cities and countryside.
• Development of a National Framework of Green Infrastructure Standards to help local authorities, developers and communities to improve greening provision.
• Designing and investing in healthy places to live and work through the forthcoming National Model Design Code, Towns Fund and new £4 billion Levelling Up Fund.

The Government is committed to seeing more trees planted and has a general policy against permanent loss of woodland cover.

Currently there is no assessment on the number of trees felled each year as result of claims of subsidence damage to nearby buildings. This information is held by local authorities as most felling its often done by a case by case basis.

The Forestry Commission does monitor felling to ensure that it is compliant with the felling license regime and uses enforcement action against individuals who allow the felling of trees without the appropriate licence.

The Government has a general policy against permanent loss of woodland and tree cover, and the management and felling of trees is managed through the felling licence regime. We have developed the National Framework of Green infrastructure standard to help local authorities, developers and communities improve greening provisions in the area.

Through the Environment Bill we will introduce Forestry Enforcement Measures, strengthening Forestry Commission's ability to deter illegal tree felling across England. We will also introduce a duty for local authorities to consult and report the felling of street trees in their area.

We have strengthened the protection of trees through the National Planning Policy Framework and guidance to planners. These outline that developments should be refused if they would lead to the deterioration of ancient woodland and veteran trees, unless there are exceptional reasons and suitable compensation measures.

In addition, protection can be given to trees of particular significance by the local planning authority through a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). Placing a TPO on a tree or group of trees means the landowner would require local planning authority consent before working on or felling the protected trees.

The Government has a general policy against permanent loss of woodland and tree cover, and the management and felling of trees is managed through the felling licence regime. We have developed the National Framework of Green infrastructure standard to help local authorities, developers and communities improve greening provisions in the area.

Through the Environment Bill we will introduce Forestry Enforcement Measures, strengthening Forestry Commission's ability to deter illegal tree felling across England. We will also introduce a duty for local authorities to consult and report the felling of street trees in their area.

We have strengthened the protection of trees through the National Planning Policy Framework and guidance to planners. These outline that developments should be refused if they would lead to the deterioration of ancient woodland and veteran trees, unless there are exceptional reasons and suitable compensation measures.

In addition, protection can be given to trees of particular significance by the local planning authority through a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). Placing a TPO on a tree or group of trees means the landowner would require local planning authority consent before working on or felling the protected trees.

On 3 December 2020 the EU voted in favour of giving the UK Part 2 listed status for the purposes of non-commercial pet travel after the transition period. This listed status has now been formally adopted by the EU. Part 2 listed status means similar health requirements to travel to the EU as before the end of the transition period, but new documentation is required for pets and recognised assistance dogs. We are disappointed not to have been awarded Part 1 listed status for pet travel, as we are clear we meet all the requirements for this and have one of the most rigorous pet checking regimes in Europe to protect our biosecurity. We will continue to press the EU commission on this matter, recognising that achieving this would alleviate some of these new requirements.

In order to travel to the EU and Northern Ireland, users of recognised assistance dogs must ensure that the dog meets the following requirements:

• It has been implanted with a microchip
• It has received a valid rabies vaccination
• It is accompanied by an animal health certificate unless the dog has been issued with a pet passport in an EU country or Northern Ireland
• It is accompanied by a written declaration regarding the non-commercial nature of the movement.
• It has received tapeworm treatment if travelling directly to Finland, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway or Malta
• The pet will need to enter an EU country or Northern Ireland through a Travellers’ Point of Entry (TPE) where the owner must contact the competent authority present for the purposes of the documentary and identity checks.

Passengers are also advised to contact the competent authority in the country they are travelling to for any additional restrictions or requirements before travel.

Defra has been proactively and positively engaging with the assistance dog community and relevant stakeholders on the impacts on dog movements to the EU after the end of the transition period. We will continue to closely work with assistance dog organisations to share the latest advice and guidance (in accessible formats) with their members on pet travel requirements.

