Michelle Donelan

The UK has a resilient energy market with diverse supply. The Government is committed to phasing out Russian coal and oil by the end of the year and LNG as soon as possible thereafter.

The Government is working to maximise the effectiveness of European gas networks, including the UK’s LNG terminals and interconnectors, which are playing a role in reducing in European reliance on Russian gas.

The Government is working closely with partners across the G7, including Germany, Italy, France and the European Commission, IEA, OPEC+ and others to stabilise energy prices and to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels to starve Putin’s war machine.

The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property)(England and Wales) Regulations 2015 require that all landlords of domestic (and non-domestic) privately rented properties in England and Wales ensure that, from 1 April 2018, their properties reach at least an energy performance rating of E before granting a tenancy to new or existing tenants, unless a prescribed exemption applies.

The regulations require Government to carry out a review of the operation and effect of these Regulations at intervals of no more than 5 years, and we are currently putting in place a programme of qualitative and quantitative research to inform this. Evidence collected will be used to determine the scope and timing of an assessment of the benefits from the regulations, and to help ensure they are implemented as effectively as possible.

The Government has considered the potential for molten salt reactor technology to contribute to the UK’s energy mix. In 2014 Innovate UK funded a study examining the feasibility of developing a pilot scale reactor for six molten salt reactor designs. In 2015 the Government commissioned the Techno-Economic Assessment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), to which a molten salt reactor developer contributed evidence. There are currently a number of molten salt reactor vendors participating in the UK SMR Competition and Government officials have met with them to discuss their proposals.

In the development of all its policies, including tidal stream, Government routinely considers the potential benefits and costs to the consumer, the economy and the environment as part of the overall energy mix.

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) independently advises the Government on the trajectory of the National Living Wage (NLW).As part of their remit, the LPC continues to consult a broad range of stakeholders within the social care sector on the impact of the NLW.

Furthermore, from April 2017, the Spending Review makes available social care funds for local government, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019/20, to be included in the Better Care Fund.

From 2016/17, local councils have also been able to introduce a Social Care Precept, allowing them to increase council tax by 2% above the existing threshold. This could raise nearly £2bn a year for social care by 2019/20. Taken together, these measures mean that local government has access to £3.5 billion of support by 2019/20 - the funding it needs to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament.

DCMS provides funding to community arts projects in England through a number of our arm’s-length bodies.

Arts Council England is committed to supporting community arts projects, and has identified "Cultural Communities" as a key focus of its 10 year strategy “Let’s Create”.

One example of Arts Council's investment in communities is through their Lottery-funded Creative People and Places programme. There are 41 CPP programmes covering 58 local authority districts across the country. This programme targets the least engaged places in England and has recently joined the national portfolio. Arts Council have invested over £38 million for the period 2022-25.

As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) is equally committed to making a lasting difference to heritage, people and communities. NLHF provides National Lottery grants from £3,000 up to £5million for projects that connect people and communities to the national, regional and local heritage of the UK. The relevant regional office should be contacted for further information on how to apply for this funding.

The DCMS arm's-length body Historic England have successfully launched their Working-class grants, receiving over 200 applications and doubling their funding pot. The grants recognise and celebrate Working Class Histories that link people to overlooked historic places.

The National Lottery Community Fund is the arm’s-length body of DCMS which gives grants to organisations in the UK to help improve their communities. In 2021-22, as part of the National Lottery Community Fund Awards For All programme, 12,000 awards were made, reaching 90% of all UK wards, and includes support for a range of arts and cultural activities.

The National Lottery Community Fund also made available £22 million towards the Platinum Jubilee to fund impactful community projects and to help people celebrate the Jubilee.

Ofcom has a statutory duty to review the affordability of broadband services. In March 2022, Ofcom reported that 55,000 households had taken-up a social tariff, and 16% of eligible households were aware that the support existed.

In April, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport wrote to providers asking them to do more to promote their social tariffs and ensure low-income households are aware of the support available to them. On 27 June, all the UK’s major broadband and mobile operators agreed a set of new public commitments to support families through the global rising cost of living, which includes increasing efforts to promote their low-cost social tariff offers.

DCMS does not collect data on social tariff take-up, but we continue to work closely with the industry and Ofcom to monitor take-up levels.

The government fully recognises the major benefits of holding the British Grand Prix, given its status in the UK sporting calendar and the considerable wider economic opportunities it provides. The British Racing Drivers' Club have kept government informed about their discussions on the future of British Grand Prix, and this dialogue will continue. This is primarily a commercial matter between the British Racing Drivers' Club and Liberty F1 to progress.

