Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
These initiatives were driven by Jack Lopresti, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Jack Lopresti has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Jack Lopresti has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
Jack Lopresti has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Emergency Response Drivers (Protections) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Lord Bellingham (Con)
Service Animals (Offences) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Oliver Heald (Con)
Hospital Car Parking Charges (Abolition) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Robert Halfon (Con)
DiGeorge Syndrome (Review and National Health Service Duty) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - David Duguid (Con)
Our National Cyber Strategy sets out how we will ensure that the UK remains a leading democratic cyber power, one that is more resilient to and is able to counter cyber threats.
Our Government Cyber Security Strategy (GCSS) will ensure that all government organisations across the whole public sector are resilient to cyber attack.
Both of these strategies are supported by £2.6 billion of taxpayer’s money over the next three years.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 144853 on 1 February 2021.
Published in October 2021, the Net Zero Strategy sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy, including the aerospace sector, to meet our net zero target by 2050, keep the UK on track for meeting carbon budgets, to deliver our Nationally Determined Contribution by 2030.
In line with the Net Zero Strategy and the Government’s COP26 commitments on the UK’s transition to net zero, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer extended the funding to the Aerospace Technology Institute programme from 2026 to 2031 as part of the most recent Spending Review.
In the Net Zero Strategy, the Government set out its plans for working with industry to develop a skilled workforce and enable workers, industries, and places to transition to a net zero economy. The policies set out in the Net Zero Strategy represent a first step in addressing the challenges and opportunities identified by the Green Jobs Taskforce.
This includes delivering a Lifetime Skills Guarantee and growing key post-16 training programmes (such as apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and T levels) in line with the needs of employers.
In order to drive this agenda, the Government has announced a cross-cutting delivery group to include representatives from across different government departments, industry, the skills sector and other key stakeholders, maintaining the momentum generated by the Taskforce to drive action across the green skills agenda. The Government will set out further details in due course.
The South West of England is home to a large cluster of the UK’s leading aerospace businesses. Its contribution to environmental sustainability of the aerospace industry is therefore significant. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State recently launched a new Airbus wing technology centre (AIRTeC) as part of its Wing of Tomorrow programme. This centre and research undertaken by companies such as GKN and Rolls-Royce will keep the South West at the forefront of the global move towards cleaner aviation.
As part of my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, the Government is investing in future green aviation across the whole of the UK. in order to accelerate this work, we have created a Jet Zero Council which brings together stakeholders spanning airlines, airports, aerospace manufacturers, fuel suppliers, academia, and environmental groups.
The Government is monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the work of medical research charities through regular discussions on charity-funded research with the Association of Medical Research Charities.
We know the pandemic has been a challenging time for fundraising and we will continue to engage with the Association of Medical Research Charities on the challenges they are facing.
The Government has demonstrated its ambitions for research by committing £14.6bn to R&D in 2021/22. This funding will support the life sciences sector within which medical research charities operate alongside other research areas.
The Government remains in dialogue with industry and overseas governments about the potential benefits, practicalities, and implications of an aircraft scrappage scheme.
We are in regular discussions with aerospace companies and ADS Group, through the Aerospace Growth Partnership, to consider what additional support the sector might need.
We are supporting investment in innovation and competitiveness by small and medium-sized businesses in the supply chain through our National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme, Sharing in Growth, and SC21 Competitiveness and Growth productivity programmes, which will receive over £135 million of public funding.
The initial proposal from industry for a scrappage scheme for older civil large passenger aircraft was an outline. We assessed that it required further development in order for us to properly consider its potential impact on the UK aerospace and aviation industries. Discussions with industry are ongoing.
The Aerospace Technology Institute research programme supports zero emission aircraft research projects. We have held discussions with industry, including through the Aerospace Growth Partnership, about accelerating the development of clean aerospace technologies. Further discussion will take place through the Jet Zero Council, which will bring together Ministers and airlines, airports, aerospace manufacturers, fuel suppliers, academia, and environmental groups to provide leadership and strategic direction to position the UK as a global leader in clean aviation.
We recently received an industry proposal on a scrappage scheme for older civil large passenger aircraft and are assessing its potential impact on the UK aerospace and aviation industries.
