Sarah Atherton

The Government has provided a multi-billion-pound package of Covid-19 support which charities and civil society organisations have been able to access to help them continue their vital work.

Charities are benefiting from the extension of unprecedented cross-economy support including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans and £4.6 billion in lockdown grants for closed premises.

In addition, charities, social enterprises and other voluntary sector organisations have received a £750 million targeted support package and £150 million unlocked from dormant bank and building society accounts.

The Government announced on 9 March that it had agreed a £1 billion deal with the mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network. This will see operators collectively increase mobile phone coverage throughout the UK to 95% by end-2025, underpinned by legally binding coverage commitments. The site deployment plans will be managed by the operators themselves to best deliver the agreed coverage outcomes by the licence obligation enforcement date.

Decisions around school funding and the provision of school food including breakfast clubs are a matter for the devolved administrations.

Data is not held on the number of schools operating breakfast clubs. However, schools have the freedom to run before school childcare and breakfast clubs.

The government is committed to continuing support for breakfast clubs in England in schools in disadvantaged areas. A further £24 million has been invested to continue our national programme for the next two years. This funding will support around 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas in England, including Opportunity Areas. This will mean that thousands of children from low income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.

The department is investing up to £220 million in the Holiday Activities and Food programme in 2021. Taking place in schools and community venues across England, delivery began at Easter, ran across the summer and will run in the Christmas holidays. The programme supports disadvantaged children, and their families, by providing them with healthy food and enriching activities during the school holidays.

Decisions around school funding and the provision of school food including breakfast clubs are a matter for the devolved administrations.

Data is not held on the number of schools operating breakfast clubs. However, schools have the freedom to run before school childcare and breakfast clubs.

The government is committed to continuing support for breakfast clubs in England in schools in disadvantaged areas. A further £24 million has been invested to continue our national programme for the next two years. This funding will support around 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas in England, including Opportunity Areas. This will mean that thousands of children from low income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.

The department is investing up to £220 million in the Holiday Activities and Food programme in 2021. Taking place in schools and community venues across England, delivery began at Easter, ran across the summer and will run in the Christmas holidays. The programme supports disadvantaged children, and their families, by providing them with healthy food and enriching activities during the school holidays.

The UK Government remains committed to working closely with the devolved administrations on EU Exit. Our most recent discussions with the devolved administrations took place last Thursday at the Joint Ministerial Committee on EU negotiations.

There have been no discussions between the Secretary of State for International Trade and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on this point, as state pensions are not in scope for our trade agreement negotiations with Australia and Canada.

The number of available HGV driving tests across Great Britain has increased by 90% compared to pre-pandemic levels and currently stands at 3,200 tests per week. This includes increases in availability at driving test centres in Wales and Welsh drivers can also book test slots in England or Wales. Test capacity now exceeds demand and the provision of vocational tests is not a barrier to people becoming HGV drivers.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has appointed customer account managers to help trainers access vocational driving tests where and when they need them.

The Department is preparing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan to gather evidence from the trials. This will assess the safety risks presented by e-scooters, the mode shift to e-scooters from other forms of transport, public perceptions around their use?and identify other impacts that should be considered for any?potential?future legalisation of e-scooters.

From the evidence gathered during trials, the responses to the Future of Transport regulatory review call for evidence and other research, the Government will consider whether to legalise both rental and privately-owned e-scooters.

With Universal Credit claimants will have an initial interview with their Work Coach as part of the application process. This discussion will cover their career history and skills and qualifications etc, which identifies veterans.

The Department is also continuing to look at what other opportunities might be available to better identify and record data on veterans on the Universal Credit system and has regular conversations with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). This is part of a much wider piece of work involving a number of Departments, including the MOD and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, to improve the collection and use of data relating to veterans.

DWP is proud to provide vital and significant support to veterans which recognises their particular needs and circumstances, including through Armed Forces Champions in each Jobcentre Plus District. For example, early voluntary entry to the Work and Health Programme, and using Service Medical Board evidence where we can so a severely disabled person does not have to undergo additional examinations for Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit purposes. We are also able to signpost veterans to other organisations for further support where appropriate.

