Kwasi Kwarteng

The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) is a £1,500 grant per apprentice payable to eligible businesses with fewer than 50 employees who hire an apprentice aged 16 to 24.

To minimise burdens on employers, AGE is claimed through the training provider.

AGE funding has been devolved to some city regions as part of increasing local decision-making powers.

Introducing the statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses of 3 months will require primary legislation. The Government will introduce this legislation when parliamentary time allows.

At the Autumn statement, Government committed to review our approach to community benefits to ensure that we are being strategic in identifying key sectors where community benefits can support delivery of infrastructure. The result of this review will inform our assessment of the case for extending community benefits to include technologies such as electricity generation.

At the Autumn statement, Government committed to review our approach to community benefits to ensure that we are being strategic in identifying key sectors where community benefits can support delivery of infrastructure. The result of this review will inform our assessment of the case for extending community benefits to include technologies such as electricity generation.

At the Autumn statement, Government committed to review our approach to community benefits to ensure that we are being strategic in identifying key sectors where community benefits can support delivery of infrastructure. The result of this review will inform our assessment of the case for extending community benefits to include technologies such as electricity generation and its impact on net zero targets.

The majority of prospective Professional and Career Development Loan (PCDL) borrowers in England now have access to statutory loans such as Advanced Learner Loans, postgraduate master’s loans and doctoral loans. Demand for PCDLs has fallen significantly as a result.

Statutory loans offer better repayment terms and greater protections than PCDLs and access to those is not dependent on an assessment of the applicant’s credit history.

There are therefore no plans to replace PCDLs.

The Surrey Senior Coroner has carried out a full investigation into the sad circumstances surrounding Zane Gbangbola's death, taking into account a considerable amount of evidence. The Coroner, as an independent judicial office holder, drew his own conclusions based on this evidence.

If there is a belief that the evidence was not considered properly during the original inquest, or that there is new evidence available, an application can be made to the Attorney General asking her to apply to the High Court to quash the inquest and order a fresh investigation. The High Court would take this course of action if it believed that it would be in the interests of justice. We are not aware that any such application has been made.

I believe that this remains the proper process to follow. An assessment of the merits of an inquiry should be made at the appropriate time if, and when, the legal processes have been exhausted.

Landfill sites are regulated by the Environment Agency under an environmental permit. Historic landfills are those that have never been or are no longer regulated under an environmental permit. The responsibility for investigating historic landfills and other land that may be contaminated rests with the local authority under the provisions of Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Landmines are indiscriminate weapons of war that maim and kill innocent children every day. UK support announced in April last year will make safe land equivalent to the size of over 20,000 football pitches and help 800,000 people live their lives free from the threat of mines.

Landmines are indiscriminate weapons of war that maim and kill innocent children every day. UK support announced in April last year will make safe land equivalent to the size of over 20,000 football pitches and help 800,000 people live their lives free from the threat of mines.

The Department is working closely with Rail Delivery Group, Transport for London and train operators to ensure the launch of contactless PAYG to all stations in Spelthorne in Spring 2024.

As part of the Plan for Rail we will invest to radically reform and improve passengers’ experience of fares, ticketing and retailing on the railways. We have committed to extending contactless pay as you go to 53 more stations, including those in Spelthorne, by the end of this year. To support this, we are simplifying fares to ensure that pay as you go offers best value and has greater flexibility for passengers.

My Department is responsible for letting and managing rail franchises and we engage in regular dialogue with our franchisees to ensure that they are acting in the passenger’s best interests.

The Secretary of State has no such plans.

Any checks on driving licences, whether domestic or foreign, by the police at the roadside, are only conducted if considered necessary. This is an operational matter for the police who will decide what action to take in response to the given situation.

