Rupa Huq

As of 31 December 2021, there are 13 outstanding applications in Ealing Central and Action. Outstanding applications are defined as registrations where eligibility is yet to be determined. Applicants should provide any information requested by the Department promptly to make sure that their registration is processed without delay.

Section 19 (6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 states that any person who makes representations seeking to change a development plan document must (if they so request) be given the opportunity to appear before and be heard by the person carrying out the examination. Further details of the Government’s planning reforms will be announced in due course.

Local planning authorities are required to undertake a formal period of public consultation of no less than 21 days, prior to deciding a planning application. Effective consultation allows local planning authorities to identify and consider all relevant planning issues associated with a proposed development. Where relevant considerations are raised by local residents, these must be taken into account by the local authority before a decision is made.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to PQ 73892 on 22 November 2021.

The Government has no intention of extending full voting rights to all UK residents after a qualifying period of residency. Citizenship restrictions are the norm for participating in national elections in most democracies, including the UK.

The right to vote in UK Parliamentary elections is restricted to British citizens and those with the closest historic links to our country.

The Government is committed to bring in a Better Deal for Renters, including improving tenants' security by abolishing Section 21, or so-called 'no fault', evictions. The primary merit of abolishing Section 21 is enabling tenants to rent with certainty, ensuring that they will not be asked to leave without being given a fair reason. Another benefit of abolishing Section 21 is that it will grant tenants greater protection from retaliatory evictions if they complain about poor standards, which in turn could help to improve standards in the private rented sector. Our reforms will also make sure that landlords have a route to regain possession where they have a valid reason to do so. This is important to mitigate any potential negative consequences of abolishing section 21.

We have consulted in 2019 on how the reformed tenancy regime should operate and received nearly 20,000 responses. We are carefully considering the responses, including the impact of the pandemic, as we develop the detail of the reforms. We are undertaking regular engagement with key stakeholders to inform this and will publish a White Paper detailing our proposals in due course.

We remain committed to delivering our reforms to the Private Rented Sector. Our priority is to bring forward a considered White Paper that works for landlords and tenants and it is important that we take the time to get the policy development right. We are working hard with stakeholders from across the sector to inform this and are making good progress. We will provide more details on publication in due course.

The legal requirement for relevant organisations to publish gender pay gap data each year, set out in the Equality Act 2010, has not changed. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has, due to the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed employers until 5 October 2021 to report their gender pay gap information for 2020/21. Extending the deadline by six months was the correct decision.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published its independent report in March this year, which included a recommendation on ethnicity pay gap reporting. We welcome the opportunity to consider the Commission’s findings on this matter, and to consider them in light of the work that has already taken place within government. As well as consulting on ethnicity pay gap reporting, we have met with businesses and representative organisations to understand the barriers towards reporting and what information should be published. We have also run a methodology testing exercise with a broad range of businesses to better understand the complexities outlined in the consultation.

We recognise the importance of transparency and awareness when it comes to ensuring equal pay. Under the Equality Act 2010 it is unlawful for an employer to stop employees from sharing information about what they earn, therefore protecting people who wish to discuss pay with their colleagues.

We want all LGBT people to be able to live and prosper in modern Britain. We listened closely to all those who responded to the consultation on the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and our response was published on 22 September 2020, stating that it is the Government’s view that the balance struck in this legislation is correct. There are proper checks and balances in the system as well as support for people who want to change their legal sex.

However, it is clear that we need to improve the process and experience that transgender people have when applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). That is why we are digitising the process and reducing the fee to lessen the administrative burden on individuals who want to legally change their gender and ensure that no one faces financial barriers when doing so. We want to make sure that applying for a GRC is as straightforward and dignified as possible.

Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 would require a public body, in taking strategic decisions, to have due regard to the desirability of exercising them in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage. As a “due regard” duty, this requires no specific action from the public body concerned, and risks becoming a tick-box exercise, complied with to minimise the risk of legal challenge rather than to promote real change in society. It is also wrongly focussed on equalising socio-economic outcomes rather than opportunities.

Instead this Government prefers to progress specific policies and practical actions that will deliver real change. We are promoting social mobility and tackling inequality through a range of initiatives – for example in education, through reforms to the welfare system, and by giving greater developmental devolution in England and rebalancing the economy through schemes such as the Towns Fund.

On 23 February, the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that employers will have an additional six months, until 5 October 2021, to report their gender pay gap information.

Employers can continue to report their gender pay gap information via the government website: https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/.

The Government is fully committed to women’s economic empowerment but, given the impact on the pandemic on businesses, extending the period employers have to report by six months is the correct decision.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparity is supported by a secretariat based in the Cabinet Office, who handle correspondence in line with the published departmental guidance and requirements as set out in relevant legislation. Those wishing to submit evidence to the Commission are encouraged to send contributions via email, noting that it may take longer to process items sent by post. Further details of the Commission, its work and how to contact them are published on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities

As outlined on the Commission website, the Commission will focus on areas including poverty, education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, and will look at outcomes for the whole population.

The Commissioners were appointed by the Prime Minister after a thorough process, and we are pleased to have such a diverse range of Commissioners that can bring a wealth of talent to their roles. The Commissioners are not remunerated for their roles and are not required to undertake unconscious bias training under their terms of appointment.

The secretariat to the Commission is made up of Cabinet Office staff, who were recruited in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

Any activities associated with the Commission will be handled in line with the relevant Cabinet Office policies ensuring effective use of public money and transparency in line with departmental annual reporting.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparity is supported by a secretariat based in the Cabinet Office, who handle correspondence in line with the published departmental guidance and requirements as set out in relevant legislation. Those wishing to submit evidence to the Commission are encouraged to send contributions via email, noting that it may take longer to process items sent by post. Further details of the Commission, its work and how to contact them are published on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities

As outlined on the Commission website, the Commission will focus on areas including poverty, education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, and will look at outcomes for the whole population.

The Commissioners were appointed by the Prime Minister after a thorough process, and we are pleased to have such a diverse range of Commissioners that can bring a wealth of talent to their roles. The Commissioners are not remunerated for their roles and are not required to undertake unconscious bias training under their terms of appointment.

The secretariat to the Commission is made up of Cabinet Office staff, who were recruited in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

Any activities associated with the Commission will be handled in line with the relevant Cabinet Office policies ensuring effective use of public money and transparency in line with departmental annual reporting.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparity is supported by a secretariat based in the Cabinet Office, who handle correspondence in line with the published departmental guidance and requirements as set out in relevant legislation. Those wishing to submit evidence to the Commission are encouraged to send contributions via email, noting that it may take longer to process items sent by post. Further details of the Commission, its work and how to contact them are published on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities

As outlined on the Commission website, the Commission will focus on areas including poverty, education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, and will look at outcomes for the whole population.

The Commissioners were appointed by the Prime Minister after a thorough process, and we are pleased to have such a diverse range of Commissioners that can bring a wealth of talent to their roles. The Commissioners are not remunerated for their roles and are not required to undertake unconscious bias training under their terms of appointment.

The secretariat to the Commission is made up of Cabinet Office staff, who were recruited in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

Any activities associated with the Commission will be handled in line with the relevant Cabinet Office policies ensuring effective use of public money and transparency in line with departmental annual reporting.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparity is supported by a secretariat based in the Cabinet Office, who handle correspondence in line with the published departmental guidance and requirements as set out in relevant legislation. Those wishing to submit evidence to the Commission are encouraged to send contributions via email, noting that it may take longer to process items sent by post. Further details of the Commission, its work and how to contact them are published on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities

As outlined on the Commission website, the Commission will focus on areas including poverty, education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, and will look at outcomes for the whole population.

The Commissioners were appointed by the Prime Minister after a thorough process, and we are pleased to have such a diverse range of Commissioners that can bring a wealth of talent to their roles. The Commissioners are not remunerated for their roles and are not required to undertake unconscious bias training under their terms of appointment.

The secretariat to the Commission is made up of Cabinet Office staff, who were recruited in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

Any activities associated with the Commission will be handled in line with the relevant Cabinet Office policies ensuring effective use of public money and transparency in line with departmental annual reporting.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparity is supported by a secretariat based in the Cabinet Office, who handle correspondence in line with the published departmental guidance and requirements as set out in relevant legislation. Those wishing to submit evidence to the Commission are encouraged to send contributions via email, noting that it may take longer to process items sent by post. Further details of the Commission, its work and how to contact them are published on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities

As outlined on the Commission website, the Commission will focus on areas including poverty, education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, and will look at outcomes for the whole population.

The Commissioners were appointed by the Prime Minister after a thorough process, and we are pleased to have such a diverse range of Commissioners that can bring a wealth of talent to their roles. The Commissioners are not remunerated for their roles and are not required to undertake unconscious bias training under their terms of appointment.

The secretariat to the Commission is made up of Cabinet Office staff, who were recruited in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

Any activities associated with the Commission will be handled in line with the relevant Cabinet Office policies ensuring effective use of public money and transparency in line with departmental annual reporting.

I refer the Hon Members to the answers given in Cabinet Office orals on 11 February. Guidance and published information are available on gov.uk.

We acknowledge the public’s interest in the publication of the report, however the report itself is the property of the independent ISC. As such it is not for the Government to publish ISC reports; it is for the ISC to lay them before Parliament. Once a new Committee has been established, it will be up to them to choose when they wish to publish it.

Members are appointed by the Houses of Parliament (having been nominated by the Prime Minister in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition). The Committee is being formed in the normal way and as quickly as current circumstances allow.

Four ministerial implementation committees focusing on health, public sector preparedness, economy, and our international response, have been established to coordinate, prioritise, and respond to the pandemic.

Shielding of the extremely vulnerable - those who suffer from the most serious underlying health conditions - is one of the Government’s top priorities. This work is being led by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Communities Secretary outlined some of this support recently and details are available here (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/communities-secretarys-statement-on-coronavirus-covid-19-2-may-2020--2)

In terms of our work to support other vulnerable people, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster outlined some of this work to the House of Commons last week, details of which are available here https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-04-28/debates/6B80ADC6-5AE0-404A-BF91-3924FAD111CE/PublicServices.

No one will be disenfranchised by confirming who they are. These are sensible plans to make our elections more secure. Everyone registered to vote will have the opportunity to do so. Any voter who does not have an approved form of ID will be able to apply, free of charge, for an electoral ID from their local authority.

Both the pilots and the Northern Irish experience demonstrate that showing ID does not reduce participation.

There is currently no provision to transfer proxy votes between people. Emergency proxy votes are granted in limited circumstances, to maintain the integrity of the electoral process. The Government has announced it will consider the process of emergency proxy applications and the circumstances in which they can be issued, when time allows.

Government has been consistently clear that we do not accept the inappropriate use by any employer of ‘fire and rehire’ as a negotiation tactic.

When employment disputes arise, the Government wants to ensure that employers and employees are able to resolve them quickly and effectively. Earlier this year, we asked Acas to produce comprehensive, clear guidance so that employers can explore all the options before considering ‘fire and rehire’, and to encourage good employment relations practice. This guidance was published on 11 November and is available at http://www.acas.org.uk/changecontract.

In 2019, an estimated 13.2% of all households in the Ealing Central and Acton Parliamentary Constituency were estimated to be in fuel poverty.

Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty, reducing energy bills and delivering warmer, safer homes for the most vulnerable. We consider improving the energy efficiency of homes to be the best long-term method of tackling of fuel poverty. Energy efficiency schemes include the Energy Company Obligation and the Sustainable Warmth Competition.

Since 2011, the Warm Home Discount has helped over 2 million low-income and vulnerable households each year with their energy costs. In the 2019/20 scheme year, which is the latest we have data for, around 1 million low-income pensioners in receipt of the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit received a £140 Warm Home Discount as an automatic rebate on their energy bills. Support is also available through the Winter Fuel Payment: £200 for households with somebody who has reached State Pension age and is under age 80; or £300 for households with somebody aged 80 and over. The Cold Weather Payment is also available to eligible households if the average temperature in their area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees celsius or below over 7 consecutive days.

The Government supports and funds the development and dissemination of techniques that Replace, Reduce and Refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs). This is achieved primarily through funding for the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs), who have committed £100 million through its research, innovation, and early career awards to provide new 3Rs approaches for scientists in academia and industry to use. This includes almost £27 million in contracts through its CRACK IT Challenges innovation scheme to UK and EU-based institutions, mainly focusing on new approaches for the safety assessment of pharmaceuticals and chemicals that reduce the use of animals.

The Government will shortly publish the Heat and Buildings Strategy which will set out a long-term plan to decarbonise domestic heating.

Cambo is not a new oilfield, it was licensed in 2001. The development proposal from Cambo is being scrutinised in line with robust regulatory procedures and no decision has yet been taken.

Oil and natural gas are still required for heating, cooking and transport, and are vital to the production of many everyday essentials like medicines, plastics, cosmetics and household appliances. While we are working hard to drive down demand for fossil fuels, there will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming years, as recognised by the independent Climate Change Committee, with the UK as net importers of both oil and gas.

Looking forward, the Government will introduce a climate compatibility checkpoint which will be used to assess whether any future licensing rounds remain in keeping with our climate goals. We have committed to launching the checkpoint by the end of 2021.

Research and development on thorium and related technologies in the UK remains active, including Research Council grants to UK universities to explore thorium-fuelled reactor systems and fuel cycle processes. The UK Government plans to continue in a similar approach to support future R&D into the use of thorium as reactor fuel.

The Government has regularly engaged with multiple stakeholders including the Department for Transport, manufacturers and automotive trade associations to discuss steps to help rectify supply chain shortages.

The Government recognises the severity of the semiconductor shortage and its impacts on vehicle supply chains. BEIS officials are working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) who are leading on this issue. DCMS is working closely with companies affected by this shortage to discuss interim support measures and supply solutions, as well as lobbying for a coordinated multilateral response through the G7. DCMS is also engaging bilaterally with key supplier countries like the US and Japan, to lobby for fair UK access to currently constrained supply and address systemic issues in the sector to avoid future repetition of the current shortage.

While we are working hard to drive down demand for fossil fuels, there will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming years as recognised by the independent Climate Change Committee. The UK is a net importer of both oil and gas and reducing domestic production would only lead to higher imports from other countries on a net basis.

The Cambo field was licensed in 2001 and 2004 and consent to proceed to production will be a matter for our expert regulators, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), and the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED), following their standard regulatory processes. As is normal for such a site, our regulators submit these proposals to extensive scrutiny, including a full environmental impact assessment and a public consultation. This process is currently underway.

We have always been clear that businesses are responsible for repaying any finance they take out. However, we recognise that some borrowers will benefit from additional flexibility with regards to their repayments. That is why we announced the Pay As You Grow measures last year.

Pay As You Grow is designed to provide Bounce Back Loan borrowers more time and flexibility over their repayments by giving them the option to:

• Extend the length of the loan from six years to ten.
• Make interest-only payments for six months, with the option to use this up to three times throughout the loan.
• Take up a six-month repayment holiday. This option is available once during the term of their loan.

Businesses are able to use these options either individually or in combination with each other. These are only available once a business has started making repayments on the loan. In addition, they have the option to fully repay their loan early and will face no early repayment charges for doing so.

The British Business Bank has a range of guidance and resources available to all businesses, including content on managing cashflow and a list of independent advice services. Details can be found at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/finance-hub/dealing-with-debt/.

Officials at the Intellectual Property Office (an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) which is responsible for policy development on the UK’s IP exhaustion regime have met with representatives of the UK book industry to discuss the potential impact of an international IP exhaustion regime on that industry. The Government will continue to do so as part of the public consultation on the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime.

The Government welcomes views from businesses and consumers and encourages interested parties to respond to the consultation.

The UK has one of the best employment rights records in the world. We have made good progress in bringing forward measures that add flexibility for workers while ensuring the protection of employment rights, such as banning the use of exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts.

An individual’s employment rights are determined by their employment status (employee, limb (b) worker or self-employed). Employees are entitled to all rights including unfair dismissal (subject to qualifying periods) and have responsibilities towards their employer. So-called “limb (b) workers” are only entitled to some rights such as the National Minimum Wage but have increased flexibility and fewer obligations to their employer. The self-employed generally have no employment rights but have complete flexibility in their work. We believe our three-tiered Employment Status structure provides the right balance for the UK Labour Market.

The Government received 94 written responses to the consultation on the sectors in scope of the mandatory notification regime. The responses were used to refine and narrow the definitions for the basis of secondary legislation to provide further clarity for parties on whether their proposed acquisition comes in scope of the mandatory notification regime.

There were substantial responses for each sector definition and the responses received were representative of the key areas of the economy. This included investors, individuals, regulators, individual businesses, legal and advisory firms, trade associations and industry groups, academics and regulators. In addition, the Government has engaged informally with external stakeholders across the economy on the proposed descriptions.

