Julia Buckley

The controls outlined in the Civil Service Equality Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance which was published on 14 May remain in place and apply to all civil servants.

The controls outlined in the Civil Service Equality Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance which was published on 14 May remain in place.

As of 31 January, the Department had received 408 completed claims from eligible GLO postmasters. 257 claimants have agreed full and final redress, of whom 153 accepted the £75,000 fixed offer. A further 229 individuals have received partial or interim redress payments, including people who have not yet submitted full claims.

The government remains committed to issuing first offers in 90% of cases within 40 working days of receiving complete claims. The same target applies to offers which are challenged after 1 December 2024.

Of the 555 postmasters who were part of the Group Litigation Order (GLO), 63 had convictions thus their route to redress is either through the Overturned Convictions Scheme or Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme. That leaves 492 postmasters eligible for the GLO scheme.

As of 3 January, the Department had received 370 completed claims from these individuals. It has made 346 offers, of which 243 have been accepted, with 237 claims paid in full. The Department expects to pay substantial redress to the great majority of GLO postmasters by 31 March.

New tariffs or quotas on goods from a particular country can be applied via trade remedies. It is for the independent Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to investigate whether trade remedy measures are needed to protect our industries. The Secretary of State can request the TRA to initiate an investigation. For the TRA to accept any application, an evidence threshold must be met. We encourage any UK producer that believes it has been harmed by unfairly dumped or subsidised goods to contact the TRA in the first instance.

The Labour Manifesto includes a commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal. The government has been consulting civil society as this process unfolds. This includes attending meetings with animal protection organisations and considering documentation sent by such organisations to the Government. The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year.

As part of the Labour Manifesto’s commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, the government has been consulting civil society as this process unfolds. This includes attending meetings with and considering documentation sent by animal protection organisations. The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year which will consider these discussions. However, the strategy will not be publishing the specific names of the organisations it consults with.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country. We will be ensuring that AI is used to drive the government’s missions and priorities. We are committed to building an AI sector that can scale and win globally, through the AI Opportunities Action Plan which will be published this Autumn. It will outline an approach to delivering the opportunities AI can bring across the system, setting out our governments ambition.

The department takes the safety of children and those who work with them incredibly seriously, which is why we expect all academy trusts, local authorities and governing bodies as responsible bodies to have robust plans in place to manage asbestos in school buildings effectively, in line with their statutory duties, drawing on appropriate professional advice.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), as the regulator, sets the legal requirements and standards to manage asbestos and produces guidance for trusts and other responsible bodies to follow, as duty holders. The department provides guidance, tools and support to help all schools and responsible bodies effectively manage their school buildings, including guidance on the day-to-day monitoring and management of asbestos in schools and colleges, which was updated in October 2024. The Academy Trust Handbook 2024 is clear in its health and safety guidelines that “academy trusts have a duty to manage asbestos in their schools effectively, compliant with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012” (clause 1.19).

The department follows the advice of the HSE as the regulator that, so long as asbestos-containing materials are undamaged and not in locations where they are vulnerable to damage, they should be left undisturbed and their condition monitored. However, the department has been clear that when asbestos does pose a risk to safety and cannot be effectively managed in place, it should be removed. The decision to remove asbestos should be considered on a case-by-case basis and annual condition funding provided by the department can be used for this purpose. In many cases, asbestos will be removed as part of wider rebuilding or refurbishment work.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools. The funding is not ring-fenced, subject to the conditions set out in the published grant determination letter, nor is it time bound, meaning local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities.

Shropshire Council has been allocated just over £4.4 million to support the provision of new school places needed over the current and next two academic years, up to and including the academic year starting in September 2026.

The department engages with councils on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, we support them to find solutions as quickly as possible.

The department is aware that Shropshire Council are exploring local solutions to address localised secondary sufficiency challenges in Shrewsbury, including the potential for a new setting in the medium term.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Of that total, Shropshire Council is being allocated over £46 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), which is an increase of £3.8 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 8.1% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.

In addition to the DSG, local authorities will also receive a separate core schools budget grant (CSBG) in the 2025/26 financial year. This CSBG continues the separate grants payable this year, which are to help special schools and alternative provision with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases and other staff pay increases. Individual local authorities’ allocations for 2025/26 will be published in due course.

As also announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is receiving compensation in recognition of the increase in National Insurance contributions paid by schools and other state-funded SEND provision. That funding will be additional to the £1 billion increase in high needs funding through the DSG, and the separate CSBG referred to above, and the department will provide further information on the allocations as soon as possible.

The department has set out its plan and ambitions for Skills England. Work is now underway to develop how it will deliver, and the department has already been clear that working with a wide range of stakeholders will be central to this. This includes the British Chambers of Commerce as well as other key organisations. The department will publish its first report in due course, which will be followed by a series of engagement activities.

Departmental officials are in regular contact with Shropshire Local Area Partnership to ensure children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families are provided with positive experiences and outcomes, helping to foster a shared sense of responsibility and accountability for inclusion.

This government is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with Local Area Partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.

