Meg Hillier

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is privately owned, and the process for its closure is industry-led. The PSTN closure will be undertaken in a phased approach with areas shutting down over the coming years with the final exchange expected to turn off in 2025.

While PSTN withdrawal is an industry-led process, the Government and Ofcom are working together to ensure consumers and sectors are protected and prepared for the withdrawal process.

The PSTN network will be replaced with new All-IP technology - such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This technology is higher quality and more reliable than the existing PSTN network and will guarantee a better quality of service. All-IP requires a stable internet connection of approximately 0.5Mbps. Where it is not possible to deliver such a service to a premise, the service provider will be required to offer an alternative technological solution - such as Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SoGEA).

Ofcom has a statutory duty to further and protect the interest of consumers, including those who are vulnerable. As part of this duty, Ofcom has rules in place, known as general conditions, which all providers must follow, that mandate communication providers to have procedures and policies in place to identify and support vulnerable consumers.

Ofcom has also published a Vulnerability Guide for providers, setting out their expectations and good practice on how vulnerable telecoms consumers should be supported. This includes steps providers can take to identify vulnerable consumers, and an expectation that all providers implement specialist teams in order to provide extra support.

The telecoms industry - via the Broadband Stakeholder Group - have been collaborating on this issue, and in June 2020 launched a consumer-facing website as a resource to inform the public of the process. This website was developed with the support of telecoms companies, Ofcom and DCMS and is funded by TechUK. (https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/)

If an individual is concerned about the PSTN withdrawal process, or would like further information, they should contact their telecoms service provider who will be able to provide specific support.

Data is provided in the table below for those Civil servants in “the politically restricted” category. As set out in the Civil Service Management code this is members of the Senior Civil Service and civil servants at levels immediately below the Senior Civil Service, plus members of the administrative and European Fast Stream Development Programmes.

*This data reflects officially published 2020/21 data submitted to the Cabinet Office Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) report. Fast-stream numbers include all fast-streamers at DCMS not just those on administrative and European schemes.

The Department has produced a number of high level guidance documents in partnership with stakeholders on how relevant sectors should operate in a Covid secure environment as restrictions are eased.

However, it is for event organisers to determine whether to use reusable cups at outdoor events. There is no government guidance which prevents the use of reusable cups.

As announced at the 2020 spending review, DCMS is undertaking a Spring review of all DCMS support for out-of-school services for young people. Whilst the external engagement exercise closed on 7 March, the review is still ongoing and findings will be published in due course.

Since June 2020, we have announced over £3 billion to help children to catch up, including over £950 million in flexible funding to schools and £1.5 billion for tutoring. Over 500,000 children were invited to take part in summer schools nationwide. Over 200,000 have started tutoring, with more starting shortly.

We are lowering the reconciliation threshold for the Education and Skills Funding Agency grant funded Adult Education Budget (AEB) (adult skills including non-formula funded community learning and 19-24 traineeships) and Advanced Learner Loan Bursary fund providers for the 2020-21 academic year, from 97% and 100% respectively to 90%.

The 90% now proposed for the current funding year is, therefore, a relaxation of the normal rules for the benefit of all grant-funded providers and their learners.

In areas where the AEB has been devolved, Mayoral Combined Authorities or the Greater London Authority are responsible for considering any provider flexibilities in their areas.

We are monitoring the situation carefully and, in particular, if there are providers that may need further support.

The Turing Scheme is backed by £110 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021.

The Turing Scheme is an education mobility scheme. International opportunities for young people outside of formal education settings, such as youth groups, are being considered as part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport-led Youth Review, which was commissioned by Her Majesty's Treasury at the 2020 Spending Review.

Our Export Strategy has a range of measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their exports. It includes initiatives such as the Export Champions, which facilitates peer-to-peer learning between businesses, allowing them to learn through exporting success stories and build business networks.

Our UK-wide Export Academy delivers webinars and events to build the exporting capabilities of small businesses, while also centrally coordinating the Department for International Trade’s capability building activities, including building effective networks and in 2021/22 UK Export Finance provided £7.4bn in support for UK exports, directly supporting 545 UK businesses, of which 81% were SMEs.

