Seema Malhotra

We have not had any such discussions.

Air conditioning installations must meet all the relevant requirements of the building regulations, regardless of whether the use of a building was permitted following a planning application or under a nationally set permitted development right.

Honours recipients are not categorised by constituency. However, the honours lists, as published on GOV.UK, are searchable by county.

Work experience is considered to be any paid five-day or more placement in a government department.

The Civil Service aims to increase opportunities for people of all backgrounds and create a Civil Service fit for 21st century Britain through work experience, internships and apprenticeship schemes.

For people aged 16 and under there was the following number of work experience placements in the Government Equalities Office:

2017: 0

2018: 0

2019: 0

For people over 16 years old there was the following number of work experience placements in the Government Equalities Office:

2017: 0

2018: 2

2019: 2

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.

Step 4 policy and guidance was developed in collaboration with departments and stakeholders including businesses and unions. The Government continuously reviews and updates the guidance available in light of emerging information and feedback from the public, working to ensure the guidance is clear and accessible.

We discussed the development of guidance with stakeholders, including businesses and unions, however this did not happen under a formal consultation process, largely due to the need to react and make decisions swiftly at Ministerial level, given the circumstances during the pandemic.

Government is committed to increasing spend with SMEs.

The latest procurement figures for 2019/20 show that across government, £15.5bn was paid to small and medium sized businesses to help deliver vital public services. This is an increase of £1.3bn on the previous year and the highest since records began in 2013.

Central government departments have dedicated SME action plans setting out specific actions being taken to promote increased spend with SME organisations.

This information is not held centrally.

The government is committed to supporting start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), directly or via the supply chain, through government procurement, including those led by women and minority ethnic groups. Government spending with SMEs is also continuing to rise, with 26.7% of the £58bn spent by the government in 2019/20 going to SMEs.

This information is not held centrally.

The government is committed to supporting start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), directly or via the supply chain, through government procurement, including those led by women and minority ethnic groups. Government spending with SMEs is also continuing to rise, with 26.7% of the £58bn spent by the government in 2019/20 going to SMEs.

I refer the hon. Member to my answer to PQ 2999 on 24 May 2021.

The government wants SMEs to benefit from central government procurement spend, either directly or indirectly via the supply chain.

Reports on central government spend with SMEs are published on GOV.UK on an annual basis by the Cabinet Office. The latest procurement figures for 2019/20, published on the 7th of May 2021 show that across central government, £15.5bn was paid to SMEs to help deliver vital public services. The figure is an increase of £1.3bn on the previous year and the highest since records began in 2013. Overall, spending with SMEs represented 26.7 per cent of the £58bn spent by the government in 2019/20 – an increase of 1.1 per cent on the previous year.

Any responsible Government has a duty to prepare for all scenarios. Planning for the end of the transition period is well underway and we have already been engaging with businesses and industry, including ensuring our borders are ready by the end of the year, and will continue to do so.

Annual reports by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and the Cabinet Office include data on those taking up and holding public appointments. The government has published and is implementing the Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan, available on gov.uk. I will keep this plan under review and the next update will reflect the Government's levelling up agenda, including regional diversity, and diversity of thought.

Significant progress has been made in recent years to improve diversity in the honours system. For example, we now consistently see around half of awards overall going to women, and in the New Year 2020 Honours List, 51% of honours went to women. Around 10% of awards go to recipients from a BAME background. The Cabinet Office will consider whether further steps to improve diversity and representation are required. We welcome more nominations from under-represented regions and we are running a programme of regional events to promote the system in those areas most under-represented.

The Government is providing a range of support to help with the cost of living. As announced on 23 March, the Government is cutting fuel duty for 12 months, raising the Employment Allowance to £5,000, doubling the Household Support Fund with an extra £500m, zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials, and equalising National Insurance and Income Tax starting thresholds from July 2022 so people will be able to earn £12,570 a year without paying any Income Tax or National Insurance.

This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years and the package of support announced on 3 February to help households with rising energy bills worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23.

The Government’s Plan for Jobs is also helping people into work and giving them the skills they need to progress – the best approach to managing the cost of living in the long term.

The Economic Crime (Enforcement and Transparency) Act 2022 contains a number of regulation-making powers which we will use to introduce secondary legislation. Work on drafting secondary legislation and guidance is underway, as is work to implement the new Register of Overseas Entities. The Government has committed to providing Parliament with an update on this work within six weeks. The new Register will be in place as soon as practicably possible and we expect the measures to have an immediate dissuasive effect on those who are intending to buy UK property with illicit funds.

We intend to publish data on take up and completion of the Help to Grow Programmes later this year on the GOV.UK website, and thereafter on a regular basis.

We intend to publish data on take up and completion of the Help to Grow Programmes later this year on the GOV.UK website, and thereafter on a regular basis.

We intend to publish data on take up and completion of the Help to Grow Programmes later this year on the GOV.UK website, and thereafter on a regular basis.

We will invest over £1.3 billion in accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure over the next four years. Government’s forthcoming EV Infrastructure Strategy 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 EVs.

Small business can access the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles’ Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) which is expanding from 1 April 2022 to include small accommodation businesses and the charity sector. Businesses can receive grants of up to £350 per socket for installing up to 40 charging sockets.

The Government continues to support UK businesses in meeting their net zero commitments. The former Net Zero Business Champion, my Hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs, led the Race to Zero campaign targeting small and medium businesses, which boasts 2,926 UK small business commitments to date, constituting ~80% of global signups. More widely, most departments now have a ministerial environment lead to ensure that the environment is considered in areas not directly linked to net zero, and Cabinet Office has led on the replacement of Single Departmental Plans with Outcome Delivery Plans across Whitehall, which allows for more joined-up planning across different department’s priorities.

Businesses can visit the UK Business Climate Hub to sign up and get advice on how to reduce emissions, including sector-specific guidance. Upon making a climate commitment, businesses gain access to a suite of tools for reducing their emissions, including a carbon calculator tool, a modular, interactive education course and CDP’s new standard reporting framework. All small businesses making a climate commitment receive monthly communications from the Department, which signpost the latest policy and regulatory changes in addition to the “Together For Our Planet” digital toolkit.

Local authorities are independent from central government and are responsible for determining their resourcing priorities in accordance with the needs of the local electorate. In England, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities decides on the local government finance settlement.

Local authorities are independent from central government and are responsible for determining their resourcing priorities in accordance with the needs of the local electorate. In England, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities decides on the local government finance settlement.

The Government has no plans at this stage to introduce a scrappage scheme.

The Government has committed £2.5 billion since 2020 to support the transition to zero emission vehicles, with funding to offset their higher upfront cost, and to accelerate the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.

In a dynamic and competitive economy, a proportion of businesses will cease trading each year, for a range of reasons. The government does not view business deaths as a reliable indicator of competitiveness, or economic health.

Recognising the huge impact of the pandemic on businesses across the UK, this government has provided around £400 billion of direct support to the economy during this financial year and last, which has helped to safeguard jobs, businesses and public services in every region and nation of the UK. This includes a total of over £26bn in business grants.

The Government has provided around £400 billion of direct support for the economy since the start of the pandemic, which has helped to safeguard jobs, businesses and public services in every region and nation of the UK – this includes the £1 billion Omicron package of support announced in December, which was focused on supporting the hospitality, leisure and cultural sectors.

Now that we have returned to Plan A and as individuals and businesses learn to live with Covid-19, it is right that this exceptional support comes to an end as planned. This is vital for a strong economy and to help rebuild the public finances. However, support is being withdrawn gradually, so that businesses can plan and adjust over time.

Government also recognises the role that energy plays in inflation and impact on businesses of all sizes. Higher wholesale gas prices have been seen internationally in 2021. This has been due to multiple international factors in supply and demand.

Ofgem and the Government are in regular contact with business groups and suppliers to understand the challenges they face.

The Government understands the pressure that a higher cost of living places on people. We are working with international partners to tackle global supply chain issues and is providing support worth over around £12 billion this financial year and next to help people with the cost of living, as well as a package of support to help households with rising energy bills, worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23.

The Department does not hold information relating to the relationships between private companies and the Russian Government

The Government has worked closely with the international UN-backed SME Climate Hub, which is part of the global Race to Zero campaign, to embed a UK campaign page known as the UK Business Climate Hub. This campaign page offers free advice to small business on how to be greener and save money, along with inspiring UK case studies. The cost of developing the UK Business Climate Hub was £46,800, including VAT.

Upon making their SME climate commitment to join the Race to Zero, businesses gain free access to a suite of resources to help them measure, reduce and report on emissions.

The former Net Zero Business Champion led the Race to Zero campaign targeting small and medium businesses, which has attracted 2,730 UK small business commitments to date, constituting approximately 80% of global signups.