The Government recognises the importance of supporting international research partnerships, and supporting the UK research sector. Our commitment to research and innovation has been clearly demonstrated by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget announcement of increasing investment in R&D across government to £14.6bn in 2021/22, and as has been set out in our Integrated Review ambitions, international collaboration is central to a healthy and productive R&D sector.

We are working with UKRI and all our Global Challenges Research Fund and Newton Fund Delivery Partners to manage the impact of next year’s ODA allocation.

The related consultation launched by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 12 December 2020, ‘Aligning UK international support for the clean energy transition’, set out four possible timing options for implementation of the above referenced policy shift – March 2021, June 2021, October 2021 and Later than 2021. The consultation closed on 8 February 2021, the Government is considering the evidence received, and will respond in due course.

I meet regularly with the industry-led Weddings Taskforce to understand the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and jobs in the sector.

Over the course of the pandemic the Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support to businesses, including those in the wedding sector, which we keep under regular review.

We know how difficult the current national and international restrictions are for the travel sector, with businesses having already faced many months of reduced trade. Impacted businesses can access a range of Government support measures, including the extended furlough and self-employed support schemes, as well as various government-backed loans.

We are regularly assessing Covid-19’s impact on tourism businesses and are continuing to engage across Government and with stakeholders - such as the Association of British Travel Agents and Association of Independent Tour Operators - to assess how we can most effectively support the recovery of travel and tourism across the UK.

The Government has also committed to producing a Tourism Recovery Plan setting out the transformation and growth of the sector over the next five years as part of our economic recovery.

We recognise that these are extremely challenging conditions for businesses in the travel sector, including tour operators and travel agents, which is why we’ve provided a range of targeted measures to see the sector through COVID-19.

On top of our wider economic support package, we've provided business rates relief and one-off grants for eligible hospitality and leisure businesses – and we’ve cut VAT for tourism and hospitality activities from 20% to 5% until the end of March.

Additionally, on 18 July the Government announced that ATOL-protected holidaymakers can book with confidence following confirmation that the Government will protect refund credit notes offered if packages are cancelled as a result of COVID-19.

The government appreciates the significant impact that the collapse of the novel gambling product Football Index had on former customers. BetIndex, the company which operated Football Index, went into liquidation on 5 November. The process is continuing and it is likely that this will result in some amounts being reimbursed to creditors. There is no compensation scheme for losses caused by a gambling firm ceasing to operate and the government does not think it would be appropriate to use public funds for these purposes.

Motorsports, as with other sports, operate independently of the government, setting their own rules and regulations in line with those of their International (Sport) Federations and relevant overarching legislation.

I note the work of many motorsports bodies in their environmental impact, such as Formula 1 aiming to be Net Zero Carbon by 2030 and with the growth of new disciplines such as Formula E.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recently met with representatives from museums and museum sector bodies and discussed the accessibility of museums amongst other topics.

Access policies are a matter for the museum in question, as they, including the DCMS sponsored museums, operate independently from the government. However, the government supports the Museum Accreditation Scheme, the UK-wide standard for the sector, via its arms-length body Arts Council England. Requirements for accreditation include that museums have an Access Policy and an Access Plan to maintain (and where possible to improve) the physical, sensory and intellectual access to their collections, information about their collections, and access to the buildings housing their collections. There are currently more than 1700 museums participating in the scheme across the UK.

The DCMS sponsored museums are also required to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty, and are expected to act in such a way as to maximise attendance and broaden audiences.

The government does not have plans to review the listed events regime at this time. We believe that the current listed events regime works well to deliver the best outcome and strikes an appropriate balance between retaining free-to-air sports events for the public while allowing rights holders to negotiate agreements in the best interests of their sport.

The Secretary of State has appointed Malcolm Sheehan QC to lead the independent review of the Football Index gambling product. He will provide an independent expert account of the actions taken by the Gambling Commission and other relevant regulatory bodies, and consider the lessons to be learnt for the future. As outlined in my Written Ministerial Statement of 7 June, the independent review is expected to provide a report for publication in the summer. The statement can be found at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-06-07/hcws63 and the scope and terms of reference for the review are available on gov.uk.

I refer my honourable colleague to the answer I gave to written parliamentary question 3831.

I know that the restrictions on singing are frustrating to large numbers of amateur choirs and performance groups across the country and that many people have made sacrifices in order to drive down infections and protect the NHS over the last year. I can assure you that everyone across Government wants to ease these restrictions as soon as possible.

However, it is important that we take a cautious approach in easing restrictions. We have followed the views of public health experts on singing. We are aware, through the NERVTAG and PERFORM studies that singing can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission through the spread of aerosol droplets. This was backed up by a consensus statement from SAGE, resulting in the suggested principles of safer singing being published.

We will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. Further detail on step 4 will be set out as soon as possible.

I know that the restrictions on singing are frustrating to large numbers of amateur choirs and performance groups across the country and that many people have made sacrifices in order to drive down infections and protect the NHS over the last year. I can assure you that everyone across Government wants to ease these restrictions as soon as possible.

However, it is important that we take a cautious approach in easing restrictions. We have followed the views of public health experts on singing. We are aware, through the NERVTAG and PERFORM studies that singing can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission through the spread of aerosol droplets. This was backed up by a consensus statement from SAGE, resulting in the suggested principles of safer singing being published.

We will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. Further detail on step 4 will be set out as soon as possible.

We have supported the Victoria and Albert Museum (“V&A”), an arms’ length body, since the very start of the pandemic and will continue to do so. The V&A has benefited considerably from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, it received tailored revenue support from the Government last year, and is eligible for additional investment this year. Furthermore, we are investing in the V&A’s estate to help with the maintenance of its unique heritage interiors.

Likewise, the Government has provided unprecedented support to the arts, heritage and museums sectors through the Cultural Recovery Fund which has distributed over £1.2 billion, reaching over 5000 individual organisations and sites. This includes £53 million to specifically support construction and conservation projects at heritage sites across England. This fund has supported over 1000 projects directly and is estimated to have safeguarded between 744 and 1137 heritage construction and conservation jobs.

This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s live music sector, and in particular Music Festivals known around the world.

More than £21 million from our unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund has supported over 100 festivals to continue trading including Boomtown, Shambala, Glastonbury and Deer Shed Festival.

Our science-led Events Research Programme (ERP) is also exploring ways in which we can bring larger audiences back safely to the arts this summer if public health conditions allow and we recently announced an outdoor music pilot event at Sefton Park in Liverpool on 2nd May which will provide some valuable data for outdoor events settings featuring unstructured movement of people.

We are aware of the wider concerns about securing indemnity for live events and we continue to assess all available options to provide further support to the sector within the public health context.

The ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ announced by the Prime Minister on the 22 February provides a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England, including for live events. Once theatres and live entertainment venues are able to reopen, we want the public to show their support by attending events, and we will continue to review all viable options to ensure the successful reopening of the live entertainment sector.

DCMS continues to engage with HM Treasury to ensure the needs of our sectors are factored into the developing economic response, and that DCMS sectors, including the music sector, are supported throughout this time. The Government recognises the significant challenge the current pandemic poses to many individuals and freelancers working in the music industry, and we are working very hard to help freelancers in this sectors access support, including through Arts Council England and the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) which will continue until September with a fourth and fifth grant. Individuals will be able to qualify for the new grants based on their 2019-20 tax returns. This means that over 600,000 self-employed individuals may be newly eligible for the SEISS, including many new to self-employment in 2019-20.

Being anonymous online does not give anyone the right to abuse others. Under the new Online Safety framework, which will be introduced in the Online Safety Bill later this year, companies in scope will need to limit the spread of illegal abuse on their services, including illegal anonymous abuse. Major platforms will also need to set out clearly what legal content is acceptable on their platform, and stick to it. The major online services and social media platforms will also need to take action with regard to legal but harmful content

The Government has sponsored a Law Commission review of harmful online communications, which is considering whether current law needs updating to help tackle online abuses. The Law Commission has consulted on provisional reforms and will issue final recommendations later this year, which we will carefully consider.

There are many legitimate reasons why an individual would not wish to identify themselves online. Whistleblowers, victims of modern slavery and survivors of domestic abuse may wish to stay anonymous, to protect their identity online. Our proposals strike the right balance between protecting users’ rights online, while preserving freedom of expression.

English Language Schools have been, and are, able to benefit from a wide variety of Government support, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been extended until September, a variety of generous Government backed loan schemes and grants through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.

Although funding issued under the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme is ultimately issued at the discretion of Local Authorities, we encourage and expect them to be sympathetic to applications from English Language Schools, as well as other businesses in the tourism supply chain which have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

For 2021-22, £29.1 million has been allocated to Festival UK 2022 for delivery in England, with a further £58.6 million allocated for 2022-23. This funding will be taken from the DCMS budget. These spending forecasts do not include the Barnett allocations to the devolved nations, which is administered by HM Treasury.

The Public Lending Right fund amount is set for the Spending Review period. The British Library administers the Public Lending Right Scheme on behalf of the government and the funding level of the PLR would form part of the consideration of British Library’s overall funding at the next Spending Review.

The government is committed to the independent self-regulation of the press and does not intervene in the operation of independent regulators. There have been significant changes to press self-regulation since the Leveson Inquiry and there now exists a strengthened, independent, self-regulatory system. Sir Joseph Pilling’s 2016 review of IPSO found that it had made some important achievements in demonstrating that it is an independent and effective regulator, and it has made further progress since then.

All gambling operators offering services in Britain are subject to strict regulation and must abide by rigorous requirements for the protection of children and vulnerable people. In the last year, the government and the Gambling Commission have acted to strengthen these protections further, including a ban on credit card gambling, making participation in the self-exclusion scheme GAMSTOP mandatory for online operators, and issuing new guidance for operators to address the potential for some customers to be at heightened risk during the Covid period. In addition, the Gambling Commission introduced tighter controls on VIP schemes which came into force at the end of October, and has recently launched a consultation on measures to ensure operators have robust procedures in place to identify and intervene with those who may be at risk of gambling harm.

According to the 2016 combined Health Survey, the 2017 Health Survey for Scotland and the 2018 Health Survey for England, the problem gambling rate among adults has remained stable at around 0.6-0.8%. The NHS Long Term Plan made a commitment to expand the geographical coverage of NHS services for people with serious gambling problems through the opening of an additional 14 serious problem gambling clinics by 2023/24. In July 2019, government secured a commitment from five large operators for a tenfold increase in their contributions to the research, prevention and treatment of problem gambling over four years, rising from 0.1% to 1% of gross gambling yield. This includes a commitment to spend £100m on treatment over this period. The Department for Health and Social Care continues to work with the NHS and GambleAware to support the expansion and alignment of existing treatment services.

The government has committed to reviewing the Gambling Act 2005 to make sure it is fit for the digital age. Further details will be announced in due course.

The department knows that it is important for pupils to start the day with a nutritious breakfast. Between March 2018 and July 2021, the National School Breakfast Programme for schools in disadvantaged areas has supported up to 2,450 schools to establish and develop breakfast clubs, and to sustain them in the longer term. We are now investing up to £24 million in a new two year contract to continue our support for school breakfast provision until July 2023.

The department recognises that healthy breakfast clubs can play an important role in ensuring children from all backgrounds have a healthy start to their day so that they enhance their learning potential. An independent evaluation by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, published by the Education Endowment Foundation, found that supporting schools to run a free of charge, universal breakfast club before school delivered, on average, 2 months of additional progress for pupils in key stage 1 with moderate to low security. The evaluation is available here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/magic-breakfast. A 2017 evaluation commissioned by the department also found that schools perceived important benefits from having a breakfast club, including improving concentration and behaviour in class. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/breakfast-clubs-in-high-deprivation-schools.

Throughout the current contract, the department will be working with our provider, Family Action, to monitor different aspects of the current programme, including the benefits the programme is having on pupils who are attending. We will consider the best opportunities to share information on the programme as it progresses.

T Levels are based on the same occupational standards as apprenticeships and the outline content is designed by panels of employers, industry experts and education providers, working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. In developing the outline content for the Craft and Design T Level, which is rolling out in September 2023, the T Level panel took account of a number of factors when determining the occupational specialisms of jewellery making and ceramics making, including deliverability and likely demand from employers and students.

The department is investing in direct support to employers and providers to increase the number of industry placements available for all T Levels, across all regions. We have invested over £200 million since the 2018/19 academic year to help providers build their capacity and networks with employers, and we are engaging directly with employers through the National Apprenticeship Service to develop a pipeline of industry placements. We are also working with key intermediaries to develop innovative ways to stimulate the small and mid-size enterprises market, which includes targeting specific industries and geographical regions, and we have established a T Level employer ambassador network to engage with others in their industries on T Levels and industry placements.

There is also a comprehensive package of support available for employers, which offers online guidance, webinars and direct hands-on support to help them prepare for industry placements, and we are further developing our communications materials to continue to raise the profile of T Levels to employers. We will continue to monitor the availability of industry placements across the country to ensure that all T Level students have a high-quality placement.

T Levels are based on the same occupational standards as apprenticeships and the outline content is designed by panels of employers, industry experts and education providers, working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. In developing the outline content for the Craft and Design T Level, which is rolling out in September 2023, the T Level panel took account of a number of factors when determining the occupational specialisms of jewellery making and ceramics making, including deliverability and likely demand from employers and students.

The department is investing in direct support to employers and providers to increase the number of industry placements available for all T Levels, across all regions. We have invested over £200 million since the 2018/19 academic year to help providers build their capacity and networks with employers, and we are engaging directly with employers through the National Apprenticeship Service to develop a pipeline of industry placements. We are also working with key intermediaries to develop innovative ways to stimulate the small and mid-size enterprises market, which includes targeting specific industries and geographical regions, and we have established a T Level employer ambassador network to engage with others in their industries on T Levels and industry placements.

There is also a comprehensive package of support available for employers, which offers online guidance, webinars and direct hands-on support to help them prepare for industry placements, and we are further developing our communications materials to continue to raise the profile of T Levels to employers. We will continue to monitor the availability of industry placements across the country to ensure that all T Level students have a high-quality placement.

The majority of the early years’ workforce are employed in private, voluntary and independent organisations and those employers are responsible for recruiting sufficient staff in line with the requirements set out in the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The government recognises that high-quality childcare, with a well-qualified workforce, has a powerful impact on children’s outcomes and we have announced a £153 million investment in early years education to build a stronger, more expert workforce, enabling settings to deliver high quality teaching and help address the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the youngest children, particularly those in the most disadvantaged areas. Within this investment we have substantially expanded the number of places that we fund for initial teacher training in early years, to increase the supply of qualified graduates to the sector.

We have provided an extensive programme of support to providers to help them to deliver high-quality industry placements. Alongside this we have invested more than £200 million over the past 4 years to help providers build their capacity and relationships with employers. Further to this, a comprehensive package of support offers providers tailored advice and support to deliver placements and networking opportunities to share best practice.

Practical industry placement delivery guidance for both providers and employers has been published and we are investing in direct support for employers to increase the number of industry placements available. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/t-level-industry-placements-delivery-guidance/t-level-industry-placements-delivery-guidance. We continue to engage directly with employers through the National Apprenticeship Service to provide a strong pipeline ready to offer placement opportunities, and a targeted package of support is helping employers across all industries to effectively plan and implement placements. A T Level employer ambassador network has been established in order to engage with others in their industries on T Levels and placements, and we are further developing our communications materials to continue to raise the profile of T Levels to an employer audience.

Finally, we have put in place a short-term incentive fund, offering employers £1,000 per industry placement, to encourage employer engagement in the period after the COVID-19 outbreak.

We are introducing over 20 T Levels in a wide range of subject areas by 2023, which will boost access to high quality technical education for thousands of young people.

There are no plans currently to introduce T Levels in the areas of art and design, sport or music and the performing arts. T Levels in craft and design will be made available from 2023 and will contain content of relevance to the art and design sector – including occupational specialisms such as textiles, ceramics and jewellery making. The outline content for this qualification can be found at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/media/5021/craft-and-design-final-outline-content.pdf.

The T Level in Media, Broadcast and Production, also due to be introduced from 2023, will offer occupational specialisms of relevance to the music and performing arts industry, including Creative Media Technician, Events and Venues Technician and Content Creation and Production. The outline content for this qualification can be found at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/t-levels/approved-t-level-technical-qualifications-and-final-outline-content/final-outline-content/ under the heading 'creative and design'.

We are not currently developing any further T Levels. In July we set out our final plans for the range of situations where we see a role for other technical qualifications to sit alongside T Levels, further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforms-to-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-in-england. For 16-19 year olds this includes qualifications enabling entry to occupations not covered by T Levels.

T Levels have several components that are required for completion. Students can re-take all elements of the T Level Technical Qualification and the timing of retakes will depend on the availability of assessments set by the T Level awarding organisation. As per study programmes for young people, retakes of components are not generally eligible for funding as the activity has already been funded. In exceptional circumstances students may be eligible for funding, and institutions will need to consider the relevant funding guidance.