The Government has not recently assessed the potential merits of adopting a 70% recycling target for 2030. In 2019 we consulted on proposals to improve recycling for households and businesses and published an impact assessment alongside this which set out the benefits of achieving a 65% recycling rate by 2035. This impact assessment concluded that our proposals to ensure a consistent set of materials were collected for recycling from households and non-domestic premises together with other proposals to reform producer responsibility for recycling of packaging and to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers would achieve a 65% recycling rate by 2035.

The Environment Bill sets out the powers and duties necessary to achieve 65% recycling rate by 2035. We will consult on more detailed provisions and an updated impact assessment in 2021.

The Government's Resources and Waste Strategy sets out our intention to move away from the linear 'make, take, use, throw' economic model to a more circular economy, keeping resources in use as long as possible so we extract maximum value from them.

We are investing some £3 billion of grant funding in 24 Private Finance Initiative waste infrastructure projects. Along with disposal of residual waste facilities (such as energy from waste plants), these grants support infrastructure including material recovery, mechanical biological treatment and anaerobic digestion facilities, as well as implementation and expanding kerbside recycling services, which help facilitate improvements in recycling levels.

In addition, £4.7 million of grant funding was announced on 12 June 2019 and made available through WRAP's Resource Action Fund to support new capital infrastructure projects that will help to recycle difficult plastic packaging and textile materials. A further £1 million of grant funding was also announced to provide capital support to increase recycling infrastructure for non-household municipal waste from businesses.

Infrastructure is central to our economic strategy, and the government will shortly publish a National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) setting out further details on its long-term ambitions, including decarbonisation and levelling up.

The NIS will also formally respond to recommendations, including recommendations on waste, made by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in its National Infrastructure Assessment, which is based on detailed consideration of the UK's long-term infrastructure needs.

The NIC's impartial, expert advice is central to the Government's infrastructure decision-making process. The NIC's work was the catalyst for many of the important spending decisions taken at previous fiscal events. The Government will build on this further when we publish the NIS.

The Government’s general policy is that individuals should be free to manage wildlife within the law. The fox is not a protected species so the decision to control them lies with the owner or occupier of the property where the problem occurs. Where urban foxes cause problems professional pest controllers with relevant specialist skills are likely to be the most suited people for the task of removing foxes.

Natural England, on Defra’s behalf, has a team dedicated to providing wildlife management advice to the public, both through online material and directly by telephone.

The Government has no plans to control the number of urban foxes in England.

We will recognise the validity of any animal tests on products that have already been undertaken and so avoid the need for further testing.

The grandfathering of all existing UK-held REACH registrations into the UK system will further avoid the need to duplicate animal testing associated with re-registration.

The UK has been at the forefront of opposing animal tests where alternative approaches could be used. This is known as the "last-resort principle", which we will retain and enshrine in legislation through our landmark Environment Bill.

Responsibility for trees growing on private property lies with the property owner unless, for example the tree is endangering the public or subject to a Tree Preservation Order.

In our consultation on the England Tree Strategy, we welcome feedback on what changes need to be made to plant and protect more street trees.

In line with the waste hierarchy, the Government encourages the use of reusable cups and containers where possible to avoid waste and increase resource efficiency.

However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to follow the latest safety guidelines and only allow them where it is safe to do so. It is up to individual businesses to decide whether to allow the use of reusable cups or containers during this period. If reusable cups or containers are used, they should be washed thoroughly in hot, soapy water, or in a dishwasher, if suitable. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides further guidance in its business portal:

www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/reopening-and-adapting-your-food-business-during-covid-19.

The FSA advises making sure staff do not touch the customer’s equipment. Businesses can ask customers to leave their cups on the counter and then pour the drink into the cup from their own containers or ask staff to wash the container and their hands in hot soapy water.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Portsmouth South on 10 June 2020, PQ UIN 52409.

[www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-06-03/52409]

The Mayor of London is responsible for air quality in the capital and has reserve powers under the Environment Act 1995 to reflect this.

