Graham Brady

To help overcome barriers to the production of sustainable fuels for aviation on a commercial scale, the Department’s Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C) makes capital funding available. As part of the competition we are currently supporting two projects to build plants capable of supplying advanced fuels for use in aviation.

In addition, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), a certificate trading scheme, promotes a market for low carbon fuels. Sustainable aviation fuels are eligible for support under the RTFO and are categorised as a development fuel, so potentially benefit from a higher tradeable certificate value.

On 12 June the Department announced the Jet Zero Council to create a partnership between industry and Government and bring together Ministers and CEO-level stakeholders to drive high ambition in the delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions. The Council will be jointly chaired by the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State for BEIS.

The focus of our policy development and analysis to date has been on ways to meet our 2050 net zero carbon commitment. We have not specifically made an assessment of the savings that could be made if the focus were the next five or ten years, but we continue to develop policies to reduce emissions over both the short term and the medium term.

The Transport Secretary recently announced the Jet Zero Council, which will provide leadership and strategic direction to cut aviation emissions. The Council will focus on developing UK capabilities to deliver zero emission flight.

Through the Aerospace Growth Partnership, Government and industry are committing a total of £3.9bn in funding for mid-stage aerospace research and development between 2013 and 2026.

DfT’s Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition makes £20 million of capital funding available for projects that will produce low carbon waste-based fuels for use in aircraft and heavy goods vehicles. This government funding will be matched by the private sector, and is expected to support construction of first-of-a-kind plants by 2021. The sustainable aviation fuel produced in these plants is expected to have emissions savings of at least 70% when compared to traditional jet fuel.

Airspace modernisation is vital to the future of aviation, to delivering net zero and, now, to supporting the aviation sector’s recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a critical infrastructure programme of national importance.

However, in light of the pandemic, we recognise that the timescales in which airspace modernisation will take place will change. We are working with the CAA to review the Airspace Modernisation Strategy, to consider the recommendations from ACOG’s recent report ‘Remobilising the Airspace Change Programme’, and will advise stakeholders of our preferred approach in the early Autumn.

The focus of our policy development and analysis to date has been on ways to meet our 2050 net zero carbon commitment. We have not specifically made an assessment of the savings that could be made if the focus were the next five or ten years, but we continue to develop policies to reduce emissions over both the short term and the medium term.

The Transport Secretary recently announced the Jet Zero Council, which will provide leadership and strategic direction to cut aviation emissions. The Council will focus on developing UK capabilities to deliver zero emission flight.

Through the Aerospace Growth Partnership, Government and industry are committing a total of £3.9bn in funding for mid-stage aerospace research and development between 2013 and 2026.

DfT’s Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition makes £20 million of capital funding available for projects that will produce low carbon waste-based fuels for use in aircraft and heavy goods vehicles. This government funding will be matched by the private sector, and is expected to support construction of first-of-a-kind plants by 2021. The sustainable aviation fuel produced in these plants is expected to have emissions savings of at least 70% when compared to traditional jet fuel.

The Home Office will be introducing new health protection measures at the border, and details will be published soon. Further queries should be directed to the Home Office.

The Department for Transport published the Business Case for HS2 Phase 2 on 17 July 2017, which includes a connection to the West Coast Mainline near Golborne https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs2-phase-two-economic-case.

We will continue to update periodically cost estimates and business cases for delivery of HS2 in line with the Government’s protocol for developing major projects. Our latest estimates indicate that the HS2 network will cost between £72-£98 billion with Phase 2b in the region of between £33-£46 billion. The expenditure on Golborne falls within this remit.

As part of the Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands we will assess the Golborne Junction to consider the benefits, costs and the best way to serve the North West and Scotland.

As acknowledged and welcomed in the “Sustainable Aviation Fuels Road-Map”, announced by the Sustainable Aviation coalition on 4 February, the Government is encouraging the production and use of sustainable alternative aviation fuels in the UK by making these eligible for reward under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).

The Department is considering the aviation industry’s request to extend the scope of the RTFO to include Recycled Carbon Fuels (RCFs), which is repeated in the “Sustainable Aviation Fuels Road-Map”. RCFs are fuels produced from fossil wastes that cannot be reused, recycled or avoided.

The Department has commissioned two independent research reports to examine the potential greenhouse gas savings that RCFs could achieve. These are “Low carbon fossil fuels sustainability risks and accounting methodology” published in January 2018 and “Work Package 1-743 Waste Disposal Outcomes and Diversion Impacts” published in August 2019. Further to this research, the Department is developing a greenhouse gas assessment methodology for RCFs and have engaged on this with industry representatives. The Department hopes to consult later this year on legislative proposals.

Many cases of asthma will be diagnosed and managed in a primary care setting. Primary care data is not currently linked to the data collected by the National Health Service for hospital admissions.

