Giles Watling

We have put employers at the heart of our apprenticeship system, empowering them to design the standards they need to meet their emerging skills needs in a changing economy. The independent Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education supports employers to develop standards and acts as the guarantor of their quality. Apprenticeships available in the sector include junior energy manager, smart home technician and power engineer.

Employers in the energy industry in England can use their apprenticeship levy funds to invest in these new high quality apprenticeship standards, unlocking the productivity benefits associated with employing apprentices.

We are encouraged to see companies in the energy sector engaging positively with the apprenticeship system. E.ON, for example, has apprentices working throughout its business in areas as diverse as cyber security, renewables, smart metering and customer service.

Our assessment is that the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) ensures that the majority of haulage operations will continue as they did before the end of the transition period.  Under the agreement, UK operators are limited to 2 movements within the EU before returning to the UK.

We are committed to levelling up opportunity across the UK – by boosting jobs, wages and prospects for all communities. The government is launching a new Levelling Up Fund worth £4bn for England. This will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery. We will publish more detail on the criteria for assessing bids in the prospectus.

The Department is also working to implement the findings of the Green Book Review to better reflect the government's strategic objectives in business cases, particularly on levelling up.

The Government’s Road to Zero strategy published in July 2018 sets out a clear pathway to zero emissions. We are investing nearly £1.5bn‎ between April 2015 and March 2021, with grants available for plug-in cars, vans, lorries, buses, taxis and motorcycles, and schemes to support charge point infrastructure at homes, workplaces and on residential streets. We are also considering the introduction of green number plates. To improve consumer attitudes towards electric vehicles, in collaboration with industry, Government also founded the Go Ultra Low communications campaign to promote the benefits of electric vehicles and enable consumers and businesses to make the switch. This comprises of the most comprehensive support packages in the world for the transition to zero emission vehicles.

As the Manifesto set out, and the Secretary of State spoke about in October, the Government intends to consult on the earliest date that we can phase out the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars, while minimising the impact on drivers and businesses.

Government is supporting further growth of the public network through the launch of the Chargepoint Infrastructure Investment Fund. £200 million of Government funding is matched-funded by private investment to install chargepoints. The first investment round, worth a total of £70 million, will ensure the delivery of a further 3,000 rapid charging devices by 2024, more than doubling the current number of rapid charging devices

Our Manifesto last year stated that, along with the private sector, the Government will invest £1 billion in charging infrastructure – making sure that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station for electric vehicles.

For those under 35, the shared accommodation rate (SAR) of Local Housing Allowance applies to those living on their own and renting privately. However, there are certain exemptions which allow claimants to receive the higher one-bedroom rate instead of the SAR. These include those in receipt of the severe disability premium, care leavers up to the age of 22 and those over 25 who have spent at least three months in a homeless hostel.

As announced on 3 March, we will be extending the exemption for care leavers and former residents of homeless hostels to all qualifying under 25 year olds from June 2021. This will bring forward the planned implementation of these previously announced changed by over 2 years.

More broadly, in April 2020 LHA rates were raised, including all SARs, to the 30^th percentile of local rents and are being maintained in cash terms for 2021/22.

The Money and Pensions Service published annual data on pension wise appointments for 2019-2020 here:

https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pension-Wise-Service-Evaluation-report-2019-2020.pdf(opens in a new tab).

This records that there were over 97k face to face and around 62k telephone appointments in 2019-20. This is the latest available annual published data.

Through the Maternity Transformation Programme, a range of interventions are being implemented to support the delivery of maternity and neonatal care according to clinical guidelines, as recommended in the MBRRACE Perinatal Confidential Enquiry into stillbirths and neonatal deaths in twin pregnancies, and to improve perinatal outcomes.

Every National Health Service maternity service is actively implementing elements of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle which sets out specific care pathways that can affect twin/multiple pregnancies including prevention of fetal growth restriction and preterm birth. Multidisciplinary fetal medicine clinics are being established across England, which aim to ensure that high risk women have timely access to specialist advice and care at all stages of pregnancy.

There is no specific distance applicable to all circumstances. However, the advice is that to meet the legal requirement not to leave home to travel unless for work or other legally permitted reasons. To reduce the risk of transmission, people should stay local and avoid travelling outside of the village, town or the part of a city where they live and look to reduce the number of journeys made overall.