The Government’s Clean Air Strategy sets out an ambitious programme of action to reduce air pollution from a wide range of sources. We have also put in place a £3.8 billion plan to tackle roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations. Our Environment Bill makes a clear commitment to set a legally binding target to reduce fine particulate matter and enables local authorities to take more effective action to tackle air pollution in their areas.

We are in regular contact with the food industry to support them as they respond to COVID-19. This includes providing them with the guidance they need to keep their staff and customers safe, and Public Health England have recently published advice for retailers on social distancing measures in stores.

Representatives of our leading supermarkets have asked customers to shop considerately and we echo their call. We are grateful for the extensive support and positive collaboration that supermarkets have shown. We should be proud of all those across the country who are working round the clock to make sure people have the food they need.

The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. Our retailers already have highly resilient supply chains and they are working around the clock to ensure people have the food and products they need. Industry has adapted quickly to these changes in demands, and we welcome the actions they are taking to support groups including NHS staff and the elderly.

To help supermarkets, the Government has already introduced new measures to keep food supply flowing. We have temporarily relaxed elements of competition law to enable supermarkets to work more closely together to ensure people can access the products they need. Food retailers will now be able to share data on their stock levels, cooperate to keep stores open and share staff, distribution depots and delivery vehicles. This will help keep shops open and staffed and better able to meet high demand. Guidance has been issued to local authorities to show flexibility to allow extended delivery hours to supermarkets to ensure shelves can be replenished more quickly. The Transport Secretary has also announced a temporary and limited relaxation of the drivers’ hours rules so that more goods can be delivered to every store every day.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston on 3 March, PQ UIN 20490.

The Forestry Commission produces statistics on new planting of woodland by area in the UK. These are Official Statistics produced to meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Woodland area statistics can be found on the Forest Research website together with background information at: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics.

The area of new planting (woodland creation) for the UK in each of the last five years, taken from the published statistics, which are reported in hectares, is shown below. The total area of woodland in the UK was 3,187 thousand hectares in 2019, covering 13.1% of the land area.

New planting of woodland (thousands of hectares)

Source: Forestry Commission, Forestry England, Scottish Forestry, Forestry and Land Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, Forest Service grant schemes.

To reach net zero we must protect and enhance the capacity of our natural environment to capture carbon. Our manifesto committed to invest in nature-based solutions to climate change through a Nature for Climate Fund, to increase tree planting, peatland restoration and nature recovery.

The UK’s trees and woodlands currently capture 4% of our annual greenhouse gas emissions. We must protect the trees we already have, and plant more so that they can capture more carbon. That is why we committed to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares of trees per year by 2025. Forestry regulations also ensure that when trees are felled, for example for timber, they should be replanted and the land restocked.

Our peatlands are a natural carbon sink, but they have been drained and degraded, releasing emissions. We have therefore allocated £10 million to restore approximately 6,500 hectares of degraded peatland, reducing emissions, and will fund further restoration in this Parliament.

Coastal wetland habitats such as saltmarsh and seagrass provide carbon sinks. In the UK, these habitats are protected in some Marine Protected Areas and we are looking at whether their protection could be expanded further. There are also wider measures under the 25 Year Environment Plan to secure clean, healthy, productive and biologically diverse seas.

Air quality is a key policy area for this Government and a great deal of work is being done to tackle air pollution. Implementing the commitments set out in the Clean Air Strategy, which was published last year, will help to clean up our air faster and more effectively in towns and cities.

The upcoming Environment Bill, which will shortly be reintroduced to Parliament, will deliver some key commitments in the Strategy. This includes introducing a duty to set a legally binding target for fine particulate matter concentrations, the pollutant of most harm to health. The Bill will also ensure that local authorities have a clear framework for tackling air pollution, and are better able to tackle a key source of fine particulate matter emissions – domestic solid fuel burning. It will also provide the Government with new powers to enforce environmental standards for vehicles and machinery.

