Euan Stainbank

The government is committed to supporting the UK’s domestic bus manufacturing industry and ensuring a fair, competitive procurement process. The new National Procurement Policy Statement will be focused on our missions, growing the economy, creating high-quality local jobs, driving innovation and opening up opportunities to small businesses and social enterprises. Contracting authorities are encouraged to consider how their procurement strategies can support domestic supply chains, including the bus manufacturing sector.

We remain committed to discussions with the US on a wider economic deal that works for both countries but this Government will do what is necessary to defend the UK’s national interest. On 3 April, we launched a Request for Input from businesses, offering them a chance to influence the design of a possible UK response.

We continue to support businesses of all sizes to grow and export globally, including to the US. Through Great.gov.uk, businesses will be able to access export support programmes including the Export Academy, International Markets Network, Growth Hubs and Help to Grow: Management scheme.

Advanced manufacturing is critical to UK prosperity. This Government will continue to support the sector through our forthcoming Industrial Strategy, where advanced manufacturing has been selected as one of eight growth-driving sectors.

We remain committed to discussions with the US on a wider economic deal that works both for the UK and the US but nothing is off the table - we will do what is necessary to defend the UK’s national interest. That is why on 3 April, we launched a Request for Input to give businesses the chance to have their say and influence the UK response.

As sustainable biomass is a limited resource, the Government expect to prioritise its use in sectors like aviation, which have fewest options to decarbonise. Renewable liquid heating fuels are also much more expensive to use than other heating solutions.

Before taking decisions on whether to support the use of renewable liquid fuels in heating, the Government would require stronger evidence on their affordability for consumers, and the availability of sustainable feedstock.

As sustainable biomass is a limited resource, the Government expect to prioritise its use in sectors like aviation, which have fewest options to decarbonise. Renewable liquid heating fuels are also much more expensive to use than other heating solutions.

Before taking decisions on whether to support the use of renewable liquid fuels in heating, the Government would require stronger evidence on their affordability for consumers, and the availability of sustainable feedstock.

Before July, there was no overall plan for the future of the Grangemouth refinery. Within weeks, we worked with the Scottish Government to put together a £100m package to support the community and invest in the local workforce, along with tailored support to secure good, alternative jobs.

We launched Project Willow to find an industrial future for the site – identifying nine low-carbon and renewable energy business models that could create 800 jobs by 2040.

We are ready to take these forward as co-investment projects with the private sector. Backed by £200 million from the National Wealth Fund, our investment agencies are working to find investors for these proposals and other low carbon and clean energy proposals in the Grangemouth area.

After the refinery closes, Grangemouth will supply Scotland with imported fuel. We have rigorously assessed Petroineos’ import terminal model to ensure it will provide energy security and resilience for Scotland, and we will continue monitoring to ensure long term confidence for Scottish consumers and businesses.

Before July, there was no overall plan for the future of the Grangemouth refinery. Within weeks, we worked with the Scottish Government to put together a £100m package to support the community and invest in the local workforce, along with tailored support to secure good, alternative jobs.

We launched Project Willow to find an industrial future for the site – identifying nine low-carbon and renewable energy business models that could create 800 jobs by 2040.

We are ready to take these forward as co-investment projects with the private sector. Backed by £200 million from the National Wealth Fund, our investment agencies are working to find investors for these proposals and other low carbon and clean energy proposals in the Grangemouth area.

After the refinery closes, Grangemouth will supply Scotland with imported fuel. We have rigorously assessed Petroineos’ import terminal model to ensure it will provide energy security and resilience for Scotland, and we will continue monitoring to ensure long term confidence for Scottish consumers and businesses.

Before July, there was no overall plan for the future of the Grangemouth refinery. Within weeks, we worked with the Scottish Government to put together a £100m package to support the community and invest in the local workforce, along with tailored support to secure good, alternative jobs.

We launched Project Willow to find an industrial future for the site – identifying nine low-carbon and renewable energy business models that could create 800 jobs by 2040.

We are ready to take these forward as co-investment projects with the private sector. Backed by £200 million from the National Wealth Fund, our investment agencies are working to find investors for these proposals and other low carbon and clean energy proposals in the Grangemouth area.

After the refinery closes, Grangemouth will supply Scotland with imported fuel. We have rigorously assessed Petroineos’ import terminal model to ensure it will provide energy security and resilience for Scotland, and we will continue monitoring to ensure long term confidence for Scottish consumers and businesses.

The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.

This consultation seeks views on proposals to introduce a package of measures, which includes a requirement for AI developers to be more transparent about how they obtain their training material, to enable copyright to be respected and more easily enforced.