Inhaled budesonide was trialled as part of the PRINCIPLE trial platform in the United Kingdom as a treatment for COVID-19 in non-hospitalised patients who are 65 years old and over or 50 years old and over with an underlying health condition. On 12 April, interim analysis from the PRINCIPLE trial revealed that inhaled budesonide reduced the time to self-reported recovery by a median of three days. However, the full analysis is currently underway to understand the full benefit of this treatment. Clinical guidance has been issued for clinicians to consider prescribing inhaled budesonide on a case-by-case basis, but inhaled budesonide is not currently recommended as the standard of care in the UK. The Department will continue to monitor the results as more detailed data and analysis from the trial becomes available and stand ready to adjust guidance should this be appropriate.

The quarantine system is a risk based one, based on medical evidence. International travel, particularly to ‘red list’ countries, where there is a high risk of transmission of new variants of COVID-19, presents a danger to the public. This continues to be the case even when vaccinated. The Government is prioritising the prevention of new variants entering the country and the possibility of these being spread in the wider community. Individuals who have been vaccinated might nonetheless contract another variant, particularly while in ‘red list’ countries and spread it even if quarantining at home. This means it is vital to continue to follow the public health guidance and rules including the necessity of quarantining in hotels.

Public Health England (PHE) is considering the impact of false positives on vaccine efficacy estimates, as part of its vaccine monitoring work. Several vaccine effectiveness studies, including PHE’s, use both repeat virology swabs and antibody testing to help exclude false positives.

Data on effectiveness of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be published in due course, once larger numbers of the population have been vaccinated with two doses and sufficient time has elapsed for an effect to be monitored.

The Department continues to monitor evidence on the use of ivermectin both as a prophylactic and treatment for COVID-19. A recent collection of small studies shows some positive indications that ivermectin may act as a treatment for COVID-19. However, further high quality, larger-scale studies are still needed to confirm the safety and efficacy of this treatment. The Therapeutics Taskforce will keep the position on ivermectin under review as more data becomes available.

The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation jointly awarded over £5.3million for a programme of research of eight projects to understand the routes of transmission of COVID-19 in different environments and groups of people. These projects are 12-15 months in duration and are expected to report findings in the summer of 2021.

We are aware of the STOIC study on the efficacy of inhaled Budesonide. STOIC is a Phase II trial with 146 participants. Phase II trials can indicate whether a treatment has potential to benefit patients, and positive results are normally followed by larger scale Phase III trials.

The Phase III PRINCIPLE trial, which currently has over 4,200 patients enrolled to date, is also trialling inhaled budesonide as a trial arm, the results for which are imminent. This will help us to assess whether this drug provides an effective way of treating COVID-19 in community settings.

The Therapeutics Taskforce is continuing to monitor any new, high quality evidence on COVID-19 therapeutics and has been following recent findings on ivermectin.

The Department has monitored a collection of small studies which have now completed and provided some positive signals on the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19. However, larger scale studies are still needed to confirm the effectiveness and safety of this treatment. The Therapeutics Taskforce is aware that several more studies into ivermectin are set to conclude in the next few months and will continue to monitor these ongoing trials to assess the evidence available on whether ivermectin can prevent and/or reduce the severity of COVID-19.

The Department has undertaken no specific assessment.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies considered the paper ‘Role of ventilation in controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission’ at meeting 60 on 30 September.The paper is published online at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emg-role-of-ventilation-in-controlling-sars-cov-2-transmission-30-september-2020

The Department has undertaken no specific assessment.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies considered the paper ‘Role of ventilation in controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission’ at meeting 60 on 30 September.The paper is published online at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emg-role-of-ventilation-in-controlling-sars-cov-2-transmission-30-september-2020

Enforcement of the regulations is a matter for local authorities. Ministers and officials have regular discussions on a wide range of issues including ventilation for businesses within the hospitality sector.

Enforcement of the regulations is a matter for local authorities. Ministers and officials have regular discussions on a wide range of issues including ventilation for businesses within the hospitality sector.

‘Adult social care: coronavirus (COVID-19) winter plan 2020 to 2021’ was published on the 18 September.

Care homes and hospitals look after some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We recognise this has been a difficult time for many residents, patients, their families and staff members and that visits are important for those in care settings. However, the first priority must remain to prevent infections and local hospitals being overwhelmed from outbreaks.

Visiting is allowed in inpatient settings, in a very careful and COVID-19-secure way. Unfortunately, in local Covid alert level high areas and above, this means visiting restrictions will be limited to exceptional circumstances. Where visiting is restricted, care homes and hospitals should support visiting in a virtual manner. We will keep these regulations under regular review.

