Chris Bryant

Since the first List of Ministers’ Interests was published in 2009, the timing of publication has varied. The next list of Ministers’ interests will be published in due course, following the appointment of a new Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests.

I can assure the Hon Member that all colleagues across government recognise the importance of coordinating support for people with acquired brain injury, as I highlighted to him in our meeting of 1 July. The Hon Member is a powerful champion of this significant cause on which government is determined to make progress.

In line with the practice of successive governments, I am not able to disclose details of internal discussions, but I will update the Hon Member on the government’s work on this issue in due course.

There are 2144 coal tips in Wales, with continued refinement of information ongoing.

There is no central assessment of the number of Tips in England but the Coal Authority own 7 tips in England and these are kept under regular monitoring.

The Welsh Government has asked the Law Commission to evaluate current legislation relating to coal tip safety with a view to identifying gaps, inconsistencies and approaches which are unhelpful or have become outdated. It will identify options for alternative regulatory models appropriate for adoption in Wales, and consider the features needed to ensure that any proposed system is effective. The project is expected to take between 13 and 15 months.

The majority of Tips in England are lower risk as the topography is flatter in England and more have been economically restored/developed as they are more suitable for that and there has been more economic drivers. Following the Tylorstown slip in Wales local authorities in England were asked to check any tips they owned and report any concerns. No concerns were reported.

£9m from UK funding has been allocated for coal tip safety in Wales in 2020/21. The UK and Welsh Governments are discussing longer term funding.

The Coal Authority budget an average of £10k per tip per annum for ongoing maintenance and inspection for the tips they own across the UK (26 in Wales, 7 in England). There can be additional costs on individual tips if more extensive work is identified.

As part of its statutory responsibilities the Coal Authority, one of the Department’s Partner Organisations, has regular contact with Local Authorities in former coal field areas on a range of issues relating to liabilities arising from former coal workings. Following the recent floods, the Coal Authority will be writing to all Local Authorities to remind them of their responsibilities in relation to the management and oversight of coal sites, offering support and advice where required.

The Coal Authority are already working with the Wales Office, the Welsh Assembly Government, Local Authorities and Natural Resource Wales to assess the risks in relation to coal tips in Wales where there have been specific concerns raised.

• The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.

• The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.

• Under the roadmap, we seek to reopen outdoor elements of museums and galleries and aquariums in Step 2 (no earlier than 12th April), with indoor elements at these attractions opening at Step 3 (no earlier than 17th May).

• Commercial art galleries can reopen in Step 2, when restrictions on non-essential retail are lifted.

We do not collect this data, but the special educational needs system is designed to put in the right support for children irrespective of their condition. We are committed to driving up the quality of this support across the country, including through an extra £780 million high needs funding next year.

The Government is fully committed to agreeing a trade deal with the EU from 1 January 2021. As any responsible government would, we are also preparing for the possibility of ‘no deal’, which is why we have contingency plans in place to minimise disruption for the food and farming sectors as much as possible.

Through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, Defra and the Devolved Administrations continue to monitor the market situation across various agricultural commodities. Officials have also been reviewing and updating the analysis we undertook as part of our no deal preparations in 2019. No decisions have been taken on any sector specific interventions, including lamb, after the end of the Transition Period.

The list of Advisers to the Board of Trade is available on GOV.UK. The President of the Board of Trade is my Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade.

The advisers are:

• Deputy President, Marcus Fysh MP

• Secretary of State for Scotland

• Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

• Secretary of State for Wales

• Minister for Trade Policy

• Minister for Investment

• Minister for Exports

• Minister for International Trade

• The Hon Tony Abbott AC

• Karen Betts

• Anne Boden MBE

• Daniel Hannan

• Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt

• Emma Howard Boyd

• Michael Liebreich

• Rt Hon the Lord Mayor of the City of London, William Russell

• Dr Linda Yueh

Permanent members of the UK Board of Trade have to be members of the Privy Council. The President of the Board of Trade is my Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade.

Advisers to the UK Board of Trade are appointed through the Direct Ministerial Appointment process, following Cabinet Office Propriety & Ethics guidelines. This means that individuals are appointed at the discretion of the Secretary of State. The roles are taken on a voluntary basis and are not remunerated.

The Government has strengthened the safety net to provide financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is committed to providing financial support for people at every stage of their life, including when they near or reach retirement. The welfare system will continue to provide support to men and women who are unable to work or those who are on a low income but who are not eligible to pensioner benefits because of their age.

We have invested in a significant new programme, the Plan for Jobs, to help people of all ages who may be made redundant find work and acquire the skills they need to return to work. Our Fuller Working Lives strategy and the Business Champion for Older Workers and Employers will continue to encourage businesses to recognise the value and skills of employing older workers. Jobcentre Plus Older Claimant Champions provide additional tailored support to help people return to work. We have never spent more as a country on welfare support than we do now.

The latest available information on the number of people on Universal Credit broken down by gender and by age is published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

The Government has strengthened the safety net to provide financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is committed to providing financial support for people at every stage of their life, including when they near or reach retirement. The welfare system will continue to provide support to men and women who are unable to work or those who are on a low income but who are not eligible to pensioner benefits because of their age.