The proposals include a rights reservation mechanism. This would need to be simple, practical, and accessible to both individual creators and larger rights holders. The Government welcomes feedback from UK-based creators on this approach, and how it will work in practice.

The consultation closed on 25 February.

Government takes the threats posed by generative AI extremely seriously. That is why we are taking forward our manifesto commitment to ban the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes in the Data (Use and Access) Bill.

AI-generated content is captured by the Online Safety Act where it constitutes illegal content or content harmful to children on an in-scope service. Fraud is designated a priority offence under the Act, and in-scope services will need to take proactive measures to tackle illegal fraud content.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology also works jointly with the Home Office and HM Treasury through the Joint Fraud Taskforce to address fraud across different sectors.

The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.

This consultation seeks views on a number of issues relating to copyright and AI including transparency from AI developers over their training sources and renumeration to the creative industries for the use of their work.

The success of any new approach to copyright and AI will depend on stronger trust between AI developers and right holders. That is why transparency and right holder control are two of the three primary objectives underpinning the Government’s approach to this work.

The consultation closes on 25 February.

The Government is committed to supporting the uptake and development of alternative methods to the use of animals in science and we are engaging with the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory authorities on how to take this commitment forward.

A significant part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding supports the development of alternative methods such as microphysiological systems, (eg.organ-on-a-chip and organoid platforms) and in silico models, eg. artificial intelligence (AI). The Government also currently invests £10m annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to accelerate the development and adoption of non-animal approaches.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. Sport England’s work focuses on increasing participation in sport, including tennis, at grassroots level to give more and better opportunities to all. Sport England provides long term investment to the Lawn Tennis Association, the National Governing Body for tennis in Britain, which receives up to £10.2 million for five years to invest in community tennis initiatives that will benefit everyone.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.

The Park Tennis Court Programme was a joint investment between the UK Government and Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) that started in 2022 and concluded in 2024.

All future funding of sports facilities will be considered as part of the Spending Review.

This government is clear that no teacher should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace.

The department will always support teachers to ensure they can work in safe and calm classrooms. All school employers, including trusts, have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their employees.

​For schools in England, the department expects schools to take immediate and robust action if incidents of violence occur. Any decision on how to sanction the pupil involved is a matter for the school. In the most serious cases, suspension and a permanent exclusion may be necessary to ensure that teachers and pupils are protected from disruption and to maintain safe, calm environments. Should the incident constitute a criminal offence, the school should report it to the police.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has met representatives from the devolved administrations on a number of occasions including at the UK Education Ministers Council. Whilst behaviour has not been the primary focus of these conversations, different government policies and approaches have been discussed and the department continues to be interested in the approaches taken in the devolved nations.

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging obligates brands and packaging producers to pay the costs of managing household packaging waste. Therefore, no assessment has been made of the merits of exempting all businesses in the hospitality sector.

This is because a wide range of hospitality businesses operate take away business models, where food, and primarily non-alcoholic drinks, are taken away by consumers and disposed of off premises. There is also packaging used in the hospitality sector which can be evidenced as not ending up in household bins. Under the current regulations producers can exempt this packaging from being classed as household packaging.

Since autumn 2024, the Government has been working with stakeholders to make an assessment of whether amendments to the regulations or the guidance can be made to further help producers in exempting packaging.

British farmers are world-leaders and know their own land best - carefully planning their planting to suit the weather, their soil type, and their long-term agronomic strategy.

The demand for UK produced crops is subject to global market prices and supply. Crop varieties grown in the UK can be of a specification for food, feed and/or bioenergy standards. This provides an in-built flexibility for farmers seeking an end-use market for their product. For farmers, the opportunity to sell into bioenergy often offers a secondary market for their surplus or lower quality crops and associated agricultural residues. The production of biofuels also produces valuable by-products including protein rich animal feed which is used by livestock farmers.

In 2023, 133 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the UK were used to grow crops for bioenergy. This area represents 2.2% of the arable land in the UK. 36% of land used for bioenergy was for biofuel (biodiesel and bioethanol) in the UK road transport market with the remainder mostly used for heat and power production.

Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) requires producers to bear the end-of-life costs associated with packaging that they place on the market, rather than the proportion of recycled materials contained.

The Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) has been used by producers to assess packaging recyclability from January 2025. The RAM is an important aspect of pEPR as it will determine the modulation sub-category, and therefore the level of fees applicable to that material, with higher fees applied to less sustainable packaging.

We have made a full impact assessment of implementing packaging extended producer responsibility will have which we published when The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 were laid before parliament.

