Ian Levy

The Government understands the importance of ports for the development of floating offshore wind to support the opportunities that this new industry offers the UK. The Government is engaging with stakeholders and analysing feedback following the launch of the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme Request for Information earlier this year, and the next steps on the Scheme will be set out soon.

The Government is investing £2.5 billion to incentivise the transition to zero emission vehicles with £1.6 billion of this funding to support charging infrastructure.

In addition, the up to £1 billion Automotive Transformation Fund supports R&D and capital investments across the electric vehicle supply chain to develop next generation of zero emission vehicle technologies in the UK.

The Government will introduce a zero-emission vehicle mandate requiring a percentage of manufacturers' new car and van sales to be zero emission each year from 2024 and continue to regulate tailpipe CO2 emissions of new non-zero emission cars and vans to limit their emissions until 100% of new sales are zero emission.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework requires early years providers in England, ordinarily schools, to complete the EYFS profile assessment at the end of the academic year in which a child turns five. This is usually reception year.

Each child’s level of development is assessed against 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across all seven areas of learning in the EYFS. This includes communication and language and literacy. For each ELG, practitioners must assess whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS, or if they are not yet reaching this level and should be assessed as ‘emerging’.

The EYFS profile results for the 2021/22 academic year are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results/2021-22. These statistics include breakdowns by characteristics such as gender.

The department does not plan to make an assessment of including the Countryside Code in the national curriculum.

All state-funded schools have the flexibility within their school curriculum to teach about the Countryside Code, through for example:

• Citizenship, which teaches young people about their responsibilities as adults and includes opportunities for active citizenship, for example, forms of volunteering to support a cause or their local community.
• Science, where children are taught about the scientific concepts that relate to the environment.
• Geography, as part of fieldwork and the teaching of key aspects of physical geography such as land use.

The department values international exchange and collaboration in education and training as part of our vision for a global Britain. That is why we support a number of outward mobility and exchange programmes which broaden access to international opportunities, including Fulbright scholarships and the Turing Scheme.

The department provides grant funding to the US-UK Fulbright Commission, which promotes and provides opportunities for young people to undertake education exchanges between the UK and the US.

The Turing Scheme is the UK government’s programme to provide funding for international opportunities in education and training across the world. The Turing Scheme is provider-led with communications and promotion targeted at education providers who are responsible for applying for funding and promoting opportunities to their students, learners, and pupils. Education providers successfully applied for funding for over 41,000 individual placements to over 150 destinations across the 2021/2022 academic year.

The department also works with the British Council, which is funded to deliver programmes such as English Language Assistants and Generation UK, to promote opportunities for UK students the opportunity to study and work abroad in countries such as Spain, Italy, and China.

The British Council's ‘Study and Work Abroad’ website contains information about opportunities to study, work, or volunteer in another country through the British Council and other organisations. The site includes a section targeted at UK-based students and graduates, providing information about current and upcoming opportunities to study, work or volunteer outside the UK through British Council programmes and the Turing Scheme.

Ofqual is working with awarding organisations to develop a robust process for awarding grades. Wherever possible, schools, colleges and other institutions will produce fair and objective centre assessment grades, which will be externally standardised to ensure consistency. Our aim is that the arrangements deliver the fairest possible outcomes for students.

We already 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. We have no plans to introduce further visual checks.

We have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world and the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill will bring in some of the world’s strongest protections for pets, livestock and kept wild animals including measures which tackle puppy smuggling.

The practice of non-exempted mutilations such as cropping dogs' ears is abhorrent and has rightly been banned in the UK for 15 years. Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is already an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation (e.g., where it is not carried out for medical purposes) including the cropping of a dog's ears. Now that The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 has come into force, anyone convicted of such an offence face being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both.

Now that we have left the EU, we are making some significant changes to domestic law through the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, bringing in legislation to meet our manifesto commitment to crack down on puppy smuggling.

The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill introduces measures relating to the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce further restrictions on pet travel and on the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.

In August 2021, the Government launched a consultation on how these powers should be used. We are currently analysing the replies to this consultation and will publish our response in due course.

a) I have not had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of developing a British market for battery recycling.

b) Defra will be consulting on improvements to the batteries regulations in 2023. This has and will continue to include routine engagement with stakeholders on all the options for treatment of waste batteries, including recycling.