NHS England funds licensed medicines that have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), or off-label use of licensed medicines that have been approved by the NHS England clinical policy process.

The Cancer Drug Fund allows early access to drugs with residual clinical uncertainties which can be addressed following further data collection.

Companies should go to NICE for licensed indications with any new data – and as long as drugs are priced appropriately, they will be made available for patients via the National Health Service. For drugs which will not be licensed, clinicians should apply to NHS England for a clinical policy and a commissioning position based on the strength of clinical evidence for use.

The latest evidence indicates that the COVID-19 infection rate is beginning to rise across the country. It is therefore now vitally important that the Government takes decisive action to limit any further spread and reduce the likelihood of a further national lockdown of the type that was necessary earlier this year. These measures were announced last week with clear guidance on what would change.

The rule of six does not apply to gatherings necessary for work. Non-professional performing arts activity, including choirs, orchestras or drama groups can legally continue to rehearse or perform together where this is planned activity in line with the performing arts guidance and if they can do so in a way that ensures that there is no interaction between groups of more than six at any time.

If an amateur group is not able to ensure that no mingling takes place between these sub-groups of no more than six (including when arriving at or leaving activity or in any breaks or socialising) then such non-professional activity should not take place.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020 set out that a review of these requirements must take place within six months to ensure they continue to be necessary to prevent, protect against, control or provide a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection in England. These Regulations will expire after 12 months.

United Kingdom advice on face covering follows advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. As always we are committed to following the evidence and will keep reviewing evidence from around the world and update our position as and when we need to.

There is strong scientific evidence that the risk of transmission is higher in enclosed spaces compared to outdoors, it is this risk of transmission that wearing a face covering will reduce.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies advised that using cloth masks as a precautionary measure could be at least partially effective in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not possible consistently, creating a risk of close social contact with multiple parties the person does not usually meet.

This advice does not replace or change existing advice on other measures – such as hand washing, social distancing and self-isolation – which remain more important (because of stronger evidence and larger effects).

People should continue to follow the advice on using face coverings closely, which is to wash hands or use hand sanitiser before putting a face covering on and after taking it off. People should try to avoid touching their eyes, nose, or mouth and store used face coverings in a plastic bag until they have an opportunity to wash or dispose of them.

Following the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s statement of 16 July 2020 (Official Report, columns 1784-1786) outlining the Government’s ongoing work to support care homes with a high rate of vacancies, the Department has continued to review vacancy levels and the support on offer to care homes. As part of the Department’s continued commitment to supporting the social care sector during COVID-19 we will shortly be publishing our Adult Social Care Winter Plan. This plan sets out our strategy for providing national support to the sector over the winter period. Additionally, the Infection Control Fund is being extended until March 2021, providing a further £546 million for the care sector. This new investment underlines the Government’s commitment to ensuring that adult social care has the resources it needs over winter.

We are aware that limiting visits in care homes has been difficult for many families and residents who want to see their loved ones. Our first priority is to prevent infections in care homes, and this means that visiting policy should still be restricted with alternatives sought wherever possible.

As set out in our guidance on visiting guidance for care homes, visiting policies will now be tailored to the individual care home, and will be based on a local dynamic risk-based approach. The guidance sets out how there may need to be different rules applied to different residents or categories of resident, taking into account tahe benefits to a person’s wellbeing by having a particular visitor or visitors. Specifically, the guidance confirms that any imposed visitor restrictions should have regard to exceptional circumstances such as end of life. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus

This guidance will be updated as the risk posed by COVID-19 continues to change.

Public Health England (PHE) commissioned the Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition (SACN) to examine new evidence on whether vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of Acute Respiratory Tract Infections (ARTIs). The SACN’s rapid review concluded that evidence currently does not support vitamin D supplementation to prevent ARTIs in the general United Kingdom population. The review reiterates the importance of vitamin D for bone and muscle health. The SACN will keep this topic under review and consider updating this assessment if emerging high-quality evidence suggests a change to existing conclusions. The review can be accessed at the following link:

https://app.box.com/s/g0ldpth1upfd7fw763ew3aqa3c0pyvky

PHE supported the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to review emerging evidence on vitamin D and the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. NICE’s review concluded that there is currently no robust evidence to support taking vitamin D supplements to reduce the risk or severity of COVID-19. The review can be accessed at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/advice/es28/evidence/evidence-review-pdf-8777674477

Public Health England re-issued its advice on vitamin D supplementation in early April 2020, in response to the stay at home measures because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It recommended that everyone should consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement of 10 micrograms to mitigate the effects of reduced time outdoors. This advice was published on NHS.UK and related to protecting muscle and bone health. The advice is not about preventing COVID-19 or mitigating its effects. This guidance can be accessed at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/

Public Health England monitors the diet and nutritional status of the United Kingdom’s population through the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) rolling programme.