UK airlines and aerospace manufacturers have already been boosted by £2.16 billion from the Covid Corporate Financing Facility. In addition, UK Export Finance expects to provide £3.5 billion of support for UK aerospace exports over the next 18 months. We also continue to invest heavily in technology to make our aviation sector greener and more sustainable, through our co-funded £3.9 billion Aerospace Technology Institute programme and £300 million Future Flight Challenge.
The government is very aware of the challenges we face in our aim for net zero and is committed to supporting green skills across the country.
The department aims to reform the skills system so that training providers, employers and learners are incentivised and equipped to play their part in delivering the transition to net zero. This is demonstrated in our recent publication of the Net Zero Strategy, published in October 2021.
Building on the Skills for Jobs White Paper, the Net Zero Strategy sets out how our skills reforms will strengthen links between employers and providers, support workers in high carbon sectors with the transition, and help to build a pipeline of future talent.
At the recent Spending Review, we set out investment of £3.8 billion more in further education and skills over the course of the parliament as a whole, to ensure people can access high-quality training and education that leads to good jobs, addresses skills gaps, boosts productivity and supports levelling up. This will support the sector to reform and deliver the technical and skilled education our economy needs. This includes funding for programmes in green sectors crucial to the net zero transition.
Through the National Skills Fund investment, we are delivering skills bootcamps, which are short, flexible courses covering digital, technical, and green skills. Green skills bootcamps are available in areas such as housing retrofit, solar, nuclear energy and vehicle electrification. Several fully funded level 3 qualifications included in the free courses for jobs offer can support learners into green jobs. For example, we have included technical qualifications in engineering and construction.
We have also increased future funding for apprenticeships, where there are a growing number of standards supporting green and low carbon sectors such as the energy supply industry, agriculture and recycling. The department will continue to ensure that the existing skills programmes can be directed to support the net zero agenda and help to identify where the evidence tells us we might need to go further or faster.
While there are no specific eligibility provisions for veterans within the Adult Education Budget, they do have the same rights to access educational and vocational qualifications as other individuals.
Residency eligibility criteria mean that an individual is required to have resided in England and have three-year ordinary residency in the UK and/or European Economic Area, depending on their nationality. Armed forces personnel and their family members posted outside the UK are classed as ordinarily resident in the UK and, where relevant, this may contribute towards the three years ordinary residency requirement, provided they are now residing in England and the learning is taking place in England.
Individuals who meet the residency eligibility criteria can access provision including fully funded courses in English and maths, for adults who need to improve their literacy and numeracy, fully funded first full Level 2 and/or Level 3 for learners aged 19 to 23 and fully funded specified digital skills qualifications for adults with no/low digital skills.
They will also be able to access a range of provision funded through the National Skills Fund:
During periods of national lockdown, education settings have remained open to vulnerable children and young people, including those with education, health and care plans. The guidance for the full opening of schools is clear that all children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), should return to education settings full-time from Monday 8 March. Where it is not possible for a child or young person with SEND to attend their education setting during this period, there is a legal duty on schools and colleges to use their best endeavours to meet the educational needs of their pupils or students. Discussions should be collaborative, focusing on the welfare and views of the child or young person and their parents.
To support remote learning, the department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy, both for the summer term of the 2019-20 academic year and the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception to year 11. This includes specialist content for pupils with SEND, along with therapy-based lessons and resources.
Whilst inspection activity has been paused, Ofsted is conducting monitoring inspections of inadequate schools and some that require improvement. These include a focus on support for pupils with SEND, whether they are in school or being educated at home.
The government has announced further elements of the recovery support package so that children and young people can catch up on missed learning and development due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This will be supported with a new £700 million package, focusing on an expansion of one-to-one and small group tutoring programmes, as well as supporting the development of disadvantaged children in early years settings, and summer provision for those pupils who need it the most. These measures will build on the existing £1 billion support package, which includes a £650 million catch-up premium directly allocated to schools, with additional weighting for specialist settings, recognising the significantly higher per-pupil costs that they face. Headteachers decide how this premium is spent (for example, on educational psychologists, speech and language therapy or other activities to support children to catch-up).
We have put major funding investments into education, including increasing high needs funding for local authorities by £780 million this year and a further £730 million next year, boosting the total budget to more than £8 billion in 2021-22. Local authorities have been allocated a further £4.6 billion to help their communities through the COVID-19 outbreak. This funding is un-ringfenced, recognising local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 service pressures in their local area, including support to children’s services.