We recognise the importance of farmer and land manager collaboration. In future years we want to make it easier for farmers to build partnerships and secure the advice and support they need to deliver on a range of priorities in their local area.

That’s why the Agricultural Transition Plan Update, published in January 2024, committed to the development of an expanded and improved facilitation fund.

To support this change, we are not opening further rounds of the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund. We are still funding existing agreements.

Ahead of the Spending Review, we are testing how we develop a more flexible approach to supporting farmer networks and partnerships. We will learn from the evaluation of the Facilitation Fund, which proves the benefits of collaboration but also shows that we need to improve the design, so it is less burdensome for participants, and we can increase uptake.

This Government is committed to building stronger ties and working collaboratively with the Welsh Gov-ernment on shared priorities that deliver for all our citizens including tackling pollution, restoring nature and supporting our farmers.

Effective regulations play an important part of in reducing diffuse agricultural pollution and cleaning up our waters, as well as supporting improvements to farm businesses. Both Governments are working closely with regulators, local farmers and other key partners in England and Wales on these issues, for example by working with local farmers and environmental NGOs, alongside the Wye Nutrient Management Board and the Wye Catchment Partnership who are leading efforts to tackle pollution in the Wye.

Please also see the announcement below for more detail regarding what is being done to tackle pollution in the Wye: UK and Welsh Government unite in £1m fund to transform River Wye - GOV.UK.

In a joint initiative worth up to £1 million, Defra and Welsh Government will fund comprehensive cross-border research on the River Wye, to understand pollution and other pressures (such as wildlife decline, flood risk, high and low flows), and develop plans to tackle these issues in the catchment.

This funding, supported by UK and Welsh Governments, will ensure farmers, environmental campaigners, citizen scientists and other local experts, can help us gather essential evidence about what is causing this iconic river to be so polluted, and chart a course towards improving water quality and restoring nature.

Investment in flood risk management schemes takes place where the risk is highest, wherever it is across the country. Each scheme is carefully considered to where it will benefit the most people and property.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences.

We have inherited a floods investment programme which is behind schedule due to the impacts of inflation, the covid pandemic and skills and labour shortages.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. We will also launch a consultation of the existing floods funding formula to ensure that we get the greatest impact from our funding, with the new approach expected to be brought in from April 2026.

The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be agreed by the Environment Agency over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.

The Government shares the public’s high regard for the UK’s environmental protections, food standards and animal welfare.

The Government recognises farmers’ concerns about imports produced using methods not permitted in the UK. We have been clear that we will use our Trade Strategy to promote the highest food production standards.

Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services is one of the government’s top priorities and we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The government is investing over £150 million to deliver a new £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London from 1 January until 31 December 2025 to help millions access better opportunities and promote greater bus use by passengers.

If we had not taken action in the Budget, the bus fare cap would have ended and fares would have jumped back up to their previous levels on 31 December 2024. This would have meant some fares soared above £10 on the most expensive routes, as the last government had not funded the fare cap beyond the end of the year. Instead, we chose to fund an additional year of the fare cap but with the maximum price now set at £3. This does not mean, however, that all fares will rise to £3 as we will require operators to demonstrate that they have not raised fares any higher than inflation.

This government is committed to improving bus services across the country, which is why the Budget allocated more than £1 billion to local bus services. This will be used to expand services and improve reliability, which are currently massive obstacles for too many people.

Moving forward, the government is exploring more targeted options that deliver value for money to the taxpayer, to ensure affordable bus travel is always available for the groups who need it the most – such as young people.

The Government already provides support for people living in rented accommodation to install chargepoints, through its Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant. This provides up to £350 toward the costs of purchasing and installing an electric vehicle chargepoint. We will continue to review whether further steps are needed.

This Government is committed to the transition to electric vehicles (EV) and is encouraging uptake through a range of taxation incentives and grants.

Drivers of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) will continue to benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives, which have been set until March 2030. ZEVs remain exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) until April 2025, after which they will still have preferential first year rates.

In addition, the Government has announced £120m for next financial year to support the purchase of new electric vans and manufacturing of wheelchair accessible vehicles.

The Government is also committed to accelerating the rollout of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an EV. As of 1 November, there are over 71,000 publicly available charging devices in the UK, alongside 680,000 private chargepoints in England alone, supporting drivers to switch to EVs.

As a general principle, Blue Badge eligibility is based on mobility. Reapplying for a badge every three years gives local authorities the opportunity to reassess badge holders when their badges expire, ensuring that they continue to meet the criteria which makes them eligible for a badge. It also serves the purpose of making sure that the details local authorities hold about the badge holder, and those that are displayed on the badge itself, remain correct.

The Department for Transport sets the legislation that governs the Blue Badge scheme and provides guidance for local authorities who are solely responsible for administering the scheme, including issuing the badges.

There are no timescales set for administering applications other than a suggested guideline that issuing authorities should aim to complete end to end applications within 12 weeks.

80% of citizens apply for a badge using the Blue Badge Digital Service (BBDS) operated by the Department for Transport. The Department has a programme of continuous improvement of the digital service with the aim of making online badge applications quicker and easier for applicants and local authorities.