The Government has also developed the UK Business Climate Hub, where business can receive sector-specific guidance on how best to reduce their carbon emissions. This page

attracted an average of 3,000 visitors per day, or 90,000 per month in the months leading up to COP26.

The Government has worked with businesses themselves and a wide range of Business Representative Organisations, sector-based trade associations, Devolved Administrations and local and regional organisations to raise awareness of the campaign and the race to net zero.

To date, over 2700 UK small and medium sized businesses have made the SME Climate Commitment in order to join the UN’s Race to Zero, constituting approximately 80% of global signups.

The 2,730 UK businesses who have made SME Climate Commitments and joined the Race to Zero represent ~80% of global signups. We continue to work with the international SME Climate Hub team to improve the platform content with additional tools, and that of the UK Business Climate Hub through case studies and other features.

The UK Business Climate Hub, a UK page developed by the Government which is embedded in the international SME Climate Hub, attracted an average of 3,000 visitors per day, or 90,000 per month in the months leading up to COP26.

The Government continues to support UK SMEs to join the UN’s Race to Zero initiative. To date, over 2,730 small businesses in the UK have made a net zero commitment, constituting ~80% of global signups.

No such assessments have been made on spending patterns on local high streets.

The total cost of the Heroes of Net Zero competition was £10,591.09. These were promotional costs as all other costs were met by the competition sponsors.

One of the winners included Design Abled, a micro business from Middlesex that created a face shield for hearing impaired individuals.

In May 2021, ahead of COP26 the Government launched the Together for Our Planet Business Climate Leaders campaign. The aim of the campaign is to encourage as many small businesses as possible to join the “Race to Zero” by making the SME Climate Commitment on the SME Climate Hub. To date, 2,670 UK small businesses have made the SME Climate Hub, constituting around 80% of global signups.

The Government has also run several initiatives in conjunction with trade associations, local authorities, businesses such as BT, NatWest and Royal Mail. For example, the “Heroes of Net Zero Competition” invited all British businesses with less than 50 employees, who had joined the Race to Zero, to share their innovative green actions. As part of the campaign, a new UK Business Climate Hub has been developed to provide guidance on how to reduce emissions, including sector-specific advice.

BEIS has not assessed the adequacy of the availability of vehicle emissions filtration systems for small businesses. However, as the global economy has rebounded from the pandemic, we have seen pressures placed on supply chains across sectors and across countries.

In a dynamic and competitive economy, a proportion of businesses will cease trading each year for a range of reasons.

Since the start of Covid, business deaths have averaged around 490,000 per year over 2020/21 down from a yearly average of 500,000 in the period 2016-19.

This Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses in the form of grants, the furlough scheme, and the Covid loan schemes, which provided a lifeline to 1.6 million businesses across the UK – facilitating nearly £80 billion of finance to help them survive the pandemic.

The Government continues to support UK businesses in meeting their net zero commitments. The former Net Zero Business Champion, my Hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs, led the Race to Zero campaign targeting small and medium businesses,

Businesses can visit the UK Business Climate Hub to sign up and get advice on how to reduce emissions, including sector-specific guidance. Upon climate commitment, businesses gain access in reducing their emissions, including a carbon calculator tool, a modular, interactive education course and CDP’s new standard reporting framework. All small businesses making a climate commitment receive monthly communications from the Department, which signpost the latest policy and regulatory changes in addition to the “Together For Our Planet” digital toolkit.

The Government published the first ever hospitality strategy in July 2021, through which it also outlined its commitment to decarbonise the hospitality sector and its supply chains. The recently formed Hospitality Sector Council was set up to work with the sector, by co-creating solutions and delivering the commitments set out in the strategy, such as developing a greener sector.

The Government also encourages all UK businesses, including those in the hospitality sector, with 500 employees or fewer to visit the UK Business Climate Hub, and sign up to the globally recognised small business climate commitment. Businesses gain access to a range of resources to help them achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.

In addition, the Government is also working closely with major trade associations in these sectors who have industry-wide net zero strategies. These include the Zero Carbon Forum who have released their Net Zero Roadmap, which is endorsed by UK Hospitality, and WRAP.

The ONS data to which the member is referring shows at 2.6% increase in business investment versus the same quarter the previous year, which shows that the Government’s approach is delivering a strong economic recovery.

BEIS works to support business investment through a range of different measures including several sector focused funds, such as the £1.4bn Global Britain Investment Fund, which provides grant support to businesses within the automotive, life sciences and offshore wind sectors. The department has laid out a strategy to deliver Net Zero by 2050, which includes leveraging £90bn in private investment. At the last Budget and Spending Review the Government made a £1.6 billion commitment to a new generation of regional funds via the British Business Bank’s programmes. The Government will also provide funding for 33,000 Start Up Loans over the next three years.

Since courses began in July 2021, 1,270 business leaders have been onboarded and 402 have completed the Help to Grow: Management programme.

The programme is a 12-week course designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and skills they need to boost performance and reach their full growth potential.

Help to Grow: Digital launched on 20 January 2022 and aims to support up to 100,000 small businesses with online advice and a discount for software costs.

We are committed to providing support to people seeking to start new businesses. We provide access to finance to people who want to start a business through the British Business Bank (BBB). The Start Up Loans Company, part of the BBB, has delivered 89,934 loans across the UK with a value of more than £811.67 million since the Start Up Loans programme’s launch in 2012 to the end of November 2021.

Our network of 38 Growth Hubs across England, provides key services to new businesses offering free information and 1-1 advice, alongside our free Business Support Helpline. Growth Hubs offer triage, diagnostic and signposting services to make sure that all businesses know what support is available and know how to apply.

The Government’s business advice pages on GOV.UK also provide information and guidance relevant to starting, growing and maintaining a business, as well as their statutory rights and obligations, and links to support provided by devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. All details can be found online: www.gov.uk/browse/business.

The Government moved to Plan B in England as it was necessary to control the spread of transmission of the new threat posed by the Omicron variant and the potential impact on businesses. In order to support all businesses across the UK economy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £400 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme. This includes a total of over £26bn in business grants. The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund is open until March 2022.

In order to support businesses through this next phase, the ‘Working Safely’ guidance will continue to provide advice on sensible precautions employers can take to manage risk and support their staff and customers. In other sectors, such as hospitality, the guidance says that businesses are exempt from enforcing customers to wear masks and this assessment has been made from a practical point of view given the nature of hospitality visits is to eat and drink.

The Government moved to Plan B in England as it was necessary to control the spread of transmission of the new threat posed by the Omicron variant and the potential impact on businesses. To support all businesses across the UK economy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £400 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme. This includes a total of over £26bn in business grants. The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund is open until March 2022.

The Help to Grow Scheme is open to SMEs that meet the eligibility criteria, from all sectors from across the UK.

Businesses that express an interest in the Help to Grow: Digital programme are not required to identify the sector they are in.

On the Help to Grow: Management programme side, to date, 143 SMEs within the hospitality sector have registered for the programme.

BEIS will continue to analyse the characteristics of businesses as part of the Help to Grow scheme to support monitoring and evaluation.

The Help to Grow Scheme is open to SMEs that meet the eligibility criteria, from all sectors from across the UK.

Businesses that express an interest in the Help to Grow: Digital programme are not required to identify the sector they are in.

On the Help to Grow: Management programme side, to date, 143 SMEs within the hospitality sector have registered for the programme.

BEIS will continue to analyse the characteristics of businesses as part of the Help to Grow scheme to support monitoring and evaluation.

The Department monitors road fuel prices and publishes the information on a weekly basis.

BEIS analysis is that changes in retail prices of petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are primarily driven by the changes in the global market prices for crude oil and in exchange rates. Both rises and falls in crude oil prices feed through to pump prices over a period of 6-7 weeks.

Recognising that fuel is a major cost for households and businesses, we have kept fuel duty frozen. This is the twelfth consecutive freeze, saving the average UK car driver a cumulative £1,900, compared to the plans the previous Government set out in 2010.

The Government believes it is vital that consumers get a fair deal on fuel prices and that a competitive market is the best way to achieve this. BEIS analysis is that changes in retail prices of petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are primarily driven by the changes in the global market prices for crude oil and in exchange rates.

Recognising that fuel is a major cost for households and businesses, we have kept fuel duty frozen. This is the twelfth consecutive freeze, saving the average UK car driver a cumulative £1,900, compared to the plans the previous Government set out in 2010.

The situation faced by UK businesses and others across the globe is a result of high consumer demand, and the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19 pressures. This is a global problem, and the UK is experiencing challenges similar to other countries at the current time.

Global capacity at ports regularly fluctuates in response to increased seasonal demand and this has been exacerbated by the ongoing global container and HGV driver shortages. The Government continues to work closely with the freight industry to tackle the challenges faced by some ports this winter.

