Henry Smith

The Government is taking a “brownfield first” approach as part of our regeneration efforts and our commitment to preserving the Green Belt and our treasured green spaces and countryside.

Last week we allocated over £57 million to 53 councils through the Brownfield Land Release Fund, which will unlock over 5,600 new homes.

This investment builds on the £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund we announced last year to help deliver 26,000 homes in the North and Midlands.

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 introduced a cap of five weeks' rent for properties with an annual rent below £50,000, and banned most letting fees charged to tenants. The five week cap should be considered the maximum, rather than the default amount charged. This approach should therefore accommodate private renters who wish to keep pets, without the need for a separate pet deposit. The Government has no plans to amend the Tenant Fees Act 2019 at this time.

Both tenants and landlords are able to choose to take out insurance for pet damage, however the Tenant Fees Act prevents landlords requiring tenants to take out insurance.

Government funding for local support services, including services for those with a learning disability and/or autism, is paid through the Local Government Finance Settlement (England), with an estimated £360 million (gross) spend on commissioned support by local authorities in 2019/20.

Since 2010 Government has invested over £4 billion into the local authority administered Disabled Facilities Grant (2010-11 to 2021-22), to help disabled people remain living safely and independently at home. Forthcoming guidance on Disabled Facilities Grant delivery for local authorities will be clear that the grant is for all disabled people including those with a learning disability and/or autism.

The Government is also investing more than £90 million in 2020/21 in the development of services to support people with a learning disability and/ or autism to have their mental health needs met in the community instead of in a mental health inpatient setting, this comprises of £31 million of mental health recovery funding for the learning disability and autism programme, £40 million as part of the NHS Long Term Plan and £21 million for the Community Discharge Grant.

The £1.5 billion fund will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19 and are ineligible for existing support linked to business rates. Local authorities will use their knowledge of local businesses and the local economy to make awards. My Department will publish guidance in due course to help local authorities set up their local schemes, once the legislation relating to COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances provisions has passed.

The Equality Act requires the interests of both sexes to be considered when assessing equality impacts. The Government is focussed on delivering genuine equality of opportunity by addressing the real problems people, whatever their sex, face in their everyday lives using evidence and data.

That is why we recently announced the Equality Data Programme, a comprehensive project to improve equality data, enhance our understanding of equality, and get to the heart of the barriers all people face.

As ministerial appointments are made by the Prime Minister, any changes to ministerial titles would be a matter for him to consider. However, all Equalities Ministers have a responsibility to carefully consider issues affecting men and boys as part of their remit even where this is not necessarily indicated in their job title.

The Department is in regular contact with the Department for Transport on the impacts of COVID-19 on the aerospace sector. Both BEIS and the Department for Transport (DfT) recognise the importance of the UK aerospace industry to the economy and the vital role it will play in the post-pandemic recovery.

DfT engages with the industry via multiple channels, focusing on a wide range of issues affecting the industry such as EU Exit transition, Covid-19 impact, technical certification and specification, and international cooperation.

Over the course of the pandemic, the Government has worked closely with the hospitality sector to understand the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses and has responded with a substantial package of business support. We keep all restrictions under constant review.

Each of the 314 billing authorities currently involved in the delivery of the Small Business Grants Fund and Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Fund will receive a fixed minimum allocation for the Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund as a 5% uplift of the value of its in-scope hereditaments as identified at 3 May 2020. Individual letters were issued to all 314 Local Authorities on 20 May 2020 with a detailed explanation of their allocation.

The?Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs.

Local authorities are responsible for defining the precise eligibility for this Fund?and?may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need,?subject to those businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria.

We are asking local authorities to prioritise the following types of businesses for grants from within this funding pot:

• Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces. Examples could include units in industrial parks, science parks, and incubators which do not have their own business rates assessment.
• Regular market traders with fixed building costs, such as rent, who do not have their own business rates assessment.
• Bed & breakfasts which pay Council Tax instead of business rates.
• Charity properties in receipt of Charitable Rate Relief, which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief.

Businesses already in receipt of the Small Business grant or a Retail, Hospitality and Leisure grant are not eligible for this fund.?Businesses who are eligible for or in receipt of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme are now eligible to apply for this scheme.

There is currently no plan to change eligibility criteria for this scheme. Officials are keeping in close contact with local authorities to monitor the progress of the scheme.

Guidance for Local Authorities was published 13 May: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) opened for applications on 23 March. The Government has been working closely with the British Business Bank and financial sector to ensure businesses can access the support they need. We have made changes to widen the scheme’s eligibility so that more small businesses across the UK can benefit from the scheme, by extending loans to all viable small businesses affected by the Coronavirus, not just those unable to secure regular commercial financing. For facilities under £250,000, use of personal guarantees are not permitted under the scheme.

We work with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for International Development, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to support research on platform vaccine technologies and diagnostic tools that can be utilised as a rapid response during a pandemic. These form a component of the current DHSC and UKRI COVID-19 rapid-response call for proposals to address the threat of this novel coronavirus. Platform vaccines and diagnostics are an integral part of UKRI’s current approach for the development and translation of research findings into tangible benefits, with research funded across UKRI councils

DHSC and UKRI lead the UK Vaccine Network which brings together funders, industry and academia to identify and target investment opportunities for the most promising vaccines and vaccine technologies, including platform vaccine and diagnostic tools to combat infectious diseases with epidemic potential and to address structural issues related to the UK’s vaccine infrastructure.

Through the Network two vaccine manufacturing hubs have been established to streamline vaccine manufacturing. A £10 million award to Professor Robin Shuttock at Imperial College London aims to revolutionise the vaccine manufacture, stabilisation and storage, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving prevention of existing and new diseases. A £7 million award to Professor Tarit Mukhopadhyay at University College London aims to establish the UK as a global centre for vaccine discovery, development and manufacture, while also ensuring that new vaccine manufacturing processes can be used in low and middle income countries.

Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) will play a vital role in meeting our net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, supporting both our Industrial Strategy and the revitalisation of the economies of the UK’s industrial areas.

The CCUS Action Plan outlined that deploying CCUS in industrial clusters has the potential to allow a number of carbon capture applications – for industry, to hydrogen, to low carbon gas or bio-energy with CCS in power – to connect to shared carbon dioxide infrastructure.

That is why this Government has committed to invest £800 million to build the first fully deployed CCUS cluster by the mid-2020s and £500 million to help energy-intensive industries move to low-carbon techniques.

CCUS is also likely to play an important role in achieving our Industrial Clusters Mission, creating the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040. This is supported by up to £170 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to support the deployment of low carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in one or more clusters.

HMT guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme confirms that furloughed employees can take part in volunteer work, provided that it does not provide services or generate revenue for their employer. The system has been carefully set up to encourage employees whose working is not required due to social distancing to take up a unique opportunity to support the frontline delivery of essential support services.

However, the scheme is not designed to help charities cut the costs of delivering vital services. Where staff are needed in organisations to provide vital services and help vulnerable people through the Covid-19 crisis, these organisations will be eligible to apply for the new £750m funding package that was recently announced.

The Government takes the issue of misinformation and disinformation very seriously. It is vitally important that the public has accurate information.

The Counter Disinformation Unit brings together cross-Government monitoring and analysis capabilities. The Unit’s primary function is to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation and misinformation regarding Covid-19.

We are working closely with social media platforms to help them identify and remove incorrect claims about the virus, in line with their terms and conditions, as well as promote authoritative sources of information. We are also working with strategic communications experts to ensure that we are prepared to respond to disinformation campaigns where necessary.

The Government is also running a counter disinformation communications campaign, which aims to increase audience resilience by educating and empowering those who see, inadvertently share and are affected by false and misleading information.

The Secretary of State has met with the Chairman of the BBC Board and the Director-General of the BBC and asked them to do more to help those affected by its decision.

The Government is disappointed with the BBC's decision to restrict the over 75 licence fee concession to only those in receipt of pension credit.

We recognise the value of free TV licences for over 75s and believe they should be funded by the BBC.

Local libraries
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. It is for individual local authorities to decide how best to provide a public library service that meets local needs within their available resources. The net expenditure on the library service by local authorities in England increased in 2018/19 from 2017/18.

In October 2019, DCMS announced the £250 million Cultural Investment Fund, of which over £125 million will be invested in regional museums and libraries over five years from 2020/21. The funds will be used to upgrade buildings and technology so public libraries across England are better placed to respond to the changing ways people are using them.

West Sussex Council received £178,830 from Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone Innovation Fund in 2018 to ensure more people had access to digital technology by establishing a collection of tablets and laptops that could be loaned out to the local community. The emphasis of the project was on meeting the needs of disadvantaged groups within the council’s communities – such as older people or adults with learning disabilities.

Arts Council England, funded by DCMS, is the development agency for libraries, and also provides support to public libraries in England. Arts Council England is providing £1.6 million per annum to seven libraries’ organisations through its National Portfolio 2018 to 2022, including Libraries Connected, which is funded as the Sector Support Organisation for public libraries.

Regional Museums
In 2018, Crawley Museum reopened after an extensive, publicly funded renovation project. The project received £1.15m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £763,000 from Crawley Borough Council.

This independent local history museum puts community participation at its heart, including through its current exhibition in partnership with members of the Crawley Kashmiri community on the history, traditions and culture of Azad Kashmir.

Museums around the country are supported by Arts Council England as the development agency for the sector. Museums can contact area offices and Museum Development services to find out what support is available, such as National Lottery Project Grants which fund a range of activities such as developing collections, audiences, and skills. The South East Museum Development Programme is managed by a consortia of museums led by the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove, and will receive £2m of funding from the Arts Council 2018-22.

Schools should reflect society and the communities they serve, and it is important to attract and retain high-skilled, talented men into teaching.

The department does this through effective pay structures and by ensuring teaching remains a financially rewarding career. We remain committed to increasing teacher starting salaries to £30,000 to make teaching an attractive graduate option. While the pay restraint in academic year 2021/22 means we are now delivering this commitment to a revised timescale, the 5.5% uplift to starting pay in September 2020 has already made a substantial difference to the competitiveness of the early career pay offer.

The department’s ‘Teaching – Every Lesson Shapes A Life’ recruitment campaign is targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates and potential career changers regardless of gender, and we take every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials we use.

In October, Apply for Teacher Training (Apply), our new application service for initial teacher training (ITT) in England, was rolled out nationally. Apply has been designed to be user-friendly and has been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants, including men, to ensure it helps remove barriers to great teachers applying for ITT courses. Apply will also allow us to collect more data, giving us greater insight into candidate behaviour and the behaviour of providers of teacher training so that the department can identify barriers and work closely with ITT providers to explore, design and test new interventions to recruit more candidates from under-represented backgrounds into the sector.

Alongside a focus on recruitment, it is important we retain male teachers. This will be supported by our work to ensure that all new entrants to teacher training have the best possible start to the early stage of their career, regardless of gender.

World-class programmes developed by the Department for Education to support the school workforce, including our Early Career Framework (ECF) reforms for those at the beginning of careers and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) to develop our best teaching and leadership talent, is the best training for everyone whatever their background. The ECF reforms provide a funded entitlement for all early career teachers in England to access high quality professional development at the start of their careers. NPQs are now freely available to all teachers in state-funded schools, as well as state-funded 16-19 organisations.

Health services are accessed through the NHS and not funded by the Department for Education. Local authorities are responsible for providing respite care and short breaks for disabled children, these services are funded through the main local government settlement.

Helping children and young people to catch up on education missed due to the COVID-19 outbreak remains a top priority of this government. Our £1.8 billion investment announced as part of the Spending Review is targeted at those who most need help catching up. It includes over £800 million to provide a universal uplift with an additional 40 hours of education for students aged 16-19 who have the least time left to recover; and an additional £1 billion of catch up funding directly to schools so they can best decide how to support education recovery for the pupils that need it, focused on evidence-based approaches.

The department has consistently prioritised children with SEND in our recovery programmes, for example by providing additional uplifts for those who attend specialist education providers (including SEND units in mainstream schools) in both the catch-up premium in the 2020/21 academic year and the recovery premium for the 2021/22 academic year, and providing additional funding to special and alternative provision schools to provide one to one tutoring for their pupils, with greater flexibility to schools to make it easier for them to take on local tutors or use existing staff to supplement those employed through the existing National Tutoring Programme. The 16-19 tuition fund continues to support students with SEND as at present through small group tuition.

The department is providing over £42 million in the 2021-22 financial year to continue funding projects to support children with SEND. This investment will ensure that specialist organisations around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support families and provide practical support to schools and colleges. It will strengthen participation of parents and young people in the SEND system, ensuring they have a voice in designing policies and services and have access to high quality information and support.

