Scott Arthur

Drones are useful in inspecting energy infrastructure such as offshore wind turbines and overhead electrification lines which are difficult to reach using other means. As part of DESNZ’s Net Zero Innovation Programme, we have funded UK companies looking to develop drones for these types of inspections.

The Government believes the only way to protect consumers permanently is to speed up the transition towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

The Warm Home Discount provides a £150 rebate off winter energy bills for eligible low-income households. On 25 February, we published a consultation on the expansion of the Warm Home Discount, giving more eligible households £150 off their energy bills. These proposals would bring around 2.7 million households into the scheme – pushing the total number of households that would receive the discount next winter up to around 6 million. The Warm Home Discount regulations expire in 2026, and we will want to consider all options for future bill support beyond this point.

We continue to monitor energy prices and the price cap and are working to ensure bills are affordable for consumers in the long-term, including through our work with Ofgem to reform standing charges, and through our Warm Homes Plan which will upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run.

The Government believes the only way to protect consumers permanently is to speed up the transition towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

The Warm Home Discount provides a £150 rebate off winter energy bills for eligible low-income households. On 25 February, we published a consultation on the expansion of the Warm Home Discount, giving more eligible households £150 off their energy bills. These proposals would bring around 2.7 million households into the scheme – pushing the total number of households that would receive the discount next winter up to around 6 million. The Warm Home Discount regulations expire in 2026, and we will want to consider all options for future bill support beyond this point.

We continue to monitor energy prices and the price cap and are working to ensure bills are affordable for consumers in the long-term, including through our work with Ofgem to reform standing charges, and through our Warm Homes Plan which will upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run.

Heat network suppliers commercially contract for the fuel that powers heat networks and so they are not subject to the domestic energy price cap.

The Government is however, introducing heat network regulation in January 2026 which aims to provide consumers with comparable protections to existing gas and electricity regulations.

The heat network regulator, Ofgem, will have powers to investigate and intervene where heat network prices charged to consumers appear to be disproportionate or unfair.

Regulatory oversight will be supplemented by statutory redress through the Energy Ombudsman who will have the same powers to hear complaints and make legally binding decisions as they do in gas and electricity markets.

The UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership sets out how the UK and Ukraine build long-term military, economic and cultural ties. This includes through science, technology and innovation collaboration – both to drive mutual growth and support Ukraine’s R&D sector. Since 2022, we have supported over 100 pairs of UK and Ukrainian universities through the University Twinning Programme, providing over £5 million of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Research England funding to work together. We also support UK and Ukrainian Innovators to work together through the UK-Ukraine Techbridge and over 170 Ukrainian researchers to continue their research at UK universities through the Researchers at Risk Programme.

The Government is committed to making the UK the destination of choice for top international talent, who have an important impact on innovation and entrepreneurship in the UK. Their impact is particularly noticeable in the UK’s leading startup ecosystem; a quarter of Tech Nation-endorsed Global Talent Visa (GTV) holders are founders, and 39% of the UK’s fastest growing start-ups have at least one foreign born co-founder. In addition to providing a pipeline of entrepreneurs, international talent contributes significantly to innovation in key growth-driving sectors, and makes up 37% of higher education research staff.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) delivers a substantial portfolio of researcher-led projects and strategic investments, including research investigating the causes for and underpinning the development of treatments for Brain Cancer. The Medical Research Council (MRC) spent £2.86 million on brain cancer research in funding year 2023-24. MRC, Innovate UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council all support research in this area. UKRI also plays a key role in funding underpinning research which may not be attributable to a specific condition but will benefit medical research more generally.

Copyright law already protects the rights of authors, who have several means of asserting their moral and economic rights. The Government published its consultation on Copyright and AI on 17 December 2024. This sought views on giving rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material to train AI models and supporting their ability to be remunerated where it is used. The consultation closed on 25 February 2025.

The Government’s priority now is to review all responses to the consultation, to help inform its approach to copyright and AI. The Government will continue to engage extensively as it considers next steps, and its proposals will be set out in due course.

My department supports the safe deployment of drones for commercial and public benefit, through R&D support and innovative regulation. Wider drone policy is led by the Department for Transport.

Since 2019, the Future Flight Challenge, administered by Innovate UK, has provided £125m of public funding for collaborative R&D and innovation in this area.

We established the Regulatory Innovation Office to support our ambition to be the best place in the world to innovate. ‘Drones and other autonomous technology’ is an initial focus area of the Regulatory Innovation Office.

Large scale commercial prize draws are a significant and growing market. Whilst not regulated as a gambling product under the Gambling Act, we want people who participate to be confident that proportionate protections are in place. The department is grateful for the voluntary action taken so far by the sector to act transparently and apply player protection measures.

We want to ensure high standards across the sector. The Minister for Gambling recently met with the leading operator Omaze to discuss this work further and will meet others in the sector soon. We will update Parliament further in due course.