The Government’s Joint Air Quality Unit is also working with a number of local authorities to deliver compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in the shortest possible time. The unit provides these local authorities with guidance and support to develop local plans to identify and implement suitable measures to achieve this objective, supported by £572 million dedicated funding. In some instances local authorities will be implementing charging clean air zones to deliver these reductions, and the Government is working closely with these authorities to ensure the necessary IT systems are in place and ready to use.

Further, Defra’s Air Quality Grant Programme provides funding to local authorities, funding projects in local communities to tackle air pollution and reduce emissions affecting schools, businesses and residents. Defra has awarded over £60 million in funding to local authorities since the grant started in 1997.

These measures will improve air quality across the country, including in inner-city areas.

Bovine TB is one of the greatest animal health threats to the UK and is a major source of distress for hard-working farmers and rural communities. The most recent badger control policy value for money analysis, carried out in 2019, estimates the Net Present Value of Badger Control over eleven years at £1.08 million per area.

Further information can be found on Gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-badger-control-policy-value-for-money-analysis

The Government will not amend the Hunting Act 2004.

Tackling climate change and supporting the transition away from dependence on high greenhouse gas emitting energy sources is a priority for Government. As the world transitions to a low carbon economy, there remains a need for a mix of energy sources and technologies. UK companies have an important role to play in the transition away from fossil fuels and UK Export Finance (UKEF) will remain responsive to the evolving export financing needs of UK companies during this transition.

There are a number of ways in which the Department is making the trials as safe as possible. All trial e-scooters must meet minimum construction standards and have at least third-party insurance provided by the e-scooter operator. Trial areas were required to provide evidence of engagement with the local police before a trial could be approved, to ensure the police were aware of the trials and of their role in enforcement. If an e-scooter is ridden into a no-go zone, it will power down to a safe stop, requiring the rider to push it back to an area in which riding is permitted. It is for the police to take action against rider behaviour for offences including drink driving; riding on the footway; contravening red traffic lights and using a mobile phone. Those who ride private e-scooters on the public highway are liable to be issued with fixed penalty notices for offences including contravening cycle lanes, riding without insurance and riding without a driving licence.

Canada was added to the UK government’s green list at 4am on Monday 30 August 2021, meaning travellers arriving in the UK from Canada will not have to quarantine regardless of whether they are fully vaccinated.

The government is taking a phased approach to expanding the policy for vaccinated inbound travellers, and in due course, we will explore expanding this approach to other countries, where it is safe to do so. At present, we are unable to give timescales for extending this policy, but we look forward to working with Canada as we progress towards a safe, sustainable and robust return to international travel.

The Government has put in place various grant funding schemes to assist members of the public to reduce the up-front purchase price of electric vehicles. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles provides a plug-in car grant of £2,500 towards eligible cars costing less than £35,000 and a plug-in van grant with small vans receiving up to £3,000 and large vans up to £6,000. Alongside cars and vans, the plug-in taxi grant gives licensed taxi drivers up to £7,500 off the price of a new vehicle and eligible zero emission mopeds and motorcycles can receive a grant of up to £1,500. In November 2020, Government announced more funding for the plug in vehicle grants. Including funding committed at Budget 2020, this brings a total of £582m for cars, vans, motorcycles and taxis to 2022/23. The March 2020 Budget included the extension of favourable benefit in kind tax rates for zero emission vehicles out to 2025; company car tax is only 1% for this financial year 2021/22 and 2% in 2022/23 through to 2024/25

The Government does not provide grants to assist with the maintenance of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles already have significantly cheaper running costs than petrol or diesel vehicles and all zero emission cars are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED).

The National Bus Strategy, published on the 15 March, will deliver better bus services for passengers across England, through ambitious and far-reaching reform of how services are planned and delivered, to make local bus services more frequent, more reliable, easier to understand and use, better co-ordinated with simpler fares. We expect Local Transport Authorities to produce Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) by the end of October 2021, setting out an ambitious vision for travel by bus in their area, meeting the goals and expectations in the strategy.