The Department has ongoing engagement with businesses and organisations across a range of sectors to understand the impact that these pressures are having on the ground. In addition, Sir Dave Lewis, former CEO of Tesco, was appointed in October to act as the UK Government’s supply chain adviser and provide a further link between business and government. We continue to work closely with industry to identify and understand the causes of supply chain issues and pre-empt future issues.

The situation faced by UK businesses and others across the globe is a result of high consumer demand, and the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19 pressures. This is a global problem, and the UK is experiencing challenges similar to other countries at the current time.

Global capacity at ports regularly fluctuates in response to increased seasonal demand and this has been exacerbated by the ongoing global container and HGV driver shortages. The Government continues to work closely with the freight industry to tackle the challenges faced by some ports this winter.

The Department has ongoing engagement with businesses and organisations across a range of sectors to understand the impact that these pressures are having on the ground. In addition, Sir Dave Lewis, former CEO of Tesco, was appointed in October to act as the UK Government’s supply chain adviser and provide a further link between business and government. We continue to work closely with industry to identify and understand the causes of supply chain issues and pre-empt future issues.

The situation faced by UK businesses and others across the globe is a result of high consumer demand, and the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19 pressures. This is a global problem, and the UK is experiencing challenges similar to other countries at the current time.

Global capacity at ports regularly fluctuates in response to increased seasonal demand and this has been exacerbated by the ongoing global container and HGV driver shortages. The Government continues to work closely with the freight industry to tackle the challenges faced by some ports this winter.

The Department has ongoing engagement with businesses and organisations across a range of sectors to understand the impact that these pressures are having on the ground. In addition, Sir Dave Lewis, former CEO of Tesco, was appointed in October to act as the UK Government’s supply chain adviser and provide a further link between business and government. We continue to work closely with industry to identify and understand the causes of supply chain issues and pre-empt future issues.

The situation faced by UK businesses and others across the globe is a result of high consumer demand, and the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19 pressures. This is a global problem, and the UK is experiencing challenges similar to other countries at the current time.

Global capacity at ports regularly fluctuates in response to increased seasonal demand and this has been exacerbated by the ongoing global container and HGV driver shortages. The Government continues to work closely with the freight industry to tackle the challenges faced by some ports this winter.

The Department has ongoing engagement with businesses and organisations across a range of sectors to understand the impact that these pressures are having on the ground. In addition, Sir Dave Lewis, former CEO of Tesco, was appointed in October to act as the UK Government’s supply chain adviser and provide a further link between business and government. We continue to work closely with industry to identify and understand the causes of supply chain issues and pre-empt future issues.

BEIS analysis is that changes in retail prices of petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are primarily driven by the changes in the global market prices for crude oil and in exchange rates.

Recognising that fuel is a major cost for households and businesses, we have kept fuel duty frozen. This is the twelfth consecutive freeze, saving the average UK car driver a cumulative £1,900, compared to the plans the previous Government set out in 2010.

The Government encourages all UK businesses with 500 employees or fewer to visit the UK Business Climate Hub and sign up to the globally recognised small business climate commitment. Businesses, distinguished by sector including retail, hospitality and entertainment, gain access to a range of resources to help them achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.

Part of the commitment is disclosing progress on a yearly basis. In order to help businesses to report annually, they are now encouraged to use CDP’s new Climate Disclosure Framework.

The Government is also working closely with major trade associations across these sectors who have industry-wide net zero strategies. These include the British Retail Consortium who have published their Climate Action Roadmap, the Retail Sector Council who have produced an SME Green Guide, and Zero Carbon Forum who have released their Net Zero Roadmap, which is endorsed by UKHospitality.

The Government published the first ever hospitality strategy, which includes the commitment to help hospitality businesses and its supply to decarbonise. The recently formed Hospitality Sector Council was set up to work with the sector, by co-creating solutions while delivering the commitments set out in the strategy, such as developing a greener sector.

Currently, 2507 UK SMEs have made the SME Climate Commitment (including 14 in overseas territories, and 17 awaiting approval).

UK has by far the most signups in the world; the total constitutes just under 80% of global SME Climate Commitments, and is an order of magnitude higher than the next best country (US on 121).

Since May 2021, when the UK Business Climate Hub was launched, an average of 65 businesses per week have made the commitment. This number has accelerated to an average of 82 per week over November.

UK commitments span every devolved nation and region in the country, and 26 different sectors.

We continue to support UK businesses to meet their net zero commitments alongside engaging large corporates. The former Net Zero Business Champion, my Hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs, led the Race to Zero, a campaign targeting small and micro businesses across the UK. To date 2,507 have joined. Through our small business campaign, the Government has taken an important step towards making net zero relevant to SMEs by helping them access the support they need.

Once they have made the small business climate commitment, businesses receive monthly communications directly from BEIS with the latest policy and regulatory changes, and opportunities such as educational events, consultations and competitions as well as the Together For Our Planet digital toolkit.

We are working to increase SME participation in the Help to Grow: Management programme through:

– A national communications and marketing campaign to raise awareness of the programme to relevant SMEs.

– Working closely with key stakeholders (such as the Banks, Trade Associations and Business Representative Organisations) to promote to SMEs in their networks and drive them to participate in the programme.

– Optimising the customer journey to ensure SMEs that are interested go onto to sign up for a course.

Help to Grow: Management aims to support up to 30,000 small and medium-sized (SME) businesses leaders over the lifetime of the programme. We ensure we are effectively using all our levers to reach this target and keep our progress towards achieving this under regular review.

When employment disputes arise, the Government wants to ensure that employers and employees can resolve these quickly and efficiently. It is always better to resolve disputes through dialogue wherever possible. Acas provides collective conciliation and mediation services. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has not assessed the effectiveness of the mediations between Clarks and its employees, and the Government will not get involved whilst mediation talks are progressing with Acas.

The Government recognises the vital role that the steel sector pays across the United Kingdom economy. We will continue to work with the sector to support its decarbonisation. Funds such as the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) and the Industrial Decarbonisation and Hydrogen Revenue Support (IDHRS) scheme have been announced to support decarbonisation by the Government. Further proposals, including the approach to the Clean Steel Fund, will be brought forward in due course.

On 18 March, the Government published a White Paper, ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate reporting’, setting out comprehensive and ambitious plans to strengthen the UK’s audit, company reporting and corporate governance framework. It included proposals to bring large private businesses in scope of higher standards of transparency and oversight.

Consultation on the proposals closed on 8 July. The Government is considering the responses carefully and will respond in due course.

Currently, 2446 UK SMEs have made the SME Climate Commitment (including 14 in overseas territories, and 26 awaiting approval).

The UK has the largest number of companies signed-up. The total constitutes just under 80% of global SME Climate Commitments.

Since May 2021 when the UK Business Climate Hub was launched, an average of 65 businesses per week have made the commitment. This number has accelerated to an average of 95 per week over November.

UK commitments span every devolved nation and region in the country, and 26 different sectors.

The number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises¹ (SMEs) in Feltham and Heston in March 2021 was 5,150². The number of SMEs in Feltham and Heston in March 2020 was 5,010³. This suggests there was a net increase of around 140 SMEs between March 2020 to March 2021. Data on business closures is not available at the constituency level. Data on SME size and location and data on business closures is not available on a monthly basis”.

¹Business with 0 to 249 employees

²Source: ONS, UK Business: Activity, Size and Location – 2021 (The data contained in this analysis are produced from a snapshot of the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken on 12 March 2021. Only VAT and/or PAYE based enterprises are included.) - https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation

³Source: ONS, UK Business: Activity, Size and Location – 2020 (The data contained in this analysis are produced from a snapshot of the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken on 13 March 2020. Only VAT and/or PAYE based enterprises are included.) - https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation

BEIS does not hold data on the total debt incurred by all businesses. However, UK Finance (a trade body for the banking and finance industry) does hold end of year loan balances, both private and government-backed, and overdraft balances for SMEs only and by UK regions. SMEs are defined by UK Finance as those businesses with total annual turnover under £25 million.

The total loan and overdraft balances for all UK businesses, including large businesses, was £279bn in 2018, £270bn in 2019, and £290bn in 2020 – a 3.2% decrease between 2018 and 2019, and 7.3% increase between 2019 and 2020.

Tables 1 & 2 below provide end of year breakdowns of loan and overdraft balances for SMEs only by region for 2018, 2019 and 2020; the most recent data available. Data by constituency is not readily available.

Table 1: Total SMEs end of year loan balance (£ billion & percent change from previous year)

Source: UK Finance

Table 2: Total SMEs end of year overdrawn balance (£ billion & percent change from previous year)

Source: UK Finance

The number of Start Up Loans provided from March 2012 to the end of September 2021 was 88,253, with a total value of £790,096,004. Of these, 35,156 (40%) with a value of £291,330,446 (37%) were provided to women and 17,914 loans (20%) with a value of £154,023,924 (19%) were provided to entrepreneurs from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic background.

