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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

‘We are the NHS: People Plan for 2020/2021 – action for us all’ sets out actions to support transformation across the whole National Health Service, including the following commitment on the cancer workforce:

In 2021, Health Education England is prioritising the training of 400 clinical endoscopists and 450 reporting radiographers. Training grants are being offered for 350 nurses to become cancer nurse specialists and chemotherapy nurses, training 58 biomedical scientists, developing an advanced clinical practice qualification in oncology, and extending cancer support-worker training.

The 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years. The Government will set out the results of the Spending Review in due course.

Protecting care home residents and staff has been and continues to be one of our top priorities. We know that people receiving care are some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Asymptomatic testing for domiciliary care workers (also known as home care workers) is guided by the results from the Public Health England (PHE) prevalence study into domiciliary care. This study found that COVID-19 prevalence among domiciliary care workers was similar to prevalence in the general population.

The eligibility criteria for accessing COVID-19 tests for care workers is based on advice from PHE, The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and evidence from the Vivaldi study, which highlighted the importance of frequent testing for care home staff and residents.

We will continue to develop our testing strategy for adult social care, based on scientific advice on relative priorities and available testing capacity in order to limit the spread and save lives.

We understand the financial pressure of COVID-19 on community pharmacy which is why £300 million in extra advance payments have been made available to alleviate initial cash flow pressures. The Government has also provided additional funding to community pharmacy to cover costs associated with Bank Holiday opening at Easter and the Early May Bank Holiday and the new medicine delivery service commissioned for shielded patients, as well as making a contribution towards measures taken by community pharmacy to support social distancing.

We continue to work with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and NHS England and NHS Improvement to examine what further funding community pharmacy may require to continue to supply medicines and to help their communities stay well.

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.

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.