Ian Liddell-Grainger

The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, is the UK’s National Technical Authority on cyber security and therefore the authoritative source of advice.

The National Cyber Security Centre works in collaboration with a range of government departments, including the Cabinet Office, and other organisations to deliver advice, and review that advice as necessary with the aim of making the UK one of the safest places in the world to live and do business online.

The National Cyber Security Centre, as the UK’s National Technical Authority for cyber security, is operationally independent from the Cabinet Office. Therefore, the Minister for the Cabinet Office does not need to authorise or review the National Cyber Security Centre’s technical advice, including that on ZTE.

Government and the telecoms industry take cyber security risks very seriously. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with support from the NCSC and Ofcom, is leading a review into the security and resilience of our telecoms supply chain.

The National Cyber Security Centre, as the UK’s National Technical Authority for cyber security, is operationally independent from the Cabinet Office. Therefore, the Minister for the Cabinet Office does not need to authorise or review the National Cyber Security Centre’s technical advice, including that on ZTE.

Government and the telecoms industry take cyber security risks very seriously. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with support from the NCSC and Ofcom, is leading a review into the security and resilience of our telecoms supply chain.

The National Cyber Security Centre, as the UK’s National Technical Authority for cyber security, is operationally independent from the Cabinet Office. Therefore, the Minister for the Cabinet Office does not need to authorise or review the National Cyber Security Centre’s technical advice, including that on ZTE.

Government and the telecoms industry take cyber security risks very seriously. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with support from the NCSC and Ofcom, is leading a review into the security and resilience of our telecoms supply chain.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was created in 2016 as part of the Government's five-year National Cyber Security Strategy. The NCSC was set up to help protect our critical services from cyber attacks, manage major incidents, develop cyber skills and technology, and provide advice to citizens and organisations.

The NCSC provides expert advice to the critical infrastructure sectors, including the telecoms sector, based on its unique knowledge and experience. DCMS, Cabinet Office and the NCSC have an ongoing dialogue with telecommunications operators including ZTE. The Government maintains the confidentiality of the discussions leading to national security advice including the ZTE letter dated 13 April 2018.

The Government recognises the potential that exists in harnessing tidal energy around the coastline of the UK.

That is why we are commissioning an independent strategic review to assess the case for tidal lagoons and consider whether they could represent value for money for the consumer.

Government will carefully consider the recommendations from the review before making decisions on future development of tidal lagoons.

This Government has committed to ensuring that 90 per cent of the UK landmass will have voice and SMS coverage by 2017.14 telephone masts have been completed and are providing mobile coverage in areas of Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Somerset, Suffolk and Northern Ireland. Over 50 other ​potential mast sites are currentlybeing progressed by our supplier with the aim of delivering as many of these as possible by the project end date of 31 March 2016.

This Government has committed to ensuring that 90 per cent of the UK landmass will have voice and SMS coverage by 2017.14 telephone masts have been completed and are providing mobile coverage in areas of Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Somerset, Suffolk and Northern Ireland. Over 50 other ​potential mast sites are currentlybeing progressed by our supplier with the aim of delivering as many of these as possible by the project end date of 31 March 2016.

Deterring, detecting and addressing academic cheating and misconduct remains a high priority for the government.

There are strict rules in place, set by exam boards, to ensure pupils’ work is their own. Sanctions for cheating are serious, including being disqualified from a qualification. Schools and teachers know their pupils best and are experienced in identifying their individual pupils’ work.

Ofqual communicates regularly with exam boards about risks, including malpractice risks, and expects regulated awarding organisations to carefully consider the potential impacts artificial intelligence (AI) may have on their qualifications and where necessary make changes to the way in which their qualifications are designed or delivered in response.

The Joint Council for Qualifications published guidance earlier this year which reminds teachers and assessors of best practice in preventing and identifying potential malpractice, applying it in the context of AI use.

The department is building the evidence base for how generative AI is best used in education from the experience and expertise of the sector. The department will publish the response to the Call for Evidence on Generative AI in Education shortly. The department is conducting ongoing wider research to gather insight on how generative AI is being used in early year’s settings, schools, colleges, and universities, and how it could be used to support the sector in the future.

