David Morris

The STEP programme aims to develop and build a prototype fusion power plant in the UK by 2040. The UKAEA has made great progress and are on track to deliver a concept design by 2024, as planned.

The process to select a site for STEP is underway and there have been high levels of engagement from potential sites across the UK, including one in the constituency of my hon Friend.

Grant-making charities must ensure that charitable funds are used to further their charitable purposes. The Charity Commission for England and Wales publishes guidance ("Campaigning and political activity guidance for charities (CC9)") on the extent to which charities can legitimately engage in non-party political activity as part of furthering their charitable purposes.

Any concerns that charitable funds are being used inappropriately, for example for party-political activities or purposes, should be raised with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, which can investigate and if appropriate take action. There are currently no plans to bring forward legislative proposals on this subject.

Following the announcement of the recent election, updated guidance was issued and circulated to schools on their responsibilities during the pre-election period here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-election-guidance-for-schools-and-multi-academy-trusts/pre-election-guidance-for-schools-and-multi-academy-trusts.

Any school visits conducted by parliamentary candidates are arranged through their constituency offices rather than via the Department for Education. Decisions on the use of schools or other educational/public sector property must be taken by those legally responsible for the premises concerned – for example, for schools, the Governors or the Local Education Authority or Trust Board.

Although the ultimate decision is for those legally responsible for the premises to take, they are expected to treat the candidates of all parties in an even-handed way, and ensure that there should be no disruption to services.

I look forward to visiting a school in my hon. Friend, the member for Morecambe and Lunesdale's constituency, should a suitable opportunity arise.

Dairy farmers are crucial in ensuring that food supplies remain resilient during this difficult period. In addition to the various HM Treasury COVID-19 support packages, Defra has introduced specific measures to support the dairy industry during the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly those impacted by the loss of the food service sector. These include a dairy support scheme, easements to competition law, support for an AHDB milk promotion campaign and the opening of various intervention and storage aid schemes.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to manage local care markets. The Care Act guidance states that local authorities should assure and have evidence that fee levels are appropriate to provide the agreed quality of care and enable providers to effectively support care users and invest in staff development, innovation and improvement.

We are committing £1.36 billion to the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund over the next three years. On 24 March 2022, we published guidance which provides advice to local authorities for completing and returning cost of care exercises to the Department and templates which local authorities must use as part of an acceptable submission. These state a standard list of cost lines to assess care home providers. Where average fee rates are below the fair cost of care, we expect local authorities to use the Fund to begin to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care and to set out in the Market Sustainability Plans how this will be achieved.

The Department has provided both the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust with £3.7 million to develop plans for improving facilities at each Trust. The Trust has not submitted any formal plans for a single site hospital to the Department.

No assessment has been made. We expect the tobacco industry to comply with the requirements of The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, and this includes the recent ban on the sale of menthol flavoured cigarettes. A breach of the regulations could result in enforcement action being taken.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to the vast majority of goods and services. While there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.

One such exception is a reduced rate of VAT at 5 per cent, subject to certain conditions, for residential renovations, such as building services and materials. This includes conversions of buildings from one residential use to another, conversions from commercial to residential use, and the renovation of properties that have been empty for two years or more prior to the renovation work.

Another exception is applied to the installation in residential accommodation, including housing association accommodation and care homes, of various energy saving materials (ESMs), such as insulation and draught stripping. At Spring Statement 2022, the Chancellor announced that installations of ESMs will now be zero rated from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2027 in Great Britain. He also announced the removal of complex qualifying criteria. Further information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-vat-treatment-of-the-installation-of-energy-saving-materials-in-in-great-britain/the-value-added-tax-installation-of-energy-saving-materials-order-2022.

Expanding the reliefs further would come at a significant cost to the public finances. For example, introducing a reduced rate of VAT on all renovations and repairs to residential properties would cost around £3.75 billion per year. Such costs would have to be balanced by increased taxes elsewhere, increased borrowing or reductions in Government spending. However, the Government keeps all taxes under review.

The increase to Employer National Insurance contributions by 1.25 percentage points is expected to raise £975 million per year from employers carrying out health and social care activities. The Government cannot break this down to show the cost to care home operators.

The Government has made the tough but responsible choice to increase taxes to fund a significant increase in permanent spending on the NHS and social care. There are no plans to exempt the care sector from the National Insurance increase.

On the 7 September the Government announced that we would be investing an additional £5.4 billion over the next three years using the funds raised by the levy to begin a comprehensive programme of reform for adult social care. Additionally, local authorities can make use of over £1 billion of additional resource specifically for social care in 2022-23. This includes £636 million more into the Social Care Grant, including funding for equalisation against the 1 per cent Adult Social Care (ASC) precept, an inflationary uplift to the improved Better Care Fund to support integrated working with the NHS, and a 1 per cent ASC precept and deferred flexibilities from last year's settlement.