The Department of Health and Social Care decided, as part of the reforms to healthcare education funding, to provide an exemption from equivalent or lower qualification (ELQ) rules for new students starting undergraduate pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses from 2017/18 to allow students to receive support for these courses as a second course.

This exemption has now been extended to new students starting pre-registration courses in dental profession subjects and pre-registration postgraduate courses in nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions from 1 August 2018. As students on paramedic science courses could already access the standard student loan system, these courses were not included in the reforms noted above, and therefore they do not attract this exemption from the ELQ rules.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Care to decide which healthcare courses should be in scope of receiving an ELQ exemption.

The Government believes all pupils should have access to an excellent, well-rounded education. All schools must provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school.

The national curriculum, provides many opportunities for pupils to develop knowledge and skills in a wide range of creative subjects, including art and design, music and design, and technology.

We have announced almost £400 million of funding in 2016-20 for a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes that are designed to improve access to the arts for all children, regardless of their background, and to develop talent across the country. This includes £300 million for music education hubs in 2016-20 and over £8 million in 2016-18 for cultural education programmes including Saturday Art and Design Clubs, the National Youth Dance Company and the BFI’s Film Academy programme. It also includes £58 million for the Music and Dance Scheme and £27m for the Dance and Drama Awards Scheme (both in 2016-18), which allow exceptionally talented children and young people to attend specialist music, dance and drama institutions.

The Department for Education’s latest participation figures suggest that the cost of travelling to education or training is not deterring young people from participating post-16. At the end of 2016, the proportion of academic age 16 and 17-year-olds (those young people under a duty to participate) in education or an apprenticeship rose to 91.1% - the highest level since consistent records began in 1994.

The statutory responsibility for transport to education or training for 16 to 18 year olds rests with local authorities and they are expected to make appropriate decisions bearing in mind local circumstances.

While arrangements made by authorities do not have to include free or subsidised transport, most young people do have access to a discount or concession on local bus or train travel, either from their local authority, transport provider, school or college. The £180 million 16 to 19 Bursary Fund is available to help disadvantaged young people to access education and training, and is often used to help with transport costs.

The Government takes the welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children extremely seriously and the UK has contributed significantly to hosting, supporting and protecting the most vulnerable children affected by the migration crisis.

The Government committed to increasing the number of foster carers as part of our wider safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children. In September, we commissioned the Refugee Council and ECPAT to deliver training for foster carers and support workers to support them in looking after unaccompanied asylum seeking or refugee children. We have also committed to evaluating the need for any additional training required by foster carers looking after these children. Further information on our safeguarding strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/safeguarding-unaccompanied-asylum-seeking-and-refugee-children

Computer science has been included in the science element of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) since 2014. To enter the EBacc science pillar, pupils can enter core and additional science GCSE; enter GCSE science double award; or enter three single sciences at GCSE. The single sciences are biology, chemistry, computer science and physics.

A time series of the total number of entries in GCSE computer science for the last three years is published as part of the “Revised GCSE and equivalent results in England: 2014 to 2015 (revised)” statistical first release (SFR).[1]

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/502685/SFR01_2016_Subject_Timeseries.xls (“Subject time series tables: SFR01/2016” document)

The Government is committed to take action to mitigate climate change and to adapt to its impact. We are introducing three schemes that reward environmental benefits: the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery. Together, these schemes are intended to provide a powerful vehicle for achieving the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan and our commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, while supporting our rural economy. Through them, farmers and other land managers may enter into agreements to be paid for delivering public goods including adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

The Government has also published the Net Zero Strategy which sets the UK on a clear path to net zero by 2050 and set out key commitments such as ensuring 75% of farmers in England will be engaged in low carbon practices by 2030, rising to 85% by 2035. More recently in the Food Strategy we have set out the funding available for innovation in farming and agriculture.

The UK announced an Agriculture Breakthrough goal at COP26 - "to make climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture the most attractive and widely adopted option for farmers everywhere by 2030" - and the intention to build country support for this in 2022. This is part of the Breakthrough Agenda which was launched at the COP26 World Leaders Summit. The Breakthrough Agenda is a commitment from countries to work together internationally this decade to accelerate the development and deployment of the clean technologies needed to meet our Paris climate goals, ensuring they are affordable and accessible for all.