The Government is committed to the long term success of our world class games sector, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy.

£5.5 million in funding for the UK Games Fund (UKGF) has been announced for 2025/26, which will provide grants to early-stage studios across the UK to develop prototypes and new intellectual property, and run development programmes for new graduates.

Video games companies can also access the International Business Development strand of the UK Global Screen Fund, which provides financial support for business strategies that drive international growth and IP development for companies working in film, TV (animation, drama and documentary) and interactive narrative gaming.

Additionally, video games companies benefit from the Video Games Expenditure Credit, and access support from the Create Growth Programme.

We are working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England on skills policy to address skills shortages in the creative industries, including the games sector. This includes DfE’s work on growth and skills levy reform. We will set out more detail as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, to be published in coming months.

The Government is committed to the long term success of our world class games sector, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy.

£5.5 million in funding for the UK Games Fund (UKGF) has been announced for 2025/26, which will provide grants to early-stage studios across the UK to develop prototypes and new intellectual property, and run development programmes for new graduates.

Video games companies can also access the International Business Development strand of the UK Global Screen Fund, which provides financial support for business strategies that drive international growth and IP development for companies working in film, TV (animation, drama and documentary) and interactive narrative gaming.

Additionally, video games companies benefit from the Video Games Expenditure Credit, and access support from the Create Growth Programme.

We are working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England on skills policy to address skills shortages in the creative industries, including the games sector. This includes DfE’s work on growth and skills levy reform. We will set out more detail as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, to be published in coming months.

The Government is committed to the long term success of our world class games sector, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy.

£5.5 million in funding for the UK Games Fund (UKGF) has been announced for 2025/26, which will provide grants to early-stage studios across the UK to develop prototypes and new intellectual property, and run development programmes for new graduates.

Video games companies can also access the International Business Development strand of the UK Global Screen Fund, which provides financial support for business strategies that drive international growth and IP development for companies working in film, TV (animation, drama and documentary) and interactive narrative gaming.

Additionally, video games companies benefit from the Video Games Expenditure Credit, and access support from the Create Growth Programme.

We are working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England on skills policy to address skills shortages in the creative industries, including the games sector. This includes DfE’s work on growth and skills levy reform. We will set out more detail as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, to be published in coming months.

Sustainability of the local media sector across the country is an area of particular concern for this Government. We are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.

Officials have met with the Public Interest News Foundation, founders of the Local News Commission, as part of our continued engagement with key external stakeholders. Government welcomes the publication of the Commission’s report and will consider its recommendations as part of our wider work on the Strategy. Our work is also being informed by the range of studies conducted into the state of local journalism in the UK in recent years.

This government welcomes international students who enrich our university campuses, forge lifelong friendships with our domestic students and become global ambassadors for the UK. Our world-class higher education (HE) sector can offer a fulfilling and enjoyable experience to international students from around the world.

The Immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base. This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on HE provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic HE and skills system. We will set out more details around this in the Autumn Budget. Analysis of the potential impacts is based on the levy applying to English HE providers only. We will fully consult all the devolved governments on the implementation of the international student levy.

In March, Professor Edward Peck was appointed as substantive Chair of the Office for Students. Professor Peck will continue the excellent work of interim Chair, Sir David Behan, focusing on the sector’s financial sustainability and increasing opportunities in HE.

Moreover, in November, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced the difficult decision to increase tuition fee limits in line with forecast inflation. The maximum fee for a standard full-time undergraduate course in the 2025/26 academic year will increase by 3.1%, from £9,250 to £9,535. In return for the increased investment we are asking students to make, we expect the sector to deliver the very best outcomes, both for those students and for the country.

Alongside this, we expect all universities to have a sustainable business model. Our forthcoming plans for reform of the HE sector will set out how we will support universities in this regard.

This government welcomes international students who enrich our university campuses, forge lifelong friendships with our domestic students and become global ambassadors for the UK. Our world-class higher education (HE) sector can offer a fulfilling and enjoyable experience to international students from around the world.

The Immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base. This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on HE provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic HE and skills system. We will set out more details around this in the Autumn Budget. Analysis of the potential impacts is based on the levy applying to English HE providers only. We will fully consult all the devolved governments on the implementation of the international student levy.

In March, Professor Edward Peck was appointed as substantive Chair of the Office for Students. Professor Peck will continue the excellent work of interim Chair, Sir David Behan, focusing on the sector’s financial sustainability and increasing opportunities in HE.

Moreover, in November, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced the difficult decision to increase tuition fee limits in line with forecast inflation. The maximum fee for a standard full-time undergraduate course in the 2025/26 academic year will increase by 3.1%, from £9,250 to £9,535. In return for the increased investment we are asking students to make, we expect the sector to deliver the very best outcomes, both for those students and for the country.

Alongside this, we expect all universities to have a sustainable business model. Our forthcoming plans for reform of the HE sector will set out how we will support universities in this regard.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Edinburgh South West, to the answer of 1 April 2025 to Question 40591.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is key to breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping all pupils to achieve and thrive in education.