Alongside recovery funding, the department is investing £2.6 billion between the financial years 2022 and 2025 to deliver new places and improve existing provision for pupils with SEND or who require alternative provision. This funding represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision and will help deliver tens of thousands of new places.

More widely, the department has continued to provide local authorities with their full high needs revenue funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, including more than £1.5 billion of high needs funding over financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, bringing the total high needs funding allocated this year to more than £8 billion. The department announced in summer 2021 that high needs funding will increase by a further £780 million, or 9.6%, in the next financial year, compared to this year. Through the Spending Review the department secured for schools and children and young people with high needs an increase of £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25, compared to our original 2022-23 plans. This includes £1.6 billion in additional funding for 2022-23 budgets, on top of the year-on-year increase of £2.4 billion already confirmed at the 2019 Spending Review, and which is intended to help the sector respond to the pressures the department knows they are seeing: in overall costs, in national insurance, on high needs, in managing COVID-19 and in supporting children and young people to recover from the COVID-19 outbreak. The department will confirm in due course how this funding will be allocated in 2022-23 for schools and high needs.

The department does not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils with characteristics that are protected by the Equality Act 2010, including policy based on gender. We are committed to providing high quality education and training for everyone, whatever their background or personal characteristics.

Since 2010, the government has pursued a reform agenda to drive up academic standards for all and level up for the most disadvantaged pupils. When it comes to raising standards, evidence shows that teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting pupils’ education. In June 2021, the department announced an investment of over £250 million in the National Professional Qualifications and Early Career Framework programmes which are based on the best available evidence and have been developed in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation. In addition, in October the department announced a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for maths, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in years 1 to 5 of their careers. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most. Through this, the department is committed to helping tackle the education gap for all pupils.

The special educational needs and disability (SEND) code of practice makes clear that local authorities must give their decision in response to any request for an education, health and care needs assessment within a maximum of 6 weeks from when the request was received or the point at which a child or young person was brought to the local authority’s attention.

We have been using data to provide challenge and support to those local authorities where there are long-standing delays. Additionally, because of circumstances relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are carrying out monthly surveys of local authority performance. Our teams of SEND Advisers, and colleagues in NHS England, are working with local authorities to help improve performance. Each year, we also deliver a training programme to local authorities, health, and social care staff on their statutory duties for education, health and care plans and reviews, and we have continued to do this on a virtual basis.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) re-started their revisit programme to areas that received a Written Statement of Action in May, with the full inspection programme re-starting in June. We are continuing to provide support and challenge to individual local authorities with a Written Statement of Action. We have commissioned the CQC and Ofsted, with the support of the Department of Health and Social Care, to develop a new area SEND inspection framework to launch after the existing cycle has finished.

Furthermore, we are providing over £42 million in the 2021/22 financial year to continue funding projects to support children with SEND. This investment will ensure that specialist organisations around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support families, and provide practical support to schools and colleges.

The Department recognises, and continues to monitor, the educational attainment gap between girls and boys. We do not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils based on gender. The Department is focused on providing world class education and training for everyone, whatever their background.

The Government recognises that extended school and college restrictions have had a substantial impact on children and young people’s education and is committed to helping pupils catch up. The Department has announced over £3 billion to support education recovery and pupil premium is providing over £2.5 billion in the 2021/22 financial year targeted at disadvantaged pupils.

The Department recognises, and continues to monitor, the educational attainment gap between girls and boys. We have worked hard over the last decade to embed the reforms needed to raise standards for all children. Thanks to these efforts, the proportion of schools now rated by Ofsted as Good or Outstanding has risen from 68% in 2010 to 86% in 2020.

The Department does not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils, including policy based on gender. We are committed to providing high quality education and training for everyone, regardless of their background.

When it comes to raising standards, evidence shows that teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting pupils’ education. The Department has recently announced an investment of over £250 million in our National Professional Qualifications and Early Career Framework programmes which are based on the best available evidence and have been developed in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation. Through this, the Department is committed to helping tackle the educational attainment gap for all pupils.

On 8 January 2021, the department published updated guidance regarding the provision of remote education during national lockdown while attendance is restricted: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/952443/210114_School_national_restrictions_guidance_FINAL_14012021.pdf.

This includes guidance for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

During the period of national lockdown, primary, secondary, alternative provision and special schools will remain open to vulnerable children and young people, including those with an education, health and care plan. For pupils with SEND, their teachers are best-placed to know how the pupil’s needs can be most effectively met to ensure they continue to make progress even if they are not able to be in school due to COVID-19. The requirement for schools to use their best endeavours to secure the special educational provision called for by the pupils’ special educational needs remains in place. Where possible, special schools should follow the age-related guidance for primary schools and secondary schools.

Schools should work collaboratively with families, putting in place reasonable adjustments as necessary, so that pupils with SEND can successfully access remote education alongside their peers. All further education (FE) providers should give particular consideration on how best to support vulnerable and disadvantaged students and students with special educational needs who may not be able to access remote education without support.

The government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over 800,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 17 January 2021.

In addition, the department has also made £4.84 million available for the Oak National Academy, both for the summer term of the academic year 2019-20, and then for the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to year 11. Specialist content for pupils with SEND is also available. This covers communication and language, numeracy, creative arts, independent living, physical development and early development learning. Additionally, the Oak National Academy offers therapy-based lessons and resources across occupational, physical, sensory and speech and language therapy.

We have provided additional funding to one of our Demonstrators, National Star College, to provide training in assistive technologies to school teachers, leaders and special educational needs coordinators (SENCo). This training can be accessed by all state-funded schools and is available via the SEND hub: https://www.nationalstar.org/products-services-facilities/star-technology/accessible-tech/send-support-hub/?doing_wp_cron=1610617013.4222929477691650390625. The training has been designed to help secure remote education arrangements for pupils with special educational needs, with advice and guidance is also available to support the development of an inclusive curriculum. Between now and 31 March 2021, National Star College will:

• Boost the support available through the Demonstrator Network, through training specifically targeted on SEND practice using accessible technology in order to ensure skills and knowledge sustainability within the Demonstrator network.
• Provide teacher and SENCo training through online learning covering teaching techniques, accessibility considerations and assessment methodologies.
• Offer leadership training focused on inclusive curriculum design.
• Pupil assessments, partnering with demonstrators and SENCos to guide them through an initial assessment of pupil need before any interventions take place.
• Weekly training webinars (between 20 to 40 mins every Thursday at 4:15pm) focusing on the best ways to integrate accessible technology into classrooms – enabling teachers to improve the outcomes for all of their pupils. The webinars can be found here: https://www.nationalstar.org/products-services-facilities/star-technology/accessible-tech/?doing_wp_cron=1610617612.5390760898590087890625.

There is a wide range of resources available to support schools and FE providers to meet the expectations we have set. The Get Help with Remote Education page on gov.uk provides a one-stop-shop for teachers and leaders, signposting the support package available: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education. This includes helping schools and colleges to access technology that supports remote education, as well as peer-to-peer training and guidance on how to use technology effectively. It also includes practical tools, a good practice guide and school-led webinars to support effective delivery of the curriculum, information on issues such as safeguarding and statutory duties and expectations information for supporting pupils and students with SEND, as well as signposting support for recovery and catch up.

The government is committed to supporting young carers so that they are properly protected from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities and are supported to achieve their full potential. Consistent identification remains challenging, with many being ‘hidden’ and therefore unrecognised and/or unsupported.

Changes through the Children and Families Act 2014 simplified the legislation relating to young adult carers’ assessments, making rights and duties clearer to both young people and practitioners. This included promoting whole family approaches which triggers both and adult support services into action – assessing why a child is caring, what needs to change and what would help the family to prevent children or young people from taking on this responsibility in the first place.

The Department for Education also provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils. We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium budgets. Schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant accordingly to meet pupil needs, which includes where needs are based on a parent’s health issues or disability.

We published the Children in Need Review conclusion in 2019. This sets out our approach to helping schools and children’s social care improve the educational outcomes of children in need, including those young carers assessed as being in need of help and protection.

We operate one of the most rigorous and robust pet travel checking regimes in Europe. All non-commercial dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain on approved routes (every route other than Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies) under the Pet Travel rules undergo 100% documentary and identity checks by authorised pet checkers at the point of entry. Carriers can refer suspected non-compliances to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

Animal welfare legislation requires that when animals are transported their transportation must comply fully with legal requirements aimed at protecting their welfare, such as, they must be fit for the intended journey; transported in the appropriate conditions; and, when transportation is for a commercial purpose, the transporter must hold a GB authorisation. APHA works collaboratively with Border Force and other operational partners at ports, airports and inland, sharing intelligence to enforce the Pet Travel rules, disrupt illegal imports, safeguard the welfare of animals and seize non-compliant animals.

The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was introduced in Parliament on 8 June 2021 and completed committee on 18 November 2021. The Bill allows us to further protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. In August 2021, the Government launched an eight-week consultation on our proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets, including rescue pets, into Great Britain. This included proposals to ban the commercial and non-commercial movement into Great Britain of puppies under the age of six months, heavily pregnant dogs and dogs which have been subjected to low welfare practices such as ear cropping or tail docking. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a summary response in due course. This will allow us to take onboard the views of the public and interested groups on puppy smuggling and low welfare imports in order to shape our future policy.

The Government gathers and coordinates data and statistics to monitor food purchasing and eating habits to understand consumption trends. This includes the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, designed to collect detailed, quantitative information on the food consumption, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general population in the UK and the Food Family Survey with detailed statistical information on purchased quantities, expenditure and nutrient intakes by UK households.

The Government's advice on consumption and diet is set out in the Eatwell Guide - which provides advice on how to obtain a balance of healthier and more sustainable food and includes recommendations such as to have a diet that includes more fibre, fruit and vegetables.

The Government gathers and coordinates data and statistics to monitor food purchasing and eating habits to understand consumption trends. This includes the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, designed to collect detailed, quantitative information on the food consumption, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general population in the UK and the Food Family Survey with detailed statistical information on purchased quantities, expenditure and nutrient intakes by UK households.

The Government's advice on consumption and diet is set out in the Eatwell Guide - which provides advice on how to obtain a balance of healthier and more sustainable food and includes recommendations such as to have a diet that includes more fibre, fruit and vegetables.

Defra is fully committed to supporting the cross Government and cross societal work to reach net zero emissions by 2050. We set out our work in this area as part of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy, and have regular conversations with BEIS at all levels, including between Secretaries of State, on net zero. Our UK Food Security report also highlighted the importance of tackling climate change to support a resilient food supply and the future resilience of farming businesses.

Our future farming environmental land management schemes will be crucial to delivering our goals to decarbonise agriculture and land use in England. In January the department published a target to decarbonise agricultural emissions by a total of up to 6 million tonnes CO2 equivalent per annum in Carbon Budget 6 (2033-37). We will pursue further opportunities to support farmers and land managers' contribution to delivering our Carbon Budgets, including through investment in innovation.

The Environment Act introduced statutory Environmental Improvement Plans (EIP) and Local Nature Recovery Strategies with strong land use elements. Together with our planning system they will help to maximise the benefits of any land use change. As part of our next EIP, the review of the 25 Year Environment Plan due in 2023, we will be setting out our policy pathways to reach our legally binding targets under the Environment Act, including to halt the decline in nature by 2030.

Defra is fully committed to supporting the cross Government and cross societal work to reach net zero emissions by 2050. We set out our work in this area as part of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy, and have regular conversations with BEIS at all levels, including between Secretaries of State, on net zero. Our UK Food Security report also highlighted the importance of tackling climate change to support a resilient food supply and the future resilience of farming businesses.

Our future farming environmental land management schemes will be crucial to delivering our goals to decarbonise agriculture and land use in England. In January the department published a target to decarbonise agricultural emissions by a total of up to 6 million tonnes CO2 equivalent per annum in Carbon Budget 6 (2033-37). We will pursue further opportunities to support farmers and land managers' contribution to delivering our Carbon Budgets, including through investment in innovation.

The Environment Act introduced statutory Environmental Improvement Plans (EIP) and Local Nature Recovery Strategies with strong land use elements. Together with our planning system they will help to maximise the benefits of any land use change. As part of our next EIP, the review of the 25 Year Environment Plan due in 2023, we will be setting out our policy pathways to reach our legally binding targets under the Environment Act, including to halt the decline in nature by 2030.

Defra is fully committed to supporting the cross Government and cross societal work to reach net zero emissions by 2050. We set out our work in this area as part of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy, and have regular conversations with BEIS at all levels, including between Secretaries of State, on net zero. Our UK Food Security report also highlighted the importance of tackling climate change to support a resilient food supply and the future resilience of farming businesses.