Food prices are influenced by a range of factors - from currency fluctuations to commodity prices. The UK has a highly resilient and diverse food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges – including sourcing a large amount of the fish we consume from countries such as Iceland and Norway. The majority of UK seafood consumption is imported, meaning prices on UK supermarket shelves are largely determined by international supply and demand.

It is not for the UK Government to set retail food prices nor to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by the companies. Food prices fluctuate in any given year and are dependent on a combination of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, exchange rates, domestic labour and manufacturing costs.

We will continue to speak with industry to understand and support them in coping with any potential pressures. We do not intend to amend fishing quotas because they are an important tool, based on scientific evidence, for managing sustainable fisheries.

Around 96% of motorway service areas (MSAs) in England have charging available. There are now 260 ultra-rapid (150kw+) chargepoints, and more than 480 open-access (can be used with any electric vehicle) rapid (50kW) and ultra-rapid chargepoints at MSAs in total.

The Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) will help to future-proof electrical capacity at strategic locations where it is not currently commercially viable for industry to do so in order to enable a visible, functional and long-distance charging network, which is vital for mass EV adoption.

The RCF will also support the market to deliver and grow by subsidising the uncommercial costs of new or additional electricity connections. In addition, the RCF will ensure that the private sector can continue to expand the charging network and future-proof electricity network capacity 10 years ahead to a minimum of 2035, with a stretch target of 2050.

A pilot for the RCF is expected to open for applications soon.

The Government response to the rail reform legislation consultation will be published this summer. This consulted on elements of the Plan for Rail White Paper which require legislation to implement.

Through implementation of our national autism strategy, published on 21 July 2021, we are taking action to enable positive transitions into adulthood for autistic children and young people.

We are investing £121 million in 2023/24, including for Children and Young People’s keyworkers, to improve community support for autistic people and people with a learning disability as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. In addition, in 2023/2024, £4.2 million of funding is available to improve services for autistic children and young people aged 0 to 25 years old, including post-diagnostic support.

On 2 March 2023, the Department for Education published the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement plan in response to the Green Paper published in March last year. As part of this, the Department is currently exploring good practice on transitions, to provide consistent, timely, high-quality preparation for children and young people with SEND, including autistic children and young people, when they transition between different stages of their education, into employment, or adult social care services. Following this, the Department for Education will publish guidance to support effective transitions between all stages of education, and into employment and adult services by the end of 2025.

We are making good progress on expanding access to mental health care for children and young people year on year. 689,621 children and young people In England aged under 18 years old were supported through National Health Service funded mental health services with at least one contact in the year up to July 2022 compared to 618,537 in the year up to July 2021.

We are continuing the roll-out of mental health support teams, offering early support to children experiencing mild to moderate mental health concerns in schools and colleges across England. These teams also support the school in adopting a Whole School/College Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing and support the school to liaise with external specialists to help children get the right support to stay in education. There are currently 26 mental health support teams planned or operating within the North East and North Cumbria integrated care system area.

The Government is working with the sector to understand the role of early support hubs in supporting children and young people. There are currently around 60 locally designed and funded hubs in England, which often provide several different services, for example, early intervention and prevention services, sexual health clinics or careers advice. Integrated care boards and local authorities work with local partners to understand local needs and commission services on that basis.

The government’s priority is keeping the public safe. Our fire reform white paper was published last month and is open for consultation until the 26th of July.

The proposals set out will ensure that fire and rescue services are highly skilled, professionally led and governed, and able to fully support the communities they serve.

The provision of affordable housing is part of the Government's plan to build more homes and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder. Our Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country. The Levelling Up White Paper committed to increasing the supply of social rented homes.

Since 2010, we have delivered over 598,900 new affordable homes, including over 419,200 affordable homes for rent, of which over 157,200 homes are for social rent.

The UK Government has developed a comprehensive package of measures, ensuring that those who bravely served during the Troubles can access financial, pastoral and health support, no matter where they live in the UK.

Veterans can also apply to the Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme - delivered by the NI Executive - which makes acknowledgement payments to permanently injured victims of the Troubles.

My assessment is that our United Kingdom, and support for it, is strong.

This Government is delivering on issues that actually matter to people - from Levelling Up investment to tackling the cost of living, and working with the Scottish Government on delivering Freeports, Investment Zones and City & Region Growth Deals.