Sara Britcliffe

This Government remains committed to considering a framework for compensation, as well as actions to address disparities in financial and non-financial support for people infected and affected across the UK.

Cabinet Office officials are working with their colleagues in HM Treasury, the Department of Health and Social Care, and health departments in the devolved administrations to take this forward. I will update the House and the Inquiry, and those infected and affected as soon as these considerations have been concluded.

During the adjournment debate on Installation of Telecommunications Infrastructure on 15 March, the Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure reaffirmed to the House the Government’s commitment to providing the necessary digital infrastructure across the UK to ensure that people and businesses have the connectivity they need. At the same time, we are mindful that communities have concerns about new infrastructure. We want to ensure that those concerns are heard and considered, and that we get the balance right. Reliable, fast digital connectivity is vital for the prosperity of this country, local businesses and families.

The Government has made a number of legislative interventions to support the deployment of fixed and wireless connectivity, including amendments to the Electronic Communications Code through the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, reforms to planning legislation and mandating gigabit connectivity to all new build developments. The Government therefore does not intend to revisit the legislation relating to telecommunications infrastructure deployment at this time. The current legal framework recognises the impact of network deployment on communities and the environment, and we believe that it strikes the right balance between promoting efficient deployment and taking into account the impacts on communities.

In order to assess the effectiveness of legislation in this area, monitoring of the rollout of digital infrastructure is in place, and the Government is committed to understanding the impact of the legislative framework going forwards. For example, reports and updates published by Ofcom, Building Digital UK (BDUK) and ThinkBroadband all allow the Government to measure the success of Government interventions to increase connectivity.

The Government also undertakes regular engagement with all parties with an interest in this sector. In particular the Government has supported the creation of, and continues to attend meetings of, the National Connectivity Alliance. The Alliance is an independent body, led by a steering group comprising an equal number of operators and landowner representatives, and co-ordinates working groups to examine and make recommendations on a wide range of issues. This work provides an invaluable insight for the Government to understand how its legislative interventions are received on the ground.

Lastly, Ofcom is able to take enforcement action in respect of breaches of the restrictions and conditions on operators if it has reasonable grounds to believe that they are failing to comply with those requirements. Local Planning Authorities should inform Ofcom of any situations where they believe operators are not complying with their statutory duties.

Households in Great Britain should have automatically received the first instalment of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) in October. There is no need for customers to claim the discount. Traditional prepayment meter customers should have received their first EBSS discount voucher. EBSS credit is applied automatically to smart prepayment meters.

Suppliers have an obligation, and must be able to evidence, that they have attempted to make a minimum of three attempts by at least two different methods to contact customers who have not redeemed their voucher. Replacement vouchers can be issued until the scheme closes on 30 June 2023.

The standing charge is a fixed charge that suppliers pass on to their customers to cover the cost of providing a live supply. If the standing charge were removed, these costs would be added to the unit price of energy. Otherwise, suppliers would not be able to recover the legitimate costs of serving customers. The standing charge is passed on to consumers as a flat rate per day, rather than as a percentage charge (based on how much energy they use). The setting of the standing charge is a commercial matter for individual suppliers.

The UK has set a benchmark by legislating for net zero, and the adoption of hydrogen as a decarbonised energy carrier will support us in achieving this legally binding target. We will set out our approach to growing the UK hydrogen economy our Hydrogen Strategy, set to be published early next year.

I have been very pleased to see the ambitious plans for hydrogen in the North West, such as the HyNet project, which we are supporting with over £13m funding through our innovation programme. I have talked directly to companies in the North West about how they can support growth of the hydrogen economy, and my officials are in regular discussions with stakeholders in the region.

In November 2019 we published the Energy Innovation Needs Assessment (EINA) for hydrogen and fuel cells. This identified that the future market for all hydrogen technologies could yield around £5.3bn of GVA and create nearly 50,000 jobs by 2050 to meet demand in export and domestic markets. The North West is ideally placed to capture such opportunities.

We have come to a critical juncture. Incidence rates are growing and the NHS is under increasing pressure. Therefore, from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December there will be new national measures to reduce the infection rate of coronavirus. However, sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. Exercise and recreation outdoors will be allowed with your household or on your own with one person from another household.

DCMS and Sport England are working with National Governing Bodies to allow the safe return of close contact sports. However, sports which involve close contact with another person cannot currently take place. This is due to the increased risks of transmission of Covid-19, because of the proximity of participants and contact between them.

