Charlotte Nichols

A council tax exemption applies where a person has a severe mental impairment, as certified by a medical practitioner, and is entitled to one of a range of benefits set down in legislation. A reduced council tax bill is also available in certain circumstances where a disabled person requires a larger property than they would otherwise need.

The consultation closed on 27 August and the Department is finalising its analysis of the responses. Our intention is to publish the consultation response together with the new Code of Practice as soon as possible so that motorists can benefit and industry has time to adapt itself to the new requirements.

Councils who support people through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) or Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme will receive £20,520 per person, over 3 years, for resettlement and integration costs. Local councils and health partners who resettle families will also receive up to £4,500 per child for education, £850 to cover English language provision for adults requiring this support and £2,600 to cover healthcare.

A further £20 million of flexible funding will be made available to support local authorities with higher cost bases with any additional costs in the provision of services. In addition, the previously announced Afghan Housing Costs Fund will increase from £5 million to £17 million and run for 2 extra years to help local authorities provide housing and give certainty that funding will be available in the future.

We have empowered local authorities to make decisions on a range of matters that shape what happens in their area. This year, we have made available an increase in councils' Core Spending Power of up to 4.6% in cash terms, from £49.0 billion in 2020-21 to up to £51.3 billion in 2021-22. This in real terms builds on the largest year on year increase in spending power in a decade last year and recognises the resources councils need to meet their pressures and maintain critical services.

This Government is committed to supporting LGBT people, tackling discrimination and improving the lives of all citizens.

In September 2020, we announced our response to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) consultation. We concluded that the current provisions within the GRA allow for those that wish to legally change their gender to do so and that the balance struck in this legislation is correct. There are no plans to make changes to the 2004 Act.

In our response, we also committed to making the process of applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) as straightforward and dignified as possible. We have already delivered on our promise to reduce the fee of applying for a GRC to £5, making the process more affordable. We are also progressing work to move the process online, to reduce the administrative burden and streamline the overall experience for applicants.

The Government is working at pace to deliver on our commitment to ban conversion therapy. As previously stated, we will also ensure there is support available for victims of conversion therapy; the first time the UK Government has offered this. The support will be available to whoever considers themselves to be at risk of - or has undergone - conversion therapy, whatever the circumstances.

The importance of developing a quality service is of central importance, and we are working at pace to explore delivery options available to realise this commitment. An announcement with more details on the service and how it will be delivered will be made in due course.

The Government has made clear its commitment to banning conversion therapy and will set out proposals shortly. To ensure we get our proposals right, we have undertaken research to understand the prevalence of practices and experiences of those impacted. Furthermore, officials have been speaking with a range of organisations who hold diverse views, to fully inform our next steps.

I will look carefully at the findings of the King’s College study, ‘Unequal Britain: attitudes to inequality in light of Covid’, as part of the government’s commitments to levelling up and to tackling prejudice, racism and discrimination.

This work will also take account of the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which has been carrying out a deeper examination of the causes of disparities and which reported to the Prime Minister on 31 March.

I refer the Hon Member to the reply I gave to the Leader of the Opposition on 24 June 2020, Official Report, Col 1305.

Indeed, the Government believes the best way to improve children’s chances is by supporting families into secure, meaningful work.

Children living in workless households are around four times more likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) than those where all adults work. As of December, the number of workless households has fallen by 1 million since 2010, meaning there are over 740,000 fewer children living in a household where no one works.

Queen's consent is a very long-standing convention and a requirement of the Parliamentary process where proposed legislation may affect Crown interests, including personal property and personal interests of the Monarch.

It is for the House Authorities to determine whether a Bill requires Queen’s consent. Where this is determined to be the case, consent is routinely sought by the Government and agreed by the Monarch as a matter of course.

Consent to Bills has never been refused by the Monarch in modern times and legislation is not amended in order to ensure Queen’s Consent.

Once granted, Queen’s Consent will be signified at Third Reading of the bill in each House. The hon. Member can ascertain such occasions from reviewing the Official Report.

Queen's consent is a very long-standing convention and a requirement of the Parliamentary process where proposed legislation may affect Crown interests, including personal property and personal interests of the Monarch.

It is for the House Authorities to determine whether a Bill requires Queen’s consent. Where this is determined to be the case, consent is routinely sought by the Government and agreed by the Monarch as a matter of course.

Consent to Bills has never been refused by the Monarch in modern times and legislation is not amended in order to ensure Queen’s Consent.

Once granted, Queen’s Consent will be signified at Third Reading of the bill in each House. The hon. Member can ascertain such occasions from reviewing the Official Report.

Queen's consent is a very long-standing convention and a requirement of the Parliamentary process where proposed legislation may affect Crown interests, including personal property and personal interests of the Monarch.

It is for the House Authorities to determine whether a Bill requires Queen’s consent. Where this is determined to be the case, consent is routinely sought by the Government and agreed by the Monarch as a matter of course.

Consent to Bills has never been refused by the Monarch in modern times and legislation is not amended in order to ensure Queen’s Consent.

Once granted, Queen’s Consent will be signified at Third Reading of the bill in each House. The hon. Member can ascertain such occasions from reviewing the Official Report.

Every death during the pandemic has been a tragic loss, made so much harder for those unable to say goodbye or grieve as they would have wished. It is absolutely right that we come together to mark and remember this period appropriately.

The Prime Minister announced on 12 May that the Government will support these efforts by establishing a UK Commission on Covid Commemoration. The Commission will carefully consider how communities across the country can remember those who have lost their lives and recognise those involved in the response in a fitting and permanent way.

The Government recognises the need for bereaved families to be represented on the Commission and are committed to ensuring this happens. I am grateful to them for all their efforts throughout the pandemic. The Government will set out the Commission membership and terms of reference in due course.

On 12 May, the Prime Minister confirmed to this House that a public inquiry into COVID-19 would be established on a statutory basis, with full formal powers, and that it will begin its work in spring 2022. Further details - including in respect of the inquiry’s terms of reference - will be set out in due course.

I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the 5 July 2021.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ188127 on 29 April 2021.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/voter-identification-faqs.

I refer the Hon. Member to the press notice of 28 April 2021.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-rt-hon-lord-geidt-appointed-as-independent-adviser-on-ministers-interests.

Work to appoint the independent reviewer is ongoing and a further announcement will be made on this in due course.

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.

We have received representations from Parliamentarians on this issue, and we are currently considering the matter.

As I have stated in the House, we will keep Parliament updated on the election preparations, will engage with political parties and will publish detailed guidance in due course.

As we have said throughout the pandemic, we keep our measures under constant review.

The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that from 15 February anyone travelling to the UK from a country on the UK’s travel ban list will be required to quarantine in a government-approved facility for a period of 10 days. Full guidance for England is here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/booking-and-staying-in-a-quarantine-hotel-when-you-arrive-in-england

These actions provide further layers of protection to manage the risk of imported infections and protect our NHS while national lockdown and vaccinations take effect.

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

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.

The Government understands the huge significance of weddings. We recognise that because weddings have not been able to take place in recent months this has caused difficulty and distress for many people. As set out in the Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy, published in May, the Government has been examining how to enable people to gather in slightly larger groups better to facilitate small weddings. We have worked closely with faith leaders and local government on how best to achieve this. The Prime Minister announced on 23 June that wedding and civil partnership ceremonies will be able to take place in England from 4 July. People should avoid having a large ceremony, and should invite no more than thirty family and friends. Venues should ensure they are COVID-19 secure.

Some evidence suggests that households with a disability have higher than average heating costs. Within the fuel poverty strategy Sustainable Warmth the Government outlines our vulnerability principle, under which we specifically consider the needs of low income households most at risk from the impact of living in a cold home while designing fuel poverty policy.

Under the Warm Home Discount scheme, Ofgem reports on the Industry Initiatives supporting vulnerable households through measures including benefit entitlement checks and debt write-off. The 2020-2021 report is available at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/warm-home-discount-annual-report-scheme-year-10.

Ofgem require energy suppliers to support disabled customers through a Priority Services Register. Ofgem monitors compliance with their rules protecting vulnerable consumers. Their most recent report is available at:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/Ofgem%20Consumer%20Protection%20Report%20Autumn%202021_Final.pdf.

Respondents to the Government’s consultation on the reformed Warm Home Discount last summer raised concerns about the risk of the proposed dedicated Industry Initiative duplicating support measures energy suppliers can already provide, including through existing Industry Initiatives. We will continue to work with interested industry partners and third-party organisations to develop an Industry Initiatives measure providing direct support for people with disabilities and significant health conditions. This will be subject to interest from energy suppliers and it will not be mandatory for suppliers to contribute.

Introducing non-means-tested benefits, such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA), into the eligibility criteria would mean that many households on lower incomes and in deeper fuel poverty would lose out.

Around 62% of PIP and DLA recipients also receive one of the qualifying means-tested benefits and so would be considered low-income under the Core Group 2 criteria. Those households with high energy costs would be eligible for a rebate. Recipients of AA, a pension-age benefit, who claim Pension Credit Guarantee Credit will in most cases qualify for a rebate through Core Group 1.

Some evidence suggests that households with a disability have higher heating costs than average. However, no household-level data is available that could be factored into specifically targeting those with the highest heating costs.

The Warm Home Discount reforms will better target automatic rebates to fuel poor households on the lowest incomes. Our analysis models an increase in the number of recipients who declare they have a long-term illness or disability by 160,000. The proportion of rebates received by households with a disability or long-term illness will remain higher than the proportion of the fuel poor population or overall population with a disability.

The Warm Home Discount Core Group 2 will focus support to low-income households who are struggling to heat their homes. Eligibility will be linked to receipt of a qualifying means-tested benefit and tax credits and having high energy costs derived from property characteristics. These reforms will ensure that rebates are provided to fuel poor households on the lowest incomes.

The full eligibility criteria, including a list of the qualifying benefits, can be found in our recently published Government response on the scheme.

The Government intends to lay the Regulations for the reformed Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales in Parliament in the coming weeks, with the reforms coming into force from the 2022/23 scheme year.

The Government will consult, and lay separate Regulations for the Warm Home Discount scheme in Scotland.

Gas prices are expected to stay high in the short term, driven by increased global factors.

The Government is engaging at an international level and with industry to monitor and share information on market developments that are impacting gas prices globally. Nevertheless, the Government has policies in place to protect vulnerable consumers from the impact of high energy prices and has introduced the Energy Bills Support Scheme to cushion domestic energy consumers from the worst impacts.

The standing charge element of an energy bill reflects the on-going costs that fall on energy suppliers to provide and maintain a live supply regardless of a consumer’s usage. One component of these costs relates to distribution. As it costs more to distribute electricity to some regions than others, there are regional variations in standing charges to reflect higher costs to serve.

For millions of households on default and standard variable tariffs the level of standing charge is protected by the energy price cap rate set by Ofgem.

The retail fuels market is subject to UK competition law under the Competition and Markets Authority. A competitive market ensures that road fuel prices stay as low as possible. This framework delivers below the European average for pre-tax prices for both petrol and diesel in the UK. The Government therefore has no intention to introduce regulatory limits on petrol and diesel prices.

The Government announced in November that the fourth Contracts for Difference allocation round will feature a £20m annual ringfenced budget for tidal stream energy.

The Government remains open to considering well-developed proposals for harnessing the tidal range energy around our coastlines. Any such proposal would need to demonstrate strong evidence of value for money before the Government could take a view on its potential.

The intention is that all domestic electricity bills will receive this reduction to keep the scheme simple and administrative costs low. The Government will be consulting on the detail of the scheme in the coming weeks.

Departmental officials hold frequent discussions with Companies House counterparts on a wide range of issues, including measures to improve the integrity of information on the companies register and the implementation of any new powers and responsibilities.

The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill received Royal Assent this week. Work on implementing the relevant powers and responsibilities contained in the Act has now begun.

HM Land Registry (HMLR) registers legal ownership, interests, mortgages and other secured loans against land and property in England and Wales and in most cases the price paid is also recorded. Land Registration is a devolved matter in Scotland and in Northern Ireland.

The Register of Title held by HMLR does not record the nationality of individuals who own land or property.

Further details about the information that HM Land Registry holds, what is publicly available, and how it can be obtained, is set out online via the GOV.UK website.

The Department has regular discussions with Ofcom on a wide range of issues, including its duty to ensure the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient universal postal service.

Ofcom has indicated in its consultation on its current review of postal regulation, that it does not intend to bring tracked products into the scope of the universal service (First and Second Class services) because of the potential impacts on end-to-end parcels competition. Ofcom’s consultation closed for responses on 3 March. The Government has no role in such decisions which are a matter for Ofcom as the independent regulator for postal services.

Setting tariffs is a decision of suppliers.

Supply Licence Conditions, as enforced by the independent energy regulator Ofgem, stipulate payments which must reflect the cost to the supplier. The costs of supplying prepayment meters, compared to standard meters, are higher, due to the different meter requirements and different payment systems. The Energy Price Cap ensures those on prepayment meters pay a fair price for their energy.

The Green Homes Grant Voucher scheme was designed to provide a short-term economic stimulus while tackling our contribution to climate change. However, it was not delivering at the rate and scale the government had originally intended, facing a number of delivery challenges. The scheme closed to new applications on 31 March 2021 and will not reopen.

To ensure we continue to deliver on our net zero ambitions and support a thriving building retrofit industry, the Government will be expanding its funding commitment for both the Homes Upgrade Grant scheme and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund with up to £950m and £800m in additional funding respectively over 2022/23 to 2024/25. This takes our total funding to over £6.4bn across the lifetime of this Parliament. We are also introducing a new Boiler Upgrade Scheme worth £450 million, which will provide capital grants towards the cost of a heat pump.

We are committed to fully decarbonise the power system by 2035, subject to security of supply. Low carbon generation now provides over 50% of the UK’s electricity supply and renewable electricity generation has more than quadrupled since 2010. Renewables will play a vital role in meeting that decarbonisation commitment and the Government is taking major steps forward to deliver on this, for example in December we launched the fourth and largest round of the Contracts for Difference Scheme, to support the deployment of a range of renewable technologies.

The Department does not collect this information. However, we expect employers and employees to behave reasonably in relation to travel disruption and discuss whether it is possible to work from home, take leave or make the time up later if they cannot get to work because of travel disruption. More guidance is available at https://www.gov.uk/travel-disruption-your-rights-at-work.

Recent analysis supports our understanding that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which are currently being deployed in the UK, appear to work well against the current dominant variants of COVID-19 after a booster-dose. Continuing to administer these vaccines at scale remains essential in our path out of the pandemic.

