John Cryer

Progress is being made towards reaching an international climate change agreement in Paris and there is political will for a deal:

So far 60 countries (including all G7 countries) responsible for 62% of global emissions have submitted their emission reduction commitments;

G7 Leaders are committed to an ambitious climate package to be agreed in Paris and to the need for strong language on future ambition and a commitment to long term decarbonisation and;

Progress is being made on climate finance. Last week, I co-facilitated the finance discussions at the Paris Ministerial meetings and we made progress with other developed countries on how we count mobilised climate finance towards delivering the $100bn 2020 target.

I will continue to play a strong and constructive role leading up to and during the Paris COP.

The Cabinet Office does not hold a centralised list of secondments for the dates in question, as historically this data has been held locally. We have, as of January 2022, begun to keep a record of secondments arranged centrally for those below SCS, however this may not include every secondment as there are still circumstances whereby these can be arranged at a local level. Of the data held, no secondments to or from any of the companies asked about have been recorded.

Details of Government contracts awarded from 2011 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder.

Cabinet Office does not hold the historic data centrally as it would involve a disproportionate amount of costs and time to collate the information. A new contract database, Atamis, has been purchased and is now live. This is used to capture all information on current contracts which started on or after January 2022 and all future contracts.

Details of Government contracts awarded from 2011 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder.

Cabinet Office does not hold the historic data centrally as it would involve a disproportionate amount of costs and time to collate the information. A new contract database, Atamis, has been purchased and is now live. This is used to capture all information on current contracts which started on or after January 2022 and all future contracts.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 11 November is attached.

Ofgem is a non-Ministerial Government Department and independent regulator. It is directly accountable to Parliament for the performance of its functions, therefore, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has no authority to investigate Ofgem’s activities.

The UK approaches the challenge of tackling online IP infringement in an integrated manner through enforcement and public education. There is in place a number of criminal, civil, administrative and voluntary initiatives which provide rights holders and law enforcement with a package of measures to use to tackle online infringement. These vary from relatively non-intrusive such as notice and takedown, to domain removal, website blocking via court orders, police intervention, and more intrusive initiatives such as notifications being sent to repeat infringers.

The IPO has published guidance on how rights holders can protect their intellectual property on e-commerce stores, such as Amazon and eBay.

Details of post-2016 Government contracts above £10,000 can found on Contracts Finder. https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

Information prior to 2016 is not held centrally and can only be obtained disproportionally.

The reading room for classified documents, including consolidated texts, relating to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is not yet open. Members of both Houses will be informed of the process and details of how to access the room shortly, once these have been finalised.

Since 2016, details of government contracts are published on Contracts Finder above £10,000, for the core Department, and above £25,000, for the wider public sector.

Contract information, from 2010 to 2016, is not held centrally in the requested format and it would meet the cost limit to collate the requested data.

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder.

Data on study and attainment by 16-18 year old students without a grade C or above in English and/or mathematics relating to 2013/14 is not yet available, but is due to be published on www.gov.uk in September 2015.

Data for the 2012/13 academic year was published in September 2014 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/level-1-and-2-english-and-maths-16-to-18-students-2012-to-2013

Data on study and attainment by 16-18 year old students without a grade C or above in English and/or mathematics relating to 2013/14 is not yet available, but is due to be published on www.gov.uk in September 2015.

Data for the 2012/13 academic year was published in September 2014 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/level-1-and-2-english-and-maths-16-to-18-students-2012-to-2013

The Department for Education does not hold this data.

Revised school food standards regulations for local authority maintained schools, academies that opened prior to September 2010 and academies and free schools in England entering into a funding agreement from June 2014 will come into effect on 1 January 2015.

The authors of the School Food Plan are encouraging academies and free schools to commit voluntarily to the new standards. 99% of those academies which responded to a survey by the School Food Trust in 2012 said they were committed to following the new food standards. All academies and free schools signing their funding agreements from spring 2014 are required to adhere to the new, less bureaucratic school food standards.

The Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) is a centrally managed programme set up to address the needs of the schools most in need of urgent repair. Through the programme, 261 schools will be rebuilt or have their condition needs met by the Education Funding Agency (EFA).

The following school buildings have been handed over:

1. Durham Trinity School and Sports College, Durham
2. Fountaindale School, Nottinghamshire
3. Garston Manor School, Hertfordshire
4. Hill Top School, Gateshead
5. Ian Ramsey C of E Aided Comprehensive School, Stockton-on-Tees
6. Lees Brook Community School, Derby
7. Mill Green School, St. Helen’s
8. St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, Coventry
9. Stratford School Academy, Newham
10. The Cedar School, Southampton
11. Usworth Grange Primary School, Sunderland
12. West Cornforth Primary School, Durham
13. Whitmore Park Primary School, Coventry
14. Wyken Croft Primary School, Coventry

Construction work is continuing at a number of the above schools to demolish the old dilapidated buildings.