We have invested in a significant new programme, the Plan for Jobs, to help people of all ages who may be made redundant find work and acquire the skills they need to return to work. Our Fuller Working Lives strategy and the Business Champion for Older Workers and Employers will continue to encourage businesses to recognise the value and skills of employing older workers. Jobcentre Plus Older Claimant Champions provide additional tailored support to help people return to work. We have never spent more as a country on welfare support than we do now.

Across the range of income-related benefits, there are provisions to disregard payments received for the express purpose of effecting essential repairs to a home damaged by flooding, to make it habitable again, and intended to be used for that purpose. Monies raised though crowd funding have no impact on contributory benefits.

The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) is now linked to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal programme.

In the case of nivolumab for adjuvant treatment of completely resected melanoma with lymph node involvement or metastatic disease, this drug has been available to eligible National Health Service patients through the CDF in accordance with NICE’s recommendation in January 2019.

NICE is now reviewing this decision and published its draft recommendation in November 2020. NICE was unable to recommend nivolumab for routine funding in its draft guidance. However, this is not final guidance and a consultation on the draft recommendations closed on 25 November. NICE will has now considered the responses to the draft recommendation at the committee meeting on 5 January 2021 and expects to publish its final guidance in March 2021.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for producing evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether medicines represent a clinical and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended through a NICE appraisal.

Overall 82% of the recommendations in the technology appraisal guidance are positive - recommended, optimised, or recommended in the Cancer Drugs Fund - the percentage positive recommendations in melanoma treatments is higher at more than 92%.

We have made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and it would not be appropriate for the Department to interfere in the development of NICE’s recommendations

While NICE was unable to recommend Nivolumab for routine funding in its draft recommendation of November 2020 (ID1681), this is not final guidance and a consultation on the draft recommendations closed on 25 November. NICE will now consider the responses to the draft recommendation and expects to publish its final guidance in March 2021.

The UK is deeply concerned about reports of Russian Wagner Group personnel and other external actors operating in Libya. We take seriously violations of International Humanitarian Law and breaches of sanctions, including the UN arms embargo. We continue to stress to all states the necessity of complying with and enforcing international law. The UK carefully considers all reports of sanctions breaches, including the reports of the UN Panel of Experts, and regularly reviews sanctions measures.

We continue to discuss with NATO allies how we must continue to work together on Libya to encourage all parties to de-escalate, support the UN ceasefire talks and respect the UN arms embargo. We share the concerns of the US and other allies about Russia's reported deployment of fighter aircraft from Syria and Wagner Group personnel to Libya in breach of the embargo.

Gratuitous payments to people, made from a pot of funds raised by crowdfunding, will not be taxable income. To be gratuitous, there must be no agreement or expectation that the recipient will provide something in return.

In England, the Government generally allocates funding to local authorities in line with their relative need. For example, since the start of the pandemic, we have allocated an additional £3.7 billion un-ringfenced funding to local authorities in England, and have taken into account population, deprivation and how service delivery costs vary across the country in distributing this money.

Local authority allocations in Wales are a fully devolved matter.

The Government announced on 8 March its intention to bring forward legislation to change the mandatory retirement age for all judicial office holders, including magistrates, to 75 – a step which I know has been welcomed by many magistrates

We will also be legislating to allow retired magistrates to apply to return to the bench where there is a business need.

On 1 April 2020, there were 13,177 magistrates. We are currently updating our modelling to assess the impact of a change to the retirement age on our recruitment requirements in each region for 2021/22 and beyond.

The government has no current plans to increase magistrates’ custodial sentencing powers, but keeps this under review.

Applications for deputyship heard by the Court of Protection are published in Family Court Statistics Quarterly (FCSQ). They are a subset of data which is due for publication in September so cannot be provided at this stage.

The average waiting time for an application for deputyship to be heard by the Court of Protection is 39 days based on March 2020.

Government is putting in place a range of measures to ensure the UK is prepared to manage the impacts of a Covid-19 outbreak. Part of this planning is ensuring we are prepared for higher numbers of people dying over the period of the pandemic.

Ensuring the deceased are treated with dignity and respect whilst minimising the risks to public health is at the forefront of Government planning. Measures underway will increase capacity at a local level to manage additional demand.

The Government’s Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan) sets out planning principles that underpin the response to the Covid-19 outbreak. As part of this response, provisions have been included in the Coronavirus Bill which will ensure the sector can manage the impact of the pandemic.

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My Department and others are determined to ensure that all of those affected by flooding are supported in the best way possible. Flood response in Wales is a devolved matter. The UK Government will look seriously at any request from the Welsh Government for additional support and assistance for flood relief, including additional finances.

Following the unprecedented flooding brought by recent storms, urgent work is being carried out across the UK to assess any risk posed to people or property and to confirm that everyone with a legal responsibility around the tips is fulfilling their safety obligations. Authorities and agencies involved are working together and good progress is being made on this vital work.

I spoke with the Coal Authority on 23 February 2020 and was further reassured following a meeting on 24 February 2020 with the First Minister of Wales, Natural Resources Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council and the Coal Authority that we have a plan of action to allow us to make the necessary assessment of coal tips across South Wales.

I welcome the commitment from all partners to ensuring that this work is delivered at pace, enabling us to be able to provide the general public in the locality of coal tips with appropriate reassurance. The Welsh and UK Governments will continue to co-ordinate this vital work.