Our future farming environmental land management schemes will be crucial to delivering our goals to decarbonise agriculture and land use in England. In January the department published a target to decarbonise agricultural emissions by a total of up to 6 million tonnes CO2 equivalent per annum in Carbon Budget 6 (2033-37). We will pursue further opportunities to support farmers and land managers' contribution to delivering our Carbon Budgets, including through investment in innovation.

The Environment Act introduced statutory Environmental Improvement Plans (EIP) and Local Nature Recovery Strategies with strong land use elements. Together with our planning system they will help to maximise the benefits of any land use change. As part of our next EIP, the review of the 25 Year Environment Plan due in 2023, we will be setting out our policy pathways to reach our legally binding targets under the Environment Act, including to halt the decline in nature by 2030.

While some people consider snares to be an inhumane and unnecessary means of trapping wild animals, others maintain they are an essential tool in controlling foxes and rabbits.

There is a code of practice for the use of snares to control foxes in England which sets out clear principles for the legal and humane use of snares, using evidence from snare-use research to improve their deployment and design. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 also prohibits the use of self-locking snares and the setting of any type of snare in places where they are likely to catch certain non-target animals such as badgers. It also requires snares to be inspected on a daily basis.

However, when used improperly, snares can cause immense suffering to both target and non-target animals including pet cats and dogs. The use of snares is therefore an issue we are looking at closely as part of our continued drive to maintain the highest animal welfare standards in the world.

Through the Government’s Animal Action for Welfare Plan, published in May of this year, we are looking at whether changes need to be made to reflect concerns raised.

The Government is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare during transport.

We consulted earlier this year on a wide range of proposals to improve how animals are transported in England and Wales, including reduced journey times for horses. In August we published a joint response, with the Welsh Government, to the consultation[1] outlining how we will be taking reforms forward.

[1] Improvements to animal welfare in transport: summary of responses and government response (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Non-human primates are only used in research where absolutely necessary and where they are considered the most appropriate and scientifically justified species. They play an important role in the public safety testing of novel pharmaceuticals prior to human trials, fulfilling international guidelines and national regulatory requirements.

The import of non-human primates is controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Captive-bred specimens may be traded under CITES rules, including first generation offspring bred in a controlled environment where at least one parent was sourced from the wild.

CITES allows for the introduction of wild sourced specimens into captive breeding facilities to reduce the effects of inbreeding in the captive population. Any introduction must be in line with CITES requirements, including having no detrimental impact on the species survival in the wild and being in line with any domestic laws. Where the UK Government is confident that these conditions have been met, imports will be permitted.

Non-human primates are only used in scientific research where absolutely necessary. Non-human primates play an important role in the public safety testing of novel pharmaceuticals prior to human trials, fulfilling international guidelines and national regulatory requirements. All imports of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) into the UK are controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), by way of their listing on CITES Appendix II. To meet our obligations under CITES, all applications for import are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and only allowed for scientific research purposes where we are confident the imports will not have a harmful effect on conservation status of the species. The UK Government has no plans under CITES to end the import of long-tailed macaques for scientific research where they are the most appropriate and scientifically justified species.

Between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) recorded 1142 live long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) as being imported into the UK from Mauritius. All were captive-bred (Source C) and were imported using purpose code M (bio-medical research).

APHA did not issue any import permits for wild (source W) or first-generation captive bred (source F) specimens in 2020.

A further 122 captive-bred live macaques were imported in early 2021 using Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species permits issued in 2020.

We have committed to bringing in new laws on animal sentience. Any necessary changes required to domestic legislation will be made in an effective and credible way and will be brought forward when parliamentary time allows.

Now that the transition period has ended, we are reviewing our policy on access for supertrawlers. This review will be driven by evidence. Under the Fisheries Act we have the powers to choose which vessels we license but our measures must comply with the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement which prohibits discrimination against individual vessels. Supertrawlers are mostly pelagic, operating mid-water, and do not make contact with the seabed.

Vessels permitted to fish in UK waters will have to be licensed and comply with UK rules and regulations including those on sustainability. Licence conditions set by UK Sea Fisheries Authorities will apply to both UK and foreign vessels alike.

The Government made a manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals, and held a consultation on the issue between 2 November 2019 and 25 February 2020.

The COVID-19 outbreak set the timetable back, as many of our officials formed part of the response to the pandemic. However, we are continuing to work on this important area and will publish a response as soon as we can on GOV.UK. The outcome of the consultation and the call for evidence will inform our next steps.

The Government is taking action to prevent the killing of seals in English, Welsh and Northern Irish waters as a result of commercial fishing. The Marine Management Organisation has not issued licences to kill or take seals in the last ten years under the Conservation of Seals Act for the purpose of preventing damage to fisheries. However, the ‘netsman’s defence’ provision in the Act allows the unlicensed shooting of seals to prevent damage to equipment, or fish within it, and where specific firearms and ammunition are used. We have tabled amendments to the Fisheries Bill that will, if passed, make it illegal to kill seals intentionally or recklessly. These amendments aim to ensure that UK fisheries exports are compliant with the US Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Scottish Parliament recently passed similar legislative changes via the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020.

We know that potential zoonotic pathogens transfer from the environment, wildlife and livestock to humans. Research so far indicates that global changes in land use are disrupting the balance of wild animal communities and the beneficiaries appear to be species that carry diseases known to infect humans. It is estimated that 60% of all human diseases originate in animals. More intensive farming may expedite the spread of the pathogens.

The Department's Veterinary Risk Group and the Human Animal Infections Risk and Surveillance Group carry out horizon scanning and risk assessment for emerging threats associated with livestock farming and wildlife, internationally and domestically.

The Defra agency Cefas is currently working on a review of risks of zoonotic pathogens arising from aquaculture settings globally.

We routinely carry out surveillance on farms for zoonotic pathogens. We have significant surveillance programmes testing for TB, avian influenza, salmonella, AMR and brucelloses. We work closely with the Food Standards Agency on detecting food borne pathogens and with local health protection teams and environmental health officers to control any outbreaks of zoonotic disease associated with livestock farming, consumption of products of animal origin or exposure to livestock.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the Rt Hon Member for Chipping Barnet on 11 June 2020, PQ UIN 55899.

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-06-08/55899

Defra has provided over £4.2 million in funding for Asian elephants living in the wild since 2015 through the Darwin Initiative and the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund. These are competitive Defra grant schemes funded entirely through Official Development Assistance (ODA).

The IWT Challenge Fund and the Darwin Initiative have committed £2.9 million and £1.3 million respectively for Asian elephants since 2015 through 14 separate projects. These include a project seeking to reduce the illegal ivory trade in Cambodia, and a project supporting Nepal’s world-leading community anti-poaching efforts.

The UK is a Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which places strict controls on international trade in tigers. We are aware of concerns raised in relation to the illegal trade in tigers and tiger farms and remain fully committed to working with our international partners, including through CITES, to ensure strong protection is in place and to bring an end to the illegal trade in wildlife.

A consultation on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies to and from the UK was undertaken between 2 November 2019 and 25 February 2020. The outcome of the consultation, and the accompanying call for evidence, will inform our next steps and we are continuing to work on this important area.

While allowed under EU law, the Government has made clear that the production of foie gras from ducks or geese using force feeding raises serious welfare concerns. The production of foie gras by force feeding is banned in the UK as it is incompatible with our domestic legislation.

After the transition period, there will be an opportunity to consider whether the UK can adopt a different approach to foie gras imports and sales in the UK.

Waste crime damages the environment, is a blight on local communities and the Government is committed to tackling this criminal activity. We have given the Environment Agency (EA) an extra £60 million to tackle waste crime since 2014 and have also made a range of legislative changes. In addition, the Resource and Waste Strategy sets out an ambitious package of further reforms to modernise the way waste is regulated, clamping down on illegal operators and improving performance across the sector. Some of these commitments are being taken forward in the Environment Bill, including measures to further strengthen EA powers when dealing with criminal operators.

The new Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC), a taskforce dedicated to tackling serious and organised criminality in the waste sector was launched last month. The JUWC will tackle criminal activity including the large-scale illegal dumping, or false labelling of waste so it can be exported abroad to unsuspecting countries. It brings together the EA, the National Crime Agency, the police, HMRC, Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in a concerted UK-wide effort to share intelligence and resources to tackle crime which costs the economy at least £600 million every year.

Fly-tipping is unacceptable whether it occurs on public or private land and tackling this crime is a priority for the Government. In recent years we have bolstered local authorities’ powers to tackle fly-tipping. As well as enhanced powers to search and seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers, we have given them the power to issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) of up to £400 for fly-tipping offences, including to those caught fly-tipping and householders who pass their waste to a fly-tipper. FPNs provide local authorities with an efficient mechanism to hold fly-tipping perpetrators to account without having to go to court, which can be a time consuming, resource-intensive and expensive process.

If a prosecution is taken, then a fly-tipper can receive a fine of up to £50,000, or 12 months imprisonment if convicted in a Magistrates' Court. The offence can attract an unlimited fine and up to 5 years imprisonment if convicted in a Crown Court. Defra has worked with the Sentencing Council to amend sentencing guidance for magistrates to ensure that they are aware of local fixed penalty levels for these offences, but will continue this work to help to secure tougher penalties in line with our manifesto commitment.

We have also committed to the development of a fly-tipping toolkit, hosted by the National Fly Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG). This will be a web-based tool to help local authorities and others work in partnership to tackle fly-tipping. It will cover, for example, the use of new technology to report fly-tipping, sharing of intelligence within and between partnerships, dealing with unauthorised encampments and promoting the duty of care to individuals and businesses. The Government is also consulting at the moment about strengthening police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments. The NFTPG has also published a Fly-tipping Partnership Framework outlining best practice for the prevention, reporting, investigation and clearance of fly-tipping and a series of fly-tipping prevention guides for householders, businesses and landowners.

The number of reindeer and the number of consignments exported from the UK to the EU in 2018 is as follows:

There were no exports of reindeer to third countries recorded in 2018.

There were no recorded exports of reindeer from the United Kingdom to third countries or EU Member States in 2019.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) can access information using Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) for species of animals that require a health certificate for movement to the EU.

APHA does record Export Health Certificates issued for animals to third countries that do not use the TRACES system.

The information regarding reindeer imports is based on Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) data. This data is provided by third parties.

There have been no recorded imports of reindeer into the United Kingdom from the EU in 2019.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency are not able to provide any data regarding the number of imports from third countries. This is because they are covered by a commodity code in TRACES which does not allow a breakdown by species.

Decisions on red, amber and green list countries are taken by Ministers, who take into account risk assessments produced by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), alongside wider public health factors. Risk assessments are based on factors such as the level of community transmission of variants of concern or variant under investigation, levels of testing, genomic sequencing and reporting. Details of the in-country and territory vaccination profile are included as contextual information in the assessment.

A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data that supports ministers’ decisions.

The Secretary of State for Transport met with G7 Transport Leaders on 5 May to begin setting out a strategy for the safe reopening of international travel.

This will focus on the need for a coordinated and sustainable reopening of travel through a number of aligned international measures including best practice for sharing scientific data and promoting coordination on universally recognised travel certificates.

As set out in the Global Travel Taskforce recommendations, we are engaging bilaterally with international partners to explore how we can open international travel safely, including the potential piloting of digital and non-digital COVID-19 certification. We continue to work with a range of international partners to look at the technology and evidence as it emerges, assessing if it could be applicable to international travel in the future.

These are diplomatically sensitive discussions, and we cannot comment further at this stage. However, the Department for Transport, with colleagues from across UK Government, is now working at all levels to continue dialogue with the US on the specifics of our future travel arrangements.

Payments are not limited to use on business rates cost only.

The Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme (AGOSS) opened for applications on 29 January to provide support for eligible commercial airports and ground handlers in England. It will provide support up to the equivalent of their business rates liabilities in the 2020/21 financial year, subject to certain conditions and a cap per claimant of £8m.

Grant payments made to successful applicants can be applied toward costs which are essential to enable the operation of a commercial airport or ground handling operations and falls within the list of eligible expenditure.

The Secretary of State for Transport jointly chairs the Global Travel Taskforce with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. They and other Ministers have very regular discussions about its work with officials and industry partners.

The Taskforce has undertaken extensive consultation with the transport industry, international partners, the tourism sector, business leaders, and the private testing sector, and invited submissions from all of these partners on its work.

The Taskforce will submit its recommendations to the Prime Minister in November.

The Department recognises the importance of maintaining a thriving and competitive aviation sector in the UK to deliver connectivity.