As of 13 October, construction work was ongoing at the following 54 schools:

1. Alice Stevens School, Coventry
2. Bank View High School (with Redbridge High School), Liverpool
3. Barnard Grove Primary School, Hartlepool
4. Camberwell Park Specialist Support School, Manchester
5. Collegiate High School, Blackpool
6. Durham Trinity School and Sports College, Durham
7. Ernesford Grange Community School, Coventry
8. Flowery Field Primary School, Tameside
9. Forest Lodge Primary School, Leicester
10. Fountaindale School, Nottinghamshire
11. Fox Hill Primary, Sheffield
12. Foxfield School, Wirral
13. Garston Manor School, Hertfordshire
14. Goole High School, East Riding of Yorkshire
15. Grangefield School, Stockton-on-Tees
16. Hallmoor School, Birmingham
17. Handale Primary School, Redcar and Cleveland
18. Harris Academy Greenwich, Greenwich
19. Haytor View Community Primary School, Devon
20. Highfurlong School, Blackpool
21. Hill Top School, Gateshead
22. Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, Hartlepool
23. Ian Ramsey C of E Aided Comprehensive School, Stockton-on-Tees
24. King James I Academy Bishop Aucklandm, Durham
25. Laleham Gap School, Kent
26. Lawford Mead Primary (replaces Lawford Mead Infant and Lawford Mead Junior Schools), Essex
27. Lees Brook Community School, Derby
28. Manor College of Technology, Hartlepool
29. Mill Green School, St. Helens
30. Montacute School, Poole
31. North Cambridge Academy, Cambridgeshire
32. Pardes House Primary School, Barnet
33. Prince Edward Primary School, Sheffield
34. Redbridge High School (with Bank View High School), Liverpool
35. Reigate Primary School, Derby
36. Richard Lee Primary School, Coventry
37. Smarden Primary School, Kent
38. St Anthony's Catholic Girls' Academy, Sunderland
39. St John's Church School, Peterborough
40. St Michael's Catholic Academy, Stockton-on-Tees
41. St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, Coventry
42. Stratford School Academy, Newham
43. Suffolk New Academy, Suffolk
44. The Canterbury Primary School, Kent
45. The Cedar School, Southampton
46. The Edith Borthwick School, Essex
47. The Grove Primary School, Devon
48. The Highfield School, Hertfordshire
49. Thomas Gainsborough School, Suffolk
50. Usworth Grange Primary School, Sunderland
51. West Cornforth Primary School, Durham
52. Whitmore Park Primary School, Coventry
53. Wyken Croft Primary School, Coventry
54. Wyvern College, Wiltshire

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder: www.gov.uk/contracts-finder.

<br/>Details of Core Defra contracts (which include its agencies) from 2010 to 2016 awarded to Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers can be found in the attached spreadsheet.

We are working closely across Government, with representatives of the food supply chain and with local authorities and charities to ensure that everyone including the elderly and vulnerable groups such as those with severe health conditions will have continued access to food.

We are in close contact with representatives across the food supply chain and civil society to discuss further ways to help with their preparations. Supermarkets are recruiting more staff, prioritising delivery slots for those who need them most, and limiting shopping hours so they have more time to restock. They are working hard to deliver a crucial service to us all and have also issued a rallying call for everyone to play their part in the national effort to this response by looking out for their friends, family and neighbours. We will continue to work with industry to discuss any additional support the Government can provide. Retailers are prioritising delivery slots for those who need them most.

The Government is working to ensure that up to 1.5 million people in England identified by the NHS as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract Coronavirus will have access to the food they need. A new Local Support System will make sure those individuals self-isolating at home and who are without a support network of friends and family will receive basic groceries. The Government is working with a partnership of the groceries industry, local government, local resilience forums and emergency partners, and voluntary groups, to ensure that essential items can start to be delivered as soon as possible to those who need it.

The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. Our retailers already have highly resilient supply chains and they are working around the clock to ensure people have the food and products they need. Industry is adapting quickly to any changes in demands, and food supply into and across the UK is resilient.