The Government continues to assess our existing vaccine portfolio against current variants, working closely with vaccine manufacturers and the UK Health Security Agency to understand the efficacy of our current vaccine portfolio against new variants.

The Government recognises the importance of a reliable universal postal service to customers and local communities across the UK and we know postal workers are working exceptionally hard to meet demand over the festive period.

Royal Mail has publicly stated that it is aware of the reduction in service levels in some areas and has taken action to minimise disruption to postal services throughout the Christmas period. This includes opening five temporary parcel sorting centres and recruiting thousands of seasonal workers to help sort the Christmas post at sites across the UK.

Royal Mail’s contingency plans to mitigate disruption to postal services are overseen by Ofcom, the independent regulator responsible for monitoring the delivery of the universal postal service.

Ofcom monitors Royal Mail’s performance and has powers to investigate and take enforcement action if Royal Mail fails to achieve its service delivery targets.

The Department does not set targets for the number of households that will apply for the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive. However, as of October 2021, there have been 12,364 biomass applications, 8,952 solar thermal applications, and 74,960 heat pump applications for the scheme.

As set out in our Manifesto, we are committed to making it easier for fathers to take Paternity Leave. In 2019, the Government consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay, this consultation included Paternity Leave and Pay. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will respond in due course.

Seven hundred.

As of 30th September 2021, 34 trainees have started training, of whom 23 trainees have completed the Green Register’s retrofit training.

The Government remains committed to establishing a new beneficial ownership register of overseas entities that own UK property in order to combat money laundering and achieve greater transparency in the UK property market. We will legislate when parliamentary time allows. When we do implement these proposals, they will reflect the pre-legislative scrutiny Committee’s recommendations and will be more effective because of the broader powers we have since announced for Companies House, which also require primary legislation.

Government analysis shows that around 56,000 green jobs have been secured across the UK since November 2020, when the Ten Point Plan was launched. This figure is broken by down by the relevant points of the Ten Point Plan as follows:

• Point 1: Advancing Offshore Wind: 3,600 jobs
• Six manufacturers have already announced major investments in the UK offshore wind sector, supported by Government investment schemes, and delivering up to 3,600 jobs by 2030.
• Point 4: Accelerating the Shift to Zero Emission Vehicles: 7,150 jobs

• Auto Transformation Fund. In July, funding was announced for the UK's first large-scale gigafactory - the investor has committed to supporting 1,000 jobs.
• Wider automotive projects have secured an additional 950 jobs, towards a total of 1,950 jobs to be realised during the period to 2025/26.
• According to companies participating in the Advanced Propulsion Centre R&D competition, projects agreed this year will support up to 5,200 direct jobs.

• Point 7: Greener Buildings: 45,000 jobs
• An estimated 45,000 jobs have been supported in greener buildings in the first year since the Ten Point Plan was launched, based on the deployment of Government funded building decarbonisation schemes.
• Point 9: Protecting Our Natural Environment: 850 jobs
• An estimated 850 jobs supported in environmental protection and enhancement, including flood defences (500 jobs) and from Green Recovery Challenge Fund (350 jobs).

The Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme closed for new applications on 31^st March 2021. Park home residents who own their park home were eligible to apply.

Energy prices are subject to commercial decisions made by individual suppliers and in competition with each others. In order to protect customers, the Government introduced the energy price cap in 2019, which saves 15 million households on default tariffs up to £100 a year on average. The level of the price cap is set by Ofgem, the independent regulator.

The Government has already taken action to give businesses the space and flexibility to repay their bounce back loans. Under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), no repayments are due from the borrower for the first 12 months of the loan. The Government also covers the first 12 months of interest payments charged to the business by the lender.

In order to give businesses further support, the Government introduced the “Pay as You Grow” (PAYG) measures last year, which allow individual businesses to tailor their repayments to their individual circumstances. Under these measures, the lenders are required to give all businesses that borrowed under the BBLS the option to repay their loan over a period of up to ten years, as well as the option to move temporarily to interest-only payments for periods of up to six months, or to pause their repayments entirely for up to six months.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are responsible for the collection and publication of data on UK imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC release this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com(opens in a new tab)).

BEIS annually publishes the Steel Pipeline, signalling upcoming steel requirements for national infrastructure projects. The most recent update shows how the Government plans to procure 7.6 million tonnes of steel over the next decade for infrastructure projects such as the expansion of offshore wind infrastructure, the construction of Hinkley Point C and the maintenance and upgrading of the UK’s motorway network.

The BEIS Ministerial team carries out regular engagement with steel and energy stakeholders. For example, The Steel Council offers the forum for government, industry and trade unions to work in partnership on the shared objective of creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sector’s transition to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future. At the latest meeting of the Steel Council, on 19 May, UK Steel presented its draft roadmap for how to achieve net zero steel production and the Secretary of State underscored the UK government’s commitment to this work.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) publishes details of ministers’ meetings with external organisations, on a quarterly basis. This can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.

The UK is monitoring international progress on low carbon steel making trials, using hydrogen and other technologies, and is actively engaged in international initiatives to support industrial decarbonisation innovation, including the Mission Innovation platform and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition.

The UK’s first ever Hydrogen Strategy will set out what is required to build a hydrogen economy fit for 2030, Carbon Budget 6 and beyond, whilst maximising economic benefits. It will also discuss the role of low carbon hydrogen as a leading option for decarbonising industrial processes. Alongside this, we will also consult on priority policies including a hydrogen business model, a low carbon hydrogen standard, and the £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund.

The UK is monitoring international progress on low carbon steel making trials, using hydrogen and other technologies, and is actively engaged in international initiatives to support industrial decarbonisation innovation, including the Mission Innovation platform and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition.

Decarbonising UK industry is a core part of the Government’s ambitious plan for the green industrial revolution. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, published on 17 March, commits government to work with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’. The Steel Council offers the forum for government, industry and trade unions to work in partnership on the shared objective of creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sector’s transition to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future. Hydrogen-based steelmaking is one of the technological approaches being examined as part of this process. The UK steel sector will be given the opportunity to bid into industrial fuel switching innovation programmes under the £1bn NZIP portfolio, which is intended to promote switching away from more carbon-intensive fuel sources. The Government has also announced a £250 million Clean Steel Fund to support the UK steel sector to transition to lower carbon iron and steel production, through investment in new technologies and processes.

I refer the Hon. Member to the reply given by my Hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Trade on 29 June 2021 to Question UIN 20498.

The Government has brought forward a substantial package of financial support for businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Budget, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £65 billion plan to provide support for jobs and businesses, including small businesses in the hospitality sector, with extensions to furlough, self-employed support, business grants, loans and VAT cuts. The total financial support package provided to support the economy, lives and livelihoods throughout the pandemic is now worth £352 billion.

We recognise that a miscarriage can be deeply upsetting. We encourage employers to provide appropriate support to women who have suffered a miscarriage and respond sensitively to each individual’s specific needs.

The current entitlement to Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay applies to employed parents of children under the age of 18 and those who suffer a stillbirth.

Because the death of a child is particularly tragic, in April 2020, we legislated to give parents who lose a child under the age of 18, including cases where a baby is stillborn after 24 completed weeks of pregnancy, a right to take up to 2 weeks off work in the 56 weeks following the death of their child. The policy is mapped against the clinical definition of a ‘stillbirth’: 24 weeks is a legally and medically important point in a pregnancy as it is the clinical age of viability.

Individuals who do not feel able to return to work following a miscarriage may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay while off work. All employees are also entitled to 5.6 weeks of Annual Leave a year and many employers also offer ‘Compassionate Leave’.

Government guidance on the current national restrictions enables tradespeople to work in peoples’ homes if it is a necessary part of their job. The Government is clear that businesses in certain sectors can remain open if they can adhere to Safer Working guidance. We continue to keep the guidance under review and will update it in line with new scientific evidence as it arises. When visiting peoples’ homes, tradespeople should follow the guidance and take appropriate Covid-19 secure precautions.

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) is open to businesses who meet the scheme’s eligibility criteria, and pass customer fraud, anti-money laundering and know your customer checks. Certain lenders may require a prospective borrower to open a business account with them before they can apply, in line with their own standard policies, which may include credit checks. This is at the sole discretion of the lender.

If businesses are unable to access BBLS, there are also other forms of support available from the Government, which can be found at the following website: www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder.

The Start Up Loans Scheme is also available to businesses who have been trading for less than two years, it supports individuals by offering access to affordable Government-backed finance of between £500 and £25,000 per owner (limited to £100,000 per business), at a fixed 6% interest per annum.

Despite the unprecedented package of support provided by this Government, some employers will need to offer different terms and conditions to their employees in order to ensure the sustainability of their business and avoid redundancies.

The Government is clear that using threats about firing and re-hiring as a negotiating tactic is unacceptable. There are laws are in place to ensure that there is fair procedure in redundancy and dismissal matters as well as contractual terms and conditions cannot discriminate unlawfully. In addition. if the employer changes any of the terms without the employee’s agreement, the employee may be entitled to seek legal redress.

The Department has engaged Acas to look into fire and rehire practises and they are talking to business and employee representatives, to gather evidence of how fire and rehire has been used.

The current Covid restrictions guidance states that you can only leave home for work purposes where you cannot reasonably work from home. It is important that people stay at home wherever possible to minimise the risk of transmission and I and those in my department will continue to reinforce this message when engaging with businesses and representative organisations across a range of sectors.

However, we must also recognise that those who cannot reasonably work from home should continue to travel to their workplace.

Click-and-collect services allow goods to be pre-ordered and collected without customers entering the premises, thus remaining in well ventilated spaces - which are, by definition, safer environments where transmission is less likely to occur.

Click-and-collect allows the public to have access to goods they need quickly, where they aren’t available from retailers that can remain open. Additionally, it allows businesses subject to closure to be able continue operating.

Work on the evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme started in July 2018 and has included commissioning and interrogating information collected through large scale, representative, surveys of employers and parents and a qualitative study of parents who have used the scheme. The various data sources will help us to better understand the barriers and enablers to parents taking Shared Parental Leave.

Fieldwork was completed in February 2020 and we are currently processing the data. Analysis of this data has taken longer than expected due to the impact of Covid-19 on our research partners and because we have necessarily prioritised work on supporting parents during the pandemic. However, the evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme remains important for the Government, and we will publish our findings in due course.

The Government is finalising plans to bring together a broad set of key stakeholders to look at what improvements can be made to the information available to employers and families to address pregnancy and maternity discrimination in the workplace.

We will be setting up the first meeting shortly.

The administrators of Arcadia have three months from the date of administration to make a report on the conduct of the directors to the Insolvency Service. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Insolvency Service on 1 December asking it to review this report as soon as it is received. The Insolvency Service will do so and consider what further steps may be necessary.

The British Business Bank is the UK’s development bank, providing finance for small businesses via lending partners across a range of programmes. Part of the Bank’s wider role includes accrediting lenders for the Covid Support Schemes on behalf of Government.

The British Business Bank does not issue any loans directly to businesses. All credit decisions are delegated to accredited lenders in accordance with the rules set out under the terms of the three Covid Support Schemes.

Details of individual aid awards under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Bounce Back Loan Scheme will be published where required via the European Commission’s Transparency Aid Module in due course.

In England, COVID-secure businesses can continue to sell goods – such as a hairdressing salon selling shampoo or beauty products – online or via click-and-collect. If a business is able to trade goods in a COVID-secure manner while following the new national restrictions and all of the other trade requirements behind selling another good, they can.

The British Business Bank (BBB) administers the Bounce Back Loans Scheme (BBLS) on behalf of Government. The Bank works to accredit lenders for BBLS and provides them with a full (100%), government-backed guarantee against the outstanding balance of the finance (both capital and interest). Providing lenders with a 100% government-backed guarantee and standardising the application form is designed to produce a faster process, with many loans becoming available within days.

The lenders themselves, however, are responsible for the delivery of those products to their customers and for ensuring they have sufficient capital available to meet their lending forecasts.

BBB does set out a series of minimum requirements which prospective lenders must satisfy in their application. This list does include having sufficient capital, but it is not the only factor.

Factors taken into account during the accreditation process are: a track record with SMEs, provision of evidence-based forecasts, sufficient capital available to meet lending forecasts, a viable business model, robust operations and systems, and having all the necessary regulations, licenses, authorisations and permissions to operate the scheme.

On 16^th August the British Business Bank published updated Bounce Back Loan data which states 1,174,854 companies have been approved for £35.47bn.

In regional data published on 7^th August: of the total amount of £35.47bn, 22% is to companies headquartered in the South (South East and South West), 21% in the North (North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber), 10% in the East of England, 14% in the Midlands (East Midlands and West Midlands) and 12% in the Devolved Nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). London accounts for the remaining just over 20% of companies.

More information on the business interruption loan schemes can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hm-treasury-coronavirus-covid-19-business-loan-scheme-statistics.

On 18^th August the British Business Bank published updated Future Fund data which gives a regional breakdown of 590 companies that have been approved for £588.3m.

Of the total amount of £588.3m, 17% is to companies headquartered in the South (South East and South West), 10% in the North (North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber), 8% in the East of England, 3% in the Midlands (East Midlands and West Midlands) and 3% in the Devolved Nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). London accounts for the remaining 59% of companies. Further detail from the most recent update is available here: www.british-business-bank.co.uk/future-fund-publishes-diversity-data-of-companies-receiving-convertible-loan-agreements-3/.

The Government publishes Energy Trends statistics, including for gas, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gas-section-4-energy-trends. Table 4.1 shows production, total imports and demand. Table 4.4 shows import countries of origin.

The UK gas market is one of the most liquid and developed markets in the world and provides security through diversity of supply. Most of the gas supply to the UK comes from domestic production (46 per cent in 2019), as well as imports from reliable suppliers like Norway (31 per cent in 2019). The remaining 23 per cent of supply was from pipeline imports from the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from a diverse range of sources. There are no gas pipelines directly linking the UK with Russia.

In 2019, one-fifth of UK supply was from LNG. Within this, around 34 TWh of LNG was imported from Russia, representing less than 4 percent of the total supply of gas to the UK. The UK is in no way dependent on gas supply from Russia and our LNG was sourced from 12 different countries last year.

UK Research and Innovation supports research into fusion across the UK through its grants, with over £2.5 million going into dense plasma focus related research in the period 2017-21. The Government is interested in and is supporting research into all approaches to fusion.

