Kim Leadbeater

The Government has taken a consistent approach to identifying the most energy and trade intensive sectors, with all sectors that meet agreed thresholds for energy and trade intensity eligible for ETII support. These thresholds have been set at sectors falling above the 80th percentile for energy intensity and 60th percentile for trade intensity, plus any sectors eligible for the existing energy compensation and exemption schemes. These thresholds were set to balance the UK's goals of delivering targeted support at lower overall cost, while capturing a broad enough share of affected companies.

The Government recognises that some businesses are particularly exposed to energy cost increases and are less able to pass these costs through to their customers. The Government has there therefore decided to provide a more generous level of support to certain businesses for a further year starting from April 2023. The firms eligible for the Energy and Trade Intensive Industries scheme are those operating within sectors that fall above the 80th percentile for energy intensity and 60th percentile for trade intensity, and those within sectors eligible for the existing Energy Intensive Industries schemes. These sectors have been published on GOV.UK.

We have not engaged directly with representatives from the laundry sector but continue to work with a range of business sectors including organisations representing small businesses facing increasing costs driven by global factors, including high energy and cost of living pressures.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme ensures that businesses are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period. My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer recently announced in his Autumn Statement that there will be an extended and increased business rates relief for retail and hospitality businesses worth almost £13.6 billion. This is the most generous in year business rates relief in over 30 years, outside of Covid-19 support.

The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses.

Businesses in Batley and Spen will have benefitted from the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs approximately £4,200 on average, cut to fuel duty for 12 months, raising the Employment Allowance to £5,000 and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, to protect SMEs from high energy costs over the winter. In addition, at the Autumn Statement, my Rt Hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs.

Support is also available to SMEs across the UK through the Start Up loan scheme which has provided 148 SMEs in Batley and Spen loans to the value of £1,477,438 as of October 2022.

BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, there have been around 800 loft insulation measures installed in Batley and Spen constituency. Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.

At the end of October 2022, there were 1,606 domestic installations of solar panels recorded in Batley and Spen constituency.

The Government is supporting households through a series of measures; including, the Energy Price Guarantee, saving typical households £900 this winter and the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme payments.

A Treasury-led review will be launched to consider how to support households and with energy bills after April 2023. It is the Government’s intention that support will be better focused on the most vulnerable households and those least able to pay.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has completed his annual statutory review of pensions and benefits. Rates will, subject to Parliamentary approval, increase by 10.1% from April 2023.

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a cost-reflective and market led mechanism and it is for suppliers to determine the value of the exported electricity and to take account of the administrative costs associated when setting their tariffs. The SEG contract that a supplier has with a householder is at a set price which is not directly linked to the wholesale market. We are currently reviewing Ofgem’s recently published annual SEG report to ensure that small-scale generators continue to have an effective route to market.

Feed-in tariff (FIT) rates are adjusted annually, in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI). Further information regarding the FIT rates for solar can be found on Ofgem’s website: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/feed-tariffs-fit/tariffs-and-payments.

On 29 July, the Government confirmed that funding will be available to provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills for the 1% of households who will not be reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, including residents of housing associations who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an energy supplier. An announcement with details on how and when these households across Great Britain can access this support will be made in the Autumn.

The Government consulted in July 2021 on a number of proposals concerning consumer protection law. The Government’s response was published recently, and set out our approach to ensuring consumers are supported with a robust set of rights. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-competition-and-consumer-policy/outcome/reforming-competition-and-consumer-policy-government-response.

In particular, the Government will consult in due course on adding fake reviews to the list of banned practices – giving greater clarity to business on the current law and, where fake reviews are posted, allowing enforcers to take effective action quickly.

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a market-led mechanism, to help level the playing field for small-scale low-carbon generators such as householders with solar panels. It provides a route to market for any excess energy exported to the grid following closure of the Feed-in Tariffs scheme.

To enable the SEG to be market based and encourage innovation, one of the key features is to allow suppliers to set both the tariff levels and structure. The contracts that suppliers have with householders are at a set price which is not directly linked to the wholesale market cost.

The Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG) scheme supports businesses that offer in-person services, where the main service and activity takes place in a fixed rate-paying premises, in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors. The funding supports sectors where social mixing is a primary motivation for consumers.

An indicative list of the types of businesses that can be supported under this scheme can be found at annex A of the scheme guidance. It is for Local Authorities to determine those cases where eligibility is unclear.

Local Authorities are encouraged to focus Additional Restrictions Grants (ARG) support on businesses who have been severely impacted by reduced business activity due to the spread of the Omicron variant. The guidance does not mandate specific evidence to determine if a business has been severely impacted by Omicron. It is for Local Authorities to issue grants at their discretion, based on local decision making.

The guidance for both OHLG and ARG schemes can be found here.

The Government announced in November 2021 that the fourth Contracts for Difference allocation round will feature a £20million annual ringfenced budget for tidal stream energy. This builds on a long and continuing history of government support for the tidal power sector, and opens up possibilities for Britain’s marine energy sector to play a key role in strengthening energy security and reducing the country’s dependency on fossil fuels.

The Department regularly meets with representatives from across the Hospitality sector to discuss how it can recover and build back from the pandemic.

We have provided an unprecedented support package of £352 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme, which hospitality businesses have access to.

We have published a new Hospitality Strategy: Reopening, Recovery, Resilience to ensure England’s pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues can thrive long-term.

The Government believes that certain sporting events of national interest should be shown on free-to-air television so that they can be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible.

We want to ensure that as viewing habits change and technology evolves the regulatory framework remains fit for purpose.

The listed events regime works effectively for traditional linear broadcasting by prohibiting the broadcast of exclusive rights of an event on the list without prior consent from Ofcom. The current list is divided into two categories (Group A and Group B) and where rights holders make an event available, full live coverage must be offered for purchase to qualifying channels for events in Group A. Group B events may have live coverage on subscription TV provided that secondary coverage or highlights are offered for purchase to qualifying broadcasters. However, no rights holder can be compelled to sell its rights, and no broadcaster can be compelled to acquire rights.

In our Broadcasting White Paper, we announced our intention to make qualification for the listed events regime a PSB-specific benefit. This will more clearly enshrine the important role our PSBs play in distributing important and valuable content to UK audiences. The Government will introduce this legislation when Parliamentary time allows.

Our Broadcasting White Paper also confirmed our intention to undertake a review to look at whether the scope of the listed events regime should be extended to include digital rights. The Government is speaking to stakeholders to look at whether in the face of technological change, the objectives of the existing regime are still being met and whether digital rights should be included in the regime. The review will need to balance the ability for audiences to watch national sporting events at no additional cost with the ability for sporting organisations to generate revenues from sports rights to re-invest in their sports at all levels.

The Terms of Reference for the review can be found here.

The Gambling Act Review is a comprehensive and evidence-led review of gambling regulation to ensure it is fit for the digital age. We will publish a White paper setting out our conclusions in the coming weeks.

The Government is committed to introducing a new offence of epilepsy trolling in the Online Safety Bill to address this appalling online abuse.

As households and communities face rising energy prices, charities are seeing increased demand for their services while contending with the same price increases themselves.

With government support, charities have shown significant resilience over the past two years, and will again be crucial in supporting communities and households over the winter.

That is why the government will support all charities, public sector organisations and businesses with their energy costs this winter, offering an energy price guarantee for six months, equivalent to the protection offered to British households. Further details will be announced in due course.

Following the increases in July 2020 and the review of their impact published in March 2022, there are no plans to make further policy changes to society lottery sales and prize limits. Funding raised by the large society lottery sector is continuing to grow, as data published by the Gambling Commission since the review shows.

My department will keep engaging constructively with their counterparts across the sector and government to continuously monitor the impact of rising energy costs on the charity and broader civil society sector.

The National Youth Guarantee is this government’s commitment that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities.

As part of the National Youth Guarantee funding we intend to launch a Uniformed Youth Fund later this year to increase access to Uniformed Youth groups across the country. The fund will allow organisations such as the Scouts to increase provision in areas with unmet demand, improving the wellbeing of young people and helping them to develop skills for life and work.

DCMS received £560 million to deliver the National Youth Guarantee over the Spending Review period.

The first phase of the Youth Investment Fund saw £12 million spent in financial year 21/22 in key levelling up areas, which has provided funding for over 400 youth organisations. Funding was used for a wide range of equipment to assist with youth activities, as well as capital improvements that will reduce overheads and running costs. Phase Two will fund the construction or redevelopment of up to 300 youth facilities, targeting investment in left-behind areas, where young people have the greatest need and lowest provision. £368 million has been allocated to Phase Two, which will open for bids in summer 2022.

DCMS also funds the National Citizen Service (NCS) which is running a range of activities during the 2022 summer holidays, providing access to adventures away from home, skills development, engaging in local community projects and volunteering opportunities for thousands of young people across the country. NCS has already received £72 million this year and will receive around £100 million in the following two years. Additionally, DCMS has already signed a grant agreement with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme for £4.2 million, enabling them to offer every state secondary school in England the chance to participate, in collaboration with the Department for Education.

Finally DCMS has committed £6 million to the #iwill fund, fully matched by the National Lottery Community Fund, to support tens of thousands more youth volunteering opportunities.

Further funding to tackle Uniformed Youth waiting lists will begin to be released later this year.

The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. The Government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This will be supported by a three year £560 million investment in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing the inconsistencies in national youth spending, with a firm focus on levelling up. The Youth Investment Fund is a geographically targeted fund levelling up access to youth services in those areas that need it the most. Ministerial decisions on eligibility criteria were taken on the basis of high quality, robust and publicly available data, details of which are available on the gov.uk website here. Kirklees did not meet the eligibility criteria for the Youth Investment Fund. However, through the National Youth Guarantee DCMS will fund a range of youth programmes across England, such as the National Citizen Service (NCS) and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, as well as volunteering programmes through the #iwill Fund and tackling uniformed youth waiting lists, all of which the young people of Kirklees can benefit from.

Society lottery sales and prize limits were last increased in July 2020 when the annual sales limit was raised from £10 million to £50 million. We published a review of the impact of these changes in March 2022 (link). The review considered evidence on the annual sales limit, and found that the increase had allowed some operators to move to a single licence and reduce costs. The review concluded that more data was necessary to fully measure the impact of the 2020 changes, and that therefore further policy changes were not necessary at this time.

My officials will continue working with the Gambling Commission, as part of its regulatory role, to keep the sector under review.

The Online Safety Bill has robust provisions in place to protect people from physical harm caused by online trolling. The Bill requires services in scope to have systems and processes to tackle illegal content on their services. This includes any illegal online abuse which crosses the criminal threshold.

The largest companies will also need to keep their promises to adult users by taking action against harmful content that is prohibited under their terms of service. All services likely to be accessed by children will also need to protect children from harmful or inappropriate content. Where relevant, platforms will have to address content that poses a material risk of significant physical or psychological harm to an appreciable number of adults or children.

We are also ensuring that criminal law captures a range of harms online. Clause 150 in the Bill, the harmful communications offence, will criminalise the sending of messages with the intention to cause serious distress without a reasonable excuse. This new offence will capture people sending flashing images to known sufferers of epilepsy with the intention of causing harm that amounts to serious distress. In addition, the Ministry of Justice is carefully considering the Law Commission’s recommendation for a standalone offence for epilepsy trolling. The Government will set out its full response to the Law Commission’s report, later this year.

Our Review of the Gambling Act 2005 is taking a close look at the effectiveness of the regulatory framework and whether further protections are needed to ensure that all those who choose to gamble can do so safely. As part of its broad scope, the Review is looking at the suitability of existing consumer redress arrangements and we called for evidence on whether changes are needed to better support individuals who feel they have been treated unfairly or harmed by gambling operators in breach of their social responsibility obligations. We will publish a White Paper outlining our conclusions and proposals in the coming weeks.

The Government is absolutely committed to supporting girls’ sport at every opportunity including pushing for greater participation. The Government is looking forward to hosting the rescheduled women’s UEFA European Championships in 2022. The tournament's National Promotion Programme will help to deliver on the Football Association’s commitment to ensure equal access for all girls to play football in school and clubs.

Other activities to inspire more women and girls to take up the sport include signposting to women’s and girls’ participation opportunities, a pre-tournament nation-wide ‘activity’ challenge for all ages and backgrounds and a pre-tournament host city Roadshow. In addition, as part of the Spending Review, £205 million of funding for grassroots football and multi-sport facilities was announced, which will help to contribute to ensuring girls across the country have the football facilities they need in their community, including in schools.

The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) contains a number of criminal offences relating to the misuse of personal data. They include, at section 170, the unlawful obtaining, disclosing, or retaining personal data without the consent of the data controller; and at section 171, the re-identification of de-identified personal data without a lawful reason.

The penalties for these offences are set out in section 196 of the DPA. A person who is convicted is liable to an unlimited fine in the courts. Under section 199 of the DPA, these offences are recordable which means that those committing such offences will have a criminal record on conviction.

The ICO has a range of enforcement powers under the DPA to tackle the unlawful processing of personal data, including the power to require organisations to stop risky processing activities or serve civil monetary penalties. Details of the ICO’s enforcement activity can be found on its website.

In addition to offences under the DPA, there are a number of other recordable criminal offences relating to the misuse or theft of personal data and company information, which can be prosecuted in certain circumstances. They include offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Theft Acts and the Fraud Act 2006.

We are protecting people with epilepsy online through a review of criminal law and the Online Safety Bill.

Following a recommendation by the Law Commission in its review of existing criminal law for harmful communications, we will introduce new offences into law through the Online Safety Bill. This includes the harm-based communications, false communications and threatening communications offences. The harm-based offence will capture epilepsy trolling where it meets the criminal threshold. We are also continuing to consider the remaining recommendations, including a standalone offence for epilepsy trolling.

The Online Safety Bill will require services in scope to have robust systems and processes to tackle illegal content on their services. This includes the harms-based offence and any other illegal online abuse which provokes epilepsy seizures.

The Government remains committed to working across government departments and across society to tackle loneliness, including for disabled people and people with a learning disability.

The Tackling Loneliness Network Action Plan set out actions that the government and members of the Tackling Loneliness Network committed to take as part of delivering a connected recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus areas of the report were guided by members of the Tackling Loneliness Network, which includes organisations that work to support disabled people and people with a learning disability.

Many of the actions set out in the report aimed to support a wide range of groups at risk of loneliness, including disabled people and people with a learning disability. For example, the government set up a Tackling Loneliness Hub to enable organisations working to tackle loneliness to connect and share resources, including about the impact of loneliness on disabled people.

The Government has also specifically supported organisations working with disabled people and people with a learning disability to help them overcome loneliness. For example, through the COVID-19 Loneliness Fund, we provided grants to Sense, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and Alzheimer’s Society. We have also provided grants through the Loneliness Engagement Fund to help organisations to carry out communications and engagement activity about loneliness with some of the groups most impacted by loneliness during COVID-19. We included disabled people as one of our priority groups to support through the Fund, and have provided grants to Mencap, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the British Deaf Association.

The Government has put in place a measured and proportionate set of restrictions to continue to support the tourism sector and slow the spread of the new Omicron variant. To support businesses through this next phase, the ‘Working Safely’ guidance will continue to provide advice on sensible precautions employers can take to manage risk and support their staff and customers.

In other tourism sectors, such as hospitality, the guidance says that businesses are exempt from enforcing customers to wear masks and this assessment has been made from a practical point of view as the nature of hospitality visits is to eat and drink.

The Government has continued to provide support to the tourism sector throughout the pandemic. The latest budget announcement included a new temporary business rates relief for over 90% of eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England which will cut at least 50% off their business rates bills during the 2022-23 period which is worth almost £1.7 billion.

The arts and culture sector can still access support from the £2 billion Culture Recovery Fund and Sports Recovery Package, the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme in place until 30 April 2022. While the £800m Live Events Reinsurance Scheme is giving events across the country the confidence needed for organisers to plan for the future.

The Health Secretary was clear these new COVID-19 measures are temporary, the government will keep these measures under review and set out detail shortly.

Racism has no place in sport, or in wider society. I am committed to ensuring sport does all it can to tackle racism and all forms of discrimination both domestically and internationally.