Through the SEND review, we are committed to ensuring the SEND system is consistent, high quality, and integrated across education, health and care. It is also considering measures to make sure that money is being spent fairly, efficiently and effectively, and that the support available to children and young people is sustainable in the future.
The government is aware of the disproportionate impact the crisis will have on some students.
We are making available an additional £50 million of hardship funding this financial year. In total we have made £70 million of funding available for student hardship given the £20 million made available to higher education providers in December 2020.
Providers will have flexibility in how they distribute the funding to students, in a way that will best prioritise those in greatest need. The funding can be distributed to a wide population of students, including postgraduates (whether taught or research) and international students.
This money is in addition to the £256 million of Student Premium funding higher education providers are able draw on this academic year towards student hardship funds.
We know that not all students will face financial hardship. The current measures aim to target support for students in greatest need and the government continues to monitor the situation going forward to look at what impact this funding is having.
On 13 January 2021, I wrote to the Office for Students, the regulator for higher education providers in England and outlined government expectations of the higher education sector. Universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, have the resources to study remotely.
Given the critical importance of ensuring that all children and young people continue to learn during the national lockdown, the Department updated our remote education expectations for schools and FE colleges to clarify and strengthen what is expected, drawing on our evolving understanding of best practice in remote education.
To support disadvantaged children and young people with access to remote education and online social care, the Government is investing over £400 million. We have secured 1.3 million laptops and tablets and have already delivered over 1.2 million of these to schools, colleges, academy trusts, local authorities, and further education colleges to support disadvantaged children and young people who would not otherwise have access to a digital device.
The Department has also partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online, as well as delivering over 70,000 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home.
The Department has also made £4.84 million available for 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 special educational needs and disabilities is also available. Four major mobile network operators - Vodafone, O2, Three and EE - have also committed to working together to make access to Oak National Academy free for school children.
The BBC has adapted their education support for the spring term 2021 and is making educational content available on the television. This helps to ensure all children and young people can access curriculum based learning from home, even if they do not have access to the internet. To support this, BT and EE have made access to BBC Bitesize resources for free from the end of January 2021.
In addition, the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) provides additional, targeted support for disadvantaged pupils to catch-up on missed learning. The NTP provides access to high-quality tuition for disadvantaged pupils, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling the attainment gap between them and their peers.
On 10 September, the government issued updated guidance for providers on reopening campuses and buildings to help providers make informed decisions about their provision. This includes guidance on households in student accommodation. The guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses.
Student accommodation providers should identify ‘households’ within their estate, within which routine contact can be managed safely. These households will also form the units by which any response to a suspected or confirmed positive COVID-19 case will be managed. The approach to deciding what constitutes a household will depend on the physical layout of the accommodation, taking into account who shares a kitchen or bathroom. A household in halls of residence should generally be made up of those students living in the same flat, or on the same floor, who share a kitchen and/or bathroom, rather than an entire block. Accommodation providers should make clear which kitchen(s) and/or bathroom(s) are intended for each household’s use. If a household within student accommodation is not obvious, providers may need to allocate students to specified households (these households may be greater than 6 people).
Students living in halls of residence, or Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), who develop symptoms of COVID-19 should self-isolate in their current accommodation. Students should discuss this with their higher education provider, and with the manager of their halls if they are privately owned, or the landlord of their HMO.
If a resident has COVID-19 symptoms, all residents in that household must isolate for 14 days. The department has published guidance on isolating in residential educational settings, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-isolation-for-residential-educational-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-isolation-for-residential-educational-settings.
Higher education providers have been asked to aim to ensure that staff, such as catering staff, are available to give support on halls management for students self-isolating or subject to local restrictions. We would also expect higher education providers to continue to provide students with mental health and wellbeing support, which may be provided online.
We understand the challenges faced by zoos and aquariums during these unprecedented times. We also appreciate the significant opportunities zoos can provide for the public to access well managed and controlled outdoor spaces, and the potential to improve general wellbeing.