Every contact to the Helpline, be it via telephone, webchat, email or social media channel, is surveyed on their satisfaction and impact of using the service.

Post-interaction with the service, contacts can grade the service from very satisfied to unsatisfied and can provide feedback on any aspect of the Helpline, including the use of www.gov.uk as this provides most of the traffic to the Helpline. They are also asked if they acted based on the advice given and if the advice, guidance, or signposting received have made any impact on their business.

BEIS also conducts customer service mystery shopping exercises and provides feedback to the Helpline.

Satisfaction rates for all levels of services are an average of 91% for this calendar year, above the contracted key performance indicator.

The Department regularly engages at both Ministerial and official level with businesses and representative organisations from the hospitality and retail sectors on a range of issues affecting these sectors including commercial rent debt.

Following a Call for Evidence launched in April and ongoing engagement with representatives of the hospitality and retail sectors on commercial rent debt, the Government will introduce legislation shortly, to support landlords and tenants resolve disputes relating to rent owed as a result of premises having been closed or having had business restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department regularly engages at both Ministerial and official level with businesses and representative organisations from the hospitality and retail sectors on a range of issues affecting these sectors including commercial rent debt.

Following a Call for Evidence launched in April and ongoing engagement with representatives of the hospitality and retail sectors on commercial rent debt, the Government will introduce legislation shortly, to support landlords and tenants resolve disputes relating to rent owed as a result of premises having been closed or having had business restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Government’s plug-in vehicle grants and the majority of funding programmes for charging infrastructure, including funding for chargepoints at homes, workplaces and on residential streets, are available on a UK wide basis. Later this year government will publish our EV Infrastructure Strategy. This will define our vision for the continued roll-out of a world-leading charging infrastructure network across the UK. It will also set out the action plan for charging infrastructure rollout to ensure this is delivered at the pace needed to achieve the 2030/35 phase out successfully across all regions in the UK and to accelerate the transition to a zero-emission car and van fleet.

Evaluation on completions is ongoing. [1]Completion data will differ as some participants may not complete the programme.

[1] SBLP Evaluation partner analysis, 2021

Evaluation on completions is ongoing and is scheduled for the end of December. Across England, 3,005 participants enrolled onto the Small Business Leadership Programme between October 2020 and June 2021: 1170 participants (39%) were women and 1771 (59%) were men. Approximately 15% of participants (456) are considered to be from a BAME background. ^[1]Completion data will differ as some participants may not complete the programme.

[1]SBLP Evaluation partner analysis, 2020.

The Government will shortly introduce legislation to support landlords and tenants resolve disputes relating to rent owed as a result of premises having been closed or having had business restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation will ringfence rent debt accrued during the pandemic by businesses affected by enforced closures and set out a process of binding arbitration to be undertaken between landlords and tenants. This is to be used as a last resort, after bilateral negotiations have been undertaken and only where landlords and tenants cannot otherwise come to a resolution. This will help the economy to return to normal as quickly as possible while protecting viable jobs and businesses.

Help to Grow: Management will support up to 30,000 UK small and medium-sized businesses leaders over three years - to develop their strategic skills, create jobs and boost their business performance. As of 19 October, 810 business leaders are currently participating in the programme.

Help to Grow: Digital will launch in Autumn 2021 and aims to support 100,000 small businesses with online advice and a voucher for software costs. The voucher is expected to be available to UK businesses that have more than 5 and fewer than 249 employees and that have been trading for more than 12 months.

Under the Enterprise Act 2002, the Government has the power to intervene in mergers on public interest grounds covering national security, media plurality, the stability of the UK financial system and the need to maintain in the UK the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State had a constructive call with the Chief Executive of WM Morrisons and they discussed the company’s plans to protect jobs, pensions and footprint in the UK in any potential acquisition. However, the details of the proposed acquisition are primarily a commercial matter for the parties concerned.

The Government has provided an unprecedented package of support for UK businesses to help them survive the Covid-19 pandemic, including direct grants and government-backed loans. Grants and loans were offered to businesses in accordance with the eligibility criteria for those schemes

The Government has made clear to all employers that using threats to ‘fire and rehire’ as a tactic to pressure workers during negotiations on changes to terms and conditions is unacceptable. We expect employers to treat their employees fairly and in the spirit of partnership. There are laws around how negotiations must be done, and protections in place when firms are considering redundancies.

The Government’s business support schemes have been put in place to help eligible businesses to get through the pandemic, including those led by women from all regions and backgrounds. Information on these schemes and other resources is available via the free Business Support Helpline. In 2020, 44% of the Business Support Helpline’s callers were women.

Start-Up Loans, part of the Government-backed British Business Bank, provides loans and intensive support to new entrepreneurs, including a year of free mentoring from industry experts. Since 2012, over 40% of Start Up Loans worth £280m have gone to women (up to June 2021).

The Government asked Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest Group, to carry out a review of female entrepreneurship, which was published in March 2019. In response to her report, we set an ambition to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030, equivalent to 600,000 new entrepreneurs.

The Department is in regular contact with representatives from the Hospitality sector to discuss how to help the sector recover. So far, in England 65% of 18-30-year-olds have taken up the offer of the vaccine and received at least one dose. For the remainder we would encourage them to take up the offer of a vaccine to protect themselves and others.

The Department regularly meets with representatives from across the Hospitality sector to discuss how it can recover and build back from the pandemic and we regularly review financial and economic impacts data for sectors. We have provided an unprecedented support package of £352 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme, which hospitality businesses have access to. We have published a new Hospitality Strategy: Reopening, Recovery, Resilience to ensure England’s pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues can thrive long-term. We are also working on new rules to ringfence COVID-19 commercial rent arrears and guide tenants and landlords to agree repayment plans.

The average number of working days to pay BEIS invoices each month in the year to date is given below.

The Department does not identify the size of business in its invoice payment system, so we are unable to distinguish between SMEs and large businesses.

The Government’s current intervention in the electric vehicle market aims to accelerate upfront price parity between electric and internal combustion engine equivalents, making electric vehicles more affordable for all consumers.

The Government had already committed £1.5 billion to support the early market and remove barriers to zero emission vehicles ownership. Alongside the new phase out dates we have pledged a further £2.8 billion package of measures to support industry and consumers to make the switch to cleaner vehicles.

The Government is providing grants for homeowners, businesses and local authorities to install chargepoints and is also supporting the deployment of rapid chargepoints. The Government will provide £1.3 billion over the next four years to support the continued roll-out of chargepoints on motorways and major A roads, in homes and businesses and on-street.

Since 2011, the Government has provided around £1.3 billion in grant funding to bring ultra-low emission vehicles onto UK roads, reducing the upfront cost of over 300,000 ultra low emission vehicles, of which over 200,000 are zero emission vehicles. The plug-in vehicle grant scheme was renewed last year, with £582 million of funding intended to last until 2022-23.

Drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles also receive other benefits, including lower tax rates and grants towards the installation of chargepoints. For example, all zero emission models will pay 1% company car tax in 2021-22 and a rate of 2% in 2022-23 through to 2024-25. Additionally, all zero emission cars are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED).

Local authorities may also provide incentives, such as free parking or exemption from the congestion charge.

The Government has implemented a range of measures to support commercial property tenants including extending the moratorium on the landlord’s right of forfeiture for non-payment of rent, introducing restrictions on winding-up petitions, including on the basis of a statutory demand, and extending restrictions on the use of the Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery (CRAR), which affects the ability of landlords to seize goods owned by the tenant in lieu of rent owed.

Whilst we recognise that landlords are increasingly using Country Court judgments as a means of debt recovery, they have a reduced impact on businesses due to the measures introduced.

The measures that we have put in place are intended to protect otherwise viable businesses from the immediate threat of eviction due to the trading restrictions introduced to combat the spread of Coronavirus. It has never been the Government’s policy intent to restrict all remedies that landlords have available to collect rents and service charges. We are seeking to strike a fair balance between providing ongoing support to tenant businesses and those who own the properties.

In addition, the government will introduce legislation in this Parliamentary session to support the orderly resolution of rental payments accrued by commercial tenants affected by non-pharmaceutical interventions during the pandemic, and the details of the process will be released in due course.

As we develop a long-term solution to these challenges, we urge landlords and tenants to negotiate and reach an agreement which is in the best interests of both parties. In the meantime, we expect businesses that are open and trading as normal to pay their full rent unless otherwise agreed as periods of normal operation will not be covered by further legislation.

We are determined to ensure that businesses continue to have clear representation and support as we drive the recovery and build back better. We are working with LEPs and others to review their future role as we set out at the Budget and will be saying more on our plans as soon as possible.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The Government and the British Business Bank are working with lenders on this issue and will publish data in due course.

The £5 billion Restart Grants scheme announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors to support businesses to reopen as covid-19 restrictions are lifted in the coming months.

