Matt Vickers

This government’s strategic vision is to maximise benefits of drone technology – for the economy and for communities – whilst ensuring their emergence is both safe and secure, and respecting the needs of local communities across the country.

The future aviation sector is central to delivering on the Government’s missions, including kickstarting economic growth and delivering opportunities for all across the country.

My Department and I remain committed to delivering on the five future of flight strategic outcomes, which include demonstration and then routine use of drones operating Beyond the operator’s Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) at scale, and initial demonstrations of piloted electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flights, followed by routine use and autonomous operations.

Investment in the North’s transport infrastructure is of great importance and City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) has a key role to play in continuing to transform local transport across the region. The Government recently committed a further £200m towards CRSTS in 2025/26 at the Budget, and we will confirm allocations for all CRSTS places, including Tees Valley, in the coming weeks. The previous Government made several funding commitments beyond 2025/26, which we are currently examining through a Spending Review, expected in spring 2025.

As part of the Department’s ongoing transformation, we are increasing our use of automation, improving our underlying technology, and increasing the number of citizen self-service opportunities where it is appropriate to do so, meaning that, despite increased demand on our services, more of our time can be deployed onto the activities that support our customers at the point of demand.

Youth unemployment in 2010 was high following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds for Jul-Sep 2024 is 14.8% (4.5 percentage points lower than in Jul-Sep 2010). In recent quarters the youth unemployment rate has been increasing. It has increased by 2.8 percentage points on the year.

To address this our plan to get Britain working includes a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work to reduce the number of young people not earning or learning. We are working with eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers areas to test new ways of supporting young people into employment or training, by bringing together and enhancing existing programmes in partnership with local areas. We expect the trailblazers to launch from Spring 2025.

The White Paper also sets out a range of measures to prevent youth inactivity before 18 – including an expansion of work experience and careers advice, action to tackle school attendance and steps to improve access to mental health services for young people

Recent unemployment estimates are subject to heightened volatility due to ongoing data quality problems with the ONS Labour Force Survey. This is particularly the case for the 16 to 24-year-old group, which as a smaller population group has wider margins of error than whole population estimates. Additionally, data prior to Jun-Aug 2011 has not been re-weighted by the ONS causing a discontinuity.

The Government is committed to tackling the challenges women face in the labour market and takes seriously the challenges they face in balancing work with other life events. The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public authorities to consider impacts on those with protected characteristics, including sex, when exercising their functions, like making decisions. Female participation in the labour market grew substantially over the 2010s, predominantly driven by changes to the female State Pension Age. In recent years, participation has stalled and has only grown by 0.9 percentage points in the last 5 years, and the employment rate for women aged 16-64 currently stands at 72.1%. (Source: Labour Force Survey, Jul-Sep 2024).

As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, too many women who care for their families still experience challenges staying and progressing in work. This is reflected in the higher rates of female inactivity and unpaid carers, and contributes to the gender pay gap. The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out how it will take a system-wide approach to reducing barriers to work, including measures to make it easier to access affordable childcare and manage caring responsibilities alongside work.

The Secretary of State, and ministers, regularly meet with Cabinet and ministerial colleagues, regarding a range of matters.

Our ambitions are to reverse the trend of inactivity, and to raise both productivity and living standards whilst improving the quality of work. To help achieve this, we have set a long-term ambition to achieve an 80% employment rate, demonstrating our commitment to bringing those furthest away from the labour market into it, increasing local labour supply.

Achieving our ambitions requires a cross-government approach, which is why the Employment Rights Bill will make work more secure, boost wages, and help people thrive by supporting them into and to get on in work.

On 19 November, Secretary of State wrote to the Work and Pensions Select Committee to share internal government modelling produced by the Department outlining estimates of the number of pensioners estimated to move into poverty as a result of the policy change. This letter is available here Winter Fuel Payments eligibility change - Letter from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The latest modelling shows that compared to the numbers that would have been in poverty without this policy, it is estimated that:

(a) there will be an additional 50,000 pensioners in relative poverty after housing costs in 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2027/28 and an additional 100,000 pensioners in relative poverty after housing costs in 2026/27, 2028/29 and 2029/30.

(b) for all other measures of poverty, it is estimated that there will be an additional 50,000 pensioners in poverty each year from 2024/25 to 2029/30.

The poverty impacts represent the change in the numbers in poverty as a result of the policy change only. They are not an estimate of the change in overall poverty each year or over time and should not be added together or interpreted as cumulative data.

It's important to note that this modelling is subject to a range of uncertainties meaning the poverty impacts are rounded to the nearest 50,000 individuals and the nearest 0.1 percentage point which should be taken into account when interpreting the results. This means that small variations in the underlying numbers impacted can lead to much larger changes in the rounded headline numbers.

The modelling does not account for any other measures announced at the Autumn Budget. The modelling also does not include any impacts on Pension Credit take-up as a result of the changes to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility.

The Prime Minister has been clear that means-testing the Winter Fuel Payment is not a decision that the Government wanted to take but given the £22 billion black hole in the economy, tough choices had to be made to fix the foundations and restore economic stability to make everyone better off in the long term.

Last year Winter Fuel Payments cost around £2 billion and were paid to pensioners regardless of their income. Given the dire state of the public finances the Government has inherited, it’s right that the Government targets support to those who need it most while the Government continues our work to stabilise the economy.

But the Government will continue to stand behind vulnerable households this winter, including through delivering the £150 Warm Home Discount for low-income households from October and extending the Household Support Fund with £421 million to ensure local authorities can support vulnerable people and families. The Government will also ensure around 1.3 million households in England and Wales will continue to receive up to £300 in Winter Fuel Payments, and the new state pension will increase by around £470 next year, which will significantly outstrip any loss for pensioners of the winter fuel payments.

In addition, the Government and industry have worked together to deliver a £500m Winter Support Commitment for customers, which will help customers most in need by providing credit on bills, enhanced debt write-off schemes, and increased funding for charity partners to target hard to reach customers.

The Government continues to urge anyone who thinks they may be entitled to Pension Credit to check now, as all eligible claims can be backdated, and anyone who makes a successful claim will receive their payment. Over a million pensioners will still receive the Winter Fuel Payment and our drive to boost Pension Credit take up has already seen a 145% increase in claims. Anyone who makes a successful claim for Pension Credit before 21 December and meets the eligibility criteria will receive both Pension Credit and a Winter Fuel Payment, and the Government has deployed more than 500 additional staff to process the increase in Pension Credit claims.