Mohammad Yasin

Since April 2019, the Windrush Compensation Scheme has paid over £67 million in compensation.

The Scheme has reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, following completion of eligibility checks and a Preliminary Assessment, from 18 months to under 5 months.

The Home Office continues to listen to feedback from stakeholders and the communities and make improvements the scheme and the way it operates to ensure people receive the maximum compensation at the earliest point possible.

As part of the Jet Zero Strategy, government co-invests in zero-carbon aircraft technology through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme. To date, it has supported collaborative R&D projects totalling over £500m which will help develop new and enabling technologies for zero emission aircraft.

Government provided a £15m grant to the ATI-led FlyZero project, which found that green liquid hydrogen offers the greatest potential to power future zero-carbon emission aircraft. Building on FlyZero, government is funding the ATI-led ‘Hydrogen Capability Network Phase 0 Project’ to accelerate the development of liquid hydrogen propulsion aircraft technologies, capabilities and skills in the UK.

Government also set up the Jet Zero Council, a partnership with industry to drive the ambitious delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions. It includes a focused Zero Emission Flight Delivery Group to advise on how government and industry can put the UK in a leading position in the race to achieve zero emission flight.

The Government recognises the important roles that renewables developers, contractors and suppliers play in contributing to the achievement of its net zero targets.

The Government has provided significant additional funding for renewable energy projects this autumn. Provisions include support via the next Contracts for Difference Allocation Round, funding for renewables manufacturing, and investment tax measures.

The Supply Licence requires suppliers to offer a wide choice of payment methods and must include payment by cash and in advance through Pre-payment Metres. Some suppliers have stopped providing a Giro Payment slip on bills to encourage customers to switch to online or telephone banking, but these suppliers must provide a giro payment if requested in-line with their Supplier Licence Conditions.

Ofgem rules state that consumers can ask for their credit on an open energy account to be refunded at any time. Suppliers are required to comply with refund requests in a timely manner unless it is fair and reasonable for them to refuse.

In February 2023, Ofgem completed a Market Compliance Review on Direct Debits. Through this intervention they secured supplier improvements in relation to credit balance arrangements, including improved refund timescales ensuring consumer credit balances are returned promptly when requested, and the creation of formal Direct Debit and Credit Balance Refund policies where these did not previously exist.

Monitoring of employees by employers must not breach the duty of trust and confidence implied into an employee's contract of employment and must comply with the European Convention of Human Rights, Data Protection legislation and Equality Act 2010. Employers are neither expressly permitted to monitor employees, nor are they prohibited from doing so.

Organisations that process workers’ personal data for the purposes of monitoring their activities or surveillance must comply with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA’). This means that the data processing must be fair, lawful and transparent.

The UK GDPR and the DPA are administered and enforced independently of the government by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO publishes a range of advice and guidance for organisations on their data protection obligations.

The ICO have been consulting on draft guidance on the data protection considerations which are likely to be relevant if an employer is minded to use tracking or surveillance technologies to monitor the activities of employees. The draft guidance discusses the need for employers to make workers aware of the nature, extent and reasons for the monitoring unless exceptional circumstances mean that covert monitoring is necessary. The draft guidance, entitled Employment practices: monitoring at work can be viewed on the ICO’s website.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Strangford on 17th June 2022 to Question 14492.

On 20 April 2022, the Government published its response to the consultation ‘Reforming Competition and Consumer Policy – Driving growth and delivering competitive markets that work for consumers’. The response reaffirmed our commitment to boosting consumer rights and preventing scams and rip-offs, including proposals to make subscriptions easier to exit. The Government will legislate to implement the reforms when Parliamentary time is available.

In order to meet our net zero commitment, we must transition away from fossil fuel heating systems. We are developing policies to support the deployment of low carbon heating supporting consumers financially to help them transition away from fossil fuel heating through initiatives such as the Renewable Heat Incentive. We are spending £2.8bn between 2018 and 2021 through the Renewable Heat Incentive, to support the deployment of low carbon technologies such as heat pumps.

We also recently launched the Green Homes Grant vouchers scheme meaning homeowners and residential landlords can receive up to £5000 towards the installation of an approved low carbon heating measure. In due course we shall be setting out our proposals for the decarbonisation of heat in the Heat and Building Strategy.

In addition, in the Future Homes Standards consultation, which closed 7 February, we proposed that new homes should have 75-80% fewer CO2?emissions than ones built to current building regulation standards.?This will not be achievable using conventional gas boilers in new build properties. We will respond to this consultation in due course.