Air Passenger Duty is led by HM Treasury. The Department for Transport works closely with HM Treasury and both Departments have engaged closely with the aviation sector to understand their assessment of the outlook for the sector and implications of any sector specific support measures.

In recognition of the challenging times that the aviation sector continues to face due to Covid-19, the Secretary of State has kept an open dialogue with UK airports. Engagement has included regular structured round tables with the Minister for Aviation as well as one-to-one calls, considered on a case by case basis. It would not be appropriate to comment on individual engagements or their frequency.

The Government is actively considering the concept of international travel corridors, including air bridges, and how they could be implemented in practice along with other measures.

Ultimately, we will be guided by the science, and the health of the public will always come first.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth on 20 May 2020, PQ UIN 43656.

The Department has been closely monitoring developments in the global aviation sector and how the international community has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK has been working with a range of international partners to drive forward a shared agenda on public health and aviation through regular meetings and correspondence. The UK is a member of the governing Council of ICAO and has played a leading role in the ICAO Civil Aviation Recovery Taskforce (CART), which was set up specifically to address the aviation industry’s recovery from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of maritime port entry requirements, pre-existing control of infectious diseases is already in place through the Public Health (Ships) Regulations 1979.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth on 20 May 2020, PQ UIN 43656.

The Government recognises the challenging times facing the aviation sector as a result of COVID-19, and has been engaging regularly with airports throughout the UK to understand the impact that COVID-19 is having on their financial position. The Government continues to do so.

Businesses across the industry, including airports, have drawn on the unprecedented package of economic measures we have put in place during this time.

The Government has now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities, through an un-ringfenced grant, so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will continue to work with local government over the coming weeks to develop a collective understanding of the costs that local authorities are facing, and to ensure that they are managing as the pandemic progresses.

The Government’s approach to tackling coronavirus has always been guided by science. Testing will not identify everyone who is infected with coronavirus when they enter the UK – especially as some people might be asymptomatic. That is why we will be asking all travellers to self-isolate for 14 days.

The Government will continue to review whether and when additional measures are needed to slow the spread of coronavirus and we are monitoring the decision for some airports to trial temperature screening.

The Department has been closely monitoring developments in the global aviation sector and how the international community has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Chancellor has announced an unprecedented package of measures which the aviation sector has made extensive use of, including a Bank of England scheme for firms to raise capital, Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, financial support for employees and VAT deferrals. Additionally, Government remain open to discussions about bespoke financial support, but only as a last resort. The Department has been in close contact with key industry stakeholders to understand more about their position and the support they need. Calls with the industry are continuing in parallel to our work to progress potential support measures.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth on 20 May 2020, PQ UIN 43656.

The Government recognises the challenging times facing the aviation sector as a result of COVID-19.

Businesses across the industry have been able to draw on the unprecedented package of economic measures put in place during this time by the Government. In addition the sector has been able to apply for the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Finance Facility. However, if businesses across the sector find themselves in trouble as a result of coronavirus even following the Government’s cross-economy wage and financial interventions, the Transport Secretary and Chancellor have confirmed that the Government is prepared to enter discussions with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted all other options. Any intervention would need to represent value for money for taxpayers.

Businesses across the sector are eligible and have accessed these schemes which has protected a number of jobs across the industry. We do not comment on the commercial or financial matters of private firms and are therefore unable to say anything further at this stage.

Before the impact of COVID-19, the UK aviation sector directly employed around 230,000 jobs (130,000 in air transport and 100,000 in aerospace). Following the sharp contraction in aviation demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, employment in the UK aviation sector has been significantly impacted.

Workers in the aviation sector are being supported by the unprecedented economic measures we have put in place, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. At least 50,000 airline and aerospace employees have been furloughed using the scheme. However, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, Rolls Royce and John Menzies are among UK aviation companies that have announced plans for tens of thousands of redundancies.

Government is continuing to monitor the impact on employment within the UK aviation sector, and as we now begin to re-open the economy, it is right that state support is slowly reduced and the focus shifts to getting furloughed employees back to work.

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 UK is engaging with a number of key international organisations (including ICAO and IATA), and we are working with our international partners to drive forward a shared agenda on public health measures for international travel.

The Government has also established five ministerial-led taskforces to develop plans for reopening sectors which have been heavily impacted by COVID-19, including a taskforce on international aviation.

The Government aims to support industry in developing guidance on a baseline set of measures, based on the available evidence, and for these to become widespread and well-understood, thereby avoiding confusion and uncertainty for both industry and passengers.

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.

All season ticket holders are entitled to claim a refund for time unused on their tickets in accordance with the National Rail Conditions of Travel.

We have worked with the rail industry to make the process for claiming season ticket refunds easier during this crisis, for example by allowing passengers to claim refunds remotely rather than returning their ticket to a ticket office. We have also allowed passengers to backdate their season ticket refund claim to 17th March, when ‘do not travel’ advice was first introduced, or the date their ticket was last used, whichever is later. The refund acceptance period for passengers has also been extended from 28 to 56 days.

The Chancellor has set out unprecedented support for workers - including those in the travel sector - to protect them against the current economic emergency. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.

These measures, and others available through the Government’s comprehensive support package, have been designed to ensure that companies of any size receive the help they need to get through this difficult time. Government is committed to helping the travel industry through this crisis and beyond.

No estimate has yet been made on the number of jobs at risk in the travel industry as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

We are aware that the coronavirus outbreak and related travel advice is significantly impacting all aspects of the travel industry. We are in close contact with stakeholders to monitor the situation. Our national priority is containing the spread of the virus. As soon as it is safe to do so, we will be encouraging people to book holidays and support travel companies once again.

The Chancellor has set out unprecedented support for business and workers - including those in the travel sector - to protect them against the current economic emergency.

The Secretary of State for Transport heard the concerns about smart motorways and asked the Department to carry out, at pace, an evidence stocktake to gather the facts quickly and make recommendations.

While I would not want to pre-judge the results of that work, what I can say is that we will continue to prioritise improving safety – making conditions safer for everyone on our roads.

The Secretary of State confirmed at Transport Parliamentary Questions on 30 January that all stretches of Smart Motorway that are currently being worked on will not be opened until we have the outcome of the stocktake.

We cannot commit to a formal review of the licensing of pilots over the age of 65 at this stage. However, we continually review matters of aviation safety, and are working closely with the CAA to fully understand the evidence base around this issue. This includes, but is not limited to, the EASA report referred to in the response to Question 2479.

We understand that the upper age limit restrictions on pilots can be a frustration and the DfT and CAA have worked closely with EASA to understand the evidence on what the upper age limits should be. At present, the UK continues with its policy of regulatory alignment with Europe, and EASA is still considering its position. EASA has recently asked for views from the European Aviation Medical Assessors Council, and it is expected that EASA will consult on any formal proposals developed. We will of course continue to contribute actively, and keep the situation under review when further evidence and/or proposals become available.

Tax liabilities relating to unauthorised payments and HMRC’s investigation of tax rules arising from pension scams are the responsibility of HMT. DWP will continue to work closely with HMRC to understand their position and how these may impact the Pensions Schemes Bill and savers.

Government continues to work with regulators and industry to protect consumers and find the best ways of preventing pension scams. HMRC and DWP have held regular discussions relating to the enhanced protection measures in the Pension Scheme Bill 2020.

Through Project Bloom, DWP works with other government departments, regulators, enforcement agencies and the pensions industry to monitor the evolution of scam typology and respond with a collective and coordinated response. Project Bloom is examining the range of measures that all agencies including providers and financial professionals could take to help prevent scams.

At the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, the Department convened a cross-government and regulator group to closely monitor and respond to any increase in transfers and scams. The group includes DWP, HMT, both the Pensions Regulator and the FCA as well as the Money and Pensions Service and the Pension Ombudsman. This is supported by cross government and regulator gathering, monitoring and evaluating of data in order to develop as complete and robust a picture as possible. At this point the Department doesn’t yet have any robust evidence showing an increase in pension scams activity but will continue to monitor across the industry.

In addition to active monitoring, the Government, working with the regulators and the Money and Pension Service has been communicating with pension savers to alert them to the risk of scams in the current climate. DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media out the warning signs of a scam. A joint statement was issued by The Pension Regulator, Financial Conduct Authority, and Money Advice and Pension Service on 7 April pointing to the actions members should seek to take to safeguard against becoming victims of scams. Additional guidance was issued to trustees, and providers from both The Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator to support them to produce suitable communications during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Please see links below for more information about the joint statement from Regulators and the Money Advice Service, and help available, produced by the Pension Protection Fund and supported by government.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions

https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2020-05/COVID-19-and-your-pension.pdf

Between March 1^st and September 9^th 2020, the number of Pension Wise guidance sessions booked totalled 64,221.

The Government is committed to working closely with industry, regulators and pension scheme providers to help identify and prevent scams, it is working with Project Bloom, the Pension Regulator led taskforce, to stop scams and co-ordinate action against offenders.

Through Project Bloom, DWP works with other government departments, regulators, enforcement agencies and the pensions industry to monitor the evolution of scam typology and respond with a collective and coordinated response. Project Bloom is examining the range of measures that all agencies including providers and financial professionals could take to help prevent scams.

DWP will consider with Project Bloom, industry and the regulators the feasibility of how a training programme could be developed. This would build on training individual providers already provide for their people.

Through Project Bloom, DWP works with other government departments, regulators, enforcement agencies and the pensions industry to monitor the evolution of scam typology and respond with a collective and coordinated response. Project Bloom is examining the range of measures that all agencies including providers and financial professionals could take to help prevent scams.

DWP consistently works with other organisations to raise awareness of pension scams and encourage reporting, including regular campaigns, from the Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator, conducted through the ScamSmart branding. Alongside promoting what to look out for to recognise a pension scam, the ScamSmart campaigns and website encourage people to report when they think they have been scammed. These messages are proving effective, in the most recent campaign prior to Covid-19, June to September 2019 over 222,000 visited the ScamSmart website to find out how to identify a scam scheme and report a scam.

The Government, working with the regulators and the Money and Pension Service communicates with pension savers to alert them to the risk of scams in the current climate. DWP continues to communicate regularly on social media to set out the warning signs of a scam and has made 18 posts referencing Pension Scams and ScamSmart in total across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the period March to September 2020.

A joint statement was issued by The Pension Regulator, Financial Conduct Authority, and Money Advice and Pension Service on 7 April pointing to the actions members should take to help safeguard against scams. Additional guidance was issued to trustees, and providers from both The Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator to support them to produce suitable communications during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Please see links below for more information about the joint statement from Regulators and the Money Advice Service, and help available, produced by the Pension Protection Fund and supported by government.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/covid-19-savers-stay-calm-dont-rush-financial-decisions

https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2020-05/COVID-19-and-your-pension.pdf

The Department and its Ministers work in partnership with a variety of stakeholders, including local authorities, charities and employer groups, and listens directly to their feedback about Universal Credit. At its core, Universal Credit is about ensuring we deliver a service which is tailored to individual claimant circumstances and abilities. Following the outbreak of COVID-19, we adapted many of our services to be delivered remotely, and we will consider if changes can be retained longer term. But, many claimants benefit from having face to face contact with Work Coaches to overcome barriers and we will ensure this method of contact continues to be used where appropriate.

Measures, such as identity verification, are key components of the Universal Credit claim process to confirm the accuracy of information supplied, allowing us to make timely and accurate decisions. In addition to our usual online verification, since early June we have been trialling the online identity service, Confirm Your Identity. This has enabled a higher number of claimants to verify their identity online, and we are continually monitoring and testing the impact this has on a claimant’s ability to verify remotely.

The UK Health Security Agency has yet to complete testing on Evusheld’s efficacy against the Omicron variant. The timing of these results is dependent on the testing assays being completed successfully, which will inform any decisions on potential deployment.

This information is not held centrally in the format requested.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The information requested is not held centrally as the shielding programme ended in September 2021. The Office for National Statistics’ ‘Coronavirus and clinically extremely vulnerable people in England’ survey includes information on the behaviours of clinically extremely vulnerable people and their health and wellbeing, which is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/datasets/coronavirusandclinicallyextremelyvulnerablepeopleinengland

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Any public announcement on the procurement of therapeutics would be made after an agreement is reached with companies, as this information is commercially sensitive. The Department continues to examine the potential introduction of prophylaxis, which includes deployment and administration processes. Any such therapeutic treatment must provide evidence that it is clinically cost-effective, does not contribute to the generation of new variants and demonstrate sufficient efficacy against Omicron and new variants.

