Jonathan Lord

Tackling domestic abuse is an important priority for this government. Over 10,900 suspects were charged with DA offences in the last quarter with a conviction rate of over 75% and in the last 5 years, the number of coercive and controlling behaviour cases has increased from 5 to 1,403.

We have continued focus on tackling this heinous crime by introducing non- fatal strangulation offence as part of our landmark Domestic Abuse Act. Those who strangle their partners in an attempt to control or induce fear will face up to 5 years behind bars.

In its role as a specialist law enforcement agency tackling the top level of serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is prosecuting eight cases within the 2022-23 financial year. These involve more than 20 individuals, charged with criminality worth over £550m.

Given this specialist role, as well as the scale and complexity of the cases it takes on, the focus of the SFO is less on increasing the number of cases it takes on, but rather increasing its capacity through the use of technology, reducing manual errors and delivering this year’s trials effectively.

Driving this, the SFO received a funding uplift in the 2021 Spending Review which included £4.4m over three years to invest in technology. This will complement the wider work that it is doing to reduce case lengths and ensure the tools it uses to investigate and prosecute fraudsters match the evolving methods used by these criminals.

The CPS has had considerable success in increasing prosecutions of modern slavery cases involving the exploitation of vulnerable people. The number of modern slavery prosecutions increased from 284 in 2017-18 to 322 in 2018-19, an increase of 13.4%.

These cases are handled by specialist units with prosecutors who have the training, expertise and experience to deal with this difficult casework.

The CPS prosecutes offenders following an investigation by law enforcement, and referral to the CPS for advice and prosecution. Early engagement between the prosecutors and investigators is therefore central to a successful prosecution in all these complex cases. Prosecutors work closely with law enforcement to build robust cases, and provide early investigative advice, with the aim of lessening or removing the need to rely solely upon the evidence of vulnerable victims.

The CPS works with international partners to disrupt modern slavery crimes, and to strengthen the prosecution response overseas. The CPS maintains an overseas network of Criminal Justice Advisors to improve mutual legal assistance and extradition co-operation and work with authorities in those countries to improve their local capability to counter serious crime affecting the UK.

Two people were prosecuted in February 2015 for an offence under section 1 of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and an offence of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, contrary to section 44(1) of the Serious Crime Act 2007. There have been no other prosecutions and no convictions for offences under the Act or other associated offences.

The National Cyber Strategy sets out how the government will foster the growth of an already strong cyber sector in the UK. New government-funded programmes like Cyber Runway and the cyber accelerator, ‘NCSC for Startups’ are supporting entrepreneurs and businesses across the UK to turn their ideas into commercial successes.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office recently met the Minister for Care and Mental Health to discuss issues surrounding veterans’ health, including mental health services. The Minister for Defence People recently had the opportunity to meet Op COURAGE staff and service users at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

Op COURAGE is a mental health support pathway in England which continues to grow, and the Government strongly encourages any veterans who need support to engage with it. Op COURAGE was allocated £17.8 million funding last year and an extra £2.7 million over the next three years.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to the Honourable Member for Meriden on 11 February 2021.

"The civil service will launch its new apprenticeship strategy next year. The first phase will have delivered 30,000 apprenticeships by next April, but going forward I want to focus not just on numbers, but on the quality of training on offer, so that Departments get much better at growing their own talent and plugging skills gaps. To that end, we recently published the curriculum and campus for Government skills, with the goal of setting the highest standard in vocational training for all civil servants, including apprentices."

All public-facing online government services are required to comply with the Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice which ensure that they meet user needs, are accessible and secure.

We are introducing GOV.UK Accounts to meet changing user needs and expectations and make government services more personalised and data-driven. We have established a Data Standards Authority to make sure that data can be used, shared and understood across government, which is the foundation of joined-up and trusted public services.

On 4 January, the Prime Minister announced a National Lockdown for all of England, in accordance with growing evidence of virus prevalence. Under these new restrictions, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies should only take place in exceptional circumstances. Up to six people can attend (including the couple). Anyone working is not included in that limit.

We recognise the restrictions may be disappointing for those planning such events. By their nature, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies are events that bring families and friends together, including from across the country and sometimes across the world, making them particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. We do not wish to keep restrictions in place for any longer than we have to, and restrictions will be kept under review in line with the changing situation. For further information, please refer to the guidance for small weddings and civil partnerships https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships. There is different advice for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The government continues to regularly make available scientific evidence supporting its COVID-19 response, including at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

On 22 February, the Prime Minister will set out the plan for reopening schools, and gradually reopening the economy and society, in a sustainable way in England.

For further information, please refer to the Coronavirus (COVID‑19) page on gov.uk, which will publish further information regarding the roadmap on 22 February, https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.