T Levels require students to have achieved level 2 mathematics and English by the end of their course, either through Functional Skills or GCSEs, and students will be able to resit these throughout their course. Institutions also have the discretion to allow students to make up the required industry placements hours, up to 2 years after finishing their T Level programme, should they need to. This is the same for other T Level components.

As part of the wider Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, we continue to consider carefully the recommendations made by the independent panel that reported to the review, including those around fees and funding for higher education. We plan to set out a full conclusion to the Review in due course.

I refer the hon. Members for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough, and Ealing Central and Acton to the answer I gave on 18 October 2021 to Question 53884.

The government is grateful to all teachers, leaders and other staff in schools who have worked incredibly hard throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, including the dedication they have shown in enabling schools to remain open and working in new ways to support pupils with remote education.

In the September 2020 pay award, teachers received an average award of 3.1%, with starting salaries receiving a generous uplift of 5.5%, helping to increase the competitiveness of teacher pay in the wider labour market. The department recognises the decision to pause pay rises in 2021/22 is disappointing, but it ensures we can get the public finances back onto a sustainable path after unprecedented government spending on the response to COVID-19. The government is reassessing the public sector pay policy ahead of the 2022 pay round, once the economic recovery is established and the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the wider labour market is clearer.

The department does not set pay for non-teaching staff in schools. Employers have the freedom to set pay and conditions to suit their circumstances. Most schools use the local government pay scales and employers are required to pay at least the statutory minimum wage. Data published in the School Workforce Census in 2020 shows that the average salary for full-time general teaching assistants has increased year on year since 2017.

The department recognises the importance of the availability of laptops and other technology, in particular for disadvantaged children and young people who may not have access to a device of their own. This is why we have already provided over 1.35 million devices, via schools, colleges and local authorities, which are responsible for allocating them to those pupils who need them most.

On Friday 22 October, the department announced that a further 500,000 devices will be provided this academic year, which brings the total investment to over £520 million.

Our holiday activities and food programme has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children. For 2021, it was expanded to every local authority across England and was backed by up to £220 million. It builds on previous pilots of the programme operating since 2018, including last summer’s, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.

As with other programmes, a decision on future funding is dependent upon the forthcoming spending review.

We think it is important that free school meal support is targeted at those that need it most. Free school meals (FSM) are an integral part of our provision for families on low incomes and our wider actions to promote social mobility.

Under the benefits-related criteria, there are currently around 1.7 million pupils eligible for and claiming a free school meal. An additional 1.3 million infants receive a free meal under the Universal Infant FSM policy.

Eligibility for the Department of Health and Social Care Healthy Start scheme is kept under continuous review and aligns closely with other passported benefits across government. There are no current plans to change eligibility for the scheme with regard to the earnings threshold or the qualifying age range.

The government will consider the recommendations in Henry Dimbleby’s independent review when developing the forthcoming Food Strategy White Paper.

The review focused on producing recommendations aimed at increasing the quality, consistency and coherence of Initial Teacher Training for trainee teachers. Ensuring there are sufficient teachers in the subjects that schools require is one of the priorities of the review and the department will proceed carefully to ensure this is maintained. We intend to respond to the report and its recommendations this autumn.

The department has engaged widely with stakeholders and sought opinions through the consultation to help us understand any potential impact of the proposals on the numbers of trainee teachers. If the recommendations are accepted, the department’s priority during the transition period to any new configuration will be ensuring that the capacity continues to offer enough training places to meet the continuing teacher supply needs across the whole education system. The department expects any future landscape to consist of a diverse range of provision and partnerships, including higher education institutions and school-based providers, as it does now.

In January 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, asked the Office for Students to reform the Strategic Priorities Grant for the 2021/22 academic year. The Strategic Priorities Grant is a limited funding pot provided by government to support the provision of higher education. Reprioritisation of this funding is needed to ensure value for money, and support strategic priorities across the sector, including provision of courses vital for the economy and labour markets, and continued support for disadvantaged students and underrepresented groups. The reforms he proposed include: the reallocation of high-cost subject funding (extra money given to providers to deliver expensive subjects) towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, STEM, and specific labour market needs; and the removal of the London Weighting element of the Grant.

The Office for Students (OfS) consulted on the Secretary of State’s proposals and has recently published its conclusions. The consultation responses were carefully analysed, and the issues raised were considered by both the OfS and the Secretary of State in reaching their respective decisions about the allocation of the Strategic Priorities Grant in 2021/22.

For the 2021/22 academic year, total funding for high-cost subjects, such as medicine and engineering, is 12% higher than last year, an increase of £81 million. The high-cost subject funding rate for arts and music courses has been set at £121.50; this is equivalent to a reduction of around 1% in combined funding (on a per-student basis) from a £9,250 tuition fee and Office for Students grant funding compared to 2020/21.

Despite the need to reprioritise taxpayers’ money, the government continues to value performing arts and creative subjects. High-quality provision in a range of subjects is critical for our workforce and our public services, as well as being intellectually rewarding and culturally enriching for those studying them and wider society.

As part of the same reform programme, we have asked the OfS to invest an additional £10 million in our world-leading specialist providers, many of which specialise in arts provision. We want to ensure that such providers receive additional support, and that grant funding is used effectively to support students.

On 21 August, the Department announced that carbon dioxide (CO₂) monitors will be provided to all state-funded nurseries, schools, and further education colleges from September. Backed by £25 million of government funding, the new monitors will enable staff to act quickly where ventilation is poor and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working.

The programme will provide nurseries, schools, and further education colleges with sufficient monitors to take representative readings from across the indoor spaces in their estate. It is expected that monitors will confirm that, in most cases, existing ventilation is sufficient.

The majority of monitors will become available over the autumn term, with special schools and alternative provision prioritised to receive their full allocation from September given their higher than average numbers of vulnerable pupils.

The Department will also shortly provide new guidance on how to better manage ventilation, including how using CO₂ monitors can help.

The Government has also launched a trial of air purifiers in 30 schools in Bradford, which is designed to assess the technology in education settings and whether they could reduce the risk of transmission.

Between March and June this year, over 200 secondary schools and colleges participated in the independently monitored, voluntary trial of Daily Contact Testing, which was approved by Public Health England’s independent Research and Ethics Governance Group.

The aim of the trial was to keep pupils in face-to-face education, whilst reducing the risk of community transmission of COVID-19. The trial consisted of two randomised groups, a control group and an intervention group.

• The control group quarantined contacts of positive cases
• The intervention group enabled daily contact testing of contacts, instead of 10 days isolation

The trial concluded on 25 June 2021, and its findings are expected shortly. The Department has not been informed of the results of the independent trial in order to protect the integrity of the study. The trial’s findings need to be evaluated fully before any decisions can be made by the Government on how Daily Contact Testing may be used in the future.

Rapid testing is a vital part of the Government’s plan to supress COVID-19. Testing is voluntary but staff, pupils and students are strongly encouraged to participate in the education testing programme to help to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in school and college settings and the community.

Pupils, students, and staff have made an incredible and important contribution to the Government’s mass testing programme. As of 23 June, over 60.5 million tests have been completed in total through education settings since January. In recent weeks, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has written open letters to all parents, and to schools and college leaders, to thank them for their contribution so far and to encourage them to continue their efforts to keep pupils and students testing until the end of term.

The Department has worked in partnership with NHS Test and Trace to understand the barriers to rapid testing amongst school and college students and to take steps to encourage uptake of both testing and the reporting of results. These steps have included: improvements to the digital journey for parents, providing advice and guidance to schools and colleges, utilising a range of communications channels to reach parents and pupils directly, collecting and sharing best practice, and giving schools and colleges access to aggregate testing data for their setting to support them to take action where participation rates are low.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, schools have continued to receive their core funding regardless of any periods of reduced attendance. School budgets increased by £2.6 billion in the 2020/21 financial year and will increase by a further £4.8 billion in 2021/22 and £7.1 billion in 2022/23 compared to the 2019/20 financial year. Any decisions on future funding will be made as part of this year’s Spending Review.

The Department has provided additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. Through the exceptional costs fund, schools could claim costs incurred between March and July 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak that could not be met from their budgets. The Department has paid schools £139 million for all claims within the published scope of the fund across both application windows.

There are no current plans to reopen the exceptional costs fund. Schools will be able to use their existing budgets to help with all other costs associated with COVID-19.

The COVID-19 workforce fund for schools and colleges helped those schools with high staff absences and also facing significant financial pressures to remain open. It funded the costs of teacher absences over a threshold from 1 November 2020 until the end of the autumn term 2020.

The Workforce Fund was introduced at a time when workforce absence and community transmission were high nationally. Workforce absence has since reduced and remained lower than in the autumn term. Schools may need to alter the way in which they deploy their staff, and use existing staff more flexibly as set out in our guidance. These include making best use of teaching assistants, hosting initial teacher trainees, using volunteers, engaging supply staff using in-year allocated budget, and seeking support from their local authority or trust.

Schools continue to be able to access existing support for financial issues, including a wide range of school resource management tools, and in serious circumstances, additional funding or advances from local authorities for maintained schools, or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academy trusts.

From Step 4 it will no longer be necessary to keep children and young people in consistent groups (‘bubbles’). This means that bubbles will not need to be used for any summer provision (for example, summer schools) or in schools from the autumn term.

As well as enabling flexibility in curriculum delivery, this means that assemblies can resume, and schools no longer need to make alternative arrangements to avoid mixing at lunch. Schools and colleges may of course decide to keep the current arrangement for the last few days of term.

Schools and colleges should make sure their outbreak management plans cover the possibility that in some local areas it may become necessary to reintroduce ‘bubbles’ for a temporary period, to reduce mixing between groups.

Any decision to reintroduce ‘bubbles’ would not be taken lightly and would need to take account of the detrimental impact they can have on the delivery of education. The Department has worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to develop guidance for schools.

The Department has not asked pupils to sing songs for One Britain One Nation day or endorsed any specific materials. However, our schools should promote fundamental British values including those relating to tolerance and respect. As such, the Department supports One Britain One Nation’s broad aims to help children learn about equality, kindness and pride, and it is for schools to decide how they teach these important values.

Singing is an important part of pupils’ education, especially as this builds confidence and supports wellbeing. The Department has continued to make it clear in all of our COVID-19 related guidance that schools are to continue to teach music and we have provided detailed advice on how schools can do this safely in class.

There may be an additional risk of infection where singing takes place, and the guidance provides detailed advice on how music can be taught safely. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance.

The Department increased core schools funding by £2.6 billion last year and is increasing core schools funding by £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years respectively, compared to the 2019/20 financial year. This investment has enabled us to increase funding for primary schools by 3.2% per pupil through the schools national funding formula (NFF) in 2021/22, compared to last year.

Every primary school will receive at least £4,000 per pupil this year, up from at least £3,750 per pupil last year. All schools will receive additional funds to cover additional teachers’ pay and pension costs, adding a further £180 to the minimum per pupil amount.

The Department are increasing the extra support the NFF provides to small, rural primary schools by increasing the maximum amount they can attract through the sparsity factor to £45,000, a significant increase from £26,000 last year. This has contributed to small and remote primary schools attracting on average 5.1% more per pupil through the NFF this year compared to last.

The Department reviews school funding on an ongoing basis and the NFF is designed to respond to changes in need, in order for us to target funding where evidence indicates it is most needed.

The government has, on several occasions, expressed its deepest sympathy for those affected by historical forced adoptions, and I completely endorse those sentiments. Practices in the past which led to such outcomes cannot now occur, not least because of the protection of legislation which has been introduced by successive governments and which is given effect by our independent judiciary. Birth parents also have legal representatives who are appointed to support them in court. These representatives ensure that the views of birth parents are heard and that evidence put forward can be challenged.

The Department is committed to helping all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), make up education lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Extended school and college restrictions have had a substantial impact on children and young people’s education, health and wellbeing. The Department is committed to supporting them and their families.

Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed as the Education Recovery Commissioner and is considering how schools and the system can more effectively target resources and support towards pupils in greatest need. In the development of this recovery plan, Sir Kevan is regularly meeting with a variety of stakeholders, including disabled young people and their families. Sir Kevan is reviewing how evidence-based interventions can be used to address the impact that the COVID-19 outbreak has had not just on academic outcomes, but on the physical and mental health of children and young people.

As part of this plan, both special schools and alternative provision will be able to access funding to provide summer schools and the National Tutoring Programme. The Department recognises the additional costs associated with offering provision to pupils in specialist settings. Eligible pupils in special schools, special units in mainstream primary and secondary schools, and alternative provision settings will attract a higher rate of funding for summer schools. We have also consistently prioritised children who attend specialist settings by providing additional uplifts both in the 2020 catch-up Premium and in the 2021 Recovery Premium.

Young people with SEND aged 19 to 24 who have an education, health and care plan will be eligible for support via the 16 to 19 Tuition Fund, where they meet the fund criteria. Colleges are asked to have regard to the needs of students with SEND when prioritising students that would benefit most from small group tuition. Furthermore, the proposals to support early language and literacy catch up will benefit all children, including those with SEND.

The Department will continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and its subsequent COVID-19 recovery plans on all pupils, including those with SEND, to ensure it targets support across the system most effectively.

The Strategic Priorities Grant, formerly referred to as the Teaching Grant, plays an important role in supporting providers and students to develop the skills and knowledge needed locally, regionally, and nationally to support the economy.

We have asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the Grant for the 2021-22 financial year. These reforms include the reallocation of high-cost subject funding towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost STEM subjects, and subjects meeting specific labour market needs.

One of our proposals is for a 50% reduction in the rate of high-cost subject funding, which is one element of the wider Strategic Priorities Grant, for some subjects in order to enable this reprioritisation. This will help to correct discrepancies which have seen, for example, media studies funded at a higher rate than mathematics or history.

It is important to note that the Strategic Priorities Grant accounts for a relatively small proportion of the total income of higher education providers today. For the providers losing funding due to this reallocation, the income lost would account for approximately 0.05% of their estimated total income, based on the latest data available.

This important reprioritisation of taxpayers’ money does not mean this government is devaluing the arts or social sciences. High-quality provision in a range of subjects is critical for our workforce, and our public services, and is culturally enriching for our society.

That is why, as part of the same reform programme, we have asked the OfS to invest an additional £10 million in our world-leading specialist providers, many of which specialise in arts provision. We want to ensure that our specialist providers receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.

The OfS has now publicly consulted on these proposals, and responses from universities, students and others will be taken into account before any final decisions on allocations are made.

We are committed to taking a cautious approach to easing restrictions, guided by data instead of dates. Much of the data that has been used to inform decision making has already been published.

It is important that we continue to take a cautious – but irreversible – approach to re-opening. Moving too fast, too soon, risks a resurgence in infections, hospitalisations and deaths. Whilst we are aware that there is limited evidence of transmission in in-person teaching environments, we must not lose sight of the risks the virus poses and must stay vigilant throughout to ensure this roadmap provides a one-way passage to returning to a more normal life.

We have worked extremely closely with scientists and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to understand and model various scenarios to inform our plan that seeks to enable us to re-open the country without putting unsustainable pressure on the NHS. We have also examined economic and social data to get a balanced understanding of the impacts of carefully easing restrictions. The government has also carefully considered data on the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on ethnic minority communities, the vulnerable, the young and low-income groups.

The government has taken into account all the scientific advice and models that suggest that allowing additional indoor mixing at an earlier stage when prevalence is higher, and fewer people have been vaccinated, would result in significantly higher numbers of infections. This is why restrictions outdoors have been eased first and restrictions on most indoor activity will remain in place. As the number of people vaccinated increases, we anticipate being able to take steps to ease further as more people are protected.

A wealth of data, papers and evidence is being published at the same time as the roadmap, to ensure transparency on the information that the government has had available to it in reaching its decisions. This includes information from Public Health England:

• Information on vaccine effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccination.
• A surveillance report with a more detailed summary of the findings so far from the SARS-CoV-2 Immunity & REinfection EvaluatioN (SIREN) study and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections Watch.
• A technical paper on the SIREN analysis being published (as a pre-print) by the Lancet.

The papers from SAGE include:

• Minutes from the last 4 SAGE meetings.
• Children’s Task and Finish Group paper: ‘COVID-19 in higher education settings, 10 February 2021’
• 3 papers from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), with a summary of modelling on scenarios for easing restrictions, together with the supporting papers from modellers at Warwick and Imperial universities.
• A collection of papers from SPI-M on “relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and the re-opening of schools”, Independent Pandemic Scientific Insights Group on Behaviours (the behavioural experts’ sub-group of SAGE) on return to campus for the spring term and the risk of increased transmission from student migration.

Following the review into when the remaining higher education students can return to in-person teaching and learning, the government has announced that the remaining students should return to in-person teaching no earlier than 17 May 2021, alongside Step 3 of the roadmap. Students and institutions will be given at least a week’s notice of any further return in accordance with the timing of Step 3 of the roadmap.