However, the Government has taken the decision that zoos and aquariums should not yet reopen, and the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020, which came into force on 1 June, provide greater clarity and certainty on this. While each individual attraction can be made safer, it’s vital that we do not move too quickly in reopening to ensure public health is protected.
We are continuing to work with the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) to understand how we can reopen zoos in a safe way as soon as possible with social distancing measures in place.
The food industry has responded quickly and impressively to the significant changes in demand that we have seen over the past weeks. This has ensured supply into stores and people’s homes across the country and has demonstrated that the supply chain remains resilient.
To help industry, the Government has introduced several regulatory easements to keep food supply flowing. These include asking local authorities to show flexibility to allow extended delivery hours and flexing rules on drivers’ hours to allow a higher frequency of deliveries to stores.
More generally, this Government was elected on a manifesto commitment that in all of our trade negotiations we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. The UK's growing reputation for quality food and drink, with high standards of food safety, animal welfare and sustainability, serves as an excellent platform to increase demand for our products still further.
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act), local authorities, together with the police and officers of the Animal & Plant Health Agency, already have powers to investigate cases of poor welfare or animal cruelty, including cases of inappropriate tethering.
Tethering can be a useful equine temporary management tool when it is used appropriately. To assist horse owners and keepers as well as inspectors there is a the statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Their Hybrids (the Code) which provides information on how to meet the welfare needs of horses, as required under the 2006 Act. The Code contains specific information on how to tether a horse appropriately without being breach of the 2006 Act.
Local authorities are able to make decisions based on local needs and resource priorities and the local arrangements that work best for them. Therefore, I consider that this legislation and guidance provides the right safeguards and powers in respect of horse tethering. However, we will continue to engage with key stakeholders to see if more can be done to spread best practice among horse owners as well as increased partnership working in order to tackle the issue of inappropriate horse tethering.
The UK is supporting Iraq as it responds to the coronavirus outbreak. We have committed £16.9 million of funding to help combat coronavirus in Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is helping to provide hospitals and primary care clinics with clean water, medication, soap and equipment. We are working closely with UN and INGO partners to help Iraq manage the pandemic whilst continuing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including displaced people.
Since 2014, the UK has committed over £272 million in humanitarian support, and £110 million towards stabilisation efforts in Iraq, helping those who are most urgently in need following the conflict with Daesh.
During a recent ‘virtual visit’, the Secretary of State was inspired to meet young Iraqi entrepreneurs who are helping develop the Iraqi economy. The UK stands with Iraq as it responds to the coronavirus outbreak. We are working closely with UN and international partners to help Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, manage the pandemic whilst continuing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including displaced people living in camps.
The UK government is deeply concerned about the allegations of incitement in the Palestinian Authority’s school textbooks. The International Development Secretary reiterated our concerns in a call to the Palestinian Authority’s Education Minister just last month.
The UK has been at the forefront of international action to get to the bottom of the allegations. We funded work to develop the methodology for an independent textbook Review sponsored by our European partners. We expect an interim report in June, with a full report later in the year. The UK has regular discussions with our European partners on the Review. I have not had specific discussions with my Norwegian counterpart on this issue.
Following the UK’s calls for international action, an EU sponsored independent review of Palestinian textbooks is currently underway. We understand that an interim report will be completed in Spring 2020 with the full report due later this year. The Development Secretary made it clear that incitement in education is unacceptable when she spoke with the PA Education Minister last week and she held him to account on progress to remove hateful content.
The UK recognises the UN Relief and Works Agency’s (UNWRA) unique mandate to support Palestinian refugees until a lasting political settlement is reached which determines their final status. Until that time, the UK will continue to meet humanitarian need and promote regional security by supporting the 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East through UNRWA. Our contribution to UNRWA last year helped provide education to more than 530,000 children (half girls), health services for over 3 million people, and social assistance for over 250,000 of the most vulnerable people.
Students in all UNRWA schools are taught the curriculum of their host country. UNRWA reviews host country textbooks and when problematic material is identified, develops alternative content and provides its teachers with support to ensure that the lessons taught in its schools promote tolerance and peace. The International Development Secretary spoke to the Palestinian Minister of Education in February to emphasise this point and encourage the Palestinian Authority to remove all inappropriate material from textbooks.