The Government champions and supports the role of the private sector in developing innovative technologies for clean energy generation, including fusion energy. We have recently announced £184 million for development of fusion related technology facilities, managed by the UK Atomic Energy Authority. We encourage private sector companies working in fusion and related fields to explore potential opportunities for collaboration with the UK Atomic Energy Authority and how they can benefit from these national assets.

We are continuing to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on the labour market. Whilst it is too early to make any firm conclusions on the number of jobs impacted by automation during the Covid-19 lockdown, technology has been vital in supporting more people to stay in employment during this period through more flexible and remote working.

The Government recognises that demand for skills will continue to change, in part in response to automation. In order to support people displaced in the labour market, the Government has announced that a total of £1.6 billion will be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job. This includes a £111 million investment to triple the scale of traineeships in 2020/21 and £17 million of funding for sector-based work academy placements.

We are actively monitoring the impact of Covid-19 on different groups in the labour market. The latest external estimates, from the Resolution Foundation think tank found that, of those surveyed in the UK between 6-11 May:

• 33% of workers in the lowest quintile income group had either been furloughed (25%), lost their job (5%) or lost hours and pay (3%) due to coronavirus. This compares to 16% of those in the highest quintile income group, with 6% being furloughed, 3% losing their job and 7% losing hours and pay.

• 40% of workers on zero hours contracts had either been furloughed (24%), lost their job (4%) or lost hours and pay (12%) due to coronavirus. This compares to 22% of all employees, with 15% being furloughed, 3% losing their job and 4% losing hours and pay.

Published HM Treasury analysis on the impact of Covid-19 on working household incomes found that Government interventions since March have supported the poorest working households the most (as a proportion of February income).

On 8 July, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a package of support to tackle the impact of Covid-19 crisis. This package provides £201m of new funding in 20-21 for skills provision and invests billions in a strong and coherent employment support offer. It provides the help people need now to swiftly find new work, while offering greater support for people who will find that journey harder.

We are actively monitoring the impact of Covid-19 on different groups in the labour market. The latest external estimates, from the Resolution Foundation think tank found that, of those surveyed in the UK between 6-11 May:

• 33% of workers in the lowest quintile income group had either been furloughed (25%), lost their job (5%) or lost hours and pay (3%) due to coronavirus. This compares to 16% of those in the highest quintile income group, with 6% being furloughed, 3% losing their job and 7% losing hours and pay.

• 40% of workers on zero hours contracts had either been furloughed (24%), lost their job (4%) or lost hours and pay (12%) due to coronavirus. This compares to 22% of all employees, with 15% being furloughed, 3% losing their job and 4% losing hours and pay.

Published HM Treasury analysis on the impact of Covid-19 on working household incomes found that Government interventions since March have supported the poorest working households the most (as a proportion of February income).

On 8 July, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a package of support to tackle the impact of Covid-19 crisis. This package provides £201m of new funding in 20-21 for skills provision and invests billions in a strong and coherent employment support offer. It provides the help people need now to swiftly find new work, while offering greater support for people who will find that journey harder.

The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who fail to pay the National Minimum Wage. We are clear that anyone entitled to be paid the minimum wage should receive it.

In the 2019/2020 financial year, HM Revenue & Customs completed over 3,300 investigations and found arrears in just over 1,200 of them. They identified £20.8 million in arrears for over 263,000 workers and issued just under 1,000 penalties, totalling £18.5 million to non-compliant employers.

The Government increased the penalties multiplier in 2016 to 200% of the value of arrears per worker, (it was 100% from 2014-16 and 50% before March 2014). In addition, the penalty cap increased to £20,000 per worker in 2016, up from £5,000 per employer before March 2014. The penalty multiplier percentage should be considered in combination with the cap per worker and the lack of any cap per employer, which means that there is no cap on the total penalty an employer may face. More information is available here.

In its December 2018 response to the Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2018/19, the Government rejected a recommendation from the Director of Labour Market Enforcement that the penalty multiplier be increased again on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to justify a higher penalty given the high penalty levels already in operation.

The Universal Service Obligation is set out in the Postal Services Act 2011.

There is a clear and transparent process for how changes to the universal service obligation would be considered and any change would need to be made through secondary legislation and agreed by Parliament.

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 full refund if a package holiday is cancelled due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, which should be issued within 14 days.

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 to register complaints, available through: https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/.

Where payments were made using a credit card meeting certain criteria, redress may also be sought from the credit card company under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

The Government has announced a package of support for businesses to help with their ongoing business costs in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. This package of support includes?the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF).

In addition, on?1 May,?the Government announced that up to £617 million is being made available to Local Authorities?in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants. The?Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs but not liable for business rates or rates reliefs.

Local Authorities are responsible for defining precise eligibility for this fund?and?may choose to make payments based on local economic need,?subject to the recipient businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria.

Guidance, intended to support Local Authorities in administering the Discretionary Grants Fund, was published 13 May and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding.

Where businesses have been advised by the relevant local authority that they are not eligible for these schemes, they should be able to benefit from other measures in the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business, including:

• An option to defer VAT payments by up to twelve months;
• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, now extended to cover all businesses including those which would be able to access commercial credit;
• The Bounce Back Loan scheme, which will ensure that small and micro businesses can quickly access loans of up to £50,000 which are 100% guaranteed by the Government;
• The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, to support businesses with their wage bills;
• The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, to provide support to the self-employed.

Further information on the other support available can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support.

The Department is in regular contact with the leadership team at Hinkley Point C, as this project is extremely important for the UK’s future low-carbon energy supply.

At this difficult time, we are doing all we can to support the project, such as through the Chancellor’s recently announced business support measures. More information on these measures can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses.

The UK content data supplied by each developer is compiled on an anonymised basis by RenewableUK to an agreed methodology. The Department has the ability to commission the independent auditing of the data.

UK content figures for wind farms are compiled and published by the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC). The Department has asked the Offshore Wind Industry Council for an update on the UK content figures this year.

The Department monitors the progress of each commitment within the Offshore Wind Sector Deal and regular collection of data helps keep track of progress. The Offshore Wind Industrial Council undertakes monitoring of progress against the UK content target.

The Crown Estate is an independent commercial business, created by Act of Parliament and the Department does not manage the Crown Estate website. I am therefore unable to answer a question relating to that.

The Offshore Wind Programme Board (OWPB) no longer exists. Following publication of the Offshore Wind Sector Deal in March 2019, the functions previously delivered by the OWPB were incorporated into Offshore Wind Industry Council’s Sector Deal delivery programme. An industry programme management office, led by Renewable UK, monitors the sector deal delivery.

Offshore Wind Industry Council membership comprises all developers active in the UK and key supply chain companies, as well as the ORE Catapult and the Devolved Administrations. All appointments are on a voluntary basis and unpaid.

The Offshore Wind Sector has an industry agreed methodology to measuring the lifetime UK content of offshore windfarm. So far, the Offshore Wind Programme Board has published reports into UK content twice, in 2015 & 2017.

At the last Offshore Wind Industrial Council in November 2019, BEIS requested OWIC to provide an update on the UK content figures.

The latest report on the amount of UK lifetime content in offshore wind farms, which shows that the average UK content to be 48%, can be found here:

https://www.renewableuk.com/news/362764/Offshore-Wind-Industry-Investment-in-the-UK.htm

The Department has not requested any offshore wind developer to open up their calculations of UK content. The Offshore Wind Programme Board reviews the data submitted to ensure the content methodology has been calculated correctly.

The Government recognises that sporting events of national significance have the ability to bring the nation together through shared moments and therefore it is important that they are made available to as wide an audience as possible.

Under the current listed events regime national sporting events including matches for the FIFA Football World Cup finals tournament, the Rugby World Cup finals and events in the Olympics are made available to free to air broadcasters. In January 2020 the Government added the Paralympic Games to the list, recognising that it is an event of national significance on par with the Olympic Games.

The listed events regime works well to strike an appropriate balance between retaining free-to-air sports events for the public while allowing rights holders to negotiate agreements in the best interests of their sport. Therefore, the Government does not have plans to review the listed events regime at this time.

The Events Research Programme (ERP), under the guidance of Chief Advisors Nicholas Hytner and Davd Ross, is aimed at providing key scientific data on how small and large-scale events could be permitted to safely reopen in line with the Prime Minister's roadmap out of lockdown. The Chief Advisers will oversee the programme, reporting into the Prime Minister and will co-chair a small, advisory Senior Steering Board. There will also be a Joint Programme Board working across government to inform policy development and a Science Board to provide scientific assurance across the programme. Pilots, due to start in April, will investigate how a combination of testing and non-pharmaceutical interventions can be employed to allow venues to open safely. It is anticipated that findings will be reported to the Prime Minister at the end of May, to feed into wider discussions around Step 4 of the lockdown restrictions.

The Events Research Programme (ERP), under the guidance of Chief Advisors Nicholas Hytner and Davd Ross, is aimed at providing key scientific data on how small and large-scale events could be permitted to safely reopen in line with the Prime Minister's roadmap out of lockdown. The Chief Advisers will oversee the programme, reporting into the Prime Minister and will co-chair a small, advisory Senior Steering Board. There will also be a Joint Programme Board working across government to inform policy development and a Science Board to provide scientific assurance across the programme. Pilots, due to start in April, will investigate how a combination of testing and non-pharmaceutical interventions can be employed to allow venues to open safely. It is anticipated that findings will be reported to the Prime Minister at the end of May, to feed into wider discussions around Step 4 of the lockdown restrictions.

The Events Research Programme (ERP), under the guidance of Chief Advisors Nicholas Hytner and Davd Ross, is aimed at providing key scientific data on how small and large-scale events could be permitted to safely reopen in line with the Prime Minister's roadmap out of lockdown. The Chief Advisers will oversee the programme, reporting into the Prime Minister and will co-chair a small, advisory Senior Steering Board. There will also be a Joint Programme Board working across government to inform policy development and a Science Board to provide scientific assurance across the programme. Pilots, due to start in April, will investigate how a combination of testing and non-pharmaceutical interventions can be employed to allow venues to open safely. It is anticipated that findings will be reported to the Prime Minister at the end of May, to feed into wider discussions around Step 4 of the lockdown restrictions.

We do not hold data on the rates of COVID-19 infection in professional and grassroots sport.

Government has published overarching guidance for grassroots sport but does not publish guidance for individual sports. It is for the National Governing Body of the sport to consider the steps that would need to be taken, and the conditions that would need to be met, for their activity to resume. The National Governing Body should also publish relevant guidance.

Professional sports have put in place sport specific protocols in line with our guidance for covid secure return of training and competition. Where appropriate to those protocols, this includes regular testing, such as in Premier League football. Many have chosen to publish their testing info for transparency, and, where appropriate, results are reported locally.

The Government takes the issue of misinformation and disinformation very seriously and is working closely with social media platforms to help them identify and take action to remove incorrect claims about the virus, particularly around the potential Covid-19 vaccine in line with their revised terms and conditions, and to promote authoritative sources of information.

The Cross-Whitehall Counter Disinformation Unit was stood up on 5 March 2020, bringing together cross-Government monitoring and analysis capabilities. Its primary function is to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and the reach of disinformation and misinformation linked to Covid-19, and to work with partners to stamp it out.

At a joint roundtable hosted by the DCMS and DHSC Secretaries of State in November, Social media platforms agreed to continue to work with public health bodies to ensure that authoritative messages about vaccine safety reach as many people as possible; to commit to swifter responses to flagged content and to commit to the principle that no user or company should directly profit from COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation. This work is being taken forward through an ongoing counter-disinformation policy forum which brings together platforms, civil society organisations and academia.

The Online Harms White Paper highlighted disinformation as potentially being in scope of the regulatory framework, and set out a list of potential steps that platforms could take ahead of regulation. Further details about how the legislation and the regulator will tackle disinformation will be published in the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper. The regulator will have strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance, including the power to issue notices, warnings and fines.

On 1 May this year the Government announced that the Rugby Football League would receive a £16 million cash injection to safeguard the immediate future of the sport for the communities it serves. This emergency loan will help the sport deal with the extreme financial impact of COVID-19. We are continuing to engage with the Rugby Football League and other sporting bodies on the consequences of the decision not to reopen stadia to spectators on 1 October.

Government is also supporting rugby league through more than £11m of Sport England investment in the Rugby Football League over 2017-21 and investment of up to £10m in rugby league facilities to help drive a legacy from the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.

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.

The Government is committed to undertaking a fan led review of football governance, which will include consideration of the Owners’ and Directors’ test.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has had no such discussions with the GMB trade union, but trade union attendance across a range of DCMS working groups was agreed with the TUC, with PFA and TUC attending the sport working group

The Government announced on 30 April that the Rugby Football League (RFL) will receive an emergency loan of up to £16 million to safeguard the immediate future of the sport for the communities it serves, and is continuing to work closely with the sport to understand the issues they face and discuss how we can support them further through this difficult time. The RFL is fully engaged with the process and is ensuring that the sport as a whole is aware of the assistance available and how to access support. It is a matter for individual clubs to pursue the support appropriate for their situation.

Detailed guidance for the performing arts has been published on Gov.uk.

This guidance sets out the current Public Health England assessment that certain activities, including singing and playing brass instruments, carry a potentially higher risk of transmission and that participation in such activities requires particular attention to the risk involved. This position will be updated as the evidence base develops.

To help support the development of the evidence base, DCMS is working closely with SAGE and a number of specialists to examine the existing and emerging evidence to provide advice to guide the future development of policy and guidelines.

The information requested is not held. However, the department publishes data on the number of children with special education needs and education, health and care (EHC) plans awaiting provision once a year. The department’s last published figure in May 2021 for the number of children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) who have an EHC plan who are not in schools and are awaiting provision was 1,460. Further information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.

The department has recently announced an additional £2.6 billion over the next 3 years for school places for children and young people with SEND. This is more than tripling current capital funding levels to over £900 million by the 2024-25 financial year.

The department is conducting a review of the SEND system and will publish proposals for public consultation as a green paper in the first 3 months of this year.

The legal framework for adoption only applies to the adoption of children up to 18 years of age. While an adoption order can be granted up to a person’s 19^th birthday, an application to court to adopt must be made before a person’s 18^th birthday.

Adoption is about ensuring a child has a permanent family, with the adopter taking legal and parental responsibility for them. Once a child becomes an adult at 18, they become legally responsible for themselves. Furthermore, legal processes, such as the making of a will, already enable individuals to pass on inheritance or financial rights without adoption being necessary. Similarly, the ability to legally change names through deed poll means that adoption is not the only way to share a family name. The government has no plans to change the law in this area.