In June 2021 Sport England, UK Sport and the other home nations’ sports councils published the results of a detailed, independent review into tackling racism and racial inequality in sport.

The findings make clear that racism and racial inequalities still exist within sport in the UK and that there are long standing issues, which have resulted in ethnically diverse communities being consistently disadvantaged.

Each council is now working at pace to develop their own specific action plans to further deliver on these commitments and address the recommendations from the review.

In addition, the forthcoming update of UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sports Governance will place an increased focus on diversity in decision making and ensuring that sports organisations reflect the community they serve. Sports receiving the most funding will be required to agree a diversity and inclusion action plan with Sport England and UK Sport, which will be published and updated annually.

The Prime Minister has also set out action to tackle online racist abuse in football following the abhorrent social media attacks on black England players after the Euro 2020 final. For the first time, the government will amend legislation to extend the use of Football Banning Orders so online abusers can be banned from stadiums for up to 10 years, in the same way violent thugs are barred from grounds. The Government, Premier League and football authorities will also work together to help tackle all aspects of online abuse footballers are experiencing, ahead of the Online Safety Bill coming into force. We also welcomed the Premier League’s “No Room for Racism” Action plan, and the announcement of new enhanced anti-discrimination measures such as league-wide bans for offenders.

There is still more to do though, and we will continue to work with sports to combat racism both in person and online.

Charities play a vital role in supporting people and communities in need, and have been central in the response to the pandemic. This is why the government made available a £750 million dedicated funding package to help charities adapt and maintain essential services. This package was in addition to cross-economy measures, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The impact of COVID-19 on charities has varied greatly, depending on delivery models and income streams. However - with the government support - overall the charity sector has shown significant resilience over the last two years.

My department is actively working with partners in the sector to shape a forward-looking agenda to enable charities to thrive in the future. Further details will be made available in due course.

This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for Batley and Spen, and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Ofsted’s education inspection framework, which took effect in September 2019, expects schools to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all subjects, including PE and sport. When inspectors are making a judgement on the quality of the education of a school, inspectors sample a range of subjects and undertake deep dives. This will include PE and sport for some schools.

Where PE and sport is not selected as a deep dive, sport is nevertheless considered through Ofsted’s exploration of pupils’ wider development. Inspectors will evaluate the extent to which the curriculum goes beyond the academic. They will also consider whether pupils know how to keep physically and mentally healthy. Many schools will do this through their extracurricular clubs and wider experiences. Inspectors will consider the provision for the cultural development of pupils, which includes developing their willingness to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical, sporting, and cultural opportunities. Inspectors will draw all relevant evidence together using their professional judgement to determine the quality of a school.

In 2022, Ofsted published its PE and sport research review, which sets out what Ofsted means to improve at PE and sport. Ofsted is currently undertaking research in schools across the country to explore the quality of PE and sport further. Ofsted will publish a report outlining its findings in 2023. The report will detail what schools are doing well and what needs to improve.

The Government maintains the importance of religious education (RE). It is key in developing young people’s knowledge of the values and traditions of Britain, and those of other countries. RE can contribute to pupils’ personal development and wellbeing by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society.

The Government recognises the work that Standing Advisory Councils on RE do in delivering and monitoring high quality religious education. The Department will continue to carefully consider their future role.

Non-religious worldviews are included within the Department’s Religious Studies GCSE and A level subject content specifications. RE lessons that the Oak National Academy produced to support remote teaching during the pandemic also included content on non-religious worldviews.

The Department has no plans currently to extend teaching school hubs to create centres of excellence for teachers of RE.

The Government maintains the importance of religious education (RE). It is key in developing young people’s knowledge of the values and traditions of Britain, and those of other countries. RE can contribute to pupils’ personal development and wellbeing by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society.

The Government recognises the work that Standing Advisory Councils on RE do in delivering and monitoring high quality religious education. The Department will continue to carefully consider their future role.

Non-religious worldviews are included within the Department’s Religious Studies GCSE and A level subject content specifications. RE lessons that the Oak National Academy produced to support remote teaching during the pandemic also included content on non-religious worldviews.

The Department has no plans currently to extend teaching school hubs to create centres of excellence for teachers of RE.

The Government maintains the importance of religious education (RE). It is key in developing young people’s knowledge of the values and traditions of Britain, and those of other countries. RE can contribute to pupils’ personal development and wellbeing by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society.

The Government recognises the work that Standing Advisory Councils on RE do in delivering and monitoring high quality religious education. The Department will continue to carefully consider their future role.

Non-religious worldviews are included within the Department’s Religious Studies GCSE and A level subject content specifications. RE lessons that the Oak National Academy produced to support remote teaching during the pandemic also included content on non-religious worldviews.

The Department has no plans currently to extend teaching school hubs to create centres of excellence for teachers of RE.

The Department’s priority is to ensure that it continues to attract, retain, and develop highly skilled teachers to ensure that all pupils can reach their potential.

Over 37,000 trainee teachers were recruited in the 2021/22 academic year. The Department is enhancing the appeal of teaching by raising the starting salary for teachers to £30,000 to ensure teaching remains a popular graduate option.

As set out in the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy in 2019, the Department’s reforms are not only aimed at increasing teacher recruitment, but also at ensuring teachers stay in the profession.

The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support, and professional development for all new teachers to bring teaching into line with other professions such as law, accountancy, and medicine. These developments are detailed in the new Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework (ITT CCF) and the Early Career Framework (ECF). Together, these frameworks ensure that new teachers benefit from at least three years of evidence based training, throughout their ITT and into their induction. Consideration of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) informs both the ITT CCF and ECF, which were both produced with the support of sector experts.

The Department’s Universal Services programme provides SEND specific training and continuous professional development for all teachers, head teachers, and other school and college staff at the point of need. Backed by almost £12 million, the programme commenced this year with a focus on supporting mainstream schools and colleges.

The 2022 Autumn Statement announced that the core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in 2023/24 and a further £2 billion in 2024/25, over and above totals announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review. This brings the core schools budget to a total of £58.8 billion in 2024/25. This additional funding will be used to support both mainstream schools and Local Authorities’ high needs budgets, including funding for special schools. The Department will set out plans for allocation shortly.

Schools are receiving support from the Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which is running until April 2023 and limits increases in schools’ energy bills over the winter months.

All schools can access the Department’s Schools Resource Management (SRM) guidance. The SRM includes a range of practical tools and information to help schools unlock efficiencies, which they can then redistribute in line with their own priorities.

The Department continues to monitor the financial health of schools.

Ministers and departmental officials meet with head teachers from special schools and their representatives, on a regular basis. As a result of these discussions, the department is aware of the cost increases that special schools are facing.

In July 2022, the department announced high needs funding will be increased by £1.65 billion over two years, between the 2021/22 and 2023/24 financial years. This is an increase of 21% and will bring total high needs funding to £9.7 billion by 2023/24. The increase will help schools to support children with the most complex needs

In addition to the £9.7 billion funding next year, and following the £2 billion funding increases for schools and high needs announced in the 2022 Autumn Statement, the department will be allocating a further funding increase for high needs funding, in 2023/24 and 2024/25. We will shortly set out plans for the allocation of this funding.

All pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which the department made mandatory in 2020 to ensure that all pupils are taught about important topics.

Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance is clear that where teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.

Schools and other education providers should be preparing all children and young people for examinations and should have strong pastoral support in place to help pupils deal with any worries they might have throughout the year.

Ofqual has a series of dedicated resources on exam anxiety and stress. This includes a practical guide for students on coping with exam pressure, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coping-with-exam-pressure-a-guide-for-students/coping-with-exam-pressure-a-guide-for-students. The NHS have also produced advice and guidance aimed at parents and carers on supporting their child through examinations, accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/advice-for-parents/help-your-child-beat-exam-stress/.

The department does not currently plan to make an assessment on increasing pay for educational psychologists.

The department currently funds the tuition fees for the three-year training course for educational psychologists, as well as a bursary for the first year of the course, which is passed on to trainees. Trainees also receive a bursary for the second and third years of study, which is funded by the local authorities where trainees undertake their placements. The bursary can be used to assist with living and travel costs.

After graduation, specific employment terms, including pay, are governed by the education psychologist’s contract of employment with their employer.

The Department continues to support the right of parents to decide whether to send their children, including summer-born children, to school before they reach compulsory school age.

The Department has taken several steps to improve the arrangements for parents of summer-born children requesting a delayed start in reception class. The guidance for admission authorities and advice for parents, published in September 2020, is helping to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the duties imposed by the School Admissions Code when responding to requests. The data reflects an improvement in practice, with almost 9 in 10 requests for delayed entry to reception now approved. Guidance can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/921255/Guidance_for_parents_September_2020.pdf.

My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School and College System, issued a statement for all admission authorities in July 2022 which made clear that it can seldom be in a child’s best interests to miss the essential early numeracy and literacy that takes place in the reception year. The statement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission/statement-for-local-authorities-schools-and-admission-authorities-on-the-admission-of-summer-born-children-to-school-from-baroness-barran-parliamen.

This statement, together with the published guidance for admission authorities and advice for parents, helps ensure both admission authorities and parents are clear on the options available and have the same expectations.

The Department will continue to communicate with admission authorities through guidance and messaging to ensure that decisions are made in the best interests of the child.

Across the next three years, the department is investing almost £900 million of further funding into the higher education sector. This includes the largest increase in government funding in over a decade, to support students and teaching.

The department recognises the challenges providers have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also know that many providers have been able to continue to deliver provision successfully throughout the pandemic and now expect them to have had the time and opportunity to adjust their learning offers to accommodate online/flexible learning in response to further COVID-19 waves. That is why for the current academic year (2021/22) we plan to maintain the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s Adult Education Budget reconciliation threshold at 97%.

The department is committed to investing in 16-19 education, ensuring that further education (FE) is financially sustainable and we have taken several steps to increase funding and bolster the FE sector.

The 2021 Spending Review has made available an extra £1.6 billion for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year compared with the 2021/22 financial year. This includes an up-front cash boost which will see the rate of funding per student increase by over 8% in the 2022/23 academic year.

The significant increase to the national funding rate and the other funding increases alongside this, demonstrates our commitment to 16-19 education and will help with college income.

The department has set out details of how the additional funding will be allocated in the 2022/23 academic year. Along with increasing the national rate of funding for a Band 5 student to £4,542, we are also increasing:

o the High Value Courses Premium from £400 to £600

o disadvantage Block 2 and the Block 1 for looked after children and care leaver rates from £480 to £504

o the programme cost weightings for five subject areas (medicine and dentistry, nursing and subjects and vocations allied to medicinen transportation operations and maintenance, building and construction and urban, rural, and regional planning), to better match the cost of delivery

The department also announced on 4 April 2022, the colleges that were successful in the FE Capital Transformation Fund bidding process. Each college has received a grant offer from the department. Most colleges will also be contributing match funding. It is for colleges to manage their condition improvement project within the budget available. We will monitor progress across all college projects.

Free school meals (FSM) are an educational entitlement and intended to support children while they are learning. Pupils do not receive FSM when they are not receiving education, including during school holidays.

Children who are in receipt of FSM are eligible for a place on the holiday activities and food programme, free of charge. This is being delivered in all 152 local authorities in England and ensures that disadvantaged children have access to healthy food and enriching activities during the longer school holiday periods.

The government will consult in the summer on moving to the Scottish ratios for two-year-olds, from a ratio of 1:4 (one adult to four children) to 1:5 (one adult to five children). Throughout this consultation process, the department will engage fully with the sector and parents/carers on this proposed change, and this will inform any potential future decisions which will be published via a government response to the consultation.

The department’s priority continues to be to provide safe, high quality early years provision for our youngest children.

The department has not made a specific assessment related to play in schools, but the government is clear about the importance of play to children and young people.

The department recognises the important role lunchtime play and activities have in providing enriching activities which support children’s physical and mental health, as well as the development of skills and attitudes which promote their wellbeing. It can provide children with an opportunity to connect with peers, develop friendships, and be physically active, all of which may contribute to a range of outcomes including enjoyment of school, social development and learning.

The department considers supporting access to play as part of what nurseries, schools and colleges can do to support the mental wellbeing and physical, social and emotional development of children and young people. We work closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care counterparts on how that links into wider provision, opportunities and support for children and families.

We think it is right that decisions on how to structure a school day, including ensuring opportunities for children to engage in play, should be made by schools. However, as set out in the department’s recently published Schools White Paper, we have set a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours for all mainstream state-funded schools. This will provide pupils with increased opportunities for learning, socialisation with peers and enrichment activities including chance to play.

Under Ofsted’s inspection framework, which took effect in September 2019, inspectors will look at how the curriculum is implemented through teaching and the wider experience of pupils in school. In the early years of education, Ofsted would expect play to be part of this. Inspectors would want to look at how the wide spectrum of play develops children’s communication skills, and demonstrates how behaviour is taught and managed, and how staff identity what a child needs to learn and how to learn it, either through explicit teaching or through play. When staff are clear on what children already know and can do, and what their next steps are, they can decide effectively on the teaching activities, including play, that will help children progress. Play should not, however, be evaluated separately, but as part of the curriculum, underling its role in supporting and embedding learning.

The department has not made a specific assessment related to play in schools, but the government is clear about the importance of play to children and young people.

The department recognises the important role lunchtime play and activities have in providing enriching activities which support children’s physical and mental health, as well as the development of skills and attitudes which promote their wellbeing. It can provide children with an opportunity to connect with peers, develop friendships, and be physically active, all of which may contribute to a range of outcomes including enjoyment of school, social development and learning.

The department considers supporting access to play as part of what nurseries, schools and colleges can do to support the mental wellbeing and physical, social and emotional development of children and young people. We work closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care counterparts on how that links into wider provision, opportunities and support for children and families.

We think it is right that decisions on how to structure a school day, including ensuring opportunities for children to engage in play, should be made by schools. However, as set out in the department’s recently published Schools White Paper, we have set a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours for all mainstream state-funded schools. This will provide pupils with increased opportunities for learning, socialisation with peers and enrichment activities including chance to play.

Under Ofsted’s inspection framework, which took effect in September 2019, inspectors will look at how the curriculum is implemented through teaching and the wider experience of pupils in school. In the early years of education, Ofsted would expect play to be part of this. Inspectors would want to look at how the wide spectrum of play develops children’s communication skills, and demonstrates how behaviour is taught and managed, and how staff identity what a child needs to learn and how to learn it, either through explicit teaching or through play. When staff are clear on what children already know and can do, and what their next steps are, they can decide effectively on the teaching activities, including play, that will help children progress. Play should not, however, be evaluated separately, but as part of the curriculum, underling its role in supporting and embedding learning.

The department has not made a specific assessment related to play in schools, but the government is clear about the importance of play to children and young people.

The department recognises the important role lunchtime play and activities have in providing enriching activities which support children’s physical and mental health, as well as the development of skills and attitudes which promote their wellbeing. It can provide children with an opportunity to connect with peers, develop friendships, and be physically active, all of which may contribute to a range of outcomes including enjoyment of school, social development and learning.

The department considers supporting access to play as part of what nurseries, schools and colleges can do to support the mental wellbeing and physical, social and emotional development of children and young people. We work closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care counterparts on how that links into wider provision, opportunities and support for children and families.

We think it is right that decisions on how to structure a school day, including ensuring opportunities for children to engage in play, should be made by schools. However, as set out in the department’s recently published Schools White Paper, we have set a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours for all mainstream state-funded schools. This will provide pupils with increased opportunities for learning, socialisation with peers and enrichment activities including chance to play.

Under Ofsted’s inspection framework, which took effect in September 2019, inspectors will look at how the curriculum is implemented through teaching and the wider experience of pupils in school. In the early years of education, Ofsted would expect play to be part of this. Inspectors would want to look at how the wide spectrum of play develops children’s communication skills, and demonstrates how behaviour is taught and managed, and how staff identity what a child needs to learn and how to learn it, either through explicit teaching or through play. When staff are clear on what children already know and can do, and what their next steps are, they can decide effectively on the teaching activities, including play, that will help children progress. Play should not, however, be evaluated separately, but as part of the curriculum, underling its role in supporting and embedding learning.

The department has not made a specific assessment related to play in schools, but the government is clear about the importance of play to children and young people.