The UK provides funding to the CGIAR, the world's leading agricultural science and innovation organisation, which delivers cutting edge technology and evidence-based solutions to tackle global challenges in the food system, saving and improving millions of lives. CGIAR research is projected to deliver a reduction of 0.6 gigatonnes CO2e each year by 2030. CGIAR rice innovations alone have scope to reduce global emissions by 0.5% - equivalent to 40% of total UK emissions.

The Government has also announced specific measures to support farmers with rising input costs including changes to statutory guidance to the "Farming Rules for Water"; increased grants funding to boost R&D; and bringing the Basic Payment Scheme forward so that 50% of its payments are made this summer to improve cash flow for farmers.

The Food Standards Agency has provided guidance to Trading Standards Officers and businesses setting out how flexibility in enforcement of labelling rules may be applied to alleviate supply challenges and maintain supply of foods into retail. Feedback has been that industry welcomes these actions, and the main ask going forward is for us to carefully review the supply situation before reverting to a 'full compliance' model of enforcement.

Defra is taking a number of actions to maintain food security and reduce pressures on prices. The Government launched a package of measures to reduce the impact of cost of living concerns, including: nine new GMO authorisations to provide alternative sources for maize, removing tariffs on US maize, bringing forward BPS payments for farmers and delaying measures that would have imposed costs on businesses.

Furthermore, G7 Leaders have pledged to provide increased humanitarian assistance with priority recipients should include countries facing acute food insecurity (for example Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen), and countries facing potential food riots (such as Egypt).

The UK’s ambitious Free Trade Agreement programme diversifies sources of supply, contributes to our food security and resilience and supplements our strong domestic production.

Farming in England is going through the biggest change in a generation. These unprecedented times mean that it is all the more important that the Government's approach to working with the farming sector changes too. Defra is continuing to improve its policies and services, making them more effective, fairer, flexible, accessible and more workable for farmers. The Government has announced a range of measures in England in response to the turbulence of the current market.

In response to the global rising costs around the price of fertiliser, Defra released new guidance to help farmers in limiting their use of slurry and other farmyard manure at certain times of the year.

Defra also announced changes to the use of urea fertiliser - delaying a planned industry farm assurance scheme which was due to start this year by at least a year. This will help farmers to manage their costs, giving them more time to adapt.

Defra has set up a Fertiliser Taskforce to address the impact of global supply pressures on farming, seeking to improve market confidence, whilst providing famers with the information they need to make business decisions on fertiliser use.

Additionally, Defra announced a permanent change to the way we make payments under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). We know that the price of agricultural commodities has always been closely correlated to energy prices - meaning farmers carry an increased risk on their profit and loss account, creating increased pressure on short term cash flow. We will now make BPS payments in two instalments (one from the end of July, the other December). This will give farm businesses an advanced injection of cash - with the hope of enabling farmers to make business decisions with more confidence in these uncertain times. To provide further support we have also increased Countryside Stewardship rates by an average of 30%.

Farmers are now able to apply for funding under the Sustainable Farming Incentive. The initial offer pays farmers for taking care of their soil or assessing the condition of moorland. We have to set out plans to rollout payments for actions related to nutrient management, hedgerows and integrated pest management, and will confirm the full details of these standards before the end of the year.

The Government has no specific plans to ensure that supermarket bags for life are made from fabric rather than plastic. All bags have environmental impacts during their life cycle. The charge for single use plastic bags aims to encourage the re-use of all bags and thereby reduce waste and littering. Our 25 Year Environment Plan sets out measures to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042.

Since the charge was introduced in England retailers have donated proceeds of approximately £95 million towards a variety of good causes covering the arts, education, environment, health, heritage and sports as well as local causes chosen by customers or staff.

The legislation requires large retailers to report what they do with the money from the charge and the department in line with the regulation publishes records supplied by retailers on GOV.UK website by 31 July each year.

The regulations do not specify where the proceeds of the charge are distributed, but retailers are expected and encouraged to donate the proceeds of the charge (after deducting VAT and other reasonable costs) to good causes such as charities or community groups. Our data shows that over the 18 months since the charge was introduced at least £95 million was donated to a variety of good causes covering the arts, education, environment, health, heritage and sports as well as local causes chosen by customers or staff.

The Single Use Carrier Bags Charges (England) Order 2015 is due for review before 5 October 2020, which will require an assessment of cost and benefits. Any changes to amend the policy ahead of this timeframe will be considered as part of the Government’s forthcoming resources and waste strategy.