John Lamont

It is important that Departments continue to respond to requests for access to information during this period as a key means of supporting transparency. We recognise that Departments face a range of pressures, and in some cases may not have access to the information requested. The Cabinet Office continues to provide advice to support delivery, in line with guidance issued by the Information Commissioner.

Where possible civil servants are working from home during the COVID-19 crisis. Departments have been issued with working from home guidance as well as a practical working from home toolkit. This includes information on the safe and secure use of technology and data as well as advice on wellbeing, mental health and staying connected. Departments are creating their own guidance packages specific to their employees and are encouraging employees, their line managers and teams to have regular conversations during this period.

I refer the Hon Member to the statement given by my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 28 April 2020.

As announced at the Spending Review in 2020, the Government has made available more than £6 billion in total to develop and procure COVID-19 vaccines.

The UK Government has procured vaccines on behalf of all four nations of the country and Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories. As a consequence, a total of 8,169,061 vaccinations have been administered in Scotland as of 17 October 2021 with 81.1% of those aged 12 and over fully vaccinated.

Start Up Loans, offered by the Government’s British Business Bank, provide government-backed loans and support for businesses who struggle to access other forms of finance. Since the scheme launched in 2012 to the end of July 2021, the total value of Start Up Loans issued in the Scottish Borders was £796,381, with 95 loans issued.

The Government is committed to delivering the manifesto commitment to introduce a new right to an additional week of leave for unpaid carers.

The consultation on Carer’s Leave ran from March to August 2020, setting out detailed policy proposals to create a new employment right for one week’s unpaid leave.

The Government response to the consultation will be published in due course, setting out the way forward.

The UK Government has secured early access to 407 million vaccines doses through supply agreements with seven separate vaccine developers. This includes agreements with:

• Pfizer/BioNTech for 100 million doses
• University of Oxford/AstraZeneca for 100 million doses
• Moderna ​for 17 million doses
• Novavax for 60 million doses
• Janssen for 30 million doses
• Valneva for 100 million doses

In addition, we announced a non-binding agreement in February 2021 with CureVac ​for 50 million doses and have a reservation agreement with GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur for 60 million doses.

It has not proved possible to respond to my Hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.

The Russian state is waging an aggressive information campaign, including using disinformation spread by official Russian Government accounts to try and justify Russia’s unacceptable military action in Ukraine.

DCMS is working closely with major social media platforms, including Twitter, to ensure disinformation, and coordinated inauthentic or manipulated behaviour, is removed in line with platforms’ terms of service, and authoritative content which accurately depicts the ongoing situation in Ukraine is promoted across their services.

On Wednesday 23 March 2022, the five football associations of the UK and Ireland submitted a joint expression of interest to host the UEFA European Championships 2028. The UK Government supported this step and we believe that hosting EURO 2028 would be a fantastic opportunity for the whole of the UK and Ireland.

My officials have worked closely alongside the football associations, the government of Ireland and the Devolved Administrations throughout this process, and we will continue to engage closely as we develop our potential bid.

All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.

We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.

All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.

We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the UK and New Zealand includes ground-breaking provisions on both animal welfare and environmental protection

The forward-looking provisions in the animal welfare chapter are largely unprecedented in other FTAs. We have secured non-regression and non-derogation clauses on animal welfare. This means both countries are committed to not lowering their animal welfare standards or make exceptions for their producers in a manner that materially affects trade. The chapter includes strong commitments to work with New Zealand bilaterally and in international fora to progress animal welfare standards.

The Environment chapter demonstrates our global leadership on climate and environmental protection. It will liberalise tariffs on the largest list of environmental goods in any FTA to date and encourage trade and investment in low carbon services and technology. It includes commitments to tackle environmental challenges such as illegal wildlife trade, air pollution, marine pollution and litter, and promote biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and the transition to a circular economy. The chapter also affirms our commitments to implement multilateral environmental agreements, including the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and Paris Agreement.

This Government has an ambitious programme of legislative and non-legislative measures that go further than ever to ensure the highest level of animal welfare standards. Our Action Plan for Animal Welfare provides an overview. As part of this, we have introduced the Animal Sentience and Kept Animals Bills and intend to legislate further in an Animals Abroad Bill.

The ban on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products in 2018 was developed based on evidence of harm to the marine environment from microplastics, and specifically evidence of microbeads directly entering the marine environment through the water treatment process. It aimed to create a level playing field between businesses that had already taken voluntary action and those that continued to use microbeads. An impact assessment was carried out before the ban was implemented. The impact assessment can be found here:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2017/178/pdfs/ukia_20170178_en.pdf.