The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel is providing advice on the most appropriate patient cohorts for new COVID-19 therapeutics, including preventive treatments such as Evusheld. Final clinical policies and eligibility would be determined by the National Health Service and the devolved administrations.

Any public announcement on the procurement of therapeutics would be made after an agreement is reached with companies, as this information is commercially sensitive. The Department continues to examine the potential introduction of prophylaxis, which includes deployment and administration processes. Any such therapeutic treatment must provide evidence that it is clinically cost-effective, does not contribute to the generation of new variants and demonstrate sufficient efficacy against Omicron and new variants.

The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel is providing advice on the most appropriate patient cohorts for new COVID-19 therapeutics, including preventive treatments such as Evusheld. Final clinical policies and eligibility would be determined by the National Health Service and the devolved administrations.

The National Health Service will continue to ensure cardiovascular disease services remain a priority in the updated NHS Long Term Plan, including diagnostic and treatment services for patients with heart failure and heart valve disease. The NHS is investing in cardiac networks to support whole pathway improvements, from prevention, diagnosis, treatment through to end of life care.

No specific assessment has been made.

We are unable to provide the information requested as this is commercially sensitive. Any public announcement would be made after an agreement is reached with companies.

We are unable to provide the information requested as this is commercially sensitive. Any public announcement would be made after an agreement is reached with companies.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 will be debated on 8 February 2022. We are reviewing the 2014 Regulations with the Care Quality Commission to identify areas of activity that either need to be brought into or out of scope of Regulations with a view to a further amendment. Once proposals have been finalised, the Department will publish a public consultation asking for views on the proposed amendments to the scope of the 2014 Regulations.

Local authorities should facilitate personalised care in line with their legal duties. The white paper sets out that personalised care should be the norm, where people have the choice, control and support they need to live independent lives, can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support and find adult social care fair and accessible.

We expect care providers to be encouraged to allow individuals to take control over the way their care is planned and delivered, which includes dietary requirements and preferences where appropriate. We have no plans to assess the regulatory framework or review the regulations and guidance relating to diet in care.

Local authorities should facilitate personalised care in line with their legal duties. The white paper states that personalised care should be the norm, allowing choice, control and support to live independent lives. This includes dietary requirements and preferences where appropriate.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and acts to ensure that providers take account of preferences and religious and cultural backgrounds when providing food and drink. Under Regulation 14 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, providers must meet any reasonable requirement for people with nutrition and hydration needs arising from their preferences and religious or cultural background. The CQC’s Assessment Framework takes into account the personalisation of care with regards to nutrition where providers are inspected and rated. The CQC has a range or enforcement options it can take against providers who do not comply with the regulations.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Secretary of State for Education discuss a range of issues related to health and care services. We are working with the Department for Education on the health and care system’s role in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system through the SEND Review. We are also looking at how we can improve the provision of and access to health and care services for disabled children.

To ensure that the needs of people with a learning disability have been met during the winter, we have worked with the National Health Service to ensure that the COVID-19 booster and flu vaccination programmes provides appropriate adjustments to encourage uptake. This includes accessible information such as an easy-read vaccination invitation letter and vaccination consent form and a film about the vaccine to support those with a learning disability and autistic people.

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to support the health and wellbeing of people with a learning disability as part of the national Learning Disability and Autism programme. This includes continuing the provision of annual health checks to people with a learning disability.

General practices will remain open but have been asked to prioritise vaccinations and emergency care for the rest of the year. General practitioners will still be able to refer patients with a heart condition to one of 40 new diagnostic centres to access detection and diagnostic checks closer to home.

General practices will remain open but have been asked to prioritise vaccinations and emergency care for the rest of the year. General practitioners will still be able to refer patients with a heart condition to one of 40 new diagnostic centres to access detection and diagnostic checks closer to home.

Ipsos MORI, in collaboration with the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit and York Health Economics Consortium, have been commissioned to undertake a four year evaluation of the rapid diagnostic centre programme until the end of 2023/24. Throughout the evaluation, Ipsos MORI and their partners will produce quarterly and annual reports. The first annual report will be published shortly. The final report is due in March 2024.

The UK Health Security Agency have noted that B.1.1.529, or Omicron, could potentially have an impact on neutralising monoclonal antibody treatments. However, there is currently no confirmed evidence of reduced efficacy.

Regeneron is evaluating Ronapreve against the Omicron variant. Preliminary analyses from the company suggest that the antibodies in the cocktail may have the potential to retain activity against the Omicron variant, as well as the other existing variants of concern. Further in vitro data is expected over the next month.

On 17 September, Ronapreve was made available to treat the most vulnerable hospital patients in the United Kingdom through an interim clinical policy. This treatment will continue to be available this winter for hospitalised patients.

There will be ongoing monitoring (involving sample collection) of selected patients treated with nMABs (led by UK Health Security Agency). This will include monitoring the efficacy of the treatments against variants. The Therapeutics and Antivirals Taskforce will also keep the evidence under review, including how this could affect immunocompromised patients.

For those who are severely immunosuppressed, the third primary COVID-19 vaccine dose is recorded as a booster vaccinations. A subsequent booster or fourth dose for eligible severely immunosuppressed patients after a further three months will be recorded as a second booster. Existing data systems support the recording of multiple boosters. All doses administered appear in an individual’s vaccination history and are recorded in the National Immunisation Management System and general practitioner record. An assessment determined that retrospectively updating or amending patient records in the immediate term could risk creating a data quality issue.

For those who are severely immunosuppressed, the third primary COVID-19 vaccine dose is recorded as a booster vaccinations. A subsequent booster or fourth dose for eligible severely immunosuppressed patients after a further three months will be recorded as a second booster. Existing data systems support the recording of multiple boosters. All doses administered appear in an individual’s vaccination history and are recorded in the National Immunisation Management System and general practitioner record. An assessment determined that retrospectively updating or amending patient records in the immediate term could risk creating a data quality issue.

The information is not held in the format requested. Whilst data for Moderna vaccine administrations is collected, information by clinical risk groups is not held centrally.

Whether to prescribe any medicine is a clinical decision and the Government has enabled the prescription of cannabis-based products for medicinal use where it is clinically appropriate. The Chief Medical Officer and NHS England have written to doctors and pharmacists to highlight the available guidance on the prescribing and use of unlicensed medicines and to clarify the procedure for prescribing and supplying cannabis-based products for medicinal use. Health Education England has also published an e-learning module on medicinal cannabis.

The licensed cannabis-based medicine Epidyolex is prescribed and routinely funded by the National Health Service for Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has recently approved Epidyolex for a third form of epilepsy and it is now being assessed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for this indication. The licensed medicine Sativex is also routinely funded to treat moderate to severe spasticity in adults with multiple sclerosis. On 6 September, NHS England issued a reminder to clinical commissioning groups of NICE’s guidance relating to Sativex and will be monitoring its uptake.

The latest NICE guidelines demonstrate a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed cannabis-based products on the NHS. The Government continues to support the establishment of clinical trials with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health Research and from 1 April introduced a national patient registry to record patient outcomes. Since January 2020, the Refractory Epilepsy Specialist Clinical Advisory Service has been in place to provide advice and support for doctors to optimise the treatment of refractory epilepsy.

The data requested is not available in the format requested. Daily data currently combines the total number of booster vaccinations and third primary doses, which is available at the following link:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations

There are currently no plans to publish this data in a daily format. All individuals who have severe immunosuppression, including as a result of blood cancer, are eligible for their third primary dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

An interim clinical policy for Ronapreve (casirivimab and imdevimab) was published on 17 September 2021 and updated on 4 November. Since September 2021, over 1,200 patients in England have received this treatment.

NHS England and NHS Improvement collect information from trusts on usage based on the criteria set out in the policy for treatment of patients hospitalised due to COVID-19. The data collection is not designed to identify the number of such patients who have blood cancer. The information on the number of patients treated in each clinical commissioning group area and in each week is not currently available.

All those with immunosuppression aged 16 years old and over living in the United Kingdom have been offered a second primary dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Immunosuppressed children aged 12 to 15 years old have also now been offered a second primary dose. The offer of first primary doses to immunosuppressed children aged five to 11 years old commenced on 31 January 2022. Vaccination data for those with blood cancer is not held in the format requested.

As of 20 February 2022, data for those formerly regarded as clinically extremely vulnerable, which includes the immunosuppressed and those with blood cancer, shows an uptake rate of over 93.9% for a second primary dose.

I have responsibility for policy relating to people who are immunosuppressed during the COVID-19 outbreak. For NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Chief Executive has this responsibility.

The Cancer Patient Experience Survey captures experiences from people treated for cancer, including those with less survivable cancers. Due to the need for statistical robustness, there is a time lag between the experience of treatment and the issue of the survey questionnaires. The Picker Institute reviewed the survey in 2018 and revised guidance to trusts to streamline preparations for the survey, ensured consistency in fieldwork across trusts to reduce delays in data collection and centralised checks on survey samples.

The national cancer quality of life survey in England was launched in September 2020 to introduce an innovative quality of life metric to track and respond to the long-term impact of cancer. The first report of the survey was published on 26 October 2021 and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/cancer-quality-of-life-survey-summary-report-first-data-release-october-2021/

The Cancer Patient Experience Survey captures experiences from people treated for cancer, including those with less survivable cancers. Due to the need for statistical robustness, there is a time lag between the experience of treatment and the issue of the survey questionnaires. The Picker Institute reviewed the survey in 2018 and revised guidance to trusts to streamline preparations for the survey, ensured consistency in fieldwork across trusts to reduce delays in data collection and centralised checks on survey samples.

The national cancer quality of life survey in England was launched in September 2020 to introduce an innovative quality of life metric to track and respond to the long-term impact of cancer. The first report of the survey was published on 26 October 2021 and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/cancer-quality-of-life-survey-summary-report-first-data-release-october-2021/

All people with a cancer diagnosis, including those with a less survivable cancer, are invited to complete the Cancer Quality of Life Survey. This is an initiative aimed specifically at supporting long term survivorship. For cancer patients who sadly do not survive for 18 months from diagnosis other approaches to assessing their experience, such as the Cancer Patient Experience Survey, will be more appropriate.

Immunocompromised individuals are a priority cohort for research into therapeutic and prophylaxis treatments, such as monoclonal antibody therapies and repurposed compounds. The Antivirals Taskforce is also identifying potential effective treatments for patients who have been exposed to the virus to stop the infection spreading and speed up recovery time. The National Health Service is also developing plans to deploy monoclonal antibody therapies if these become available in coming months.

As of 17 September, Ronapreve was made available to treat the most vulnerable hospital patients through an interim clinical policy. We anticipate that further monoclonal antibodies will be submitted for evaluation for a marketing authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the next few months. If approved, these could become available for community treatment or prevention use. On 20 October the Department announced the procurement of two promising new antivirals, with the intention to make these available to patients as part of a national study.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has supported 15 studies on monoclonal antibodies and other therapies for immunocompromised and immunosuppressed groups, including cell therapy and the use of probiotics. Twelve of these studies are now complete and three are ongoing. All NIHR-funded research is expected to be published in peer-reviewed, open access journals once completed to promote translation into patient care where appropriate.

The COV-BOOST study was commissioned through the National Institute for Health Research and will provide vital data on the impact of a third dose on patients’ immune responses. Initial findings are expected in September. To fully understand how COVID-19 vaccines respond as a booster dose they must first be studied in people with a fully functioning immune system.

UK Research and Innovation is providing £4 million towards the OCTAVE study examining COVID-19 vaccine responses in clinically at-risk groups, including immunocompromised patients.

The Department does not have a specific men’s health strategy. Relevant issues are identified and policy developed on a condition specific basis.

We are currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia and neurodegeneration. On 29 April, I hosted a roundtable event on boosting motor neurone disease research with the National Institute for Health Research Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre. The event brought together researchers, charities, people with motor neurone disease and funders. We will be working closely with these stakeholders over the coming months to consider ways forward for this vital area of research.

Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for those individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation.NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £4.5 million in 2012/22 to support whole pathway improvements in cardiac networks and to reduce variation in care across the service.

To reduce readmissions, the National Health Service is supporting patients to better understand their condition, so that they can be supported to self-manage at home. The NHS Long Term Plan will provide for greater awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness - a key heart failure symptom.

Those people with heart failure and heart valve disease will be better supported by multi-disciplinary teams as part of Primary Care Networks (PCN). Development of a PCN Directed Enhanced Service for CVD prevention and diagnosis is ongoing and will be implemented in 2021/22.

Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for those individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation.NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £4.5 million in 2012/22 to support whole pathway improvements in cardiac networks and to reduce variation in care across the service.