The government roadmap is designed to maintain a cautious approach to the easing of restrictions to reduce public health risks and ensure that we can maintain progress towards full reopening. However, the government recognises the difficulties and disruption that this may cause for many students and their families and that is why the government is making a further £15 million of additional student hardship funding available for this academic year 2020/21. In total we have made an additional £85 million of funding available for student hardship.

We are supporting universities to provide regular twice weekly asymptomatic testing for all students and staff on-site and, from May, at home. This will help break chains of transmission of the virus.

The Government is committed to helping children and young people make up education lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In January 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, committed to work with parents, teachers, and pupils to develop a long-term plan to help pupils make up their education over the course of this Parliament. As an immediate step to support nurseries, schools, and colleges, on 24 February the Department committed an additional £700 million to support summer schools, tutoring, early language interventions and additional support to schools to help pupils make up their education. This builds on the £1 billion from last year and brings the total available to £1.7 billion.

The Department has appointed Sir Kevan Collins as the Education Recovery Commissioner to advise on the approach for education recovery and the development of a long term plan to help pupils make up their education over the course of this Parliament. Sir Kevan will engage with parents, pupils, and teachers in the development of this broader approach and review how evidence-based interventions can be used to address the impact the COVID-19 outbreak has had on education.

This Government wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished, and encourages pupils to adopt a healthy balanced diet and healthy life choices, through school funding, legislation and guidance.

Up to £24 million will be available to extend our support for school breakfast clubs until 2023, to make sure thousands of children in disadvantaged areas have a healthy start to the day. Further details on the invitation to tender for the delivery of the future programme can be found through the following link: https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html (under ‘View Opportunities’).

We know that breakfast clubs can bring a wide range of benefits for children. An evaluation by the Education Endowment Foundation found that supporting schools to run a free of charge, universal breakfast club before school delivered an average of 2 months’ additional progress for pupils in Key Stage 1 with moderate to low security. Breakfast club schools also saw an improvement in pupil behaviour and attendance.

The Department’s guidance has been updated to make clear that providers who run community activities, holiday clubs, breakfast or after-school clubs, tuition and other out-of-school provision for children, are able to continue to open for both outdoor and indoor provision, provided that they follow the protective measures set out by the Government in this guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

Parents and carers are only able to access settings for certain essential purposes. Providers should only offer indoor and outdoor face-to-face provision to vulnerable children and young people where the provision is reasonably necessary to enable their parents and carers to work, search for work or undertake education or training; attend a medical appointment, address a medical need or attend a support group; be used by electively home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a suitable full-time education; or be used as part of their efforts to obtain a regulated qualification, meet the entry requirements for an education institution, or to undertake exams and assessments.

The Government is committed to helping children and young people make up education lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is why we have invested £1.7 billion to give early years, schools and colleges support to help pupils get back on track, including additional funding for tutoring, early language support and summer schools.

We have also appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner who will advise Ministers on the approach for education recovery, with a particular focus on helping pupils catch up on lost education as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Strategic Priorities Grant, formerly referred to as the Teaching Grant, plays an important role in supporting providers and students to develop the skills and knowledge needed locally, regionally, and nationally to support the economy.

We have asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the grant for the 2021-22 financial year to ensure that more of taxpayers’ money is spent on supporting higher education provision which aligns with national priorities, such as healthcare, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and subjects meeting specific labour market needs.

The London weighting accounts for a small proportion of London providers’ incomes. Providers in London received around £64 million London weighting in the 2020-21 academic year, which is less than 1% of their estimated total income.

London universities will be able to benefit from the significant uplifts we are making to elements of the Strategic Priorities Grant, including the first real terms increase in years in per capita funding for high-cost subjects in grant funding, as well as being able to bid for capital investment to support the delivery of strategic subjects.

We have also asked the OfS for a £10 million increase to the specialist provider allocation, to support these institutions which are particularly reliant on Strategic Priorities Grant funding, many of whom are London-based. We want to ensure that our small and specialist providers, including some of our top music and arts providers, receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.

The OfS will consult on these changes shortly, before final allocations for the 2021-22 financial year are confirmed and will carefully consider the impact of any changes on providers.

From 8 March 2021, all schools, colleges and further education colleges should allow full attendance. To prepare for return to full attendance, schools and colleges should update their risk assessment and ensure they are implementing the system of controls as set out in guidance, to minimise the risk of infection. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/958906/Restricting_attendance_during_the_national_lockdown_schools_guidance.pdf and here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963584/Further_education_coronavirus__COVID-19__operational_guidance.pdf. This includes taking steps to minimise contact between individuals and maintain social distancing wherever possible. Measures have been further strengthened to provide more reassurance and to help decrease the disruption that the COVID-19 outbreak causes to education.

Whilst the Department encourages schools to make use of additional space, support older pupils to maintain distance and keep groups of pupils separate, we do not think that schools need to make significant changes to their buildings. By assessing risk and implementing all the measures, including ventilating occupied spaces, wearing face coverings when recommended and putting in place enhanced cleaning, schools will effectively manage risks and create an inherently safer environment for pupils and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. The way to control this virus is the same, even with the current new variants.

Colleges should also follow the measures set out in the guidance. They are advised to look to maximise the use of their sites and any associated available space. Following a risk assessment, colleges may determine that small adaptations to their sites are required. This will be at colleges’ discretion, based on their circumstances.

At each stage of the Department's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we have listened to the latest medical and scientific advice. The Department has worked closely with other Departments, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector, to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, and to continue to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE endorsed ‘system of controls’ and to understand the effectiveness of these measures on staff, pupils and parents.

It is important to ensure that schools are well ventilated and that a comfortable teaching environment is maintained.

Current evidence recommends that the way to control COVID-19 is the same, even with the current new variants. The PHE endorsed ‘system of controls’, in use throughout the COVID-19 outbreak set out in our published guidance and which includes ventilation, continues to be the appropriate set of measures to take. These measures create an inherently safer environment for children, young people, and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. PHE keeps all these controls under review, based on the latest evidence. Schools therefore need to continue to fully implement these controls. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

Our guidance signposts to further advice from the Health and Safety Executive on air conditioning and ventilation during the COVID-19 outbreak. The guidance can be found here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation.htm.

More generally, in 2018, the Department published Building Bulletin 101 (BB101), which is guidance for school design on ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality. This guidance sets out the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidelines and Air Quality Standards Regulation 2010 for indoor air quality. BB101 requires the indoor environment of new or refurbished school buildings to be monitored by recording temperature and levels of carbon dioxide.

The Department is committed to getting all pupils and students back into schools and colleges full time, as soon as the public health picture allows, in terms of the spread of the virus in communities and the pressures on the NHS. In doing so, the Department will be guided by scientific and medical experts. Data and evidence are considered regularly, including that from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, the Joint Biosecurity Centre, Public Health England, and the Chief Medical Officers.

In the week commencing 22 February 2021, the Government will publish a plan for taking the country out of lockdown. Our aim will be to set out a gradual approach towards easing the restrictions in a sustainable way, guided by the principles we have observed throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, beginning with the most important principle of all: that reopening schools must be our national priority. We have committed to providing schools, parents and young people with a minimum of two weeks’ notice for this return to on-site provision. Additional pupils and students will return to on-site education on 8 March 2021 at the earliest.

Reduction in energy use in new and existing buildings to meet the legislative zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050 is a priority for the Government.

Schools can use their condition funding to invest in improving energy efficiency. Since 2015, the Department has allocated £9.5 billion to maintain and improve school buildings, including an additional £560 million in financial year 2020-21. The latest Spending Review committed a further £1.8 billion in financial year 2021-22 for maintaining and improving the school estate.

The Further Education (FE) Capital Transformation Fund delivers the Government’s £1.5 billion commitment to upgrade the FE college and designated institutions’ estate in England. This will target colleges in the worst condition and promote efficient use of space and support the government's objectives on achieving net zero carbon.

In 2020, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy set up the £1 billion Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme which provided grants for eligible public sector bodies, including schools and FE colleges to fund energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation measures. Higher education (HE) institutions were also eligible for these grants.

Whilst this scheme has now ended, schools, FE and HE institutions can apply for interest free loans through the government’s Salix scheme for public sector projects that improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

In November 2019, we published the new Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) which sets out a core minimum entitlement for all trainees of what should be covered during their teacher training. From September 2020, all ITT courses will have to encompass the full entitlement described in the CCF into their ITT curricula for all subjects and phases.

The CCF is underpinned by robust independently reviewed evidence about what makes good teaching. There is a strong emphasis on the need for training to be subject and phase specific throughout the framework and it is for providers to ensure they carefully craft coherently sequenced curricula that meet the particular needs of their trainees.

The new ITT CCF does not replace the Teachers’ Standards and all ITT must be designed so that teacher trainees can demonstrate that they meet all of the Teachers' Standards at the appropriate level, including Section 3 ‘having a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas’, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665522/Teachers_standard_information.pdf.

The Department’s guidance on face coverings can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.

As the guidance outlines, during national lockdown, in schools and colleges where Year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn by adults (staff and visitors), pupils and students when moving around indoors, outside of classrooms and other teaching environments, such as in corridors and communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain.

Based on current evidence and the measures that schools and colleges are already putting in place, such as the system of controls and consistent bubbles, face coverings will not generally be necessary in the classroom.

Children in primary schools do not need to wear a face covering.

Some individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings. This includes people who cannot put on, wear, or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability, or if you are speaking to or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate. The same legal exemptions that apply to the wearing of face coverings in shops and on public transport also apply in schools and colleges.

Face coverings can make it more difficult to communicate with pupils and students with additional needs or those who many rely on lip reading or facial expressions for understanding. We expect staff to be sensitive to these needs when teaching and interacting with pupils and students.

Schools can get advice and support for children with hearing impairments from specialist teachers of the deaf. These teachers support children and young people with hearing impairment, and their families, from the point of diagnosis. The Department for Education also funds the whole school special educational needs and disability consortium (£1.9 million per annum), hosted by National Association for Special Educational Needs, to provide schools with access to resources and tips for the classroom, including for hearing impairment.

We continue to provide information to the sector on our guidance, and any changes to it, through regular departmental communications. We will also continue to work with Public Health England, as well as stakeholders across the sector, to monitor the latest scientific and medical advice and understand the impact of the system of controls on staff, pupils and parents.

The government recognises that students have faced many changes over the last year, as providers have had to adapt teaching, learning and assessment methods in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Some universities have put in place policies stating that students should not be awarded a degree classification below their level of academic performance prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. It is designed by providers as a safety net for students to ensure they are not unfairly impacted by these challenging circumstances.

While providers are autonomous, and responsible for setting their own assessment practices, the government expects providers to make all reasonable efforts for student achievement to be reliably assessed and for qualifications to be awarded securely. It is vital that a fair approach to exams and assessment is in place and understood by students. The Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, has issued guidance to the sector setting out expectations about provider approaches to teaching and assessment during this time. OfS guidance is clear - standards must be maintained, but clearly changes to assessments may be required in some circumstances.

The government will continue to work closely with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, professional bodies and the OfS to ensure students continue to leave university with qualifications that have real value, reflect their hard work and allow people to progress.

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Government considers that exams cannot be held in a fair way. We have therefore announced that GCSE, AS and A level exams will not go ahead this summer as planned.

We have already confirmed our proposals that in summer 2021 students taking GCSE, AS and A levels regulated by Ofqual should be awarded grades based on an assessment by their teachers.

To provide clarity to the sector as soon as possible, and to ensure that our approach is developed with the sector, Ofqual and the Department launched a two week consultation on how to ensure all students are supported to move to the next stage of their lives.

Further details of alternative arrangements to exams will be confirmed as soon as possible, ensuring that students have the confidence that they will be fairly treated in terms of assessment in 2021.

Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Iceland, the Company Shop Group, Waitrose, McColls and M&S are signed up to the national voucher scheme. We are keen to work with a wide range of supermarkets and encourage others to join – this involves them having the right infrastructure to deliver e-gift cards.

However, we recognise that other independent stores are also well placed to provide this support. Schools are free to decide the best approach for their free school meal pupils. They can provide lunch parcels, locally arranged vouchers, or they can use the national voucher scheme. If a school arranges a local voucher, they will be able to claim the costs back from the department. For more information, please see our guidance on free school meals: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.

Head teachers, teachers, and staff of schools and other education settings have been doing an extraordinary job to remain open, keep settings safe, and provide education for vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers.

We know that receiving face to face education is best for children’s mental health and for their educational achievement. We have resisted restrictions on attendance at schools and other education settings since the first lockdown but, in the face of the rapidly rising numbers of cases across the country and intense pressure on the NHS, we now need to use every lever at our disposal to reduce all our social contacts wherever possible. Limiting attendance during the national lockdown is about supporting the reduction of the overall number of social contacts in our communities.

During the period of national lockdown, schools, colleges and wraparound childcare and other out of school activities for pupils and students should allow only vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers to attend. All other pupils and students should not attend and should learn remotely until February half term. Early years provision should continue to remain open and should continue to allow all children to attend full time or their usual timetable hours.

Only university students doing medical, clinical and healthcare related subjects, including nursing, social care, dentistry and veterinary studies should return to face to face teaching as planned. Most students should not return to university and should study from their current residence, where possible, until at least mid-February.

On an exceptional basis, universities should consider supporting the return of students who may need to return earlier for other reasons, for example, students who do not have access to appropriate accommodation, facilities, studying space, or that need to return for health reasons.

We will continue to review the restrictions on schools, colleges and universities and will ensure that children and young people return to face to face education as soon as possible.

During national lockdown restrictions, all early years providers remain open nationally to all children, providing vital early education and childcare. The wider restrictions in place as part of the national lockdown to contain the spread of the community enable us to continue to prioritise keeping early years providers open, supporting parents and delivering the crucial care and education needed for our youngest children.

The department is working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure rapid asymptomatic testing for all early years staff to support early years providers to remain fully open. In the meantime, as they are essential workers, early years staff have priority access to symptomatic tests via the online portal.

As outlined in our published guidance, additional use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for COVID-19- related purposes is only needed in a small number of cases, such as if a child becomes ill with COVID-19 symptoms and a distance of 2 metres cannot be maintained, or when undertaking aerosol generating procedures. Public Health England has advised that the current guidance on the system of controls, including the use of PPE and face coverings, should continue to be followed.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the government on which vaccine/s the UK should use and also provide advice on who should be offered them. JCVI advises that the first priorities for the COVID-19 vaccination should be the prevention of mortality and the maintenance of the health and social care systems. As the risk of mortality from COVID-19 increases with age, prioritisation is primarily based on age. In the next phase of the vaccine rollout, JCVI have asked that DHSC consider occupational vaccination in collaboration with other government departments. The Department for Education will input into this cross-governmental exercise.

The government will continue to work closely with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), professional bodies and the Office for Students?(OfS) to ensure students continue to leave university with qualifications that have real value, reflect their hard work and allow people to progress.

The government expects providers to make all reasonable efforts for student achievement to be reliably assessed and for qualifications to be awarded securely. The OfS, the higher education regulator in England, has issued guidance to the sector setting out expectations about provider approaches to teaching and assessment during this time. OfS guidance is clear - standards must be maintained, but clearly changes to assessments may be required in some circumstances.

The QAA has also published a series of guides and information to support providers to secure academic standards and to support student achievement during the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes a paper, published in April, which provides an overview of what 'no detriment' policies aim to achieve and some of the measures providers can put in place to ensure that the academic standards of awards remain secure, while also recognising the challenging circumstances for students.

We expect providers to develop solutions appropriate to each course, considering the needs of individual students and to ensure that continuing and prospective students receive the clear, accurate and timely information needed to make informed decisions. If students have concerns, there is a process in place. They should first raise their concerns with their university. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to consider their complaint.

As part of over £195 million invested to support remote education and access to online social care, over 340,000 laptops and tablets are being made available this term to support disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 whose face-to-face education may be disrupted.

This supplements over 220,000 laptops and tablets which have already been delivered during the summer term. This represents an injection of over 500,000 laptops and tablets by the end of the year.

The Department has updated the allocation process to more closely align allocations with the number of students schools typically have self-isolating. This approach ensures that as many children as possible are able to access a device at the point at which they need one.

Data about the number of laptops and tablets delivered and dispatched to local authorities or trusts as of 27 August 2020 is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912888/Devices_and_4G_wireless_routers_progress_data_as_of_27_August_2020.pdf

Information on the devices provided this term to schools, local authorities and academy trusts as of 23 October 2020 is published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/929064/Ad-hoc_stats_note_shipped_data_231020_FINAL.pdf

It is imperative that all pupils, irrespective of background, are taught a broad and ambitious knowledge rich curriculum, covering the core academic subjects, alongside a vibrant arts education that gives pupils a deeper appreciation of their culture. This has been the emphasis of the Government’s National Curriculum and qualifications changes, to ensure that more pupils are able to access ‘the best that has been thought and said’, and to think critically within their subjects.