The department recognises the important role lunchtime play and activities have in providing enriching activities which support children’s physical and mental health, as well as the development of skills and attitudes which promote their wellbeing. It can provide children with an opportunity to connect with peers, develop friendships, and be physically active, all of which may contribute to a range of outcomes including enjoyment of school, social development and learning.

The department considers supporting access to play as part of what nurseries, schools and colleges can do to support the mental wellbeing and physical, social and emotional development of children and young people. We work closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care counterparts on how that links into wider provision, opportunities and support for children and families.

We think it is right that decisions on how to structure a school day, including ensuring opportunities for children to engage in play, should be made by schools. However, as set out in the department’s recently published Schools White Paper, we have set a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours for all mainstream state-funded schools. This will provide pupils with increased opportunities for learning, socialisation with peers and enrichment activities including chance to play.

Under Ofsted’s inspection framework, which took effect in September 2019, inspectors will look at how the curriculum is implemented through teaching and the wider experience of pupils in school. In the early years of education, Ofsted would expect play to be part of this. Inspectors would want to look at how the wide spectrum of play develops children’s communication skills, and demonstrates how behaviour is taught and managed, and how staff identity what a child needs to learn and how to learn it, either through explicit teaching or through play. When staff are clear on what children already know and can do, and what their next steps are, they can decide effectively on the teaching activities, including play, that will help children progress. Play should not, however, be evaluated separately, but as part of the curriculum, underling its role in supporting and embedding learning.

The government believes that religious education (RE) is an important subject, developing a pupil’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, and serving to inform their own values and behaviours. RE can also contribute to pupils’ personal development and wellbeing, by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. It is an important contributor to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, which schools are required to facilitate as per the Education Act 2002.

In school life, RE can develop and nuance the skills required for other parts of the school curriculum such as history, citizenship, and personal, social, health and economic education. Studying RE can serve to improve community cohesion. It provides a key context to develop young people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, to promote shared values, and to challenge racism and discrimination.

In the Schools White Paper, ‘Opportunity for All’, the department committed to establishing a new arms-length curriculum body. We will work with thousands of teachers to co-design, create and continually improve packages of optional, free, adaptable digital curriculum resources and video lessons. Each subject, including RE, will have a choice of resources, providing variety for teachers. This sector-led approach will draw on expertise and inputs from across the country, involving teachers, schools, trusts, subject associations, national centres of excellence and educational publishers.

The department will continue to support the provision of high-quality RE. Subject knowledge enhancement courses remain available in cases where a School Direct lead school or initial teacher training providers identify applicants who have the potential to become outstanding teachers, but who need to increase their subject knowledge in a range of subjects. This includes an eight week RE course.

The government believes that religious education (RE) is an important subject, developing a pupil’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, and serving to inform their own values and behaviours. RE can also contribute to pupils’ personal development and wellbeing, by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. It is an important contributor to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, which schools are required to facilitate as per the Education Act 2002.

In school life, RE can develop and nuance the skills required for other parts of the school curriculum such as history, citizenship, and personal, social, health and economic education. Studying RE can serve to improve community cohesion. It provides a key context to develop young people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, to promote shared values, and to challenge racism and discrimination.

In the Schools White Paper, ‘Opportunity for All’, the department committed to establishing a new arms-length curriculum body. We will work with thousands of teachers to co-design, create and continually improve packages of optional, free, adaptable digital curriculum resources and video lessons. Each subject, including RE, will have a choice of resources, providing variety for teachers. This sector-led approach will draw on expertise and inputs from across the country, involving teachers, schools, trusts, subject associations, national centres of excellence and educational publishers.

The department will continue to support the provision of high-quality RE. Subject knowledge enhancement courses remain available in cases where a School Direct lead school or initial teacher training providers identify applicants who have the potential to become outstanding teachers, but who need to increase their subject knowledge in a range of subjects. This includes an eight week RE course.

The department is committed to enabling the potential of every pupil through maintaining a high-quality teaching workforce. Over 37,000 new trainee teachers were recruited to start training in the academic year 2021/22. We are enhancing the appeal of teaching by raising the starting salary for teachers to £30,000 to ensure teaching remains a popular graduate option.

All teachers are teachers of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It is a requirement for Teachers’ Standards to be fully incorporated into Initial Teacher Training courses. Before Qualified Teacher Status is gained, trainee teachers must be able to understand and respond to the needs of all pupils, including pupils with SEND.

Through our contract with the National Association for Special Educational Needs, we fund the Whole School SEND (WSS) consortium to equip staff in mainstream and special schools to deliver high quality teaching to all pupils with SEND. A further £2 million of funding is being provided in the 2021/22 financial year for WSS to continue this work.

The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on all schools to support disabled children and young people. It includes making reasonable adjustments to prevent them from suffering discrimination and supplying additional aids and services to assist with individuals’ disabilities.

Parents of children who do not have education, health and care plan (EHCP) apply for a school place using local school admission arrangements. Each school has an admission authority to set its admission arrangements, which include the criteria that it will use to allocate places in the event that more applications are received than there are places available. Where a school receives more applications than it has places available, places must be allocated in accordance with the school’s published admissions criteria (also known as oversubscription criteria). School admission processes must not discriminate against or disadvantage disabled children, or those with special educational needs. Admission authorities may give priority within their oversubscription criteria to children who have a particular social or medical need to attend their school. They may also prioritise pupils based on the parent’s medical or social needs (for instance, limited mobility and the need to take their infant child to a nearby school). They must set out clearly how they define social and medical need and what supporting evidence will be required, for example a letter from a doctor or social worker.

Furthermore, each local authority must have a fair access protocol to ensure that unplaced and vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty securing a place in year, are allocated a place as quickly as possible. The School Admissions Code lists children with special educational needs (but without an EHCP), disabilities or medical conditions, as one of the groups of children for whom a place can be sought via the fair access protocols, where necessary.

If the local authority issues an EHCP, it also has a statutory duty to secure the provision specified in the plan. This includes responsibility for securing a place at the school, college or early years setting named on the EHCP. The local authority must consult with the requested school or post-16 institution in order to establish that the placement would meet the needs of the child or young person, would be compatible with the efficient education of others and would be an efficient use of its own resources. If these criteria are all met, the local authority must name that school in the final EHCP and the school or institution will be required to admit the child or young person.

In the Levelling Up white paper, the government announced plans to drive school improvement in England through new Education Investment Areas (EIAs). These 55 local authorities will receive significant support, including retention payments to help schools with supply issues in these areas to retain the best teachers in high-priority subjects and investment in trust growth. The department will also be consulting on moving schools with successive requires improvement judgements by Ofsted into strong multi-academy trusts, which will enable such schools in EIAs to access the support they need to improve.

As part of the government’s plans to drive improvement in education, the Levelling Up white paper sets out our intention to increase access to leading universities for talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This will include targeting new specialist 16-19 free schools where they are most needed and prioritising EIAs when taking these decisions. In many areas of the country, colleges and schools are providing excellent opportunities for disadvantaged students to progress to leading universities. The intention of this policy is to reach those areas where students’ potential is not currently being realised.

Decisions have not yet been taken on where new sixth forms will open, but the need for places and the quality of existing providers will be important considerations, just as in any other free school proposal. The department will set out further detail on the process for approving further free schools in due course.

On distributing investment according to local need more broadly, the department has also announced it will make more intensive investment across some EIAs identified as priority areas, where there are entrenched barriers to school improvement. More details will be set out in the schools white paper in the spring.

In the Levelling Up white paper, the government announced plans to drive school improvement in England through new Education Investment Areas (EIAs). These 55 local authorities will receive significant support, including retention payments to help schools with supply issues in these areas to retain the best teachers in high-priority subjects and investment in trust growth. The department will also be consulting on moving schools with successive requires improvement judgements by Ofsted into strong multi-academy trusts, which will enable such schools in EIAs to access the support they need to improve.

As part of the government’s plans to drive improvement in education, the Levelling Up white paper sets out our intention to increase access to leading universities for talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This will include targeting new specialist 16-19 free schools where they are most needed and prioritising EIAs when taking these decisions. In many areas of the country, colleges and schools are providing excellent opportunities for disadvantaged students to progress to leading universities. The intention of this policy is to reach those areas where students’ potential is not currently being realised.

Decisions have not yet been taken on where new sixth forms will open, but the need for places and the quality of existing providers will be important considerations, just as in any other free school proposal. The department will set out further detail on the process for approving further free schools in due course.

On distributing investment according to local need more broadly, the department has also announced it will make more intensive investment across some EIAs identified as priority areas, where there are entrenched barriers to school improvement. More details will be set out in the schools white paper in the spring.

Ministers engage regularly with Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, on a range of matters, including inspection arrangements in the changing context of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ofsted inspection continues to play an important role in providing independent assurance as providers respond to COVID-19. It is right that the arrangements are kept under review, and adjustments made where appropriate.

Ofsted has updated its inspection handbooks and adjusted its inspection approach to take account of the challenges raised by COVID-19. From the start of the calendar year to 31 January, Ofsted temporarily halted use of part time inspectors who are also frontline leaders so they could focus on their leadership responsibilities.

Additionally, schools facing acute disruption, including due to significant staff absence, can request a deferral of the inspection. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has confirmed that all requests will be considered carefully and sensitively by Ofsted.

Exams are the best and fairest way of judging students’ performance. Exams give students a fair chance to show their knowledge and understanding of a subject. It is the government’s firm intention that exams and assessments should go ahead this year. The department recognises the disruption many students have experienced and has worked with Ofqual, exam boards, and representatives of the sector to review existing arrangements for exams. This is to ensure they appropriately reflect scenarios arising from the COVID-19 outbreak.

Together with Ofqual, the department has confirmed a package of measures, including adaptations to exams and assessments and changes to grading, to ensure fairness and help mitigate the disruption to students’ education.

Pupils or students absent from their education for a prolonged period due to long COVID-19 should be supported in the same manner as those absent due to other medium to long-term illnesses or medical conditions.

Students with any long-term health conditions, such as long COVID, may be eligible to apply for reasonable adjustments under the existing exam arrangements. Reasonable adjustments are changes made to an assessment or to the way an assessment is conducted that reduce or remove a disadvantage caused by a student’s disability. An example of this could be supervised rest breaks or extra time for assessments. They are needed because some conditions can make it harder for students to show what they know and can do in an assessment than it would have been had the student not been disabled. The Joint Council for Qualification (JCQ) has published detailed guidance on reasonable adjustments.

Furthermore, where students miss an assessment in a subject, for example due to illness, but have completed other exams or non-exam assessments in that subject, they may be able to use the existing special consideration process to apply to receive a grade based on the assessments they did complete. The JCQ has also published guidance on when students may be eligible for special consideration and how it works.

It is a criminal offence under section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 to conduct an independent educational institution unless it is registered. The Department for Education and Ofsted continue to investigate any settings where intelligence or evidence suggest the operation of an unregistered school. Section 97 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 permits no-notice inspections of settings believed to be operating in breach of the registration requirement.

All unregistered schools present a safeguarding risk to the children attending since they are not regulated by the department. This means that these schools are not subject to inspection and so assurances cannot be made as to the quality and appropriateness of the education provided, the safety of the premises or the suitability of the adults responsible for the setting. The department will take regulatory action against any school found to be operating without registration, in breach of section 96 of the 2008 Act. This action can include the prosecution of those conducting and responsible for such settings.

Between 1 January 2016 and 31 August 2021, 114 settings inspected under section 97 were identified as operating as an unregistered independent school. Joint work between the Department for Education and Ofsted has led to 101 of these settings changing their provision to no longer operate unlawfully, in breach of the 2008 Act. In that time, 5 successful prosecutions have been brought against groups responsible for operating illegal settings.

The department has committed to taking forward measures to make it easier to investigate and prosecute unregistered schools, and these will be introduced when a suitable legislative opportunity arises.

It is a criminal offence under section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 to conduct an independent educational institution unless it is registered. Those found guilty of this offence can be fined an unlimited amount or face up to 6 months in prison.

The Department for Education and Ofsted continue to investigate any settings where intelligence or evidence suggest the operation of an unregistered school. Section 97 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 permits no-notice inspections of settings believed to be operating in breach of the registration requirement.

Between 1 January 2016 and 31 August 2021, 114 settings inspected under section 97 were identified as operating as an unregistered independent school. Joint work between the Department for Education and Ofsted has led to 101 of these settings changing their provision to no longer operate unlawfully, in breach of the 2008 Act. In that time, 5 successful prosecutions have been brought against groups responsible for operating illegal schools. Anyone who suspects that an unregistered school may be operating may make a referral via our dedicated web page here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-an-unregistered-school.

The department’s policy statement sets out the factors we consider when considering whether to proceed with a prosecution, and we will always pursue a prosecution when this is in the public interest: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/826588/Prosecuting_unregistered_independent_schools_policy_statement_21_August.pdf.

The department has committed to taking forward measures to make it easier to investigate and prosecute unregistered schools, and these will be introduced when a suitable legislative opportunity arises.

The department has allocated central funding between financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21 on the curriculum projects and programmes in the attached table. In particular, the department provides funding for 4 curriculum hubs programmes in English, mathematics, music and languages as set out in the table.

The English hubs programme was launched in 2018 and aims to improve the teaching of reading in the primary phase, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The total departmental funding in the last 2 years is £22 million and the programme works across 34 hubs to provide appropriate and targeted support to several thousands of schools across England.

The maths hubs programme was launched in 2014 and aims to improve the teaching of mathematics from reception to A level. The total departmental funding in the last 5 years is £115 million and the programme works across 40 hubs and the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), supporting over 11,000 primary and secondary schools.

Music education hubs were launched in 2012 and aim to create joined-up music education provision and provide specialist music education services across schools. The total departmental funding in the last five years is £381 million and the programme works across 119 hubs to provide support for around 90% of state-funded schools across England.

The modern foreign language hubs pilot was launched in 2018 and aims to support secondary phase teaching of French, German, and Spanish through the development of teaching resources, assessments, and continuing professional development (CPD). The total departmental funding in the last 3 years is £4.2 million. The programme has worked across 45 secondary schools between December 2018 and December 2021 and now offers free online CPD to over 1,350 teachers nationally in 2022.

Alongside the funding for the subject-specific curriculum programmes, the department also allocated funding over this period that supports teacher development, such as the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund and subject knowledge enhancement, which have benefitted teaching in a range of subjects, including geography and religious education. The department also provides scholarships and bursaries for initial teacher training in a wide range of subjects.

It is never acceptable for anyone to harass or intimidate education staff. Schools can bar someone from the premises if they feel that their aggressive, abusive, or insulting behaviour or language is a risk to staff or pupils. Some incidents may constitute a criminal offence and schools should report those that they think may come into this category to the police.

All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour, and the sanctions that will be imposed for pupils' misbehaviour. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents.

The department will shortly be consulting on the behaviour in schools guidance and the suspensions and permanent exclusions guidance. These will equip headteachers to create calm, orderly, safe, and supportive school environments where both pupils and staff can flourish in safety and dignity. This will also encourage schools to work with parents in the creation of these positive school cultures.

The department takes the wellbeing and mental health of education staff very seriously. In November 2021, the department announced the award of a £760,000 contract to the charity Education Support to provide peer support and counselling to around 2000 school leaders. Further information on this can be found at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/school-leaders-support/england-live-application-school-leader-support-service/.

Education Support also provides a free helpline for all education staff. Additionally, we have launched the education staff wellbeing charter. This charter is a set of commitments from the government, Ofsted, and schools and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff. It can be used to inform a school or college wide approach to wellbeing or to develop a staff wellbeing strategy. Further information on this charter can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.

All schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Financial education and political literacy are important aspects of the citizenship programmes of study, which are statutory at key stages 3 and 4 in maintained schools.

The department has also introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum, which provides young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money. At secondary level, there is more specific content related to financial education in both the secondary mathematics curriculum and in the mathematics GCSE content. Pupils are taught how to solve problems such as loan repayments and interest rates and personal finance problems such as compound interest.

The government does not specify how schools should allocate their time to deliver the curriculum. School managers will need to design their timetables to meet their curriculum requirements. Teachers are encouraged to develop their practice in a way that meets the specific needs of their pupils.

All schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Financial education and political literacy are important aspects of the citizenship programmes of study, which are statutory at key stages 3 and 4 in maintained schools.

The department has also introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum, which provides young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money. At secondary level, there is more specific content related to financial education in both the secondary mathematics curriculum and in the mathematics GCSE content. Pupils are taught how to solve problems such as loan repayments and interest rates and personal finance problems such as compound interest.

The government does not specify how schools should allocate their time to deliver the curriculum. School managers will need to design their timetables to meet their curriculum requirements. Teachers are encouraged to develop their practice in a way that meets the specific needs of their pupils.

The government firmly believes that religious education (RE) is important. Good quality RE is essential in developing children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, and those of other countries. RE is a vital part of fostering understanding among different faiths and beliefs, which is why it is a compulsory subject for all state-funded schools up to the age of 18.

Department officials engage regularly with key RE stakeholders, including the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education as the main subject association for RE in England.

When teaching RE, schools should consider how their curriculum can develop social skills and empathy, as well as equip children and young people with the skills for living and working in a diverse society. For older pupils, RE should also focus on developing skills that are useful in a wide range of careers and adult life, and in particular the skills of critical enquiry, creative problem-solving and communication in a variety of media.

In school life, RE can develop and nuance the skills required for other parts of the school curriculum such as history, citizenship, and personal, social, health and economic education.

RE is an important subject, developing an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, as well as serving to inform their own values and behaviour. RE can also contribute to pupils’ personal development and well-being by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. It is an important contributor to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, which schools are required to facilitate as per the Education Act 2002.

Studying RE can also serve to improve community cohesion, providing a key context to develop young people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, to promote shared values and to challenge racism and discrimination.

The government firmly believes that religious education (RE) is important. Good quality RE is essential in developing children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, and those of other countries. RE is a vital part of fostering understanding among different faiths and beliefs, which is why it is a compulsory subject for all state-funded schools up to the age of 18.

Department officials engage regularly with key RE stakeholders, including the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education as the main subject association for RE in England.

When teaching RE, schools should consider how their curriculum can develop social skills and empathy, as well as equip children and young people with the skills for living and working in a diverse society. For older pupils, RE should also focus on developing skills that are useful in a wide range of careers and adult life, and in particular the skills of critical enquiry, creative problem-solving and communication in a variety of media.

In school life, RE can develop and nuance the skills required for other parts of the school curriculum such as history, citizenship, and personal, social, health and economic education.

RE is an important subject, developing an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, as well as serving to inform their own values and behaviour. RE can also contribute to pupils’ personal development and well-being by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. It is an important contributor to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, which schools are required to facilitate as per the Education Act 2002.

Studying RE can also serve to improve community cohesion, providing a key context to develop young people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, to promote shared values and to challenge racism and discrimination.

The government firmly believes that religious education (RE) is important. Good quality RE is essential in developing children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, and those of other countries. RE is a vital part of fostering understanding among different faiths and beliefs, which is why it is a compulsory subject for all state-funded schools up to the age of 18.

Department officials engage regularly with key RE stakeholders, including the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education as the main subject association for RE in England.

When teaching RE, schools should consider how their curriculum can develop social skills and empathy, as well as equip children and young people with the skills for living and working in a diverse society. For older pupils, RE should also focus on developing skills that are useful in a wide range of careers and adult life, and in particular the skills of critical enquiry, creative problem-solving and communication in a variety of media.

In school life, RE can develop and nuance the skills required for other parts of the school curriculum such as history, citizenship, and personal, social, health and economic education.

RE is an important subject, developing an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, as well as serving to inform their own values and behaviour. RE can also contribute to pupils’ personal development and well-being by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. It is an important contributor to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, which schools are required to facilitate as per the Education Act 2002.

Studying RE can also serve to improve community cohesion, providing a key context to develop young people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, to promote shared values and to challenge racism and discrimination.

The bursaries the department offers for initial teacher training (ITT) are intended to incentivise applications to ITT courses. The department reviews the bursaries on offer each year to take account of factors including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. This provides flexibility to respond to the need to attract new teachers, and means we are spending money where it is needed most.

In academic year 2020/21 the department exceeded the postgraduate ITT target in religious education (128% of target). As a result, the department decided to focus the bursaries we offered for academic year 2021/22 on subjects where it is hardest to attract sufficient applicants. We have taken a similar approach for academic year 2022/23 and will review the need for financial incentives across all subjects again before announcing the bursaries for academic year 2023/24.

In June 2021, the department launched a call for evidence on managing behaviour and the use of isolation rooms in schools, including asking how vulnerable pupils are supported. This evidence will be considered and further assessed alongside the results of a public consultation later this year on the ‘behaviour and discipline in schools’ guidance. The guidance will provide practical advice to schools about how to encourage good behaviour and respond effectively to incidents of misbehaviour in and out of the classroom.

Our ‘mental health and behaviour in schools’ guidance includes specific information about supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, and can assist schools with their own assessment of the interaction between behavioural issues, management and mental health. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2.

Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the department has provided support for over 110,000 families to get online through uplifts in mobile data and 4G wireless routers. On 26 August 2021, we announced funding to support schools and colleges in providing internet access for disadvantaged pupils whose face-to-face education is disrupted during the Autumn term. The department is also continuing to provide 4G wireless routers for pupils without internet access.

Alongside a strong core funding settlement which will see core schools funding rise by £4.7 billion by the 2024-25 financial year compared to existing plans, the department has committed an additional £1.8 billion of recovery funding, bringing total investment for specific education recovery interventions to almost £5 billion.

This latest investment is targeted at those we know will need it most; delivering a universal uplift of hours for those with the least time left in education, in 16-19 settings, as well as £1 billion of flexible funding for schools. This follows the evidence-backed investment in tutoring and training for teachers, that is being delivered now.

The department recognises that those students taking exams next year have had considerable disruption to their education and, together with Ofqual, we have confirmed adaptations to exams to take account of that. The package of adaptations includes a choice of topics or content on which students will be assessed in GCSE English literature, history, ancient history, and geography, and advance information of the focus of exams in all other GCSEs and all AS and A level subjects to support revision. These changes will apply to assessments and exams in summer 2022 and GCSE English language and maths exams in November 2022.

Ofqual’s approach on grading for 2022 also recognises the disruption experienced by students taking exams next year. Ofqual has confirmed 2022 will be a transition year for grading and has set out its plans for grades to be set around a mid-point between 2021 and pre-COVID grades.

In addition, there is currently a series of autumn exams taking place that are optional for students. The autumn 2021 exam series will provide an opportunity for students who may wish to improve their teacher assessed grade to sit an exam. Ofqual's consultation considered the fairest possible arrangements for exams this autumn.

Ofqual announced the grading arrangements for the autumn 2021 exam series on 30 September 2021. Exam boards will seek to align autumn 2021 grading with summer 2021. This is the same approach as in autumn 2020, when grading was aligned to summer 2020.

High-quality professional development is important for teachers at all stages of their careers. Decisions relating to teachers’ continuing professional development rests with schools, headteachers, and teachers themselves, as they are in the best position to judge their own requirements. This may include further training and development relating to pupils and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

All new teachers receive at least three years of evidence-based professional development and support, starting with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) based on the new ITT Core Content Framework (CCF), and followed by a new two-year induction underpinned by the Early Career Framework (ECF). The CCF and ECF set out a minimum entitlement of knowledge, skills and experiences that trainees need to enter the profession in the best position possible to teach and support all pupils to succeed, including those pupils identified within the four areas of need set out in the SEND Code of Practice. ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5 that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including, where appropriate, those with ADHD or other special educational needs. Information on the Teachers' Standards are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards.

The department is also launching a new and updated suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) for teachers and school leaders at all levels. Eligible teachers and leaders will be able to access fully funded scholarships to undertake NPQs from autumn 2021. These NPQs have been designed around how to support all pupils to succeed, including those pupils identified within the four areas of need set out in the SEND Code of Practice, and children in need of help and protection as identified in the Children in Need Review.

Through our contract with the National Association for Special Educational Needs, the department is continuing in the 2021-22 financial year to fund the Whole School SEND Consortium to provide the schools workforce with training and resources to support children and young people with SEND, including those with ADHD.

We are also supporting education settings to develop whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, and have:

• Provided funding to enable up to 7,800 schools and colleges in England to train a senior mental health lead from their staff this academic year
• Funded an adapted ‘Link' programme, which is designed to improve partnerships between health and education leaders in local areas, raise awareness of mental health concerns and improve referrals to specialist help when needed
• Established new Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to support groups of schools and colleges. MHSTs provide early intervention on mild to moderate issues, as well as helping staff within a school or college setting to provide a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing. The ambition is that new MHSTs will be established in 35% of the country by 2023, with 183 teams already operational and ready to support children and young people in around 3,000 schools and colleges

The special educational needs and disability (SEND) code of practice makes clear that local authorities must give their decision, in response to any request for an education health care (EHC) needs assessment, within a maximum of six weeks from when the request was received or the point at which a child or young person was brought to the local authority's attention.

This year, local authorities have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including SEND services. Local authorities have the flexibility to spend according to local needs and priorities, including to undertake EHC needs assessments.

The Department for Education supports, and where needed challenges, local authorities to meet their statutory duties for SEND where there are long standing delays.

In addition, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission continue with their full inspection programme and officials, working with our team of SEND advisers and colleagues in NHS England, continue to provide support and challenge to help improve performance. Depending on the underlying issues a local authority faces, we commission specialist support from our delivery partners, or facilitate or fund peer to peer or regional support to address issues.

All teachers are teachers of special education needs and disabilities (SEND), and high-quality teaching is central to ensuring that pupils with SEND are given the best possible opportunity to achieve at school.

Since September 2020, all new teachers are benefitting from at least three years of evidence based professional development and support, starting with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) based on the new ITT Core Content Framework (CCF), and followed by a new two-year induction underpinned by the Early Career Framework.

The CCF sets out a minimum entitlement of knowledge, skills and experiences that trainees need to enter the profession in the best position possible to teach and support all pupils to succeed, including those pupils identified within the four areas of need set out in the SEND code of practice.

The department does not mandate a particular number of hours for SEND or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) training, but all ITT providers of courses leading to qualified teacher status must design their courses to incorporate the knowledge, skills and experiences detailed in the CCF into a coherent, well-sequenced curriculum to support trainees to develop their expertise. Courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with ADHD or other special educational needs.

Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous institutions and have a duty of care to students when delivering services, including the provision of pastoral support, and taking steps to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of students.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak universities have bolstered their support services to students and we expect this to continue.

Long COVID should be treated in line with other medium to long term health conditions. This means that setting, including HE providers, should within reason, be making allowances for staff and students with this condition where it is affecting their ability to perform and undertake their studies. The NHS has published guidance to those recovering from long COVID at: https://www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk/what-is-covid-19/long-covid/

If students have concerns about the support they are receiving, they should first raise them with their HE provider. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for Higher Education to consider their complaint.

The Office for Students (OfS) does not get involved in individual student complaints, that is for the relevant HE provider and possibly the OIA. However, students can notify the OfS of issues that may be of regulatory interest to it. These are called ‘notifications’. The OfS uses this information as part of its regulatory monitoring activity and keep higher education providers under review to ensure that they comply with the ongoing conditions of registration. The OfS has produced a guide for students to support them in this process, which is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/ofs-and-students/notifications/.

The department recognises that those taking examinations and assessments in 2022 have had considerable disruption to their education. In response to this, we have consulted on and announced a range of adaptations to examinations. Full details of these adaptations are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-the-assessment-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2022/outcome/decisions-proposed-changes-to-the-assessment-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2022.

Reflecting that we are in a COVID-19 recovery period, Ofqual have also announced that 2022 will be a transition year for grading, setting out its plans for a mid-point between 2021 and pre-COVID grades. The department is confident that despite the disruption they have faced, students taking GCSEs and other qualifications next year will be able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills fairly to progress to the next stage of their lives.

We have also committed to an ambitious education recovery plan, including announcing investment of over £3 billion, which includes our ambitious tutoring programme, to support children and young people make up for disruption to their learning during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The department understands that examinations and assessments might be particularly challenging for pupils who have been diagnosed with long COVID, and long COVID should be treated in line with other medium to long term health conditions. Alongside the above arrangements for 2022 and in accordance with normal years, reasonable adjustments to examinations should be put in place, where appropriate, for pupils with long-term illnesses. Parents and pupils should discuss whether any reasonable adjustments would be appropriate with their school or college. Further information about reasonable adjustments and the roles of exam boards, schools and colleges are available here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/access-arrangements-and-special-consideration. The NHS have also published guidance to those recovering from long COVID at: https://www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk/what-is-covid-19/long-covid/.

Schools should also refer to the guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions, which aims to ensure that all pupils with physical and mental health conditions, are properly supported in schools so they can play a full and active role in school life and achieve their academic potential. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.

We know that teaching quality is the most important in-school factor for improving the outcomes for all pupils, particularly for those with additional needs, including those who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

All new teachers receive at least three years of evidence-based professional development and support, starting with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) based on the new ITT Core Content Framework (CCF), and followed by a new two-year induction underpinned by the Early Career Framework (ECF). The CCF sets out a minimum entitlement of knowledge, skills and experiences that trainees need so they enter the profession in the best possible position to teach and support all pupils to succeed. This includes those pupils identified within the four areas of need set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) code of practice.

ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs. Details of the Teacher’s Standards are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards.

The department’s vision is that ITT based on the CCF will be the foundation on which early career teacher training and support is built. The ECF underpins what all early career teachers should learn, and learn how to do, based on expert guidance and the best available research evidence. It was designed in consultation with the education sector, including special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) specialists, and covers five core areas: behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and professional behaviours. It is designed to work for all early career teachers regardless of subject, phase or school.

Alongside this, through our contract with the National Association for Special Educational Needs (nasen), the department has funded the Whole School SEND Consortium to equip the workforce to deliver high-quality teaching for all children and young people with SEND. This includes providing training and resources for teaching and support staff. The funding in the 2021-22 financial year will bring the total funding for this contract to over £8 million since 2018. All the materials funded by the department are hosted on the nasen SEND Gateway, an online portal offering education professionals free, easy access to high-quality information, resources and training for meeting the needs of children with SEND. This is available here: http://www.sendgateway.org.uk/.

We have funded the creation of a suite of condition specific videos to provide helpful pointers, techniques and advice on inclusive teaching strategies for early career teachers, these videos cover ADHD. These are available here: https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/resources?title=condition-specific.

High-quality professional development is important for teachers at all stages of their careers, to ensure they receive appropriate support and to enable them to consistently improve their practices. Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rest with schools, headteachers, and teachers themselves, as they are in the best position to judge their own requirements, which may include further training and development relating to pupils and young people with SEND or ADHD.

We seek to involve a broad range of stakeholders in the development, delivery and communication of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) policy.

This includes the SEND Review, which is looking at ways to make sure the SEND system is consistent, high quality, and integrated across education, health and care. The review has gathered views from a very wide range of partners, including parents and carers, children and young people, people and organisations working with and providing support to them, and system leaders. We are continuing to work with a range of partners to develop proposals for consultation as soon as possible.

More broadly, the department provides support to local authorities to meet their statutory responsibilities in relation to education, health and care plans (EHCPs). This includes delivering a training programme to local authorities, health, and social care staff on their statutory duties for EHCPs and reviews.

The department is also supporting teaching staff to provide effective support to children and young people with SEND, including those with sensory impairments. This includes the framework of core initial teacher training (ITT) content, published by the department in July 2016, which includes specific content on how ITT providers should equip teacher trainees to support pupils with SEND.

The performance of all teachers in maintained schools must be assessed every year against the Teachers' Standards which sets out that teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs, and that they must be able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them.

Alongside this, through our contract with the National Association for Special Educational Needs, the department has funded the Whole School SEND consortium to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching for all children and young people with SEND, including specialist resources in relation to sensory impairments. The funding in the 2021-22 financial year will bring the total funding for this contract to over £8 million since 2018.

Finally, to teach a class of hearing or vision impaired pupils, qualified teachers must hold, or be working towards completing, the mandatory qualification for children with hearing or vision impairments that has been approved by the Secretary of State for Education. This is set out in the School Teachers' Qualifications Regulations 2003, Section 6: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/1662/pdfs/uksi_20031662_en.pdf.