To reduce readmissions, the National Health Service is supporting patients to better understand their condition, so that they can be supported to self-manage at home. The NHS Long Term Plan will provide for greater awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness - a key heart failure symptom.

Those people with heart failure and heart valve disease will be better supported by multi-disciplinary teams as part of Primary Care Networks (PCN). Development of a PCN Directed Enhanced Service for CVD prevention and diagnosis is ongoing and will be implemented in 2021/22.

Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for those individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation.NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £4.5 million in 2012/22 to support whole pathway improvements in cardiac networks and to reduce variation in care across the service.

To reduce readmissions, the National Health Service is supporting patients to better understand their condition, so that they can be supported to self-manage at home. The NHS Long Term Plan will provide for greater awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness - a key heart failure symptom.

Those people with heart failure and heart valve disease will be better supported by multi-disciplinary teams as part of Primary Care Networks (PCN). Development of a PCN Directed Enhanced Service for CVD prevention and diagnosis is ongoing and will be implemented in 2021/22.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently considering the Getting it Right First Time Programme report, which includes cardiology services and will publish their findings later in the year.

NHS England’s Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) includes data on heart failure collected in primary care and community care services. In April 2020, the QOF was updated to support moves towards earlier diagnosis and management. This encourages general practitioner surgeries to capture data confirming heart failure diagnosis. Cardiovascular disease encompasses a range of conditions extending from heart attacks to congenital heart disease and stroke many of which are heritable. Research is being undertaken on personalised medicine to detect genes that make people more vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes

The National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research collects data through the National Cardiac Audit Programme, which helps the National Health Service improve the quality of care by ensuring that heart failure data collection covers the most appropriate areas, including whether the patient has been referred to a rehabilitation programme following hospital episode.

NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence are developing proposals for the operation of the Innovative Medicines Fund. Timescales for a public engagement exercise and implementation of the Fund will be confirmed in due course.

Departmental Ministers and officials regularly discuss a range of matters with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England and NHS Improvement, including the NICE methods review. However, NICE is an independent body and is therefore responsible for its own methods and processes.

NICE is currently engaging with stakeholders and exploring options. However it is too soon to comment on the potential outcomes and any changes to its methods.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the NHS on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended through a NICE appraisal. As NICE is an independent body, it is responsible for the methods and processes it uses in the assessment of health technologies.

New commercial flexibilities and support structures have been introduced to support access and uptake of transformative medicines, including the publication of NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Commercial Framework which sets out the new commercial flexibilities available to the most clinically and cost-effective new treatments. Drawing on these commercial flexibilities, a host of innovative commercial deals have been agreed with NHS England and NHS Improvement and NICE in recent years, providing United Kingdom patients with access to the best value new treatments.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambition to increase genetic testing and diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) from 7% to 25% by 2024. To achieve this, the National Health Service will undertake a service evaluation of child-parent cascade screening in seven Academic Health Science Network areas in England. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided £500,000 to enable this pilot to be implemented. The pilot will be launched in June 2021 and will test over 30,000 children for cholesterol at their one-year vaccination over the next 24 months.

This will support early diagnosis by identifying families with FH before the onset of clinical disease providing an opportunity for prevention with statin therapy and where necessary other lipid lowering drugs. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with clinicians and patient representatives to inform on a functional FH registry and are investing an additional £335,000 on a single life-long nation-wide database.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambition to increase genetic testing and diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) from 7% to 25% by 2024. To achieve this, the National Health Service will undertake a service evaluation of child-parent cascade screening in seven Academic Health Science Network areas in England. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided £500,000 to enable this pilot to be implemented. The pilot will be launched in June 2021 and will test over 30,000 children for cholesterol at their one-year vaccination over the next 24 months.

This will support early diagnosis by identifying families with FH before the onset of clinical disease providing an opportunity for prevention with statin therapy and where necessary other lipid lowering drugs. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with clinicians and patient representatives to inform on a functional FH registry and are investing an additional £335,000 on a single life-long nation-wide database.

Each of the devolved administrations has a different approach to the delivery of genomics into the healthcare system. In England, genomic testing for familial hypercholesterolaemia is already available as part of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service through the genomic testing network of seven Genomic Laboratory Hubs for all patients in England who meet the eligibility criteria for testing as outlined in the National Genomic Testing Directory, which aligns with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance.

The Integration and Innovation White Paper builds on the commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan. Whilst not having a direct impact on previous commitments to cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention legislation will allow every part of England to be covered by an integrated care system. This builds on the work the system has been doing since the publication of the NHS Long Term Plan, and is in line with NHS England’s recommendation of formally recognising the need to bring together National Health Service organisations, local government and wider partners at a system level to deliver more joined up approaches to improving health and care outcomes, coterminous with local authorities.

NHS Digital has made no such assessment.

The Integration and Innovation White Paper builds on the commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan. Whilst not having a direct impact on previous commitments to cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention legislation will allow every part of England to be covered by an integrated care system. This builds on the work the system has been doing since the publication of the NHS Long Term Plan, and is in line with NHS England’s recommendation of formally recognising the need to bring together National Health Service organisations, local government and wider partners at a system level to deliver more joined up approaches to improving health and care outcomes, coterminous with local authorities.

NHS Digital has made no such assessment.

The report of the Review will be published in spring/summer 2021.

Our investment in the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) supports ongoing vaccine research and development to respond to an evolving virus. Whilst there are no current plans for United Kingdom Government-initiated international research into the COVID-19 vaccine response on immunocompromised groups, it is important to emphasise that the research community is truly global in its collaboration and studies, those planned or published, will be shared, discussed and closely scrutinised by international researchers in this field and vice versa.

UK Research and Innovation is funding research on vaccine responses in groups of immune-suppressed individuals specifically, as part of its support for the OCTAVE study. This study includes those with inflammatory disorders, high risk cancer patient groups, and patients with severe kidney and liver disease.

By mid-February we successfully offered a first vaccine dose to everyone in the top four priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), including clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) individuals. The National Health Service across the United Kingdom will continue prioritising the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most high-risk groups; however, this will not interfere with everyone receiving their second dose within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection.

As virus infection rates continue to fall, advice to CEV individuals to shield will cease from 1 April, but they must continue to follow the rules in place for everyone under the current national restrictions. Those on the shielded patient list will receive letters with updated guidance on steps people can take to reduce their risk.

Regarding longer term support for CEV individuals, local councils will continue to provide support to those in their communities in need and have systems and relationships in place with other organisations to provide that. The NHS Volunteer Responders Programme will also continue providing support with food, prescriptions and essential items to those who are self-isolating for any reason. This also includes anyone that is clinically extremely vulnerable, or anyone that is vulnerable for another reason.

Further guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable can be found at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19

This data is not being collected in the format requested. Admissions and positive test data does not record those who are clinically extremely vulnerable or whether they have been vaccinated.

Decisions on the support provided to clinically extremely vulnerable people are made by Ministers in the Department, in conjunction with other Government departments as appropriate. In doing so, Ministers are advised by the Chief Medical Officer, the Deputy Chief Medical Officers, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and other experts.

The Green Book: chapter 14a defines adult carers as those who are eligible for a carer’s allowance, or those who are the sole or primary carer of an elderly or disabled person who is at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality and therefore clinically vulnerable. This includes unpaid carers and those who care for clinically extremely vulnerable people as a sole or primary carer. Adult carers will be prioritised for vaccination and are included in priority group six of phase one.

Other adult members of a household that includes someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable are, in line with the current Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advice, prioritised for vaccination according to their own age, clinical and other risk factors.

We have made no such estimate as data is not collected in that format.

Weekly updates are published on the number of first and second dose vaccinations in England to clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) patients covering cumulative totals, numbers identified as CEV and the percentage of CEV people who have received at least one dose. The data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/

No such assessment has been made.

We will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders, including the rare blood cancer community, before publishing action plans that outline how the priorities and underlying themes in the Framework will be addressed.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK Rare Disease Framework is a success and will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders before publishing action plans that outline how the priorities and underlying themes in the Framework will be addressed.

Cancer Alliances have pathways in place to support diagnosis of T-cell lymphomas as part of their skin cancer pathways. No recent assessment on Sézary syndrome or Mycosis Fungoides has been made. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is due to publish guidance on the use of mogamulizumab for previously treated mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome at the end of March 2021.

Cancer Alliances have pathways in place to support diagnosis of T-cell lymphomas as part of their skin cancer pathways. No recent assessment on Sézary syndrome or Mycosis Fungoides has been made. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is due to publish guidance on the use of mogamulizumab for previously treated mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome at the end of March 2021.

Cancer Alliances have pathways in place to support diagnosis of T-cell lymphomas as part of their skin cancer pathways. No recent assessment on Sézary syndrome or Mycosis Fungoides has been made. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is due to publish guidance on the use of mogamulizumab for previously treated mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome at the end of March 2021.

Public Health England will monitor vaccine effectiveness in different targeted groups using a range of existing surveillance systems, new enhanced surveillance and by building upon established research studies in specific populations.

UK Research and Innovation has provided initial funding of £1.8 million towards the OCTAVE study in supporting research on vaccine responses in groups of immune-supressed individuals, including those with inflammatory disorders, high risk cancer patient groups, and patients with severe kidney and liver disease. Cancer patient groups include chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, myeloma, acute leukaemia and bone marrow transplants.

NHS England supports closer monitoring of Kawasaki disease and is now collecting data on incidence monthly, nationally and by region, by assessing finished consultant episodes coded for Kawasaki disease and Kawasaki like disease. In addition, the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, funded by Public Health England, is conducting a one-year study of all cases of the disease in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

On 23 December, NHS England and NHS Improvement published their operational priorities for winter and 2021/22. This confirms that maximising capacity in all settings to treat non-COVID-19 patients and responding to other emergency demands are key priorities for the National Health Service this winter. Cardiac services have been highlighted as a priority area for improvement through developing system-based recovery plans that focus on addressing treatment backlogs and long waits.

To support the NHS in tackling the impact of COVID-19, a £3 billion, one-year package has been announced for 2021/22 as part of the Spending Review. This includes £1 billion to address backlogs and tackle long waiting lists, by facilitating up to one million extra checks, scans and additional operations. Additionally, the NHS is running an ongoing media campaign ‘Help us help you’, which includes clear messaging for patients to call 999 with symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. NHS services will continue to adapt to ensure that they are there for those who need them, as well as launching a major campaign urging people to come forward for help.

On 23 December, NHS England and NHS Improvement published their operational priorities for winter and 2021/22. This confirms that maximising capacity in all settings to treat non-COVID-19 patients and responding to other emergency demands are key priorities for the National Health Service this winter. Cardiac services have been highlighted as a priority area for improvement through developing system-based recovery plans that focus on addressing treatment backlogs and long waits.

To support the NHS in tackling the impact of COVID-19, a £3 billion, one-year package has been announced for 2021/22 as part of the Spending Review. This includes £1 billion to address backlogs and tackle long waiting lists, by facilitating up to one million extra checks, scans and additional operations. Additionally, the NHS is running an ongoing media campaign ‘Help us help you’, which includes clear messaging for patients to call 999 with symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. NHS services will continue to adapt to ensure that they are there for those who need them, as well as launching a major campaign urging people to come forward for help.

The information is not available in the format requested.

Prior to the recent authorisation, the efficacy of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 was evaluated in two clinical studies. Both studies excluded immunocompromised subjects and therefore no data is available about use of the vaccine when used at the same time as immunosuppressant medicines or the immune response to the vaccine in those on such medications. The second trial allowed inclusion of subjects with autoimmune disorders who were not currently receiving immunosuppressants. There are no specific contraindications or warnings in the product information regarding use in individuals with autoimmune disease.

Evaluation of data for other vaccines is ongoing but will include a robust review of all quality, safety and efficacy data, including in immunocompromised subjects if they were included in clinical trials.

Vaccinations are being delivered at a wide range of sites across the country to give people options about how and where to receive their vaccine. These sites include vaccination centres, hospital hubs and local vaccination centres.

All vaccination sites must administer the vaccine in line with the best Infection Prevention Control (IPC) procedures including social distancing, ventilation and wearing masks. Large-scale centres are required to have an environmental risk assessment in place which is expected to cover requirements for ventilation in a pandemic when transmission and virus shedding is a significant concern.

The vaccine prioritisation is focussing on those most at risk of mortality and morbidity, beginning with care home residents and staff, people over 80 years old and frontline health and social care workers. People who are defined as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) are considered to be at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Many individuals considered as CEV are in the oldest age groups and so will be called for vaccination as part of their age cohort. However, for those that are not captured by their age group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation also advises that, given the level of risk seen in the CEV group as a whole, the remainder of the group should be offered vaccine alongside those 70-74 years of age. People will receive an invitation to come forward to receive their vaccination, in the form of a letter either from their general practitioner (GP) or the national booking system. This will include all the information they need, including their National Health Service number.