We are committed to a sustainable funding model for our higher education system that supports high value provision, meets the skills needs of the country and maintains the world-class reputation of UK higher education.

The government is considering its response to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding carefully, including a range of options to ensure that student finance continues to deliver value for money for both students and the taxpayer, and will set out a full conclusion in due course.

From Step 4 of the roadmap, it will no longer be necessary to keep children and young people in consistent groups (‘bubbles’). This means that bubbles will not be required for any summer provision, for example summer schools, or in schools from the autumn term.

From Step 4, nurseries, schools and colleges will not routinely be required to undertake contact tracing for children and young people. Instead, pupils who test positive will be subject to the normal test and trace process, which will identify close contacts. This will be limited to very close contacts.

Unless they test positive, children and those who are double vaccinated will not be required to isolate from 16 August if they are identified as a close contact. Self-isolation continues for those who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Department for Education has worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to develop guidance for schools.

I want to thank all higher education (HE) staff for their tireless work to ensure that students do not have to put their lives or their academic journeys on hold. This government recognises that this has been an enormously challenging period and I am grateful to universities and other providers for their sustained commitment to supporting students. We are working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies. Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has been clear we expect universities to continue delivering a high-quality academic experience and help students to achieve qualifications that they and employers value. Universities are expected to maintain quality and academic standards and that the quantity of tuition should not drop.

Universities and other HE providers are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees within maximum fee limits set by regulations.

Whether or not an individual student is entitled to a refund of fees will depend on the specific contractual arrangements between the provider and student. Students do have rights, and it is for them to decide whether to seek to exercise these, whether it be through the provider’s internal complaints system, third party adjudication organisations or courts.

If students wish to be refunded, they should first raise this with their university through their internal complaints procedures. If they are unsatisfied with the outcome, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to consider their complaint.

The government has already announced that maximum fees in the 2021/22 academic year will remain at £9,250 for a standard full-time course. We also intend to freeze the maximum tuition fee caps for the 2022/23 academic year to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control, the fifth year in succession that maximum fees have been frozen.

We recognise that, in these exceptional circumstances, some students may face financial hardship. The Department for Education has worked with the Office for Students to clarify that providers are able to use existing funds, worth around £256 million for the academic year 2020/21, towards hardship support. We have also made an additional £85 million of student hardship funding available to higher education providers this academic year (2020/21).

The Department is committed to supporting all children and young people to catch up after the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. The £1.4 billion package announced in June 2021 to support children aged 2-19 across nurseries, schools and colleges is the next step and builds on the £1.7 billion already committed. This brings the total investment announced for education recovery over the past year to over £3 billion.

The £50 per pupil figure does not account for our previous recovery packages or for our broader response to the COVID-19 outbreak, such as investing over £400 million to provide access to the internet, and over 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

The next stage of the Government’s long-term education recovery plan will include a review of time spent in school and college and the impact this could have on helping children and young people to catch up. The findings of the review will be set out later in the year to inform the spending review.

In addition, as part of the three-year increase to core funding, schools have received a £2.6 billion increase in funding in the 2020/21 financial year and will receive a further £4.8 billion increase in 2021/22, compared to 2019/20.

As set out in the regulations underpinning the entitlements to free early education and childcare, available here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2147/pdfs/uksi_20142147_en.pdf, children become eligible for a free early education place at different points in the year, depending on when the child turns 3. The 15 hours free childcare entitlement begins from 1 September, 1 January or 1 April following their third birthday. They then remain eligible for an early education place until either they start in reception at a state-funded school (for many children this will be the September following their fourth birthday), or the term after they turn 5 (statutory school age). This is intended to ensure that all children receive at least 2 years (or 3 years if they are eligible for an early education place at the age of 2) of early education and/or reception, before they reach statutory school age.

These termly deadlines link closely with that of the department’s other early entitlements, in order to create consistency across the offers. It also allows local authorities and childcare providers to better plan and ensure sufficient early years places are available for parents each term, as there are clear periods for when children are likely to enter into a place.

There is a wide range of support available for parents with childcare costs outside of the free early education entitlements, including Tax-Free Childcare. For every £8 parents pay their provider via an online account, the government will pay £2, up to a maximum contribution of £2,000 per child each year (up to £500 every 3 months), for children under 12. Parents can apply for this and, if found eligible, can start saving immediately following their application.

The Department believes it important that all children and young people are taught about climate change. All schools in the country are required to follow a broad and balanced curriculum, as exemplified by the National Curriculum which is mandatory in all state-maintained schools. The National Curriculum already includes content which allows for teaching on environmental and sustainability issues such as climate change in both the science and geography curricula from Key Stage 1 onwards. Additionally, in 2017, we introduced a new environmental science A level. This will enable pupils to study topics that will support their understanding of climate change and how it can be tackled.

The Department does not, however, set the amount of time schools spend on teaching topics within the curriculum. Teachers have the flexibility and freedom to determine how they deliver the content in the way that best meets the needs of their pupils and can choose to cover particular subjects or topics in greater depth if they wish.

The Department has made guidance available on Children of critical workers and vulnerable children who can access schools or educational settings: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision. This sets out the high-level role types which can be considered critical to the COVID-19 outbreak or EU transition response. The list in the guidance is not exhaustive, but it should offer sufficient information to help parents and carers to identify if their work falls under one of the umbrella groups.

Parents whose work is critical to the COVID-19 outbreak and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors. Children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school if required. Schools should speak to parents and carers to identify who needs to go to school, and parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.

The Department knows that every school will have a different number of children of critical workers who need to attend. It is important that on-site provision is provided for these pupils. There is no limit to the numbers of these pupils who may attend, and schools should not limit attendance of these groups. We expect schools to work with critical worker parents to ensure their child is given access to a place if it is required, so that parents can continue providing vital services. This is because we are reducing overall social contact across areas and the country rather than individually by each institution.

The Department publishes weekly national-level data on pupil attendance. The latest published data (for 4 February) shows that attendance in state primary schools in England was at 23% and at 5% in state secondaries: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. In aggregate, attendance so far this term has been much lower than full attendance – on average only 5% of secondary pupils and 20% of primary schools pupils have been attending face-to-face, and so we are seeing the desired reduction in social contacts.

We set out an Interim Conclusion to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding on 21 January 2021, that addressed some of the recommendations made in the independent panel’s report to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding.

We continue to consider the recommendations, including those pertaining to higher education fees and funding, very carefully and will set out a full and final conclusion at the next comprehensive spending review.

It is up to schools and colleges to decide whether to put in place a lead for mental health and more are doing so. Our latest figures from a survey in 2018 reported that over 80% of schools and colleges had a lead (82% of schools, 91% of further education colleges). An earlier survey in 2016 had suggested that around half had a lead (49% of schools, 69% of colleges).

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has prioritised providing bespoke training and support to as many schools and colleges as possible to meet the immediate challenges that they face in supporting the wellbeing of children and young people during the COVID-19 outbreak. We provided seminars during the summer term last year which were accessed by thousands of staff in education and have funded the £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return scheme to provide advisers and further training to schools and colleges.

All upper tier local authorities in England have identified a lead contact for Wellbeing for Education Return in September and October 2020 our national training provider, the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, trained 438 local experts. 85% of local authorities report that they are already delivering additional training and support to local schools and further education providers using the funding, with feedback indicating that this training and support is reaching more than 15,000 schools.

In the longer term, to further incentivise schools and to support leads to put in place whole school approaches to promoting good mental health and wellbeing, the department has committed to provide training for senior mental health leads in all state-funded schools and colleges in England. This is part of our commitment to our joint green paper delivery programme with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, which also includes introducing new mental health support teams for all schools and colleges and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support. The training will equip senior mental health leads with the knowledge to introduce or develop their whole school/college approach to positive mental health and implement effective processes for ensuring pupils and students with mental health problems receive appropriate support. Since the autumn term the department has been undertaking a review of the needs of senior mental health leads in the light of COVID-19 outbreak and to incorporate learning from the Wellbeing for Education Return.

Whole school approaches will include the new requirement for schools to teach about mental wellbeing as part of Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). The department is committed to supporting all schools in their preparations to teach RSHE and has developed an online service featuring innovative training materials and an implementation guide. This support will cover all of the teaching requirements in the statutory guidance and will be inclusive of all pupils. We prioritised the production of the training module covering mental wellbeing, so that it was available before the end of the summer term last year: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing. The mental wellbeing module has been downloaded over 21,000 times.

To support pupils catch up, last year the Government announced a £650 million catch up premium which aims to support schools to make up for the impact of time outside of the classroom. The Department’s expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional activities required to support children and young people to catch up after a period of disruption to their education.

Schools will receive £80 per head for mainstream schools and £240 per head for special schools and alternative provision. We have applied additional weighting to specialist schools, recognising the significantly higher per pupil costs they face. Schools should use this as a single total and schools should prioritise spending based on need.

To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a support guide for schools with evidence based approaches to catch up: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/#nav-covid-19-support-guide-for-schools1.

The EEF has also published a further school planning guide for 2021: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/guide-to-supporting-schools-planning/.

Alongside this, the £1 billion catch up package includes a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils. This will increase access to high quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackle the attainment gap between them and their peers.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. As of Monday 25 January 2021, over 870,000 laptops and tablets had been delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities. We are providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Where pupils continue to experience barriers to digital remote education, we expect schools to work to overcome these barriers. This could include supplementing digital provision with different forms of remote education such as printed resources or textbooks. This should be supplemented with other forms of communication to keep pupils and students on track or answer questions about work.

The government continues to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of our young children. Early years provision should remain open and continue to allow all children to attend full time or their usual timetable hours. This includes early years registered nurseries and childminders, maintained nursery schools, as well as nursery classes in schools and other pre-reception provision on school sites.

Early years childcare providers were one of the first sectors to have restrictions lifted last summer, in recognition of the key role they play in society. Childminders and nursery staff across the country have worked hard to keep settings open through the COVID-19 outbreak so that young children can be educated, and families supported.

The earliest years are the most crucial point of child development and attending early education lays the foundation for lifelong learning and supports children’s social and emotional development.

We continue to prioritise keeping early years settings open in full because of the clear benefits to children’s education and wellbeing. Caring for the youngest age group is not something that can be done remotely.

During this period of national lockdown, schools should only allow vulnerable children and the children of critical workers to attend face-to-face education. The Department has resisted restrictions on attendance at schools since the first lockdown but, given the rapidly rising numbers of cases across the country and the intense pressure on the NHS, we have needed to do more to reduce all our social contacts wherever possible. Limiting attendance at this time is about reducing the number of contacts that people have with other households.

The Department publishes weekly national-level data on pupil attendance. The latest data, published 19 January, shows that attendance in state primary schools in England was at 21% and at 5% in state secondaries. The data is available to view here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

On 7 January the Department published further guidance, ‘Restricting attendance during the national lockdown: schools’, which sets out what all schools need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2021. This includes the system of controls which schools must continue to implement, to the fullest extent possible, to reduce risks in their school and create an inherently safer environment. The guidance is available to view here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950510/School_national_restrictions_guidance.pdf.

The Department for Education does not directly contract school catering firms for the provision of school meals or lunch parcels. These contracts are negotiated and held at school level.

It is integral that we quickly put support in place for pupils who are eligible for free school meals when they are at home, and that is why we are reopening the national voucher scheme. By the time the previous scheme closed in the summer, more than £380 million worth of vouchers had been successfully redeemed into supermarket gift cards.

We will be working with Crown Commercial Service to launch a cross-government and wider public sector tender for retails vouchers, including food vouchers, that can be used by schools and other local authority bodies. We expect further details to be released shortly.

The government does not plan to review this decision. COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on the economy and workforce, resulting in a rise in unemployment. We need to help these people re-skill where necessary and re-enter into employment. The Union Learning Fund operates mostly through larger employers within unionised parts of the economy and is not designed to help those out of work – only 2% of people supported via the Union Learning Fund are unemployed.

The decision to no longer support the Union Learning Fund after 31 March 2021 was taken as part of the wider Spending Review discussions and in light of our expanded commitment to skills development through the £2.5 million National Skills Fund, and Lifetime Skills Guarantee. This national fund will support individuals to get the training and qualifications they need wherever they are located and regardless of whether they are able to access the Union learn network.

As part of this expanded commitment, we can confirm all the money will be invested in skills and retraining that will be accessible to all.

Supporting the most vulnerable children and young people is a priority for us, especially at this time. We know that this period is particularly hard for families caring for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and those with serious illness.

Short breaks (or ‘respite care’), including holidays for respite purposes, are funded opportunities for children and young people to be cared for in or away from the family home. Local authorities have a statutory duty to assess the social care needs of disabled children and categories of seriously ill children and young people, and to provide respite care where necessary.

Local authorities have been allocated a further £4.6 billion this year to help their communities through the COVID-19 outbreak. This funding is un-ringfenced, recognising that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the priorities of their local area.

Supporting councils to maintain critical mainstream services continues to be our key priority. The Spending Review 2020 confirmed that Core Spending Power is forecast to rise by 4.5% in cash terms, which is a real terms increase. This package means that local authorities will be able to access an estimated additional £2.2 billion to support adult and children’s social care and to maintain services, including respite.

This year, we have also committed £37.3 million (including £10 million in response to the COVID-19 outbreak) to the Family Fund, which provides grants to low income families caring for disabled children or seriously ill children, including for family breaks.

The safety and wellbeing of staff and students in higher education (HE) is always our priority. The government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our HE institutions during this unprecedented situation, whilst mitigating the impact on education.

On 11 November 2020, the department published guidance on plans for student movement at the end of term, outlining what providers should do following the end of the national restrictions on 2 December, and how this affects students, irrespective of their religious denomination.

To ensure that students can be home at the end of the autumn term, but also reduce any transmission risk, the government is asking that students return home once the national restrictions have been lifted, in a “student travel window” lasting from 3-9 December. This should be in line with specific arrangements put in place by their HE provider.

The guidance on student movement at the end of term is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/student-movement-and-plans-for-the-end-of-autumn-2020-term.

We expect that contact between children in care and their birth relatives will continue. It is essential for children and families to remain in touch at this difficult time, and for many children, the consequences of not seeing relatives would be traumatic. We expect the spirit of any court-ordered contact in relation to children in care to be maintained. However, there may be local or individual circumstances where face-to-face contact may not be possible, including where members of households are isolating or continuing to take precautions due to clinical vulnerability.