All children have had their education disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, but it is likely that disadvantaged and vulnerable groups will have been hardest hit and initial analysis suggests that the attainment gap has widened. The government has announced a catch-up package worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. To help schools make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools which is available here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/#nav-covid-19-support-guide-for-schools1.

The guidance includes evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students and a further school planning guide for 2020-21, which is available here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/guide-to-supporting-schools-planning/.

Alongside this universal grant, a National Tutoring Programme worth £350 million will deliver proven, successful interventions to the most disadvantaged young people. Research shows high-quality individual and small group tuition can add up to 5 months of progress for disadvantaged pupils.

Schools will continue to receive the pupil premium every quarter. Each school’s original pupil premium strategy may have not been met since March and the pupils’ needs may have changed or intensified. We recommend that, as part of the planning for needs-based universal catch up, school leaders review their pupil premium strategy and amend it to reflect the new situation from September.

The Department is committed to an inclusive education system which recognises and embraces diversity and supports all pupils and students to tackle racism and have the knowledge and tools to do so.

The national curriculum is a framework setting out the content of what the Department expects schools to cover in each subject. The curriculum does not set out how curriculum subjects, or topics within the subjects, should be taught. The Department believes teachers should be able to use their own knowledge and expertise to determine how they teach their pupils, and to make choices about what they teach.

As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, pupils should be taught about different societies, and how different groups have contributed to the development of Britain, and this can include the voices and experience of Black people. The flexibility within the history curriculum means that there is the opportunity for teachers to teach about Black history across the spectrum of themes and eras set out in the curriculum. For example, at Key Stage 1, schools can teach about the lives of key Black historical figures such as Mary Seacole and Rosa Parks or others; and at Key Stage 3, cover the development and end of the British Empire and Britain’s transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition. The teaching of Black history need not be limited to these examples.

The purpose of the reception baseline assessment (RBA) is to form the starting point for reception to year six progress measures in primary schools. The RBA has undergone a thorough review process to ensure that it is fit for purpose, including a national pilot. Data from over 340,000 assessments has now been analysed and shows that the assessment is valid and fit for purpose. The department has recently published the reception baseline assessment validity report, demonstrating the evidence that has been gathered throughout the assessment development process, showing the assessment to be an accurate assessment of children’s starting points.

The report can be found at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reception-baseline-assessment-validity-report.

Universities are, historically, autonomous institutions, and they may determine their own procedures, within the law. The Secretary of State has no current legal power to intervene in the charging of application fees. In general, the freedom of higher education providers to determine the criteria for the admission of students and how they are applied is recognised in Section 2, and elsewhere, in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.

Higher education providers in England are autonomous bodies and therefore have discretion over the application fees they charge for postgraduate courses.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Huddersfield on 19 January 2022, PQ UIN 100429.

Increasing access into the countryside is currently supported by existing schemes and other mechanisms already in place. We are still considering our approach to increasing and maintaining access to the countryside in our future schemes, including our environmental land management schemes. This includes access to the countryside for people with disabilities.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Huddersfield on 19 January 2022, PQ UIN 100429.

Increasing access into the countryside is currently supported by existing schemes and other mechanisms already in place. We are still considering our approach to increasing and maintaining access to the countryside in our future schemes, including our environmental land management schemes. This includes the creation of new paths to improve public access to the countryside.

This Government is committed to high levels of animal welfare, and we have set out over 40 areas in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare, published in May 2021.

The Animal Welfare Committee is a non-statutory expert committee which advises Defra and the Scottish and Welsh Governments on the welfare of animals, and would be the most appropriate body to produce reports on the state of animal welfare. The Animal Welfare Committee considers the welfare of farmed animals, companion animals and wild animals kept by people.

In 2020, the Animal Welfare Committee published a report on ‘The Animal Welfare Issues Related to Covid-19 – Short Term’, followed by a second report on ‘The Animal Welfare Issues Related to Covid-19 – Medium to Longer Term’. The Animal Welfare Committee’s reports are available on its website: Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains associated with agricultural commodities. This is in recognition that, globally, a significant proportion of deforestation is illegal - close to 90% in some of the world's most important forests. The due diligence legislation complements the UK Timber Regulations, which prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber and timber products on the UK market and require those first placing such products on the UK market to exercise due diligence.

Basing our approach on compliance with the local laws of producer countries, of which the UK is one, recognises the primacy of national and sub-national Governments' decisions in determining the management of their natural resources. Through the UK's aid programmes we work in partnership with producer countries to reinforce and strengthen their efforts to protect their ecosystems, which is fundamental to enhancing forest protection in the long term. The legislation also contains a provision requiring the Secretary of State to conduct a review of the law’s effectiveness every two years once it comes into force, and set out any steps they intend to take as a result, ensuring we will take action if we do not see progress.

These regulations are part of a wider package of measures being adopted by the UK in our leading role working with partners globally to halt and reverse forest loss.

On human rights, the UK Government has consistently supported the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on business and human rights, which are widely regarded as the authoritative international framework to steer practical action by Governments and businesses worldwide on this important and pressing agenda. Implementation of the UNGPs will support access to justice and remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuses, wherever these occur, and encourage businesses to adopt due diligence approaches to respecting human rights.

The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UNGPs. In response to the Guidelines, the UK was the first State to produce a National Action Plan. The UK is also the first country in the world to require businesses to report on the steps they have taken to tackle modern slavery in their operations and global supply chains, and we have announced measures to strengthen the transparency in supply chains legislation in the Modern Slavery Act.

The Government's 25 Year Environment Plan made major new commitments to connect people with the environment to improve health and wellbeing, including access to green spaces in urban areas.

Work undertaken includes the Green Recovery Challenge Fund which has invested £80 million to nature-based projects across England to support a green recovery from Covid-19. The fund has "connecting people with nature" as one of its three objectives, and many of these projects are working in urban areas. An example of one of the projects delivered is Green Space for Health, which aims to make NHS sites greener and provide outdoor wellbeing sessions for NHS staff.

We are leading a £5.77 million cross-Governmental project to test nature-based social prescribing in seven test and learn sites, run national research work to understand its scalability, and deliver a robust project evaluation. This will help improve mental health and wellbeing by connecting more people to nature. The project is working in both rural and urban locations and will help connect those living in cities with nature; for example, several of the test and learn sites are in and around cities such as Greater Manchester.

We are also investing £9 million through the Levelling Up Parks Fund to regenerate 100 green spaces across the UK as part of our Levelling Up agenda. Further details on the Fund will be announced shortly.

Natural England's England-wide map of green infrastructure launched in December 2021, as part of the emerging Green Infrastructure Framework, will help local areas identify priorities for creation and enhancement, including to address inequalities in access to greenspace. The full Framework to be launched later this year will include a green infrastructure design guide with advice on designing to promote access and to maximise the benefits that access provides. This will work alongside biodiversity net gain to encourage greater inclusion of nature into our cities and built environments.

The England Trees Action Plan committed to treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, supported by the Nature for Climate Fund (NCF) which has more than £750 million by 2025 for work on peat restoration, woodland creation and management. Through the NCF the Government is also increasing tree planting in urban areas. Local authorities have access to several NCF grant schemes, including the £4.4 million Local Authorities Treescape Fund and the £6 million Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF). Over the next two years, the UTCF fund will provide up to £6 million for planting around 44,000 large trees in towns and cities. Meanwhile, the Local Authority Treescapes Fund will increase tree planting and natural regeneration in local communities, including urban areas and beside roads and footpaths.

The Government recognises that light pollution may have an impact on people, affecting their health and wellbeing, as well as the environment. Through the 25 Year Environment Plan, we have committed to reducing all forms of pollution, including light pollution. My department works with colleagues across government whose policy areas affect the use of artificial light.

The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that planning policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes and nature conservation. This is supported by guidance which emphasises the importance of getting the right light in the right place at the right time, which helps local planners and developers to design in ways that avoid glare and intrusion.

The Government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through the statutory nuisance regime which means that, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities have a duty to investigate complaints about light emitted from premises which could constitute a nuisance or be harmful to health and have powers to take action where there is a problem.

The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities. Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. The Department for Transport encourages all local authorities to replace their street lighting with LED lighting where it is economically feasible to do so. Importantly some of these new, modern luminaires can also reduce the amount of glare emitted, reducing light pollution as a result. Advice is also available from the UK Lighting Board and the Institute of Lighting Professionals.

In our Action Plan for Animal Welfare, published in May this year, we announced that we would look to restrict the use of glue traps as a means of pest control. Accordingly, we are supporting the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East’s Glue Traps (Offences) Private Members Bill, which proposes to ban the use of glue traps for catching rodents except in the most exceptional circumstances. The Bill was introduced to Parliament on 16 June, and successfully completed its second reading on 19 November. We will continue to work closely with the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East over the coming months as the Bill progresses through Parliament.

Defra and the Environment Agency are working with other regulators, including the UK Health Security Agency, to improve understanding of the chemical risks posed by per-fluorinated chemicals (PFAS) and respond appropriately.

Defra and the Environment Agency have initiated a coordinated programme of work to help us assess levels of PFAS occurring in the environment, their sources and potential risks to inform future policy and regulatory approaches. The scope of the programme includes international engagement to understand approaches being taken across the world; collecting environmental data in England; developing new analytical methods; working with industry to assess risks of PFAS produced in the UK; identifying current and legacy uses and mapping potential sources; river catchment investigations; water company investigations to understand sources to sewer and wastewater treatment options.

As part of the UK REACH Work Programme for 2021-22, the Environment Agency and HSE, at Defra’s request, are investigating the risk posed by PFAS through a Regulatory Management Options Analysis (RMOA) which will consider how best to manage any identified risks.

Defra commissioned Middlesex University to examine measures to reduce dog attacks and promote responsible ownership of all breeds of dogs. The research, which will be published shortly, considers different approaches and the effectiveness of current dog control measures.

The UK has a history of cidermaking dating back thousands of years. This proud tradition has given rise to a wide variety of cidermaking traditions throughout the UK, ranging from small, artisanal producers to large scale global businesses. The UK Government recognises the importance of cider and cidermakers to British farmers, publicans, and consumers alike. The present requirement under the Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979 that 35% of the finished product be made up by apple juice was last revised in 2010, following consultation with cidermakers. Defra believes that this strikes a suitable balance, facilitating the various ancient traditions found on these islands while still allowing for innovation in the sector and large-scale production of popular styles. Neither consumers nor cider makers have been asking for a change in the rules. As a result, the Government has not made any more recent assessment of the merits of raising the minimum juice content for cider and has no plans to amend this provision in the 1979 Act.

As set out in the Government response to Professor Sir Charles Godfray’s review of the Government’s strategy for achieving Officially Bovine Tuberculosis Free status for England, the next phase of the strategy focuses on developing a deployable cattle vaccine, wider rollout of badger vaccination and improvements to TB testing.

Badger culling will not be halted immediately – as set out in the Government’s response to the January 2021 consultation[1], no new intensive cull licences will be issued after 2022 and new supplementary badger culling licences have been limited to a maximum of two years. Culling would remain an option where epidemiological assessment indicates that it is needed.

We have awarded funding for a five-year badger vaccination programme in East Sussex. The scheme, which will see vaccination deployed by the farming community, will help refine future delivery models for deploying large-scale farmer-led vaccination schemes. We are also undertaking Government-funded badger vaccination in an area where four-year intensive badger culling has ended. We are continuing to bolster our capability to deploy even more badger vaccination in post-cull areas from 2022.

Developing a deployable cattle TB vaccine, with the objective of introduction within the next five years, is one of the Government’s top priorities. In 2021, world-leading bTB cattle vaccination trials began in England and Wales.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bovine-tuberculosis-proposals-to-help-eradicate-disease-in-england

The Ivory Act will not affect the ownership of ivory items and as such we have no plans for a Government surrender scheme at this time. We recognise that for some low value items, owners may decide it is not cost-effective to register them for sale. This will be a decision for individual owners. Such items may of course be gifted, donated or bequeathed rather than discarded. We will explain to owners the options available to them as part of our awareness-raising campaign.

Following our exit from the Common Agricultural Policy, environmentally sustainable farming will be fundamental to our approach to England’s agricultural system. The development of our new environmental land management schemes will continue to recognise the role and fund the management of hedgerows.

For example, a Hedgerow Standard has been included within the initial phase of piloting of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme. Newly planted hedgerows, for which capital grants will be available, will be immediately available for annual payment under this standard.

Existing Agri-environment schemes, such as Countryside Stewardship, continue to fund hedgerow management and laying to deliver recognised benefits for wildlife, landscape and the historic environment. Hedgerow management is one of the most popular options within Countryside Stewardship with several options available for planting, managing and restoring hedgerows.

The Government takes the conservation of endangered species very seriously, which is why we are banning the import of hunting trophies from endangered species, as set out in the Government’s manifesto.

Our approach will be robust and effective and will deliver the change we promised to help protect thousands of species worldwide. We will be setting out our plans soon.

My Rt Hon Friend the Environment Secretary has discussed with the Secretary of State for Transport the logistical challenges for the food industry caused by a shortfall of HGV drivers. Defra officials are continuously gathering intelligence from food sector’s stakeholders to keep abreast of the impact of shortages on food supply.

Our officials are also working closely with counterparts in the Department for Transport who monitor any potential requirements to consider an extension of driver delivery hours under Article 14(2) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 to accommodate deliveries.

Our officials are continuously working closely across government on a diverse range of solutions to driver shortages in the short and long term. These include the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s increased capacity to test drivers to reach 3,000 practical tests each week and the Department for Education’s Large Goods Vehicle drivers apprenticeship programmes with an increased funding opportunity to £7,000 to improve UK labour supply.

Overall, the UK's food supply is highly resilient. The food industry is well versed in dealing with scenarios that can impact food supply. Consumers in the UK have access to a range of sources of food, including countless domestic food producers and imports from a range of stable sources.

As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government is committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species.

As part of the recently announced Green Paper, my department will explore opportunities to enhance and modernise protections for declining native species such as the hedgehog. We intend to publish the Green Paper and seek views later this year.

Our Environment Bill will also strengthen our commitment to our native species. We have amended the Bill to require a new, historic legally binding target for species abundance for 2030 to be set, aiming to halt the decline of nature. We are also taking action through our net gain provisions in the Bill, to support the role of new development in helping protect, improve and create the habitat that our native species, including hedgehogs, need to thrive.

Beyond the Bill, we are introducing three schemes that reward the delivery of environmental benefits: the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the Local Nature Recovery scheme and the Landscape Recovery scheme. These schemes will pay for sustainable farming practices, creating and preserving habitat such as such as woodland, heathland and species-rich grassland, as well as making landscape-scale environmental changes, all of which could benefit species such as hedgehog.

The Government remains committed to introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers. We recently undertook a second consultation on introducing the deposit return scheme, in which we set out timelines for the scheme to go live.

We want to have an ambitious but realistic timetable to ensure that we are implementing a deposit return scheme that will be as effective as possible in achieving our objectives. We have therefore reviewed the timelines required to implement a deposit return scheme and currently anticipate that the scheme would launch in 2024, subject to the outcome of the second consultation and parliamentary passage of the Environment Bill.

We are now analysing responses to the consultation and will set out next steps in due course.

This Government takes the conservation of endangered species in the UK and internationally very seriously, which is why we will be banning the import of hunting trophies from endangered species. Our approach will be comprehensive, robust and effective and will deliver the change we promised to help protect thousands of species worldwide. We will be setting out plans soon.

There is clear evidence that animals with a backbone (vertebrates) are sentient and this is reflected in the Government’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill introduced to the House of Lords on 13 May 2021. However, the Bill also gives the Secretary of State a power to extend the recognition of sentience to particular invertebrates in future on the basis of evidence.

Defra has commissioned an independent review of the available scientific evidence on sentience in decapod crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters, as well as sentience in the class, Cephalopoda, which includes octopus, cuttlefish and squid. The review will report shortly.

We are aware of the concerns around the use of snares, which can cause immense suffering to both target and non-target animals. It is an issue we are looking at closely as part of our continued drive to maintain the highest animal welfare standards in the world.

Anyone using snares has a responsibility under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to act within the law to ensure their activities do not harm protected species or cause any unnecessary suffering.

The Government has no current plans to ban the use of all animal snares. Snares are controlled in England and Wales under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This already prohibits the use of self-locking snares and the setting of any type of snare in places where they are likely to catch certain non-target animals such as badgers. It also requires snares to be inspected on a daily basis.

When practised to a high standard, and in accordance with the law, snaring can offer an effective means to reduce the harmful impacts of foxes on livestock, game and wildlife.

The code of practice for the use of snares to control foxes in England can be found at https://basc.org.uk/cop/snares-for-fox-control-in-england/. This code is designed and owned by the sector, rather than Government. It sets out clear principles for the legal and humane use of snares, using evidence from snare use research to improve snare deployment and design.