Anyone who is in the CEV group and for whom the vaccine is contraindicated, will instead have a consultation with their GP or another clinician responsible for their care when it would be their time to be vaccinated.

The vaccine prioritisation is focussing on those most at risk of mortality and morbidity, beginning with care home residents and staff, people over 80 years old and frontline health and social care workers. People who are defined as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) are considered to be at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Many individuals considered as CEV are in the oldest age groups and so will be called for vaccination as part of their age cohort. However, for those that are not captured by their age group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation also advises that, given the level of risk seen in the CEV group as a whole, the remainder of the group should be offered vaccine alongside those 70-74 years of age. People will receive an invitation to come forward to receive their vaccination, in the form of a letter either from their general practitioner (GP) or the national booking system. This will include all the information they need, including their National Health Service number.

Anyone who is in the CEV group and for whom the vaccine is contraindicated, will instead have a consultation with their GP or another clinician responsible for their care when it would be their time to be vaccinated.

The vaccine prioritisation is focussing on those most at risk of mortality and morbidity, beginning with care home residents and staff, people over 80 years old and frontline health and social care workers. People who are defined as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) are considered to be at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Many individuals considered as CEV are in the oldest age groups and so will be called for vaccination as part of their age cohort. However, for those that are not captured by their age group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation also advises that, given the level of risk seen in the CEV group as a whole, the remainder of the group should be offered vaccine alongside those 70-74 years of age. People will receive an invitation to come forward to receive their vaccination, in the form of a letter either from their general practitioner (GP) or the national booking system. This will include all the information they need, including their National Health Service number.

Anyone who is in the CEV group and for whom the vaccine is contraindicated, will instead have a consultation with their GP or another clinician responsible for their care when it would be their time to be vaccinated.

The following table shows a count of patients that are classified as being on the Shielded Patient List (SPL) in England with a blood cancer disease group by age band, as at 3 December 2020.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly discusses a range of issues related to COVID-19 with Cabinet colleagues.

Whilst there is a desire for the whole United Kingdom population to be vaccinated, there may need to be an element of prioritisation based on vaccine supply, availability and evidence as data emerges from clinical trials on safety and efficacy in different cohorts of the population.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who provide advice to Government on which vaccine(s) the UK should use and which groups within the population to prioritise. The JCVI and the JCVI sub-committee are currently reviewing evidence on clinical risk factors associated with serious disease and mortality from COVID-19. Following a review of the evidence, the Committee will develop advice on risk groups for any future COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The latest JCVI recommendations on the priority groups for a COVID-19 vaccine is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-25-september-2020

The minutes of JCVI committee meetings and statements on COVID-19 vaccination are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation

NHS England and NHS Improvement have been using the University of Oxford’s ‘OpenABM-Covid19’ model for several months and it is used alongside other estimates and projections of hospital admissions including those provided via the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling.

Asymptomatic testing is currently mainly conducted for outbreak investigation and infection control - where prevalence is thought to be higher and/or where individuals are more at risk from COVID-19. This includes patients, National Health Service staff, care home staff and residents.

As capacity increases and new innovations come onstream, and as we gain new clinical and scientific evidence, we will continually review our approach to asymptomatic testing to ensure we are deploying it in the most effective way and expand our testing offer.

The UK National Screening Committee is undertaking work to estimate the impact of delays to screening programmes, including cancer screening, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This work is currently in its early stages and the results will be reported as soon they are available.

NHS England and NHS Improvement is working to clear the backlog of bowel cancer screening as quickly as possible. All 64 bowel screening centres are now undertaking diagnostic colonoscopies and sending routine screening invitations. As at 5 October 2020, the number of people who have had a faecal immunochemical test-positive result and are awaiting a diagnostic test has nearly halved in comparison to those waiting in April 2020.

There is a wide range of treatment options available to manage metastatic colorectal cancer and these are set out within pathway guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

While treatment decisions are based on individual clinical circumstances, systemic anti-cancer treatment is the mainstay of care. There are a number of treatments available depending on where the colorectal cancer has spread. For example, where cancer is in the liver, patients may be able to access interventional procedures including laparoscopic resection and ablative treatments as well as radiotherapy (Selective Internal Radiation Therapy and Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy).

As at June 2020, the number of doctors of all grades in the specialties of cardiology and paediatric cardiology in England was 3,600 full time equivalent. Of these, 1,589 were consultants. This is an increase of 1,168, of which 646 are consultants, since 2010. The specialty is popular, with a 96% to 100% fill rate for training posts every year.

We have increased the number of medical school places by 1,500 over the last three years and have more medical students in training than at any other time in National Health Service history. As part of this record expansion, we opened five new medical schools across the country. This will ensure a significant further increase in the supply of doctors, including a larger pipeline for cardiologists, in coming years.

Patients with heart valve disease have been prioritised throughout the pandemic and continue to be through the recovery period. Services in both primary and secondary care have been open throughout and patients have been encouraged to use these services.

With the learning from the initial wave of the pandemic we are planning for any future waves, meaning we can protect the most vital services.

No assessment has been made of the effect of primary care networks (PCNs) on rates of detection of heart valve disease.

NHS England has appointed a National Clinical Director for cardiovascular disease prevention and a National Clinical Director for heart disease.

They are working closely with the NHS England and NHS Improvement primary care contracting team, to develop the draft specification for the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and early diagnosis Primary Care Network Directed Enhanced Service which will support primary care networks to improve community detection of heart valve disease.

Primary and secondary care have remained open throughout the pandemic and patients have been encouraged to access these services.

Since 29 April NHS England has prioritised the reintroduction of non COVID-19 services with the aim of recovering as much performance as possible before winter. To aid this, new COVID-19 secure hubs for surgery and diagnostics have been established.

Further planning is underway to ensure critical services, such as cardiac surgery, are maintained during any future waves.

The data collected is for all conditions that are commissioned for stem cell transplant by NHS England and NHS Improvement. It should be noted that there will be changes to the data in the last quarter due to the time lag in the reporting arrangements.

The numbers for CAR-T are collected via an alternative route and are correct to the end of September 2020.

The Quality of Life Metric survey will help us better support people, including blood cancer patients, living with and beyond cancer. The survey, launched in September 2020, will initially be sent to people with breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. All other cancers will be included from 2021.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambition to offer personalised care to all cancer patients and transform follow-up care, giving people choice and control over the way their care is planned and delivered. This includes ensuring that shared decision-making in care, and personalised care and support planning, are routine for all patients including those with blood cancer.

Blood cancer patients have a higher chance of severe disease if they contract COVID-19 compared to other cancers, which is why they were placed on the extremely clinically vulnerable list and were advised to shield. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some treatments were delayed when the risk of contracting coronavirus was higher than the risk of delaying treatment.

The data in the following table shows first or subsequent treatment of chemotherapy in May 2019, June 2019, April 2020, May 2020 and June 2020 for the treatment of breast cancer, lower intestinal cancer, lung cancer, urological cancer and haematological cancer:

Support and information for all cancer patients, including blood cancer patients, is provided through four personalised care interventions:

- Personalised care and support planning based on holistic needs assessments;

- Health and wellbeing information and support, including nutritional advice and psychological support;

- End of treatment summaries, that provide symptom management information; and

- A Cancer Care Review with their general practitioner.

As outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan, these interventions will be implemented in full by 2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all personalised care and support has continued by telephone, video, online or by post if face to face appointments and group sessions have not been possible.

The amount spent by the National Health Service on blood cancer-related services is not collected separately to the overall spend on cancer services.

No immediate plans are in place to meeting with any members of the blood cancer community.

Support and information for all cancer patients, including blood cancer patients, is provided through four personalised care interventions:

- Personalised care and support planning based on holistic needs assessments;

- Health and wellbeing information and support (including nutritional advice and psychological support);

- End of treatment summaries, that provide symptom management information; and

- A Cancer Care Review with their general practitioner.

As outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan, these interventions will be implemented by 2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all personalised care and support should be continuing by telephone, video, online or by post if face to face appointments and group sessions have not been possible.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with a range of rapid adopter sites to implement patient-initiated follow-ups as part of the restoration of services following COVID-19. This includes joint work to monitor uptake in these sites. Alongside this, 50 trusts provided information detailing their implementation of patient-initiated follow-up this summer. For the longer term, NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with NHS Digital and other organisations to seek to capture further data on patient initiated follow-up usage in future.

The initial guidance was prepared in rapid response to the need to restore outpatient services following COVID-19. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges patient lay committee was involved in the development of the guidance. We are working nationally with the NHS England and NHS Improvement personalised care group to engage further with patients and patient organisations as part of the ongoing development of supplementary guidance and tools for local systems. The guidance includes a recommendation that providers/systems carry out local patient engagement as part of implementation.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with a range of rapid adopter sites to implement patient-initiated follow-ups as part of the restoration of services following COVID-19. This includes joint work to monitor uptake in these sites. Alongside this, 50 trusts provided information detailing their implementation of patient-initiated follow-up this summer. For the longer term, NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with NHS Digital and other organisations to seek to capture further data on patient initiated follow-up usage in future.

The initial guidance was prepared in rapid response to the need to restore outpatient services following COVID-19. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges patient lay committee was involved in the development of the guidance. We are working nationally with the NHS England and NHS Improvement personalised care group to engage further with patients and patient organisations as part of the ongoing development of supplementary guidance and tools for local systems. The guidance includes a recommendation that providers/systems carry out local patient engagement as part of implementation.

Specialist respiratory services for severe asthma, along with urgent and emergency treatment for other serious complaints, have continued throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. In most cases people with severe asthma have been able to receive their medication at home instead of having to attend hospital through increasing home care support and via access to remote outpatient consultations for new patients.

Although clinical capacity was re-directed to support care of patients with COVID-19 and this need has reduced, trusts are also required to prepare for potential future waves of COVID-19 and this will affect the clinical capacity required particularly in respiratory units. Regions have oversight of the local plans developed by each trust.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence COVID-19 rapid guideline on severe asthma provides guidance on starting or continuing on biological treatments, for people with severe asthma during the COVID-19 outbreak. The recommendations were written in collaboration with the NHS England Severe Asthma Collaborative. In writing the guidance, particular attention was paid to streamlining the process of moving patients onto biologic therapies to compensate for any possible barriers that may have occurred as a result of changes to the National Health Service, which were made as part of the necessary response to COVID-19.

Further work is being undertaken by the collaborative to share best practice on providing care to people with severe asthma to ensure on-going provision of high-quality care and to accelerate the initiation of biologics where required.

There are no plans for this.

As set out in the Terms of Reference of a letter sent to NHS Providers on 31 July 2020, a National Cancer Taskforce will be established, and publish a national cancer recovery plan in the near future. The Terms of Reference are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/cancer-forums-and-groups-terms-of-reference/

Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort to unleash the potential of British industry to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) for the health and social care sectors to create self-sufficient production of PPE for the United Kingdom. We are building up UK manufacturing with signed contracts to manufacture over 2 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers, including facemasks, visors, gowns and aprons.

This includes Survitec, a survival technology company, who began producing gowns at the beginning of June; Bolle, who manufacture protective eyewear, will make 6.5 million visors over the course of the pandemic; Jaguar Land Rover are now manufacturing 14,000 visors/week for healthcare staff; Don & Low will be manufacturing 12 million metres squared of fabric for gowns over the next six months, with the first delivery expected later this month; Burberry is manufacturing non-surgical gowns at its factory in Castleford and sourcing masks through its supply chain. To date, the company has donated over 100,000 pieces of PPE to the National Health Service and healthcare charities.

The Government recognises that these are challenging times for everyone, but that it is an especially stressful time for parents with babies in neonatal intensive care units.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, services have been working hard to support parents to care for their babies as much as possible while still ensuring that services are safe.

The Department has no plans to introduce a bespoke fund to cover subsistence costs for parents with a baby receiving neonatal care during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Government is providing funding for the charity Bliss to support families with babies that require neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the Government’s United Kingdom-wide £750 million package of support for the voluntary sector announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in April 2020.

The Government recognises that these are challenging times for everyone, but that it is an especially stressful time for parents with babies in neonatal intensive care units.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, services have been working hard to support parents to care for their babies as much as possible while still ensuring that services are safe.

