Damian Collins

On 20 January 2015, EdF announced that the life of Dungeness B has been extended to 2028. This was a decision for EdF as the owner and operator to make in consultation with the regulator.

There is no regulatory requirement for nuclear plant operators to gain permission from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), for a plant life extension. Plant operators must instead demonstrate that plant will continue to run safely and in compliance with site licence conditions in the course of regular ONR assessments. However, in the case of Dungeness B, EdF and the ONR agreed it would be beneficial for ONR to review the life extension proposals in advance of the life extension announcement, which they have done.

Separately, in order to ensure that the extension does not impact on the UK taxpayer, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) reviewed the impact of the decision on the UK’s Nuclear Liability Fund last year. The NDA approved the life extension to the plant. The assessment showed net savings rather than net costs.

Information on the number of learners participating on an apprenticeship between 2009/10 and 2013/14 across constituencies is published in a supplementary table to a Statistical First Release (SFR):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/378732/apprenticeships-participation-by-constituency-and-local-authority.xls

Since the Start-Up Loans scheme launched in June 2012, a total of 33 loans have been issued in the Shepway local authority area, with a drawn down value of £123,350.

Requesting data from social media platforms for use in criminal investigations – which may of course lead to the CPS bringing charges – is an investigative matter for the police, who will have to decide if that’s an appropriate line of inquiry.

Where investigators are unable to obtain data held overseas themselves, CPS prosecutors may draft and issue requests for Mutual Legal Assistance from international counterparts. That capability is further enhanced by powers created by the Government in the Crime (Overseas Production Order) Act 2019.

The Defending Democracy programme coordinates work and expertise across government work to safeguard the integrity and security of our democratic processes.

Through the Online Harms legislative proposals, the programme is making good progress against two of its strategic objectives: to encourage respect for open, fair and safe democratic participation; and to promote fact-based discourse.

The transition period will end on 31 December, and the Government made extensive preparations for the changes and opportunities that will come. We have set out a package of support for border infrastructure and the customs intermediaries sector, and provided extensive guidance to business at gov.uk/transition.

The Government has also intensified engagement with businesses, including through the Brexit Business Taskforce, and is running a major public information campaign which tells businesses and citizens the steps they need to take to prepare.

The Government is reviewing the opportunities of a mobile alerting capability to issue alerts to mobile devices. The Government recognises the need for messages to be easily understood by everyone receiving them.

The consultation closed in October. We are carefully considering the responses we received and will publish our response in due course.

The Government is currently considering the recommendations of the Competition and Market Authority’s market study and will respond in due course.

The Sports Concussion Research Forum’s terms of reference are to develop a prioritised list of translatable research aims relating to concussion in sport, to be drawn from both the sports and academic communities, including consideration of such research that may extend beyond sport-specific areas, where appropriate.

The further aim of the Forum is to encourage academic institutions, foundations and other organisations to make concussion in sport one of their priorities and to focus their work in this area around the Forum’s prioritised list of research aims, which is expected to be published in 2024.

The members of the Sports Concussion Research Forum are:

• Dr Robin Buckle (Chair), Chief Scientific Officer, Medical Research Council/UKRI
• Prof Damian Bailey, University of South Wales
• Prof Alan Carson, University of Edinburgh
• Prof Peter Hutchinson, University of Cambridge and National Institute of Health Research
• Prof Elizabeth Jeffries, University of York
• Prof Fiona Lecky, University of Sheffield and Research Director of the Trauma Audit and Research Network
• Prof Niklas Marklund, University of Lund, Sweden
• Prof James Rowe, University of Cambridge
• Prof David Sharp, Imperial College London and UK Dementia Research Institute

The Government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zones programme ran from 2019-2024, operating in England only. It was administered by Historic England. Since 2019, there have been £90,948,829 in grants awarded through the fund.

The programme has funded the transformation and restoration of over 60 high streets, creating economic growth and improving quality of life in these areas.

Two grants were awarded in Kent, in Ramsgate and Chatham. In total, the two schemes were awarded £2,241,797 over the course of the programme.

The High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme came to an end in March 2024.

The Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme is investing over £325 million between 2021 and 2025 to level up facilities across the whole of the UK. The programme provides funding to make essential facility improvements, so that communities have a high-quality pitch to play on, and is a clear demonstration of the government’s commitment to levelling up all corners of the United Kingdom.

Since 2021, over £200 million has been invested in over 2,400 sites across the UK, improving the natural and artificial grass pitches on offer to communities and upgrading floodlights, goalposts, changing rooms and toilet facilities. All funded projects are listed on gov.uk at this link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2021-to-2025

Grants that were awarded in England prior to 2021 were delivered by the Football Foundation, funded through Sport England. Sport England’s funding to the Football Foundation is available on their website, along with all awards made by Sport England to football clubs since 2009: https://www.sportengland.org/

Sport is devolved - grants made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland prior to the Multi-Sports Grassroots Facilities Programme are a matter for the Devolved Administrations.