The schedule to the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 was last updated in 2007, following review and consultation. The Act itself was updated in 2010, following further review and consultation, to allow local authorities to focus their enforcement activity more effectively. The Act’s original aim was to ensure that where private individuals keep dangerous wild animals they do so in circumstances which create no risk to the public. Based on available evidence, including the absence of reported attacks on the public by escaped dangerous wild animals, we consider that the Act is fulfilling those objectives.

However, while there are appropriate public safety measures in place for the keeping of dangerous wild animals, the Government wants to look more closely at the wider animal welfare law to see whether it needs to be improved in relation to the welfare of exotic, non-domesticated animals traded and kept as pets. Defra has already begun this process with a call for evidence and a public consultation to help inform the approach to delivering the Government’s manifesto commitment to ban the keeping of primates as pets.

The latest Government guidance on face coverings is provided at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own#when-to-wear-a-face-covering. It explains that many types of face coverings are available including disposable products and those made of breathable, washable fabric. We welcome the efforts being made by businesses and consumers to produce, sell and buy reusable alternatives which align with the guidance. The guidance also provides instructions on how people can make and care for their own face coverings at home.

Face coverings that are required in shops and a number of other settings are not the same as the single-use surgical masks or respirators used by healthcare and other workers as part of their PPE. These should continue to be reserved for those who need them to protect against risks in their workplace. Instead, the latest Government advice on face coverings provides instructions on how people can make and care for reusable face coverings at home using washable textiles, and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering.

Reusable cloth face coverings are also available to buy from a wide range of retail outlets, including online.

The Government has published guidance on the disposal of face coverings and other PPE during the coronavirus pandemic. This is available at

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-disposing-of-waste.

The UK has been at the forefront of opposing animal tests where alternative approaches could be used. This is known as the "last-resort principle", which we will retain and enshrine in legislation through our landmark Environment Bill.

We are determined that there should be no need for any additional animal testing for a chemical that has already been registered, unless it is subject to further evaluation that shows the registration dossier is inadequate or there are still concerns about the hazards and risks of the chemical, especially to human health.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given on 21 January 2021, PQ 139081.

We will publish a new England Tree Strategy in spring, setting out plans to plant and protect trees across the country, including in towns and cities and on our streets.

The Government is committed to seeing more trees planted and has a general policy against permanent loss of woodland cover. The management and replanting of trees is managed through the felling licence regime.

Trees uprooted without human intervention, such as through windthrow, decay or lightning strike, are exempt from the need for a felling licence regime as this is part of the natural woodland life cycle.

Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, local authorities in England are required to appoint one or more suitably qualified inspectors to inspect premises requiring licensing under the regulations, including those relating to dog breeding, pet selling, hiring out horses, animal exhibits and animal boarding. Local authorities appoint such inspectors using powers under section 51 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Local authority animal welfare inspectors also carry out inspections in relation to welfare in transport, on-farm welfare and helping to tackle illegal imports of dogs. It is for local authorities to determine how to prioritise their resources as well as the number of animal inspectors they appoint under the Animal Welfare Act. We do not hold data centrally on the number of inspectors appointed under the Act.

The Government remains fully committed to animal welfare and supports increasing the maximum custodial sentences for animal cruelty offences from six months to five years. This will enable courts to take a firmer approach to cases such as dog fighting, abuse of puppies and kittens, or gross neglect of farm animals. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on 5 February by Chris Loder MP and is due to have its Second Reading on 10 July. The Government will continue to support the Bill as it makes its way through Parliament. The proposed new maximum sentence of five years would apply to all animals under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and hence would provide parity of treatment under the law for domestic pets, for service dogs used by the police, and for assistance dogs used by visually impaired people.

The new maximum penalty of five years is in line with campaigns by key stakeholders such as Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, Blue Cross, Dogs Trust and the RSPCA. This is a positive step forward in improving animal welfare and will act as a serious deterrent against animal cruelty. The increase to five years' imprisonment will provide one of the toughest sanctions in Europe, strengthening the UK's position as a global leader on animal welfare and will apply where anyone is convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Defra is keen to ensure that we uphold our high standards of animal welfare including in relation to horseracing. Irresponsible use of the whip is completely unacceptable.

The British Horseracing Association (BHA) requires that whips be used responsibly and jockeys may only use the whip within certain strict rules. The BHA policy on the whip was drawn up in consultation with animal welfare groups, such as the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare and is published on the BHA website. The latest rules include a threshold on the number of times the whip can be used before racing stewards can consider an inquiry. If the rules are broken, the jockey may be banned from racing for a certain number of days depending on the seriousness of the offence. Stewards also have the ability to impose a fine on a rider between £200 and £10,000.

In addition to sanctions from the sport, using the whip indiscriminately on a horse could be a criminal offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Defra is satisfied that the laws and rules in place are sufficient to restrict and limit the use of the whip in horse racing.

As set out in the response on 6 December, the Government is taking a phased approach to the rollout of our inbound vaccination programme and will continue to work with international partners to expand the policy to more countries and territories where it is safe to do so. Vaccine certification between countries and territories varies considerably and the government has published minimum criteria on gov.uk that both digital and paper certificates must meet.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy publishes UK greenhouse gas emissions figures annually, including domestic and international aviation emissions. The final UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics from 1990 to 2019 were published in February 2021 and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/final-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-1990-to-2019. It showed that in 2019, carbon dioxide emissions from UK domestic aviation were 1.4 Mt CO₂e and carbon dioxide emissions from international aviation were 36.7 Mt CO₂e.

The 2020 greenhouse gas emissions figures are due to be published on 1 February 2022.

In July 2021, the Department for Transport published the Jet Zero Consultation which sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050. We engaged with stakeholders extensively during the development of the consultation and are carefully considering consultation responses in the development of our final Jet Zero Strategy which we aim to publish later this year.

We are working closely with industry to reduce aviation emissions. We have established the Jet Zero Council, bringing together government, industry and academia to drive the delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions. We have been supporting the industry through £1.95bn of funding into aerospace R&D through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) programme and recently confirmed the continuation of funding for the ATI programme to 2031. We have also recently announced £180 million of new funding to support the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants in the UK, building on the progress made through the previous Green Fuels Green Skies competition, and a £400 million partnership with Breakthrough Energy, through which SAF projects can bid for additional capital.

In July 2021 the department published its Transport Decarbonisation Plan that sets a credible pathway to achieving net zero emission in UK transport by 2050, and sets out our ambitions to achieve net zero in the international transport sectors of aviation and maritime. In aviation, we recently consulted on our vision for the sector to reach net zero by 2050 covering both international and domestic aviation, which focused on the rapid development of technologies in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel whilst maximising the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring to the UK. We will be publishing our final strategy later this year.

We continue to work closely with fellow Member States at the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization to reduce emissions from both sectors. To further drive the transition to net zero we have set the sixth carbon budget to include international aviation and shipping emissions, as recommended by our independent climate advisors, the Climate Change Committee.

We have repeatedly shown our commitment to supporting London's transport network through the pandemic, providing more than £4bn in emergency funding to Transport for London to keep essential services running, to enable businesses to continue to operate and key workers to continue their critical work in the capital. This is in addition to this year’s Spending Review settlement for London, which provided over a billion pounds of capital investment per year, in line with previous funding.

The Government remains committed to providing further extraordinary funding to mitigate fare revenue loss as a result of the pandemic and ensuring all TfL services, including the bus and tube network, keep running in a way that is fair to the national tax payer. The current funding deal was only temporarily extended until February due to the Mayor being late in terms of providing future options.

The Government is taking a phased approach to the rollout of our inbound vaccination programme and will continue to work with international partners to expand the policy to more countries and territories where it is safe to do so. Vaccine certification between countries and territories varies considerably and the government has published minimum criteria on gov.uk that both digital and paper certificates must meet.

We offer a range of measures to support the purchase of electric cars in the UK. The Plug in Car Grant (PiCG) provides up to £2,500 for those making the switch to electric driving. Government also offers generous tax incentives, including favourable company car tax rates confirmed until FY24/25, which can save drivers over £2,000 a year. We have also put in place a tax regime that rewards the cleanest vehicles. Building on the £1.9 billion from Spending Review 2020, the Government has committed an additional £620 million to support the transition to electric vehicles. This will support greater uptake of zero emission vehicles for greener journeys. Electric car drivers also benefit from comparatively cheaper running costs. Once fuel costs and tax incentives are factored in, we expect the total cost of ownership to reach parity during the 2020s, compared to petrol and diesel cars. It costs from 1p per mile to run a new electric vehicle, compared to around 10p per mile for new diesel or petrol vehicles.

We are investing over £1.3 billion in accelerating the roll out of charging infrastructure over the next four years to give more drivers the confidence to make the switch to electric driving. This funding will target support on rapid chargepoints on motorways and major roads, and installing more on-street chargepoints near homes and workplaces to make charging as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car. Our grant schemes and the £400m Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund will see thousands more electric vehicle charge-points installed across the UK.

In the forthcoming Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy government will define our vision for the continued roll-out of a world-leading charging infrastructure network across the UK. The strategy will focus on how we will unlock the chargepoint rollout needed to enable the transition from early adoption to mass market uptake of electric vehicles and to achieve the 2030/2035 phase out successfully. It will clearly establish government’s expectations for the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the planning and deployment of charging infrastructure

We are giving careful consideration to the large volume of responses to this consultation and will publish the outcome as soon as possible.

The Government is in regular dialogue with businesses, industry bodies, trade unions, training providers and examiners on a range of issues affecting the road freight sector.

We continue to support the industry in addressing its labour market challenges through apprenticeships and training and diversifying the demographic of its workforce. We continue to lead on issues such as the availability of driving tests and improving the quality and supply of facilities and overnight lorry parking.

No decision has been made on national rail fares for 2022. The Government is considering a variety of options and we will announce our decision in due course.

The traffic light system categorises countries, based on risk to protect public health and the vaccine rollout from variants of COVID-19. The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of countries and territories. Decisions on Red, Amber or Green List assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account the JBC risk assessments, alongside wider public health factors.

All classification changes have been decided by ministers, informed by the latest data and analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) and wider public health considerations, to help the public understand the risks to public health of travelling to different destinations. The country allocations are reviewed on a three weekly cycle and the Government will not hesitate to take action where a country’s epidemiological picture changes.

The traffic light system categorises countries, based on risk to protect public health and the vaccine rollout from variants of COVID-19. The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of countries and territories. Decisions on Red, Amber or Green List assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account the JBC risk assessments, alongside wider public health factors.

All classification changes have been decided by ministers, informed by the latest data and analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) and wider public health considerations, to help the public understand the risks to public health of travelling to different destinations. The country allocations are reviewed on a three weekly cycle and the Government will not hesitate to take action where a country’s epidemiological picture changes.

The traffic light system categorises countries, based on risk to protect public health and the vaccine rollout from variants of COVID-19. The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of countries and territories. Decisions on Red, Amber or Green List assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account the JBC risk assessments, alongside wider public health factors.

All classification changes have been decided by ministers, informed by the latest data and analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) and wider public health considerations, to help the public understand the risks to public health of travelling to different destinations. The country allocations are reviewed on a three weekly cycle and the Government will not hesitate to take action where a country’s epidemiological picture changes.

We have accepted the Rail Accident Investigation Board’s recommendations in the Eden Park report in full, and we are working with Network Rail to develop a programme to aim to install platform edge tactile strips on every platform in Great Britain.

The Department will publish the consultation response as soon as possible.

The Government takes road safety seriously and keeps the law under regular review. However, we do not currently have any plans to conduct a full review of all driving offences and penalties.

Under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the UK and the EU UK hauliers can undertake up to 2 additional laden journeys within the EU after a laden international journey from the UK, with a maximum of 1 cabotage movement outside Ireland.

The TCA ensures that the vast majority of haulage operations will continue as they did before the end of the transition period.

As set out in the Global Travel Taskforce report, our ambition is to have a system in place to facilitate travel certification for international travel. Any solution for international travel certification needs to be user friendly, interoperable with various other systems and able to facilitate a quick interaction at the border. We are continuing to progress work to explore the testing of technology solutions with multilateral organisations and international partners to ensure these can operate effectively at scale as international travel recovers.

The Government recognises the challenging circumstances aviation and associated business face as a result of Covid-19. Firms, across the economy, that are experiencing difficulties have been able to draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the Chancellor. This includes support through loan guarantees, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The extension of Government-backed loans and furlough payments announced at the Budget build on the support package available and will help ensure this vital and vibrant part of the UK economy is ready to bounce back in the wake of the pandemic.

We continue to take a flexible approach and keep all impacts and policies under review.

The Department received over 15,000 responses to the consultation. We are carefully considering the consultation findings and will be publishing a response when we have completed this work, which is a priority.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of countries and territories. Decisions on Red, Amber or Green List assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account the JBC risk assessments, alongside wider public health factors. Key factors in the JBC risk assessment of each country include genomic surveillance capability, COVID-19 transmission risk and Variant of Concern transmission risk. A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data that supports ministers’ decisions.

The Department published a comprehensive three-year evaluation of the effect of 20mph signed-only limits on 22 November 2018.

The research substantially strengthens the evidence base on perceptions, speeds and early outcomes associated with 20mph speed limits, and is the only major UK study to consider multiple case study areas and provide a national view.

The headline findings were:

• 20mph limits are supported by the majority of residents and drivers
• There has been a small reduction in median speed (less than 1mph).
• Vehicles travelling at higher speeds before the introduction of the 20mph limit have reduced their speed more than those already travelling at lower speeds.
• There is insufficient evidence to conclude that that there has been a significant change in collisions and casualties following the introduction of 20mph limits in residential areas.
• In one city centre case study there has been a significant reduction in collisions and casualties.

The government has issued clear guidance for both passengers and operators, with airports encouraged to introduce clear signage and one-way passenger flows where appropriate. Arrangements may vary depending on the airport and guidance is available to support operators to manage flows in a COVID-secure way.

We continue to improve processes which maintain the checks we need to carry out to keep the public safe, while minimising disruption, and passengers can support this process by ensuring they have completed the necessary requirements to enter the UK. The government continue to engage with the aviation sector to ensure they are supported in implementing best practices.

The country lists have been informed by public health advice, including extensive data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and are reviewed every three weeks. The Department for Transport recommends returnees only to use public transport to travel home or to where they plan to self-isolate if there is no other option. If they must travel by public transport, they should take all safety precautions including keeping their distance, wearing a face covering, regularly washing their hands and planning ahead to avoid busy routes. They are advised, if possible, to download the NHS COVID-19 app before travelling, and to check in on the app where there are official NHS COVID-19 QR code posters along their route (such as stops to buy food or if they have to take a break) but otherwise minimise all stops on their journey. Returnees will also have undergone the required pre-departure tests before travelling.

Authorities are already required to consult with communities on low traffic neighbourhoods. We have no plans to enable local votes.

Ministers and officials, working with other Government Departments, have engaged extensively with Eurostar since March 2020 in relation to their financial situation and to help the company access Government support schemes where it is eligible and appropriate.

We continue to engage, at both official and Ministerial level, with Eurostar and the French government regarding Eurostar’s financial situation and any potential support proposals.

The Government supports both further electrification and the use of new, innovative technologies to decarbonise the rail network by 2050. The Department’s forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set the strategic direction for rail decarbonisation and we will continue to develop individual decarbonisation schemes across the network, ensuring that they are both deliverable and affordable.

We are closely monitoring the situation and engaging with operators to ensure that essential public transport services continue.

The Government’s £225 million Emergency Active Travel Fund, launched in May, is designed to help local authorities implement measures to create an environment that is safer for both walking and cycling. This can include the development of low traffic neighbourhoods, should a local authority see fit.

Full funding allocations to local authorities for tranche 1 of the Emergency Active Travel Fund and indicative allocations for tranche 2 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emergency-active-travel-fund-local-transport-authority-allocations/emergency-active-travel-fund-total-indicative-allocations . Local authorities have received their tranche 1 funding, and an announcement on tranche 2 funding is due to be made shortly.

The bus market outside London is deregulated with decisions regarding service provision being primarily a commercial matter for bus operators, who are able to create demand responsive services.

The Secretary of State does however recognise the benefits that demand responsive transport has in areas with infrequent traditional bus services. This is why on September 2019 it was announced that the Department would introduce a £20 million Rural Mobility Fund to trial demand responsive services in rural and suburban areas. We are currently reviewing these bids.

The Department continues to consider options for the future of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise. Transport for London (TfL) has submitted a Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC) for the devolution of the Great Northern Inner Suburban services. The Department has asked their officials to work with TfL to develop this proposal further. Any option proposed must be in the interests of all passengers and the tax-payer, aligning itself with the future plans of the TSGN network and industry reforms.

Passengers deserve punctual and reliable journeys at a fair price, which is why we are investing billions of pounds in modernising the network. We have saved a generation of passengers a third off their fares through the new 16-17 and 26-30 ‘millennial’ railcard, and this November will extend these savings to former servicemen and women through a new Veterans Railcard.

The Department is also working with industry to explore options for flexible commuters, such as carnets, and what steps could be taken quickly to make these as useful and convenient for passengers as possible.