The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These benefits include learning new skills, improved confidence and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health.

For those not on Universal Credit, housing support is tapered when their income exceeds the applicable amount. On Universal Credit, for those claimants in Supported Housing or Temporary Accommodation their housing support is not tapered as they are passported to full Housing Benefit. This ensures parity with Universal Credit and avoids them being tapered on both Universal Credit and Housing Benefit which could disincentivise work.

The Department acknowledges the challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those working and living in supported housing and temporary accommodation. This issue is a complex one, officials are working to explore this issue further.

It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.

The Department acknowledges the challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those working and living in supported housing as the two systems were never intended to run alongside one another.

The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These benefits include learning new skills, improved confidence, and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health.

The Department will continue to work to build our understanding of this topic and to evaluate future policy options.

It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.

A principle of child maintenance is to increase levels of cooperation between separated parents and encourage parents to meet their responsibilities to provide their children with financial support. Where a family-based child maintenance arrangement is not suitable the Child Maintenance Service offers a statutory scheme for those parents who need it.

The Government is dedicated to ensuring parents meet their obligations to children and the Child Maintenance Service will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply. Where parents fail to pay their child maintenance, the Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement which includes liability orders. The Service is committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families.

The Department plans to bring forward changes to allow Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears. The administrative liability order will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, which can take up to 22 weeks. We expect the new liability order process to take around six to eight weeks, meaning CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly for those who seek to avoid their financial obligations to their children.

We will bring forward the legislation as soon as possible.

The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are available up to March 2024. The next release to June 2024 is scheduled for Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 09:30am.

The statistics for liability orders are shown in Table 7.1 of the National tables. The relevant data taken from that table, covering the period requested, is shown in the following table:

Liability Orders in process and money collected in Great Britain, and Liability Orders applied for and granted in England and Wales, July 2023 to March 2024

Source: Child Maintenance Service Administrative and Clerical Data

Notes:

1. This table includes actions taken to collect both maintenance arranged by the Child Maintenance Service, and Child Support Agency arrears that have been transitioned to Child Maintenance Service systems. This may include actions taken against parents for whom no ongoing maintenance has been arranged under the Child Maintenance Service.

2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 or £100,000.

3. "In Process" counts give the number of Paying Parents for which the relevant enforcement action was ongoing at the end of the quarter. "Ongoing" includes the period in which the action was being formally considered, in addition to the period during which the action was actively being progressed.

4. A Paying Parent can be taken to court over unpaid child maintenance. Courts can grant a Liability Order, which is a legal recognition that a debt is owed. This enables recovery of the debt through further Civil Enforcement Actions, e.g. referral to an enforcement agency.

5. Some Liability Order figures are restricted to England and Wales and exclude Scotland, this is indicated in the row title where relevant.

The Department plans to bring forward changes to allow the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears. The administrative liability order will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, which is an outdated process and can take up to 22 weeks. We expect the new liability order process to take around six to eight weeks, meaning the CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly to go after those who wilfully avoid their financial obligations to their children.

We will bring forward the legislation as soon as possible.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) aims to provide a high-quality service to all its customers. The CMS treats parents equally as individuals based on their roles within the scheme and makes no reference to gender. The Department has a specific duty to assess the impact of proposed policies and services and any changes to them on equality to ensure the Department meets its Public Sector Equality Duty obligations.

The Government is determined to fix the front door of our National Health Service, making it easier for everyone to see a general practitioner (GP) when they need to.

In October 2024, we injected £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to enabling the recruitment of 1,000 newly qualified GPs across England, which will increase the number of appointments delivered and care for thousands of patients.

We’ve just delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of NHS resources. For the first time in four years, the General Practitioners Committee England backed the new 2025/26 contract, which includes key reforms to improve access, for instance by making sure that patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.

We are committed to improving capacity and access to local services across the country. Integrated care boards (ICBs) and general practices (GPs) have a statutory duty to ensure sufficient provision of medical services, tailored to the needs of their local populations, accounting for factors like population growth, deprivation, and demographic change.

While GPs operate as independent contractors, they are held to nationally agreed standards under the GP Contract, which is reviewed and improved annually. The 2024/25 contract is backed by the largest increase in GP funding in years, specifically an £889 million uplift. This investment supports key reforms to improve access across the country, including a new requirement for practices to offer online appointment requests throughout core opening hours.

We will continue working closely with ICBs to monitor and address variations in access, so that every patient can get the care they need, when they need it.

The statutory guidance, National framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care, sets out the principles and processes for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded nursing care (FNC), so that people are assessed and receive care in a timely way. Further information on the statutory guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-framework-for-nhs-continuing-healthcare-and-nhs-funded-nursing-care

The national framework sets the expectation that the overall assessment and eligibility decision-making process for CHC should, in most cases, not exceed 28 calendar days, from the date that the integrated care board receives the positive checklist, to the eligibility decision being made. There are no mandatory timescales for the completion of a CHC checklist referral when requested by a nursing home. There are no mandatory timescales for a decision to be made about FNC eligibility.

People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.

We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.

Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.

People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.

We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.

Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.