Data from the NDNS show that mean blood vitamin D concentrations were lowest in the winter months (January-March) and highest in the summer months (July-September). These data can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-time-trend-and-income-analyses-for-years-1-to-9

The latest value of ‘R’ for COVID-19 is estimated each week and published by the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk

The ‘R’ value for seasonal influenza and measles are not assessed regularly as rates of infection and are measured in a different way. A variety of data sources are collated to provide information on circulating influenza strains. In-season and end-of-season monitoring of seasonal influenza vaccine uptake and vaccine effectiveness is undertaken. Public Health England’s (PHE) ‘Flu annual report: winter 2019 to 2020’ is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-flu-reports

PHE have published the ‘Measles and rubella elimination UK strategy’ which includes information on transmission of measles and how to reduce transmission rates. This report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategy

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom. Companies and research institutes are welcome to submit proposals to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and NIHR research calls. Government support is available to prioritise, coordinate and deliver studies which qualify as urgent public health research.

As part of the NIHR-UKRI rolling call for rapid research proposals research, a £0.3 million project has been commissioned to investigate how long SARS-CoV-2 can survive in air and on different surfaces, which is being led by Public Health England. In addition, a highlight notice was issued in May inviting COVID-19 research proposals on transmission. Whilst the research is not specific to supermarkets and other large-scale retail settings it is hoped that the research is applicable to these and many other scenarios.

In June 2020 Public Health England conducted a rapid evidence review on the efficacy of different types of face coverings designed for use in community settings, and the effectiveness of face coverings to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV2 in the community.

The review found evidence from eight laboratory studies that materials commonly used in non-medical masks such as cotton and polyester may block droplets with a filtering efficiency similar to medical masks when folded in two or three layers. This evidence was limited by variations in materials, study design and testing methods, and judged to be weak.

The review identified evidence from epidemiological and modelling studies that mask wearing in the community may contribute to reducing the spread of COVID-19, but again the evidence was limited by study design and quality.

‘Face coverings in the community and COVID-19: a rapid review’ is available to view at the following link:

https://phe.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-retrieve-file.pl?id=5f043ca658db1188ffae74827fa650d9

As of Friday 24 July, members of the public must wear a face covering when visiting a shop or supermarket in England.

In addition, the Government is running a major proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public where they are now required to wear face coverings and educate the public on how to correctly wear one.

The Government will keep the regulations under review and will continue assessing if measures need to be put in place for other settings going forward.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has carried out a detailed risk assessment which considered the probability of food or food contact materials and surfaces being a source or transmission route for SARS-CoV-2. Their advice is that the overall probability that United Kingdom consumers will receive potentially infectious exposures of SARS-CoV-2 via the consumption of food or the handling of food contact materials or packaging is Very Low (“very rare but cannot be excluded”). Further risk assessments will be carried out as needed to inform FSA policy.

Food businesses should continue to follow good food hygiene standards.

The full qualitative risk assessment has been published on the FSA’s website at the following link:

https://www.food.gov.uk/research/research-projects/qualitative-risk-assessment-on-the-risk-of-food-or-food-contact-materials-as-a-transmission-route-for-sars-cov-2

On 15 May we published details of an additional £600 million Infection Control Fund for Adult Social Care. This funding is to support adult social care providers in England reduce the rate of transmission in and between care homes and to support workforce resilience. A small percentage of it may be used to support domiciliary care providers and support wider workforce resilience to deal with COVID-19 infections.

Given the evidence of the prevalence of asymptomatic transmission, Public Health England strongly recommends that care homes do all they can to restrict staff movement wherever feasible. The specific purpose of this fund is to support the implementation of a new set of measures, identified in the Care Home Support Package published alongside the fund. This includes measures such as ensuring, as far as possible, that members of staff work in only one care home and helping to limit their use of public transport – steps that we believe not all providers would ordinarily be taking without specific support.

We published further information on the use of this funding on 9 June. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-social-care-infection-control-fund/about-the-adult-social-care-infection-control-fund

The Government has already provided local government with £3.2 billion of unringfenced additional funding to help deal with the pandemic and has committed to keeping future funding under review.

The Government is determined to ensure that all businesses pay the tax that is due, and it is well aware of the potential for VAT losses that may arise when overseas businesses fail to comply with UK VAT rules, and the disadvantage for domestic businesses.

The Government has therefore taken action to make online marketplaces responsible for VAT losses as a result of fraud and error on their sites. HMRC have now issued over 10,800 joint and several liability notices to online marketplaces resulting in the removal of non-compliant sellers. These measures act as a strong deterrent to overseas businesses evading VAT.

The Government will continue to monitor the success of these interventions and will continue to look at alternative methods to address this issue.