The Department for Transport’s priority is to ensure that passengers are able to access the services they need. Where appropriate the Department may outline an expectation within the specification that first class seating is provided and request that the operator consults local stakeholder groups to inform a rolling stock configuration that is deliverable and meets the needs of the local market. The Department analyses operators’ proposals carefully, and challenges them as appropriate.

Whilst the Government is encouraging people to avoid public transport whenever possible, we understand that many disabled people continue to rely on transport services and maintaining their accessibility is therefore important.

On the 12th May the Department published guidance to help transport operators provide safe environments for their passengers and staff across all forms of public and private transport, including measures to assess and address the risks posed by COVID-19 in the transport sector.

Buses continue to play an important role in enabling disabled people to make essential journeys and we have reminded operators that laws supporting their access remain in force. Operators should ensure that staff are trained and equipped to provide passengers with assistance safely and should consider the impact on disabled passengers of any measures to support social distancing.

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) issued its own advice to the station staff of Train Operating Companies. This included specific advice on how staff could continue to provide assistance to disabled passengers whilst maintaining safe social distancing and good hygiene regimes, including advice on assisting visually impaired customers.

Monitoring of flight traffic conducted by Eurocontrol shows that between 24 March 2020 and 11 May 2020 the total number of flights arriving at Heathrow and Gatwick have decreased by 84% and 98% respectively when compared to the same date range of the previous year.

It is not possible to accurately determine from this data source whether flights during this period were cargo only or passenger flights, this information is officially collected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and received from UK airports up to two months after the end of each month in adherence to statistical regulation (EC) 437/2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.

We are committed to going further and faster to tackle climate change. Our bold and ambitious plan to achieve net zero emissions across all transport will help make our towns and cities better places to live, create new jobs, as well as improving air quality and health. We are working with industry and communities around the country to develop the plan to decarbonise transport and expect to publish it in the autumn ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.

Any extension of rights to travel facilities to all railway staff would be a matter for employers and employers. An assessment of this nature has not been undertaken by the Secretary of State.

Vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. As part of this, the Household Support Fund provides £421 million to Local Authorities in England to help vulnerable people with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. This fund was announced on 30 September 2021, recognising that some households need additional help this winter as we enter the final stages of recovery from the pandemic and covers the period 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 inclusive. There are currently no plans to increase the funding provided.

Cold Weather Payments of £25 are paid to vulnerable households on qualifying benefits for every week of severe cold weather between 1^st November and 31^st March. There are currently no plans to increase the Cold Weather Payment rate.

No assessment has been made.

The suspension of the Minimum Income Floor was a temporary measure to support self-employed claimants through the pandemic, kept under review in light of the latest economic and public health context. Since 31 July 2021, the pre-pandemic rules for the self-employed have started to apply again.

Legal advice is privileged. This has been the situation under successive governments.

As the Office for National Statistics have stated, there is no single accepted approach to assessing underlying growth. They have published information that identifies temporary factors, called base and compositional effects, which have been caused by the pandemic and have increased the headline growth rate in earnings above the underlying rate. They have published a range of possible growth rates, but stressed that these should be treated with caution

No assessment has been made.

The Government has always been clear that the £20 increase was a temporary measure to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19.

Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and we announced the temporary uplift as part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Our focus now is on our multi-billion Plan for Jobs, which will support people in the long-term by helping them learn new skills and increase their hours or find new work.

I refer the honourable member to the answer given for PQ 21984.

No assessment has been made and it would require disproportionate costs to do so.

The Government recognises that high childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours. Working families claiming Universal Credit (UC) can therefore reclaim up to 85 per cent of their eligible childcare costs each month, up to £646.35 for one child and £1,108.04 for two or more children, compared to 70% in legacy benefits.

Eligible claimants can also get help from the Flexible Support Fund with initial up-front fees and costs as they move into work. Alternatively, help with upfront costs may also be available through Budgeting Advances.

UC childcare aligns with the wider government childcare offer. This includes the free childcare offer which provides 15 hours a week of free childcare in England for all 3 and 4 year olds and disadvantaged 2 year olds, doubling for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours a week. The UC childcare cost element can be used to top up a claimant’s eligible free childcare hours if more hours are worked and childcare is required. This means that reasonable childcare costs should not form a barrier to work.

For information regarding the gender and the disability status of those who have begun Kickstart placements I refer the honourable member to PQ 16981 and PQ 6283.

The Department for Work and Pensions will be monitoring and evaluating the Kickstart Scheme throughout and after its implementation. We will gather data on the ethnicity of Kickstart participants through the planned Kickstart participant survey and using information recorded on UC systems. We will publish the findings of the evaluation once complete.

Given the necessary focus on the departmental response to Covid-19, we are working to a longer timescale than previously anticipated. We continue to engage with disabled people and their representatives and plan to publish the formal consultation document in the coming months.

This government has a strong safety net that helps people who are facing hardship and are unable to support themselves financially and we have taken steps to strengthen that safety net as part of the government’s response to the pandemic.

As part of strengthening this safety net we have made Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) payable from the first day of sickness absence from work, rather than the fourth – where an individual is self-isolating due to coronavirus and meets all SSP eligibility conditions.

SSP provides a minimum level of income for employees when they are sick or incapable of work. Employers are legally required to pay SSP to eligible employees who are off work sick or incapable of work, where employees meet the qualifying conditions. Some employers may also decide to pay more, and for longer, through Occupational Sick Pay. More than half of employees receive more than SSP from their employer.

SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider government offer to support people in times of need. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their personal circumstances.

Working people on low incomes who are required to remain at home by NHS Test and Trace to help stop the spread of the virus and cannot work from home could be eligible for a £500 payment to financially support them while self-isolating.

We have strengthened the welfare system, spending £7.4 billion on measures such as the Universal Credit uplift, on top of additional support such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).

We have built on this extra support through the introduction of our Covid Winter Grant Scheme, now running to the 20th June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £220 million, has already provided support during the Easter holidays this year, and will continue to do so during the summer and Christmas holidays.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.

The Benefit Cap and the two-child limit policies restore fairness between those receiving working age benefits and taxpayers in employment and a benefits structure adjusting automatically to family size is unsustainable

No such assessment has been made. Poverty projections are inherently speculative as they require projecting how income will change for every individual in society which are affected by a huge range of unknown factors.

The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until September 2021.

Claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for Universal Credit (UC) if they think they will be better off and should check carefully their eligibility and entitlements for UC before applying, as legacy benefits will end when claimants submit their UC claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK. Neither DWP nor HMRC can advise individual claimants whether they would be better off moving to UC or remaining on legacy benefits.

DWP Ministers and officials regularly discuss support for carers with their counterparts across Government. The proposed table of benefits / pension rates for 2021/22, including Carer’s Allowance, was published on 4 December 2020 in the House Library, following the Secretary of State’s annual review of benefit rates. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £67.25 a week, meaning around an additional £700 a year for carers. Between 2020/21 and 2025/26 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to increase by nearly a third (around £1 billion). By 2025/26, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4bn a year on Carer’s Allowance.

The Government is committed to supporting disabled people affected by the COVID-19 outbreak including disabled children.

The Cabinet Office Disability Unit works with disability stakeholders and across Government Departments to ensure that the needs of disabled people are considered in the Government’s response to COVID-19.

On 19 May 2020 the Government announced £37.3 million for the Family Fund to help over 75,000 low-income families raising children who are disabled or seriously ill, including £10 million specifically in response to the pandemic. Details of the announcement have been published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/37-million-to-support-children-with-complex-needs

Furthermore, the Government has provided £3.2 billion of additional to support local authorities to address any pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including in children’s social care and for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.

We will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year taking into account the impacts of the pandemic on disabled people. The strategy will focus on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects of life.

The Cabinet Office Disability Unit works with disability stakeholders and across Government Departments to ensure that the needs of disabled people are considered in the Government’s response to COVID-19.

The Government is clear that consideration of equality impacts must be integral in all key policy decisions, and that all equality and discrimination laws and obligations continue to apply during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation’s (JCVI) advice of 30 December placed “the clinically extremely vulnerable” (which includes those on the Shielded Patient List) and “all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality” at number 4 and 6 respectively on the priority list for phase 1 of the vaccination roll out.

Those definitions will apply to many people who are disabled, which has given many welcome assurance that they are being given priority status befitting the higher risks they face.

The £20 per week uplift to everyone on Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021.

The lower rates for younger claimants under 25 years reflects the fact that they are more likely to live in someone else's household and have lower living costs and lower earnings expectations. It also reinforces the stronger work incentives that Universal Credit creates for this age group which have been aided by the Department’s £2bn Kickstart scheme which is already creating thousands of high-quality jobs for young people.

For claimants who live independently, Universal Credit already includes separate elements to provide support for housing costs, children and childcare costs and support for disabled people and carers.

Care leavers up to the age of 22 are exempt from the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Shared Accommodation Rate and are entitled to the higher, one bed LHA rate.

For those who require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHPs to local authorities to support households with their housing costs.

The Government is committed to supporting disabled people affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. We continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on disabled people using existing and new data sources.

We are ensuring that disabled people continue to have access to employment support, disability benefits, financial support; food, medicines, as well as accessible communications and updated guidance.

We are clear that consideration of equality impacts must be integral in all key policy decisions. All equality and discrimination laws and obligations continue to apply during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cabinet Office Disability Unit works with disability stakeholders and across Government Departments to ensure that the needs of disabled people are considered in the Government’s response to COVID-19.

The Government will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year taking into account the impacts of the pandemic on disabled people. The strategy will focus on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects of life.

The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until April 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context in the new year.

DWP has commissioned a survey of claimants who have had experience of a telephone assessment. The survey will be undertaken over Summer 2020 and the findings will be published in line with Government Social Research Protocols.

The Department will be evaluating the effectiveness of telephone assessments, including claimant perception and stakeholder feedback.

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people.

The Government's immediate focus must be on supporting people and businesses through this difficult period. That is why we announced an extension to the furlough scheme, which has already saved millions of jobs.

Given the unprecedented economic context and the challenges facing the UK economy, we will take stock of the economy and public finances as we exit the current crisis and make the right decisions at that point.

It is premature to speculate about future public finances, budgets and the economy. We are thinking first and foremost about protecting people's health, their jobs and supporting businesses. The Office of Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England have said if we did not do what we are doing today the costs in the future would be far higher.

As with all aspects of Government policy, we will keep tax rates and spending under review, and any decisions on future changes will be taken as part of the annual Budget process in the context of the wider public finances.

The government continues to consider appropriate actions that it can take to protect both the public and the economy from the impacts of COVID-19. We have already introduced a range of measures to support businesses and individuals, ensure financial stability and reinforce social safety nets.

We recognise the pressure on pension investments during these challenging times. However, investments are for the long term and the government does not believe that interventions beyond the easements set out in guidance from the Pensions Regulator would be necessary or proportionate at this time.

On 1 April the Financial Conduct Authority, the Pensions Regulator and the Money and Pensions Service published a joint statement urging savers to take their time when making financial decisions, and to visit the Pension Advisory Service website for free pensions guidance before making any decisions about their retirement savings. https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/

The value of occupational defined benefit pensions is tracked monthly via the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) 7800 index. The most recent publication provides an assessment of the funding position of occupational defined benefit pension schemes, comprising both their assets and liabilities, as at 30 April 2020.

In addition, the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Financial Survey of Pension Schemes will provide information on the assets and liabilities of occupational pension schemes covering both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. This is a quarterly survey with the first publication due in 2020.

There is insufficient data to estimate the precise economic impact on different groups.

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people.

Since 2010, the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension in 2020/21 is around £700 higher than if it had just been up-rated by earnings since April 2010. That’s a rise of over £1,900 in cash terms.

The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The Department will look to publish its evaluation in Spring 2020. The evaluation will assess the impact of Universal Credit sanctions on supporting claimants into work. The impact on lone parents will be assessed. The evaluation will not assess the effectiveness of conditionality.

There is an exemption from the shared accommodation rate for those aged 25-34 who have previously spent 3 months, which doesn’t have to be continuous , in a homeless hostel/hostels specialising in rehabilitation and resettlement. There are no current plans to make legislative changes to extend this exemption to those under the age of 25 but as with all our policies, this will continue to be kept under review.

For individuals who may require more support and whose circumstances may make it difficult for them to share accommodation, Discretionary Housing Payments are available.

Since 2010, we have invested more than £4 billion in the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), which has delivered an estimated 490,000 home adaptations, including for people living with motor neurone disease.

The Adult Social Care White Paper announced £573 million for the DFG in each year from 2022/23 to 2024/25 and committed to consult on reforms to the Grant in 2022. DFG reforms. In addition, we have recently published guidance to advise local authorities in England how they can effectively and efficiently deliver DFG-funded adaptations to serve the needs of local older and disabled people, including those living with motor neurone disease.

We have made no specific assessment. The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to raise awareness and understanding of domestic violence and abuse among healthcare professionals and the appropriate actions to take when necessary.

COVID-19 presents a low risk of serious illness to most children, young people and fully vaccinated individuals. The Department for Education has invested in carbon dioxide monitors and greater awareness of ventilation in educational settings, which significantly lowers the risk of COVID-19. Given the current low level of risk, since 21 February 2022, all staff and students in mainstream education at secondary school level and above and childcare settings are no longer advised to test twice a week. Testing will take place in special educational needs and disability residential settings only when advised by local health protection teams as part of an outbreak response.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence no longer advises manual ear syringing due to risks associated, such as infection and trauma to the ear drum. General practitioner (GP) practices increasingly recommending self-care methods as the primary means to support the safe removal of ear wax. However, if a GP practice considers removal clinically necessary, the procedure should either be undertaken at the practice or the patient should be referred to an appropriate local NHS service.

The Government has invested £50 million for research projects into the long term impacts of COVID-19 infection. While no assessment of future funding for research has yet been made, the National Institute for Health Research continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including post-COVID-19 syndrome.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have invested £224 million to develop and deliver services for people experiencing persistent symptoms following COVID-19 infection, this includes £90 million for 2022/23. No assessment has yet been made for funding beyond 2022/23.

The fourth report on sugar reduction is expected in 2022. It covers the food and drink included in the programme, as well as drinks subject to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. It also includes the second year of data for juice and milk-based drinks, not included in the levy.

The Government is receiving expert advice and keeping abreast of international evidence on the implementation of regulatory food and drink policies to consider next steps for sugar reduction and the wider reformulation programme.

The Department is engaging with partners through a delivery group led by NHS England and NHS Improvement. This includes working with Health Education England to improve training for general practitioners and with the General Medical Council (GMC) to ensure eating disorders are included amongst outcome measures for newly qualified clinicians. Health Education England is developing training for primary care staff and others who come into contact with people with an eating disorder.

The GMC’s Outcomes for Graduates states that newly qualified doctors must illustrate their understanding of safe management and referral of patients with mental health conditions, including eating disorders. The GMC has also commissioned the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to work with medical colleges on curricula content, aiming to ensure high standards in core clinical areas, which includes eating disorders as a priority.

Due to the reduction in serious illness and deaths from COVID-19 we have begun a new phase of living with the virus. The Government will continue monitoring the virus through maintaining scaled back surveillance studies such as the Office for National Statistics’ COVID-19 Infection Survey and other data sources including genomic sequencing. We will keep all surveillance activities under review to ensure we have the capabilities to defend against a new variant.

The National Health Service is establishing non-specific symptom pathways to provide a new route to diagnosis for patients who cannot be referred to a single cancer pathway. This may include patients who are ultimately diagnosed with sarcoma. NHS system planning guidance for 2022/23 has asked local systems to extend coverage of non-specific symptom pathways to at least 75% of the population by March 2023. We have also invested £325 million in capital funding in NHS diagnostics in 2021/22.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is required to monitor the effects of water fluoridation schemes on the health of people living in the areas with water fluoridation. There is also a duty to publish a report of an analysis of those effects of water fluoridation on the health of people every four years. The last report, published in 2018, agreed with a number of authoritative reviews there is no convincing evidence that water fluoridation is harmful to health at the levels seen in water fluoridation schemes in the United Kingdom. The next report is due to be published later this year. Relevant new scientific literature will continue to be monitored.

There are no current plans to make such an assessment. However, workforce supply is monitored by the Department and other bodies involved in workforce planning. NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics on a regular basis.

In July 2021, the Department commissioned Health Education England to work with partners to review long term strategic trends for the health and regulated social care workforce. In addition, the Department has recently commissioned NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a workforce strategy. Further information on the strategy and its conclusions will be published in due course.

Free access to asymptomatic and symptomatic tests for the public in England will end from 1 April 2022. We will continue to make testing available for a small number of at-risk groups. Further details on eligible groups will be made available in due course. We will continue review the impact of our COVID-19 policies those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, their immediate relatives and household members.

