Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
A bill to make provision about pension schemes, including provision designed to encourage arrangements that offer people different levels of certainty in retirement or that involve different ways of sharing or pooling risk and provision designed to give people greater flexibility in accessing benefits and to help them make informed decisions about what to do with benefits.
This Bill received Royal Assent on 3rd March 2015 and was enacted into law.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
His Majesty’s Government recognises the importance of tourism and the value, as well as enjoyment, brought by the promotion of domestic holidays. As set out in the Tourism Recovery Plan, the Government is committed to recovering the pre-pandemic volume and expenditure of domestic visitors, and to ensuring that the benefits of tourism are spread to every part of the UK.
Tourism is a devolved matter: VisitEngland, VisitWales and VisitScotland therefore have responsibility for supporting the domestic visitor economy in their respective parts of the country. VisitBritain promotes the United Kingdom as a whole, and the Government works alongside it to promote the UK as a tourist destination, both domestically and internationally.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport funds the British Tourism Association, which comprises VisitEngland and VisitBritain, by around £27 million per annum, of which VisitEngland receives c. £7 million. VisitEngland helps promote the UK as a tourist destination domestically through marketing campaigns such as its £5 million, UK-wide ‘Escape the Everyday’ campaign, which ran in 2022. This highlighted the quality destinations, visitor attractions, and experiences on offer across the UK’s cities, countryside, and coast to boost domestic tourism.
VisitEngland promotes year-round tourism experiences, encouraging a regional and seasonal variety highlighting lesser-visited areas. The Government has supported tourism through a variety of nationwide events in recent months such as the Commonwealth Games, and will continue with events across the UK in 2023 such as the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Eurovision, and is planning for Bradford’s year as City of Culture in 2025.
The data of the nature being requested is not routinely captured or reported on by the Cabinet Office. Decisions on flexible working requests are made locally by departments, based on their business needs and delivery requirements.
As departments are individual employers they set out their employees’ terms and conditions, including any flexible working policies.
The Civil Service is fully focused on delivering for the British people and we have been clear on the benefits of face to face working, and departments across government remain committed to having staff working in offices at pre-pandemic levels.
Governments around the world have had to strike the correct balance between border restrictions and ensuring that essential travel remains possible.
The UK has one of the toughest border regimes in the world. We are taking a cautious approach to open up international travel to protect the UK from variants of concern and new infections while the vaccine roll-out is ongoing.
Given the challenge we see with the spread of new variants and the situation in many countries around the world, we must make sure that the countries we reconnect with are safe.
The recently introduced traffic light framework aims to protect public health whilst facilitating international travel, allowing families and friends to reunite and our businesses to start thriving again.
This analysis of border measures is one of many policies that are continuously inspected as an international comparison, alongside an array of other non-pharmaceutical interventions that are taken by countries in their response to COVID-19.
The National Data Strategy published in September 2020 sets out the Government's commitment to transform the way data is collected, managed, used and shared in government. Current initiatives to improve data sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic include:
Tackling legal barriers through promoting the data sharing provisions in the Digital Economy Act 2017 to speed up and simplify data sharing across government and supporting public bodies who would like to introduce new data sharing regulations in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Setting and driving the adoption of data standards to improve the consistency, integrity and interoperability of government data.
Improving the quality of government data through the work of the Data Quality Hub, such as the recently published Data Quality Framework.
Working with ONS to identify data sets to be shared across government to enable a better understanding of COVID-19 in the UK.
Improving data leadership in government to drive strategy by establishing a Chief Digital and Data Office.
Everyone who wishes to identify as being Jain or Zoroastrian in the 2021 Census will be able to do so, using the write-in option in the religion question, supported online by the new search-as-you-type function. Both the Government and Office for National Statistics recognise the importance of ensuring that everyone who wishes to identify as Jain or Zoroastrian will be able to do so.
Everyone who wishes to identify as being Jain or Zoroastrian in the 2021 Census will be able to do so, using the write-in option in the religion question, supported online by the new search-as-you-type function. Both the Government and Office for National Statistics recognise the importance of ensuring that everyone who wishes to identify as Jain or Zoroastrian will be able to do so.
The Race Disparity Unit (RDU) publishes data and analysis on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website about variances in treatment or outcome affecting people of different ethnicities in relation to health and education.
