Mark Eastwood

The process of policy formation in the Church Commissioners takes into account a wide range of views, including those of bishops. The Commissioners will consider on a case by case basis any approaches from regional or local authorities wanting to submit expressions of interest for new Investment Zones that include land owned by the Commissioners.

The Agricultural Land Classification was reviewed as per the Agricultural Land Classification Map for Yorkshire and the Humber region (ref 10-111c). The site is identified as grade 3 agricultural land and referenced within the Planning Statement. The Environmental Impact Assessment submitted with the application looks at the impact of the development on soil.

Disclosure remains one of the most important and complex issues in the criminal justice system, and it is a priority for this Government to encourage improvements in disclosure practice in order to ensure the disclosure regime operates effectively, fairly, and justly. The first annual review of the operation of the Attorney General’s Guidelines on Disclosure has just been completed and will be published imminently. That review involved close collaboration with policing, the CPS and others in the criminal justice system and has led to some important amendments to the guidelines which should aid front line policing, particularly in relation to the development of an annex on redaction.

The new approach of the Guidelines gives clear guidance on only providing relevant information to the CPS, for example by cutting footage from body worn video or only including relevant message chains not an entire phone image. In this way there is less to redact, thereby helping the burden felt by front line policing and the CPS.

The Government does not hold the data requested.

Government wants to see postmasters compensated as quickly as possible. Over £148 million has been paid to 2,700 victims, and we encourage anyone impacted to use the three compensation schemes available.

The consultation on the new approach to domestic upholstered furniture fire safety is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. The consultation will include draft regulations and will set out a proposed timetable for introducing the new approach.

The consultation on the new approach to domestic upholstered furniture fire safety is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. The consultation will include draft regulations and will set out a proposed timetable for introducing the new approach.

The consultation on the new approach to domestic upholstered furniture fire safety is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. The consultation will include draft regulations and will set out a proposed timetable for introducing the new approach.

The Department does not have the legal mandate to intervene in matters concerning private contracts between customers and their energy suppliers. Any disputes should be first raised with the energy supplier, and if necessary, escalated to the Energy Ombudsman.

According to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com, over 98% of premises in the West Yorkshire County can access a superfast broadband connection. Additionally, 88% of premises are able to access a gigabit-capable connection, up from 12% in December 2019. There is a thriving market of over 100 providers investing nearly £40bn rolling out gigabit broadband all over the UK.

As part of Project Gigabit, we recently announced a Project Gigabit contract in West Yorkshire and parts of North Yorkshire. This contract has a value of £60 million and will further extend gigabit-capable coverage to around 28,000 hard-to-reach premises.

As the UK’s designated postal operator, Royal Mail is responsible for the last mile delivery of NHS vaccination letters. The Government is working closely with Royal Mail to ensure that these letters are prioritised. As a private company, Royal Mail is responsible for its day-to-day operations.

We are determined to seize the economic opportunities of the net zero transition, including supporting up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. The UK has a strong base to build upon – there are already over 460,000 jobs in low carbon businesses and their supply chains across the country.

We are investing in the UK’s workforce to ensure that people have the right skills to deliver our transition to net zero. This summer, BEIS and DfE Ministers jointly hosted a roundtable with businesses and academics along with DfE to discuss skills and net zero, which is the start of a sustained work programme to take forward policy in this area.

We will formally respond to the Committee on Climate Change June 2020 Progress Report on Reducing UK emissions in October.

The regulations have always identified homeware, building supplies and hardware stores as being among those businesses which may be regarded as legal exceptions to the requirement to close.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 does not include a definition on what constitutes a homeware retailer. It is for each business to assess whether they are a business exempt from closing having considered the Regulations.

Where stores do remain open they are strongly advised to do so only where staff and customers can adhere to PHE guidelines on social distancing.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have met with FIFA and UEFA at Ministerial and Official level on an on-going basis as part of the engagement with industry in relation to the Football Governance Bill, which received its First Reading on 19 March 2024. During these engagements, discussions have included the compatibility of the ` Independent Football Regulator’s regulatory regime with FIFA’s and UEFA’s own regulations. We are confident that the Bill is compatible with FIFA and UEFA rules and will not lead to financial and sporting sanctions being placed on football clubs by FIFA or UEFA. We will continue to engage FIFA and UEFA as the Bill moves through parliament.

Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health.

On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England.

Outdoor grassroots sport and outdoor organised team and sports participation events have been allowed to resume from Step 1b (29 March), but spectators are not permitted at sporting events taking place on private land at Step 1b, with the exception of adults only where they are needed to supervise under-18s that they have a responsibility for or providing care or assistance to a person with disabilities participating in an organised sporting event or activity. These adults should maintain social distance and not mix with other households.

This does not prevent people from viewing recreational or organised sport that is taking place in a public space (e.g. a park) at Step 1b or Step 2 (12 April), in groups of up to 6 people or 2 households. However, sporting events that are intended to attract spectators (including ticketed events), or events that are likely to attract a significant number of spectators (e.g. a major marathon), should not take place in a public space, or on private land, until Step 3 (no earlier than 17 May).

The Chancellor announced on 5 January another £4.5 billion in new lockdown grants to support businesses and protect jobs. This includes one-off top up grants to be delivered by local authorities for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, worth up to £9,000 per property, to help them through to the spring. A £594 million discretionary fund has also been made available to support other impacted businesses. Local authorities will receive the funding for these one-off grants next week, and we encourage them to make payments to businesses as soon as possible.

All local authorities in England will receive a top-up worth a total of £500m to their allocation from the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), which has already provided local authorities with £1.1 billion. This funding will ensure that local authorities can make discretionary grants to businesses which are not eligible for the LRSG (Closed) but which are nonetheless experiencing a severe impact on their business due to the national lockdown.

Eligibility for the one-off grants, as well as the existing LRSG (Closed) grants, is automatic. Businesses should contact their local authorities for more information on how to receive these grants, and in some cases they will need to provide additional information to their LAs.

Local authorities will run application schemes for the ARG, including for the £500m top-up, and will have significant discretion when it comes to deciding which businesses receive payments. Businesses should contact their local authorities for more information.

ARG guidance for LAs was first published on 3rd November 2019 and is updated regularly: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities

The Chancellor announced on 5 January another £4.5 billion in new lockdown grants to support businesses and protect jobs. This includes one-off top up grants to be delivered by local authorities for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, worth up to £9,000 per property, to help them through to the spring. A £594 million discretionary fund has also been made available to support other impacted businesses. Local authorities will receive the funding for these one-off grants next week, and we encourage them to make payments to businesses as soon as possible.

All local authorities in England will receive a top-up worth a total of £500m to their allocation from the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), which has already provided local authorities with £1.1 billion. This funding will ensure that local authorities can make discretionary grants to businesses which are not eligible for the LRSG (Closed) but which are nonetheless experiencing a severe impact on their business due to the national lockdown.

Eligibility for the one-off grants, as well as the existing LRSG (Closed) grants, is automatic. Businesses should contact their local authorities for more information on how to receive these grants, and in some cases they will need to provide additional information to their LAs.

Local authorities will run application schemes for the ARG, including for the £500m top-up, and will have significant discretion when it comes to deciding which businesses receive payments. Businesses should contact their local authorities for more information.

ARG guidance for LAs was first published on 3rd November 2019 and is updated regularly: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities

DCMS officials are working at pace on plans for the Youth Investment Fund, and continue to assess how COVID-19 is impacting on young people and youth services. We continue to engage with the youth sector as plans develop, and will publish further details in due course.

We are making over £100 million of funding available to support Education Investment Areas over the course of the Spending Review period. The Levelling Up White Paper, published on 2 February 2022, set out some of the support that will be available to schools in these areas.

In these new Education Investment Areas, the department will offer retention payments to help schools keep the best teachers in the highest priority subjects.

To drive up standards rapidly, schools in these areas that have been judged less than Good in successive Ofsted inspections could be moved into strong multi-academy trusts, to attract more support and the best teachers. This will be subject to a consultation in the spring.

Our Schools White Paper will set out further details on the funding available to Education Investment Areas, as well our plans to make a wider programme of support available to a priority subset of these areas.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Review will set out our plan to improve provision for children with SEND across England. It will be published in the first 3 months of 2022.