More evidence is required to understand the full impact of microplastics, including microbeads, on the marine environment. We have been working to understand other sources of microplastics into the marine environment. This includes a Defra funded study, which investigated the sources and pathways of microplastics from tyres and textiles into the ocean:

http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&Completed=0&ProjectID=20110.

Supermarkets have been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots.

The Government is working to ensure that approximately 1.8 million people in England identified by the NHS as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract Coronavirus have access to the food they need. We have shared with supermarkets the details of those who have registered as extremely clinically vulnerable and need help accessing food. These details are processed by the supermarkets, who match these names against their own customer databases. They then offer people the option of priority access to online delivery.

We are also working quickly to support people who do not fall into the category of being clinically extremely vulnerable, but still need help getting essential food supplies. This includes those who are elderly, disabled or have health conditions that make it difficult for them to get the food they need. We are speaking to food retailers, delivery organisations and volunteer groups to help prioritise those individuals to access essential food. Most supermarkets are offering prioritised delivery and click and collect slots to those they have identified as vulnerable from their customer databases (for example by age, shopping habits or previous use of vulnerable customer helplines). We are working closely with retailers and local authorities to stand up a service to allow local authorities to refer vulnerable people to supermarkets for a priority delivery or click and collect slot.

The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. The Government has regular engagement across the industry who continue to monitor the situation closely, taking the necessary steps to address issues where they arise.

Following a significant spike in consumer demand, we have now seen stock levels in supermarkets improve. To support the food sector, the Government temporarily relaxed competition law and regulations relating to driver hours and delivery times so that the sector could work together to keep putting food on the shelves.

We welcome the actions that industry is taking, including hiring more staff, and prioritising delivery slots and shopping times for those that need them most. We are grateful for the extensive support and positive collaboration that the industry has shown. We will continue these conversations to keep food supply chains flowing and make sure people have the food and products they need.

Thanks to rapidly increasing testing capacity, the government has expanded eligibility to all essential workers with symptoms of coronavirus, including those working in the food and drink industry.

The DFID Secretary of State regularly speaks with counterparts in the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on a range of issues. DFID officials have also been working closely with the IFIs and have had initial conversations on the possibility of financing potential COVID-19 vaccines and treatments in developing countries. We also worked with the World Bank Group, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and others, to launch a brand-new scheme to ensure global vaccine production at the UK-hosted Global Vaccine Summit, on 4 June. The COVAX Advance Market Commitment for COVID-19 vaccines is aimed at incentivising vaccine manufacturers to produce sufficient quantities of a potential COVID-19 vaccine and to ensure future access for low- and middle-income countries. The UK has contributed over £48 million ($60.6 million) to this initiative.

The UK is at the forefront of efforts to develop coronavirus vaccines. As agreed by the G20, we support a global approach to the rapid development and scaled up manufacture of vaccines with equitable access to all who need them, including in the poorest countries. We are working with international partners, industry and researchers to support an approach to accelerate research and development, scale up global manufacturing capacity and ensure funding to deliver this aim.

The UK is a strong supporter of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is supporting the development of vaccines that will be available throughout the world. We have pledged £250 million of UK aid to CEPI, the biggest donation of any country to date. CEPI is supporting the development of 10 COVID-19 vaccine candidates, such as the University of Oxford’s vaccine research.

UK aid has also supported Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for 20 years. We are its biggest donor, helping to immunise over 760 million children and saving over 13 million lives worldwide. Gavi will play a key role in making a new COVID-19 vaccine available and affordable.

UK support, through CEPI, GAVI and others, will help facilitate the end-to-end development and distribution of a successful vaccine.

Our negotiating strategy is based on the results of one of the largest public consultations in UK history, and we are speaking to businesses and interest groups in every part of the UK to ensure their voice is heard.

On the 19^th May I had a one-to-one conversation with NFU Scotland, and on the 26^th May I held a joint roundtable with the National Farmers Union (NFU) NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, and Ulster Farmers' Union.

On the 16^th June, I held a further joint roundtable with the regional farmers unions to provide an update on negotiations of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement, ahead of the publication of the Agreement in Principle document on the 17^th June.

HM Government is focused on an ambitious programme of bilateral talks with the US during the four-month tariff suspension, and is making progress towards a settlement that works for the whole of the UK and keeps harmful tariffs off.

The Secretary of State for International Trade engages with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on this issue at every opportunity, and both are committed to finding a fair and permanent settlement to the disputes, that paves the way for an even stronger trading relationship.

The Secretary of State for International Trade looks forward to meeting with the US Trade Representative at the earliest opportunity, date subject to Senate confirmation processes.

We expect the meeting might cover the UK’s ambitious trade agenda with our largest trading partner, promoting free, fair and sustainable trade. We would expect this to include the UK-US Free Trade Agreement; priorities on the global stage such as reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), digital and environmental trade; and the swift resolution of trade disputes that are an unhelpful backdrop to the UK-US trade relationship.