Changes to Government policy will be announced by departments in the usual way.
The Race Disparity Unit publishes data and analysis on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/). This is consistent with our commitment to improve the quality of evidence and data on the barriers faced by different groups.
The Race Disparity Unit (RDU) continues to collate and publish data about ethnicity in the UK. The RDU also continues to publish reports on ethnicity, the most recent being on the Black Caribbean, Indian and Chinese ethnic groups. In addition to this, the RDU published 9 updates (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/dashboards/whats-new) to existing data in January 2020 across a range of topics including school teacher workforce, pupil exclusions, judges and non-legal members of the judiciary, Prison officer workforce, and NHS workforce
Operational decisions, including staffing and recruitment policies, are a matter for Royal Mail as a private business. The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s operational or commercial decisions.
As a private business, Royal Mail’s management sets the prices for its services and in doing so must work within the regulatory framework set by Ofcom, the independent regulator. The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s day-to-day commercial decisions.
It is for Ofcom to set and monitor Royal Mail’s service standards. Ofcom has powers to investigate and take enforcement action should Royal Mail fail to achieve its obligations without good justification.
Ofcom is currently undertaking an investigation into Royal Mail’s failure to meet its quality of service performance targets for 2022-23.
Royal Mail is a private business. The Government does not have a role in the commercial or operational decisions of Royal Mail.
As the Universal Service Provider, Ofcom requires Royal Mail to provide fair and reasonable remedies and redress in respect of delays to deliveries under its universal service obligation.
Under Section 89 of the Postal Services Act 2000, Royal Mail is required to publish its terms and conditions, including compensation policies, for certain products and services on its website.
It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to set and monitor Royal Mail’s service standards and decide how to use its powers to investigate and take enforcement action should Royal Mail fail to achieve its obligations without good justification.
Ofcom is currently investigating whether Royal Mail failed to meet its quality-of-service performance targets for 2022-23.
Royal Mail delivers medicines on behalf of a number of organisations, including the NHS. However, the Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s contractual arrangements with its customers, including delivery of medication and the delivery services used.
It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to set and monitor Royal Mail’s service standards and decide how to use its powers to investigate and take enforcement action should Royal Mail fail to achieve its obligations without good justification.
Ofcom is currently investigating whether Royal Mail failed to meet its quality-of-service performance targets for 2022-23.
Royal Mail delivers medicines on behalf of a number of organisations, including the NHS. However, the Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s contractual arrangements with its customers, including delivery of medication and the delivery services used.
It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to set and monitor Royal Mail’s service standards and decide how to use its powers to investigate and take enforcement action should Royal Mail fail to achieve its obligations without good justification. The Government has no role in Ofcom’s regulatory investigations.
In line with our net zero target, the Government is committed to phasing out unabated coal-fired power generation by 1st October 2024, earlier than the original 2025 target. The remaining coal fired power station in Great Britain is scheduled to close before this date.
This will mean that we will have reduced coal’s share of our electricity supply from around a third, to zero in the space of only ten years.
From 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023 (latest available data), around 97,100 insulation measures were installed in domestic properties under the following schemes: Energy Company Obligation, Great British Insulation Scheme, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Green Homes Local Authority Delivery and Home Upgrade Grant. Under these schemes, some households may have had more than one type of insulation measure installed. Statistics for each of these schemes are published on the gov.uk website.
While the Department does not hold precise estimates of how many households will be treated in next twelve months, we estimate around 450,000 will be supported via the Energy Company Obligation Scheme from April 2022 to March 2026 with the scheme funding approx. £1 billion per calendar year.
The Government also estimate over 300,000 homes will be supported via the Great British Insulation Scheme from April 2022 to March 2026 with £1 billion funding available across that period.
The Government has invested £700m to develop the Sizewell C project – the first state backing for a nuclear project in over 30 years.
The Government is investing in new nuclear, launching the £120m Future Nuclear Enabling Fund as well as the £75m Nuclear Fuel Fund to develop existing and future fuel capabilities.
The Advanced Nuclear Fund of up to £385m is funding Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and Advanced Modular Reactors. Up to £210m of this is helping to develop the Rolls Royce SMR design. The Fund is also supporting an AMR Research Development & Demonstration competition.