New national rail flexible season tickets were announced as part of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, reflecting modern working patterns and saving many passengers hundreds of pounds. The tickets went on sale on 21 June and became available for passengers to use on 28 June.

Great British Railways will use its leadership to simplify the current mass of complicated fares and tickets. Passengers will have simpler digital ticketing, be able to purchase tickets through a single industry website and app. There will be greater convenience for passengers through contactless travel in urban areas using contactless bankcards and smartphones.

The Government is keen to create a circular economy for all electric vehicle batteries. That is why we are supporting the innovation, infrastructure and regulatory environment for a UK battery recycling industry. The Government’s £330 million Faraday Battery Challenge is playing a leading role in promoting the reuse and recycling of battery components. The 2009 Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations bans the disposal of EV batteries to landfill or incineration. Battery producers are obligated to take back EV batteries free-of-charge and treat them at approved facilities. The Government is providing grant funding support through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) to a ground-breaking project (RECOVAS) to create a new circular end-of-life supply chain for the electric vehicle industry. RECOVAS will develop the UK’s first commercial scale recycling facility for automotive battery packs.

The UK has been a global front-runner in supporting provision of charging infrastructure along with private sector investment. Our vision is to have one of the best infrastructure networks in the world for electric vehicles (EVs), and we want chargepoints to be accessible, affordable and secure.

We will invest £1.3 billion in accelerating the roll out of charging infrastructure over the next four years, targeting support on rapid chargepoints on motorways and major roads, and installing more on-street chargepoints near homes and workplaces, to make charging as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car. Later this year, we will introduce new regulations under the Automated Electric Vehicles Act (2018) to improve the consumer experience of public charging. We will also be publishing an EV Infrastructure Strategy to set out the vision and action plan for charging infrastructure rollout needed to achieve the 2030/35 phase out successfully. This will set expected roles for different stakeholders and how government will intervene to address the gaps between the current market status and our vision.

The Government has not set an overall target for the number of chargepoints because doing so risks assuming technology stands still and creating a uniform approach to charging mixes and needs across the country. We keep all our policies under review.

Waste collection is a responsibility of local authorities, and this includes oversight of all components of the service provided.

We are working closely with medical and public health experts and international partners and will provide an update in due course on how we will approach vaccinated individuals from other countries.

It is important to remember that the relaxations are limited in nature. No requirements of the rules for breaks during the day, daily & weekly rest periods, and weekly & fortnightly driving limits have been removed. They have been relaxed in a controlled way. In addition, the relaxations are time limited and only made due to exceptional circumstances.

Our issued guidance makes clear that driver safety must not be compromised. Drivers should not be expected to drive whilst tired and employers remain responsible for the health and safety of their employees and other road users.

In addition, drivers remain bound by the requirements in the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. This ensures that drivers do not work long hours, by limiting their overall working hours (which includes driving and any other work), to an average of 48 hours a week over a 17 to 26-week reference period. These regulations also limit drivers to a maximum of 60 hours in any given week, provided the average is still 48 hours. This guarantees drivers are not working continuously long hours, even if working under a temporary relaxation of the drivers’ hours rules.

There have not been any reported accidents identified to the Department involving drivers working under a drivers’ hours relaxation, although there is no specific reporting requirement.

Department for Transport ministers and/or officials have met with counterparts from Portugal, Malta and the EU to discuss the safe and sustainable unlocking of international travel. Our Embassies in these countries, and Mission to the EU are also very active in ensuring that we share relevant information, including on vaccination requirements.

We continue to work with international partners as we seek to cautiously balance the reopening of international travel with managing the public health risks.

A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data from publicly available platforms such as GISAID, the World Health Organization and host government websites, in relation to the traffic light risk assessments for the 3 and 24 June 2021.

We will shortly publish a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan that will set out a credible pathway to deliver transport’s contribution to carbon budgets and meeting net zero by 2050. This will set out the measures needed to accelerate modal shift to public and active transport making them the natural first choice for our daily activities.