On 17 December 2020, awards were announced regarding the £200 million Cabinet Office-led Port Infrastructure Fund (PIF). Bristol Port was allocated a Government grant of £1.75 million with which it intends to build a border control point (BCP) to allow effective import of EU goods in line with the UK’s new Border Operating Model.
Decisions on which ports shall be Freeports have not yet been taken. In November, the Government published the bidding prospectus for Freeports in England, setting out how ports can apply for Freeport status, and further policy details. The bidding period will close on 5 February 2021, with successful locations announced in the Spring following a fair, open and transparent selection process. Devolved administrations are following their own processes to a slightly later schedule.
Successful bidders to the Freeports competition will have the opportunity to access a share of £175 million of seed capital funding, as well as a small amount of revenue funding.
Assessment periods allow for UC awards to be adjusted on a monthly basis, ensuring that if a claimant’s income changes, they do not have to wait several months for a corresponding change in their UC award.
Earnings are taken into account in the assessment period they are received and in this way the UC paid to claimants reflects, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period.
The Department has been working closely with HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) since UC went live in 2013 to support and inform employers who report payroll earnings, to emphasise the importance of timely reporting via the Real Time Information (RTI) system.
HMRC have updated their guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting payroll accurately and the impact of reporting payments late.
Employers should already record on HMRC’s RTI system the date a salary is scheduled to be paid, rather than the date it is paid, where it is earlier due to a weekend, bank holiday or at Christmas.
We recognise the vital role unpaid carers play in caring for vulnerable individuals. Unpaid carers are included in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s priority group six - all individuals aged 16 to 64 years old with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality. This also includes those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill.
This refers to those who people live with. To reduce the risk of catching or spreading COVID-19, people should keep at least two metres away from those they do not live with. Social distancing is essential to stop the spread of the virus, as it is more likely to spread when people are close together.
Further information on social distancing is available at the following link:
We published a personal protective equipment (PPE) plan on 10 April, setting out clear guidance on who needs PPE and in what circumstances they need to use it, how sufficient supplies will be secured and distributed to the front line.
The Government recognises the vital services that hospices provide across the United Kingdom. Distribution routes for PPE are constantly reviewed to strengthen and expand capacity, and efforts are currently being undertaken to boost the service to hospices.
We have provided local resilience forums with supplies of PPE to help them respond to urgent local spikes in need across front-line services, including hospices.
The National Supply Disruption Response exists as an emergency escalation route who handle queries including the supply of PPE as a last resort.
Dentists normally purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) through dental wholesale suppliers. However, for PPE which is needed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has made supplies available free of charge for National Health Service dental contractors. A dedicated PPE portal has been developed to deliver these items. As of 4 November, over 5,100 NHS dental and orthodontic providers in England have registered with the PPE portal and over 36 million items have been delivered.
The Government is committed to doing all it can to ensure that National Health Service workers are able to travel to work with minimal disruption. We also recognise the important role public services and private companies play in delivering key services.
At present the Government has no plans to put in place restrictions on public or private transport as part of our response to COVID-19. However, we continue to keep all aspects of our response to the virus under review, guided by the best advice from our world-renowned team of clinicians, public health experts and scientists.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark on 22 January 2020 to Question 3763.
The Government is committed to meeting the additional health needs of thalidomiders and to give them the same opportunities that others enjoy. The provision of the Thalidomide Health Grant is a central element of this. The current multi-year settlement continues for a further three years running until the end of the 2022/23 financial year.
Through the NHS Long Term Plan, the National Health Service commits to testing and rolling out waiting time standards for adults in selected areas. Twelve areas in England have received over £70 million of transformation funding in 2019/20 and 2020/21 to test new integrated models of primary and community mental health care for adults.
Eight of these sites are implementing innovative service models that will improve access and quality for adults and older adults with eating disorders in line with new national guidance on adult eating disorder care.
For children and young people, we have introduced a waiting time standard with the aim for 95% of children (up to 19 years old) with eating disorders to receive treatment within a week for urgent cases and four weeks for routine cases. We are on target to meet this aim by 2020/21.
We are aware of ongoing supply issues with some hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preparations due to a range of issues including manufacturing issues, regulatory issues and problems accessing the raw pharmaceutical ingredient as well as commercial decisions made by some companies to divest these products.