The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person, regardless of their sex, has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. NHS-funded Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) continue to roll out in schools and colleges and are expected to cover at least 50% of pupils by April 2025.

The department also provides a range of guidance and practical resources for schools on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. These include a resources hub for mental health leads, a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support and guidance on effective whole-school approaches to pupil mental health and wellbeing. This guidance encourages schools to consider groups that are at greater risk of experiencing poor mental health when planning their approach. This might include consideration that girls in some age ranges have been shown to have higher levels of probable mental disorder than boys, or that girls may be more likely to experience certain mental health conditions.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

It is compulsory for schools to teach relationships education for primary school pupils, relationships and sex education for secondary school pupils, and health education for all pupils in state-funded schools, in line with the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance, which has been in place since September 2020.

Oak National Academy are developing new resources to support schools with the delivery of RSHE, which will start to become available later this year.

The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. This is why we have set out our ambitious manifesto commitments to create nine new national river walks and three new national forests in England, expanding access to the great outdoors. We know that particular groups, including women and girls, can disproportionately experience barriers to accessing nature, and we are committed to tackling this inequity so that everyone can benefit from spending time in green and blue spaces.

Our Green Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide offers detailed guidance on creating accessible, multifunctional green spaces that deliver a wide range of benefits. Specifically, for teenage girls, it emphasises the need for designing spaces that are not only safe and inclusive but also comfortable and welcoming.

In addition, the Government licenses and oversees the Green Flag Award scheme, which recognises well-managed, inclusive and welcoming green spaces. Parks are assessed against criteria such as safety, accessibility, environmental management and community involvement, helping to ensure high standards are maintained across thousands of parks and open spaces and that these remain inclusive and accessible for all, including women and girls.

Technological solutions will play a critical role in decarbonising transport across all modes, including through accelerated electric vehicle rollout and low carbon fuel deployment in shipping and aviation. Government will produce a plan later this year for reducing emissions from all sectors, including transport, in line with legislated carbon budgets.

I am committed to maximising the benefits of drones to drive economic growth, support communities, and enhance public services, whilst ensuring their safe and responsible use.

The Department for Transport is working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and industry partners through the Future of Flight Industry Group (FFIG) to ensure that existing and future regulations for drone technology are proportionate, support sector growth, and maintain the UK’s high standards of aviation safety and security. FFIG brings together key government and industry stakeholders to drive forward the UK’s Future of Flight Programme, which aims to develop the regulation, technologies and infrastructure needed to enable the routine use of innovative aircraft, including drones. The programme also seeks to unlock barriers to growth, support new commercial opportunities, and improve public services.

On 17 March, the CAA announced their new approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth. This included five initiatives, two of which relate specifically to drones: enabling at least two further and larger BVLOS drone scale trial operations and launching an initial implementation of the UK’s Drone Market Surveillance Authority.

The attached Excel document shows the number of people using a unique driver number that a) sat and b) passed a driving test at Edinburgh (Currie) driving test centre (DTC) in each year from 2015 to 30 September 2024. Please note, this data is based on candidates’ unique driver numbers. Based on this unique number, the data does not include if a candidate took a test more than once in any given year. However, if a candidate changed their unique driver number, each driver number is counted once in each year it is used. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) retention period for this data is ten years.

The attached Excel document also shows the number of tests conducted and passed at Edinburgh (Currie) DTC between 2010 and 30 September 2024. This data is the total number of tests conducted per year and would include candidates who took multiple tests. DVSA publishes this data online at: Driving test and theory test data: cars - GOV.UK.

DVSA can currently only publish the data included in the attached Excel document up to the end of September 2024.

After consulting the aviation sector, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) consulted ministers in February about changes to its schemes of regulatory charges for 2024/25. We considered every response to its sector consultation, including 72 specifically about drone charges. Before coming to ministers and after sector consultation, the CAA amended its charges to make them less impactful to many members of the drone community.

Government support for the CAA in 2025/26 also includes £16.5m for Future of Flight projects, some of which will benefit drone users.

Where appropriate the CAA considers making refunds to applicants that misinterpret CAA policies or make mistakes in applications. The CAA plan to share guidance on common mistakes to help prevent recurrence and this will help to minimise applicant costs. Furthermore, the digitisation of some application routes should bear down on costs to regulated parties, including drone operators.

The Department for Transport has worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to develop a Global Technical Regulation on electric vehicle batteries (GTR 22). If implemented, the regulation would set standards for the lifespan of a battery and its minimum durability. It will also ensure that information about electric vehicle batteries is easily accessible, accurate and comparable. The Government is currently considering options for the implementation of GTR 22 battery regulations in the UK.

In the meantime, the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate requires all new electric vehicles to be sold with a warranty that includes battery replacement if capacity falls below 70% in the first 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever is sooner.