The Department has announced significant investment of over £3 billion in education recovery funding to support children and young people to make up for education lost during the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes over £950 million worth of funding direct to schools and a significant expansion of our tutoring programmes.

The Department has supported the Oak National Academy, helping schools to provide high quality online lessons, including making resources available online throughout the summer holidays.

Alongside this, the Department provided additional targeted funding to support schools through the exceptional costs fund, the COVID-19 workforce fund, and additional support to provide free school meals to eligible pupils.

Through an investment of more than £400 million, the Department has provided internet access and over 1.35 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. We will continue to provide internet access for disadvantaged pupils whose face-to-face education is disrupted during the Autumn term.

In May 2021, the Department announced a further £17 million towards improving mental health and wellbeing support in schools and colleges. This is in addition to the £79 million announced in March 2021.

The Department continues to discuss education recovery across Government and in the context of the Spending Review.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, and his department discuss a range of issues, including children’s services funding with my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as well as the HM Treasury and other government departments on a regular basis.

A Final Impact Assessment will be published in alignment with the next phase of the DRS work in order to allow us to update the analysis to accurately reflect what is set out in the government response with the most recent data available.

Glass bottles will not be captured by DRS in England and Northern Ireland as the respective governments believe the addition of glass will add additional complexity and challenges to delivery of DRS in particular to the hospitality and retail sectors, as well as additional consumer inconvenience. Given concerns raised on managing glass in a DRS, delivery of the scheme will focus on plastic bottles and aluminium/steel cans in England and Northern Ireland.

Whilst not in scope of the DRS in England and Northern Ireland, glass drinks bottles will be covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging scheme in both nations, which will place targets on producers in relation to glass recycling. The proposed recycling target for glass packaging under EPR is 83% by 2030.

A Final Impact Assessment will be published in alignment with the next phase of the DRS work in order to allow us to update the analysis to accurately reflect what is set out in the government response with the most recent data available.

Glass bottles will not be captured by DRS in England and Northern Ireland as the respective governments believe the addition of glass will add additional complexity and challenges to delivery of DRS in particular to the hospitality and retail sectors, as well as additional consumer inconvenience. Given concerns raised on managing glass in a DRS, delivery of the scheme will focus on plastic bottles and aluminium/steel cans in England and Northern Ireland.

Whilst not in scope of the DRS in England and Northern Ireland, glass drinks bottles will be covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging scheme in both nations, which will place targets on producers in relation to glass recycling. The proposed recycling target for glass packaging under EPR is 83% by 2030.

I have not issued any guidance on this subject. However, the law governing the provision of places to deposit waste from households is set out in Section 51 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which requires waste disposal authorities to provide places for persons resident in its area to deposit household waste. Each place must be situated in the area of the authority or so that it is reasonably accessible to people resident in its area.

Waste disposal authorities may include arrangements for the deposit of household waste for people outside of their area but they are able to charge for this.

As a nation of animal lovers, we understand how important it is for those fleeing Ukraine to bring their pets. We recognise that many pet owners will not have been able to complete the preparations needed, especially in relation to rabies. We need to protect the UK’s public and animal health and that is why pets coming from the Ukraine may need a period of quarantine. All quarantine and relevant health costs will be covered by the UK Government.

We are acting quickly to ensure that everyone who wants to travel with their pet can, and without delay. Pet owners must contact The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to apply for a licence before they travel to the UK. APHA will make all the necessary arrangements and confirm entry dates for when the pet arrives in the UK.

We have been working with stakeholders to increase capacity, and in parallel exploring alternative options with the rescue and rehoming sector, and with licenced boarding kennels and catteries where we have implemented the use of isolation facilities.

We have delivered emergency legislation to authorise the use of a new blood test for rabies, which reduces the timescale for checking immunity, which in respect can free up quarantine spaces. Results can be turned around in a minimum of 3 days and animals may be eligible for home isolation in England if they are found to have rabies antibodies, subject to strict criteria. This will help maintain our strict biosecurity measures and may allow people to be reunited more quickly with their pets.

We continue to work with APHA to streamline the process, and are continuing to provide information in both Ukrainian, Russian and English to those wishing to travel.

We have provided full guidance on GOV.UK for those fleeing Ukraine to bring their pets to the UK. This provides detailed information on the steps that need to be taken to enter the UK. We have included advice on ports of entry and the process once their pet reaches the UK. People fleeing to the UK from Ukraine with pets should contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) for a pet licence by email at ukrainepettravel@apha.gov.uk or call +44 3000 200 301 and select option 2.

The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with dogs, except where it is carried out in accordance with the exemptions in the Act, and completely bans hare coursing.

Issuing a license or giving permission for trail hunting is an operational matter for the landowner and Defra does not play a central role here.

On 31 May, Defra published a formal call for evidence on the fur trade in Great Britain (GB). This was a key step in helping us to meet the commitment set out in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare to better understand the fur sector in GB and gather evidence from those with an interest in it. We received around 30,000 responses from businesses, representative bodies and individuals, demonstrating the strong public interest in this area.

We will use the evidence gathered to inform any future action on the fur trade in GB, in line with the Government’s commitment to improving animal welfare standards. A summary of responses setting out the results and any next steps in this policy space will be published in due course.

In the UK we have robust legislation, such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, in place to protect our wildlife. Controls on imports from trophy hunting are currently enforced by the Control of Trade in Endangered Species Regulations 2018 and the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

As set out in the Government’s manifesto, we are banning the import of hunting trophies from endangered species. We will be setting out our plans soon, including on sanctions, and my department remains in communication with the Ministry of Justice regarding such matters.

The Government takes the conservation of endangered species very seriously, which is why we are banning the import of hunting trophies from endangered species, as set out in the Government’s manifesto.

Our approach will be robust and effective and will deliver the change we promised to help protect thousands of species worldwide. We will be setting out our plans soon.

The Department is currently preparing a revised draft of DfT Circular 1/2007 in light of stakeholder feedback. We plan to further engage with interested parties over the summer, with a view to publishing later in 2022.

The Jet Zero consultation, published in July, sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050. Our proposed approach focuses on the rapid development of technologies, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK.

The Department has made no specific assessment of carbon reductions from SAF deployment by flight type or journey length. However, relevant to the future uptake of SAF, the Jet Zero consultation provided several illustrative scenarios. Our “high ambition” and “high ambition with a breakthrough in SAF” scenarios estimate that by 2050 carbon emission reductions from SAF could be between 8 and 20 megatonnes per year. That is the equivalent of between 14 and 36 per cent of carbon reductions in aviation overall.

Future carbon reductions are dependent upon the ability of SAF suppliers to scale up production. We understand the challenges in securing investment in SAF, including the comparative production costs of SAF and fossil equivalents. This is why we are making available £180 million of new funding for the development of SAF plants, building on the progress made through previous advanced fuels competitions. It is also why the Government has consulted on a new stand-alone mandate for SAF, similar to the Renewables Obligation.

Our Net Zero Strategy published in October confirmed our ambition to see 10% SAF blended into the UK fuel mix by 2030. We are currently reviewing responses to the SAF mandate consultation, which closed in September, and will bring forward updated proposals next year. Core to this work is ensuring that the policy framework cost-effectively delivers rapid SAF commercialisation and carbon reductions.

The Jet Zero consultation, published in July, sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050. Our proposed approach focuses on the rapid development of technologies, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK.

The Department has made no specific assessment of carbon reductions from SAF deployment by flight type or journey length. However, relevant to the future uptake of SAF, the Jet Zero consultation provided several illustrative scenarios. Our “high ambition” and “high ambition with a breakthrough in SAF” scenarios estimate that by 2050 carbon emission reductions from SAF could be between 8 and 20 megatonnes per year. That is the equivalent of between 14 and 36 per cent of carbon reductions in aviation overall.

Future carbon reductions are dependent upon the ability of SAF suppliers to scale up production. We understand the challenges in securing investment in SAF, including the comparative production costs of SAF and fossil equivalents. This is why we are making available £180 million of new funding for the development of SAF plants, building on the progress made through previous advanced fuels competitions. It is also why the Government has consulted on a new stand-alone mandate for SAF, similar to the Renewables Obligation.

Our Net Zero Strategy published in October confirmed our ambition to see 10% SAF blended into the UK fuel mix by 2030. We are currently reviewing responses to the SAF mandate consultation, which closed in September, and will bring forward updated proposals next year. Core to this work is ensuring that the policy framework cost-effectively delivers rapid SAF commercialisation and carbon reductions.

The Jet Zero consultation, published in July, sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050. Our proposed approach focuses on the rapid development of technologies, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK.

The Department has made no specific assessment of carbon reductions from SAF deployment by flight type or journey length. However, relevant to the future uptake of SAF, the Jet Zero consultation provided several illustrative scenarios. Our “high ambition” and “high ambition with a breakthrough in SAF” scenarios estimate that by 2050 carbon emission reductions from SAF could be between 8 and 20 megatonnes per year. That is the equivalent of between 14 and 36 per cent of carbon reductions in aviation overall.

Future carbon reductions are dependent upon the ability of SAF suppliers to scale up production. We understand the challenges in securing investment in SAF, including the comparative production costs of SAF and fossil equivalents. This is why we are making available £180 million of new funding for the development of SAF plants, building on the progress made through previous advanced fuels competitions. It is also why the Government has consulted on a new stand-alone mandate for SAF, similar to the Renewables Obligation.

Our Net Zero Strategy published in October confirmed our ambition to see 10% SAF blended into the UK fuel mix by 2030. We are currently reviewing responses to the SAF mandate consultation, which closed in September, and will bring forward updated proposals next year. Core to this work is ensuring that the policy framework cost-effectively delivers rapid SAF commercialisation and carbon reductions.

The Jet Zero consultation, published in July, sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050. Our proposed approach focuses on the rapid development of technologies, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK.

The Department has made no specific assessment of carbon reductions from SAF deployment by flight type or journey length. However, relevant to the future uptake of SAF, the Jet Zero consultation provided several illustrative scenarios. Our “high ambition” and “high ambition with a breakthrough in SAF” scenarios estimate that by 2050 carbon emission reductions from SAF could be between 8 and 20 megatonnes per year. That is the equivalent of between 14 and 36 per cent of carbon reductions in aviation overall.

Future carbon reductions are dependent upon the ability of SAF suppliers to scale up production. We understand the challenges in securing investment in SAF, including the comparative production costs of SAF and fossil equivalents. This is why we are making available £180 million of new funding for the development of SAF plants, building on the progress made through previous advanced fuels competitions. It is also why the Government has consulted on a new stand-alone mandate for SAF, similar to the Renewables Obligation.

Our Net Zero Strategy published in October confirmed our ambition to see 10% SAF blended into the UK fuel mix by 2030. We are currently reviewing responses to the SAF mandate consultation, which closed in September, and will bring forward updated proposals next year. Core to this work is ensuring that the policy framework cost-effectively delivers rapid SAF commercialisation and carbon reductions.

The Jet Zero consultation, published in July, sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050. Our proposed approach focuses on the rapid development of technologies, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK.

The Department has made no specific assessment of carbon reductions from SAF deployment by flight type or journey length. However, relevant to the future uptake of SAF, the Jet Zero consultation provided several illustrative scenarios. Our “high ambition” and “high ambition with a breakthrough in SAF” scenarios estimate that by 2050 carbon emission reductions from SAF could be between 8 and 20 megatonnes per year. That is the equivalent of between 14 and 36 per cent of carbon reductions in aviation overall.

Future carbon reductions are dependent upon the ability of SAF suppliers to scale up production. We understand the challenges in securing investment in SAF, including the comparative production costs of SAF and fossil equivalents. This is why we are making available £180 million of new funding for the development of SAF plants, building on the progress made through previous advanced fuels competitions. It is also why the Government has consulted on a new stand-alone mandate for SAF, similar to the Renewables Obligation.

Our Net Zero Strategy published in October confirmed our ambition to see 10% SAF blended into the UK fuel mix by 2030. We are currently reviewing responses to the SAF mandate consultation, which closed in September, and will bring forward updated proposals next year. Core to this work is ensuring that the policy framework cost-effectively delivers rapid SAF commercialisation and carbon reductions.

The Department for Transport is providing over £36 million to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority for local road maintenance during 2021/22. It is entirely for the Combined Authority to decide how much of this to allocate to Kirklees Council.

Cabinet Ministers attend regular meetings organised by the National Economic Recovery Taskforce (NERT) to agree measures and actions to address the heavy goods vehicle driver shortage. Cabinet Ministers also engage in smaller groups to discuss specific policy areas.

The majority of taxi and PHV drivers are self-employed and were therefore able to apply for grants through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) before the scheme closed on 30 September 2021.

Drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles may also have been eligible for other sources of support, including locally administered grant funding. An online support finder tool was made available to help businesses and self-employed workers determine what support was available to them.

Ongoing engagement with sector stakeholders indicates that demand for taxi and private hire vehicles (PHVs) is very high with PHV operators seeking to increase driver numbers to meet this.

The Department for Transport is providing over £36 million to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority for local road maintenance during 2021/22. It is entirely for the Combined Authority to decide how much of this to allocate to Kirklees Council as the highway authority for the local road network in the Batley and Spen constituency.

The Government believes that any form of dangerous or inconsiderate driving behaviour is a serious road safety issue. All available research shows a link between excessive speed and the risk of collisions.

We expect all drivers to observe the speed limit, and enforcement is a matter for the police. Policing of our roads, and how available resources are deployed, is the responsibility of individual chief officers, taking into account the specific local issues.

Last July, the Department for Transport launched a Call for Evidence, as part of a wider Roads Policing Review, a thorough examination of roads policing in England and Wales and its relevance to road safety. Responses to the Call for Evidence have been analysed and the Government response is currently being prepared for publication this summer. The response will address the key points raised by respondents, including feedback on speed enforcement.

The Department is providing £260 million in 21/22 to local highways authorities in England, outside London, through the Integrated Transport Block for small scale transport schemes, including road safety measures. The Integrated Transport Block is not ring-fenced, allowing authorities to spend their allocations according to their own priorities. It is therefore for each authority to decide how it allocates its resources and which transport improvement projects to support.

The Department has undertaken a range of actions to raise awareness of Pension Credit and encourage pensioners to check their eligibility and make a claim. This has included a Pension Credit media day of action in June and working with stakeholders such as the BBC and Age UK.

We have also set up the Pension Credit working group, made up of a diverse range of organisations with reach and expertise, and including pensioner charities, the BBC, British Telecom, Virgin Money and the Local Government Association. The group is tasked with identifying new practical initiatives that we can work on together to help increase Pension Credit take up.

Over the coming weeks, all pensioners in Great Britain, over 11 million people, will receive information about Pension Credit in a leaflet accompanying their annual up-rating letter. This includes prominent messaging highlighting that an award of Pension Credit can also open the door to a range of additional benefits – not only extra help with fuel costs, but also help with rent and a free over-75 TV licence.

Our initial internal management information suggests new claims for Pension Credit in the past twelve months to December 2021 were around 136,000, representing an increase of around 30% compared to the 12 months to December 2019 when they were around 105,000. It also suggests that we have been receiving consistently high volumes of claims over recent months, at around 3,300 per week.

This management information has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but are provided here in the interests of transparency.

The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics are due for publication on 24 February. These will cover the financial year 2019/20.

The date relates to the court case that determines this matter. On 17 May 1990, the European Court of Justice ruled in the Barber Judgment https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A61988CJ0262 that private occupational pensions constituted ‘deferred pay’ and were therefore subject to Article 119 of the EEC Treaty (now in Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU). This means that these pensions are subject to the provisions of Article 157 on equal treatment between men and women. While the Barber Judgment was not specifically about Guaranteed Minimum Pensions, it meant that the impact of the different Guaranteed Minimum Pension rules for men and women have to be corrected.

The Court restricted the application of the Barber judgment so that it would not have effect prior to 17 May 1990, except in very limited circumstances concerning litigation existing at that time.

The Government does not collate data on whether someone who is seeking support has been dismissed from their employment as a result of voluntary shielding during the covid-19 outbreak to protect a household member with underlying health conditions. DWP supports people who are in a range of challenging circumstances, and there is a broad spectrum of support, financial and practical, that could be available to such a person, subject to their individual circumstances and the eligibility rules applicable to that support.