The Government has an ambitious agenda for animal welfare and conservation reforms, which we continue to take forward during this Parliamentary session. We will continue to introduce and support legislative and non-legislative reforms where possible.

Since the publication of the Action Plan, we have delivered on key manifesto commitments: we have increased the penalties for those convicted of animal cruelty, passed the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 and launched the Animal Sentience Committee. We have made cat microchipping compulsory and have announced the extension of the Ivory Act (2018) to cover five endangered species. In addition, we have provided for penalty notices to apply to animal welfare offences, introduced new police powers to tackle hare coursing, and banned glue traps.

We are pleased to have introduced the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill to deliver our manifesto commitment to end this trade. The Bill will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury caused by exporting live animals.

In December 2023, the Government laid the Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2023 in Parliament and published the summary of responses to its 2023 consultation on Licensing of specialist private primate keepers in England.

Defra maintains a close working relationship with the zoo sector, and we will continue to build upon this to identify non-legislative improvements.  We aim to publish updated zoo standards early this year, which we have developed in collaboration with the sector and the Zoos Expert Committee, which raise standards and support enforcement.

Whilst no specific analysis has been undertaken for individual locations, policies regularly undergo evaluation or post implementation reviews to assess their effectiveness in meeting their animal welfare objectives.

In 2021, we worked closely with the veterinary profession to provide greater assurance that alternatives to euthanasia are explored before a healthy dog is put down. Following these discussions, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons agreed that vets should scan the microchip in these circumstances to check whether anyone else has an interest in the dog who might provide an alternative to euthanasia. This has been included in the guidance underpinning the Code of Professional Conduct. This applies to all veterinary surgeons practising in the United Kingdom.

Simpler Recycling will significantly increase the tonnage of household and business municipal food waste collected for recycling or composting in England, contributing towards Net Zero. The impact assessment accompanying our 2021 consultation estimated that over two metric tonnes of additional food waste per annum would be separately collected by 2030 under our central scenario for these reforms. These figures are being revised for our Final Impact Assessment on Simpler Recycling which will be published in due course.

We are committed to working with our friends and allies in the Commonwealth to remove unnecessary barriers to free and fair trade, strengthen trading relationships, and building better, greener and more resilient global supply chains.

Of the 55 other Commonwealth members, we have trade agreements with 33 and an additional 16 qualify for preferential access to the UK market under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme.

There are no current plans to proceed with a Commonwealth New Deal as we are negotiating an ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) at unprecedented pace to help our nation become a truly Global Britain. We are progressing negotiations to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as well as negotiating FTAs with India, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

In England, the majority of bus services outside London operate on a commercial basis. Where commercial service provision is insufficient to meet the needs of local communities, local authorities can subsidise bus services where this represents value for money. This ensures that service provision is aligned with local needs.

The Government recognises the importance of local bus services to ensuring communities can stay connected, including in rural areas, and has announced over £4.5 billion to support and improve bus services since 2020.

The over £4.5 billion includes:

o £2bn pandemic funding between March 2020 and June 2023, followed by £300m in further service support until April 2025 (of which £160m is BSIP+ (not included in the £2bn BSIP funding below) and £140m is BSOG+ funding);

o £2bn Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding, including £1bn for LTAs in the North and the Midlands recently reallocated from HS2 (of which we have already announced allocations for the first £150m in 2024/25 and allocations for 25/26 onwards will be published in due course);

o Nearly £600m of funding for the £2 fare cap until the end of 2024.

From the Bus Service Improvement Plan funding, West Yorkshire Combined Authority has been allocated over £90 million so far. The Department’s guidance to local authorities on developing their BSIPs explains that these must cover their full area and all local bus services within it. This funding should, therefore, benefit services in Dewsbury.

The Government also makes over £200 million available to bus operators every year through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) to help them maintain their network. A further £42 million in BSOG funding is provided directly to local authorities to help subsidise socially necessary bus services that might otherwise be commercially unviable, helping to support rural bus routes. West Yorkshire Combined Authority receives over £2 million of this funding every year.

The Government is also providing £20 million through the Rural Mobility Fund in England to trial 16 innovative demand responsive minibus services to better understand the challenges associated with introducing bookable bus services in rural and suburban settings.