The Department does not collate details of the gender or ethnicity of any business owners who have received support through any COVID-19 business grant scheme.

All data on Government allocations and Local Authority payments of grant schemes is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

The £5 billion Restart Grants scheme announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care, and accommodation sectors to support businesses to reopen as covid-19 restrictions are lifted in the coming months.

The Restart scheme is still open for applications, and we are continuing to gather data on payments. All data published on Government allocations and Local Authority payments of grant schemes is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

A total of 1,190 convertible loans have been issued to companies through the Future Fund, which is administered by the British Business Bank. The value of these loans at the time of issue was £1,136 million. An update on the Future Fund, including information on participating companies, will be published in due course.

A total of 1,190 convertible loans have been issued to companies through the Future Fund, which is administered by the British Business Bank. The value of these loans at the time of issue was £1,136 million. An update on the Future Fund, including information on participating companies, will be published in due course.

A total of 1,190 convertible loans have been issued to companies through the Future Fund, which is administered by the British Business Bank. The value of these loans at the time of issue was £1,136 million. An update on the Future Fund, including information on participating companies, will be published in due course.

We are determined to ensure that businesses continue to have clear representation and support as we drive the recovery and build back better. We are working with LEPs and others to review their future role as we set out at the Budget and will be saying more on our plans as soon as possible.

2,150 small business leaders completed the Small Business Leadership Programme, exceeding the target of 2,000 participants.

4,462 people participated in year 1 (between October 2020 - March 2021) of the Peer Networks Programme.

A breakdown on the number of loans offered through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme as of 21 June 2021 is in the table below.

The categories are based on turnover and breakdown as follows:

Micro: Turnover > £632k;

Small: Turnover between £632K and £10.19 million;

Medium: Turnover between £10.2 million and £24.9 million;

Mid-Sized: Turnover between £25 million and £500 million;

Large: Turnover > £500 million.

The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) does not assess the total GVA contributed by people from women led or minority ethnic group-led SMEs to the UK economy on an annual basis as this could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

BEIS monitors the number and proportion of majority women-led SMEs and minority ethnic group-led SMEs in the UK in the annual Longitudinal Small Business Survey, however the survey does not include information on the GVA contributed by these firms.

Total turnover of SMEs is published in BEIS’s annual Business Population Estimates for the UK, however data on turnover by majority women-led SMEs and minority ethnic group-led SMEs is not available.

It was estimated by BIS in 2015 that in the UK, women-led SMEs contribute about £85 billion to economic output and minority ethnic group-led SMEs contribute about £30 billion[1].

[1] BIS, Contribution of women-led and MEG-led businesses to the UK non-financial economy, 2015, pg. 3.

The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) does not assess the total GVA contributed by people from women led or minority ethnic group-led SMEs to the UK economy on an annual basis as this could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

BEIS monitors the number and proportion of majority women-led SMEs and minority ethnic group-led SMEs in the UK in the annual Longitudinal Small Business Survey, however the survey does not include information on the GVA contributed by these firms.

Total turnover of SMEs is published in BEIS’s annual Business Population Estimates for the UK, however data on turnover by majority women-led SMEs and minority ethnic group-led SMEs is not available.

It was estimated by BIS in 2015 that in the UK, women-led SMEs contribute about £85 billion to economic output and minority ethnic group-led SMEs contribute about £30 billion[1].

[1] BIS, Contribution of women-led and MEG-led businesses to the UK non-financial economy, 2015, pg. 3.

The Government has announced that it will introduce legislation to support the orderly resolution of rental payments accrued by commercial tenants affected by non-pharmaceutical interventions during the pandemic, in this Parliamentary session.

The details of the process will be released in due course. We will aim to ensure that this is an impartial and manageable process which should only be used as a last resort when negotiations have failed and providing a faster and easier resolution than through the courts.

In the interim we expect businesses that are open and trading as normal to pay their full rent unless otherwise agreed as periods of normal operation will not be covered by further legislation.

The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, published on 17 March, commits to work with the newly constituted Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’.

Hydrogen-based steelmaking, CCUS*, and electrification are some of the technological approaches being examined as part of this process. The Steel Council offers the forum for government, industry and trade unions to work in partnership on the shared objective of creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sector’s transition to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future.

In order to support these efforts, the Government has announced a £250 million Clean Steel Fund to support the UK steel sector to transition to lower carbon iron and steel production, through investment in new technologies and processes. The decarbonisation of the steel sector and industry more widely will also be supported through the £1 billion CCUS Infrastructure Fund (CIF) and £240m Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund.

*carbon capture, utilisation and storage

The Department announced the Clean Steel Fund (CSF) in 2019 and developments are currently underway. This policy will take time to design in order to be delivered effectively.

Based on previous evidence, complex decarbonisation projects have long lead-in times and take time to set up. Due to this and other factors, the steel sector indicated in response to the 2019 Call for Evidence that their preference is for the CSF to be launched in 2023. Other schemes are available to support the sector and are live now, including the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.

Decarbonising UK industry is a core part of the Government’s ambitious plan for the green industrial revolution. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, published on 17 March, indicated our commitment to work with the Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’.

The Department regularly meets with representatives from across the sector to discuss how it can recover and build back better from the pandemic.

We offer generous incentives to employers to recruit staff, with hundreds of young people starting work every day through the Kickstart Scheme. We are providing employers with a hiring incentive for each new apprentice they hire and have increased the payment to £3,000 for each newly hired apprentice of any age, helping more people to kick start or upskill their career across a broad range of industries. We are also investing £126 million in additional support to help create 40,000 more traineeships in England, funding high-quality work placements and training for 16-24-year olds in 2021-22.

As of 10 June, over 11,000 SMEs have registered their interest in the Help to Grow Digital scheme. Further details on launch will be announced in due course.

As of 10 June, 10,000 SMEs have registered their interest in the Help to Grow Management scheme.

BEIS Ministers and officials have regular discussions with their counterparts in the Department for International Trade on a range of issues of mutual interest, including on trade and steel. The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) will make a recommendation on whether to extend or revoke the UK steel safeguard measures which are due to expire on 30 June 2021. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade can either accept or reject the recommendation as a whole, but not modify or partially accept it. She cannot extend the measures if the TRA does not recommend this.

BEIS Ministers and officials have regular discussions with their counterparts in the Department for International Trade on a range of issues of mutual interest, including on trade and steel. The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) will make a recommendation on whether to extend or revoke the UK steel safeguard measures which are due to expire on 30 June 2021. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade can either accept or reject the recommendation as a whole, but not modify or partially accept it. She cannot extend the measures if the TRA does not recommend this.

BEIS Ministers and officials have regular discussions with their counterparts in the Department for International Trade on a range of issues of mutual interest, including on trade and steel.

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) will make a final recommendation before the UK steel safeguard measures are due to expire on 30 June 2021. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade may only reject a recommendation to impose a measure if she considers that it is not in the public interest or that the economic interest test has not been met. If this happens, the Secretary of State must lay down her reasons to Parliament.

She can accept or reject a TRA recommendation as a whole but not modify or partially accept it. She cannot extend a measure if the TRA does not recommend this.

The Government has taken substantial action to support jobs during the pandemic, most notably through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The scheme is available to those businesses that have been unable to maintain their workforce because their operations have been affected by COVID-19.

We have consistently condemned the inappropriate use of fire and rehire as a negotiation tactic. We would all agree that the best outcome is for employers and employees to jointly negotiate new terms and conditions, and every effort should be made by all parties to achieve this. There are laws around how this must be done, and legal protections in place when firms are considering redundancies.

The Help to Grow Management scheme has received 9,299 expressions of interest between the Budget announcement on 3 March 2021 and 28 May 2021.

BEIS sponsors 43 public bodies, including Arm’s Length Bodies (Executive Agencies, Non-Departmental Bodies and Non-Ministerial Departments), statutory officeholders and Public Corporations.

Any Public Appointments to the Boards of these organisations are made by BEIS and are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The diversity statistics for these appointments are reported on a regular basis via the Cabinet Office Public Appointment Data Report. In the most recent report, the proportion of BEIS Public Appointees who identified as female, minority ethnic or having a disability were as follows:

You can see the report in more detail here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-appointments-data-report-201819.

The Cabinet Office will be publishing the 2019-2020 report in due course.

BEIS Ministers and officials meet the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regularly to discuss a wide range of issues, including the CMA’s work to enforce consumer law in cases where consumers have not received refunds they are owed. If the CMA finds evidence that businesses are failing to comply with the law, the CMA will take appropriate enforcement action, which could include taking a firm to court if it does not address its concerns.

The Department engages regularly with the Competition and Markets Authority and other regulators on poor business practices such as the loyalty penalty which result in vulnerable and low income consumers paying more. A summary of some of the Competition and Markets Authority’s work is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consumer-vulnerability-challenges-and-potential-solutions.