Contact arrangements should be assessed on a case by case basis taking a range of factors into account, including the government’s current social distancing guidance, guidance for children’s social care and the needs of the child. This guidance is can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing and: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care.

To facilitate any contact that is deemed appropriate, the fostering service should provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to the foster carers. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care#fostering.

Ensuring fairness in exams in academic year 2020-21 is the priority. It is for this reason that we have said we expect the summer 2021 exam series to go ahead.

The Department has worked closely with the qualifications regulator, Ofqual, on ways to ensure the 2021 exam series supports catch up as well as complies with public health restrictions. Ofqual has consulted on measures to free up teaching time, as well as to include optionality in some of the most content heavy subjects at GCSE. These adaptations have been developed to maximise teaching time without compromising the validity of the qualifications. We are also engaging with relevant stakeholders on the timing of examinations and the grading approach with fairness to students and upholding public confidence in qualifications as the overarching drivers. We are also working closely with Ofqual and the exam boards on contingency plans so all students have the opportunity to take exams and to receive a grade. There will be further announcements made before October half term.

The government wants to support nurseries, pre-schools and childminders during what must be a worrying and uncertain time.

We have said that we will continue to pay local authorities their regular instalments of Dedicated Schools Grant, including the early years block, as usual. It remains the case that local authorities can redistribute their free early education entitlement funding, in exceptional cases. That should only be done at local authorities’ discretion, as a last resort and in a clearly focussed and targeted way, from providers who have closed to those who are open, in order to secure childcare for the children of critical workers and for vulnerable children.

Further, a package of support is available for individuals and businesses which will benefit childcare providers, including a business rates holiday, business interruption loans, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and help for the self-employed. Details of support are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures#funding.

As more settings open, the need to furlough staff may reduce. In such cases, if still required, settings can continue to access the CJRS to cover up to the proportion of their salary bill which could be considered to have been paid for from their private income (and in line with the appropriate guidance). As local authorities, working with childcare providers in their area, are best placed to make decisions in the interests of their local communities, they should continue to work in partnership with their early years sector and in doing so, should consider the current sufficiency of childcare for vulnerable children and children of critical workers, and the financial security of individual childcare settings. Guidance on the CJRS is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.

We are continuing to work with the sector to understand how the early years sector can best be supported to ensure that sufficient safe, appropriate and affordable childcare is available for those returning to work now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.

Guidance on the wider opening of all schools applies to all schools in England, including independent schools, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/reopening-schools-and-other-educational-settings-from-1-june. It includes detailed guidance on how schools can manage and minimise risks to children, teachers, and their families as they reopen.

We encourage all independent schools to follow the timelines we have outlined for wider opening and welcome the constructive and supportive approach taken by the sector throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.

At this point, we have asked primary schools to welcome back children in Reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside the priority groups (vulnerable children and children of critical workers) that could already attend. While we will be unable to welcome all primary children back for a month before the summer, we continue to work with all parts of the education sector on the next steps. We would like to see wider opening to enable schools that have capacity to do so to bring back more children in the smaller class sizes before the summer holidays.

As outlined by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister on 24 May, secondary schools should prepare to invite year 10 and 12 pupils back into school for some face-to-face support with their teachers from 15 June.

The Department has been engaging widely with a wide range of stakeholders at both official and ministerial level, including headteacher, teacher and support staff unions, including through meetings listed below.

Details of weekly engagement are set out below:

• Weekly meetings with senior policy officials and key stakeholders along with other main teaching unions, governance, social care, school trusts and local government;
• A weekly meeting with wider stakeholders including support staff, further education and school business organisations;
• Weekly calls for evidence from key stakeholders on key policy questions to inform decision making on reopening;
• Weekly meetings between my right hon. Friend, my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education and the main teaching unions and stakeholder groups; and
• Ad hoc additional stakeholder meetings to address key issues as and when they arise.

The Department recognises the importance of updating the decision list, which is undertaken periodically. Officials in the Department will shortly publish an update. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is keen to protect school playing fields. Schools are only able to sell playing fields when they demonstrate that the disposal does not impact their curriculum and they can demonstrate they have explored all possible alternatives.

We have now consulted twice on introducing a deposit return scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and are analysing the responses to the second consultation, with a view to publishing a government response later this year. The government response will include a final decision on the scope and materials to be included in the deposit return scheme. An impact assessment for the introduction of the scheme will also be published.

Any materials not included within the scope of a deposit return scheme will be included under the reformed packaging producer responsibility regime to ensure equitable treatment of packaging materials, which would then be collected through kerbside recycling collections.

We have now consulted twice on introducing a deposit return scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and are analysing the responses to the second consultation, with a view to publishing a government response later this year. The government response will include a final decision on the scope and materials to be included in the deposit return scheme. An impact assessment for the introduction of the scheme will also be published.

Any materials not included within the scope of a deposit return scheme will be included under the reformed packaging producer responsibility regime to ensure equitable treatment of packaging materials, which would then be collected through kerbside recycling collections.

We are committed to delivering clean and plentiful water, using a range of approaches to tackle the many pressures the water environment faces. We will be setting at least one new, legally binding target on water quality through the Environment Bill.

Working closely with the Environment Agency (EA), we are tackling river and lake pollution from poor farming practices with regulation, financial incentives and educational schemes for farmers. Our Catchment Sensitive Farming programme is giving important advice and support to farmers, operating across England, in the areas of highest risk of water pollution from agriculture, directing effort where it is needed most and maximising value for money for the taxpayer. Our new Environmental Land Management scheme, which we are rolling out over the course of this Parliament, will also reward farmers for sustainable farming practices that protect and enhance water quality.

Water company investment in environmental improvements has been scaled up to £7.1 billion over the period 2020-25. The storm overflow task force and new measures through the Environment Bill will focus effort on sewage discharge from storm overflows and our new chemicals strategy will build on an already robust statutory regime to ensure chemicals are managed and handled safely. To improve river levels and flows, the EA made changes to over 300 abstraction licences since 2008, which has returned 47 billion litres of water a year to the environment. We know that there is a lot of work to do in order to meet our goals for clean and plentiful water, set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan. We will take considered, focused and informed action to drive real progress.

In general, we prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning items outright. There may, however, be times when a ban is appropriate as part of a wider strategic approach. To tackle microplastics we have already introduced one of the world's toughest bans on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products. This will help to stop billions of these tiny plastic pieces from entering the ocean and being eaten by marine wildlife. The Government does not currently have plans to launch a review into the environmental impact of floral foam. However, we will continue to review the latest evidence on problematic products and/ or materials to take a systematic approach to reducing the use of unnecessary single-use plastic products.

The Government has set out the first restrictions to be initiated under its new chemical regulation system, UK REACH, to tackle risks posed by chemicals. The launch of the UK REACH programme includes plans to initiate the restriction process on lead ammunition and certain harmful substances in tattoo inks and permanent make-up. We are keeping other issues that we did not initiate in the restriction process for this year under review. This includes scoping what further action could be taken to address intentionally added microplastics based on the best available evidence.

To tackle plastic pellet loss we support Operation Clean Sweep, an initiative led by industry through the British Plastics Federation, to address incidents of plastic pellet loss. This initiative addresses this problem at all stages of the supply chain. At the British-Irish Council Marine Litter Symposium in 2019, Ministers recognised the need to address plastic pellets and considerable progress has been made in developing solutions to reduce plastic pellet loss. The administrations have supported the development of a Publicly Available Specification developed by the British Standards Institution, which sets out how any business handling or managing pellets can reduce pellet loss. This is the first of its kind and will be published in July this year. All administrations will promote it through their networks.

The UK is a world leader in animal welfare, and the Government is committed to cracking down on unscrupulous breeders who breed dogs purely for financial greed at the expense of animal welfare.

Since April 2020, in line with the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 (the 2019 Amendment to the 2018 Regulations), pet shops, pet dealers and other commercial pet sellers have been prevented from selling puppies and kittens in England that they have not bred themselves. This applies in cases where puppies are bred outside of England meaning that a pet shop in England is already prohibited from selling puppies bred in Northern Ireland unless they have bred them themselves.

This addresses welfare concerns associated with puppies and kittens bought and sold by third parties, including the early separation of animals from their mothers and the keeping of puppies and kittens at inappropriate commercial premises.

Local authorities are responsible for licensing a business to determine whether a licence holder has bred the animals they are selling. Our updated guidance to the 2018 Regulations, which has been amended to reflect the changes brought in by the 2019 Amendment, sets out how local authorities might determine whether someone can be said to have bred the animals they are offering for sale. This guidance has been shared with local authority licensing officers who have powers to investigate and enforce breaches of the guidance.

The Government has an existing strategy - The UK Marine Strategy. The overall objective of the UK Marine Strategy supports the UK’s vision for ‘clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas’ and is consistent with our commitments in the 25 Year Environment Plan.

Achieving this vision is about protecting the marine environment, preventing its deterioration and restoring it where practical, while allowing sustainable use of marine resources.

In October 2019, we published the updated Marine Strategy Part One which sets out our assessment of the status of UK seas and our targets and indicators for the period up to 2024. In March 2021, we published our update to the Marine Strategy Part Two, which sets out the programmes we have in place to monitor progress against these targets and indicators.

We are currently preparing an update of the Marine Strategy Part Three, which sets out our Programmes of Measures designed to help us achieve or maintain the vision set out in Part One of the Strategy.

A unique combination of factors, including Covid lockdowns across Europe, and businesses adjusting to a new trading relationship, made it inevitable that exports of cheese and beef to the EU, would be lower during the first quarter of this year compared to last year.

The Government has always been clear that there would be new processes to export to the EU from 1 January 2021. We continue to work closely with traders and have provided extensive advice to support businesses as they adjust to the new arrangements.

The reduction in the export value of whisky to the EU was principally due to Covid-19 restrictions limiting demand from the hospitality sector. Excluding non-EU Europe, which saw a slight increase in exports, the EU saw the lowest percentage decline in exports of Scotch Whisky compared to other global regions. However, as the largest export market for whisky, the Government is working with industry to mitigate other more recent factors which may hinder exports to the EU, such as where EU member states have been requesting additional certification for whisky and other food and drink products.

Schools in England reopened for all pupils on 8 March 2021. The Cabinet Office previously confirmed that only vets providing services in the food chain are included as critical workers and had been able to continue to send their children to school prior to that date. This includes veterinary surgeons working in abattoirs and meat processing plants, at border control posts, and attending to livestock production.

Reducing the use of single use plastic packaging is important. In the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy we set out our ambitions to double resource productivity and eliminate avoidable waste by 2050. To help us achieve this, we are reforming the packaging producer responsibility regulations and developing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging.

EPR for packaging will see packaging producers paying for the waste management costs associated with the packaging that they place on the market. This will ensure producers are thinking about the necessity of any packaging they use. Where producers use single-use packaging, it is important that it is easily collected and recycled. EPR for Packaging will see producers’ fees modulated (varied) to account for certain criteria, including recyclability. Producers who use easily recyclable packaging will pay less than those who use hard to recycle, or unrecyclable, packaging.

In developing EPR for packaging we will also take consideration of how EPR could be used to encourage packaging reuse and refill systems. We will consult on our proposals this year. This consultation will set out our proposals for the timing of implementing the reforms.

Industry, however, is already acting. The UK Plastics Pact is jointly founded between The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Ellen McArthur Foundation and is supported by the Government. The Pact brings together organisations from across the plastics supply chain with four key targets for 2025 that aim to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated. One of these targets is to eliminate single-use plastic packaging. Our proposed reforms will support the Pact in achieving those targets. Through the pact, work has been done to increase the sale of unpackaged products. The WRAP Fresh Produce Guidance was published in November 2019 which includes advice for retailers to help determine if fresh produce can be provided loose.

The UK Government has regular meetings with the supermarkets, including at Ministerial level, on Covid-19 issues. This includes discussions about the measures that have supermarkets have put in place to ensure a Covid-secure environment for their customers and their staff.

We will continue to work with the supermarkets to support these activities, including how best to manage capacity in stores and to encourage the use of face coverings. On the latter we welcome the recent announcements from a number of supermarkets on the steps they are taking to encourage customers to comply with Government rules. The Secretary of State also wrote to those working in our food and drink supply chains recently, thanking them for the work they have done throughout the pandemic.

The Government is committed to improving the welfare of cats and has a manifesto commitment to introduce compulsory microchipping of cats. In October 2019 Defra published a call for evidence on compulsory microchipping for cats, which attracted over 3,000 responses. We will be publishing a summary of the responses alongside the launch of a public consultation shortly.

Phytophthora austrocedri was confirmed in England in 2011 and is an air and water borne pathogen of Juniper. We continue to monitor closely the spread of the pathogen and take measures to minimise its introduction, including statutory inspections and action on any findings in the plant trade, for example at nurseries. The Plant Health Service work closely with conservation organisations and other stakeholders to minimise the risk of spread in the wider environment by promoting good biosecurity practices and providing management guidance.

The Government has made legally binding commitments to reduce ammonia emissions from 2005 levels by 8% and 16% by 2020 and 2030, respectively.

Over the next few years the Government will introduce legislation requiring farmers to reduce ammonia emissions and is already supporting farmers to undertake best practice and invest in the farm infrastructure and equipment that will reduce emissions.

The Clean Air Strategy sets out the actions that will be taken to reduce ammonia emissions in England. These include a requirement to spread slurry and digestate using low-emission spreading equipment by 2025, for slurry and digestate stores to be covered by 2027 and for manure to be rapidly incorporated into bare soil.

We have not included specific commitments to legislate in the Environment or Agriculture Bills because the Clean Air Strategy sets out the plans for legislation in this area and we have existing powers to enable introduction of the legislation to reduce ammonia emissions set out in the Strategy.

The Government has made legally binding commitments to reduce ammonia emissions from 2005 levels by 8% and 16% by 2020 and 2030, respectively.

Over the next few years the Government will introduce legislation requiring farmers to reduce ammonia emissions and is already supporting farmers to undertake best practice and invest in the farm infrastructure and equipment that will reduce emissions.

The Clean Air Strategy sets out the actions that will be taken to reduce ammonia emissions in England. These include a requirement to spread slurry and digestate using low-emission spreading equipment by 2025, for slurry and digestate stores to be covered by 2027 and for manure to be rapidly incorporated into bare soil.

We have not included specific commitments to legislate in the Environment or Agriculture Bills because the Clean Air Strategy sets out the plans for legislation in this area and we have existing powers to enable introduction of the legislation to reduce ammonia emissions set out in the Strategy.