Any changes made to under 18s concessions in London will ensure that any child eligible for free home to school travel under the Education Act 1996 will still receive this. The Department is carrying out an Equalities Impact Assessment which will help consider categories of children that should continue to receive free transport.

My officials are working with the Department for Education, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Transport for London and London Boroughs on the Equalities Impact Assessment which will be published in due course.

It is the customers responsibility to choose whether to make an application for Universal Credit. There is no evidence to suggest any actions the Department has taken or should have taken are influencing that choice.

It is not feasible to undertake this comparative assessment.

The latest estimates of Pension Credit take-up relate to the financial year 2018/19 and are representative of the GB population.

Estimates of take up of income related benefits can be found in the following publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2018-to-2019

In September 2013, there were 20 practices registered in Hackney South and Shoreditch, with 18 practices registered in October 2022.

Practices close for a variety of reasons, including practice mergers or retirement. A reduction in practice numbers does not indicate a reduction in the quality of care. When a practice closes, patients are informed and advised to register at another local practice of their choice. Practices and commissioners must put in place appropriate measures to ensure that affected patients have access to general practitioner services.

This information is not available in the format requested.

The Department is not aware of the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit being referred to.

At the Budget on 11 March 2020 the Chancellor of the Exchequer said, “… whatever extra resources our NHS needs to cope with coronavirus – it will get.”

On 13 April, the Chancellor announced COVID-19 funding of £14.5 billion, of which £6.6 billion related to health services.

To date, the Department has been allocated COVID-19 revenue funding of £3,373 million and capital funding of £40 million in the Main Supply Estimate. Due to the timing of Main Estimates, it was agreed that further budget cover would be provided at Supplementary Estimates. The Government continues to support the National Health Service to access the resources it needs to tackle COVID-19.

The Department is not aware of the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit being referred to.

At the Budget on 11 March 2020 the Chancellor of the Exchequer said, “… whatever extra resources our NHS needs to cope with coronavirus – it will get.”

On 13 April, the Chancellor announced COVID-19 funding of £14.5 billion, of which £6.6 billion related to health services.

To date, the Department has been allocated COVID-19 revenue funding of £3,373 million and capital funding of £40 million in the Main Supply Estimate. Due to the timing of Main Estimates, it was agreed that further budget cover would be provided at Supplementary Estimates. The Government continues to support the National Health Service to access the resources it needs to tackle COVID-19.

The Department is not aware of the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit being referred to.

At the Budget on 11 March 2020 the Chancellor of the Exchequer said, “… whatever extra resources our NHS needs to cope with coronavirus – it will get.”

On 13 April, the Chancellor announced COVID-19 funding of £14.5 billion, of which £6.6 billion related to health services.

To date, the Department has been allocated COVID-19 revenue funding of £3,373 million and capital funding of £40 million in the Main Supply Estimate. Due to the timing of Main Estimates, it was agreed that further budget cover would be provided at Supplementary Estimates. The Government continues to support the National Health Service to access the resources it needs to tackle COVID-19.

We are deeply concerned about the appalling human rights violations in China and the deterioration of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. We keep all evidence and potential designations under close review, guided by the objectives of the relevant sanctions regime. It is not appropriate to speculate about future sanctions designations as to do so could reduce their impact.

On 22 March, under the UK’s Global Human Rights sanctions regime, the Foreign Secretary announced asset freezes and travel bans against four senior Chinese government officials and one entity responsible for the gross violations of human rights of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.

On 22 February, the Foreign Secretary delivered a Ministerial Statement at the UN Human Rights Council – the first time a UK Foreign Secretary has done so since 2010. He highlighted our deep concerns about the human rights violations being perpetrated against Tibetans, Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China, and underlined the need for urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UK also led the first two joint statements on the persecution of the Uyghurs and other minorities at the UN, and we have worked tirelessly with partners to raise the issue up the international agenda.

On 12 January, the Foreign Secretary announced robust domestic measures in respect of UK supply chains to help ensure that British businesses are not complicit in human rights violations in Xinjiang.

