Julian Knight

My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer and I have agreed to give the British Business Bank a new mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. The Bank has already made good progress in this area. Between 2014 and the third quarter of 2020 a total of £160m has been invested into clean technology businesses by equity funds backed by the British Business Bank.

Ahead of COP26, BEIS has launched the Together for Our Planet Business Climate Leaders’ campaign, which has encouraged over 1,900 small and micro businesses across the UK to join the Race to Zero by making the SME Climate Commitment.

Small and medium-sized businesses have a vital role in the transition to Net Zero. Smaller businesses make up 99% of the UK’s 5.87 million enterprises and produce 50% of all UK business emissions. Small businesses will drive this transition through developing new technologies and ways of working.

The Government is currently reviewing the arrangements for regulation of the insolvency profession and will shortly publish proposals for consultation.

The Government welcomes the efforts to establish regional mutual banks in the UK. The Government is also committed to seeing a highly competitive banking sector, working in the interests of all consumers and businesses across the country, and recognises the potential of regional mutual banks in achieving this goal. HM Treasury officials have been engaging with prospective mutual banks over challenges to their establishment.

Fair dealing exceptions have an important role to play in a balanced copyright framework. The Government is aware that many of the online services operating notice and take down also provide a mechanism for users to have the content reinstated if it has been mistakenly identified as infringing copyright; for example, where a user has uploaded content under a copyright exception.

The Government believes that effective notice and takedown processes are an important mechanism for protecting content online and has facilitated a number of initiatives with intellectual property rights holders and online providers to ensure that such mechanisms work well. The Government does not however intervene in specific instances of take down of content, which are private to the parties involved.

The Government is currently considering all options for the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime. The Government is aware of many of the arguments in favour and against an international exhaustion of IP rights regime, but will be consulting on the potential impact of different exhaustion of rights regimes in early 2021. Information from that consultation will be taken into account before the Government makes any decisions on a future regime.

The Government recognises the value of local journalism, including sports reporting, to local communities, as well as the prominent role of broadcasters in generating coverage of popular sporting events.

The online use of short extracts of copyright protected broadcasters’ sports content by other news providers and journalists is subject to fair dealing exceptions in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This provides for the use of copyrighted works, including extracts of TV broadcasts, for the purposes of criticism, review, quotation or news reporting. Fair dealing exceptions must be applied to each case based on its own circumstances, and can apply to online use as well as in traditional media. Where there is any uncertainty in the application of the exceptions, some industries choose to develop their own voluntary codes.

The Sports News Access Code is a voluntary, broadcaster-owned initiative intended to provide clarity and confidence where broadcasters use each other’s content under the current legislation.

The Government recognises the value of local journalism, including sports reporting, to local communities, as well as the prominent role of broadcasters in generating coverage of popular sporting events.

The online use of short extracts of copyright protected broadcasters’ sports content by other news providers and journalists is subject to fair dealing exceptions in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This provides for the use of copyrighted works, including extracts of TV broadcasts, for the purposes of criticism, review, quotation or news reporting. Fair dealing exceptions must be applied to each case based on its own circumstances, and can apply to online use as well as in traditional media. Where there is any uncertainty in the application of the exceptions, some industries choose to develop their own voluntary codes.

The Sports News Access Code is a voluntary, broadcaster-owned initiative intended to provide clarity and confidence where broadcasters use each other’s content under the current legislation.

This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s live events sector and has provided significant financial support including an additional £300M to the Culture Recovery Fund.

As the Secretary of State made clear at the DCMS Select Committee on Thursday 13th May, the government is aware of the wider concerns around securing indemnity for live events and we continue to assess options to provide further support to the sector within the public health context, engaging with relevant stakeholders as necessary.

We need to be confident that any intervention would lead to an increase in activity, and that insurance represents the last barrier to events reopening. The government’s first priority is to remove remaining barriers (such as social distancing) by reaching Stage 4 of the Roadmap.

This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s live events sector and has provided significant financial support including an additional £300M to the Culture Recovery Fund.

As the Secretary of State made clear at the DCMS Select Committee on Thursday 13th May, the government is aware of the wider concerns around securing indemnity for live events and we continue to assess options to provide further support to the sector within the public health context, engaging with relevant stakeholders as necessary.

We need to be confident that any intervention would lead to an increase in activity, and that insurance represents the last barrier to events reopening. The government’s first priority is to remove remaining barriers (such as social distancing) by reaching Stage 4 of the Roadmap.

DCMS regularly engages with businesses and sector representative bodies in order to properly understand the issues being faced as well as to develop means of offering support, including on the issue of insurance provision. The government is also in continual dialogue with the insurance sector on its response to this unprecedented situation.

We encourage businesses experiencing financial difficulty to research the initiatives in the Government’s support package such as the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. Our schemes are continuously under review to make sure our schemes are accessible, fair and targeted to help those who need it the most.

Some of the support the government has offered includes the unprecedented £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund - the largest ever one-off investment in culture - to help countless organisations weather the COVID storm

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with a number of areas to test advanced telephony requirements and specifications, which will improve telephone capacity. NHS England and NHS Improvement intend to share learning from these areas to support practices across the country to improve telephony in primary care.