I also chair the Consumer Forum which convenes economic regulators and government departments. The Consumer Forum aims to coordinate the support for vulnerable consumers in the economically regulated sectors, including support for consumers struggling to pay their essential service bills.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has reformed and co-chairs the UK Steel Council, an important a forum to work together on transitioning to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future. My noble Friend the Minister for Investment, Lord Grimstone, has also formed and co-chairs the Steel Procurement Taskforce to help the sector be well placed in competing for and securing public contracts.

Our wide-ranging support also includes: providing over £500m in recent years to help with the costs of energy; a £315m Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which aims to support businesses with high energy use to cut their bills and reduce carbon emission; and our £250m Clean Steel Fund that will support the decarbonisation of the steel sector. The sector has also had access to our unprecedented package of COVID support, which is still available to the sector to protect jobs and ensure that producers have the right support during this challenging time.

The Government is supporting the development of future green aviation technologies as part of our £1.95bn Aerospace Technology Institute programme and the £125m Future Flight Challenge.

We have put in place one of the most generous packages of support in the world, worth over £280 billion. For hairdressing businesses, this includes a business rates holiday, various loans schemes and the extended furlough scheme. Closed businesses such as hairdressers can currently receive a grant of up to £3,000 a month and a one-off payment up to a maximum £9,000.

My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has also announced an additional one-off ‘Restart Grants’ for businesses, including for the personal care sector in England. This new Restart Grants Scheme will provide up to £18,000 for business premises in the sector.

We have already made significant progress in implementing recommendations arising from the Taylor Review, including legislating for stronger protections for vulnerable agency workers and quadrupling the maximum fine for employers who treat their workers badly.

In the Queens’ Speech, we announced that we will bring forward an Employment Bill to deliver on Manifesto Commitments relating to the recommendations of the Review.

As Matthew Taylor said, some of the recommendations are complex and it is important that we work with stakeholders to get them right.

We remain committed to bringing forward legislation that balances the needs of both employers and worker to make workplaces fairer, provide better support for working families and encourage flexible working.

Support is available to all business owners wishing to grow their businesses online through the Growth Hub network and programmes such as Be the Business. Advice and support on adapting to and recovering from the disruption caused by Coronavirus, including through digital means, is also available through the Recovery Advice for Business Scheme, hosted on the Enterprise Nation website and supported by BEIS.

The Start-Up Loans Company provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs. Since 2012 40% of Start Up Loans have gone to women, worth well over £210m. Of these, 12 start-up loans valued at £160,150 have been provided to businesses in Feltham.

More widely, there are now 1.2 million female-led small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. This accounts for 22% of SMEs in the UK. Innovate UK have launched the Women in Innovation Awards to find and support the UK’s most promising female innovators to develop their ideas and scale up their businesses. The 2020/21 Awards competition is currently open and closes on 14th October 2020. 10 female innovators will be awarded with a cash boost of £50,000 each, as well as receive vital business support to help them develop and grow their business, including coaching and mentoring.

The monthly breakdown of HR1s received is as follows:

September 2019 - 303

October 2019 - 343

November 2019 - 305

December 2019 -196

January 2020 - 372

February 2020 - 329

March 2020 - 485

April 2020 - 447

May 2020 - 871

June 2020 – 1,888

July 2020 – 1,784

August 2020 – 966.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government has introduced an unprecedented package of support including £330bn worth of government backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses across the UK, paying the wages of nearly 12 million people and supporting over a million businesses through grants, loans and rates cuts. Some of these funding schemes were open to those operating hair and beauty salons.

The Start Up Loans company, part of the Government-backed British Business Bank, provides loans to start and grow new businesses. Since the programme’s launch in 2012, 2,550 loans have been made in the London region worth £17,460,947 to entrepreneurs aged 18-24. In the same period, 4,935 loans have been made worth £40,522,593 in the London region to individuals aged 24-30. This information is not held by constituency.

Business Support Helpline is a national service that provides information to help entrepreneurs of all ages to start up. In the past 12 months the Helpline supported 534 entrepreneurs under the age of 25 and in London Economic Action Partnership area covering Feltham and Heston.

Nationally, as part of the Plan for Jobs, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 8 July 2020, businesses will be given £2,000 for each new apprentice hired under the age of 25. This will be in addition to the £1,000 payment the Government currently provides for new 16-18-year-old apprentices and those aged under 25 with an Education, Health and Care Plan. £111 million was also announced to triple the scale of traineeships in the UK.

On 18th August 2020 the British Business Bank published updated Future Fund data which gives a regional breakdown of 590 companies that have been approved for £588.3 million.

In England, a total of 562 loans have been approved at a value of £573.1m since the scheme was launched 20 May. In the North West, 29 loans have been approved, worth £27.6m, and in Yorkshire and the Humber 19 loans have been approved, worth £14.6m. In the North East 21 loans have been approved at a value of £19.5m, and in the West Midlands 17 loans have been approved at a value of £15.6m. In the East Midlands, 4 loans have been approved at a value of £2.1m and in the East of England 43 loans have been approved at a value of £45m. Furthermore, in the South West 21 loans have been approved at a value of £12.9m and in the South East 76 loans have been approved, worth £89.5m.

This data is only available at regional level and not constituency level; therefore, figures for Hounslow are unavailable. However, in London 332 loans have been approved at a value of £346.3m. In Scotland, 11 loans have been approved at a value of £4.1m and in Wales, 12 loans have been approved, at a value of £6.1m.

This Government has a proud history of protecting and enhancing workers’ rights.

We remain committed to delivering the workers’ rights enhancements set out in our 2019 manifesto.

We have already made significant progress in implementing recommendations arising from the Taylor Review, including legislating for stronger protections for vulnerable agency workers and extending the right to a written statement to workers.

We have passed legislation that means almost 300,000 workers, including people in low-paid work and the gig economy, will have a right to a payslip for the first time. This helps workers in the flexible economy to better understand their pay and identify if their employer is not meeting their minimum pay obligations.

As we set out in our 2019 recent Manifesto, this Government is committed to continue building on this record by testing proposals to ensure that people are treated fairly at work.

However, as Matthew Taylor himself has said, many of his recommendation are complex and highly technical to implement. It is only right that we take time to consider how best to achieve change that works for all.

We continue to work with stakeholders to test proposals, thus ensuring that employment law reflects the reality of modern and new working relationships.

We intend to make further announcements on the next stages in due course.

Although the UK has left the EU, under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the EU State Aid rules continue to apply in the UK until the end of the Transition Period. The EU Commission have introduced a ‘temporary framework’ providing flexibility on State Aid rules to support businesses impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. The Government has notified the European Commission of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) under the temporary framework, in line with State Aid rules.

Certain State Aid rules apply to businesses accessing the CBILS, including around the business in difficulty criteria. In recognition of the impact of Coronavirus, companies that do not pass the business in difficulty test are eligible for the CBILS, unless they were in difficulty on 31 December 2019, prior to the outbreak.

On 20th April, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £1.25bn coronavirus package to protect firms driving innovation in the UK.

This included £750 million of targeted support for the most R&D intensive small and medium size firms which will be available through Innovate UK’s grants and loan scheme.

The Government has since confirmed that up to £500m of this is for existing customers including £200m of accelerated payments and up to £300m for continuity grants and loans. £20m of the remainder has been used to double the number of businesses receiving funding through the IUK call for business led innovation in response to the crisis which was open to new customers. Over 800 companies have been successful in this competition. IUK has also allocated up to £39m to increase the business advisory support services available new and existing high-growth potential SMEs. Announcements for the remaining money will be made in due course.

Beyond the Fast-Response competition, it is currently too early to state the number of businesses that have accessed this funding.

The Government has introduced important social distancing measures for all types of businesses to consider in order to minimise the risk of transmission in the workplace. The Government has been clear that it is vital that all employers follow this guidance, which is clinically led and based on expert advice.

The Government has stated that vulnerable people who are at increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus (COVID-19) need to be particularly stringent in following social distancing measures. Additionally, the government guidance sets out that members of staff who are vulnerable or extremely vulnerable, as well as individuals whom they live with, should be supported by their employers as they follow the required social distancing and shielding measures. Employers should help these individuals work from home if possible.

If clinically vulnerable people cannot work from home, they should be offered the safest available on-site roles, staying 2m away from others wherever possible. If they have to spend time within 2m of other people, employers need to carefully assess whether this involves an acceptable level of risk.

If a business is not operating in line with the government guidance, there is a role for the relevant health and safety enforcing authority – the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or a Local Authority. Where the enforcing authority identifies employers who are not taking action to comply with the relevant public health legislation and guidance to control public health risks – for example, employers not taking appropriate action to socially distance or ensure workers in the shielded category can follow the NHS advice to self-isolate for the period specified – the enforcing authority will consider taking a range of actions to improve control of workplace risks. These actions include the provision of specific advice to employers through to issuing enforcement notices to help secure improvements with the guidance.