We have been working closely with all suppliers of HRT preparations to maintain overall supply to patients. We have shared relevant information about the supply situation and availability of HRT products with the National Health Service and are having discussions with organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare and the British Menopausal Society.
We continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure relevant information about the HRT products affected by supply issues and the products that remain available is shared with the NHS on a regular basis.
We anticipate the supply situation will improve from February 2020.
The UK supports a secure, stable, and thriving Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) within a peaceful and prosperous Iraq. Ministers and senior UK officials have advocated repeatedly for unity and increased cooperation within the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). We continue to encourage cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil to resolve outstanding issues where they exist, including around budget, salary payments, security cooperation and the oil and gas sector. The UK is supporting Iraq as it undertakes the bold long-term reforms needed to put Iraq's economy and society on a stable long-term footing.
The UK regularly engages with leaders of Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), including during the recent visit of the Security Minister, Tom Tughendhat in August. Following the recent incident in Kirkuk the British Embassy in Iraq has met a range of Iraqi counterparts and continues to encourage cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil to resolve outstanding issues. The UK supports all efforts to ensure a secure, stable, and thriving KRI exists within a peaceful and prosperous Iraq.
The UK regularly engages with leaders of Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), including during the recent visit of the Security Minister, Tom Tughendhat in August. Following the recent incident in Kirkuk the British Embassy in Iraq has met a range of Iraqi counterparts and continues to encourage cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil to resolve outstanding issues. The UK supports all efforts to ensure a secure, stable, and thriving KRI exists within a peaceful and prosperous Iraq.
The UK supports a secure, stable, and thriving Kurdistan Region in Iraq (KRI) within a peaceful and prosperous Iraq. Through our diplomatic engagements, we continue to encourage all parties to work together to find a satisfactory and speedy resolution, noting the importance of oil exports via the pipeline to the health of the economy of the KRI and to Iraq.
It would not be appropriate, given the ongoing negotiations between the governments of Iraq and Turkey regarding the pipeline, for HMG to speculate on any timelines for its reopening.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that, since April 2021, Iran is producing high enriched uranium (HEU) at approximately 60% enrichment. Iran has no civilian justification for enrichment at this level. In November 2022, Iran announced it would take further steps to expand its nuclear programme, including increasing its production of HEU at its underground facility at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
Iran's continued escalation of its nuclear activities threatens international peace and security and undermines the global non-proliferation system. We remain determined that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon and are considering next steps with our international partners.
The UK condemns the continued attacks by Iran of areas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Iran must cease its indiscriminate bombardment of Kurdish towns which has led to the loss of innocent lives and damaged civilian infrastructure. These attacks are a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity and are wholly unacceptable. They demonstrate a repeated pattern of Iranian destabilising activity in the region. The UK has condemned Iranian infringement of Iraqi sovereignty alongside likeminded partners at the United Nations Security Council. The UK remains committed to the security and sovereignty of Iraq and will continue to work with the Government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government to ensure this.
Our longstanding position on Taiwan has not changed. The UK does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but shares a vibrant unofficial relationship, based on dynamic commercial, educational and cultural ties. We consider the Taiwan issue one to be settled peacefully by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait through constructive dialogue, without the threat or use of force or coercion.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General announced on 5 March that Iran and the IAEA had agreed a process for engagement on the Agency's ongoing investigation into outstanding safeguards issues in Iran. The UK fully supports the IAEA's efforts to independently monitor, investigate and report on Iran's nuclear activity. The UK has consistently urged Iran to cooperate with the IAEA on this investigation. At the IAEA Board of Governor's meeting in March 2022, the UK issued a joint statement with France and Germany reinforcing that Iran is legally obliged to cooperate with the IAEA by providing technically credible information, documentation and answers to questions requested by the IAEA. It is only through Iran's substantive cooperation with the IAEA that these issues can be clarified and resolved.
Iran's ballistic missile programme is destabilising for the region and poses a threat to European security. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (UNSCR 2231), which was unanimously adopted in the Security Council and underpins the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), calls on Iran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, including launches using such ballistic missile technology. Alongside France and Germany, we have written regularly to the UN Secretary-General, most recently on 31 January, to draw attention to Iranian missile activity inconsistent with UNSCR 2231. We urge Iran to fully abide by UNSCR 2231 and all other relevant resolutions.