No specific assessment has been made. The UK Health Security Agency’s guidance on immunisation techniques states that it is not necessary to aspirate the syringe after the needle is introduced into the muscle, as there are no large blood vessels at the recommended injection sites. This guidance is consistent with the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) for the COVID-19 vaccines approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The SPCs do not state that aspiration is required prior to injection of the vaccine. As with all recommendations for vaccine administration, this is kept under review in line with the latest available evidence.

Testing for visitors to care homes should continue in line with the wider care home testing regime. The regular asymptomatic testing regimes from 1 April 2022 are currently under review, including for visitors to care homes. Further detail on future testing in adult social care testing will be provided in due course.

From 1 April 2022, free universal access to lateral flow device tests for the public in England will end. We will continue to make testing available for a small number of at-risk groups. Further details on eligible groups will be available in due course. We continue to keep the impact of COVID-19 policies under review, including on those with health anxiety.

Since November 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement have invested £224 million to develop and deliver services for people experiencing persistent symptoms following COVID-19 infection, including 90 post-COVID-19 clinics. This includes £90 million for 2022/23. ‘Long COVID: the NHS plan for 2021/22’, published in June 2021, details a requirement to understand how these services are meeting the needs of local populations. The plan is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2021/06/C1312-long-covid-plan-june-2021.pdf

The ‘2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance’, published in December 2021, details the requirement for integrated care systems to support primary care on the equity of access to ensure the most underserved populations are reached. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2022-23-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance/

NHS England and NHS Improvement have established a workstream on the long term symptoms of COVID-19 to understand the potential impact of health inequalities and advise on mitigations.

An assessment of the impact on protected groups has been completed alongside public health considerations, and consideration has been given to groups who may be disproportionately impacted by changes to the legislation, as well as those who are immunosuppressed.

After the legal duty to self-isolate ends, guidance will advise that positive cases and close contacts should avoid contact with anyone who may be more vulnerable to COVID-19. Separate guidance will be provided to those who are immunosuppressed, advising what extra steps they can take to protect themselves. Additionally, those most vulnerable to COVID-19 will continue to be protected through vaccinations, antivirals and therapeutics.

All abortion providers must comply with legal requirements and have regard to any statutory guidance relating to children, young people and vulnerable adults. Providers must ensure that all staff are trained in recognising the signs of potential abuse in adult women and how to respond. They must also have written guidance that staff are aware of, can easily refer to and access to a named lead in the organisation for guidance and advice. In addition, it is a requirement that clinicians caring for women requesting abortion should be able to identify those who require more support than can be provided in the routine abortion service setting, including those who are subject to sexual violence or where there is evidence of coercion.

We are considering all evidence submitted to the Government’s consultation on ‘Home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation’. The consultation asked questions relating to the impact on the provision of abortion services for women accessing these services with particular regard to safety. We will publish our response as soon as possible before the end of March, to give providers sufficient notice of the outcome.

The Department undertook a policy review of the variation in access to National Health Service fertility services in 2021. The review will inform the Women’s Health Strategy, which is due to be published in spring 2022.

We expect local NHS commissioning bodies to commission fertility services in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines, to ensure equitable access in England. NICE guidelines were updated in 2013 to include provision for female same-sex couples. However, these are now outdated and the Department has agreed with NICE that the fertility guidelines should be reviewed and scoping for the review has started.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) supports mental health research through various funding streams. In 2020/21, the NIHR spent £109.5 million on mental health research. However, it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR’s funding is available through open competition for mental health research and we encourage researchers to submit applications in this area.

While no formal assessment has yet been made waiting times and staffing levels are kept under review. We are on schedule to deliver 50,000 more nurses by the end of this Parliament to deliver a sustainable long term workforce supply. With the National Health Service and Health Education England, we have established a programme to improve retention and support return to practice, invest in and diversify training and increase ethical and sustainable international recruitment. We have also made £2 billion made available in 2021/22 and a further £8 billion from 2022 to 2025 to increase activity, tackle backlogs in elective care and reduce waiting times for patients.

Joint replacement is being prioritised through the High Volume, Low Complexity programme. This programme shares best practice to improve and facilitate joint replacement surgeries in the National Health Service, including through new surgical hubs which offer additional capacity for surgery.

As announced in September, an additional £1 billion has been provided this year as part of the Elective Recovery Fund, which can be accessed by local trusts if they meet the eligibility criteria to tackle the backlog. A further £8 billion was announced to transform elective services and increase activity in the following three years. This funding could deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures and includes treatment for joint replacements.

Work is underway to evaluate patient support and to develop regional and system strategies focused on those who are waiting for elective surgery, including patients waiting for joint replacement surgery.

No assessment has been made. We currently have no plans to review or extend the National Health Service prescription charge medical exemption list to include asthma, depression, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or hypertension.

Extensive arrangements are in already place to help people afford NHS prescriptions, including a range of exemptions relating to age, income or a medical condition for which people may already qualify. Approximately 89% of NHS prescription items are dispensed in the community free of charge. To support those who do not qualify for an exemption, the cost of prescriptions can be capped by purchasing a prescription pre-payment certificate, which can be paid for in instalments. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week.

We currently have no plans to review or extend the prescription charge medical exemptions list to include sickle cell anaemia. Approximately 89% of prescriptions are already dispensed free of charge and arrangements are in place to help those most in need. To support those who do not qualify for an exemption, the cost of prescriptions can be capped by purchasing a prescription pre-payment certificate, which can be paid for in instalments. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week.

Work to assess the need to include boosters in the NHS COVID Pass is ongoing and we will provide a further update in due course.

The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and neurodegeneration, including motor neurone disease (MND). We are currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia and neurodegeneration. The Department of Health and Social Care funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It is not usual practice to ring-fence funding for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including MND. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

This information is not held in the format requested.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the independent body which advises the Government on vaccination use and prioritisation, will be reviewing data on second doses for 16 to 17 year olds this autumn. A review of second doses for young people aged 12 to 15 years old will follow, once more data on second doses in this age group is available internationally.

The Department has made no such assessment. As an executive agency of the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) makes a robust assessment of its funding. We will continue to invest in the MHRA and the detail of its funding allocation will be confirmed in due course following the Spending Review.

Nutritional information and an ingredients list are mandatory labelling requirement for drinks with 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV) or below. This requirement is set out in the Retained EU Regulation No 1169/2011. No assessment has been made on the merits of legislating the ingredients list of alcoholic products with more than 1.2% ABV.

However, as part of the Government’s ‘Tackling Obesity’ strategy, published in July 2020, the Government committed to consult on whether mandatory calorie labelling should be introduced on all prepacked alcohol, as well as alcoholic drinks sold in the out of home sector, for alcohol products over 1.2% ABV. The upcoming consultation will seek evidence on the merits of introducing calorie labelling. Respondents to the consultation can suggest additional labelling requirements for consideration.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has invested £8.4 million into endometriosis research and £3.9 million into polycystic ovary syndrome research. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome. While it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions, the NIHR’s funding is available through open competition and we encourage researchers to submit applications in these areas.

No assessment has been made. Last year, 2.7 million vulnerable individuals were offered a free vitamin D supply by the Government. The provision of free vitamin D supplements was undertaken to support those that were shielding or were living in care homes, as they were more likely to have remained indoors in spring and summer. However, the shielding programme has now concluded in England.

The clinical risk groups for influenza were initially considered as a potential way to identify and prioritise individuals at risk of COVID-19 when recommendations for phase one of the vaccination programme were developed.

However, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice for the COVID-19 booster vaccine programme recommended offering vaccination to priority groups one to nine in phase one of the vaccination programme, as they received their primary course approximately six months ago.

We have made no formal assessment. The Department continues to engage with NHS England and NHS Improvement to build capacity and reduce the backlog in elective care

In September, the Department announced a further £1 billion, totalling £2 billion this year, to tackle the backlog. An additional £8 billion has been made available across the next three years to reduce waiting times and transform elective services, including cardiovascular care. This could deliver the equivalent of around nine million more checks, scans and procedures.

Plans for additional funding for dementia research are subject to Spending Review settlements. We will be setting out our plans on dementia for England for future years in due course.

NHS England and NHS Improvement encourage all general practitioner (GP) practices and primary care providers to become Safe Surgeries; to implement inclusive and accessible patient registration policies; and to provide equitable healthcare. Most recently this included NHS England and NHS Improvement's registration drive launched in February 2021 to encourage GP registration of inclusion health populations.

Legislation presently allows optometrists to directly refer patients into secondary care services.

No assessment has been made of direct referrals on waiting times or costs.

There are no plans to increase funding for allergy services. Most allergy services are commissioned locally through clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). CCGs are allocated funding from NHS England and NHS Improvement calculated using the CCGs funding allocation formula.

Legislation presently allows optometrists to directly refer patients into secondary care services.

No assessment has been made of direct referrals on waiting times or costs.

We are working urgently with international partners to ensure that British citizens vaccinated abroad with a United Kingdom (UK) recognised vaccine are able to demonstrate their vaccine status through the NHS COVID Pass. Work is ongoing to determine which non-United Kingdom vaccines, and certification solutions, could be recognised in this country for both international travel and for attending events and venues in the UK where individuals may be asked for proof of their COVID-19 status.

The Managed Quarantine Service has provisions in place to allow guests temporary exemption from managed quarantine to attend hospital appointments, including appointments and ultrasound scans for pregnant guests. Security or hotel personnel can obtain permission from the Department for a temporary exemption from quarantine to allow such appointments to take place.

No such assessment has been made. On 25 March 2020, the Government committed to provide free hospital car parking for National Health Service staff for the duration of the pandemic. Trusts continue to be funded to deliver this commitment.

Currently, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommends an interval of eight weeks between doses of all the available COVID-19 vaccines. On 14 May, in response to the increasing rates of infection of the Delta variant, the Government amended the interval of second doses for the most vulnerable cohorts who were offered a vaccine in phase one of the programme, from 12 weeks to eight weeks. The eight week interval was applied to all eligible cohorts from 6 July.

Current evidence shows that a longer dose interval produces a better immune response and as such, the JCVI has advised against reducing the dose interval further in order to maximise the effectiveness of the vaccination programme.

To date, there has not been any modelling by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies on projected Long COVID case numbers.

From September 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement will publish activity data on referral, assessments and waiting times for post-COVID-19 assessment clinics.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is used in a limited number of settings to protect wearers against hazards and risks, such as surgical mask or respirators used in medical and industrial settings. FFP2/PPF3 masks and other higher specification PPE must be professionally fit tested to ensure that air flows through the filter rather than around the mask. If these masks are provided without fit testing, it is not clear that they will be effective. Additionally, in settings where members of the public are currently required to wear face coverings, it may be difficult to safely and comfortably wear a fitted mask for extended periods of time.

The legal requirements to wear a face covering will be lifted in all settings on 19 July in line with step four of the roadmap. However, to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, the Government expects and recommends the wearing of face coverings when coming into contact with people in enclosed and crowded spaces, such as public transport. This will reduce the risk of individuals and others around them transmitting COVID 19.

The Government’s guidance on face coverings will be published in due course. This guidance will enable people to make informed decisions about how to manage the risk to themselves and others.

The Stroke Association’s report acknowledges that the pandemic has led to many beneficial innovations across the stroke care pathway. Many clinical teams are using virtual rehabilitation alongside face-to-face contact with 80% of patients who received such virtual care reporting positive or very positive experiences

The National Stroke Service Model, published by NHS England and NHS Improvement in May, will ensure that all patients will be entitled to needs based regular reviews following their stroke, typically at six weeks, six months and then annually. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement have funded the Stroke Association’s provision of Stroke Connect, which was developed in direct response to COVID-19. The service offers stroke survivors reassurance, support and links to the wider services they can access as part of their recovery.

A specific assessment has not yet been made on a duty for integrated care boards (ICBs) to promote parity of esteem between mental and physical health. The principle of parity of esteem was enshrined in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Legislation will set out minimum membership of ICBs and which will include representatives from National Health Service providers and we fully expect mental health trusts to play a central role in decision-making. Local areas will also have the flexibility to determine any further representation in their area, whether on the ICB or within the integrated care partnership.

We do not currently have any plans to do so. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services. All providers of regulated activities, including National Health Service and independent providers, must register with the CQC and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. The CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers that it can use if the provider does not meet them. These include cancelling registration. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increased investment in intensive, crisis and forensic community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people by 2023/24.

Allegations of sexual assault are taken extremely seriously. We regularly meet with security companies to ensure all staff adhere to the highest professional standards. It is a requirement that our contracted security staff have passed the Security Industry Accreditation process. If staff fall below these standards, we demand an immediate investigation by the company, including with the police, resulting in the suspension of individuals where appropriate.

The next Spending Review will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years. NHS England’s Cancer Recovery Plan set out the aims and actions needed to recover from the impact of COVID-19, while the NHS Long Term Plan remains the detailed strategy for cancer services and will continue to apply after the pandemic.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have established a task and finish group to review psychosocial support for people affected by cancer, including young people. The NHS Long Term Plan states that, by 2021, where appropriate every person, including young people, diagnosed with cancer should receive a Personalised Care and Support Plan based on holistic needs assessment, end of treatment summaries and health and wellbeing information and support, including for mental health needs. All patients should have access to the right expertise and support.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to midwifery-led continuity of carer, so that it becomes the default model of care for women using maternity services across England by March 2023. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided local maternity systems with £90.05 million in service development funding from 2018 to 2021 to fulfil transformational objectives, including implementing continuity of carer models. An additional £96 million was announced earlier this year in response to the emerging findings from the Ockenden Report, the majority of which will be invested in additional midwives and obstetric capacity.

Upcoming NHS England and NHS Improvement guidance will include advice on the implementation of maternal medicine-focused continuity of carer teams, which could be used to accommodate women deemed higher risk due to previous loss, whilst still offering continuity of the midwife caring for them.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out that a national network of community first responders and automated external defibrillators (AEDs) will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028. Many community defibrillators have been provided in public locations through national lottery funding, community fundraising schemes, workplace funding or by charities. From May 2019, the Government has required all contractors refurbishing or building new schools through centrally delivered programmes, to provide at least one AED.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are procuring a partner to co-ordinate skills development over the next two years which will significantly increase the use of AEDs by individuals in community settings supported by confident cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills.

Providers listed on GOV.UK have declared and evidenced compliance with the relevant minimum standards for their commercial provision of testing, including participating in the three-staged United Kingdom Accreditation Service process if they are providing sample collection and/or test analysis services.

The Department is working closely with private providers to ensure appropriate standards of performance are met. Private providers’ performance is continually monitored including their ability to provide samples, analysis and report results on time. The Department takes rapid action when providers deliver inadequate services. This includes providers receiving a five-day warning to demonstrate they have rectified their service and if they do not, they are removed from the appropriate GOV.UK list.

NHS Digital has set out which structured and coded data will be collected on its website. Data shared by NHS Digital is subject to robust rules on privacy, security and confidentiality. Access will only be granted to the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the relevant health and social care purpose. All requests to access patient data from this collection will be assessed by NHS Digital’s Data Access Request Service, to ensure organisations have a legal basis to use the data and that it will be used safely, securely and appropriately. These requests for access will also be subject to scrutiny and oversight by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data.

NHS Digital publishes the details of the data they allow access to on their data release register, with audits of those organisations who have been granted access. NHS Digital also provides information to patients about their ability to opt-out of their data being used for purposes beyond their own care, such as through the National Data Opt-Out.

The Government recognises that access to breaks and respite provides important support for people with care needs and their carers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have provided approximately £1.8 billion in specific funding for adult social care. This includes £1.35 billion Infection Control Fund, which has been used towards supporting day centres to re-open safely.

We are also continuing to work with local authorities, in collaboration with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure, where possible, the safe resumption of these services.

In addition, have provided over £2 billion in 2021 to the Better Care Fund which local authorities can access to fund social care services in their areas, including respite services.

National Health Service audiology services are locally commissioned services and responsibility for waiting times lies with local commissioners. While no recent assessment has been made of trends in diagnosis, work is ongoing to improve access to audiological services. This is being led by the Elective Recovery Programme and Getting It Right First Time.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with front-line clinical experts, patient representative groups and leading charities to develop evidence-based improvement tools to help improve inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care, including reducing diagnosis times. This work includes a new IBD RightCare scenario, which will set out high-quality joined-up care at every point of the patient journey, as well as IBD data packs for local commissioners. These packs present data from different parts of the care pathway to help local systems identify the factors driving unwarranted variations in treatment, as well as narrative on how outcomes can be optimised.

The Government is committed to sustainable improvement of the adult social care system and will bring forward proposals in 2021. We are working closely with local and national partners, such as Alzheimer’s Society, to ensure our approach to reform is informed by diverse perspectives, including of those with lived experience of the care sector. In addition, we will be setting out our plans on dementia for England for future years in due course.

We are committed to working with the travel industry and private testing providers to reduce the cost of travel testing, for the British public including for those travelling for family reasons as well as ensuring travel is as safe as possible. NHS Test and Trace tests are available at the market mid-point.