For this reason, it is not possible to provide details of the specific assistance the Government is providing to people in the circumstances described in Question 76056.

The Government has committed to keeping the winter fuel payment. This winter we will pay households with individuals who reached state pension age on or before 26 September and are below age 80, £200; and households with someone aged 80 and over, £300. Cold Weather Payments of £25 are also paid to vulnerable customers on qualifying benefits, including older people on Pension Credit, for every week of severe cold weather between 1 November and 31 March.

Vulnerable households across the country will also be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. Local Authorities in England have discretion to design their own bespoke local schemes, within the overall parameters of the Household Support Fund, with help primarily focused on food and utility bills. Up to 50% of the fund is available for councils to use on households without children, including those of state pension age. Local Authorities will use their resources to identify vulnerable households who are in most need in their area and can apply their own discretion to eligibility and the size of the award.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is responsible for the Warm Home Discount and customers in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit can receive a £140 rebate providing their energy supplier is part of the scheme.

The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.

The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold the information requested.

There is a range of support, both financial and practical, available for people who are out of work, looking for work, including those who have been affected by the pandemic. This support is tailored to individuals’ circumstances, and can include includes benefits like Universal Credit, Job Seekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance, employment schemes like The Work and Heath Programme and a range of support as part of the Plan for Jobs, and free debt advice in England through the Money and Pension Service.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and adult social care in England. The CQC monitor, inspect and regulate services, including care homes. To ensure consistency in their approach to regulating providers, the CQC assess all providers against the fundamental standards of quality and safety.

Where concerns on quality or safety are identified, the CQC have a wealth of enforcement powers available and will take swift action to ensure the safety of service users. This could include publishing actions a provider must take to make improvements, restricting a service’s operation or in cases of significant concern, taking action which would lead to the closure of a service. All of these are designed to ensure providers act quickly to improve the quality of care they are delivering.

CQC will continue to engage with providers to monitor services and will act on feedback received from people who use services, their families and other stakeholders when concerns are raised about the quality of care.

Community pharmacies are already legally required to provide ordered medicines with ‘reasonable promptness’. Pharmacies may need to order medicines from the wholesalers before fulfilling the order and should notify the patient or the patient’s representative when the medicines will be in stock. A toolkit and supporting documents for setting up proxy access for ordering repeat prescriptions for care home residents is available on the NHS England website.

The Department does not hold data for the number of respite care providers that have been deregistered.

Local authorities are best placed to assess local resources and need, distributing their funding based on local population needs and regional issues. They should have contingency plans in place where needed, particularly if services are to close. If services close, local authorities should provide information and advice on alternative care to support people affected by any service changes. We continue to work closely with local authorities and the adult social care sector to understand the impact of cost and demand pressures on service delivery.

The Government has received the Hewitt Review and its wide-ranging recommendations. It is now considering them and will respond in due course.

Community pharmacies are private businesses that receive funding to provide services in the National Health Service, including dispensing. Some pharmacies choose to offer additional services to their customers, either for free or for an additional fee beyond those commissioned and funded by the NHS. This includes private services such as delivery of prescription medicines to care homes, the details and expectations of which are detailed in individual Service Level Agreements agreed between the care provider and the pharmacy contractor.

As part of providing NHS pharmaceutical services, pharmacy contractors are required to dispense prescriptions reasonably promptly. This recognises that they might have to order the medicine in. When they do not have the medicine in stock, they need to inform the patient or carer when they expect to be able to fulfil the prescription. If there is a delay to the original date given, they should update the patient if requested to do so on what the new supply date might be. However, there are occasions when it is not possible to dispense a medicine with reasonable promptness, for example if the product is discontinued or if there is a national supply issue.

The Government is delivering a range of initiatives to support the retention and wellbeing of junior doctors in the National Health Service, for example through the Enhancing Junior Doctors’ Working Lives programme led by NHS England.

In addition, the NHS Retention Programme, also led by NHS England is working to understand why staff, including junior doctors, are leaving, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst supporting their health and wellbeing.

The Government has also taken action to increase the number of speciality training places, include core positions. For those who applied to begin training in 2022, Health Education England (HEE) invested in more than 750 additional training posts across all speciality programmes, including core positions. In January this year, HEE announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year.

The Government is committed to improving the safety of cosmetic procedures by ensuring that the regulatory framework allows consumers to make informed and safe choices. As part of this work, officials have been considering how a future licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England might be implemented.

Any future licensing requirements would be subject to both stakeholder engagement and public consultation and we plan to publish a first consultation on the scope of the treatments to be included within the scheme later this year. No timetable has yet been set for implementation.

We have no current plans to put mental health support teams on a statutory footing, and we have not set a date for all pupils across England to have access to mental health support teams. While funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future spending reviews, we will consider options for the scale and speed out of options beyond that point.

We met our commitment to deploy mental health support teams to 20 to 25% of the country by 2022/23 a year early, with 287 teams in operation covering 26% of the country as of spring 2022. This will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils, by April 2023 with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024. Details of the mental health support team site selection process and rollout is available at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers

An independent early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme was published in January and is available at the following link:

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/brace/projects/children-and-young-people's-mental-health-trailblazer-programme.aspx

The evaluation examines the development, implementation, and early progress of the first wave of mental health support teams in the first 25 “trailblazer” areas participating in the programme, which became operational from January 2020.

NHS England’s proof-of-concept programme has been conducted in 83 special schools since May 2021. The number of pupils having sight tests increases as clinics continue to be held. To date, over 9000 sight tests have been delivered to at least 7098 pupils. The total cost of the pilot scheme is estimated to be £3.1 million.

The NHS England proof-of-concept programme is currently being evaluated. All contracts operating under this programme have been extended until 31 July 2023. This will provide continuity of care until the end of the academic year. The evaluation of the programme will inform decisions about the scope, funding and delivery of any future sight testing model.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is due to review the evidence to screen for conditions associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young in 2023/24. In March this year Ministers discussed the next review on SCD with UK NSC Chair and secretariat, what evidence gaps still remain and how these might be addressed. Researchers and stakeholders are encouraged to have their work in SCD peer reviewed and published in order for the UK NSC to consider its findings.

Increasing multimorbidity and complexity of conditions means it is important to ensure strategies are joined up, with care and support centred around people. A joined up Major Conditions Strategy instead of a standalone mental health strategy will ensure that mental ill-health is also considered alongside other physical health conditions, meaning the interactions between them are reflected in the resulting plans.

Preventing mental ill-health, and better supporting those with it, will be part of the Strategy, as well as our separate standalone Suicide Prevention Strategy. We know that many of the risk factors that contribute to mental ill-health are cross-society in nature, and we will therefore be working closely with Departments across Government.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Coventry South on 25 October 2022 to Question 64353.

We expect fertility services to be commissioned in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment and preservation across England. Partners who are transgender men, or non-binary people assigned female at birth, fall within the NICE definition of same-sex couples, as they require Intrauterine Insemination as a first line of treatment. The Women’s Health Strategy has ambitions to improve variations in access to National Health Service funded fertility services. Commitments in the Strategy in respect of same sex couples include these groups.

There are no current plans to introduce a standalone alcohol strategy. We have an existing agenda on tackling harms from alcohol, including an ambitious programme to establish specialist Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals.

The Government published ‘From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives’ on 6 December 2021. While the focus of the Strategy is drugs, commissioning and delivery of drug and alcohol treatment services are integrated in England. This means that implementation of the Strategy will also benefit people seeking alcohol treatment, through mechanisms such as new commissioning standards, plans to build back the workforce and new investment to rebuild local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England.

We look forward to seeing the findings from the evaluations of impact of minimum unit pricing in Scotland and Wales. We will consider those findings in detail once available.

The are no plans to do so. The NHS Business Services Authority’s existing guidance states that midwives, doctors or health visitors can complete the maternity exemption certificate application for pregnant women as soon as pregnancy is confirmed.

The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 provide that a maternity exemption certificate must be backdated one month before the date on which the application is received by the NHS Business Services Authority. The application process requires that a health care professional, such as a midwife or a general practitioner, must authorise the application to confirm the patient’s pregnancy and expected due date. The NHS Business Services Authority must then issue the certificate on this basis.

A maternity exemption certificate start date is automatically backdated one month from the date the application is received. A maternity exemption certificate start date cannot be backdated further under any circumstances. There are no plans to amend the period for which maternity exemption certificates can be backdated.

No specific assessment has been made.

No specific assessment has been made. Local authorities have a responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to ensure that the care needs of the local population are met.

We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Batley and Spen. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.

The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

There were 17 practices registered in Batley and Spen in September 2013 and in October 2022.

‘Our plan for patients’, published on 22 September, sets out the immediate priorities to support individuals to live healthier lives, including improving access to health and care services in all areas and preventing ill-health. Further information on measures to address health disparities will be available in due course.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities works with local system partners in Lancaster and Fleetwood, Batley and Spen, Warrington North, and Chesterfield to provide evidence and intelligence.

The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Batley and Spen. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Batley and Spen.

This was an inadvertent administrative error and we have arranged for the record to be corrected.

No specific assessment has been made. However, NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Batley and Spen. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Batley and Spen.

The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

No specific assessment has been made. However, NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Batley and Spen. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Batley and Spen.

The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Batley and Spen.

NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.  While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.

In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Batley and Spen. Ensuring easier access to general practice will expand this route to access mental health services. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health and eating disorder services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Batley and Spen.

We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness. including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

We have no plans to make a specific assessment. NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of services for interstitial lung disease (ILD) and funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments to treat this disease. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s technology appraisal ‘Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases’ in November 2021.

NHS England’s service specification outlines the requirements of a quality service and requires the completion of metrics through the ILD Specialised Services Quality Dashboard. The Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group contains clinical members who advise NHS England on ILD services and includes a member of a pulmonary fibrosis charity as a patient and public voice member. It is expected that commissioning responsibility for these services will be delegated by to integrated commissioning boards with effect from April 2023, while NHS England will retain responsibility for setting national standards.

Community pharmacies are commercial organisations with responsibility for staff recruitment and retention. However, with the National Health Service, we continue to monitor workforce pressures in community pharmacy. Analysis undertaken by NHS England shows that reported workforce pressures facing community pharmacies is limited to geographical areas and are complex and multifactorial. NHS England is working with employers to provide support and maintain good access to NHS pharmaceutical services.

In addition to the £2.5 billion a year allocated to the sector, Health Education England is investing a further £15.9 million over the next four years to support the expansion of frontline pharmacy staff in primary and community care.

The Department has discussed the potential development of a guideline on Tourette’s syndrome with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Clinical guideline topics are formally referred to NICE by NHS England and take into account factors such as available evidence and clinical need. While no specific request to develop a specific guideline has been made, NICE is currently considering doing so.

During the pandemic we supported local councils and providers to continue to offer safe services. As social distancing measures have relaxed, the Department continues to work with local councils to monitor capacity and explore how the resources of day services and social activity can be used, including for people with a learning disability. In addition, we recently engaged with local authorities to identify the challenges in delivering day services for local communities and understand their long-term strategy to deliver these services.

During the pandemic, more than £34 million of the £750 million provided to the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector was allocated to measures to reduce loneliness. In addition, £1.6 million was provided to charities supporting autistic people and people with a learning disability for activities such as virtual peer support and helpline capacity.

During the pandemic we supported local councils and providers to continue to offer safe services. As social distancing measures have relaxed, the Department continues to work with local councils to monitor capacity and explore how the resources of day services and social activity can be used, including for people with a learning disability. In addition, we recently engaged with local authorities to identify the challenges in delivering day services for local communities and understand their long-term strategy to deliver these services.

During the pandemic, more than £34 million of the £750 million provided to the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector was allocated to measures to reduce loneliness. In addition, £1.6 million was provided to charities supporting autistic people and people with a learning disability for activities such as virtual peer support and helpline capacity.

The reimbursement of travel costs is included in the NHS Terms and Conditions, jointly agreed by employers and the National Health Service trades unions. The current rate for staff who use their vehicles to make journeys in the performance of their duties is 56 pence per mile, above the HM Revenue and Customs’ approved mileage rate of 45 pence per mile. This rate reduces after 3,500 miles to 20 pence per mile. The NHS Terms and Conditions sets out the process for reviewing the rate of reimbursement every six months. This includes reviewing fluctuations in fuel prices.

The NHS Staff Council released a statement to facilitate local discussions on temporary options and will also write to the Department on the scope for a possible review of the reimbursement mechanism. The statement is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsemployers.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/009%20NHS%20SC%20-%20Joint%20statement%20on%20reimbursement%20of%20travel%20costs%20in%20England%20MAY%202022.pdf

NHS England and NHS Improvement and St John Ambulance are co-ordinating skills development to increase the use of automated external defibrillators by individuals in the community, supported by confident cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills. This will include a national network of community advocates to champion the importance of first aid and training for 60,000 people to help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028.

The Department have no plans to do so. Funding for treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) is derived from individual clinical commissioning group budgets. However, the forthcoming Women’s Health Strategy will address a range of women’s health issues, including UTIs.

National Health Service commissioners in England are responsible for urinary continence care based on the available evidence and taking into account guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In most instances, testing for UTIs is carried out by a general practitioner, with a referral to a specialist for persistent UTIs. NICE has produced a range of guidance for clinicians to support them in the diagnosis, treatment care and support of people with UTIs. In October 2018, NICE published guidance on antimicrobial resistant prescribing. NHS England and NHS Improvement are also conducting research on UTIs and antimicrobial resistance.

We have no current plans to make an assessment. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will have a duty to ensure that sufficient medical examiners are appointed in the healthcare system in England; funds and resources are made available to medical examiners to enable them to carry out their functions of scrutiny to identify and deter poor practice; and to ensure that performance is monitored. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s National Medical Examiner will issue guidance to medical examiners to ensure that their functions are undertaken in an effective and proportionate manner. In 2018 we set the objective to ensure that a reformed system for certifying non-coronial deaths improves the quality and accuracy of Medical Certificate of Cause of Deaths and provides adequate scrutiny to identify and deter criminal activity or poor practice. This should be achieved without imposing undue delays on the bereaved or undue burdens on medical practitioners and others involved in the process.

NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for blood donation in England. The majority of blood donation sessions take place in third party venues, which are typically not National Health Service properties. NHS Blood and Transplant aims to secure venues with donor parking and only in very exceptional cases would donor parking not be available. Blood donation venues must fulfil essential criteria to ensure the safety and availability of donors, as well as the smooth running of donor sessions.

Where free parking is not offered, this is usually due to venue constraints in that location. If a donation session is co-located to a paid municipal car park, NHS Blood and Transplant works with the council to secure free parking through a voucher system. Mobile blood donation sessions are held in NHS buildings, which can include hospital premises. In these cases, NHS Blood and Transplant works with trusts to secure free parking although this is a decision made locally by each trust.

Section 128 of the Health and Care Act 2022 refers to the ‘Health Services Safety Investigations relating to Wales and Northern Ireland’, which does not relate to death certification.

The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with the Department for Work and Pensions on matters about unpaid carers.

We understand the pressures people face with the cost of living. These are global challenges, and we are providing support worth over £22 billion in 2022/23 to help. This includes a cut to fuel duty, a £9.1 billion package to help with energy bills and raising National Insurance thresholds.

We are also spending record amounts specifically to support unpaid carers, with expenditure on Carer’s Allowance forecast to be £3.1 billion in 2021/22.

The Government has announced £573 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) in each year from 2022/23 to 2024/25 and committed to consult on reforms to the DFG in 2022. including the means test. We will consider how the means test could be aligned with charging reforms and the cost of living and inflation will be taken into account.

No specific assessment has been made. The NHS Long Term Plan announced the creation of 15 new specialist problem gambling clinics by 2023/24. Five clinics are now operational, with a further three expected to open later this year.

The Department and NHS England are undertaking a review to ensure there is a coherent pathway of advice and treatment for those experiencing gambling-related harm. This review will focus on better alignment across treatment and support services provided by the National Health Service and third sector organisations.

We have invested more than £50 million for research into the long-term effects of COVID-19. This includes £38.6 million awarded to 19 projects commissioned through two research calls.