DCMS officials are working at pace on plans for the Youth Investment Fund, and continue to assess how COVID-19 is impacting on young people and youth services. We continue to engage with the youth sector as plans develop, and will publish further details in due course.

Decisions on Ministerial remits and duties lie with the Prime Minister. A range of government departments (including DCMS) have policies that affect young people, and that is why the government believes there should be a cross-departmental approach.

This government is committed to supporting young people to have a voice on issues and concerns that matter to them, at both a local and national level. DCMS leads this work, and funds the British Youth Council (BYC) to deliver a youth voice programme including the UK Youth Parliament, the Make Your Mark ballot, the Youth Select Committee, The Government’s Youth Steering Group and the Young Inspectors group.

Officials are working collaboratively across Whitehall, with the youth sector, and young people to ensure that we support our young people during and post Covid-19, and that their voices are heard.

The consultation on ‘Childcare: regulatory changes’ closed on 16 September. The department will respond in due course.

Alongside the consultation, the department ran a survey of early years providers to establish the likely impact of the changes on providers, should government guidelines be changed. This survey will be published in due course.

Responses from the consultation and the survey will help to build the evidence base, including understanding more around the potential impact of any changes to the fees charged by settings and to staff recruitment and retention.

The department’s priority continues to be to provide safe, high-quality early years provision for young children.

To help ensure those with special educational needs get the right support we have, for example:

• provided an extra £780 million high needs funding next year, bringing the total for those with the most complex needs to £7.2 billion; and
• launched a major review of the SEND system. We will update on progress shortly.

The Department has commenced research into the use of ‘noise cameras’ to determine their suitability for enforcement. Trials of the latest noise camera technology in controlled conditions on a test track have recently completed. Preparations for roadside trials are now being made, with an announcement expected

We have announced several financial support measures available to UK businesses, including the coach industry. This includes measures announced on 24 September as part of the Winter Economy Plan. Further support was announced by the Chancellor on 22 October for businesses in local lockdown areas, in addition to changes to the Job Support Scheme (JSS), and increased business grants.

In addition, we are supporting coaches to be used for school transport and public transport, where appropriate. The Department for Education has provided over £70 million to local transport authorities to provide additional dedicated school and college capacity in our transport system, including coaches.

We continue to work closely with representatives from the coach sector including the Confederation of Passenger Transport, and with other government departments, to understand the ongoing risks and issues, including demand considerations and how these could be addressed.

We expect to receive the outputs of the further feasibility work soon, to complement the initial Strategic Outline Business Case completed in December 2018. These will inform the Government’s decision as to whether a reinstatement scheme should progress to the ‘develop’ stage of the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline.

This is part of our new approach to rail enhancements to ensure we address the needs of passengers and freight, and that funding commitments appropriately reflect the stage of development of schemes.

The Health and Disability Green Paper aimed to explore ways to improve the design of the benefits system and posed illustrative ideas, such as a single benefit covering both PIP and UC, to generate discussion.

During the consultation period we held more than 40 events with stakeholders to hear their views on the proposals in the Green Paper, including on options for simplifying the benefits system.

Although the formal consultation period has now ended, we will continue to engage stakeholders regularly, particularly on the broader aspects of the paper that focus on future reform.

The Department developed clear and transparent criteria for the application process, which was published by NHS England and accessible to all non-National Health Service organisations. The criteria was agreed to ensure that the funding was given to those most impacted by the NHS pay deal, due to the nature of their contracts and their financial circumstances.

Outcomes of applications will be communicated directly to organisations by the end of the financial year. Organisations will be entitled to seek a review of the decision, which will be undertaken by the Department, to determine if the decision has been reached correctly in accordance with the guidance.

The Government is committed to ensuring those with all neurological conditions, including functional neurological disorders, have access to appropriate treatment and services.

In February 2023 the National Neurosciences Advisory Group published its Optimal Clinical Pathway on functional neurological disorders (FND), developed by the neurological community with the support of NHS England.

The pathway sets out what good treatment, care and support looks like for patients with FND, including the importance of timely and effective diagnosis.

The move away from confirmatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for some groups is compatible with surveillance for COVID-19 variants. The UK Health Security Agency aims to conduct surveillance on at least 10% of community cases for the monitoring of variants. Those groups which will continue to be tested with a PCR test will provide sufficient community-based positive samples to maintain the ability to detect any new mutations in the Omicron or Delta variants or any emerging and new variants.