Departmental ministers and officials meet with international partners to discuss issues of mutual interest, which sometimes includes electrification practice. For example, the Rail Minister recently discussed electrification with representatives of the government of Poland. Rail industry research into efficient electrification and Network Rail-led advice to the Department about the decarbonisation of the railway both consider international practice.

Transport projects are kept under continual review. Given current affordability constraints, Transport for London has confirmed that they are not in a position to prioritise investment in Crossrail 2, and the Government has agreed that they will stop development work on the project. No assessment has been made of the economic effect on Haringey.

The Government is committed to establishing reciprocal arrangements with France with the minimum of bureaucracy. The Government has secured interim arrangements with the French authorities which will allow UK licence holders, resident in France, to continue to use their valid UK licence until 1 January 2022. We are working urgently with the French government to find a solution for those with expired licences as well as to finalise a permanent arrangement. The Government commits to providing an update as soon as possible.

The Government provides links to all post-arrival testing providers on Gov.uk to support operators as well as travellers who need to book post-arrival tests in the UK.

The test package prices listed on the website are for the provider’s standard service, which meets the Government’s minimum standards, although prices may differ to reflect different levels of customer service and speed of results.

The list is continually updated as providers are reviewed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service and declare that they meet the required standards.

The Prime Minister’s 2020 Cycling and Walking Plan ‘Gear Change’ sets a new vision that cycling and walking will be the natural first choice for many journeys with half of all journeys in towns and cities being cycled or walked by 2030. This vision is complementary to the 2040 ambition contained in the 2017 Statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, that cycling and walking should be the natural choices for shorter journeys, or as part of a longer journey.

The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS 2) will be published after the Government has agreed and set out its long-term spending plans for active travel at the next multi-year Spending Review. It will reflect and build on the commitments outlined in the Prime Minister’s Cycling and Walking Plan of July 2020, including targets for cycling and walking.

Aviation must play its part in delivering the UK’s net zero commitment, but we also need to retain the ability to fly. The aviation sector is vital for the whole of the UK economy in terms of connectivity, direct economic activity, trade, investment and jobs, particularly where viable alternative modes of travel are limited. The Government is already supporting a variety of technology, fuel and market-based measures to address aviation emissions, and we will consult on a Net Zero Aviation Strategy in the coming months, setting out the steps to reach net zero aviation emissions by 2050.

In the last three years, we have completed almost 700 single track miles of rail electrification in England and Wales, and we will continue to electrify more of the rail network in the years ahead. We are also supporting the development of new low-carbon technologies in rail, like battery and hydrogen trains, through innovation funding and research.

The Network Rail-led Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS) provides advice about which decarbonising technologies (electrification, hydrogen, or battery) could best suit each part of the network. TDNS will inform the Department’s forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan and Government decisions about the scale and pace of rail decarbonisation between now and 2050.

Emissions from diesel trains can contribute to air pollution hotspots, with stations being an area of particular concern. The Government is funding a new £4.5 million air quality monitoring network, which will measure air pollution in up to 100 stations across the GB railway. Once established, the network will help to identify priority locations where air quality improvement measures are most needed.

Last summer the Prime Minister launched ambitious plans to boost cycling and walking in England, so that half of all journeys in towns and cities are cycled or walked by 2030. This includes a £2 billion package of funding for active travel over the next 5 years.

Over £200 million has been made available to authorities during the current financial year, via the Active Travel Fund, to support an active and green recovery from Covid-19. This will enable them to deliver safe and direct cycling and walking measures in their areas, such as protected cycle lanes, widened pavements, safer junctions and cycle and bus-only corridors. The Spending Review in November confirmed that a further £257 million of dedicated funding would be made available next financial year to support cycling and walking schemes.

MOT due dates for cars, motorcycles and light vans were automatically extended by six months from 30 March 2020 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. These extensions ceased from 1 August 2020 and there are no current plans to reintroduce extensions to MOT due dates.