Technology and innovation are important for growing the UK’s aerospace sector. Through the Aerospace Growth Partnership, the Government and industry are investing a total of £3.9 billion from 2013 to 2026 in aerospace research and development. Funding is directed by the UK’s Aerospace Technology Strategy, which focuses on developing future aircraft while reducing the environmental impacts of aviation and raising the competitiveness of the UK sector.

We are also investing a further £300 million in the Future Flight Challenge, which provides funding to develop future air transport systems that will include electric and autonomous flight.

Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. Having access to high quality facilities is central to this.

Through the pandemic, Sport England has provided £220million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35million Community Emergency Fund. This includes 164 awards to tennis totalling £787,879 through Covid funding since March 2020. Sport England also invested £2,084,948 in the Lawn Tennis Association as part of the rollover of NGB national funding in 2021/22.

In January 2021, Sport England also published their strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ and as part of this have committed an extra £50million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Beyond Covid, Sport England has awarded £14,807,641 to tennis projects since 2017, 101 of which had elements of capital investment (totalling £2,474,618). Sport England also made 578 awards to multi-sport projects (totalling £38,199,899) where tennis is expected to benefit in the same period.

The Government continues to work closely with the Lawn Tennis Association and local partners to support the maintenance and development of these facilities.

Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. Having access to high quality facilities is central to this.

Through the pandemic, Sport England has provided £220million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35million Community Emergency Fund. This includes 164 awards to tennis totalling £787,879 through Covid funding since March 2020. Sport England also invested £2,084,948 in the Lawn Tennis Association as part of the rollover of NGB national funding in 2021/22.

In January 2021, Sport England also published their strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ and as part of this have committed an extra £50million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Beyond Covid, Sport England has awarded £14,807,641 to tennis projects since 2017, 101 of which had elements of capital investment (totalling £2,474,618). Sport England also made 578 awards to multi-sport projects (totalling £38,199,899) where tennis is expected to benefit in the same period.

The Government continues to work closely with the Lawn Tennis Association and local partners to support the maintenance and development of these facilities.

The Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) is a £200million grant scheme which helped organisations to meet service costs where they were experiencing increased demand and/or short-term income disruption. Funding is distributed and administered by The National Lottery Community Support Fund (TNLCF).

Under the terms of the scheme, all funding had to be distributed and spent by recipients in the 2020/21 financial year. TNLCF began awarding grants in early July 2020 and, as of 15 March 2021, 99.9% of the funding had been disbursed to over 8,000 organisations.

Grant agreements are between TNLCF and grantees, and grants were initially intended to cover a six month period. However, successive lockdowns put additional pressure on charities to deliver, and not all projects were able to go ahead as envisaged. Where this was the case, TNLCF encouraged flexibility within terms of the grant agreement to help grantees adapt and continue to deliver their ambitions. This included some extensions to grants where appropriate.

The Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) is a £200million grant scheme which helped organisations to meet service costs where they were experiencing increased demand and/or short-term income disruption. Funding is distributed and administered by The National Lottery Community Support Fund (TNLCF).

Under the terms of the scheme, all funding had to be distributed and spent by recipients in the 2020/21 financial year. TNLCF began awarding grants in early July 2020 and, as of 15 March 2021, 99.9% of the funding had been disbursed to over 8,000 organisations.

Grant agreements are between TNLCF and grantees, and grants were initially intended to cover a six month period. However, successive lockdowns put additional pressure on charities to deliver, and not all projects were able to go ahead as envisaged. Where this was the case, TNLCF encouraged flexibility within terms of the grant agreement to help grantees adapt and continue to deliver their ambitions. This included some extensions to grants where appropriate.

The Guidance on searching for archaeological finds in England during Covid-19 (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-on-searching-for-archaeological-finds-in-england-during-covid-19) on the gov.uk website explains how the legal restrictions in force in England from 5 November under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions)(England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 impact the activity of metal detecting. In particular, the guidance outlines the effect of the restriction on leaving home without reasonable excuse (under regulation 5), and the exception to that restriction (in regulation 6(2)(d)) which permits a person to visit a "public outdoor place" for the purposes of open air recreation." The definition of a “public outdoor place” for this purpose does not include privately owned land to which the general public does not have access.

The Levelling Up Premium (LUP) is designed to incentivise the recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics. It is too early to evaluate its overall impact, but it is informed by previous pilots. An evaluation of Early Career Payments found they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.