The Government has a wide range of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. These include:

• The Work and Health Programme providing tailored and personalised support for disabled people;
• Access to Work grants helping towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;
• Disability Confident encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace;
• A digital information service for employers providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting health and disability in the workplace;
• Increasing access to Occupational Health, including the testing of financial incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed;
• Increased Work Coach support in Jobcentres for disabled people and people with health conditions to help them move towards and in to work;
• Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;
• Work in partnership between the DWP and health systems, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies, and the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care programme, a Supported Employment model (place, train and maintain) delivered in health settings, aimed at people with physical or common mental health disabilities to support them to access paid jobs in the open labour market.

Building on existing provision and the £2 billion investment announced at the Spring Budget 2023, we announced a new package of support in Autumn Statement 2023. This includes:

• Doubling the number of places on the Universal Support employment programme, to provide support for 100,000 people per year when fully rolled out;
• Formally launching WorkWell, which will bring together the NHS, local authorities, and other partners, in collaboration with jobcentres, to provide light touch work and health support in approximately 15 pilot areas;
• Building on the extension of the certification of the fit notes to a wider range of healthcare professions, exploring new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with timely access to work and health support; and
• Establishing an expert group to support the development of the voluntary national baseline for Occupational Health provision.

From 2025, we are reforming the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to reflect new flexibilities in the labour market and greater employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions, whilst maintaining protections for those with the most significant conditions. Alongside these changes, a new Chance to Work Guarantee will effectively remove the WCA for most existing claimants who have already been assessed without work-related requirements removing the fear of reassessment and giving this group the confidence to try work.

People on low, or no income or earnings, who have a health condition or disability which restricts the amount of work they can do or prevents them from working altogether, and where they meet the entitlement criteria, can claim Universal Credit and/or New Style Employment and Support Allowance with medical evidence, usually a valid Statement of Fitness for work, commonly known as a ‘fit note’, from a clinician.

NHS England, along with the devolved administrations and the Crown Dependencies, funds Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries to collate ethnicity data, in relation to all perinatal and maternal deaths across the United Kingdom. They publish annual surveillance reports which provide comparators of rates of mortality for women and babies from different ethnic groups. They also publish confidential enquiries, assessing care provision along the whole care pathway, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme provides independent, standardised, and family focused investigations to provide learning to the health system. This includes analysis of data to identify key trends, and collaboration with system partners to escalate safety concerns.

NHS England is aware that not all parents who have lost their child to sudden unexplained death in childhood, are currently being assigned key workers. Departmental officials are working alongside NHS England and the National Child Mortality Database to acquire data on sudden unexplained death in infants. This is intended to increase our evidence base, understanding, and inform actions and policy on sudden unexplained death in childhood, including regarding assigning key workers as a single point of contact.

Anyone has the right to make a complaint about any aspect of National Health Service care, treatment, or service. The NHS Complaint Standards set out how organisations providing NHS services should approach complaint handling. They apply to NHS organisations in England, and independent healthcare providers that deliver NHS-funded care.

If complainants need assistance in making a complaint, officers from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service are available in most hospitals. Additionally, assistance can also be provided by the Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service.

The Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnerships (MNVPs) provide a forum in all areas of England for engagement between maternity services and their users. In November 2023, NHS England published MNVP guidance, which made it clear that effective MNVPs will reach out to seldomly heard groups, including bereaved families. This engagement should be accessible and appropriate.

On 28 July 2023, the National Health Service United Kingdom website team updated its content on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) to distinguish between SIDS and Sudden Unexplained Death Childhood (SUDC), including a reference and link to the charity SUDC UK for further information.

However, a decision was made not to incorporate information about SUDC to the website content on febrile seizures. This was based on the lack of high-quality evidence connecting the two and is in line with the British Medical Association guidance and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Clinical Knowledge Summary. It was also noted that the primary advice and directives on seeking help for febrile seizures would remain unchanged.

The UK has a special and enduring relationship with the United States based on our long history and commitment to shared values. Last week I saw the Vice President, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State to further strengthen those ties. No two countries will agree on every issue, but the US remains our No. 1 friend, ally and partner.