Car washes are not considered as an essential service. From 2 December, essential and non-essential retail, including indoor and outdoor markets and car boot sales, can remain open in all tiers. All businesses and venues that are open are expected to follow COVID-19 secure guidelines to protect customers, visitors and workers.

The information requested is in the attached table.

Birth data, including information on multiple births is submitted to NHS Digital via the Hospital Episodes Statistics and Maternity Services Dataset data collections. As multiple births form only a small percentage of the total number of births, this information is not routinely released as part of monthly publications due to the small numbers involved at each provider, but is available on request.

We have a long-standing bilateral relationship with Iran. This is not without its challenges and we continue to engage with Iran, including at ministerial level, on a range of important issues. However, no representations have been made on the Supreme Leader's comments.

On the reference to Palestine, we are clear that we want to see the creation of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state - living in peace and security, side by side with Israel.

Consular support is tailored to the individual circumstances of each case, and prioritises those that need help the most. A key aspect of our support is prevention to help British people keep safe overseas, including representations to authorities overseas to make local environments safer for British people. Where this is not possible we may advise against travel. The Foreign Secretary announced today that we advise against all but essential travel for the next 30 days due to the current outbreak of Covid19, which has affected our ability to provide consular support.

We have specialist teams working on forced marriage, murder, kidnap and cases involving those on death row or at risk of the death penalty. Additionally we work with, and fund, other organisations where these are better placed to provide support, or have specialist skills that we need including the Victim Support Homicide Service, Lucie Blackman Trust, and (for detainees) Prisoners Abroad.

This year the Government has provided an unprecedented business rates holiday for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, and nurseries, due to the direct adverse effects of COVID-19, worth about £10 billion.

At the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed further support to all businesses by freezing the business rates multiplier for 2021-22.

The Government is considering options for reliefs for 2021-22. As announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 3 February, the Government will outline the next round of COVID-19 support measures at Budget.

HMRC have no plans currently to extend the deadline of 31 October 2020 for Self-Assessment paper returns for older people in residential care. However, HMRC will take a sympathetic view where the impact of COVID-19 on a person’s personal circumstances has caused them to miss the filing deadline.

I regularly discuss school funding with the Secretary of State for Education. At the Spending Round, the government committed to a £7.1 billion cash increase in funding for schools in England by 2022-23. This funding settlement reflects the government’s commitment to high quality education for all school children.

The Government is committed to carbon pricing as a decarbonisation tool following the transition period. In line with the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK will remain in the EU Emissions Trading System until 31 December 2020.

Alongside the EU ETS, the UK also applies the Carbon Price Support rate. Together, these have helped to reduce the importance of coal in the UK’s energy generation mix: electricity generation from coal usage has fallen from 40% in 2012 to 5% in 2018. Further detail on carbon pricing will be set out at the Budget.

Additionally, in November 2019, HM Treasury published Terms of Reference for its review into how the transition to a net zero economy will be funded, and where the costs will fall. The review will ensure contributions are fair between households, businesses and the taxpayer, and will allow us to maximise economic growth opportunities from the transition. The review will publish its findings in Autumn 2020.

Fiscal changes to alcohol, and tax rates are kept under review, and further announcements to duty changes will be made in due course.

To date, since 2010, government has scrapped the beer duty escalator, making the price of a typical pint 14p cheaper than it otherwise would have been. Pubs are also able to benefit from wider reforms including the Pubs Code and reductions to business rates.

The Government has allocated over £8 billion directly to councils since the start of the pandemic.

In addition, local authorities are expected to receive over £3 billion of support in 2021-22, for both additional expenditure pressures and loss of income.

This takes the total support committed to councils in England to tackle the impacts of COVID-19 to over £11 billion.

The Government remains committed to improving protections for park home residents and this includes changing the pitch fee review inflationary index from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

We are carefully considering the detailed policy of this and other commitments, to ensure they can be delivered effectively and will introduce the required legislation when the parliamentary timetable allows.

Last year we delivered on our commitment to make Regulations introducing a fit and proper test for park home site owners or their manager.

We undertook an initial scoping study last year to identify gaps in the existing evidence base to ensure the research is thorough and comprehensive. The tendering process for the research will be concluded shortly.

We will make residents and site owners aware of the timetable for the research before it commences to ensure they are able to fully participate and contribute to this important work.