The Foreign Secretary has personally raised our serious concerns with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on a number of occasions.

4,727 businesses made import declarations on CHIEF in 2021. As of week, commencing 7 November 2022, 3,440 businesses are using the full service on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), with over 86% of import declarations now being made on CDS. 1,287 businesses have yet to subscribe to CDS. 1,231 businesses are in the Trader Dress Rehearsal, which allows businesses to practice making declarations in CDS.

Out of 1,653 businesses that applied for an extension to use CHIEF until 31 October 2022, 263 are yet to subscribe to CDS.

Out of 2,485 businesses that applied for an extension to use CHIEF beyond 31 October 2022, 470 are yet to subscribe to CDS.

As of 16 November 2022, c600 businesses have a valid extension to use CHIEF to allow them to complete training or because of issues with their third-party software. HMRC is working with these third-party software providers to resolve their issues and is tracking their progress.

4,727 businesses made import declarations on CHIEF in 2021. As of week, commencing 7 November 2022, 3,440 businesses are using the full service on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), with over 86% of import declarations now being made on CDS. 1,287 businesses have yet to subscribe to CDS. 1,231 businesses are in the Trader Dress Rehearsal, which allows businesses to practice making declarations in CDS.

Out of 1,653 businesses that applied for an extension to use CHIEF until 31 October 2022, 263 are yet to subscribe to CDS.

Out of 2,485 businesses that applied for an extension to use CHIEF beyond 31 October 2022, 470 are yet to subscribe to CDS.

As of 16 November 2022, c600 businesses have a valid extension to use CHIEF to allow them to complete training or because of issues with their third-party software. HMRC is working with these third-party software providers to resolve their issues and is tracking their progress.

Following the announcement of the Small Brewers Relief (SBR) review at the 2018 Budget, the Treasury conducted a survey of brewers between January and March 2019. An update on the review was provided to Parliament in July 2020, outlining the Government’s initial conclusions. In January 2021 a technical consultation was launched to gain further feedback from brewers. The information provided by the consultation will be used alongside the data from the 2019 survey to inform final policy decisions.

Further updates will be provided after the close of the consultation.

The information requested is not available in a reportable format.

Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.

Section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 created the offence of selling any knife, knife blade, razor blade, axe or any other article which has a blade or which is sharply pointed and which is made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, to a person under the age of 18. In Scotland, the word ‘axe’ has been added to this list of prohibited items. Originally the age limit was 16 and this was raised to 18 by the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006

The Home Office does publish data on how many initial asylum applications are awaiting a decision and by duration , but only up to and including June 2021. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2021/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement

The Home Office are unable to state how many asylum seekers have been granted permission to work as a result of the time take taken for the Department to process their cases in the last 12 months as the data is only held on paper case files or within the notes sections of the Home Office's databases. Therefore, the number of asylum seekers granted permission to work is not held in a reportable format.

However, the Home Office do publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision or further review and can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics, Asylum applications awaiting a decision, by duration:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-applications-decisions-and-resettlement

The Home Office does publish data on how many initial asylum applications are awaiting a decision and by duration , but only up to and including June 2021. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2021/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement

The Government has accepted in principle the all the LGBT Veterans Independent Review's recommendations. Whilst we agree with the intent behind them, there are a number we will deliver in a slightly different way to that described in the report. Many of the recommendations are complex and it is vital that we carefully consider their delivery to ensure the best outcomes for those affected.

Responding to the LGBT Veterans Independent Review and delivering its recommendations remains a high priority for the Government. Further detail on the delivery of the recommendations will be included in our full response, which will be published shortly. In the meantime, the Government encourages anyone that was impacted by the historic policy to explore the support, services, and restorative measures available to Veterans, by visiting the LGBT Veterans: Support and next steps GOV.UK page.

The Government is providing £5.1 billion, including £4.5 billion through the Building Safety Fund, to address the fire safety risks caused by unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings. This will be used where the original developer and/or the building owner are not funding the works. We will be opening the next phase of the Building Safety Fund at the earliest opportunity.