The department is a supporter of the Armed Forces Covenant which helps ensure members of the armed forces community have access to government support in a number of areas, including:

• Starting a new career
• Access to healthcare
• Education and family well-being
• Having a home
• Financial assistance
• Discounted services, including travel

The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid to recipients living outside of the UK is clear and is a long-standing policy of successive post-war Governments that has been in place for over 70 years. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide and the annual index-linked increases are paid to UK State Pension recipients where there is a legal requirement to do so. For example, where UK State Pension recipients are living in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for the uprating of the UK State Pension. The Government has no plans to change this policy.

Public Health England assessed that it would be in the public interest to publish data on COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of a positive test by vaccination status. This data is published in the weekly vaccine surveillance report, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-surveillance-report

The Department publishes information on all the contracts it awards, including those relating to goods and service procured in response to COVID- 19, through Contract Award Notices in the Official Journal of the European Union, Find a Tender awarded opportunity notices for each contract are also published on Contracts Finder.

Public Health England has not undertaken an assessment. The current nutrient profile score for breakfast cereals developed by the Food Standards Agency in 2004 is calculated on 100 grams of the product as sold, on a dry weight basis.

The possible implications of applying the nutrient profiling model from per 100 gram basis to per portion basis was considered as part of the 2007 review of the effectiveness of the nutrient profiling model to reduce the exposure of children to unhealthy advertising during children’s television programming. It was recommended to retain the 100 gram base to avoid unnecessary complexity as there are few United Kingdom dietary recommendations on portion sizes and inconsistent portion sizes used on food or drink packs.

No data is held on the consumption of breakfast cereal with milk. Consumption of breakfast cereals without milk is reported in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). The most recent NDNS report was published in December 2020 and presents findings for 2016/17 to 2018/19. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-9-to-11-2016-to-2017-and-2018-to-2019

The nutrient profiling model is used to identify products that are high in fat, salt or sugar in line with advertising restrictions rather than how the foods are eaten or consumption behaviour.

The United Kingdom nutrient profiling model (UK NPM) is a tool used by regulators, industry and stakeholders and is not consumer facing, therefore no assessment has been made of consumer understanding or awareness of categories scored as consumed compared with on a dry weight basis.

The UK NPM was developed to identify products that are high in fat, salt or sugar in line with advertising restrictions. The model is not intended to reflect how the foods are eaten or consumption behaviour.

The UK condemns Iranian support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has made this clear to Iran including when the Iranian Chargé D'affaires was summoned on 3 October. Iran's supply of drones to Russia violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231. On 20 October, new UK sanctions targeted Iranian individuals and businesses responsible for supplying Russia with drones. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is already sanctioned. We are monitoring reports that Russia is providing Iran with British and U.S. military equipment seized in Ukraine. We will continue to work with international partners to ensure Russia and Iran are held to account.

A zero rate of VAT has applied to women’s sanitary products since 1 January 2021. This applies to those products which were previously subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent, for example, tampons and pads, and to reusable menstrual products, such as keepers.

The relief specifically excludes articles of clothing, such as “period pants”. Such exclusions are designed to ensure that the relief is properly targeted, since difficulties in policing the scope of the relief create the potential for litigation, erosion of the tax base and a reduction in revenue. Under existing rules “period pants” may already qualify for the zero rate, if they have been specifically designed to be worn by a child, meet the sizing criteria, and are held out for sale specifically for use by girls under the age of 14 years old.

Details are provided in VAT Notice 714: zero-rating young children's clothing and footwear: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-714-zero-rating-young-childrens-clothing-and-footwear/vat-notice-714-zero-rating-young-childrens-clothing-and-footwear#items-suitable-only-for-young-children.

The Treasury, along with other relevant departments, carefully considers the impact of its decisions on those sharing protected characteristics, including at Budgets and other fiscal events, in line with both its legal obligations and with its commitment to promoting fairness.