In the last 12 months, Active Travel England has awarded West Yorkshire Combined Authority £2,530,967 of revenue funding through the Capability Fund, and £17,430,668 of capital funding through the fourth tranche of the Active Travel Fund. This funding has been provided to support active travel as a whole in the region and is not split between walking and cycling. West Yorkshire Combined Authority decides on how this funding is allocated locally.

Annual payments are also made to West Yorkshire Combined Authority for Levelling Up Fund and City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement Schemes. This includes a £330,000 scheme for a Dewsbury-Batley-Chidswell bus, cycling and walking corridor.

The Department is currently preparing a revised draft of the circular in light of feedback from a range of key stakeholders, including local government and police force representatives, as to what the guidance should contain. We plan to further engage with interested parties on this revision, with a view to publishing in due course.

Air services between the United Kingdom and other countries are governed by a portfolio of bilateral air services agreements, which set the framework in which airlines from both countries operate. Our agreement with Pakistan does not place any restrictions on the frequency or nature of direct air services. Any airline from the UK or Pakistan, designated under this agreement, can operate between any points in the two countries.

However, it is for individual airlines to determine whether to take advantage of the rights and routes available to them within any air services agreement. Market conditions, such as the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, often affect the commercial considerations of airlines.

My Department’s officials and the Civil Aviation Authority stand ready to assist any UK or Pakistan airline which wants to operate between the two countries.

As I mentioned to my hon. friend in the chamber this morning, the Government has recently made £350 million available to add another 209 stations to the Access for All programme. The stations he mentioned (Dewsbury, Shepley and Mirfield) were not successful in that round of money, but I would be delighted to meet and work with him to ensure that those stations get the funding they deserve, because our rail network needs to be accessible for everybody. Furthermore, Dewsbury and Mirfield stations are part of the TransPennine Route Upgrade programme which includes options to improve accessibility.

Throughout the duration of the Kickstart scheme, over 30,000 employers took on a young person, providing them with the opportunity to gain experience that would improve their chances of progressing to find long-term, sustainable work. Essential to this effort has been employers, including B&M retail, Superdrug, McColls, JD Sports and CDS Superstores, who were the top recruiters, taking over 8,000 Kickstart participants between them. As of the 4^th July, around 30,000 young people had yet to complete their Kickstart jobs.

As of May 2022, around 7 in 10 people were in paid employment 10 months after starting their Kickstart job. This figure is subject to revision and it includes participants who left their Kickstart Scheme job in less than six months.

The Kickstart evaluation will continue to assess the longer-term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six-month jobs, the fieldwork for the commissioned evaluation will continue until at least 2023. We will publish the findings once complete.

Notes section:

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme. The information provided on the number of employers is based on PAYE numbers, if an employer has more than on PAYE, they may be included in this figure more than once. In addition, the number quoted for young people in paid employment is based on those whose earnings are reported via RTI so does not include some groups such as the self-employed.

Pension Credit applications and take up have improved dramatically following the Pension Credit awareness campaign in April, and the Pension Credit Day of Action on 15 June; this involved work with broadcasters, media, newspapers and other stakeholder partners who were encouraged to reach out to pensioners to promote Pension Credit through their channels.

Although not all claims can be directly attributed to the campaign, early indications are that the day of action has been highly effective. Our internal management information suggests there have been over 10,000 Pension Credit claims made during the week of the media day – an increase of 275% compared to the same week in 2021, which itself was an enhanced week due to the 2021 Pension Credit Action Day.

The impact of these claim volumes on numbers of successful awards and on Pension Credit take up will take longer to establish given the usual cycle involved in producing those statistics. However, the campaign is ongoing including a particular focus on getting the private sector to drive forward efforts to enhance claims, and specific effort to reach out to communities who have traditionally not claimed Pension Credit. That work is very much ongoing.

As of 29 June, we estimate that at least 505,400 unemployed Universal Credit claimants and Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants have moved into work during the Way to Work Campaign between 31 January and the end of 26 June 2022.

This total figure is composed of our into work measure to the end of May (over 386,000) and our internal management information up to 26 June (58,900). We are now also able to include JSA claimants who have moved into work between 31 January and 9 June 2022 (35,100) into our total. Furthermore, we have also included those claimants with a sanction in place that moved into work during the period of the campaign up to 26 June (25,400). Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency and timeliness.