The Government collects price data on a national average basis but is aware that, on average, fuel prices in Northern Ireland are generally cheaper than those in other parts of the United Kingdom. The Government therefore welcomes the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) market study into Great Britain’s road fuel market, investigating factors driving price variations. The CMA will publish its report including options for possible next steps by 7th July. The Government will carefully consider the recommendations, while looking at pro consumer options, which could give drivers better access to fuel price data.
The Government has not made contractual commitments to the constructors of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and no SMR projects have yet reached Final Investment Decision (FID) or begun construction.
However, the Government has committed up to £385m for R&D through the Advanced Nuclear Fund, including up to £210m for Rolls Royce SMR Ltd, to develop further their design for one of the world’s first Small Modular Reactors.
In 2023, the Government intends to run a selection process to identify projects, including SMRs, that might reach FID in the next Parliament.
The Government engages with a range of Welsh stakeholders, including the Welsh Government and Welsh Government-funded bodies, on nuclear issues including small modular reactors (SMRs).
The UK Government has discussions with governments of other countries on a range of issues. The Department publishes comparisons between the UK and European countries from Eurostat price data.
Differences in prices across countries are influenced by many factors, including differences in fuel mixes, market structures, regulation, and taxation strategies within each country. This means that while all countries have been affected by the rise in global energy prices, the impact on households and businesses will vary between countries. The Government has announced a package of measures to support people and businesses with their energy bills and tackle the root causes of the issues in the UK energy market through increased supply.
Ofgem only holds data for smart meters in prepayment mode that have disconnected, it is not possible to collect this data for traditional prepayment meters. One of the benefits of smart prepayment over traditional prepayment meters is the ability for energy suppliers to know when customers have gone off supply, and so offer timely support.
Ofgem hold data for Q1 – Q3 2022. The number of electricity smart meters in GB that disconnected at least once across this period are provided in the table below. Not all disconnections will be due to affordability issues.
Q1 2022 | 510,574 |
Q2 2022 | 660,135 |
Q3 2022 | 660,133 |
The decision to sell the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre was made by VMIC UK Ltd's Board of Directors. The facility was subsequently sold to Catalent. Once completed, it is intended that the facility will be capable of producing a range of therapeutics and vaccines.
Officials regularly engage with industry stakeholders to understand the wider landscape and implications for vaccine development and manufacturing in the UK and will continue to do so.
The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament in decarbonising heat and energy efficiency. The Energy Company Obligation Scheme, running until 2026 is valued at £4 billion. ECO+ has also been announced, with the scheme worth £1 billion per annum to run from Spring 2023 until 2026.
The Autumn Statement announced a new ambition to reduce energy consumption from buildings and industry to 15% by 2030. A new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established supporting this. £6 billion of additional funding will also be available from 2025 to 2028.
The Government routinely considers schemes in other jurisdictions in its policy development process.
The Government is working to alleviate labour shortages in all sectors and is removing employment barriers by boosting wages via the National Living Wage, and furthering workers’ rights, which is particularly important for lower-paid sectors. The Government is also reforming the skills system to ensure an appropriately-skilled workforce.
To address haulage shortages, the Government took over 30 actions, including investing £34m in Skills Bootcamps to train over 11,000 people to become HGV drivers in England.
The newly-created Hospitality & Tourism Skills Board will focus on the medium-to-long term objectives of increasing recruitment, enhancing retention, and building an appropriately-skilled tourism workforce.
Prepayment meters allow customers to control and budget for the amount they spend on energy and help to mitigate the risk of going into or exacerbating existing debt. A restriction on installation of prepayment meters as a last resort would leave court enforcement as the only recourse in cases of non-payment and large debt. Ofgem has stringent rules on force-fitting prepayment meters. The Government has no plans to restrict this option.
Between 2004 and 2021 the UK Government has invested over £346 million into CCUS Research, Development and Deployment (RD&D). This funding has ensured the UK remains at the forefront of CCUS Research and Innovation. Developing the skills, knowledge, and technology to allow the UK to deploy CCUS domestically and export it expertise around the world. In 2020 the UK Government confirmed Advanced CCUS and Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) innovation would be two of the ten priority areas of the £1 billion BEIS Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP, 2021-2025).
