David Smith

As sustainable biomass is a limited resource, the Government expects to prioritise its use in sectors like aviation, and potentially the small number of homes unsuitable for heat pumps, as these sectors have fewest options to decarbonise. The cost of renewable liquid heating fuels is currently much higher than other fuels available to off grid customers. Before taking decisions on whether to support the use of renewable liquid fuels, like hydrotreated vegetable oil, in heating, the Government would require stronger evidence on their affordability for consumers, and the availability of sustainable feedstocks.

As Minister for the Future of Roads I regularly meet with freight companies and trade associations, as do officials. Noting that lorries and vans crossing the Channel continue to be a key route for importing and exporting goods, I am keen to continue these discussions and welcome using a future engagement to consider small vans specifically.

ONS population estimates suggest that in 2021 there were approximately 7,630 females born in the 1950s currently resident in the North Northumberland constituency, and 23,639 females currently resident in Northumberland.

I met representatives from the WASPI campaign on the 5^th September. There are currently no future meetings planned.

Since 2020, the National Health Service in England has invested significantly in supporting people with long COVID. This includes setting up specialist post-COVID services nationwide for adults, and children and young people, as well as investing in ensuring general practice teams are equipped to support people affected by the condition.

As of 1 April 2024, there are more than 90 adult post-COVID services across England, along with an additional ten children and young people’s hubs. These services assess people with long COVID and direct them into care pathways which provide appropriate support and treatment. General practitioners will assess patients that have COVID-19 symptoms lasting longer than four weeks and refer them into a long COVID service where appropriate. Referral should be via a single point of access, which is managed by clinician-led triage.

Over the last five years, the Government, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), has invested more than £57 million in long COVID research, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID. The NIHR specifically has invested £42.7 million towards research funding for long COVID. The projects funded aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care. Further information on the research into long COVID commissioned through the NIHR can be found at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/covid-19/long-COVID

The NIHR and MRC are committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences and treatment of long COVID, and are actively exploring next steps for research in these areas.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Over the last five years, the Government, through NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC), has invested over £57 million in long COVID research, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID. The NIHR specifically has invested £42.7 million towards research funding for long COVID. The projects funded aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care. Further information on the research into long COVID commissioned through the NIHR can be found at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/covid-19/long-COVID

The NIHR and MRC are committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences and treatment of long COVID, and are actively exploring next steps for research in these areas.

Passengers bringing in accompanied commercial goods into Great Britain can benefit from Merchandise in Baggage arrangements such as making a simple online declaration, rather than a full electronic customs declaration, and not being required to make a Safety and Security declaration. This applies where the goods are under £2,500, weigh less than 1,000kg and are not restricted or excise goods. The government is committed to facilitating legitimate UK trade and HMRC has set out a package of measures to simplify customs import and export processes for traders, while upholding the UK’s high regulatory and security standards at the border. Details of this can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customs-simplification-measures-december-2023/summary-of-customs-simplification-measures-december-2023.

The UK's commodity code nomenclature forms the core structure for delivering the UK's international trade policy. Derived from the World Custom’s Organization’s Harmonized System, for which HMRC represents and promotes UK interests, the commodity codes used in the UK provide critical granularity to enable the delivery of key UK policy required to support UK growth. As such, there are no plans to fundamentally change or reduce the UK commodity code structure; the current system is designed to both facilitate cross border trade and help maintain the UK’s compliance programme to protect UK businesses. HMRC offers guidance and a significant support service to help people in determining the correct commodity code for their goods.

The weighing of goods for customs duty and declarations is required to operate an effective tariff system and is in line with recognised international trade practices. We are therefore unlikely to make any significant changes to weight requirements for the types of goods covered.

The government is committed to facilitating legitimate UK trade and HMRC has set out a package of measures to simplify customs import and export processes for traders, while upholding the UK’s high regulatory and security standards at the border. Details of this can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customs-simplification-measures-december-2023/summary-of-customs-simplification-measures-december-2023.

Whilst working within a global customs framework, HMRC’s strategic aim of ‘making it easy to get tax right and hard to bend or break the rules’ ensures that HMRC has an ongoing interest in balancing the need for facilitations, to reduce administrative burdens, and the right compliance activities to support and protect UK businesses.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement governs goods trade between the UK and EU and provides that all goods can be traded tariff-free subject to rules of origin requirements being met. The Government is committed to working with European partners to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship across a range of areas. Further information on trading tariff-free under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is available on GOV.UK here: Introduction to rules of origin and claiming duties when trading between the UK and EU - GOV.UK