Over 800,000 young people participated in an NCS programme between 2010/11 and 2022/23. The NCS programme is due to deliver 261,000 experiences between 2023/24 and 2024/25, as per the 2023/24 Annual Business Plan. The number of experiences delivered in the year 2023/24 will be published in the Annual Report later this year.

Evidence-based sports research is an important component in ensuring that sport is made as safe as possible for all participants. To that end, DCMS established a Sports Concussion Research Forum in July 2022, chaired by the Medical Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. This brings together key academic experts with experience of traumatic brain injury, neurology and concussion to identify the priority research questions for the sporting sector.

The Research Forum has met five times since its inception and is now formulating a report to identify those priority research questions, with the report expected to be completed in 2024.

The Government remains committed to working with sports stakeholders to build on the positive work that is already taking place to mitigate the causes and effects of concussion in sport.

The department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 to keep schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion in 2023/24.

Between 2015/16, when the current condition funding system was introduced, and 2023/24, Kent local authority has been allocated a total of £170,514,468 in school condition allocations (SCA), devolved formula capital (DFC) and one-off funding allocations to improve the condition of its maintained schools, including those in Folkestone and Hythe. Larger multi-academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies (which cross local authority and parliamentary constituency boundaries) will also have been allocated condition funding in respect of the schools for which they are responsible. Funding allocations prior to 2015 are visible on the National Archives website available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/*/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations. It is for local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies to prioritise School Condition Allocations across their schools based on local knowledge of need.

In addition, 32 projects at 11 schools within the constituency have received funding through the Condition Improvement Fund and two schools were included in the Priority School Building Programme.

Funding allocations for 2023/24 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding.

Schools have the flexibility to change both the destination and the timing of their projects within the 2021/22 academic year and should consider running placements later in the current academic year if they find their planned dates are impeded by COVID-19.

The funding period for Turing Scheme projects for the 2021/22 academic year ends on 31 August 2022. The Turing Scheme was allocated funding as part of the Spending Review 2020 to be distributed to Turing Scheme beneficiaries for the delivery of mobilities during the 2021/22 academic year. In line with government spending requirements, any government funding must be used within the period that it has been allocated for.

The Turing Scheme has had funding confirmed for the next three years as part of the Spending Review 2021, and providers that could not deliver their mobilities in academic year 2021/22 are encouraged to apply again if they wish to run their activity in academic year 2022/23.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals at home by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. Schools have continued to receive all their funding for benefits-related and universal infant free school meals. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.

Schools are best placed to make decisions about the most appropriate arrangements for eligible pupils, and this can include food parcel arrangements, alternative voucher arrangements or provision through the national voucher scheme.

Edenred has reported that over £154 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by schools and families through the national voucher scheme as of Monday 15 June. Edenred has also reported that over 17,500 schools had placed orders for the scheme as of Tuesday 26 May. We do not collect data on the scheme at pupil level.

The number and proportion of students who qualify for free school meals is published in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication and its underlying data files. We do not collect data at constituency level.

The 2019 publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2019.

In accordance with Reservoirs Act 1975 (Capacity, Registration, Prescribed Forms, etc) (England) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1677) and subsequent guidance produced by the UK Reservoir Safety Liaison Group (the National Protocol for the Handling, Transmission and Storage of Reservoir Information and Flood Maps), we are unable to publish the full content of the section 10 report and section 12 statement. I recognise the level of local interest in this matter, and the Environment Agency (EA) will disclose information regarding the planned works that it considers will be of benefit to interested members of the public.

The EA has heard from the community that redacted documents are unhelpful and do not contribute to building trust and cooperation. The EA will be visiting the site in mid-September and intends to openly communicate the legally required work proposed for the site.

The table below details the value of the investment by the Environment Agency in flood defences in Folkestone and Hythe constituency from May 2010 to date:

On 2 December 2014, the Government published its programme of capital flood and coastal erosion risk management improvement works for the coming six years, up to 2021. This includes indicative allocations to the following schemes in the Folkestone and Hythe constituency:

NB. The two Denge projects cross the constituency boundary.

During the Dialogues in Baltimore and Aberdeen, Ambassador Tai and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade agreed to work together to develop an ambitious roadmap for further bilateral collaboration over the coming weeks, including further collaboration on reducing market barriers.

Last month we signed our first state-level trade and economic development Memorandum of Understanding with Indiana, creating a framework to help remove barriers to trade and investment. We hope to sign more MOUs this year.