Thirteen projects have been supported through the Advanced Fuels Fund, which aims to support first-of-a-kind sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plants through the project pipeline to reach investment ready stage and achieve commercial scale. Ministers and officials engage regularly with stakeholders across the SAF industry including producers and investors.

The government is working at pace to introduce the legislation for the Revenue Certainty Mechanism in the first session of this Parliament and expects the legislation for the Revenue Certainty Mechanism to be in place by the end of 2026.

No final decisions have been made on the approach to contract allocation for support under the scheme. We will continue to assess how the delivery of the Revenue Certainty Mechanism can be accelerated by working with industry in parallel with legislative processes.

Thirteen projects have been supported through the Advanced Fuels Fund, which aims to support first-of-a-kind sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plants through the project pipeline to reach investment ready stage and achieve commercial scale. Ministers and officials engage regularly with stakeholders across the SAF industry including producers and investors.

The government is working at pace to introduce the legislation for the Revenue Certainty Mechanism in the first session of this Parliament and expects the legislation for the Revenue Certainty Mechanism to be in place by the end of 2026.

No final decisions have been made on the approach to contract allocation for support under the scheme. We will continue to assess how the delivery of the Revenue Certainty Mechanism can be accelerated by working with industry in parallel with legislative processes.

The government is working at pace to deliver a revenue certainty mechanism for the UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel industry. The government has confirmed that it will introduce the SAF Revenue Support Bill in the first session of Parliament and we expect the legislation for a revenue certainty mechanism to be in place by the end of 2026. We will continue to monitor the estimated delivery date and work with industry to deliver an effective revenue certainty mechanism as soon as possible.

The government is working at pace to deliver a revenue certainty mechanism for the UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel industry. The government has confirmed that it will introduce the SAF Revenue Support Bill in the first session of Parliament and we expect the legislation for a revenue certainty mechanism to be in place by the end of 2026. We will continue to monitor the estimated delivery date and work with industry to deliver an effective revenue certainty mechanism as soon as possible.

We welcome the Project Willow Report and are pleased that nine potential business models have been identified to be taken forward at Grangemouth. To help make these models a reality, the Prime Minister recently announced a commitment of at least £200m through the National Wealth Fund for co-investment with the private sector once an investable proposition comes to the forefront. We will also consider Project Willow’s recommendations in due course.

We recognise that Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) will play an important role in the global Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) sector, particularly in the early years of the Mandate. We want to encourage UK production of HEFA in this global market and have not placed a cap on the amount of SAF produced in the UK.

However, certain feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, from which HEFA is made, are limited in volume and will not be able to provide the amounts of SAF we expect to need to in the long term. We therefore need to create space for a range of SAF technologies and feedstocks to develop.

The HEFA cap, which from 2027 will decrease the allowed contribution from HEFA as a proportion of total SAF supply annually, aims to create this space and encourage investment in alternative pathways. The cap would still allow around 1 million tonnes of HEFA SAF to be supplied in the UK each year from 2035 onwards.

The Average non salary recruitment cost for a civil servant at Executive Officer grade is £1,202.60.

Part (a)

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will implement, where applicable, the new National Living Wage rate of £12.21 per hour with effect from 1 April 2025. DWP annual salaries will reflect this new hourly rate regardless of age and working pattern.

DWP offers a comprehensive range of employee benefits, including enhanced discounts that make both essential and leisure purchases more affordable for our colleagues. Our Cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme promotes health and sustainability by making commuting more cost effective. Employees can also apply for salary advances to assist with budgeting, covering expenses like travel, rentals deposits, bike and safety equipment. We are committed to continuously enhancing our benefits offer, including the launch of a colleague dental insurance scheme next month.

Part (b)

Whilst employees who have a current time limited work visa should have an expectation that they may be unable to work beyond the date their visa expires, we realise this situation in relation to potential sponsorship via a skilled worker visa is extremely unsettling for those affected.

DWP takes the welfare of its staff very seriously and continue to provide a range of support to colleagues employed on time limited visas who may be impacted by the uplift to salary thresholds introduced in April 2024.

This support includes ensuring they understand their responsibilities in establishing whether they will be eligible to apply for other visas to enable them to remain in employment with DWP and signposting to wider employee assistance support that is available to them via departmental contracts.

In 2023/24, expenditure on all Access to Work provision was £257.8m. In real terms, this is a 33% increase when compared to the previous year. Payments were made to 61,630 people. The Scheme is highly personalised and each grant that is awarded is tailored to the individual, taking into account their specific circumstances. These grants provide funding for workplace adjustments that go beyond what would normally be expected from an employer through their duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

The Access to Work Scheme aims to balance the level of funding required to ensure individuals are able to purchase support needed to help them get into, and stay in, sustainable paid employment, alongside the need to safeguard public money and provide a value for money service.