The eligibility criteria for the LUP defines a subject specialist as a teacher who either holds a degree in the eligible subject or has completed an initial teacher training (ITT) course specialising in the eligible subject. Most hours of teaching in the eligible subjects are taught by a teacher with a relevant post A level qualification.

The quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor for improving pupil outcomes. Although the department recognises that some teachers are not subject specialists, it is vital that we retain subject specialists in the LUP-eligible subjects in the early years of their career.

Last year the department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools received a pay award of 6.5%, which is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years. The 2023/24 award also delivered the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country.

The intentions of the reforms to qualifications at Level 3 and below are to streamline the qualifications landscape, simplify choices for students, and only fund qualifications that are high-quality and lead to good progression outcomes. By ensuring that approved qualifications meet new, more rigorous criteria, young people can be confident that they will be able to progress to university and higher technical education and directly into apprenticeships and skilled employment.

Qualification reform puts A levels and T Levels at the heart of study programmes. Qualifications reforms are being undertaken in cycles.

Criminology qualifications will be considered in cycle 2 of the qualification’s reforms. An announcement, on which qualifications will be approved and which will see funding removed, will be made in 2025 and will be implemented from 1 August 2026. For students interested in the police, prison service, and other uniformed or emergency services, large applied general qualifications in uniformed protective services will remain funded until 2026. After this, qualifications in these subjects will either be approved as small alternative academic qualifications (AAQs), or technical qualifications mapped against relevant Level 3 occupational standards. Criminology is contained in the sector subject area of sociology and social policy. This sector subject area also contains a sociology A level which will serve students wishing to progress to higher education.

Students will have the option to choose A levels or a mixed study programme. A student aspiring to be a police constable for example, could study a small AAQ alongside appropriate A levels such as law, physical education, or sociology. Alternatively, they can study a relevant technical occupational entry qualification, which will be based on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education approved occupational standards. These have been designed by employers to give the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed for the occupations to which they pertain. Consequently, criminology has not been listed as an area where the department would accept a small AAQ.

Over the last six months the department has invited all providers to attend one of ten in-person events in five cities across England to support them in understanding the details and timeline for reform and to provide information to help planning and designing their curriculum offer. The department has launched a set of web pages that provide colleges with the information they need. These web pages can be found here: https://support.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb/sections/16829562632850-Qualifications-Review.

The department will continue to support schools and colleges through online information, future guides and events as the dates where the new qualifications landscape is introduced move closer.

Qualifications reform aims to streamline the qualifications landscape, simplify choices for students and only fund qualifications that are necessary, high-quality and lead to good progression outcomes.

Between October 2020 and January 2021, the government consulted on proposals to reform post-16 technical and academic qualifications at Level 3. A subsequent policy statement, published in July 2021, considered all the evidence submitted by consultation respondents. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforms-to-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-in-england.

Qualification reform places A levels and T Levels at the heart of study programmes, which evidence shows provide the best foundation to progress, either into higher education (HE) or skilled employment. The department recognises there is a need for alternative academic qualifications (AAQs) in a small range of subjects aimed at progression to HE, to support the A level offer. The department will fund small AAQs where they are necessary because there is no A level in the sector subject area or where it is strategically important to do so.

Qualifications reforms are being undertaken in cycles. Criminology qualifications will be considered in cycle 2. An announcement, on which qualifications will be approved and which will see funding removed, will be made in 2025 and implemented from 1 August 2026. Criminology is contained in the sector subject area of sociology and social policy which also contains a sociology A level that will serve students wishing to progress to HE. For those wishing to progress into other careers, such as police or prison officer, they could undertake small AAQs in subjects such as uniformed protective services alongside A levels such as physical education and sociology. Our reforms also allow for technical occupational entry qualifications to be developed. Consequently, criminology has not been listed as an area where the department would accept a small AAQ.

An impact assessment was undertaken to consider the post-16 reforms at Level 3 as a whole, which can be read here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.

For students from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented groups, the department expects the impact to be generally positive, as those learners will see the biggest improvement in the quality of qualifications, and their outcomes thereafter. Students are expected to benefit from a more rigorous qualification system, with qualifications that better equip students with the necessary skills for progression into employment or further study. This in turn should help improve their economic returns and employability. However, the department recognises that for a small minority of students, Level 3 may not be achievable in future. That is why the department is raising the quality of qualifications at Level 2 and below so that there is plenty to offer students from all backgrounds who cannot access Level 3 straightaway, or for students who wish to exit into valuable occupations at Level 2.