The Government takes the negative impact of US tariffs on key UK products, including cashmere, very seriously. These tariffs are unnecessary, unhelpful and harm industry on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Secretary of State for International Trade continues to raise the issue of tariffs with the US administration at every opportunity. Most recently in early August, the Secretary of State visited the US and raised this issue with Ambassador Lighthizer, pressing for the removal of tariffs and a settlement to the Airbus and Boeing disputes as soon as possible.

As at 8 July 2022, there are 22 people waiting to take a category F (tractor) driving test in the Scottish Borders.

To accommodate the tractor testing manoeuvres, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) conducts category F tests at the closest, suitable location to the candidate’s home address. The DVSA allocates the most suitable examiner to do this. As the test does not take place at a DVSA test centre, the examiner needs time to travel to and from the meeting point for the test as well as the time to conduct the test itself.

The DVSA does not calculate an average waiting time for the category F test as the very low test demand and non-standard booking procedure for tractor tests could distort the waiting time, which would not be representative.

The table below shows the number of car (category B) tests that are booked at the following driving test centres (DTC).

UK Government Transport Ministers regularly engage with their counterparts in the Scottish Government to discuss matters of shared interest, including improving cross-border transport connectivity.

The Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) draft recommendations include improvements to the A75 and A77, routes that were also highlighted in the independent Union Connectivity Review carried out by Sir Peter Hendy and published in November 2021. The UK Government has invited the Scottish Government to work in partnership to consider the recommendations of the Union Connectivity Review and identify solutions which work best for the people of the UK.

Data on domestic charging devices funded by the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) are presented in the table. Figures are from 1 July 2021.

The Department holds data on plug-in car grants but this database does not provide the geographic breakdown required.

The table below shows, up to the end of December 2020, the number of plug-in car grant eligible models registered for the first time in the respective geographies. The right hand column provides an estimate of the maximum financial value of the grant support for these vehicles. This was calculated from vehicle registration data by applying amount of available grant for eligible models at the time of registration. This estimate does not mean that every car registered received the grant or that other cars did not receive the grant before the end of December 2020 but had not registered the car yet.

7 Scottish local authorities have been awarded grants totalling £1,065,381 through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), up to July 2021. The Scheme is administered on the Department’s behalf by Energy Saving Trust, who offer expert advice and support to local authorities throughout the application process. Energy Saving Trust, in partnership with the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, also hosts a library of webinars and guidance documents focussing on the challenges that authorities face when installing charging infrastructure, while promoting the available funding.

In early 2022, in collaboration with the Institution of Engineering and Technology, we will publish an EV infrastructure guide for local authority EV officers, to assist with the transition to ZEVs. This guide will cover the steps needed to take in order to deploy chargepoints for residents. Scottish local authorities were involved in the scoping of the document and will be asked to comment at consultation stage in due course.

The Government wants to ensure that drivers can benefit from the transition to zero emission vehicles. The On-Street Residential Chargeoint Scheme (ORCS) is available to all UK local authorities to provide public chargepoints for their residents without access to private parking. £20 million is available in 2021-22 to UK local authorities through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.

Data on domestic charging devices funded by the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) are presented in the table. Figures are from 1 July 2021.

The Department holds data on plug-in car grants but this database does not provide the geographic breakdown required.

The table below shows, up to the end of December 2020, the number of plug-in car grant eligible models registered for the first time in the respective geographies. The right hand column provides an estimate of the maximum financial value of the grant support for these vehicles. This was calculated from vehicle registration data by applying amount of available grant for eligible models at the time of registration. This estimate does not mean that every car registered received the grant or that other cars did not receive the grant before the end of December 2020 but had not registered the car yet.

7 Scottish local authorities have been awarded grants totalling £1,065,381 through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), up to July 2021. The Scheme is administered on the Department’s behalf by Energy Saving Trust, who offer expert advice and support to local authorities throughout the application process. Energy Saving Trust, in partnership with the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, also hosts a library of webinars and guidance documents focussing on the challenges that authorities face when installing charging infrastructure, while promoting the available funding.

In early 2022, in collaboration with the Institution of Engineering and Technology, we will publish an EV infrastructure guide for local authority EV officers, to assist with the transition to ZEVs. This guide will cover the steps needed to take in order to deploy chargepoints for residents. Scottish local authorities were involved in the scoping of the document and will be asked to comment at consultation stage in due course.

The Government wants to ensure that drivers can benefit from the transition to zero emission vehicles. The On-Street Residential Chargeoint Scheme (ORCS) is available to all UK local authorities to provide public chargepoints for their residents without access to private parking. £20 million is available in 2021-22 to UK local authorities through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.