Every adult in England aged 18 years old and over has now been offered a COVID-19 booster vaccination, including all those who are housebound. General practitioners and community teams have determined the best approach for vaccination for those who are housebound, based on their knowledge of the patient and their circumstances. Some patients may be able to attend Primary Care Network (PCN) designated sites with assistance and discussions should be held with the family and /or carer to facilitate this. For those patients unable to travel to a PCN designated site with assistance, vaccinations will be delivered via roving units to an individual’s home.

We will take steps to ensure that unpaid carers have the support, advice and respite they need, fulfilling the goals of the Care Act 2014. We will work with stakeholders, including unpaid carers, to co-develop our plans and publish further detail in a white paper for reform later this year.

The Government strongly supports the safe reopening of international travel. Only seven countries now remain on the red list and this is reviewed regularly. We now accept vaccination certificates from over 90 countries and territories and we are working to expand that list. These changes make travel abroad easier - boosting trade, tourism and reuniting friends and families.

We are deeply concerned by the ongoing military action in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. As the Foreign Secretary has made clear in his joint statements issued with the Canadian Foreign Minister, the UK is urging immediate de-escalation of the conflict and a return to negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. We are also encouraging all external parties and friends of both states to redouble their efforts in support of an end to hostilities and to refrain from taking actions that risk exacerbating the crisis. We support the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group - of which Turkey is a member - to facilitate an end to the conflict.

The UK's longstanding position on the Middle East Peace Process is clear: we support a negotiated settlement leading to a safe and secure Israel living alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state; based on 1967 borders with agreed land swaps, Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states, and a just, fair, agreed and realistic settlement for refugees. We continue to work closely with international partners strongly advocating a two-state solution and encouraging a return to meaningful negotiations. The Foreign Secretary did so most recently in a meeting with French and German Foreign Ministers on 19 June. The Foreign Secretary also discussed the Middle East Peace Process and our opposition to the unilateral annexation of territory during calls with Alternate Israeli Prime Minister Gantz on 20 May and Israeli Foreign Minister Ashkenazi on 2 June.

On 8 September, government announced an ‘Energy Price Guarantee’, which means that a typical UK household will pay no more than £2500 a year on their energy bill over the next 2 years. This measure will save the average household around £1000 a year from October 2022.

In addition to this, the government has already announced £37 billion support for the cost of living this financial year – including a £400 discount for all households through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. The Chancellor has been clear that unleashing investment and growth is the only sustainable means of increasing living standards for all households.

UKVI has faced extremely high pressures over the past two years. All visa routes have seen extremely high demand following the end of the pandemic and the easing of travel restrictions. The Home Office also prioritised capacity earlier this year to help people forced to flee their homes, as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, get to safety through our Ukraine visa schemes.

UKVI has been working hard to reduce processing times and is now back within service standard across a number of our visa routes. We have updated our guidance on expected waiting times so that customers have a realistic indication of how long their applications will take to be processed. We encourage customers to continue to refer to these updates as our processing times change on a regular basis.

In February, the Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £15.8 billion in 2021/22.

This is an increase of up to £600 million compared to 2020/21 and cements our commitment to give the police the resources they need to keep the public safe.

This Government is delivering on the people’s priorities by giving policing the biggest funding increase in a decade.

In total we’re increasing the funding available to the policing system by over £1bn this year.

In order to help recruit we are giving PCCs an additional £700 million this year to help deliver the recruitment of 6,000 additional officers by the end of March 2021; we have already recruited 3000 new officers.

We are giving the police the resources they need to fight crime and keep the public safe.

This government is committed to making the most of brownfield land. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that planning policies and decisions should give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements. We recognise that local authorities are best placed to assess the suitability of each site for redevelopment.

The Levelling Up Fund considers the impact of projects in local communities, by looking at how strongly each bid aligns and supports local need.

The Community Ownership Fund considers the impact of projects in local communities by assessing how an asset under community ownership will deliver benefits to a local community and bolster pride of place.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of convictions for criminal offences covering the time period requested. The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained in the following published tool: Outcomes by Offence tool: June 2023.

No convictions specifically for an offence under Schedule 1, Part 11, Paragraph 75(5) of the Digital Economy Act 2017 have been recorded within the court proceedings database held centrally.