The Secretary of State is in regular dialogue with industry, including the British Retail Consortium and supermarket chief executives to discuss any additional support the Government can provide. To help supermarkets respond to this unprecedented demand we have already introduced new measures to keep food supply flowing. We have issued guidance to local authorities to allow extended delivery hours to supermarkets so that shelves can be filled up quicker, and we have implemented extensions to drivers’ hours.

We fully recognise the additional pressures on our food supply chain as a result of recent events. The UK’s major supermarkets have last weekend issued a statement to encourage everyone to shop as they normally would and pull together to support those staying at home.

We will continue to work closely with the industry over the coming days and months.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) and UK Export Finance (UKEF) have had the following secondments since 2016, when DIT was formed:

DIT:

• KPMG – less than 5 secondees, February 2021 to January 2022

UKEF:

• Deloitte – less than 5 secondees, February 2022 to March 2022
• Deloitte – less than 5 secondees, December 2022 to March 2023

There have not been secondments from the other firms.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) was established in 2016. Contracts above £10,000 for DIT and its Agency, the Trade Remedies Authority, are published on Contracts Finder.

Details of the nature and award value of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. Each departmental agency is responsible for their contract data.

The Department for Transport have completed an internal search for the information and can confirm the following spend on consultancy services with the following suppliers:

Please see the attachment provided for a comprehensive list for each of the organisations requested covering the data sets requested in the PQ.

Further Information regarding the contracts can be found on gov.uk’s Contract Finder Service located here.

The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in saturated fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often or in small amounts.

United Kingdom Government dietary guidelines are based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). SACN is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in the summer of 2023.

There is currently no universally agreed definition of ultra-processed foods. However, a diet high in foods classified as processed is often high in calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar and low in fibre, fruit and vegetables, which is associated with an increased risk of obesity and developing chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes and some cancers.

The Good Choice badge helps people identify healthier options using the NHS Food Scanner app and when shopping in store and online. The app and wider Better Health tools supports families on their journey towards having a healthier diet, as making the step to the healthiest option may be too far for many people in one move.

This information is not held centrally in the format requested and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Details for all Government contracts above £10,000 post 2016 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

Information on the value and nature of individual contracts pre 2016 is on archived database systems and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Historic expenditure above £25,000 against individual suppliers since 2010 is available on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/spending-over-25-000--2#2010-to-2018

The NHS England has recently published in-depth guidance covering a range of scenarios for National Health Service and Public Health England workers, which will be updated as the situation develops, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/

NHS England has written to all colleagues recently and a copy of the letter is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/03/urgent-next-steps-on-nhs-response-to-covid-19-letter-simon-stevens.pdf

Support for NHS and PHE workers is a high priority for the Government, and it will continually assess the measures required to support them fully.

The transitional pay protection arrangements agreed with the junior doctor leadership within the British Medical Association mean that junior doctors in the higher stages of training remain on existing pay terms, including annual incremental pay increases, until 2022, which gives part-time workers more active protection of their pay than straightforward cash floor pay protection. Allowing them to continue on the existing pay system provides protection in respect of anticipated earnings for those whose career choices were made some time ago. This applies to all those in the higher stages of training, male and female.

The Foreign Secretary remains fully committed to ongoing engagement with Parliament, including on the conflict in Israel and Gaza. We will consider future briefing sessions for parliamentarians on topical events as needed.

The UK condemns Iran’s hostile activity in the UK and elsewhere. We continue to work in close cooperation with our international partners to ensure that our collective response is robust and deters the IRGC. In July, the Foreign Secretary announced a new sanctions regime that will give the UK new and enhanced powers to counter Iran’s destabilising activities.

The total number of people seconded between FCDO and the four listed organisations since 2010 is fewer than 10. Detail of individual tasks undertaken is not held centrally.

Action 5 of the Declaration of Government Reform 2021 stated the Government's commitment to: "Develop a pipeline of secondments from the Civil Service into major organisations within the UK and internationally, including other governments, led by professions and departments, with support from Non-Executive Directors, as a core part of talent development".

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

Information on the definitions of consultancy spend can be found on GOV.UK at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987885/Procurement_CAS_Definition_Release_9_v1__2_.pdf

The FCDO's E-sourcing system only goes back to 2016 so we are unable to provide data between 2010/11 and 2015.

We are aware of recent reports that properties were demolished in Uttar Pradesh and we condemn any instances of discrimination because of religion or belief, regardless of the country or faith involved. Where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level. The British High Commission in New Delhi and our network of Deputy High Commissions will continue to follow these reports closely, while recognising that this is a matter for India. The Foreign Secretary speaks regularly with her Indian counterpart and visited India most recently in March 2022.