The Government has made legally binding commitments to reduce ammonia emissions from 2005 levels by 8% and 16% by 2020 and 2030, respectively.

Over the next few years the Government will introduce legislation requiring farmers to reduce ammonia emissions and is already supporting farmers to undertake best practice and invest in the farm infrastructure and equipment that will reduce emissions.

The Clean Air Strategy sets out the actions that will be taken to reduce ammonia emissions in England. These include a requirement to spread slurry and digestate using low-emission spreading equipment by 2025, for slurry and digestate stores to be covered by 2027 and for manure to be rapidly incorporated into bare soil.

We have not included specific commitments to legislate in the Environment or Agriculture Bills because the Clean Air Strategy sets out the plans for legislation in this area and we have existing powers to enable introduction of the legislation to reduce ammonia emissions set out in the Strategy.

The Government is deeply concerned about the illegal trade in waste, including reports of illegal plastic waste exported from the UK. Recognising the difficulties experienced by some countries in managing imports of plastic waste the Government has committed to banning the export of plastic waste to countries that are not members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Environment Bill includes a power which will enable us to deliver on this commitment and we will consult on the date by which this should be achieved.

Following support at consultation, we will introduce a statutory duty for waste collection authorities to arrange for the separate collection of food waste from households, at least once a week. We are legislating for this through the Environment Bill.

The Government has committed to covering the costs of any additional burdens that local authorities face as a result of new statutory duties requiring them to collect food waste separately for recycling. This is in keeping with the New Burdens Doctrine which requires new burdens on local authorities to be properly assessed and fully funded, so that there will be no increase in council tax as a result of the policy.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Totnes on 30 June 2020, PQ UIN 62631.

[ www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-06-22/62631]

Our Clean Air Strategy sets out an ambitious programme of action to reduce air pollution from a wide range of sources in our towns and cities. We have also put in place a £3.5 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 greater local action by ensuring responsibility for tackling air pollution is shared across local government structures and with relevant public authorities. We are also strengthening the ability of local authorities to tackle smoke emissions from domestic solid fuel burning, which is a major source of fine particulate matter.

Under the Local Air Quality Management Framework, local authorities review and assess local air quality and are required to declare an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) if local monitoring indicates exceedance of legal air quality standards and objectives, and are then required to develop an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) to address the exceedance.

Warrington Borough Council (WBC) has declared two AQMAs in the district, both for exceedances of the NO2 annual mean. As part of its AQAP, WBC is encouraging uptake of low emission vehicles and active travel. Defra has this year awarded £87,350 from the Air Quality Grant to WBC to run an electric taxi scheme.

The Government committed in its manifesto to introduce a deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers. We are seeking powers to do so in the Environment Bill. Since consulting on its introduction in 2019, the Government has been developing proposals for a DRS using further evidence and ongoing engagement with stakeholders. The Government plans to undertake a second consultation on a DRS in early 2021. In preparation for that consultation, we are currently reviewing the proposed timeline for its introduction.

Plastic pollution is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today. The UK is a world leader in tackling plastic pollution, including microplastics.

There has been substantial research which reports the presence and impacts of microplastics in the marine environment. However, little is known about the sources, release and impact of microplastics, including floral foam, in the freshwater environment and their transport to marine compartments. One of Defra's priority research needs is to further our understanding of the effects of these materials on the freshwater environment.

Our priority is preventing plastic from entering the environment in the first place. The Government's landmark Resources and Waste Strategy sets out our plans to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by 2042. We are also seeking a new power in the Environment Bill to be able to place charges on single-use plastic items to encourage businesses and citizens to shift toward more reusable products.

We continue to work closely with Port of Dover and National Highways to understand common causes of delays and seek robust mitigations to reduce them.

Port of Dover operates a turn up and go service. There is a well-established Traffic Access Protocol which is operated by Port of Dover and National Highways and this manages any queue which enables HGVs to be held on one lane of the A20, allowing all other traffic to flow freely. National Highways monitor the queue lengths and work with the Port of Dover to actively reduce them.

The Senior Railcard already allows over 60s to take advantage of 1/3 off most rail fares. In addition, there are a number of more local concessionary passes that are valid on national rail, such as the travel pass for older people in Greater Manchester.

Advice on what to do in the event of an emergency for all road users, including motorcyclists, is available to the public on the National Highways website and is aligned to that given in The Highway Code. We committed an additional £5 million on national and targeted communications campaigns to further increase awareness and understanding of smart motorways, how they work and how to use them confidently. This includes advice to drivers on what to do in a breakdown. National Highways’ main message informs drivers that if you breakdown, ‘go left’. Further information can be accessed here https://nationalhighways.co.uk/road-safety/breakdowns/.

National Highways undertook comprehensive safety assessments and analysis to help support the design of smart motorways and create a safe and intuitive environment for all drivers, including motorcyclists. To improve the detection of stopped vehicles (including stopped motorcycles), Stopped Vehicle Detection (SVD) will be implemented across the entire All Lane Running motorway smart motorway network by the end of September 2022.  

The Department does not hold this information.

The Department considers many factors when assessing the impact of a fares change, notably the impacts on passengers and taxpayers. Whilst no specific assessment of environmental impacts was made, as the Department chose to hold fares to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) from last summer rather than the follow the previous year’s RPI + 1 per cent, it is likely that this decision would make rail travel more attractive than it would otherwise have been, which would have a positive effect on the environment by reducing carbon emissions from other transport modes.

Electric bikes or bicycles that have been modified with electric motors do not require licensing as long as they comply in full with the requirements of the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations 1983 (as amended). These requirements include that:

• The bicycle must be fitted with pedals that are capable of propelling it;
• The maximum continuous rated power of the electric motor must not exceed 250 Watts;
• electrical assistance must cut-off when the vehicle reaches 15.5 mph.

If a bicycle does not comply with the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle (EAPC) regulations then it is to be treated as a motor vehicle when used on roads, which means that it must be licensed and insured.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online services are the quickest and easiest way to make an application. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their documents within a few days. However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application. The latest information on turnaround times for paper applications can be found here.

The DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working, and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham to help reduce waiting times while providing future resilience and business continuity.

Work is ongoing to reduce the backlog of paper applications. There has been a particular focus on vocational driving licence applications to support the HGV driver shortage. This has been successful with routine vocational applications now back to normal turnaround times.

Government funded on-road trials of Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) platooning technology are currently underway and expected to conclude in spring 2022. The main aim of the trials is to determine whether HGV platooning can safely deliver real world fuel consumption benefits on UK roads.

The project will also provide invaluable insight into infrastructure constraints, traffic management, vehicle maintenance and driver workloads.

The Rixton and Warburton Company is in the process of putting together a Transport and Works Act order to update the current legislation to facilitate the numerous changes the company is looking to make.

The Secretary of State is not currently in receipt of an application to increase the toll and we would not expect one until the legislative matters have been resolved.

We are steadily increasing cycle storage at stations, including at city-centre termini, and also investing in safe cycle routes to stations. We plan to increase space on existing trains wherever practically possible and make it easier to reserve bike spaces online.

Since 2010, the Department has invested £40 million in the Cycle Rail programme, creating around 30,000 new and improved cycle parking spaces and other facilities to make it more convenient to cycle to railway stations.

No decisions have been made relating to the maximum speed of rolling stock on the West Coast Main Line after the completion of HS2.

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, 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 publish our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy and introduce new regulations under the Automated Electric Vehicles Act (2018) to improve the consumer experience of public charging.

We are seeing a natural progression towards Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors for rapid charging. All new EV models use Type 2 connectors for slower charging. Under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 (AFIR) all public chargepoints are required to have at minimum a Type 2 connector, and, for rapid charging, a CCS connector. Over 96% of rapid chargepoints also have a CHAdeMO connector installed in addition to the required CCS.

In July 2019, the budget for the project remained £55.7bn (2015 prices). Cost and schedule pressures were known and work was continuing to identify options to ensure the overall affordability of the HS2 project – this is detailed in the National Audit Office’s January 2020 HS2 progress report. The independent Oakervee review was formally commissioned in August 2019 to enable government to make properly-informed decisions on the future of the project, including the estimated cost and schedule position. A revised funding envelope was agreed in April 2020 with 6 monthly updates now provided to Parliament to allow full scrutiny of the project.

The Government takes road safety seriously and is aware of the traumatic effects of drivers failing to stop when a person is caused serious or fatal injury. The Department for Transport is exploring options that could be pursued in this area, including, but not limited to, the available penalties, and how the offence operates as part of longer-term and wider work on road safety.

The Government is investing an unprecedented £2 billion of dedicated funding in cycling and walking over this Parliament, which will enable local authorities across England to deliver safer walking and cycling routes in their areas, making it easier and more attractive for commuters to walk and cycle to work. The National Bus Strategy, published on 15 March 2021 and backed by £3 billion of transformational funding, will deliver better bus services for passengers across England, through ambitious and far-reaching reform of how services are planned and delivered. We are also working with the rail industry to develop a number of recovery initiatives, focused on restoring passenger confidence in travelling by rail, including introducing new flexible season tickets for commuters.

The cost of tests is set by the companies operating in the private testing market. The government is working with the travel industry and private testing providers to see how we can further reduce costs for the British public while ensuring travel is as safe as possible.

We are considering a range of options including cheaper tests being used when passengers return home. The price of tests has reduced significantly in recent weeks, with some providers offering testing packages for green arrivals starting at £43.

In 2016 the road haulage industry developed a Large Goods Vehicle Driver apprenticeship standard that includes the acquisition of a Category C licence and attracted £5,000 in apprenticeship levy funding.

This will be replaced in August with an apprenticeship for a Category C+E licence (for which the Category C licence is a pre-requisite) which will attract £7,000 in funding.

This decision to change to a Category C+E apprenticeship was made in collaboration with industry, based on the greater need for articulated lorry drivers.

There has been no recent change to the weight limits applicable to construction vehicles. The general maximum laden weight for the heaviest (four axle) rigid construction vehicles has never been higher than 32 tonnes. Following consultation, a derogation was introduced in 2018 permitting a limited and specific number of volumetric concrete mixers (also known as mobile concrete batching plant) to operate at higher than the standard applicable weights for vehicles of their design. This derogation is for a defined period. Due to the small number of vehicles and legislative nature of this derogation, no environmental impact assessment was conducted.

The Department is now analysing the high volume of responses to ensure that all views are captured and Ministers will be carefully considering the consultation findings before deciding the way forward.

We will publish a response to the consultation in due course and it will be available to view at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/managing-pavement-parking.

We have no plans to ban domestic flights. 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.

We are committed to enabling the recovery of the sector to support our levelling up agenda through regional connectivity and strengthen ties within the Union. We recognise the importance of maintaining a thriving and competitive aviation sector in the UK to deliver connectivity.

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.

There are no plans to extend the 12-month period for which holders of foreign driving licences can drive in Great Britain using that licence. To continue driving after the 12-month period the driver must either exchange their licence, if it was issued by a country which has been designated for licence exchange purposes, or apply for a provisional driving licence and pass both a theory and practical driving test.

Where the UK has reached an agreement with an EU Member State on Recognition and Exchange, the UK will continue to recognise extended EU driving licences from 1 January 2021.

The Operator of Last Resort (OLR) function exists to discharge the Secretary of State’s duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993. In deciding whether to transfer an operator to the OLR, the Secretary of State has regard to the Statement of Policy on the exercise of the Secretary of State's power under section 26(1) of the Railways Act 1993.

We recognise the concerns around smart motorway safety and commissioned an urgent stocktake of the evidence which was published on the 12 March 2020. A package of 18 measures costing £500 million will allow us to retain the benefits of smart motorways while addressing the concerns that have been identified. The 18-point Action Plan includes the faster rollout of a radar-based, stopped vehicle detection (SVD) system across the all lane running motorway network, and national and targeted communications campaigns to further increase awareness and understanding.

The Secretary of State has asked for a one-year on report from Highways England setting out progress in delivering the 18-point Action Plan and identifying actions that can be delivered early. He has asked for the report by 12 March 2021 so any accelerated works can be rapidly put in place.

Following full consideration of the National Infrastructure Commission's report, the Government expects to publish the Integrated Rail Plan early in 2021.

The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place for road safety reasons; to ensure that a candidate’s knowledge is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.

It is important that road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point that they drive unsupervised for the first time. Those with theory test certificates expiring may have taken their test in early 2019. Since then, their lessons and practice sessions will have been significantly curtailed during recent lockdowns and it is likely that their knowledge base will have diminished.

Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the training of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Taking all this into consideration, the decision has been made not to extend theory test certificates and learners will need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.

As of 15 December, international arrivals to England can opt in to Test to Release for International Travel, allowing them to shorten self-isolation by up to 5 days after receiving a negative test result.

Any decisions on whether and how we can further ease border requirements, including whether rapid Covid-19 testing could be introduced at UK airports, will be made on the basis of clinical and scientific evidence.

Lowering the age of eligibility for concessionary bus travel to sixty would see a return to the anomalous position of non-disabled people of working-age receiving free bus passes. Re-establishing the link between concessionary bus pass eligibility and the state pension age addresses that issue and will help the financial sustainability of the scheme.

Under Concessionary Travel legislation, local authorities have the power to offer additional discretionary concessions, including the extension of concessionary travel to those who are yet to reach the qualifying age, such as have been introduced in London, Liverpool and Greater Manchester.

A number of reports about the Garden Bridge project have been published, including by the National Audit Office, Charity Commission and an independent review led by Dame Margaret Hodge. These reports are publicly available.

Expenditure across Government is currently being reviewed as part of the ongoing Spending Review. Specific funding for rail infrastructure is determined across Control Periods (usually five-years) via a statutory process overseen by the independent Office of Rail and Road. The current funding settlement was based on advice from both Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road on the levels of expenditure needed to ensure a safe and reliable railway across the years 2019 through 2024. The funding for the next period will be set via the regulatory process, which is currently in its early stages.

The Government is committed to bringing forward vital sector-wide reforms and commissioned Keith Williams to carry out the first root and branch review of the rail industry in a generation. The Review was in its final stages at the outbreak of COVID-19. The Government views the purpose of the reforms as important as ever, but further work needs to be done now to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on the sector and we continue to examine a range of options to reform the railways. The Government will publish a White Paper with details on the Government's plans for rail reform once the course of the pandemic becomes clearer.

The Government’s new deal for rail will keep the best elements of the private sector, including competition and investment, that have helped to drive growth - but deliver strategic direction, leadership and accountability. We will set out further details in a White Paper when the course of the Covid-19 pandemic becomes clearer.