The department has endowed the Education Endowment Foundation with a further £137 million to encourage innovative and effective evidence-based teaching, including using technology such as Computer Adaptive Learning or AI. Their trials will explore teaching approaches using Education Technology and which features of the technology, and how they are used, may support academic attainment.

Planning decisions on solar development are granted by local planning authorities, or, where applications are for developments over 50MW, with the Secretary of State for Energy.

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality.

The recently published and updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by recognising the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside, and the wider benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services – including the economic and other benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, and of trees and woodland. Where significant development on agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality. The availability of agricultural land used for food production should be considered, alongside the other policies in the Framework, when deciding what sites are most appropriate for development.

The Secretary of State is committed to regreening urban areas in achieving the UK’s environmental targets. In January this year Natural England launched a Green Infrastructure (GI) Framework, which it developed in partnership with Defra and other key stakeholders.

The Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 sets out how the GI Framework will be used to track progress in our commitment for everyone to have access to green or blue space within 15 minutes from their front door. Well-designed green infrastructure has an important role to play in urban areas in improving health and wellbeing, air quality, nature recovery and resilience to and mitigation of climate change, as well as growing the natural capital of city-regions. The use of green infrastructure can help to reduce the risk and impact of extreme heat and surface water flooding through street trees and Sustainable Drainage Systems, contributing to our goal of reducing the risk of harm from environmental hazards.

The public can have confidence that the food provided in the public sector meets the standards expected. The Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services set a range of mandatory and best practice standards, including requiring suppliers to meet UK production standards or equivalent.

We want the public sector to lead by example, championing high production standards and sustainable produce. We will soon consult on public sector food and catering policy to ensure it reflects our high ambition for this area. The consultation will seek views on ways to promote local, sustainable, healthier food in the public sector, open public sector procurement to a wider range of businesses and increase the transparency of food supply chains.

The procurement of food for the public sector remains the responsibility of lead departments for that sector. Lead departments are in regular contact with major suppliers to review their public procurement contracts and ensure they can continue to meet the food standards they are expected to uphold.

The Government’s view is that farms of all sizes have a role to play in UK agriculture and food production. What is important is not the size of the farm but compliance with our robust domestic standards. Well-established enforcement strategies are in place to ensure compliance with animal health and welfare requirements. Stockmanship is key and farmers of meat chickens are required to be competent and trained in the tasks that they perform.

This Government will continue to take steps to regulate farming practices proportionately and effectively, to safeguard animal welfare, reduce the risk of zoonotic disease and reduce risks to human health. We are making improvements to the existing legal framework and enforcement regime to ensure greater compliance and enhance the health and welfare of farmed animals. We are also working in partnership with the livestock sector and a wide range of academics, non-Governmental organisations and other experts to implement the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, supporting continuous improvement in farm animal health and welfare.

The Government has no role to play in setting standards for any independent farm assurance scheme.

Defra is a co-signatory with the Department of Health and Social Care of the UK’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) National Action Plan, and the UK is a global leader on AMR. We do not support the unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals, or farming practices which rely on routine or predictable antibiotic use. However, antibiotics play a role in treating certain animal diseases and are therefore essential to ensure the health and welfare of animals.

Data collected by the British Poultry Council (BPC), which represents 90% of the meat poultry sector, show that antibiotic use in broiler chickens has reduced by 67% since 2014. This has been driven by the BPC’s Antibiotic Stewardship Scheme, which is based on the principle of reducing, refining and replacing the use of antibiotics and promoting best practice at all steps of production.

The goal of reducing antibiotic consumption and improving stewardship is to reduce antibiotic resistance. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has been measuring levels of antibiotic resistance in E. coli in poultry since 2014, and the results show that resistance in broiler chickens has decreased substantially, including to antibiotics that are critically important to human health.

The Government is aware of the contribution of faecal contamination, primarily from poultry manure, to the health of the river Wye. Over 60% of the phosphate load in the Wye Catchment is from diffuse agricultural pollution from livestock manure and nutrients washing into the river during rainfall.