The United Kingdom is committed to maintaining high standards of protection for personal data, including when it is transferred across borders. Data provisions in Free Trade Agreements including the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are separate but complementary to the United Kingdom’s adequacy process and international data protection frameworks.

Through CEPA, we have agreed to avoid unjustified restrictions on the free flow of data between the United Kingdom and Japan, and committed to maintaining a legal framework that provides for the protection of personal information. CEPA only addresses data flows between the United Kingdom and Japan and does not address onward transfers to other jurisdictions. The United Kingdom has not endorsed the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross Border Privacy Rules System (APEC CBPR).

Separately, the United Kingdom has preserved the effect of the EU's adequacy decision for Japan on a transitional basis. This does not permit the onward transfer of EU data using APEC CBPR.

The United Kingdom is committed to maintaining high standards of protection for personal data, including when it is transferred across borders. Data provisions in Free Trade Agreements including the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are separate but complementary to the United Kingdom’s adequacy process and international data protection frameworks.

Through CEPA, we have agreed to avoid unjustified restrictions on the free flow of data between the United Kingdom and Japan, and committed to maintaining a legal framework that provides for the protection of personal information. CEPA only addresses data flows between the United Kingdom and Japan and does not address onward transfers to other jurisdictions. The United Kingdom has not endorsed the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross Border Privacy Rules System (APEC CBPR).

Separately, the United Kingdom has preserved the effect of the EU's adequacy decision for Japan on a transitional basis. This does not permit the onward transfer of EU data using APEC CBPR.

The United Kingdom is committed to maintaining high standards of protection for personal data, including when it is transferred across borders. Data provisions in Free Trade Agreements including the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are separate but complementary to the United Kingdom’s adequacy process and international data protection frameworks.

Through CEPA, we have agreed to avoid unjustified restrictions on the free flow of data between the United Kingdom and Japan, and committed to maintaining a legal framework that provides for the protection of personal information. CEPA only addresses data flows between the United Kingdom and Japan and does not address onward transfers to other jurisdictions. The United Kingdom has not endorsed the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross Border Privacy Rules System (APEC CBPR).

Separately, the United Kingdom has preserved the effect of the EU's adequacy decision for Japan on a transitional basis. This does not permit the onward transfer of EU data using APEC CBPR.

The United Kingdom is committed to maintaining high standards of protection for personal data, including when it is transferred across borders. Data provisions in Free Trade Agreements including the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are separate but complementary to the United Kingdom’s adequacy process and international data protection frameworks.

Through CEPA, we have agreed to avoid unjustified restrictions on the free flow of data between the United Kingdom and Japan, and committed to maintaining a legal framework that provides for the protection of personal information. CEPA only addresses data flows between the United Kingdom and Japan and does not address onward transfers to other jurisdictions. The United Kingdom has not endorsed the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross Border Privacy Rules System (APEC CBPR).

Separately, the United Kingdom has preserved the effect of the EU's adequacy decision for Japan on a transitional basis. This does not permit the onward transfer of EU data using APEC CBPR.

There have been multiple replies sent regarding Mrs Old in the past twelve months. The Department will contact the Hon Member’s office and provide copies of any replies that you have not received. The Department has no record of any correspondence being received on 25^th June; if a copy can be provided, a response will be sent as soon as possible.

Taking account of past studies and the work of the European Gateway Group, Highways England and local partners drew up a number of criteria for a proposed lorry park. Based on these criteria, a range of sites were considered, and two viable sites were identified.

The current public consultation describes these two potential sites and invites suggestions as to other sites that may be suitable. Following the consultation, Highways England will assess all sites suggested and report on their suitability for an off road lorry area.

In the eleven calendar months since the introduction of the HGV Levy in April 2014, the revenue has been £42.1m from non-UK registered vehicles and £132.5m from UK-registered vehicles. This totals £174.6m.

We do not hold the requested information centrally.

The ‘Financial assistance under section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006’ reports set out all funding that was provided to NHS trusts for each financial year and are published with the Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts. However, this does not itemise the funding at the individual hospital and site level. The reports are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-financing-available-to-nhs-trusts-and-foundation-trusts

We take parliamentary scrutiny incredibly seriously and it is fundamentally important that hon. Members are provided with accurate and timely information to enable them to hold Government to account. We are working rapidly to provide all hon. Members with accurate answers to their questions, as well as supporting the Government’s response to the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hon. Member’s questions will be answered as soon as possible.

As between the parties, the Government retains legal responsibility for any data breaches or loss of data under its contract with Amazon for data storage.

This is the main data storage contract for NHS Test and Trace. Any other data storage is acquired using Government frameworks which set out standard positions in relation to legal and financial remedies.

The contract was released on 5 June 2020 and will be formally published in due course.

NHS England has not made any application programming interfaces available to Palantir.