Manufacturing is a critical part of our economy and the Government is engaging with industry to ensure that we can support our manufacturing sectors during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many businesses across the aerospace, chemical, automotive, steel, aluminium, pharmaceutical, packaging, and other sectors have answered the call to action. These businesses are playing a direct role in combatting COVID-19 by producing the materials and equipment necessary, as well as enabling the services that we need to fight the spread of the virus and keep the country running.

We have put in place an unprecedented package of Government support to give manufacturers and their suppliers the support they need to ensure business continuity. These measures include:

• £330 billion worth of Government-backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses across the UK.
• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) to help small and medium-sized businesses to access vital financial support.
• The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) to allow more firms to benefit from Government-backed support at this difficult time.
• The Bounce Back Loans scheme for small businesses, which complements the CBILS and CLBILS schemes.
• Deferring VAT payments for firms to the next quarter, until the end of June, which represents a £30 billion injection into the economy.
• Our Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, where small and large employers will be eligible to apply for a Government grant of 80% of workers’ salaries up to £2,500 a month. This will be backdated to 1 March 2020 and available for at least three months.

The Government regularly speaks with Rolls-Royce and has worked closely with the company in response to COVID-19. The company has set out the steps it has taken, consistent with the Government’s guidance, on worker safety; job protections utilising the Job Retention Scheme; developing and donating Personal Protective Equipment; and manufacturing ventilators.

We have discussed with Rolls-Royce the various Government business support schemes available to the company and its suppliers. Rolls-Royce has also been part of the Department’s regular engagements with the wider aerospace sector about business support during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The deadline for transposing the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is 27 June 2022. As the Government has committed not to extend the Transition Period the UK will not be required to transpose the EAA.

The UK already has robust legislation on accessibility through the protections covered by the Equality Act 2006, Equality Act 2010, and equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination on grounds of disability and imposes a duty on providers of goods and services to make reasonable adjustments to prevent this.

The Government will consider how further to improve or enhance accessibility through domestic legislation, including by using emerging technologies to develop innovative solutions to accessibility challenges, and provide real benefit to citizens with disabilities over the years ahead.

The COP26 Team in Cabinet Office consists of 140 civil servants (as of 12th February), including an international engagement team. The unit works closely with colleagues across Whitehall, and with the FCO’s overseas network, on the successful delivery of COP26.

The Government is committed to making a success of COP26, working across Departments.

A key element of this is working towards the UK’s net zero commitment, which is very important to this Government both domestically and internationally.

We are committed to delivering on our world-leading target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. As announced by the Prime Minister, 2020 is a Year of Climate Action which aims to inspire positive action on climate change across the UK in the build-up to COP26.

The Government considers a wide variety of viewpoints on how to reach net zero. We agree with the advice of the Committee on Climate Change that a full range of solutions will be needed to meet our targets, including behaviour change, new technologies to reduce emissions across the economy, as well as greenhouse gas removal technologies that can capture carbon dioxide from the air.

The UK has cut carbon emissions by more than any similar developed country. In doing so, we are now the world leader in offshore wind and have many other strengths in key decarbonisation technologies such as smart energy systems and electric vehicles. In the next decade, we will work with the market to deliver two million new high quality jobs in clean growth, creating opportunities across the country from future export markets.

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

The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with Cabinet Colleagues on the findings of the Jack Petchey report, Shaping our Future - The Covid-19 Youth Survey.

The Government recognises the significant impact of Covid-19 on young people and the important role of youth services in supporting them. We have supported the development of specific Covid-19 guidance for the youth sector, which has helped tens of thousands of organisations feel confident in safely delivering vital services to young people.

We also recognise that young people have an important role to play in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic. Since the beginning of March, Government ministers have continued to engage directly with young people, through our youth engagement programme, on the impacts of Covid-19, from employment support to mental health and loneliness.

We are also engaging with young people as part of DCMS’ Youth Review, announced by HM Treasury as part of the 2020 Spending Review. Their views will help to set a clear direction for the out-of-school youth agenda.

The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with Cabinet Colleagues on the findings of the Jack Petchey report, Shaping our Future - The Covid-19 Youth Survey.

The Government recognises the significant impact of Covid-19 on young people and the important role of youth services in supporting them. We have supported the development of specific Covid-19 guidance for the youth sector, which has helped tens of thousands of organisations feel confident in safely delivering vital services to young people.

We also recognise that young people have an important role to play in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic. Since the beginning of March, Government ministers have continued to engage directly with young people, through our youth engagement programme, on the impacts of Covid-19, from employment support to mental health and loneliness.

We are also engaging with young people as part of DCMS’ Youth Review, announced by HM Treasury as part of the 2020 Spending Review. Their views will help to set a clear direction for the out-of-school youth agenda.

My department does not hold data around the number of youth clubs that have closed since April 2020.

Government recognises the important role that youth groups play in communities, which is why we recently announced the £16.5 million Youth Covid-19 Support Fund (YCSF) that will protect the immediate future of grassroots and national youth services across the country. The YCSF opened on Friday 15 January 2021 and will remain open until 19 February. It will help to mitigate the impact of lost income during the winter period due to the coronavirus pandemic, and ensure services providing vital support can remain viable.

This funding will be drawn from the unprecedented £750m package for the voluntary and community sector. More than £60m of this has already been directed towards organisations supporting children and young people.

The CyberFirst recruitment campaign is delivered by skills provider QA with funding allocated through the National Cyber Security Programme.

Bowling alleys will be able to reopen from 1 August provided they have written a COVID-19 risk assessment.

We have worked closely with stakeholders to develop further Covid-19 Secure reopening guidance for venues such as bowling alleys. Specific guidance on bowling alleys has been published within UKHospitality’s ‘COVID-19 Secure Guidelines for Hospitality Businesses.’ We continue to meet regularly with the wider sector through the Cultural Renewal Taskforce’s Sport and Visitor Economy working groups.

As with all aspects of the Government’s response to Covid-19, our decisions have been and will continue to be based on scientific evidence and public health assessments.

To support businesses - including bowling alleys - through Covid-19, the Government has introduced a comprehensive support package, including business rates relief for eligible leisure businesses and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

In order to support the sustainability of the arts sector, including self-employed actors and theatres, DCMS has worked closely with Arts Council England (ACE) to provide a tailored package of financial support. In March, ACE announced a £160m emergency response package to complement the financial measures already announced by the Government and to ensure immediate resilience of this vital sector.

This includes £20 million of financial support for individuals, including self-employed actors, and £140 million of support for organisations, including theatres, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. To date over 9000 individuals and organisations have been successful in applying for this support.

Furthermore, self employed visual artists are among the millions of people (including self-employed actors) who can now benefit from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, which will provide those eligible with cash grants worth up to £2,500 per month. We expect that the Self-Employed Income Support scheme will cover 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment.

The government announced on 20 March that the national commemorations to mark VE Day 75 are being scaled back due to the ongoing spread of coronavirus.

The UK Government and the Devolved Administrations are working on plans to ensure the nation can mark VE Day in May and provide a fitting tribute to the Second World War generation.

In light of the COVID- 19 outbreak, all VE Day 75 event organisers should follow the guidance and advice that is regularly being issued and updated by the Government and Public Health England.

The Government is working closely with the Royal British Legion which has issued up to date advice to its branches.

The Civil Service aims to increase opportunities for people of all backgrounds and create a

Civil Service fit for 21st century Britain through work experience, internships and

apprenticeship schemes.

DCMS does not run a central work experience scheme and therefore does not hold data on work experience placements for people under 16. The figures for people over 16 years old are as follows:

2017: 3 on the Summer Diversity Internship Programme

2018: 2 (1 on the Summer Diversity Internship Programme and 1 on the Autism Internship Exchange Programme)

2019: 5 (4 on the Summer Diversity Internship Programme and 1 on the Autism Exchange Internship Programme)

Government commissioned an independent consortium to carry out a meta-evaluation of the benefits of London 2012. These reports are published on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/london-2012-meta-evaluation) and cover a broad range of research areas such as economic benefits, sustainability standards and the impact on volunteering.

Government, in conjunction with the Mayor of London, published four annual reports on legacy between 2013 and 2016. These described legacy benefits in the areas of sport and physical activity, economic impact, communities, East London regeneration and the impact from the Paralympics. Again, these reports are available on GOV.UK via https://www.gov.uk/society-and-culture/2012-olympic-and-paralympic-legacy.

The Secretary of State regularly meets with film and television representatives from a range of backgrounds as part of her role. However, due to the confidential nature of many of these meetings, we are unable to give details of such engagements. Increasing screen diversity is a priority for government, and we continue to work with our arm’s length body the British Film Institute (BFI) to improve representation both on and off screen, including through supporting the wider adoption of their world-leading Diversity Standards.

