Joy Morrissey

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

Details of Ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

This Government will ensure a phased and responsible North Sea transition. We will manage the North Sea in a way that does not jeopardise jobs. As Britain becomes a clean energy superpower, the government is determined to create new high-quality jobs, working with business and trade unions.

To ensure security of supply, the electricity system requires generating capacity that can dispatch power in the event of high peak demand, unexpected outage or during periods of low renewable output. As we transition to clean power the government will work with the private sector to ensure flexible technologies such as hydrogen, long duration electricity storage and power with carbon capture and storage are deployed. Unabated gas will increasingly move to a backup role as low carbon alternatives deploy. We will continue to develop our strategy to enable a transition away from unabated gas whilst maintaining security of supply.

As stated in Great British Energy’s Founding Statement, trade unions will have a voice and representation within Great British Energy. When deciding upon the composition of the board, GBE will follow best practice in its governance and structures, including around its relationships and engagement with trade unions and its workforce.

I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 2492.

There is a range of funding available via DCMS and the Department’s Arm’s-Length Bodies that supports places of worship. These include the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have committed to investing around £100m between 2023 and 2026 to support places of worship; the Churches Conservation Trust, which funds repairs and maintenance of over 350 churches in the CCT portfolio; and Historic England's Heritage At Risk grants, funding £9 million worth of repairs to buildings on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register between April 2024 and March 2025.

On the 22nd of January, I was pleased to announce that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme would continue from March 2025 to March 2026 with a budget of £23m. Further details can be found in this Written Statement.

There are 163 grammar schools in England that are located across 35 local authority areas. The government does not plan to allow any new grammar schools to open nor to legislate to remove the right of existing grammar schools to select by ability.

The department is not expecting these changes to have a significant effect on bursaries across the private school sector as a whole. The department expects that charitable schools across the UK will want to continue to demonstrate wider public benefit through the provision of means-tested bursaries and through partnerships with state-funded schools after these changes are made.

The decision to pause the implementation of the Higher Education (Free Speech) Act 2023 took account of views from across the higher education (HE) sector, including universities and academics, who felt that the Act is disproportionate, burdensome and damaging to the welfare of students and that it would expose HE providers to costly legal action, and that the fear of sanction could push providers to overlook the safety and wellbeing of minority groups.

The government does not routinely publish details of meetings and correspondence that inform policy making, as this risks undermining the ability of Ministers to hear free-spoken views.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure that patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are pleased to confirm that the Government has recently released £25 million for 2024/25, and that Hospice UK will distribute the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be available from April for 2025/26.

We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding in 2025/26 to support children and young people’s hospices. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. It will be transacted once again by the integrated care boards on behalf of NHS England. This is in line with National Health Service devolution and promotes a more consistent national approach, and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care.

I recently met with key palliative and end of life care, including hospice, stakeholders to discuss the long-term sustainability of palliative and end of life care within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

The Department is committed to working with the pharmaceutical industry to develop a more efficient, more competitive, and more accessible clinical research system in the United Kingdom, ensuring that all patients, including those with brain tumours, have access to cutting-edge clinical research and innovative, lifesaving treatments.

Research is crucial in tackling brain cancer, which is why the Department spends £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer being one of the largest areas of investment, at over £121.8 million in 2022/23, reflecting its high priority.

The Department is committed to ensuring that clinical trials are people-centred and more accessible, including for brain tumour patients. For example, the NIHR provides an online service called Be Part of Research which promotes participation in health and care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest.

The Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM) is an independent organisation funded by 11 charities as well as by Government. The Centre of Excellence programme is community led, being designed and delivered by a committee of National Health Service professionals and scientists from centres across the United Kingdom. The centres that participate in the TJBCM Centre of Excellence initiative do so voluntarily.

All UK neuro-oncology centres are invited to apply for Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence status, which is the main “national framework” in neuro-oncology, beyond the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines that apply to all hospitals treating brain tumours. Centres that are not awarded Centre of Excellence designation can also access support from TJBCM and through the Tessa Jowell Network, so all centres and their patients nationally can benefit from this standard-setting. The TJBCM works with every centre in the UK who seeks its support.

The TJBCM welcomes applications from any centre which provides treatment and care for patients with a brain tumour who can demonstrate how they meet the Tessa Jowell Standards of Excellence, to achieve the same high standards of treatment, care, and research. The mission works with every centre in the UK who seeks its support to develop its service, both in England and the devolved nations.

The Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM) is an independent organisation funded by 11 charities as well as by Government. The Centre of Excellence programme is community led, being designed and delivered by a committee of National Health Service professionals and scientists from centres across the United Kingdom. The centres that participate in the TJBCM Centre of Excellence initiative do so voluntarily.

All UK neuro-oncology centres are invited to apply for Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence status, which is the main “national framework” in neuro-oncology, beyond the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines that apply to all hospitals treating brain tumours. Centres that are not awarded Centre of Excellence designation can also access support from TJBCM and through the Tessa Jowell Network, so all centres and their patients nationally can benefit from this standard-setting. The TJBCM works with every centre in the UK who seeks its support.

The TJBCM welcomes applications from any centre which provides treatment and care for patients with a brain tumour who can demonstrate how they meet the Tessa Jowell Standards of Excellence, to achieve the same high standards of treatment, care, and research. The mission works with every centre in the UK who seeks its support to develop its service, both in England and the devolved nations.

The value of an ownership of a business, or share of a business, is included in an estate for inheritance tax purposes. Business property relief reduces the value of the interest in the business or its assets when calculating how much inheritance tax is due on the value of the estate.

Excluding claims by estates only holding shares designed as “not listed” on recognised stock exchanges, the Government has set out that around 500 estates claiming business property relief only in 2026-27 are expected to pay more inheritance tax as a result of the reforms announced at Autumn Budget 2024. Any potential impact on businesses will depend on the individual circumstances, including the size of the inheritance tax liability, the ownership structure, and the value of non-business assets in an estate available to pay a liability. Furthermore, where any inheritance tax is due, those liable for a charge can in most circumstances pay any liability on the relevant assets over 10 annual instalments, interest-free. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) does not expect the reforms to have any significant macroeconomic impacts.

The behavioural impact of policies is accounted for in the normal way in the costings certified by the independent OBR. The OBR recently published more detail on the costings for the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief, including the potential behavioural responses, at https://obr.uk/download/october-2024-economic-and-fiscal-outlook-costing-of-changes-to-agricultural-and-business-property-relief/?tmstv=1739194105.

In our consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system, it was suggested that grey belt land be defined as Green Belt land which makes a limited contribution to the Green Belt’s purposes, as set out in paragraph 143 of the current NPPF.

The government is proposing that assessments of what land is identified as grey belt be undertaken by local planning authorities themselves, informed by relevant guidance. As such, the Department is unable to provide the estimate requested.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.