There will also be provision available for students who require additional help and support to reach Level 3. This includes the academic progression programme pilot and the T Level foundation year, where the department has seen 49% of students progress to Level 3 or higher from the first cohort.

In 2018, the government conducted a public consultation to invite proposals to add activities to the published GCSE, AS and A level PE activity lists. To be included on the list, activities needed to meet the five criteria set out in the consultation and had to be sports recognised at the time by Sport England.

Martial arts, such as judo, ju jitsu, karate, and taekwondo, were put forward for consideration, but failed to meet criterion five. They were found to have too many variations which would make it too difficult for teachers and moderators to reliably assess.

The department currently has no plans for a review of the PE activity lists. The government wishes to provide certainty for schools by not changing the lists of eligible activities on a regular basis. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the inclusion or non-inclusion of an activity on the list does not represent a view on the legitimacy or value of the activity. Activities are included based solely upon whether they meet the criteria set out in the consultation and therefore their suitability as a means of assessing students’ skills as part of a PE qualification.

In March 2023, the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan committed to testing a suite of SEND and AP policy proposals. The Change Programme is a vehicle for testing these proposals. Since the Change Programme launched in September 2023, the department has been working with the Change Programme authorities, including Bedford which is the lead local authority for the East of England Change Programme Partnership (CPP).

The effectiveness of the Change Programme will be measured through a formal independent evaluation for which the department has appointed an independent evaluator to conduct a process and implementation evaluation of the SEND and AP Change Programme as a whole. The evaluation will help the department understand which elements of the change programme are working well or less well and help shape suitable recommendations for improving ongoing delivery and future policy and practice.

As the Change Programme partnerships test the reforms they will feedback as to what is and is not working.

This feedback loop, led by the department and the change programme delivery partner, REACh, will not only help understand effectiveness but will also allow the department to share any early insights into the effectivity of reforms more widely. Feedback is received through the department’s frequent meetings with REACh.

The EPR sandbox led by UKFT, and funded by UK Government is using data to explore a system that incentivises circular economy principles across the textiles supply chain. We look forward to the results of this project later this year.

Since publication of Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste we have been engaging with stakeholders across the supply chain to develop the proposals for the consultation and build the evidence base for the impact assessment. The consultation is our priority, but we are open to other suggestions from the industry about what the most effective interventions could be, including how a potential Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles could work.

We are collaborating with our delivery partner the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on the Textiles Waste Hierarchy. It will be a comprehensive guide for organisations that will be impacted by the proposals and those who handle used textiles. By including examples of good practice and case studies we hope, once developed, it will help organisations and citizens navigate changes that will reduce textiles waste across the supply chain.

A response was published on 12 February 2024. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.

In 2023 the National Bee Unit (NBU) – part of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) - located and destroyed 72 Asian hornet nests. The NBU has been taking action against Asian hornet since 2016 and has a fine-tuned response. They frequently find a nest within a day of an initial sighting being reported. Previously the highest number of nests the NBU had dealt with in one year was 4. Nevertheless, the NBU drew on further resources from wider APHA to provide an effective response to this unprecedented number of Asian hornet nests.

Asian hornet is inactive over winter, normally between November and March. During this period any new queens released from nests in the autumn hibernate. Only a proportion of these will survive and go onto create new nests in spring. Therefore, no further contingency action will be taken until the spring when the hornets start becoming active.

We are developing further plans for 2024 which will be announced prior to the spring. The NBU will continue to respond to credible sightings of Asian hornet and eradicate any nests that are located.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water setting out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. The National Framework for water resources sets out in detail how the Government, regulators and regional groups, including water companies, will work together to improve water resources management. This includes reducing demand, halving leakage, developing new water supplies and moving water to where it is needed.

Earlier this year, regional water resources groups and water companies consulted on their draft water resources plans. These statutory plans set out how each company will secure water supplies sustainably for at least the next 25 years. Within their plans, water companies consider all options, including demand management and water resources infrastructure, such as desalination. The draft water resources management plans contain proposals for multiple new schemes by 2050, including 9 new desalination schemes, 9 new reservoirs, 11 new water recycling schemes, and several new internal and inter-company transfers to share resources.

The Government’s 2018 Resources & Waste Strategy for England identified textiles as a priority sector for action. Our ambitions to minimise textile waste will be outlined in the upcoming document Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste, which constitutes a new Waste Prevention Programme for England. We expect to publish this in summer 2023.