The Secretary of State also has no plans to bring the rolling stock companies into public ownership. The UK rolling stock market has been a vibrant one and passengers are benefiting from private investment in new trains across the country.

In May, the Government announced £2 billion of new funding for cycling and walking. £225 million is being made available to local authorities in 2020-21 via the Emergency Active Travel Fund to invest in new cycling and walking infrastructure. Decisions on further funding will be a matter for the Spending Review later this year.

Portugal was added to the travel corridor list on 22 August.

• The Government has committed to developing an Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) which will look at how to deliver Phase 2b of HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and other Network Rail programmes better and more effectively, ensuring the benefits are brought to the North and Midlands as quickly and efficiently as possible.

• The Golborne Link is part of the current plans for the western leg of Phase 2b of HS2.

• The Golborne Link is being considered as part of the IRP, which will assess the Link’s benefits, costs and the best way to serve the North West of England and Scotland.

• We expect the findings of the IRP to be published by the end of this year. Should any design changes be proposed, they will be subject to future consultation.

The cycle to work scheme allows employees to access e-bikes at a discount, and since February 2018 the Department has supported the uptake of e-cargo bikes through a £2m grant programme. The Department has also supported some local authorities with local schemes to support the uptake of e-bikes, through its £20 million per annum Access Fund. The Department will keep under review the case for further support for e-bikes following the announcement on 9 May of a £2 billion package of support for cycling and walking.

The Department for Transport has made no assessment of these charges and costs. Where an employer uses a scheme provider for their Cycle to Work Scheme any arrangements for costs and charges are matters for the two parties to determine as part of the contract between themselves.

On the 9th May the Government announced a £2 billion package of funding for cycling and walking. This includes £250 million which will encourage cycling to work through 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. This builds on the refreshed Cycle to Work Scheme Guidance published in 2019 which made it easier for employers to provide bicycles and equipment including e-bikes and adapted bikes worth over £1,000.

The Department for Transport has made no assessment of these charges and costs. Where an employer uses a scheme provider for their Cycle to Work Scheme any arrangements for costs and charges are matters for the two parties to determine as part of the contract between themselves.

On the 9th May the Government announced a £2 billion package of funding for cycling and walking. This includes £250 million which will encourage cycling to work through 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. This builds on the refreshed Cycle to Work Scheme Guidance published in 2019 which made it easier for employers to provide bicycles and equipment including e-bikes and adapted bikes worth over £1,000.

It would not be appropriate to comment on the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's report of 19 July 2021. The Ombudsman’s investigation is ongoing and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.

The Government has no plans to change this policy.

The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid overseas is longstanding and has been supported by successive post-war governments for over 70 years.

This government has a strong safety net that helps people who are facing hardship and are unable to support themselves financially and we have taken steps to strengthen that safety net as part of the government’s response to the pandemic.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) provides a minimum level of income for employees when they are sick or incapable of work. Employers are legally required to pay SSP to eligible employees who are off work sick or incapable of work, where employees meet the qualifying conditions. Some employers may also decide to pay more, and for longer, through Occupational Sick Pay.

SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider government offer to support people in times of need. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their personal circumstances.

There are no plans to extend the temporary Universal Credit uplift to legacy benefits, and Parliament has voted to bring an end to legacy benefits in Great Britain. Natural migration to Universal Credit (UC) is required when a person needs to claim new support because of a change of circumstances.

Claimants on legacy benefits can voluntarily make a claim for UC if they believe that they will be better off. Claimants considering making a claim should check carefully their eligibility and entitlements under UC before applying, as legacy benefits will end when claimants submit their UC claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK. They can also get help through the government funded Help to Claim scheme as well as the Citizens Advice Bureau and Citizens Advice Scotland.

The Chancellor announced on 3 March that the easement to the minimum income floor will be extended by a further 3 months.

We have no plans to change the longstanding National Insurance arrangements.

The National Insurance scheme operates on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis meaning that today’s contributors are paying for today’s Social Security entitlements and pensions, while those who paid contributions in the past were paying for the pensioners of that time. The National Insurance contributions people make not only go towards the State Pension, but also entitle them to a range of contributory Social Security benefits and bereavement benefits. A proportion of National Insurance contributions also goes towards funding the NHS (around 20 per cent of receipts).

The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.

There are no plans to increase the age addition amount. There is a range of other measures and benefits that are available to pensioners over age 80. These include Pension Credit which can top up a pensioner’s income to a minimum of £173.75 a week for single pensioners and £265.20 for couples and provide access to a range of other benefits such as help with rent, council tax reduction schemes, heating costs and, for those aged 75 or over, a free television licence. Households with people aged 80 and over also receive a Winter Fuel Payment of £300 instead of the standard £200 for households with pensioners below that age. Additionally, since April 2010, the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension has risen by around £1900 in cash terms.

The Secretary of State has a duty to review this requirement to take financial advice. The first report must be published before 6 April 2023, as set by the Pension Schemes Act 2015 (Transitional Provisions and Appropriate Independent Advice) (Amendment) Regulations 2017. At this time, the Government has no immediate plans to review or lower the threshold at which individuals are required to take financial advice.

In 2015 Parliament passed the requirement to take financial advice for anyone seeking to transfer or convert a cash equivalent value of £30,000 or more from a defined benefit pension to an arrangement where they could flexibly access those savings. This statutory legal requirement was introduced to ensure individuals with valuable pension benefits are fully aware of the risks involved in giving up a secure income in retirement to one that may be susceptible to fluctuations in the financial markets, and carefully consider the implications of permanently surrendering their guarantees before they decide to transfer or convert those benefits.

Government’s commitment to maintain the existing threshold forms part of a wider commitment to safeguarding consumer savings – we want individuals to better understand their choices and the risks that exist. To this end, DWP will be introducing new information requirements from the age fifty to those with defined contribution pension savings, that will inform them in more simplified terms, about their retirement options and the availability of guidance to help with their decisions. DWP also see accessing guidance as a natural part of the journey savers take, before making a decision relating to the pension freedoms. Following the recent trials, which showed a nudge to guidance during the application process is effective, we will be commencing section 19 of the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018, which amends the Pension Schemes Act 1993.

Health and safety in fast food outlets is enforced by Local Authorities (LAs), who act as independent enforcers of health and safety. LAs in England are currently reporting their general coronavirus enforcement activity to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS does not hold data on the number of fast food outlets that have been reported. Across businesses in general, those in control are overwhelmingly seeking to comply with legislation and very few have required formal enforcement action to be taken.

During this period, across Great Britain, LA officers have been out in their local communities dealing with safety and health issues along with other coronavirus related activities linked to their wider public health duties. The clear guidance available on the governments webpages (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19) and the Health and Safety Executive’s website (https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/index.htm) is there so business can understand what they need to do to meet their legal duties and set the standards that Officers will enforce against and advise upon.

Health and safety in fast food outlets is enforced by Local Authorities (LAs), who act as independent enforcers of health and safety. LAs in England are currently reporting their general coronavirus enforcement activity to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS does not hold data on the number of fast food outlets that have been reported. Across businesses in general, those in control are overwhelmingly seeking to comply with legislation and very few have required formal enforcement action to be taken.

During this period, across Great Britain, LA officers have been out in their local communities dealing with safety and health issues along with other coronavirus related activities linked to their wider public health duties. The clear guidance available on the governments webpages (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19) and the Health and Safety Executive’s website (https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/index.htm) is there so business can understand what they need to do to meet their legal duties and set the standards that Officers will enforce against and advise upon.

No such assessment has been made.

New claimants to Universal Credit have to serve a nine month qualifying period before they are entitled to help with their mortgage interest. The lending industry is aware of and understands these arrangements. If, during this time, individuals are unable to meet their payments, we would encourage them to discuss options with their lenders.

As with other Government funders of health research, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research expenditure in a particular area is determined by factors including scientific potential and the number of successful funding applications.

In May 2018, the Government announced £40 million over five years for brain tumour research as part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, through the NIHR. The NIHR has subsequently funded all applications which have been fundable in open competition. However, this remains a challenging scientific area with a relatively small research community. We are reviewing ways to increase research capacity to deliver more fundable applications.

Policies for hospital visiting are now at the discretion of local National Health Service trust or organisation. We expect providers to facilitate visits while managing any infection risks.

Ambulance services respond to all heart attack and suspected heart attack cases according to agreed triage protocols. Only in extreme circumstances may a decision be required to advise higher acuity patients to travel to hospital, such as those with suspected heart attacks. This will only be considered where an ambulance resource will not be available in a sufficiently fast timeframe due to extreme and unforeseen levels of local demand and where it is considered clinically appropriate to do so.

We have funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year in England. In addition, we have temporarily lifted the cap on medical and dental school places for students who completed A levels in 2020 and 2021 and received an offer from a university in England to study medicine or dentistry, subject to their grades. There are no current plans to further increase the number of medical school places.

There is no limit or cap on the number of nursing places at universities. We are offering non-repayable grants of at least £5,000 per year to eligible students and investing £40 million in expanding clinical placement capacity. Over 30,000 students accepted places to study nursing and midwifery at English universities in 2021 recruitment cycle – an increase of 28% compared to 2019.

The UK Health Security Agency will publish a monitoring and evaluation framework in 2022. This will provide key indicators and timeframes to monitor the implementation of the HIV Action Plan, including the commitment to achieve a 90% HIV testing offer rate to first time attendees at sexual health services.

The monitoring and evaluation framework for the HIV Action Plan in England is currently being developed and will be published later in 2022. The detail of how sexual health services will be assessed on HIV testing offer and uptake rates among all attendees is under review and will be included as part of the monitoring and evaluation framework.

The monitoring and evaluation framework for the HIV Action Plan in England is currently being developed and will be published later in 2022. The detail of how sexual health services will be assessed on HIV testing offer and uptake rates among all attendees is under review and will be included as part of the monitoring and evaluation framework.

The monitoring and evaluation framework for the HIV Action Plan in England is currently being developed and will be published later in 2022. The Plan will assess the reasons for variation in the HIV testing offer and uptake across sexual health clinics in England. Details of this assessment will be included as part of the monitoring and evaluation framework.

The UK Health Security Agency continues to monitor and publish data on the test offer and uptake within specialist sexual health services at national and local level, including inequalities in different population groups.

The Department has waived legal professional privilege in relation to relevant historic litigation and legal advice to the start of the Inquiry in July 2017.

The Department has waived legal professional privilege in relation to relevant historic litigation and legal advice to the start of the Inquiry in July 2017.

The Department supplied those documents requested by the Inquiry where these were retained in its archives.

This information is not held in the format requested. However, NHS Digital’s data shows that approximately one in six children or 17.4% aged between six and 16 years old had a probable mental health disorder in 2021.

No specific estimate has been made of the proportion of those children who are receiving such interventions.

The scope of the seasonal flu vaccination programme each season is based on independent expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The Department is working with the JCVI to determine the eligibility for the vaccine in the 2022/23 season. We will also work with the UK Health Security Agency, which monitors the prevalence of the flu virus prior to and during the flu season. Local providers are responsible for ordering the appropriate quantity of vaccine required.

The National Health Service (NHS) Long Term Plan for Cancer states that where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. The Government is committed to delivering this ambition.

Cancer Alliances are leading programmes of work to embed these personalised care interventions within local providers. NHS England and NHS Improvement is supporting staff to offer personalised care to people affected by cancer by promoting awareness and understanding of the interventions and how to improve their quality. This includes providing resources such as a handbook on personalised stratified follow up, a checklist on health and wellbeing information and support and sharing of best practice.

Holistic Needs Assessments and personalised care interventions more broadly are now widespread. Data from Cancer Alliances in March 2021 showed that, despite the pandemic, approximately 83% of all cancer multi-disciplinary teams (approximately 1,130 teams) had implemented Personalised Care and Support Planning based on Holistic Needs Assessment. This is significant progress compared to a baseline in 2017 of approximately 25% of teams.

The Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme was established in 1979. From the inception of the scheme to 21 January 2022 inclusive, there have been 7,336 claims for all diseases included in the Scheme. Of these claims, 947 have received payments. For claims made on and after 12 July 2007, the current award amount is £120,000.

The UK Health Security Agency monitors weekly COVID-19 cases, including numbers and rates of COVID-19 reinfections in England. As of 9 January 2022, 425,890 possible re-infections had been identified in England since the first recorded re-infection with 12.2 million first positive or primary infections in the same period. The weekly rates of possible reinfections per 1,000 first infections closely follow the profile for first infections.

Approximately 9,000 appointments have been arranged for people to register their overseas vaccination into the National Immunisation Management System. This has resulted in 11,500 vaccination records being created. Information on the number of people awaiting an appointment is not held centrally. A further 13 new sites have been identified by regional teams to offer this service. This will double the current capacity by the end of March 2022.

The information requested is not held centrally.

To ensure those eligible receive their fourth dose in a timely manner, guidance was issued to all systems on 13 December 2021 setting out that those at greatest risk must be prioritised, including the severely immunosuppressed. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/national-call-next-steps-for-the-nhs-covid-19-vaccine-deployment/

Individuals are identified and invited for their vaccination by the local Primary Care Network. If a vaccination cannot be offered at a hospital at the time of the patient’s regular treatment, they will receive a letter from their consultant, to access an appointment at an alternative site. If a patient has already received a letter regarding their third primary dose, this can be used to obtain their fourth dose at a walk-in site, if it has been a minimum of three months since their third primary dose was administered. Patients who are yet to be contacted but may be eligible for a fourth dose should contact their consultant or general practitioner.

Lateral flow device (LFD) tests reported through the National Testing Programme digital infrastructure are included in the daily statistics. If a LFD test is not registered digitally, it is not included. The data presented on the dashboard includes all de-duplicated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results; in England, positive rapid LFD tests that are not followed by a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours; and in Northern Ireland, all positive rapid LFD tests.

Cases for Scotland and Wales do not include those identified by LFD tests at present. Public Health Scotland is planning to incorporate this data. There are no plans to include this data in Wales.

There is no pre-determined level of COVID-19 infections, hospitalisations or deaths. The Government monitors these metrics with a range of other health data to assess the risk to the National Health Service and the potential need for additional measures. This includes metrics such as hospital occupancy for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients, admissions in vaccinated individuals and the rate of growth of admissions. The current measures will be reviewed before 26 January 2022.