Access to Work grants provide funding for workplace adjustments that go beyond what would normally be expected from an employer through their duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. The Access to Work scheme is highly personalised and each grant that is awarded is tailored to the individual, taking into account their specific circumstances.

When awarding Access to Work grants, the Scheme aims to balance the level of funding required to ensure individuals are able to purchase support needed to help them get into, and stay in, sustainable paid employment alongside the need to safeguard public money and provide a value for money service. The customer can always ask for a change of circumstance if their needs increase, or their support worker or travel costs increase. This support is based on current market value.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It is an independent regulator and it acts in the public interest to reduce work-related death and serious injury across Great Britain’s workplaces. HSE uses a number of intervention techniques to utilise its resources in the most effective way using a variety of enforcement tools to drive improvements in health and safety.

The Department obtains assurance as to the adequacy of workplace health and safety enforcement through a range of measures including its Quarterly Assurance Review process.

At the start of each financial year HSE publishes its Business Plan which details what it will deliver during the year, which this year included a strong focus on performance, further improving the effectiveness of its investigations and changing its ways of working to deliver it objectives. Each year I approve HSE’s business plan on behalf of the Government.

Then at the end of each financial year HSE produces its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) that are laid in Parliament. The ARA is a report to Parliament that sets out information on HSE’s financial position and activity which includes risks to the achievement of its objectives and how it has performed during the year.

The Government’s Make Work Pay agenda sets out an ambition to review health and safety guidance and regulations with a view to modernising legislation and guidance where it does not fully reflect the modern workplace, which will help to strengthen health and safety protections for workers. HSE is working on three areas of legislative change: chemicals, energy and health but reviewing the Approved Code of Practice and guidance on temperature and welfare in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations.

Under the heading of Safer Workplaces, Make Work Pay sets four key areas of focus that are within HSE’s remit: work related stress and mental health; workplace violence and aggression; menopause in the workplace and review of health and safety legislation.

In England, it is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users and patient groups, to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and meet the needs of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.

NICE has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, that provides advice for clinicians in the UK on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of postural tachycardia syndrome.

The PATHWAYS study proposal, including the clinical trial of puberty-suppressing hormones, is going through all the usual review and approval stages. These include independent academic peer review and National Institute for Health and Care Research funding committee consideration, and it will need to secure full ethical approval ahead of set up and opening to recruitment. The researchers will submit study documents to the Health Research Authority, which will allocate a Research Ethics Committee to consider the application. As an independent study, it is for the research team to decide when the study documents are ready and they will choose when to submit the application, bearing in mind the trial is aiming to begin recruiting participants later in spring 2025.

We know children and young people often face long waits for mental health support and too many are not receiving the care they need. That is why we are providing £7 million of funding to extend support for 24 early support hubs that have a track record of helping thousands of young people in their community.

We will also provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England and roll out Young Futures Hubs to provide open access mental health support for children and young people.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across children and adult mental health services in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment.

We have continued to review export licences for items to Israel and assess that there are no extant licences for items that might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law. This is subject to the specific measures set out to Parliament excluding exports to the global F-35 programme from the scope of the suspension. There are a number of export licences which we have assessed are not for use by the Israeli Defense Forces in military operations in Gaza and therefore do not require suspension. These include military items such as components for trainer aircraft or components for air defence systems, and other, non-military, items such as food-testing chemicals, telecoms, and data equipment.

By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.

Our military activities at the Sovereign Base Areas are central to the UK's humanitarian and hostage rescue efforts, support the UK's efforts with international partners to de-escalate conflict and reinforce stability. The use of the military bases is in line with international humanitarian law and with our humanitarian objectives.

We support a Syrian-led political transition process leading to an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government that includes representative figures from across Syria, including Kurds. We emphasise this in our diplomatic engagement with the interim Syrian authorities, through Ministers as well as our Syria Envoy. We will judge them by their actions.

More broadly, the UK supports Kurdish communities in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, as well as diaspora groups, promoting their rights and integration within their home countries. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office maintains engagement with a range of Syrian groups and individuals, including Kurds, in the UK.

The Non-Domestic Rating Act 2023 and Local Government finance (Wales) Bill legislated for three yearly business rates revaluations in England and Wales from 2023. The date of completion for the next revaluation is 1 April 2026.

The VOA are responsible for assessing the rateable value of non-domestic properties in England and Wales. Scottish Assessors are responsible for the policy and legislative framework, and set the tax rates in Scotland.