No assessment has been made. The Government recognises that rising energy prices can make it more difficult for consumers with prepayment meters to buy the energy they need. Therefore, the Government has provided a £37 billion package of cost-of-living support to help households and businesses this winter, including a £15 billion targeted package of direct support for the most vulnerable households. A further funding package worth £26 billion will provide support to the most vulnerable households in 2023/24.
The Government continually monitors the status of the labour market, which is strong by historical standards and is close to record levels of (high) employment, (low) unemployment, and (low) inactivity rates.
The Government is investing an additional £3.8 billion into skills and further education over this Parliament to ensure workers can develop the skills businesses need.
Where low pay is a barrier, the Government is supporting better pay by ensuring that all tips go to staff and increasing the National Living Wage to £10.42 an hour.
The 2019 manifesto pledged changes to enhance workers’ rights and support people to stay in work. The Government is backing five Private Members’ Bills which will deliver on these commitments - helping new parents, unpaid carers, hospitality workers, and giving employees better access to flexible working.
The Government consultation on making flexible working the default closed in December 2021, with over 1,600 responses received. These have been carefully considered, and we will publish our response in due course.
As set out in the 10 Point Plan, Government ambition is to establish four CCS clusters by 2030 at the latest. As later set out in the Net Zero Strategy, Government’s aim is to use CCUS technology to capture and store 20-30 MtCO2 per year by 2030.
In the Net Zero Strategy, we committed to consulting on phasing in higher minimum performance standards to ensure all homes meet EPC Band C by 2035, where cost-effective, practical and affordable.
The Government is investing over £6.6 billion over this parliament to improve energy efficiency and decarbonise heating. We will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through our Social Housing Decarbonisation, Home Upgrade Grant Schemes and Energy Company Obligation Scheme, delivering average bill savings of £500, based on recent price cap estimates.
We have also launched a digital service providing impartial, tailored advice on energy efficiency. This will be supported by the launch of additional support for homeowners through telephone advice and specific local area advice for energy consumers.
The Government has committed to decarbonising heat and buildings, with support targeted at lower-income households through schemes such as the Home Upgrade Grant, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Local Authority Delivery Scheme, and the Energy Company Obligation. We are also supporting industry to reduce energy use, including through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund supporting investments in energy efficiency.
The Government set out in the British Energy Security Strategy its approach to building a secure, clean and affordable energy system, including additional measures to support consumers to cut their energy consumption and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, making homes warmer and more energy efficient while helping to reduce bills.
There are rules requiring transparency of petrol and diesel prices, including at motorway service stations so that prices are displayed before fuelling commences. Consumers can then make an informed purchase decision.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recently stated that it stands ready to take action should there be evidence that competition or consumer protection law has been broken in the fuel retail market, and is monitoring the evidence closely. The CMA will continue to work with BEIS to analyse developments. This work will build on the knowledge base the CMA has accumulated during some of the recent mergers it has intervened on in this sector.
Ukrainian refugees will have the right to work as soon as they arrive in the UK. The Government will provide refugees with resources to help them find a job, for example ‘Find a Job’ and Jobcentre Plus work coaches for those awarded Universal Credit.
The Department for Work and Pensions is working with employers and partners to support refugees with employment opportunities, including working alongside the Refugee Employment Network to support Ukrainian refugees to offer employment opportunities and training.
The Government remains confident that Great Britain’s energy security will be maintained. The Government works closely with Ofgem, National Grid Gas and other key industry organisations to monitor gas supply and demand, and the National Grid Electricity System Operator has the tools it needs to operate the electricity system reliably.
In the past 5 years the UK has met nearly half of its annual gas supply through domestic production, with most imports coming from reliable suppliers such as Norway. Less than 4% of our gas was sourced directly from Russia in 2021.
The Government has experienced gas prices at historic highs reflecting a number of market fundamentals, but also the current uncertain geopolitical situation. The Government is working closely with key international and industry partners to monitor gas supply and demand, and remains confident that Great Britain’s energy security will be maintained.
The Government recognises the importance of a reliable universal postal service to customers, businesses, and local communities across the UK, and we know postal workers have been working exceptionally hard to meet demand over the recent peak period and in light of Covid-19 related absences.