The Government is working closely with local stakeholders to address the Wye’s specific situation, both through supporting the local Nutrient Management Board, as well as working towards strategic solutions for both the short-term unblocking of housing and the long-term improvement of the local environment through a cross-government Taskforce. To support this, there are also a host of national actions coming online to address agricultural pollution, which include:

• further investment in the successful Catchment Sensitive Farming programme;
• an expansion of Environment Agency enforcement capacity and funding;
• several grants and incentives aimed to support better farm practises and local recovery;
• a review of current regulatory measures.

Red Tractor is an industry-led farm assurance scheme. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for the Government to comment on the implementation of its guidelines or individual cases. Meeting regulatory requirements is a vital component to bringing improvements to the local Wye catchment. If there are concerns that farmers are breaching regulations, they should be reported to the Environment Agency, which will work with local farmers to bring them into compliance.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for Cambridge on 21 March 2022, PQs 138305, 138306 and 138307.

According to the latest estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the 5.9 million deaths in children under five that occurred in 2015 about half were caused by infectious diseases.

The three main killers in 2015 were; pneumonia (17 percent), preterm birth complications (16 percent) and neonatal intrapartum- related complications (11 percent). Others included; diarrhoea (8 percent), neonatal sepsis (7 percent) and malaria (5 percent). These causes of death have remained consistent over the last five years, despite an overall reduction of deaths worldwide. Almost half of all under-five deaths had malnutrition as an underlying cause and more than 80 percent of newborn deaths (deaths in the first month of life) occur among newborn infants of low birth weight in the highest burden settings.

Given the multifaceted nature of child health DFID promotes a multi-sectoral approach to address causes of child mortality. This includes supporting interventions to address the direct; the intermediate; and the underlying causes of death. Examples include large (over £1.32 bn from 2011-15) financial contributions to GAVI, the global vaccine alliance, as well as more specific programmes to reduce childhood malnutrition, provide better care for newborns and promote clean water and sanitation. Our GAVI contribution has immunised 67.1m children. Other direct programmes to tackle child mortality have saved the lives of over 200,000 lives of children between 1 month and 5 years of age in the last five years. Many countries have seen dramatic changes for example, Ethiopia experienced a drop in child mortality of two thirds since 1990.

The most recent estimates from WHO are that diarrhoea caused by inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene results in 842,000 deaths each year in low and middle income countries. Of these, 502,000 deaths are due to inadequate and unsafe drinking water, 280,000 deaths are due to inadequate sanitation and 297,000 are due to inadequate hygiene. WHO indicate that 361,000 of these deaths each year are among children under-five. This equates to nearly 1,000 unnecessary deaths in children under-five every day. WHO has identified a range of other diseases linked to inadequate water sanitation and hygiene but has not provided recent estimates of the number of deaths caused by these infections. These diseases include infections such as trachoma and malaria.

DFID reached over 62 million people with water, sanitation and/or hygiene in the five years to 2014/15. We are currently formulating our new portfolio to deliver on the UK government’s commitment to help a further 60 million people get access to clean water and sanitation by 2020.

DFID is providing £16 million over 8 years for SHARE (Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity), a research consortium led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. SHARE has funded five key studies which have significantly advanced our understanding of this critical issue and put water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) firmly on the global maternal & newborn health (MNH) agenda. Research includes a systematic review establishing the impact of WASH on maternal mortality and a cohort study in Odisha, India that has provided the first rigorous evidence that poor sanitation during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth, low birthweight, spontaneous abortion and still birth

DFID is also providing £7.2 million of funding to support the Sanitation, Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) trial currently underway in Zimbabwe. The trial aims to prove and describe the causal relationship between sanitation and child stunting.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) works with Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation, a division of JBS which owns Moy Park and Pilgrim’s UK, supporting their UK operations.

All businesses operating in the UK, including those with foreign ownership, must conduct their business with integrity, (acting responsibly, honestly and abiding by ethical principles) and, in compliance with UK law [such as the Bribery Act 2010].

DIT supports foreign investors across all industries, encouraging: the growth of their UK based interests and, their contribution to future job creation and the levelling-up agenda.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) works with Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation, a division of JBS which owns Moy Park and Pilgrim’s UK, supporting their UK operations.