Most garages remain open and are carrying out MOTs. MOT garages have received guidance on how to carry out MOT tests in a COVID-19 secure way and many MOT providers have also been able to introduce contact-free testing services, including pick-up and drop-off of vehicles.

The responsibility for transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London and Transport for London.

Ministers and officials in the Department for Transport hold regular discussions with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor for Transport and Transport for London on a range of transport matters.

The Government is committed to rail decarbonisation to meet our target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Network Rail’s work to develop a Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy will inform our decisions about the scale and pace of rail decarbonisation, the deployment of different decarbonisation technologies on each part of the network to replace diesel trains, and the delivery of our ambition to remove all diesel-only trains from the railway by 2040.

The attached table sets out both the number of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported among driving examiners and the driving test centres in which they have been reported in each month since June 2020.

The attached table sets out both the number of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported among driving examiners and the driving test centres in which they have been reported in each month since June 2020.

The Government takes the impact of road noise on health, wellbeing and the natural environment seriously. Vehicles are required to meet strict noise limits before being placed on the market and should not be altered to increase their noise level.

The Department’s initial trials of a prototype noise camera have now concluded and the results will be published shortly.

We now understand the epidemiology of the virus better and can control it through targeted, local action. Our priority remains the safety of staff and passengers. We are working with rail operators to ensure passengers have the confidence to return to the railway, and continue to take all necessary measures to make rail travel safe. These include the installation of clear floor markings, the provision of extra staff to manage passenger flows and provide guidance, and the mandating of face coverings on public transport.

We have also asked the rail industry to increase the number of services they run. Rail operators continue to assess local demand regularly and deliver the services passengers need. From 7 September, the railway has been operating 91% of its pre-pandemic capacity, providing frequent and reliable trains for passengers.

To support a safe, green recovery and new working patterns we are also considering proposals to try to ensure better value and convenience for part-time and flexible commuters.

The Government led review into Transport for London’s future financial sustainability is ongoing.

The Department’s guidance issued on 12 May refers to “Private cars and other vehicles” as an alternative to using public transport, and encourages the public to “consider all other forms of transport before using public transport”. This would include private vehicles such as motorcycles and mopeds where the journey to be made is appropriate.

In response to COVID-19, we are accelerating and expanding planned trials of rental e-scooters, allowing all areas that want to host trials to do so. We will introduce legislation in June to allow trials to begin.

On the 9^th May the Government announced a £2bn package of funding for cycling and walking over the next five years. This includes £250m for the provision of pop-up bike lanes with protected space for cycling as well as vouchers for cycle repairs and greater provision for bike fixing facilities.

An updated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy will be launched by the Prime Minister in the summer which will outline the process for the development of the second statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.

In responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government is working to a scientifically-led, step-by-step action plan, focusing on taking the right measures at the right time.

Targeted screening measures were carried out at UK airports for inbound passengers during the containment phase of the pandemic when the aim was to prevent the virus coming in to the UK.

Whilst there is community transmission within the UK, the role played by imported cases is less significant and so our focus in the current delay phase has not been on screening measures at the border. Additionally, it is vital that flights are still able to land in the UK in order to allow Britons who have been stranded abroad as a result of the pandemic to return home, and to allow key supplies to continue moving into and around the UK.

Airlines and airports have already implemented additional measures in response to COVID-19 in line with advice from PHE, SAGE and the Chief Medical Officer. Airports are displaying posters and digital signage relaying Government information about COVID-19. Passengers arriving into UK airports are being given a leaflet with information about the measures in place in the UK, and announcements are made on aircraft an hour before landing.

As you would expect our approach is being kept under review as the pandemic develops. This may mean that measures and procedures change as we control the spread of, and understand more about, the virus. Any changes to our approach will be led by advice from SAGE and the Chief Medical Officer. Protecting the health of the UK public will always come first.

