Cherilyn Mackrory

A second consultation on introducing a deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was held last year. Government is analysing the responses to that consultation, with a view to publishing a government response soon.

There is a growing interest in critical mineral projects across the United Kingdom, and the Department continues to support such investment opportunities. Most critical mineral projects in the United Kingdom are operated by companies that are registered here.

HM Government is working to support and enable more British investment in extraction, processing and refining. We work with our international partners to strengthen critical supply chains too, as we seek to improve our national security and economic resilience.

We have committed to publishing a Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022, which will set out how we will establish an enabling environment for growing the sector domestically, and how we can work internationally to secure the sustainability of Britain’s supply.

There is a growing interest in critical mineral projects across the United Kingdom, and the Department continues to support such investment opportunities. Most critical mineral projects in the United Kingdom are operated by companies that are registered here.

HM Government is working to support and enable more British investment in extraction, processing and refining. We work with our international partners to strengthen critical supply chains too, as we seek to improve our national security and economic resilience.

We have committed to publishing a Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022, which will set out how we will establish an enabling environment for growing the sector domestically, and how we can work internationally to secure the sustainability of Britain’s supply.

Following a number of serious accidents at the A3075 Cubert Crossroads junction, Cornwall Council is seeking funding to improve it. In August 2020, Cornwall Council submitted an Expression of Interest for the scheme through the Department’s Local Pinch Point Fund. The Fund has been superseded by the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund (LUF) so I would encourage Cornwall to consider submitting a bid for the second round of LUF later this year. In addition, we are providing Cornwall Council with £32.46 million in Highways Maintenance funding in each of the next three years. This is an un-ringfenced grant which may be used for local road improvements.

As of the 15th March 2022, over 152,000 Kickstart jobs have been started by young people. The last date a young person can start a Kickstart job is 31^st March 2022.

We have previously published the number of jobs approved and advertised as of 31^st January, here. At that point, over 235,000 jobs had been advertised and over 305,000 had been approved. Kickstart has now closed to employer applications and as of March, all approved jobs proceeding to the advertisement stage, have been advertised. As such, these totals will not increase but may decline as a result of vacancies being withdrawn or removed by the employer.

Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 15^th March 2022 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

Jobs made available (advertised) and job starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Also included in the Great Britain total are a small number of jobs made available (less than 100 in total) that have an unrecorded job location.

The number of approved jobs is defined as the number of jobs associated with approved applications recorded on the Kickstart application system on the date above. This total excludes approved jobs that have been withdrawn from the Kickstart Scheme by agreement with employers and gateways. This is generally because, over time, some previously approved jobs were removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.

Table 1: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by nation and region (figures rounded to nearest 1000*)

Table 2: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by Sector (figures rounded to the nearest 10*)

* Due to rounding, sum of figures may not match declared total

As of the 26^th October, almost 94,000 young people have started a Kickstart job.

With the current pace of starts, we are confident that in early November over 100,000 young people will have started in a Kickstart job. This is an amazing achievement with the first jobs having started only a year ago. We will continue to offer Kickstart jobs to many thousands more.

As of the 26^th of October, over 213,000 jobs have been made available for young people to apply to through the scheme and over 304,000 jobs have been approved for funding.

From 28/09/2021 to 25/10/2021, on average over 6,700 Kickstart jobs were made available each week, and on average over 3,400 young people started a Kickstart job each week.

Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 25^th of October and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

Jobs made available and starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Over time, some previously approved jobs have been removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.

Table 1- Kickstart jobs made available and started by location.

Table 2- Kickstart jobs made available and started by sector.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has placed a mobile unit at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro to accommodate up to eight patients waiting admission. Patients accommodated by the unit will be cared for by trained professionals working as part of the ambulance service team, allowing ambulance crews to hand over their patients.

Where appropriate, patients are taken to urgent treatment centres and clinical assessment and treatment units rather than waiting to be seen in the emergency department. Timely patient discharge is also being supported to improve patient flow through hospitals and reduce ambulance queues.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are providing intensive support to the Royal Cornwall Hospital and a range of measures have been put in place to address the pressures.

Data on the number of hospitalised COVID-19 cases by vaccination status is not available in the format requested.

The data requested is not available in the format requested.

Public Health England’s technical briefing shows the latest data regarding hospitalisations by variant, in addition to data on those hospitalised with the Delta variant who are vaccinated with one or and both doses and those unvaccinated. This information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investigation-of-novel-sars-cov-2-variant-variant-of-concern-20201201

We are expanding access to psychological therapies within specialist perinatal mental health services so that they include couple, co-parenting and family interventions. Partners of women accessing specialist perinatal mental health will also be offered evidence-based assessments for their mental health and signposting to support as required.

The Government is considering the possible implications of highly concentrated supply of some critical materials in certain geographies, whether in terms of mining or downstream processing. Resilience comes from diversity of supply, and diversity relies on an effective trading system. We have committed to publishing a UK Critical Minerals strategy in 2022, which will set out how we will work internationally to ensure sustainability of the UK’s supply, along with establishing an enabling environment for growing the sector in the UK.

Following consultation in 2020, the Chancellor confirmed at Spring Budget 2021 that the Government will remove the entitlement to use red diesel from most sectors from April 2022. This will more fairly reflect the negative environmental impact of the emissions they produce and help to ensure that the tax system incentivises the development and adoption of greener alternatives.

The Government did not believe that the cases made by sectors that will not retain their red diesel entitlement outweighed its environmental objectives. The Government recently announced the £40 million Red Diesel Replacement Competition to support the development and demonstration of low carbon alternatives to red diesel for the construction, and mining and quarrying sectors.

Going forward, the Government will publish a UK Critical Minerals strategy in 2022, setting out its approach to securing technology-critical minerals and metals.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme commenced on 6 January 2022, providing up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.

Eligible individuals can be referred onto the Scheme in one of three ways, as set out in the policy statement. In line with this statement, the Home Office remains committed to achieving the objectives set out for the ACRS.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement

We started to resettle families under Pathway One of the ACRS at the start of the year. In light of the success of our evacuation efforts, we expect to exceed our initial aim of resettling 5,000 through the Scheme in the first year.

We are working at pace to prepare to receive the first referrals under Pathways 2 and 3 as soon as we can, so individuals affected by the events in Afghanistan can safely arrive in the UK and start to rebuild their lives.

We will publish ACRS resettlement figures in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, allowing transparent progress-monitoring.

Progress against the HMCTS recovery plan published on 1 July is already well underway to reduce outstanding cases and to get our operating capacity as close as possible to pre-Covid levels.

We are investing record amounts, with £153m to improve court and tribunal buildings – the biggest single investment in court estate maintenance for more than 20 years. We’ve also opened 14 Nightingale Courts and over 240 jury courtrooms, while Magistrates’ Courts have been completing more cases than they are receiving.

We’ve piloted Covid Operating hours at the Crown Court in Liverpool and several other crown courts. I’m also pleased the number of hearings across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions is also increasing.

The tourism and hospitality sectors have benefited from UK-wide Government financial support. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been extended for a further one month until December.

In addition, a VAT cut to 5% has been extended for both sectors.

While the Government will take every opportunity to promote Northern Ireland, tourism is the responsibility of the NI Executive, to whom the Government has provided £2.4bn to respond to the pandemic, including supporting those sectors most affected.