Chris Vince

The Department is working with the European Union and Members States to break down trade barriers. As part of this agenda, we need effective ongoing dialogue with both British businesses and the European Union. As part of this, later today, Minister Thomas and I are hosting a roundtable to gather views from businesses on how the UK-EU trading relationship can be improved. My officials are also engaging with businesses to understand the barriers they face and how this Government can support then to grow and export to the European Union.

The department has not completed a formal assessment of the impact of the Caledonian building works on pupils. However, the department is aware of the significant disruption for the school and pupils. The department continues to work closely with the trust and local authority to ensure all pupils at Sir Frederick Gibberd College receive an excellent education in a safe and secure environment.

The Deregulation Act 2015 enabled Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) operators to sub-contract bookings to each other across licensing boundaries, but the legislation has always allowed taxis and PHVs to operate outside of the area in which they are licensed. Taxis can only ply for hire (pick up passengers at taxi ranks or be hailed in the street) in the area in which they are licensed, but pre-booked work by PHVs and taxis can be undertaken anywhere.

The Department for Transport does not hold any information about the number and proportion of PHV drivers operating in the Harlow area but licensed by other licensing authorities. As of 1 April 2023, there were 346,300 licensed taxi and PHV drivers in England, of which 264 were licensed by Harlow Council.

This Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.

The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable, and we have set out our mission to halve it within a decade. Achieving this means overhauling every aspect of society’s response to these devastating crimes.

This includes drastically improving the police and wider criminal justice response, including targeting the most prolific and harmful perpetrators to better protect victims and preventing reoffending.

Prevention and education are fundamental to our approach, and we will also tackle the root causes of these crimes, including supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.