The Department has no plans to introduce a bespoke fund to cover subsistence costs for parents with a baby receiving neonatal care during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Government is providing funding for the charity Bliss to support families with babies that require neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the Government’s United Kingdom-wide £750 million package of support for the voluntary sector announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in April 2020.

The shielded patient list is dynamic – general practitioners and specialists continue to make clinical judgements based the shielding criteria, that may result in those who had initially been advised to shield from COVID-19 no longer being advised to do so. Doctors have also been provided with guidance to support these decisions, which should be made following discussion with the patient and taking into account their individual clinical circumstances.

Information on the number of patients removed from the shielded patient list is not held centrally.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, working with the CMOs of the devolved administrations and other senior clinicians, commissioned NHS Digital to produce a list of vulnerable people at “high risk” of complications from COVID-19, who should be shielded for at least 12 weeks.

The next review point for the social distancing measures will take place the week commencing 15 June. As part of this, we will consider the next steps for shielding beyond 30 June. We will also review the risks for the clinically extremely vulnerable and assess whether the shielding period needs to be extended or whether it is possible for the shielding guidance to be eased further. We will base our assessment on clinical advice from our medical experts, and the best data available about the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community.

The shielded patient list is dynamic – general practitioners and specialists continue to make clinical judgements based the shielding criteria, that may result in those who had initially been advised to shield from COVID-19 no longer being advised to do so. Doctors have also been provided with guidance to support these decisions, which should be made following discussion with the patient and taking into account their individual clinical circumstances.

Information on the number of patients removed from the shielded patient list is not held centrally.

The £360 million includes up to £200 million support for hospices. Further funding for this Department from within the £360 million total will be announced shortly.

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not collect data for the number of haematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) by condition.

This data is not currently held.

Details of all the facilities currently being used for cancer treatment are not collected centrally. This will be a mix of National Health Service and independent sector facilities.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have published guidance and supported the development of ‘hubs’ for cancer surgery. Hubs are being developed in all 21 Alliance areas across England and are already fully or partially operational in at least 18 areas. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working now with all Cancer Alliances on plans for the next phases of service delivery.

This data is currently unavailable.

The data in the following table shows first or subsequent treatment of all anti-cancer drug regimens (including ‘cytotoxic chemotherapy’, ‘hormone therapy’, ‘immunotherapy’ and ‘other’) for April 2019:

The data for April 2020 is due to be published in June 2020.

Expert doctors in England identified specific medical conditions that, based on what we knew about the virus so far, place someone at greatest risk of severe illness from COVID-19. These were signed off by the UK Senior Clinicians Group (including four United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers and clinical leadership at NHS England, NHS Digital, and Public Health England).

Shielding is an advisory measure to protect people who are clinically extremely vulnerable by minimising all interaction between those who are extremely vulnerable and others. The Government’s position on shielding and social distancing is in line with the latest Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and clinical advice. The shielded patient list is dynamic as it allows for individual clinical decisions to be made about patients, and for it to evolve as evidence about COVID-19 develops.

General practitioners (GPs) and hospital specialists have been asked to recommend patients follow shielding guidance, based on clinical judgement and an assessment of each individual’s needs. GPs and hospital specialists have been provided with guidance to support these decisions. Anybody who is concerned should contact their GP or specialist to discuss further.

The data on how many two week urgent cancer referrals there were in April 2019 and April 2020 for suspected breast cancer, bowel cancer, lung cancer, blood cancer and prostate cancer is not available in the format requested.

Data on urgent two week wait cancer referrals by suspected tumour group is collected and published by NHS England and available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/

Data for April 2020 will be published on 11 June 2020.

As of 1 May 2020, out of the 750,000 people who have signed up to the NHS Volunteer Responders programme in England, 607,074 volunteers have completed the necessary identity checks to begin helping those most vulnerable, more than double the original target. Between 7 April – 1 May 2020, 17,594 check in and chats have been completed.

As of May 2020, 164,427 patients had been identified in the category “people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment” by NHS Digital, and received a letter asking them to shield at home for 12 weeks. The information about how many patients in this category identified locally is not held centrally.

The table shows the number of patients who have been infused with manufactured chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells. NHS England/Improvement report that the number of patients who have undergone apheresis (separating a particular blood constituent but returning the remainder to circulation) with an intention to treat will be significantly higher.

The National Health Service has been contacting patients that are at high risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus since 23 March 2020. This will include people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment.

NHS England and NHS Improvement suggest that patients read the advice given on the NHS website which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Further advice can be found on the MacMillan website at the following link:

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/get-help/physical-help/cancer-and-coronavirus

The National Health Service has been contacting patients that are at high risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus since 23 March 2020. This will include people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment.

NHS England and NHS Improvement suggest that patients read the advice given on the NHS website which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Further advice can be found on the MacMillan website at the following link:

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/get-help/physical-help/cancer-and-coronavirus

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out an ambition that, by 2028, the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 will rise from around half to three-quarters of cancer patients.

Other key actions to increase an early diagnosis of blood cancer are:

- campaigns to raise greater awareness of the symptoms of cancer;

- lowering the threshold for referral by general practitioners (GPs);

- accelerate access to diagnosis and treatment and maximise the number of cancers that specialist’s can identify through screening; and

- roll-out of new Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country to

- upgrade and bring together the latest diagnostic equipment and expertise.

The Long Term Plan also commits to invest £4.5 billion of new funding to establish Primary Care Networks based on neighbouring GP practices. The GP Contract, published on 6 February 2020, includes a new service specification for supporting early cancer diagnosis, including blood cancer.

NHS England and NHS Improvement produced a stocktake, which included age, of linear accelerators in full clinical use in 2016 as part of the Equipment Modernisation programme. Further work to update this stocktake is underway to reflect both the impact of the Equipment Modernisation programme and any local changes.

A capacity planning exercise in England, run by NHS England and NHS Improvement, modelled radiotherapy activity levels over a five year period and it is expected that there will be 1 – 2% increase in referral to radiotherapy. In practice this level of growth remains relatively stable and is regularly monitored in conjunction with service providers.

The United Kingdom is well prepared for outbreaks of infectious diseases, with well-rehearsed and robust plans in place to respond.

National and international surveillance systems support the assessment of the risk to the UK posed by both influenza and other infectious diseases. When the Department identifies a pandemic risk facing the UK, we work with expert stakeholders to produce guidance to support all sectors in mitigating the risk to the public.

The National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies (NRR) provides an assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different civil emergency risks, including pandemics. Local planners use the NRR to highlight risks to sectors of society to raise awareness and guide contingency planning.

This information is not available as requested, and so no assessment has been made.

The latest NHS England data shows that the late diagnosis rates for pancreatic cancer in Surrey and Sussex increased between 2016 and 2017, from 78.2% to 81.9%.

Early diagnosis rates for pancreatic cancer in England increased by 2.9 percentage points between 2014 and 2017, from 21.0% to 23.9%, and improving early diagnosis of cancer is a top priority for the National Health Service. That is why of one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028 to save 55,000 lives a year. Cancer Alliances in England are using the Rapid Diagnostic Cancer model to improve the diagnostic experience for patients who are suspected of having particular cancers including pancreatic cancer.

In 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue to roll-out Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country to upgrade and bring together the latest diagnostic equipment and expertise. They will initially focus on diagnosing cancers where patients often present with non-specific symptoms, such as blood cancer, and may go to their general practitioner many times before being sent for appropriate tests.

The Department is working with the National Health Service to introduce changes to NHS hospital car parking in England from April 2020.

This will include free parking for frequent outpatient attenders.

The Department is working with the National Health Service to introduce changes to NHS hospital car parking in England from April 2020.

This will include free parking for frequent outpatient attenders.

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies have been available since November 2018 (acute lymphoblastic leukaemia) and December 2018 (relapsed DLBCL). The first patients were reinfused in January 2019. Therefore, the only data we have for the last five years is for 2019 and 2020. We do not have numbers for people treated in trials.

Number of people with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that have received CAR-T therapies in each of the last five years:

Note: *Up to 21 January 2020

Number of children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that have received CAR-T therapies in each of the last five years:

Note: *Up to 21 January 2020

We are unable to provide the numbers of people with relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that have received CAR-T therapy at each Joint Accreditation Committee ISCT-Europe & EBMT (JACIE) accredited treatment centre treatment due to small numbers and the possibility of patients being identified. This will be possible in the future when the number of patients treated increases.

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies have been available since November 2018 (acute lymphoblastic leukaemia) and December 2018 (relapsed DLBCL). The first patients were reinfused in January 2019. Therefore, the only data we have for the last five years is for 2019 and 2020. We do not have numbers for people treated in trials.

Number of people with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that have received CAR-T therapies in each of the last five years:

Note: *Up to 21 January 2020

Number of children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that have received CAR-T therapies in each of the last five years:

Note: *Up to 21 January 2020

We are unable to provide the numbers of people with relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that have received CAR-T therapy at each Joint Accreditation Committee ISCT-Europe & EBMT (JACIE) accredited treatment centre treatment due to small numbers and the possibility of patients being identified. This will be possible in the future when the number of patients treated increases.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will fly the Commonwealth flag for a week in March 2022 to mark Commonwealth Day, as well as for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. It is not our practice to fly on a permanent basis the flags of organisations of which the UK is a member.

The FCDO UK estate flies the Commonwealth flag on the second Monday in March to celebrate Commonwealth Day and our Posts in Commonwealth countries can do so on Commonwealth Day as well where the Post has sufficient flagpoles to do so. It is not the practice to fly the flags of organisations of which the UK is a member on a permanent basis. FCDO flag policy is reviewed on an annual basis.

The UK is clear that the Myanmar Military is responsible for gross human rights violations across the country. This includes grave violations against children. On 23 June, I [Minister Adams] spoke to the Myanmar Minister for International Cooperation. I [Minister Adams] encouraged Myanmar to continue to engage with the International Court of Justice process, and highlighted the need for dialogue to deescalate the conflict in Rakhine which has seen a significant increase in crimes against children in the first half of this year. The UK has already imposed sanctions, through the EU, on members of the Myanmar military responsible for serious human rights violations. The UK led the international effort to establish the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IIMM), which will collect and preserve evidence for us in future domestic or international accountability processes.

We remain concerned at recent reports of Russian fighter jets being deployed into Libya, and growing evidence of Russian involvement in the conflict, including the use of Private Military Companies. We take very seriously any reports of breaches of the UN arms embargo. Russia has a responsibility to uphold UN Security Council Resolutions and international law. External interference is exacerbating the conflict in Libya and undermining the UN-led political process. We regularly discuss with NATO allies our responses to potential threats from Russia.

Transparency and accuracy of information is essential for an effective global response to the pandemic. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is leading the UK's cross government effort to address disinformation and misinformation. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is supporting this effort. We are helping to identify disinformation narratives about the UK from foreign actors. We are working with international partners to better understand the scale, scope and impact of disinformation and help shield our citizens so they can get the right information to protect themselves and save lives. We are building international cooperation among like-minded nations to enable us to tackle the threat of disinformation.

The UK Government is firmly committed to supporting the Overseas Territories in dealing with Covid-19. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development are leading a cross Whitehall effort, working closely with the Overseas Territories governments, and taking a needs-based approach to providing support. The Minister for the Overseas Territories and Sustainable Development is in regular contact with the political leaders and Governors of the Territories. The impact of the pandemic on the Territories' economies and healthcare systems varies, and our support is being calibrated accordingly.

Just as the UK is doing, we are looking to Overseas Territories to make full use of their financial resources in order to address the needs of their people. Requests for further support to complement comprehensive economic local response plans are being considered on a needs basis. In the Territories which are in receipt of financial assistance from DFID, the UK Government will continue to provide the support needed to ensure delivery of essential services and to protect their economies.

In the areas where it's needed, the UK Government is providing support to strengthen the ability of the public health systems of the Territories to deal with the significant challenges from Covid-19, through provision of essential medical supplies, equipment and personnel.

Under the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) implements a clear policy on data sharing in the context of public health emergencies that all countries are encouraged to comply with. The IHR encourage States to share information with WHO before a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is declared. Data can be made publicly available if a PHEIC is declared, if there is evidence of international spread of infections or other harmful agents or if there is an immediate need for international control measures.

Since the Coronavirus outbreak began, the UK has engaged internationally with affected countries to raise the importance of providing the WHO promptly with comprehensive "line-list" demographic and geographic information. The British Government encourages all countries to comply with requirements of International Health Regulations, which includes sharing of data in case of public health emergencies. Through Official Development Assistance, We are also supporting 6 Lower-Middle Income Countries to improve their compliance with International Health Regulations .

The UK also has other bilateral or multilateral relationships where we share information. These include the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).