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.

I met with the Chair and Trustee representatives of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) on 16 December where they outlined their proposals for changes to the Scheme. We will work with the BCSSS Trustees to consider their proposals once the new Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme arrangements have been agreed.

I met with the Chair and Trustee representatives of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) on 16 December where they outlined their proposals for changes to the Scheme. We will work with the BCSSS Trustees to consider their proposals once the new Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme arrangements have been agreed.

The Government is committed to creating good clean energy jobs through the multitude of investments being made to support our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower such as Great British Energy, the British Jobs Bonus, and boosting support for our renewables auction, making it the largest round ever. We have also set up the Office for Clean Energy Jobs which will support developing the skilled workforce in core energy and net zero sectors, critical to meeting our mission.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

The Persons with Reduced Mobility National Technical Specification Notice (PRM-NTSN) sets out the dimensions, weights, and capabilities of wheelchairs so that users can travel across the rail network. No assessment has been made to bring tricycles into scope of the PRM-NTSN, however the Government continues working towards a more accessible railway including under future public ownership.

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 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 Digital Services Tax (DST) is an interim tax measure to ensure that digital services providers pay UK tax on digital services that reflects the value they derive from UK users.

The UK remains committed to reaching a global solution on the taxation of the digital economy through Pillar 1 of the G20-OECD Inclusive Framework project. It is UK’s intention to repeal our Digital Services Tax (DST) when this international solution is in place.

The OBR’s latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook publication sets out forecasts of Digital Services Tax revenues.

The Government published information about the reforms to business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

The Government will publish a technical consultation in early 2025. This will focus on the detailed application of the allowance to lifetime transfers into trusts and charges on trust property. This will inform the legislation to be included in a future Finance Bill.

Statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders (FNOs) by nationality and destination are published on a quarterly basis. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, and are currently available to the end of December 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

In addition, a note providing an overview of the number of people who have been returned from the UK since 5 July 2024 was published on 31 March 2025, and can be found here: Returns from the UK from 5 July 2024 to 22 March 2025 - GOV.UK.

3,594 FNOs were returned in this period, which is an increase of 16% compared to 3,101 FNO returns in the same period 12 months prior (FNO returns include both enforced and voluntary returns).

Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.

We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.

Following the fall of the Assad regime, the Home Office withdrew the Country Policy Information Notes and guidance relating to Syria and has temporarily paused all asylum interviews and decisions. The pause also applies those who have previously been habitually resident in Syria. The pause is being kept under constant review and when there is a clear basis upon which to make decisions, we will resume the processing of them.

The specific data requested is not currently available from published statistics and could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

However, the Home Office does publish data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration. This data can be found at table Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement summary tables’.

Additionally, data on the percentage of applications processed within six months is published in table ASY_D03 of the ‘Immigration and Protection’ data of the Migration Transparency Data collection.

We are restoring order to the asylum system so that every part – border security, case processing, appeals and returns – operates swiftly.

As a result, asylum decision making increased by 52% in the last three months of 2024.

The Home Office continues to take action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system.

Guidance setting out the rules on settlement protection for refugees is available on GOV.UK at: Settlement protection.

The Home Office publishes statistics relating to indefinite leave to remain and asylum in the Immigration system statistics publication.

Data on the number grants of Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) to refugees, is published in table Se_D01 of the Settlement detailed datasets. The latest data relates to 2023. In addition, information on the number of ILR grants to refugees, including persons given ELR (Exceptional Leave to Remain), HP (Human Protection) or DL (Discretionary leave) is published in table Se_D02 of the Settlement detailed datasets for which latest data relates to 2024.

Campaign, as well as long-service and gallantry medals were all issued to eligible Service personnel during and immediately after the First World War. The Ministry of Defence does not usually review decisions on medallic recognition when more than five years have elapsed since the event. This is because it is viewed that those making the required judgements at the time, were better placed to do so, than now. This principle has been examined by the Cabinet Office Honours and Decorations Committee a number of times and on each occasion has been found to be sound.

Campaign medals, which are awarded in circumstances meeting certain thresholds or risk and rigour, any carry with them strict eligibility criteria, differ considerably from commemorative medallions which purely memorialise an event at a later date and have a wider distribution.

Whilst we recognise and are indebted to the significant bravery and sacrifice of those British troops who served alongside their Anzac counterparts during the Gallipoli Campaign in the First World War, no commemorative medal is currently planned.

Officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government regularly meet with officials from the Scottish Government to discuss a range of policy matters and interests.

Officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government regularly meet with officials from the Scottish Government to exchange views on compulsory purchase.

However, compulsory purchase and associated compensation legislation is a devolved matter. It is therefore, for the Scottish Government to decide what reforms to bring forward in Scotland.

The Elections Act 2022 requires Returning Officers to consider and provide support for electors with all forms of disability, including varying degrees of sight loss. The Tactile Voting Device, introduced in 2001, has proven effective for some voters with sight loss but we are aware that other options, such as magnifiers, digital reading applications and lighting aids, are also used to support individual elector’s preferences.

For local elections, costs incurred by Returning Officers to support voters with sight loss are typically met by local authorities, with new burdens funding made available where new burdens are imposed by legislation.

For UK Parliamentary and Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections, costs are met by the Consolidated Fund and Returning Officers can claim reimbursement for necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in delivering these polls, including expenditure incurred in the provision of accessible voting equipment. For equipment that will be used at both local and UK Parliamentary/PCC elections, costs can be shared between the funding sources.