​In 2016 UK Visas & Immigration launched a full UK visa service at their Visa Application Centre in Tehran. We continue to work with the Government of Iran on all migration issues and the Foreign Secretary discussed these issues during his visit to Iran in December 2017.

I share My Right Honourable Friend’s concerns about the devastating impact of land seizures in Zimbabwe. The British Embassy in Harare frequently raises land security – and the importance of upholding the rule of law – with the Government of Zimbabwe. Most recently, they highlighted the British Government’s serious concerns that the seizure of the land of Zimbabwean farmer, Mr Philip Rankin, did not follow the provisions of the Zimbabwean constitution. The British Government has always said that it would support a fair, transparent and pro-poor land reform programme in Zimbabwe. This is vital if Zimbabwe is to realise its great economic and social potential.

Her Majesty's Government provides assistance to South Africa to help tackle organised crime networks and minimise the threat they pose to the UK. This co-operation includes the sharing of information and expertise and the provision of capacity building. It does not differentiate between rural and other areas of the country.

These activities form part of the UK's contribution to counter organised crime and it is our policy not to disclose specific details about assistance given.

The Government already offers a range of support for parents to help with childcare costs. Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the Government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child up to age 11 and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they are 17. All three-and-four-year-olds can access 15 hours of free childcare per week, and working parents of three-and four-year-olds can access an additional 15 hours of free childcare per week. .Some parents can also access the disadvantaged two-year-old offer, which provides 15 hours of free childcare per week to two-year-olds who meet certain social and economic criteria. Universal Credit claimants can claim up to 85% of their childcare costs.

The Government keeps childcare policy under regular review.

The government estimates that only 1 in 5 landlords will pay more tax as a result of this measure.

Given this, the government does not expect it to have a large impact on either rental costs or the supply of rental housing. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) also expect the impact on the housing market will be small and did not adjust their forecast for house prices.

Basic rate income tax relief will still be available on a landlord's finance costs, and when the restriction is introduced in April 2017, it will be phased in over 4 years, giving gives landlords time to adjust.

In 2014, a review of Survivor Benefits in occupational pension schemes was conducted jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Treasury (HMT) which considered the differences in benefits provided to widows, widowers and same-sex survivors. Details can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/occupational-pension-schemes-review-of-survivor-benefits. A decision will be made in due course, and the outcome will apply to the police pension scheme.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is working closely with the Romanian Ministry of Justice to ensure that all wanted Romanians currently in the UK are extradited as quickly as possible. My officials continue to work with the CPS to obtain adequate assurances in respect of Romanian prison conditions to make extraditions possible.

We will continue to clamp down on immigration abuse in order to deliver an effective immigration system which works in the national interest, and is fair to British taxpayers and genuine students.

Where the Tier 4 licence of a private college is revoked, the Home Office will write to the Tier 4 students enrolled at the college and curtail their existing leave to 60 calendar days from the date of the letter. These Tier 4 students are not permitted to retain their visa or continue studying with the college that has had its licence revoked. During this 60 day period however, the students may find a new sponsor with a valid Tier 4 licence and make a visa application for further leave to remain if they wish to continue their studies in the UK. If they do not make such an application before their leave expires, they will have to leave the UK.

Under the provisions of the Private Security Industry Act 2001, the Security Industry Authority (SIA) is responsible for licensing individuals who operate in designated sectors of the private security industry. The SIA has procedures in place to ensure that licences are not issued fraudulently and that private security operatives are 'fit and proper' persons who are properly trained and qualified to do their job. Before issuing a licence, the SIA undertakes checks to verify an individual’s identity, their age, whether they have completed the required level of training and whether they have a criminal record. Since 2012, the SIA has taken action against more than 1,300 licence holders who have used fraudulent qualifications to gain an SIA licence.

The MOD holds no records showing the use of any land at the rear of number 243 Thames Side, Chertsey or within a two mile radius of that address.

Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is designed to ensure leaseholders are better informed about proposals and costs of upkeep and maintenance of the building, and that they have more time to ensure they can make suitable finance arrangements. We will continue to keep the threshold for consultation under review.