The number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments that have been carried out (a) face to face, (b) remotely, including telephone and video, and c) paper based, can be found in the tables below.

Please note:

• All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10
• Proportions are based on actual values and may not add up due to rounding
• Clearances volumes relating to remote channels and face-to-face after March 2020 are calculated from weekly MI and are representative of performance. All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the Assessment Providers
• Please note: the above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards

Provider performance is measured across a range of service level agreements setting out the department's expectations for service delivery. These include quality, performance delivery targets and customer experience.

For the years 2013 - 2022, the number of assessments per channel are:

With channel proportion as:

For more information, monthly performance measures against targets can be found in the attached PDF document.

Under their public health responsibilities, local authorities in England commission or provide a range of health services for their local populations. Some of these services are likely to involve the use of medical devices.

Public health funding to local authorities has increased each year over the Spending Review period. In 2024/25 the total Public Health Grant to local authorities will be £3.603 billion. In addition, we have provided additional targeted investment to local authorities in England for drug and alcohol addiction treatment and recovery, and services that support the best start in life, and from April 2024 we will double current investment in local authority stop smoking services, in support of our commitment to deliver a smoke-free generation.

This overall funding package will deliver a real-terms increase of more than 4% over the two years 2023/24 and 2024/25 in departmental funding allocated for local authority public health functions.

In 2019, 79.7% of all general practitioner (GP) appointments were face-to-face across England. 84.5% were face-to-face in the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in the same period. In 2023, 72.2% of appointments were face-to-face in November 2023 in the West Yorkshire ICB and 67.9% were face-to-face nationally. GP appointment data for December 2023 has not yet been published, thus we are unable to provide a figure for all of 2023.

The National Health Service is clear that GPs must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations, and patients’ input into consultation type should be sought and their preferences for face-to-face care respected, unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.

Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offer a variety of tests, including several recommended for use in diagnosing of dementia. CDCs are an essential part of our plans to separate urgent and elective care and thereby reduce waits for diagnosis.

NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated care board (ICB) level. It has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates, including by rurality, ethnicity, and age. This work will provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at local level, and is available via the FutureNHS collaboration platform.

NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board has a dedicated diabetes programme and system wide diabetes leadership team which includes representation from National Health Service organisations, including acute trusts and primary and community care, and local authorities. The West Yorkshire diabetes programme team is working together to deliver national diabetes programmes to prevent the onset of and improve the lives of people living with diabetes across West Yorkshire, including Dewsbury.

Kirklees Health and Care Partnership completed a full review of diabetes services across Kirklees in 2023. Extensive engagement with the Kirklees communities took place via a community champions project. Kirklees Health and Care Partnership invested £155,000 to support the community champion engagement and, in voluntary organisations, to develop new services for communities to access help to both prevent the onset of diabetes and support self-management.

The most recent data for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer in West Yorkshire shows a 23-day average from an urgent referral for suspected cancer to diagnosis. This data is based on median values, taken across a twelve-month period from November 2022 to October 2023 inclusive.

Patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer can be diagnosed via other routes, such as when presenting as an emergency case in an unplanned care setting, or as an incidental finding when referred for another elective condition or suspected abnormality, either urgently or non-urgently. Data for these alternative presentation routes in the format requested is not held.

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) travel advice is to help British nationals make informed decisions about foreign travel. The Government's overriding concern is always the safety and security of British nationals. Whether travel is essential or not is a personal decision. Travellers may have urgent family or business commitments to attend to. Circumstances differ from person to person. Only individuals can make an informed decision based on the risks.

There has been no contribution from the UK Government to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (the Protocol) Investment Fund. The UK does not hold information on the contributions of other Parties.

The Investment Fund is not yet operational and requires an Oversight Committee to be established. We would expect fundraising to commence after this is formed.

There has been no contribution from the UK Government to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (the Protocol) Investment Fund. The UK does not hold information on the contributions of other Parties.

The Investment Fund is not yet operational and requires an Oversight Committee to be established. We would expect fundraising to commence after this is formed.