The National Institute for Health Research continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including post-COVID-19 syndrome. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

This information is not available in the format requested, as data on cancer pathways is collected at trust and clinical commissioning group level.

To support care providers to conduct testing, we have provided a total of £523 million in funding to the sector since December 2020, with £126.3 million announced in September to help with costs associated with testing until 31 March 2022.

We will continue to review the appropriate support and guidance for the sector to manage the virus in care settings and protect those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Further details on the adult social care testing regime after 1 April 2022 will be provided in due course.

In July 2021, we published a new national autism strategy aimed at improving care and support for autistic people. The strategy promotes the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines on autism, which set out expectations for clinical commissioning groups in relation to autism and managing co-occurring conditions. The guidelines ‘Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral and diagnosis’ and ‘Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management’ set out that autism assessments should consider and assess for co-occurring conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

These assessments should be used to develop a profile of people’s needs with the aim of developing care and management plans. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with local authority children’s social care, education services and charities to develop packages to support autistic children and children with ADHD and their families throughout the diagnostic process.

Dentists delivering National Health Service primary care dental treatment are required to provide all treatment that is clinically necessary. NHS dental provision has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced the number of available appointments due to infection prevention and control procedures. Dental practices have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as is safely possible through urgent care, care for vulnerable groups and children, followed by delayed planned care.

No assessment has been made. In 2018 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidance which advises against ear wax syringing due to its associated risks. General practitioner (GP) practices are increasingly recommending self-care methods as the primary means to support the safe removal of ear wax and to prevent its build up. However, if a GP practice considers removal clinically necessary, ear irrigation or microsuction as clinically appropriate should either be undertaken at the practice if the expertise and equipment are available. Alternatively, the patient should be referred to an appropriate local NHS service. Local commissioners are responsible for meeting the health needs of their local population and should ensure there is appropriate access to ear wax removal services.

The Government funds research on motor neurone disease (MND) through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation via the Medical Research Council (MRC). From 2015/16 to 2019/20, the NIHR and the MRC spent approximately £60 million on MND research. The NIHR funds a range of MND research including clinical trials of potential disease-modifying drugs, studies investigating genetics and biomarkers and work to develop interventions to support people with MND to live well. The MRC is funding experimental medicine research to increase understanding of the causes and genetic mechanisms of MND.

On 14 November 2021, we committed to make £50 million available for MND research over the next five years. New, innovative projects will help researchers to better understand the disease and its related conditions, develop and test treatments and improve care for those living with MND. A new MND Research Unit will be established within the NIHR to coordinate research applications for funding. In addition, a new MND partnership will be formed to pool expertise and resources across the research community to accelerate the delivery of new treatments.

The capacity of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) is constrained by rules within the General Dental Council’s (GDC) legislative framework that additional funding would not be able to address. The Department is currently working with the GDC on proposals which will amend this legislation and allow the GDC greater flexibility to expand on the registration options open to international applicants, including the capacity of the ORE. We plan to consult on these changes in early 2022.

As a result of the safety restrictions brought in as part of the COVID-19 response, the General Dental Council suspended Parts 1 and 2 of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) last year. The General Dental Council announced on 2 December that the Part 2 exam has a planned sitting in January 2022. The Council is reviewing options to prepare a 2022 schedule of both Part 1 and Part 2 of the exam.

The Department has engaged with the General Dental Council regarding the suspension of the ORE and proposed changes to the Dentists Act 1984 to provide greater flexibility to amend processes for assessing applications for registration from all internationally qualified dentists. The Council has advised that there are currently 2,067 candidates that have applied or are registered to complete the ORE process. The Department has no current plans to fund a catch-up programme.

On 29 November, the Government accepted advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to extend the COVID-19 booster programme to all people aged 18 to 39 years old, including pregnant women. The interval between second and booster dose has been reduced from six to three months. Eligible pregnant women will be invited for their booster vaccination with others in their age group.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have urged all healthcare professionals to raise awareness of the vaccine’s benefits among pregnant women, reassure any concerns and encourage them to book their booster dose, through contacts in maternity and primary care services. A toolkit has been launched to support healthcare professionals with conversations with pregnant women, including key messages, facts and frequently asked questions.

This specific guidance has not been issued. The funding provided is allocated to National Health Service providers based on their local plans and programmes, not to services specific to a particular patient group.

The funding provided to the National Health Service as set out in the answer to Question 66266 is allocated to NHS providers based on their local plans and programmes, and not to services specific to a particular patient group.

The Government announced on 6 September 2021 plans to spend over £8 billion over the Spending Review period (2022/23 to 2024/25) for a major catch up programme that will help the NHS to provide elective care that was delayed by the pandemic.

The Government also announced on 6 September 2021 an additional £5.4 billion for the NHS to support the COVID-19 response over the next six months, bringing the total government support for health services in response to COVID-19 to over £34 billion this year (2021/22). This includes £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog, reducing waiting times for patients, including disabled children.

On 5 March, we announced an additional £79 million to expand children’s mental health services in 2021/22. This will allow approximately 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services, 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services and a faster increase in the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges. We are also committed to investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year into mental health services by 2023/24. This will enable an extra two million people in England, including 345,000 more children and young people, to access National Health Service-funded mental health support.

Following the Spending Review, funding allocations, including the provision to different service areas and regions in England, will be announced in due course.

On 5 March, we announced an additional £79 million to expand children’s mental health services in 2021/22. This will allow approximately 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services, 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services and a faster increase in the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges. We are also committed to investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year into mental health services by 2023/24. This will enable an extra two million people in England, including 345,000 more children and young people, to access National Health Service-funded mental health support.

Following the Spending Review, funding allocations, including the provision to different service areas and regions in England, will be announced in due course.

On 6 September 2021, the Government announced an additional £5.4 billion for the National Health Service to support the COVID-19 response over the next six months, bringing the total to over £34 billion in 2021/22. This includes £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog to reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children.

On 5 March 2021, we announced that £79 million of the additional £500 million for mental health and NHS workforce will be used to significantly expand mental health services for children.

This year, councils have access to £51.3 billion to deliver their core services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care. To support local areas, the Government has given over £6 billion in un-ringfenced funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including for children’s social care. On 27 October, the Government announced £1.8 billion to recover children and young people’s lost learning as a result of the pandemic. This brings total investment specifically to support education recovery to £4.9 billion since the 2020/21 academic year.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards, which includes children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services receive care within four weeks from referral. This consultation closed on 1 September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement are analysing the responses to inform a recommendation to the Government.

The National Health Service is also piloting the four week waiting time for access to specialist mental health treatment for children and young people. The pilots in 12 areas of England inform a recommendation on the potential development of access and waiting-time standards for all children and young people who need specialist mental health services.

Clinical commissioning groups and National Health Service trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline: ‘Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management’. This guideline aims to improve the diagnosis of ADHD, the quality of care and support that people receive. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to working with local authority children’s social care, education services and expert charities to support neurodivergent children, including children with ADHD and their families throughout the diagnostic process. Five year funding allocations are conditional on improving these services in line with the Long Term Plan targets.

No specific assessment has been made. Schools have a statutory duty to use their best endeavours to make suitable provision available for children with special educational needs (SEN). A specific diagnosis is separate from making an assessment of SEN. Local authorities may be asked to carry out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment without a specific diagnosis and it would be possible for the local authority to assess a child’s needs and put a EHC plan in place ahead of any formal diagnosis. The EHC plan can be revised if necessary, once the diagnosis has been completed.

In March 2021, the Government announced an additional £79 million of funding to expand children’s mental health services in 2021/22. A portion of this funding will be used to accelerate the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges, with the aim of 400 teams being operational, covering an estimated three million children and young people by 2023. We have published updated guidance on the commissioning and provision of public health support for children, alongside a new service model for school nursing.

Since November 2020, £104 million has been invested by NHS England and NHS Improvement in developing and expanding 90 ‘long’ COVID-19 clinics and an Enhanced Service in general practice, to ensure the most underserved populations are reached. ‘Long COVID: the NHS plan for 2021/22’, published in June 2021, details a requirement to understand how ‘long’ COVID-19 services are meeting the needs of local populations. The plan is available at the the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2021/06/C1312-long-covid-plan-june-2021.pdf

The Plan also committed £30 million to support an Enhanced Service for general practices. This one-year service will reduce inequity of access, variation in records and enable clinical management in primary care where appropriate. NHS England and NHS Improvement have established a ‘long’ COVID-19 health inequalities workstream on the potential impact of health inequalities and advise on mitigations.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has advised that no research into paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS) is currently being funded through its coordinating centres. However, the NIHR welcomes funding applications from patients, carers, clinicians, healthcare workers, service managers and researchers for research into any aspect of human health. Although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions, applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Assessment, investigation, diagnostic formulation and treatment of children with this condition requires the involvement of multidisciplinary teams, including paediatric specialists and children’s mental health teams with the relevant expertise. Training on PANDAS is included in the Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health’s curriculum.

We have no plans to do so. Assessments are currently provided through Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services by an educational psychologist or an appropriately qualified specialist dyslexia teacher. We are currently reviewing the provision of SEND services, including those for dyslexia, to ensure that needs can be identified as early as possible.

Clinical commissioning groups and National Health Service trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline ‘Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management’. This guideline, published in September 2019, aims to improve the diagnosis of ADHD, the quality of care and support that people receive, including access to medication. The guideline does not recommend a maximum waiting time from an individual receiving a diagnosis of ADHD to receiving medication.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Stuart Anderson MP) on 23 September to Question 48359.

We have published our mental health recovery action plan to ensure that we respond to the impact of the pandemic on mental health services. This is supported by a one-off targeted investment of £500 million in this financial year, and an additional £79 million to expand children and young people’s mental health services. We are also transforming mental health services in England as part of the NHS Long Term Plan and investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24.

We are currently reviewing the provision of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services, including those for dyslexia. The review is considering measures to make sure the SEND system is consistent, high quality and integrated across education, health and care and will look at how needs can be identified as early as possible.

Our package of support for all National Health Service staff includes access to health and wellbeing apps, a help and text service and enhanced practitioner health and professional nurse advocacy training. In addition, 40 dedicated mental health hubs are either established or currently mobilising across the country to proactively identify at-risk people and groups and focus on staff with more complex needs.

Support for the adult social care workforce includes helplines, guidance, bereavement resources and a bespoke package for registered managers. We have announced an additional £500 million investment in the workforce, which will include funding for further development of our mental health and wellbeing resources and improve care workers’ access to occupational health.

Whilst there are currently no plans to develop an allergy strategy, the Government recognises the challenges faced by people with allergies and is taking several actions to support them.

This includes The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 which will come into effect on 1 October 2021, requiring food retailers and operators to display full ingredient and allergen labelling information on every pre-packed food item they sell. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency also continues to issue and update guidance for prescribing and use of adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs), including a communications campaign to improve the safe and effective use of self-administered AAIs.

The Department continues to invest in research into food allergy, with £2.3 million awarded to the National Institute for Health Research over the last five years.

Since November 2020, £104 million has been invested by NHS England and NHS Improvement in developing and expanding 89 ‘long’ COVID-19 clinics, which included plans to ensure the most underserved populations are reached. ‘Long COVID: the NHS plan for 2021/22’, published in June 2021, details a system requirement to understand how services are meeting the needs of local populations, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2021/06/C1312-long-covid-plan-june-2021.pdf

NHS England and NHS Improvement have established a ‘long’ COVID-19 health inequalities workstream to provide direction to their ‘long’ COVID-19 programme on the potential impact of health inequalities and advise on mitigations.

We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to increase access to dental care, taking into account infection prevention and control and social distancing requirements. National Health Service dentists have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups followed by overdue appointments. The NHS has also issued guidance on flexible commissioning to share best practice on targeting the available capacity at those most in need.

Measurements are conducted in a sensitive way, in private and away from other children. Weight and height information is shared with parents in a feedback letter. No individual information is shared with the children themselves, the teachers or the school. It is a parent’s choice if they share the information with their child.

If a parent is concerned about their child’s growth, weight, body image or eating patterns the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) feedback letters provide national and local information to support parents and advise to seek further support from a school nurse or General Practitioner. Guidance is available to help NCMP delivery staff have supportive conversations with parents about their child’s health and growth.

Information on total diabetes spend is not collected or held centrally as services for diabetes services are commissioned locally.

However, since 2017/18 NHS England has invested around £120m of transformation funding into local services to target variation and improve performance in the treatment and care of people living with diabetes.

The NHS Long Term Plan set out a commitment that “in line with clinical guidelines, patients with type 1 diabetes benefit from life changing flash glucose monitors from April 2019, ending the variation patients in some parts of the country are facing”. This commitment was followed by published guidance in March 2019, which set out new national funding arrangements and included a specific target for 20% of all type 1 diabetics in England to receive access to flash glucose monitoring by March 2021.

By July 2020, 31.5% of all people living with type 1 diabetes in England had access to this technology. By March 2021, uptake had risen to 47%. As of 1 April 2021, commissioning and financial responsibility reverted to local commissioners, who are continuing to support patient access to this technology.

The United Kingdom Coronavirus Dashboard is updated with new data at 4pm daily, including weekends and Bank Holidays. Information is collated from all four nations separately and published on the same day that the data are available. UK metrics can only be shown when there are data available for each nation. Testing data are available for the devolved administrations Monday to Friday.

Cases, deaths and vaccinations data are updated for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland seven days a week, while Wales do not publish data on Saturdays. The published data typically covers events occurring up to either the current or previous day. Data on hospitalisations and patients in mechanical ventilation beds are published every week day for all four nations. Scotland typically publish hospital admission numbers with a lag of four to five days and this means the UK total has the same lag.

In England, hospital trust level data is released every Thursday containing admissions data up to the end of the previous Sunday.

The UK remains committed to making progress towards a two-state solution, resulting in a safe and secure Israel living alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian State; based on 1967 borders with agreed land swaps, with Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states. The Prime Minister met his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, on 24 March and emphasised the risk of undermining efforts toward the two-state solution. The Foreign Secretary and Lord (Tariq) Ahmad, Minister for the Middle East, met Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, during his recent visit to London on 21 March. They discussed our strong bilateral relationship and also the vital importance of de-escalating the rising tension in the West Bank.

The FCDO works closely with HM Treasury to ensure that aid spend is directed towards our priorities in-line with the International Development Strategy.

The UK is committed to addressing the deteriorating food security and malnutrition situation across East Africa. This financial year the UK will provide £156 million in humanitarian support, supporting millions of people with life-saving aid. The UK is also working to raise the profile of the crisis with our partners and to ensure a robust response from humanitarian and development actors including development banks.

We are closely monitoring the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza. The UK Embassy in Tel Aviv regularly raises the importance of access to healthcare, including critical health services, with the Israeli authorities. We are urging the Government of Israel to ensure this access is maintained. The wounded and critically ill in Gaza should be able to access the urgent medical care they need.

The Government is supporting Fire Aid's deployment of donated items of kit and equipment from fire services across the UK to be sent to Ukraine, to support firefighters on the frontline.  These donations include 18 fire engines, thermal imaging cameras for finding victims, generators, lighting, hoses, rescue equipment, and thousands of sets of personal protective equipment. A convoy of 22 vehicles and two lorries of equipment is scheduled to depart the UK on 19 March.

The UK has now committed £395 million in aid to the current crisis. This includes £220 million of humanitarian assistance which will be used to save lives, protect vulnerable people inside Ukraine and in neighbouring countries. This funding will help aid agencies respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation by providing access to basic necessities and medical supplies. UK Government humanitarian experts have also deployed to the region to support those fleeing the violence in Ukraine.

The UK has matched pound for pound the public's first £25 million for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, which has now surpassed £100 million. Donating will help DEC charities provide food, water, shelter and healthcare to refugees and displaced families.

The UK Government continues to be guided by principles set out in the updated Approach to Protection of Civilians paper published in August 2020. By way of example, in the past year, the UK has supported strengthening human rights provisions in the mandates for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) peacekeeping operations. Our deployment to MINUSMA has provided assurance enabling civilian UN human rights teams to conduct their investigations. We have supported human rights monitors in Syria and encouraged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to promote humanitarian coordination there. We have drawn on UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) mandated investigations to inform and structure our approach to promoting civilian protection in Yemen and been consistent in our support for the work of the UNHCR Fact Finding Mission on Libya.