The Government recognises the importance of the UK aviation industry, which is why the Chancellor has announced an unprecedented package of economic measures to support both the sector’s businesses and its employees

These measures include the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which helps firms to retain employees. This Scheme allows businesses to put employees on temporary leave, with the Government paying cash grants of 80% of their wages up to a cap of £2,500 per month, providing the business keeps the staff employed. The Government has also issued guidance on accessing Statutory Sick Pay and Universal Credit.

The Department for Transport continues to engage closely with key industry stakeholders to understand their position and the support they need. This includes a weekly call with key unions in the aviation sector.

The Government Car Service (GCS) is a division of the central Department for Transport (DfT). With the support of DfT, GCS is replacing its fleet with Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) as vehicles become due for replacement. Currently 48% of the GCS fleet is now either battery electric, petrol/electric hybrid or hydrogen, and we are actively looking at options to accelerate this transition.

The independent Committee on Climate Change has advised Government to phase out the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2035 or ideally 2030, bringing forward the current 2040 commitment. In the recent manifesto, Government committed to consulting on the earliest possible date for doing so, while minimising the impact on drivers and businesses.

The Government is ensuring the railway plays its part in delivering our ambitions to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and to reduce air pollution created by transport.

We continue to expand the electrified rail network where it delivers passenger and environmental benefits and value for money. This allows removal of diesel trains. For example from this month electric trains can run between London and Cardiff.

Network Rail is developing a Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy to inform Government decisions on the scale and pace of further rail decarbonisation, and the reduced use of diesel trains that this will require.

The Government has made available £140m in DHPs funding for local authorities in England and Wales for 2021-22 to help support vulnerable people with housing costs.

We increased the LHA rates in April 2020 to the 30th percentile of local rents, an investment costing nearly £1 billion and have maintained rates at the same cash level in 2021/22.

In addition to the central government contribution, English and Welsh local authorities are able to top up Discretionary Housing Payments funding up to a maximum of two and a half times this figure, using their own funds.

We consider the allocation of Discretionary Housing Payments to individual local authorities each year. We also monitor evolving demand and trends by analysing the information that local authorities provide regarding the amount of Discretionary Housing Payment funding they are awarding.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have been monitoring the DHPs spend more closely than in previous years and will continue to monitor spend throughout 2021/22.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ are actively promoting roles within the Health and Social Care sector via Work Coach conversations, resources on the DWP’s JobHelp website and a range of provision. As part of A Plan for Jobs, DWP’s Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes were expanded to include an additional £17m to support 32,000 more vocational training placements in 2020/21. Employers are also offering many Kickstart jobs in the Health and Social Care sector.

I refer the honourable member to PQ 167248 for a breakdown of Kickstart jobs per sector.

We do not hold the information in the format requested. Our records do not differentiate between those who self-isolate because they themselves have a suspected case of COVID-19 or because a family member is exhibiting symptoms.

Any confirmed cases in a DWP office are dealt with by appropriate level of cleaning, up to a deep clean, regardless of whether this is as a result of a member of staff testing positive, or a contractor, agency worker or customer.

We do not hold the information in the format requested. Our records do not differentiate between those who self-isolate because they themselves have a suspected case of COVID-19 or because a family member is exhibiting symptoms.

Any confirmed cases in a DWP office are dealt with by appropriate level of cleaning, up to a deep clean, regardless of whether this is as a result of a member of staff testing positive, or a contractor, agency worker or customer.

Table 1 provides a breakdown of the suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported by G4S for their security officers, with the respective jobcentre between 1 June 2020 and 30 September 2020.

There were six confirmed cases and 40 suspected cases (46 in total) recorded for the specified timeframe (indicated in Table 2) across England, Scotland and Wales.

Any confirmed cases in a DWP office are dealt with by appropriate level of cleaning, up to a deep clean, regardless of whether this is as a result of a member of staff testing positive, or a contractor, agency worker or customer.

Table 1 – Reported suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases by G4S for their security officers by jobcentre from June 2020. Please note G4S are a contracted supplier to the Department, these are not DWP staff.