Following the re-introduction of the ‘red list’ on 26 November 2021, passengers spent £15.2 million on quarantine services. There are no refunds or financial compensation for guests who completed their quarantine period and had checked out of the quarantine hotel on or before 4am on 15 December. From 4pm on 15 December, guests with a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result and those who had not yet taken a PCR test were able to depart quarantine following the removal of all countries from the ‘red list’. In England, guests who were released early from managed quarantine are entitled to a refund for the unused part of their managed quarantine.

There is no fixed capacity for COVID-19 patients in hospitals in England. The number of available beds is flexible to meet changes in demand.

Arrangements were made for guests in managed quarantine to leave at the earliest opportunity in line with appropriate COVID-19 safe protocols from 15 December.

Guests who tested positive, those who are unvaccinated, and those who were notified they had been a contact of someone who had tested positive were required to remain in quarantine. This aligns with domestic self isolation requirements.

This information is not held centrally as data on the number of housebound patients is managed at a local level and requires access to detailed patient information. General practitioners and community teams determine the best approach to vaccination, based on their knowledge of the patient and circumstances. Some patients may be able to attend Primary Care Network (PCN) designated sites with assistance and discussions should be held with the family and/or carer to facilitate this.

For those patients who are completely housebound and unable to travel to a PCN designated site with assistance, vaccinations will be delivered via roving units directly to an individual’s home. National Health Service regions, PCNs and community pharmacy-led local vaccination services are monitoring progress and identifying whether further interventions are required. A standard operating procedure on managing roving units has been provided to local health teams to support the provision of COVID-19 vaccinations to people who are housebound.

AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen vaccines administered in most countries, including Barbados, can generate a NHS COVID Pass. Closed pilots are available at selected vaccination centres for residents to request their overseas vaccines are uploaded to the national database. The service will be deployed nationally in December to support online bookings and further vaccination sites.

Funding has already been announced which will improve joint replacement surgery capacity. This includes £2 billion this year and £8 billion over the next three years to increase elective activity and deliver approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures. We have provided £5.9 billion capital funding for new surgical hubs to address waiting times for clinical tests, including for patients awaiting joint replacement surgery.

Further information on support for people waiting for elective care, such as joint replacement surgery, will be outlined in the upcoming elective recovery plan which is due to be published by the end of this year.

On 30 September we launched a pilot for English residents vaccinated abroad to request that their vaccines, either single or double doses, are uploaded to the national database. Vaccines equivalent to those approved in the United Kingdom and regulated by the European Medicines Agency, the United States Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, Swissmedic and the Therapeutic Goods Administration can be recorded on the NHS COVID Pass. We are working to understand which non-Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved vaccines we would be confident to recognise on the NHS COVID Pass.

Decisions to inform quarantine rules are taken by the Government based on the latest scientific advice, alongside wider public health factors. We are unable to provide the specific advice and evidence which informs these decisions as it relates to the ongoing development of Government policy.

As of 24 October 2021, 5,235,928 people had received a COVID-19 booster vaccine in England.

Data on the third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for all four United Kingdom nations is now included in the GOV.UK Coronavirus Dashboard at the following link:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

There is currently no COVID-19 vaccine authorised for use in the United Kingdom for those aged under 12 years old. Should the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency authorise a vaccine for those aged under 12 years old as safe and effective, then the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) would be asked for its clinical and scientific advice on prioritisation and deployment at population level. However, whether to vaccinate an individual is ultimately a decision for clinicians responsible for their care. Vaccination may be prescribed ‘off label’, including for a child, outside of the Chief Medical Officers’ or the JCVI’s advice using clinical judgement and an assessment of the patient’s risk factors.

We set out our plans for increasing HIV testing across the National Health Service in the HIV Action Plan, which was published on 1 December. The HIV Action Plan sets out actions to achieve the interim target of an 80% reduction in transmissions in England by 2025 and our forthcoming plans to improve support available to people who are lost to care and not currently accessing treatment.

We set out our plans for increasing HIV testing across the National Health Service in the HIV Action Plan, which was published on 1 December. The HIV Action Plan sets out actions to achieve the interim target of an 80% reduction in transmissions in England by 2025 and our forthcoming plans to improve support available to people who are lost to care and not currently accessing treatment.

We are committed to the recovery of cancer services by the end of March 2022. We have dedicated an additional £1 billion for elective and cancer services and the National Health Service is expand diagnostic and treatment capacity to meet increasing levels of referrals and treatment.

All individuals are invited for cervical screening based on their registered gender in their general practitioner (GP) records. Only those who are registered as female will be invited for cervical screening according to the normal intervals. As such, if a transgender man or non-binary person is registered with their GP as male, they will not receive these invitations.

However, GPs can, if requested, update records to ensure individuals are invited for the screening to which they are entitled. We encourage all trans men and non-binary people to contact their GP to ensure that they are invited for the right screening appointments.

We are currently sponsoring a multi-year joint project of the Law Commission for England and Wales and Scotland to review and update surrogacy legislation. The reform aims to ensure that there is greater clarity for all participants in surrogacy arrangements, particularly in respect of legal parenthood. This will benefit male same-sex couples, who represent approximately half of United Kingdom surrogacy arrangements.

We have also agreed with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to review their fertility guideline, which will consider the current access criteria to treatment for same sex couples.

A contract to provide phalloplasty services has now been awarded to the New Victoria Hospital in London. We expect patients to be seen in order of clinical need. The Gender Dysphoria National Referral Support Service will write to all patients on the waiting list and contact patients individually as soon as they are ready to be referred to the new provider.

The Department are working to ensure those who cannot have a vaccine or be tested for medical reasons are not disadvantaged. For the United Kingdom's inbound travel policy, the Government is exploring future policy options on travel for vaccinated UK residents, including making allowances for people exempt from vaccination and will set this information out in due course.

The Government will continue to build on its existing strategy for tackling the pandemic. This includes the successful roll-out of the vaccination programme, which has substantially weakened the link between cases and hospitalisations and the test, trace and isolate system, which is vital in managing the virus. As set out in ‘COVID-19 Response: Summer 2021’ the Government may need to take further measures to help manage the virus during periods of higher risk, such as winter, but will as far as possible prioritise strengthened guidance and seek to avoid imposing restrictions that have significant economic, social and health costs.

We are keen to ensure all those aged 18 and above take up their offer of vaccination. There has been a major programme of work to drive this by increasing the accessibility of the vaccines in targeted locations in areas of lower vaccine uptake. On the 26th June, NHS England launched the ‘grab a jab’ weekend – with pop up vaccination sites set up in football stadiums, theatres, supermarket car parks and shopping centres, which allowed vaccinations to take place without needing to book in advance. There has also been a targeted communications campaign aimed at outlets which typically attract younger audiences. This has involved cascading messages through channels such as TikTok and Snapchat, as well as partnering with influencers, content creators and large retail corporations to drive up vaccine uptake within this cohort.

The Government continues to evaluate all options available to further boost uptake. The Department is currently assessing the potential merits of incentives, although a final decision has yet to be made.

The treatment and diagnosis of endometriosis which will be carefully considered as part of work on the Women’s Health Strategy. A call for evidence was launched to inform the priorities, content and actions of the Strategy, which included questions on gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis. We are analysing the responses and we aim to publish the Strategy later this year.

Research exploring the experiences of women presenting with endometriosis-like symptoms in primary care hosted by the National Institute of Health Research, was published earlier this year, which will inform our understanding of delays in diagnosis.

A public consultation is underway on aligning the upper age exemption for National Health Service prescription charges in England with the state pension age. The Government will consider the responses to the consultation and outline its next steps in due course.

The Government has investigated Atruchecks and they have currently been removed from the private providers lists on GOV.UK. Providers may be reinstated to the list once they have undertaken corrective action and provided the Department with evidence of improvement.

On 20 May 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement published an updated standard operating procedure for general practice in the context of COVID-19 restrictions easing. The guidance is clear that practices must ensure they offer both face to face and remote appointments and the patients preferences for care are respected unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary, such as the presence of COVID symptoms. Practice receptions must be open so patients without access to online services are not disadvantaged and can walk in.

To make sure people can access the care they need, general practices use remote triage which can help practices effectively allocate clinical time by gathering key information in advance of a consultation. In turn, healthcare professionals can more effectively manage their time and focus on those who need care the most, which can include spending longer in face-to-face appointments. Telephone, online and video consultations can also be convenient and flexible ways to receive healthcare for some patients.

The GP Patient Survey from March 2020 indicates that in the previous year, of 334,181 patients, 5% or 16,709, were unable to access a National Health Service dental appointment.

In light of the impact of COVID-19, NHS dentists have been asked to maximise safe throughput to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups, followed by overdue appointments. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided a flexible commissioning toolkit to local commissioners to help focus the available capacity on those that need it most and to reduce oral health inequalities.

We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to increase access, including for routine care, taking into account the ongoing infection prevention and control and social distancing requirements. For the longer term, the Department has asked NHS England and NHS Improvement to work with the British Dental Association, to build on the learning from the dental contract reform programme and bring forward proposals to address the key challenges facing the delivery of NHS dentistry and improve patient access.

Data on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on cancer patients is still emerging. Public Health England is monitoring effectiveness of vaccination in clinical risk groups.

Throughout the pandemic the Government has had to balance the economic and social implications of restrictions with the need to protect public health when considering packages of measures to control the virus. These are complex decisions which take into account a range of health, economic, and social and wellbeing metrics when considering the design of measures but it is difficult analytically to isolate individual sectors or measures. We keep measures under constant review to ensure they reflect the latest science and clinical data.

The Government published a wide range of economic and social data in the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ roadmap and in the data annex supporting the roadmap publication. The roadmap is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963491/COVID-19_Response_-_Spring_2021.pdf

The data annex is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963276/COVID-19_RESPONSE_-SPRING_2021__Data_Annex.pdf

This, along with wider scientific advice from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, contributed to the decisions on the order of easing and the overall pace of the roadmap, which included the reopening of non-essential retail and outdoor hospitality at step two.

The Vivaldi study found that payment of statutory sick pay, compared to no payment, was associated with significant reduction of infection among staff and residents in care homes. The Infection Control Fund, first introduced in May 2020, has provided £1.35 billion to support adult social care providers take infection prevention and control measures such as helping maintain the normal wages of staff who need to self-isolate during the pandemic.

The reports for the Vivaldi study are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vivaldi-study-results

The policy for immunocompromised people is based on the advice of the independent experts of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The decision to extend the dosing interval to up to twelve weeks, made on 30 December 2019, was based on advice from the JCVI and was designed to maximize the impact of the vaccination programme. Whilst the second vaccine dose is important to sustain the protection and extend its duration, in the short term the additional impact of the second dose is likely to be modest and most of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine. The four United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers agreed with the JCVI that prioritising the first doses of vaccine for as many people as possible on the priority list would protect the greatest number of at-risk people in the shortest possible time.

On 14 May 2021, the Government accepted new advice from the JCVI and announced that appointments for a second dose of a vaccine would be brought forward from 12 to eight weeks for the remaining people in the top nine priority groups who have yet to receive their second dose. This is to ensure the strongest possible protection from the virus at an earlier opportunity in response to the B1.617.2 variant of concern, first identified in India. As a result, immuno-suppressed patients who are waiting to have their second dose may therefore be invited for to book an appointment within this revised timeframe.

Additional rapid response measures will be implemented in areas where clusters of cases have been detected to stop further spread. These measures include:

- enhanced testing and contact tracing, including enhanced community and surge testing in areas defined by the local authorities and regional teams;

- increased genome sequencing of positive cases;

- increased community engagement, including ensuring that messages are accessible in languages that are used by communities;

- working closely with communities and community leaders to ensure that individuals are supported to test and self-isolate; and

- ensuring access to vaccination in the age and risk groups currently prioritised for vaccination and encouraging uptake.

Over the past five years, the Government has spent a total of £55 million on motor neurone disease (MND) research. In 2019/20, the Department, through the National Institute for Health Research, spent £2.7 million on MND research. Additionally, UK Research and Innovation, through the Medical Research Council, spent £13.4 million on MND research in 2019/20. We are currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia and neurodegeneration, including MND.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked local services to draw up plans to tackle the elective backlog, while taking into account staff wellbeing. An additional £1 billion funding has been made available to the National Health Service in 2021-22 to support the start of the recovery of elective activity, to reduce patient waiting times.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have issued planning guidance for 2021-22 which prioritises ‘looking after our people and helping them to recover’. This includes encouraging NHS trusts to offer flexibility for staff to take time off to recover, to allow staff to carry over all unused annual leave, or to buy back unused leave.

Organisations with fewer than 50 employees can access tests via local community testing.

The Government met its target to offer a vaccine to everyone within the top four priority groups, including social care workers by 15 February 2021.

We continue to ensure that as many social care workers as possible receive their first and second doses when offered. We are conducting second visits to care homes to offer vaccinations to staff who were unavailable on the day of the first visit.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have put in place a comprehensive package of health and wellbeing services for National Health Service staff, including counselling helplines, free access to wellbeing apps, virtual staff common rooms and specialist bereavement and psychological support. £15 million has also been invested to strengthen mental health support for NHS staff. This funding is being used to set up mental health hubs that provide outreach and assessment services to help frontline staff receive rapid access to mental health services. Staff referred will be treated by local mental health specialists and those with the most severe needs will be referred to a specialist centre of excellence.

The latest NHS People Plan published in July 2020 sets out actions to retain staff for longer through a range of measures from flexible working, to improved training for line managers and more comprehensive occupational and mental health support.

Since 2014, Health Education England has supported a national return to practice (RTP) campaign for all branches of nursing, in response to the national shortage of nurses across the National Health Service. Between September 2014 and 30 September 2020, 7,106 returners have accessed RTP programmes.

As part of the new funding package for healthcare students non-repayable, training grants of at least £5,000 per academic year are available to eligible new and continuing pre-registration nursing students, studying at English universities. In 2020, there were 29,740 acceptances to nursing and midwifery courses in England. This is 6,110 more than in 2019 and an increase of 26%.

The Nightingale hospitals stand ready to provide support to local services and accept patients if needed based on local clinical advice. The National Health Service has flexed hospital capacity throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so, including staffing Nightingale hospitals as needed.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.  For the first phase, the JCVI have advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.

Prioritisation decisions for next phase delivery are subject to of the surveillance and monitoring data and information from phase one, as well as further input from independent scientific experts such as the JCVI. Phase two may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.

Public Health England does not hold information on transmission rates in the format requested.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF advise that children aged 12 years old and over should wear a face covering under the same conditions as adults, particularly when they cannot guarantee at least a one metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area. Our guidance reflects this.