EU Member States are responsible for the implementation of their immigration systems, including the provision of visas and routes of entry for third country nationals, including students. The Government will continue to work with bilateral partners, including EU Member State authorities, to ensure that the rules and requirements for British citizens wishing to study in the EU are clearly communicated.

The Government has been working with UK stakeholders, such as Universities UK International (UUKi), who produced guidance for their members on the various visa regimes in operation across the EU. We will continue to work with the higher education sector to ensure that organisations and individuals are prepared to meet the new requirements.

At Spending Review 2020, the New Hospitals Programme received £3.7bn of funding up to 2024/25. At the Autumn Statement, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to the New Hospitals Programme, which includes Leeds General Infirmary.

I have not discussed the specifics of this case with the Secretary of State, though I look forward to discussions with him about the New Hospitals Programme, and wider health policy issues, in the coming weeks and months as part of the Treasury’s ongoing engagement with DHSC on these matters.

Automated External Defibrillators (AED) save lives, which is why the Government has taken action to boost their provision. The Government provides support to aid the purchase of AEDs through VAT refunds on purchases made by local authorities and VAT reliefs for purchases made through voluntary contributions, where the AED is donated to eligible charities or the NHS. Otherwise, they attract the standard rate of VAT.

The Government is continuing to look at what more can be done. The Department of Health and Social Care are examining whether there are ways to further expand public access to defibrillators.

Introducing any new VAT reliefs would come at a cost to the Exchequer and any changes should be seen in the context of over £50 billion worth of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum. Given this, there are no plans to change the current VAT treatment on defibrillators. However, the Government keeps all taxes under constant review.

The Making Tax Digital (MTD) reforms aim to preserve the existing Income Tax easements for carers, whilst ensuring the wider benefits of MTD are realised.

Whether a carer is within the scope of MTD depends on if their income from caring exceeds their allowance for Qualifying Care Relief, as well as the MTD for Income Tax threshold.

All existing Income Tax easements for foster carers, such as where carers completing a tax return do not have to report expenses from caring, will apply to MTD as well.

The Government has committed to ensuring there are free software products for the smallest businesses with straightforward affairs.

HMRC will continue to engage with foster carers and their representative bodies.

The Government introduced the Advisory Electric Rate (AER) in 2018. It applies to employees who use a fully electric vehicle as a company car.

The Advisory Electric Rate (AER) was changed in December 2021 from 4 pence per mile (ppm) to 5ppm. This was calculated using published consumption rates, adjusted to reflect real driving conditions, and the average cost of electricity.

However, employers are not required to use the AER. Instead, they can use different rates to reflect their employee’s circumstances. Provided they can show that the bespoke rates do not result in a profit for the employee, there will be no tax to pay. Otherwise, when employers reimburse employees at a higher rate than the published AER (5ppm), the excess is subject to Income Tax and NICs.

The Government keeps this policy under review.

In recognition of high prices at the pump and the fact that fuel represents a major cost for households and businesses, including those in the road and haulage industry, the Chancellor announced at the Autumn Budget 2021 that fuel duty would remain frozen for a twelfth consecutive year.

A freeze already represents a cut in real terms, and means that the average HGV tank will cost around £130 less in fuel duty, compared to what would have been paid under the pre-2010 escalator.

All taxes, including fuel duty, remain under review.

The temporary reduced rate of VAT was introduced on 15 July 2020 to support the cash flow and viability of around 150,000 businesses and protect over 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors. As announced at Spring Budget 2021, the Government extended the 5 per cent temporary reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors until the end of September 2021. On 1 October 2021, a new reduced rate of 12.5 per cent was introduced for these goods and services to help ease affected businesses back to the standard rate. The sector can continue to benefit from this relief until 31 March 2022.

This relief has cost over £8 billion and, whilst all taxes are kept under review, there are no plans to extend the 12.5 per cent reduced rate of VAT. The Government has been clear that this relief is a temporary measure designed to support the sectors that have been severely affected by COVID-19. It is appropriate that as restrictions are lifted and demand for goods and services in these sectors increases, the temporary tax reliefs are first reduced, and then removed, in order to rebuild and strengthen the public finances.

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.

I am aware of the People History Museum’s campaign, Standing Together, which opposes The Nationality and Borders Bill.

The Nationality and Borders Bill is part of the Government’s New Plan for Immigration, delivering the most comprehensive reform of the asylum system in decades.

Noting in particular the human rights concerns raised by this campaign, the Government confirms that the Bill - and the wider plan – comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention.

Regulations have been introduced which will allow information to be collected by telephone before attendance at a register office to formally register a death.

The General Register Office for England and Wales is exploring options to bring forward amendments to primary legislation to allow for registration by telephone to be completed in the future.

The Government introduced a range of flexible tools and powers for local agencies, including police forces, local authorities, and landlords, to tackle anti-social behaviour through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (‘the 2014 Act’). Local areas decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances.

Home Office statutory guidance, which was updated this year, supports all local agencies in using these powers and in taking the multi-agency approach that is needed to tackle and prevent anti-social behaviour in a way that takes account of the needs of the victim and the wider community.

The Beating Crime Plan published on 27 July laid out the Government’s commitment to working with local agencies and partners to drive down anti-social behaviour using the full range of powers and tools in ‘the 2014 Act’.

Excess speed is still a major cause of death and serious injury on our roads. Anyone who breaks the speed limit should expect to face proper sanction. The enforcement of speeding offences, including those conducted by drivers of high-performance rental vehicles, is an operational matter for the discretion of Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners. Forces will deploy available resources according to local pressures and priorities.

The Government’s THINK! campaign plays a vital role in reducing deaths and serious injuries on the road through changing the attitudes and behaviours that can lead to casualties. To have the greatest impact, THINK! activity focuses on those at greatest risk – male drivers aged 17-24, who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road compared with drivers aged 25 and over.

Alongside this, the Government’s Roads Policing Review is enabling the Home Office, the Department for Transport, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to work together to increase capability and capacity to improve road safety.

The Police Uplift is a once in a generation opportunity to attract a broad range of talent, cultures and backgrounds to a career in policing and is a core ambition in our drive to recruit 20,000 additional police officers.

The police officer workforce is now more diverse than ever before. The latest data shows the highest proportion of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic and female officers since records began.

Through the Police Uplift Programme we are supporting all forces with a variety of attraction and recruitment strategies, whilst delivering a national campaign designed to reach diverse audiences. Sharing best practice, engagement with police staff associations, upskilling recruitment teams and enhanced data capture are just some of the efforts being made to improve police diversity.

This Government is committed to recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. At 30 June 2021, 9,814 additional officers had been recruited as a result of the Police Uplift Programme in forces in England and Wales.

At 30 June 2021, West Yorkshire Police had recruited 504 additional officers against an allocation of 507 additional officers for years one and two of the Police Uplift. Allocations for year three are yet to be announced. The deployment of police officers across police forces is a local decision for operationally independent Chief Constables.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. However, data are collected at Police Force Area (PFA) level only, and information on officer numbers in specific constituencies are not held centrally.

The latest in this statistical series covers the situation in both full time-equivalent (FTE) and headcount terms as at 31 March 2021, and can be found here: Police workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Data broken down by PFA, and going back to 2007, and can be found in the accompanying Open Data Tables here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1005761/open-data-table-police-workforce-280721.ods

While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Data are available here:

Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This Government is committed to recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. At 30 June 2021, 9,814 additional officers had been recruited as a result of the Police Uplift Programme in forces in England and Wales.

At 30 June 2021, West Yorkshire Police had recruited 504 additional officers against an allocation of 507 additional officers for years one and two of the Police Uplift. Allocations for year three are yet to be announced. The deployment of police officers across police forces is a local decision for operationally independent Chief Constables.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. However, data are collected at Police Force Area (PFA) level only, and information on officer numbers in specific constituencies are not held centrally.

The latest in this statistical series covers the situation in both full time-equivalent (FTE) and headcount terms as at 31 March 2021, and can be found here: Police workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Data broken down by PFA, and going back to 2007, and can be found in the accompanying Open Data Tables here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1005761/open-data-table-police-workforce-280721.ods

While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Data are available here:

Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Drugs can devastate lives, ruin families and damage communities. This Government’s approach to them remains clear - we must prevent drug misuse in our communities and support people through treatment and recovery.

In January, the Government announced a £148m new investment to cut crime and protect people from the scourge of illegal drugs. This includes;

•£80 million for drug treatment services right across England to give more support to offenders with drink and drug addictions, which can fuel crime - this represents the largest increase in drug treatment funding for 15 years. This money increases the number of treatment places for prison leavers and offenders diverted into tough and effective community sentences.

•£28m for Project ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery) which is trail-blazing a whole-system response to combatting drug misuse in some of the areas hardest hit in England and Wales. In July 2021, we announced an expansion of this programme taking the total amount invested to £59m in this pathfinder programme which is set to run until March 2023. The programme focuses on co-ordinated law enforcement activity, alongside expanded diversionary programmes (such as Out of Court Disposal Orders) and enhanced treatment and recovery provisions.

•£40m dedicated investment for 2021/22 to tackle drugs supply and county lines and surge our activity against these ruthless gangs. This investment has allowed us to expand and build upon our successful County Lines Programme, established in November 2019.

The £40 million of new money to tackle county lines and drugs supply brings the total invested to £65 million since November 2019. The funding has already seen more than 1,100 lines closed, over 6,300 arrests, over £2.9 million in cash and significant quantities of drugs seized, and more than 1,900 vulnerable people safeguarded.

On 27 July, the UK government published its initial response to Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs setting out a clear cross-government commitment to this agenda, including plans to publish a long-term drug strategy by the end of the year.

The strategy will build on the £148m package and will present our whole of government approach to drive down drug supply and demand, including support for people through treatment and recovery, and an even tougher response to criminal supply chains and the demand that fuels these illegal markets.

The Government introduced a range of flexible tools and powers to tackle anti-social behaviour through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

The powers are deliberately local in nature. Home Office statutory guidance, which was updated in January 2021, supports local agencies to work together to prevent and respond to anti-social behaviour in a way that takes account of the needs of the victim, the perpetrator and the wider community.

The Home Secretary regularly meets her Cabinet colleagues to discuss government priorities, which include crime and anti-social behaviour.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 176692 on 21 April 2023.

As per my answer of 26 January 2023, the Government recognises that parks and green spaces are vital to communities and the people they serve, which is why the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund (LUPF) announced in August 2021 as part of the Levelling Up agenda will help to increase accessibility to quality green space across the UK, and level up areas which are most deprived of green space and provide communities with a place to come together.

The department continues to engage with relevant stakeholders.

The membership of the Park Action Group were: Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Home Office (HO), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE), Fields in Trust, Local Government Association (LGA), Parks Alliance, Natural England, National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces (NFPGS), Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), Groundwork, National Trust, Keep Britain Tidy, National Association of Local Councils (NALC), Parks Practitioner, Public Health England and Sport England.

The Government has committed to giving tenants the right to request a pet that the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. We will amend the Tenant Fees Act 2019 so that landlords can require insurance to cover damage to their property caused by pets.

The Government has engaged a wide range of stakeholders from across the sector, including animal welfare charities, while developing these proposals. We will continue to do so, ahead of legislating as soon as parliamentary time allows.

The Government has committed to giving tenants the right to request a pet that the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. We will amend the Tenant Fees Act 2019 so that landlords can require insurance to cover damage to their property caused by pets.

The Government has engaged a wide range of stakeholders from across the sector, including animal welfare charities, while developing these proposals. We will continue to do so, ahead of legislating as soon as parliamentary time allows.

The Government recognises that parks and green spaces are vital to communities and the people they serve, which is why the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund (LUPF) announced in August 2021 as part of the Levelling Up agenda will help to increase accessibility to quality green space across the UK, and level up areas which are most deprived of green space and provide communities with a place to come together.

The Park Action Group met on 2 January 2018, 23 May 2018, 5 February 2019 and 4 June 2019. The Park Action Group delivered a number of workstreams that remained active until the outbreak of COVID-19. The group’s achievements includes an analysis of available funding for public parks. The experts who delivered it directly advised the Government on the design of the new Levelling Up Parks Fund. We have several forums which allow us to engage across departments on issues related to parks and green spaces and with stakeholders. In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.

As with all departmental business, the Secretary of State maintains overall responsibility for the work of the department, and I support the Secretary of State on policy matters relating to parks and green spaces.

In April 2020 we boosted investment in the Local Housing Allowance by nearly £1 billion and rates have been maintained at their increased level in 2021/22 and 2022/23. This increase was worth over an extra £600 on average in 2020-21 for 1.5 million claimants.

Government recognises that some private renters may need additional support. For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided almost £1.6 billion in DHP funding to local authorities.

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken decisive action. The Autumn Statement announced £26 billion for 2023-24 designed to support the most vulnerable households, building on the £37 billion of support provided this year.

We are also providing an additional £50 million, through a top up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant, for local authorities to help prevent vulnerable households from becoming homeless this winter.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Questions UIN 72503 . Officials have contacted the Hon Member’s office to progress arrangements.

Ministers look forward to visiting the constituency of Batley and Spen when diary scheduling allows.

Work is ongoing to open the application portal for the second round of the Levelling Up Fund as soon as possible. In the meantime, applicants already have access to all the information needed to develop their applications. We have encouraged places to use these tools to prepare their applications in readiness to upload when the portal launches.

The Changing Places Fund forms part of the National Disability Strategy launched in 2021. The Strategy made a public commitment to make £30 million capital funding available over 3 years to unitary and district councils in England with the objective to increase both the number and geographic spread of Changing Places Toilets (CPTs) and to provide them in venues of greatest need. Changing Places Toilets unlike standard accessible toilets, have an adult changing bench and hoist facilities as well as extra space for carers.

The CPF prospectus was published in July 2021 inviting unitary and district authorities to submit an expression of interest.

Following the outcome of the Round 1 assessment process the government has announced that 191 unitary and district councils across England have been allocated £23.5 million of funding to increase the number and spread of Changing Places Toilet facilities across England.

A further round of the Changing Places Fund is anticipated later in 2022.

The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport and investing in cultural and heritage assets. We will open round 2 in Spring 2022 and will share further details in due course.

As we build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic, this Government will deliver growth that levels up opportunity, is aligned to our net zero objectives, and cements our status as Global Britain.

Through the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, we are supporting 101 places develop Town Deal proposals to drive the economic regeneration of towns to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth through land use, economic assets including cultural assets, skills and enterprise infrastructure, and connectivity. We have now committed over £2 billion under the Towns Fund, offering Town Deals to 86 places across England. This includes the accelerated funding provided to places last year. Announcements for the remaining Town Deals will be made in due course.

Furthermore, the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets. The Fund will operate UK-wide, extending the benefits of funding for priority local infrastructure across all regions and nations.

Local planning authorities are required to undertake a formal period of public consultation of no fewer than 21 days on a planning application prior to its determination. Effective consultation allows local planning authorities to identify and consider all relevant planning issues associated with a proposed development. Consultees, particularly those living near to the site in question, may offer particular views or detailed information relevant to the consideration of an application. Where relevant considerations are raised by local residents, these must be taken into account by the local authority as the decision taker in the first instance.

The planning reforms set out in the Planning for the Future White paper will make it simpler, quicker and more accessible for local people to engage with the planning system. The best way to bring forward new, significant development is by improving community engagement and input at an earlier stage in the planning process. At the plan making stage, people will have the opportunity to comment on local plans and deciding where proposed development should go.

By making the plan-making system focus on the big issues that really matter (what to build where, what must not be built on at all) and making all the processes and assessments easy to understand and engage with, we are giving local people a hugely improved and much greater opportunity to shape the future of their communities. Couple that with digitalisation and we really are bringing people into planning rather than leaving them outside, bewildered by the opaque rules and technical language of the current system.

For planning applications that fall outside the remit of the local plan, or vary from it, there will be a continuing role for the existing planning application process and the public engagement that comes with it, which will be enhanced by new digital tools. Full planning applications will still be required in the usual way in these cases.