The Government’s Export Strategy, ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’, focuses on the challenges UK businesses face when exporting and sets out a 12-point plan which targets barriers to trade and helps businesses at every stage of their export journey. My Department continues to support companies through our network of domestic and overseas trade advisers, sector specialists, Export Support Service, Export Academy, International Markets network as well as through UK Export Finance. We are also helping businesses to benefit from new free trade agreements and working across Government to reduce barriers to exporting and simplify border processes.

The Government is aware that late payment remains a significant problem for small businesses across the country. That is why at the beginning of 2023 the Government launched a review of Cash flow and Prompt Payment, alongside a public consultation on the Payment Performance Regulations. The findings of the review, alongside the consultation response, will be published later in 2023.

The Government will use the findings of this review to improve the Payment Performance Regulations, the Small Business Commissioner, and the Prompt Payment Code to improve payment culture in the UK, to reduce late payments and its impact on SMEs.

My department has a team of experts across Africa supporting British businesses to thrive and increasing trade and investment. We are using our 9 trade agreements covering 18 African nations to grow trade. These provide preferential access to UK markets for African goods and frameworks for cooperation. The Developing Countries Trading Scheme will lower tariffs to support an additional 33 African countries to increase exports. We are also working bilaterally to deepen relationships with growing African economies. In 2024, the Prime Minister will host the second UK-African Investment Summit to showcase investment opportunities and advance two-way trade.

The Prime Minister has set a clear ambition to grow the UK as a Science and Technology Superpower. Core to this is the need to have UK companies growing through international expansion. My Department is supporting this growth through our teams in over 100 countries, sourcing opportunities for UK companies in sectors such as AI and Quantum. DBT also supports tech companies to access global markets through putting them on the world stage at large overseas trade shows such as Mobile World Congress and Web Summit. The Export Academy, which supports businesses from all sectors, and the Export Support Service – International Markets, which handled over 9,600 enquiries since launch in April 2022 - February 2023, help organisations with their international expansion.

My honourable friend is right to raise opportunities to boost trade at the state level. Just last week, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oklahoma, our fourth with an individual US state, which provides a framework to promote British business and tackle barriers to trade.

We are also supporting professional bodies and regulators to remove barriers at the state level, including through recognition of professional qualifications. Last week, I attended the launch of an architecture Mutual Recognition Agreement between British and American regulators which we estimate could increase UK services exports to the US by £40 million per annum.

The Government views sustainably sourced biomass as low carbon, in line with independent organisations such as the CCC and IPCC, as set out in the Government Biomass Strategy, published in August 2023.

Only biomass that complies with strict sustainability criteria receives support from Government. For forest derived biomass, the criteria includes requirements around sustainable forest management including regeneration rates and sustainable harvesting, requiring that the carbon stock of the forest is not decreased.

In 2024, Government will consult on a cross sectorial sustainability framework to see where we can strengthen the criteria further based on latest evidence.

Information is only available on Drax’s support for electricity generation from all types of biomass, (including wood from sustainable sources) and on lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The figures in the table below give the value of the support under the Renewables Obligation scheme for generation from all the types of biomass used by Drax.

From 2016 (the start of their support under the Contracts for Difference scheme) to 2023, Drax was paid £1.38bn in net difference payments. The details are published by the Low Carbon Contracts Company on their Data Portal[3].

Drax’s GHG emissions under the Renewables Obligation are available in Ofgem’s sustainability datasets[4]. For the Contracts for Difference scheme, Drax’s avoided GHG emissions are published by the Low Carbon Contracts Company on their Data Portal.

[1] Support under the Renewables Obligation is through tradeable certificates. The figures give the notional value of the support

[2] Provisional figure as all the certificates for 2022/23 may not have been issued yet.

[3] The Low Carbon Contracts Company’s Data Portal is at: https://dp.lowcarboncontracts.uk/dataset/actual-cfd-generation-and-avoided-ghg-emissions/resource/fa730219-fbd2-41b5-9510-ba2b0ff2c1ba

[4] Ofgem’s annual sustainability datasets are at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/renewables-obligation-ro/renewables-obligation-ro-suppliers/biomass-sustainability

I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to my hon Friend the Member for Hendon (Dr Matthew Offord) on 15 September to Question UIN 198081.

Businesses, including those within the Woking constituency and across the UK, have already benefitted from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which ended on 31 March and provided over £7.4 billion of support.

Businesses experiencing high energy costs will continue to get a discount on gas and electricity bills under the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) until 31 March 2024, including the higher level of support for eligible Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) and domestic heat network customers on commercial contracts.

The importance of the role of nuclear energy in the Government’s strategy for achieving our net zero emissions targets was most recently set out in our March 2023 policy paper: Powering Up Britain initiatives. This includes our Net Zero Growth Plan, which reiterates the ambition of the 2022 British Energy Security Strategy for deploying up to 24 gigawatts of nuclear by 2050, around 25% of our projected 2050 electricity demand. Modelling for nuclear, which was first published alongside the Energy White Paper 2020, is set out in Table 2, page 24, of the Technical Annex to the Net Zero Growth Plan.