Employers can pay their PAYE/NIC liability by Direct Debit. However, it is currently only possible to make single Direct Debit payments.

This is because the amount owed can include elements which do not have to be reported to HMRC until too close to the payment deadline to allow HMRC to automatically collect tax due by Direct Debit. Even the most straightforward employer schemes may have variances in the amount due to HMRC throughout the year meaning a continuing Direct Debit for a set amount would not be appropriate.

HMRC do recognise the benefits of enabling employers to pay this way and are looking at how they can overcome these issues in order to allow employers to set up a recurring Direct Debit.

• The National Police Chiefs’ Council has produced comprehensive guidance for forces on introducing Right Care, Right Person, or RCRP, under which the right agencies should respond to medical emergencies. This often means a health response.
• It is for Chief Constables to determine how they deploy their resource but every English and Welsh force is working to adopt an RCRP approach.

The Government conducted a call for evidence on violence and abuse toward shop staff to understand the extent of the issue and how we can work with retailers and police to improve the response to these crimes. The Government’s formal response was published 7 July 2020 and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-and-abuse-toward-shop-staff-call-for-evidence

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.

The roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines is being delivered in line with the guidance of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). This prioritises those who are most likely to suffer the most serious health outcomes as a result of catching the virus, where age is assessed to be the most significant factor. Police officers will continue to be vaccinated in line with the JCVI-guided prioritisation, and many will have received at least a first dose ahead of the G7 Summit in June.

We recognise the importance of Personal Protective Equipment for all of those on the frontline and continue to work with the police to ensure officers receive the essential equipment they need in order to carry out their jobs safely.

The health and safety of all staff and attendees at the Summit, and local residents in Cornwall, is paramount. Government will take all necessary measures to ensure that the G7 Summit is fully COVID-secure.

DSTL have conducted operational analysis of the proposed system and have confirmed with the Royal Navy that the DragonFire system will provide operationally relevant capability. An established test programme using the existing the DragonFire system will provide further evidence and validation. The programme has already commenced multiple work streams to mature Defence Lines of Development to deliver Minimum Deployable Capability.

Sexual relationships between instructors and trainees have no place in Defence, or wider society, and the MOD’s zero tolerance approach ensures our commitment to providing a better working environment for our Serving personnel is met.

Fewer than ten staff at Army Foundation College Harrogate were found to have had inappropriate relationships with recruits since 2014. Due to the very small number, this will not be broken down further.

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest ten. Rounding is used to preserve anonymity.
2. JPA is a live system which is updated for retrospective complaints/allegations and therefore data can be subject to change.
3. These figures are single Service estimates only and are not official statistics produced by Defence Statistics.
4. There is no defined criteria for ‘intimate relationships’ or for ‘otherwise inappropriate relationships’. The figure above is based on a search for cases where there was found to have been an abuse of a position of trust at AFC Harrogate which had a sexual nature to it.

The tables below show the number and proportion of charges at Court Martial of rape and other sexual offences involving people working at Army Foundation College Harrogate which resulted in a conviction.

Rape

Other Sexual Offences

Caveats:

1. JPA is a live system which is updated for retrospective complaints/allegations and therefore, data can be subject to change.

2. These figures are single service estimates only and are not official statistics produced by Defence Statistics.

3. The data represents the number of charges; it may be that more than one charge has been brought against the same person.

4. Table two shows the number of other sexual offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 or its historical equivalent.

5. People working at AFC Harrogate does not include recruits.

6. The % columns detail the proportion of convictions in relation to charges at Court Martial.

As of 1 December 2023, which is the latest available data, 17,221 UK Armed Forces personnel were categorised as NATO Category 2 and 12,283 were categorised as NATO Category 3, meaning that they require either preventative or interventive treatment to achieve optimal dental fitness. A further 21,699 UK Armed Forces personnel were categorised as NATO Category 4, meaning that they require a periodic dental examination, have an undetermined dental status, or have missing or incomplete dental records.

The requested information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.