Royal Mail has publicly stated that it is aware of the reduction in service levels in some areas and is taking action to reduce delays to deliveries. Its contingency plans to mitigate disruption to postal services are overseen by Ofcom, the independent regulator responsible for monitoring the delivery of the universal postal service.
Ofcom continues to monitor Royal Mail’s performance to ensure it is providing the best service it can to customers and has powers to investigate and take enforcement action if Royal Mail fails to achieve its performance targets.
Great Britain benefits from a diverse electricity mix, meaning the Government is not dependent on any one supplier or market participant for ensuring security of supply.
The Capacity Market is the Government’s policy tool to maintain secure electricity supplies in Great Britain. It secures the capacity needed to meet likely peak demand for future years. When determining the capacity needed, the National Grid Electricity System Operator considers what capacity will be available from interconnected countries, including France, in their advice.
The Government moved to Plan B in England as it was necessary to control the spread of transmission of the new threat posed by the Omicron variant and the potential impact on businesses. In order to support all businesses across the UK economy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £400 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme. This includes a total of over £26bn in business grants. The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund is open until March 2022.
We are also engaging closely with the hospitality sector to listen to their concerns and help them in their recovery. Additionally, we are working closely with the sector through the Hospitality Sector Council to implement the hospitality strategy which was launched in July. The strategy sets out how the UK government will work with the hospitality sector, as it reopens and recovers from COVID-19, to build the sector’s longer-term resilience. It includes a dedicated recovery working group, made of sector organisations, businesses and government officials, looking at solutions to manage urgent Covid 19 impacts on the sector.
The Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC) UK is a private company, limited by guarantee, and as such the UK Government does not exercise any ownership rights. Grant funding has been provided initially to support vaccine manufacturing innovation in the UK and latterly in response to Covid-19.
We are working closely with VMIC and other third parties to ensure the UK retains a strong domestic vaccine manufacturing capability to contribute to the UK’s resilience against COVID-19 and other future health emergencies. At present, these discussions are commercially sensitive.
The smart meter rollout is making good progress, with 26.4 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses across Great Britain by end September 2021, including 24.8 million smart meters in domestic premises. Nearly half (47%) of meters in households are smart meters.
The Government has confirmed that a new four-year policy framework with fixed minimum annual installation targets for energy suppliers will commence on 1 January 2022 to drive the consistent, long-term investment needed to deliver the rollout.
The Government is working with listed and unlisted companies to encourage ambitious action on climate change.
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Ahead of COP 26, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister launched the Together for our Planet Business Climate Leaders’ campaign. The aim of the campaign is to encourage small businesses to make a net zero commitment via the UK Business Climate Hub and get help and advice on reducing their emissions. Tens of thousands of small and micro businesses were reached through this initiative and over 2,400 UK small businesses have pledged to go green and reduce their emissions.
Various sources suggest a rebound in emissions in 2021, along with the economic recovery after the pandemic, to just below 2019 levels.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Gap report 2021 estimated total global emissions of 58.1Gt CO2 for 2019 (the latest year available for all greenhouse gases). Fossil fuel CO2 made up 37.9Gt, but fell 5.4% to 36Gt CO2 in 2020. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and Global Carbon Project suggest a rebound in 2021 with an increase on 2020 levels of 4.8-4.9% in CO2.
Various projections from UNEP, IEA, BloombergNEF and others suggest plateauing or slowly growing emissions beyond 2021 if we don’t increase global action. This underscores the need to urgently increase both ambition and action to deliver the commitments made at Glasgow, and go further to continue closing the gap to 1.5°C.
The Glasgow Climate Pact, combined with increased ambition across adaptation, finance and mitigation means that 1.5°C remains in sight, but only with concerted and immediate global efforts.
The pact will speed up the pace of climate action this decade, with all countries agreeing to revisit their emissions targets in 2022, as well as developed countries agreeing to double support for action on adapting to climate change by 2025.
Following the outcome of Spending Review 2021, the Government is currently considering the resourcing level needed for the Insolvency Service to undertake its statutory functions which includes the additional proposed enforcement requirement contained in the Ratings and Director Disqualification Bill should that be passed by the House. That process is on-going, with budgets set to be finalised ahead of the next financial year.