The Government has confirmed it will provide a pay increase to National Health Service staff, while uplifts in the wider public sector have been paused. In doing so, the Government is acknowledging the extraordinary work of NHS staff through the pandemic.

The Government has submitted its written evidence to the independent pay review bodies and has asked them to report in the late spring. We will carefully consider their recommendations.

National data on mental health outcomes for care leavers is not currently available. NHS England and NHS Improvement are carrying out exploratory work to include data on care leavers in the Mental Health Outcomes programme. In order to better understand outcomes for children and young people, including care leavers, NHS England is also working with children and young people’s mental health services to drive the use of outcome measures and flow of this data to its national data set.

National data on mental health outcomes for care leavers is not currently available. NHS England and NHS Improvement are carrying out exploratory work to include data on care leavers in the Mental Health Outcomes programme. In order to better understand outcomes for children and young people, including care leavers, NHS England is also working with children and young people’s mental health services to drive the use of outcome measures and flow of this data to its national data set.

We are planning with the Department for Education to undertake a national mental health survey examining the mental health of looked after children and how services can better support improved mental health for this group. We will include care leavers in this survey as we recognise they may be particularly at-risk of experiencing a mental health problem.

The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon have been in contact with their Australian counterparts to offer our condolences and stress our readiness to help in whatever way they need.

As I set out in my Oral Statement of 9 January in the House of Commons, we have deployed a team of UK experts to Australia.

The team includes a senior member of UK Fire and Rescue Service, a medical specialist in trauma and mental health, and a military liaison officer specialising in crisis response.

They will work with Australian counterparts to establish what further UK support will be of most use to Australian emergency responders, and ensure that such contributions are fully integrated with Australian efforts.

The Term Funding Scheme (TFS) is a monetary policy tool of the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England. Therefore, it is not appropriate for the Government to comment on its conduct or effectiveness.

The separation of fiscal and monetary policy is a key feature of the UK’s economic framework, and essential for the effective delivery of monetary policy.

We will continue to work with non-bank lenders to support their participation in the new Recovery Loan scheme following the closure of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).

The Treasury recognises the vital role that non-banks, including Community Development Financial institutions (CDFIs), and challenger banks play in the provision of credit to SMEs. I would like to take the opportunity to reaffirm that the Government recognises the vital role that CDFIs play in the provision of credit to SMEs and is grateful for the way the sector has responded to the current crisis. It is worth noting the Government remains committed to promoting competition and widening the funding options available to UK businesses.

Whilst there are no plans at this time to mandate large bank investment through social lenders like CDFIs, I should be clear that all lenders accredited under the government-backed Recovery Loan Scheme can benefit from the transfer and assignment of the guarantee, which is something that alternative lenders requested to support their ability to access funding.

The British Business Bank’s Regional Angels Programme provides early-stage equity capital to smaller businesses with high growth potential across the UK. The British Business Bank’s funding for the next three years will be set out at the Spending Review.

At this stage of the pandemic it is still difficult to provide the certainty the sector needs to plan. It is therefore not the right time to consider an insurance-based solution. However, we are closely monitoring the situation and as the public health situation improves and the path to re-opening becomes clearer, we will work with DCMS to review how to communicate that path and support the sector, including sporting events, to safely reopen.

I am aware that many large events have long lead-in times, so potential support will need to be considered before public health restrictions are relaxed. Officials are working to understand what a viable roadmap would be for the reopening of the events sector and therefore the right point for considering potential support options, including insurance-based solutions.

At this stage of the pandemic it is still difficult to provide the certainty the sector needs to plan. It is therefore not the right time to consider an insurance-based solution. However, we are closely monitoring the situation and as the public health situation improves and the path to re-opening becomes clearer, we will work with DCMS to review how to communicate that path and support the sector, including sporting events, to safely reopen.

I am aware that many large events have long lead-in times, so potential support will need to be considered before public health restrictions are relaxed. Officials are working to understand what a viable roadmap would be for the reopening of the events sector and therefore the right point for considering potential support options, including insurance-based solutions.

Our High Commission and Consulates General are maintaining close contact with Australian authorities at federal and state level, exploring how the UK can support them and what assistance they would find most useful.

An initial expert team of specialists from defence, fire and health has been sent to Australia, as announced in the statement to the House on 9 January by Heather Wheeler, Minister for Asia and the Pacific. Its members have been working with Australian counterparts to establish what further UK support will be of most use to Australian emergency responders, and ensure that such contributions are fully integrated into the Australian response.

The Independent Advisory Military Sub-Committee (AMSC) was re-established in 2019 to offer advice to the Committee on the Grant of Honours Decorations and Medals (the HD Committee) in the Cabinet Office on historic military medals claims, including cases which may not have been previously considered or where new evidence has emerged. The HD Committee is the principal body with responsibility for making recommendations on honours, awards, and medals.

The outcome of the review by the AMSC into the case of medallic recognition for all those who participated in the British Nuclear Test Programme during the period 1952 to 1991 was published by the Cabinet Office on 10 December 2020. The AMSC concluded that the case did not meet the level of risk and rigour which is generally required for the award of a campaign medal or clasp and the Ministry of Defence respects the findings of the independent review. This decision in no way diminishes the contribution of veterans who participated in the Nuclear Test Programme, and the Government continues to acknowledge and be grateful to all Service personnel who participated.