All businesses operating in the UK, including those with foreign ownership, must conduct their business with integrity, (acting responsibly, honestly and abiding by ethical principles) and, in compliance with UK law [such as the Bribery Act 2010].

DIT supports foreign investors across all industries, encouraging: the growth of their UK based interests and, their contribution to future job creation and the levelling-up agenda.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) works with Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation, a division of JBS which owns Moy Park and Pilgrim’s UK, supporting their UK operations.

All businesses operating in the UK, including those with foreign ownership, must conduct their business with integrity, (acting responsibly, honestly and abiding by ethical principles) and, in compliance with UK law [such as the Bribery Act 2010].

DIT supports foreign investors across all industries, encouraging: the growth of their UK based interests and, their contribution to future job creation and the levelling-up agenda.

The Joint Air Quality Unit’s evaluation programme aims to ensure that the nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) programme is delivering its stated aims.

There are two main strands to the evaluation programme:

Local monitoring: all local authorities are required to monitor changes to air quality and traffic (traffic count and Automatic Number Plate Recognition fleet data) in the relevant areas and report this data to the Joint Air Quality Unit quarterly. Local authorities may choose to conduct further monitoring activity or evaluate the wider impacts of their air quality improvement measures in more detail.

Central evaluation: this aggregates data from across the different local authorities implementing air quality improvement measures. Where possible, this is used to inform the development and delivery of air quality improvement measures as well as providing a stronger evidence base for air quality policy making. Traffic data will be analysed to provide percentage compliance rates of each vehicle class in regards to the Clean Air Zone emissions standards i.e. percentage of Euro 6 vehicles.

The second annual report for the evaluation was published on 12 May 2022 and covers the evaluation findings from 2021, including early analysis following the launch of the Bath Clean Air Zone.

In addition, the UK’s Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 require the UK to undertake air quality assessment to assess legal compliance against air pollutant concentration limit and target values and report the findings and associated data on an annual basis. This assessment is done for all local authorities not just those establishing Clean Air Zones.

Currently there are four live Clean Air Zones, all using the Clean Air Zone Central Services. These are:

• Bath and North East Somerset (live from 15^th March 2021)
• Birmingham (live from 1^st June 2021)
• Portsmouth (live from 29^th November 2021)
• Bradford (live from 26^th September 2022)

The number of vehicles classified by the Clean Air Zone Central Services as subject to a charge across all live Clean Air Zones is shown in the table below. The Government does not hold data split by the age of the vehicle.

Local authorities are responsible for the enforcement of charging as well as the administration of local exemptions.

Currently there are four live Clean Air Zones, all using the Clean Air Zone Central Services. These are:

• Bath and North East Somerset (live from 15^th March 2021)
• Birmingham (live from 1^st June 2021)
• Portsmouth (live from 29^th November 2021)
• Bradford (live from 26^th September 2022)

The number of vehicles classified by the Clean Air Zone Central Services as subject to a charge across all live Clean Air Zones is shown in the table below. The Government does not hold data split by the age of the vehicle.

Local authorities are responsible for the enforcement of charging as well as the administration of local exemptions.

Currently there are four live Clean Air Zones, all using the Clean Air Zone Central Services. These are:

• Bath and North East Somerset (live from 15^th March 2021)
• Birmingham (live from 1^st June 2021)
• Portsmouth (live from 29^th November 2021)
• Bradford (live from 26^th September 2022)

The number of vehicles classified by the Clean Air Zone Central Services as subject to a charge across all live Clean Air Zones is shown in the table below. The Government does not hold data split by the age of the vehicle.

Local authorities are responsible for the enforcement of charging as well as the administration of local exemptions.

The Department for Transport is in regular contact with all security regulated airports about upgrading their security checkpoints over the next few years. This includes Heathrow Airport. Decisions on the type of equipment that airports want to use at security checkpoints is between the airport and manufacturers.

Any equipment in use must meet the security standards set by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and be approved for use by the Department for Transport. Approved equipment can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/aviation-security-screening-approved-equipment-list. We do not provide specific details of the security equipment in use.