Almost every premise in the UK is able to get broadband through a fixed, wireless or satellite connection. However, a small minority of premises are unable to get a decent service, providing 10 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds. In their latest Connected Nations report, Ofcom estimated that these premises numbered only around 155,000 and was likely to reduce further by March 2020, when the Government’s Broadband Universal Obligation (USO) will come into force. The USO gives households without a decent service a legal right to request one up to a Reasonable Cost Threshold of £3,400 per premise.

Alongside the USO, investment by Government and the commercial sector has ensured that superfast broadband, providing download speeds of at least 24 Mbps, is now available to 96% of UK premises, and that access to full fibre broadband has increased by 1.5 million premises over the past year and is now available to 10% of the UK. The Government is ambitious to go further and, as part of this, has committed £5 billion to subsidise the deployment of full fibre and gigabit broadband in less commercially viable areas.

Further information on broadband availability in each local authority area can be found on the Connected Nations section of Ofcom’s website.

Government’s strategy on tackling loneliness in England includes a range of new policies that are benefiting people across England, including in Hounslow. This includes improving and expanding social prescribing and running a new communications campaign on social connection.

Government established the £11.5m Building Connections Fund in 2018. This funds 126 projects across England that bring people and communities together. 15 grants, totalling £1.25m, have been made to projects in London. This includes a £93,000 grant to the Afghanistan & Central Asian Association for a project based in Hounslow offering activities such as tea sessions, one to one mentoring and social events.

In October 2019 the Minister for Civil Society announced £2m of new grant funding for frontline organisations tackling loneliness. Details of this funding, including the application process, will be announced in due course.

The department does not hold information on the proportion of pupils deemed school ready for primary school in Feltham and Heston. As a proxy, the percentage of children achieving at least the expected level across all early learning goals can be used to assess readiness for year 1. This is only available to local authority level. In the 2017/18 academic year, in Hounslow, 69.9% of children met this level compared to 70.2% in England. In the 2018/19 academic year, 71.9% of children in Hounslow met this level compared to 70.7% in England. Due to temporary disapplications and modifications to certain elements of the early years foundation stage (EYFS) during the pandemic, data relating to academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21 are not available.

The department does not yet hold attainment data for the 2021/22 academic year. Data relating to EYFS, key stage 2 (KS2), and key stage 4 (KS4) will be published in autumn 2022.

Parliamentary constituency data for Feltham and Heston is available for all pupils at the end of KS2 in academic years 2017/18 to 2018/19, and for all pupils at the end of KS4 in academic years 2017/18 to 2020/21 in the attached files. KS2 data in academic years 2019/20 or 2020/21 was not recorded because of the cancellation of statutory national curriculum assessments at KS2 due to the pandemic.

The department does not publish an attainment gap by pupil characteristics at parliamentary constituency level. The department does publish the disadvantaged pupils’ attainment gap index at KS2 and KS4. This looks at changes in the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils at a national level in state-funded schools in England.

For EYFS, the latest published data are in the annual ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Results’ statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results. As a proxy for disadvantage, the gap in average point score between children who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) and those who are not can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/dfdb83f9-f54f-4f11-b590-28d3064e3a79.

For KS2, the latest published figure is in Figure 1 of the ‘2018/19 National Curriculum Assessments at Key Stage 2’ statistical release: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/851798/KS2_Revised_publication_text_2019_v3.pdf.

For KS4, the latest published figure is in Figure 6/Table 14 of the ‘2020/21 Key Stage 4 Performance' statistical release: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-performance-revised.

Alternatively, information at local authority level is published that allows users to compare attainment by pupil characteristics. The closest information is for Hounslow.

At EYFS, the gap in the average point score between those eligible for FSM and those not in Hounslow increased from 1.8 in 2017/18 to 1.9 in 2018/19 (academic years).

At KS2, the percentage of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils in Hounslow decreased from 18 percentage points in 2017/18 to 17.5 percentage points in 2018/19 (academic years).

At KS4, the latest data show that the gap in the average Attainment 8 score between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils in Hounslow has widened since 2018/19 from 7.5 points to 7.7 points in 2019/20, and to 9.0 points in 2020/21 (academic years).

The schools white paper sets out two ambitions for 2030:

• 90% of primary school children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst performing areas will have increased by a third.
• In secondary schools, the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in mathematics will increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5 by 2030.

The needs and challenges faced by the most disadvantaged pupils have been considered in the development of the ambitions and policies in the white paper. For instance, pupil premium funding is used to drive the attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Pupil premium funding will increase to over £2.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. Support and investment are also being provided to 55 Education Investment Areas in cold spots of the country where outcomes for children and young people are weakest. More intensive support is being provided to 24 of these areas to address entrenched underperformance in areas with some of the highest rates of disadvantage in the country.

Meeting the white paper ambitions will have even larger benefits to society. Quantifying wider welfare effects is complex, but we do know that basic skills can help insulate against particularly bad outcomes for personal wellbeing, such as unemployment and low job quality. The economic benefits of meeting the ambitions set out in the schools white paper was published on 28 March 2022, and can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063572/Economic_benefits_of_SWP_ambitions_March_2022.pdf

The department recognises that teachers and leaders have been working incredibly hard to provide high quality on-site and remote education, with much being achieved during the pandemic.

The department has announced nearly £5 billion for a multi-year education recovery plan which includes high quality tutoring, world class training for teachers and early years practitioners, additional funding for schools, and extending time in colleges by 40 hours. We are supporting the most disadvantaged, vulnerable and those with the least time left in education, wherever they live, to make up for education lost during the pandemic and are carefully monitoring the progress being made by children in school.

Through the department’s Get Help with Technology programme, we have delivered over 1.9 million laptops and tablets to schools, trusts, local authorities and further education providers for disadvantaged children and young people as part of a £520 million government investment to support access to remote education and online social care services.

These laptops and tablets are intended to give schools the flexibility to provide remote education support and can continue to be used in the longer term either in the classroom or from home.

The priority should always be for schools to deliver high quality face-to-face education to all pupils and remote education should only ever be considered as a short-term measure and as a last resort where in person attendance is not possible.

When in-person attendance in school is either not possible or contrary to government guidance schools should continue to provide remote education to allow children and young people who are well enough to keep pace with their education.

The department will publish updated guidance to support schools with remote education and will continue to work with the sector on this, learning from the many examples of excellent practice developed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An appropriate home education environment is also essential for parents who opt to provide their children with elective home education. The government is committed to a form of local authority registration for children not in school as well as a duty on local authorities to provide support to home educators when it is required. Further details on this are in the Children Not In School consultation response which was published on 3 February 2022. We hope to legislate on this measure at the next suitable opportunity.

The key measure of market health monitored by the department is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare through regular surveys and through regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any substantial sufficiency issues and we have not seen a substantial number of parents unable to secure childcare places.

According to the findings from the 2021 childcare and early years providers survey, 7 in 10 group-based providers reported having spare places in their full day provision and almost half of childminders (49%) reported having spare capacity on average across the week.

The most recent data, published by Ofsted on the number of early years providers as of 31 December 2021 concludes there were 54,310 providers on Ofsted’s early year register, of which 30,655 were childminders and 23,416 were childcare providers on non-domestic premises.

Between 31 August 2021 and 31 December 2021, across all provider types on the early years register in England, 1,032 providers joined the early years register and 2,445 providers left the early years register.

Leavers mainly consist of those that have left Ofsted during the reporting period, most of which are resignations. However, there are small number of providers that may have just changed provider type or register.

The department conducted a pulse survey with providers specifically during the Omicron wave, for the week commencing 14 February and estimated 96% of early years education providers were fully open, with a further 3% partially open.

Between 27 November and 20 December 2020, 47% per cent of open group-based providers and 56% of open childminders were reasonably confident that it would be financially sustainable to continue to run their childcare provision for another year or longer. This study was conducted during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and some providers may have completed the survey prior to any announcements about spring term funding.

The department will continue to evaluate the sufficiency and quality of childcare provision and engage with sector stakeholders and local authorities to monitor dynamics within local markets, parents' access to the government's entitlements and the childcare they require, and the sustainability of the sector.

The department recognises that schools will be facing cost pressures in the coming months due to the increase in energy prices. The department is looking carefully at how cost increases will impact schools and we are considering what additional support the department could offer.

The department knows that the vast majority of school expenditure is devoted to staff costs. This means that, even while energy costs are rising, inflation in this area would have an impact on a small portion of a school’s budget overall. The department pays close attention to the financial health of the sector, and we are closely assessing where energy costs may more significantly impact schools’ financial health.

The energy market remains volatile and whilst prices have reduced recently, they remain high against long-term prices. Individual schools’ situations will vary significantly, depending on their energy contract length, if the energy rate is fixed for the life of the contract or variable during the contract, when the contract is due for renewal, and who the suppliers are.

Frameworks approved by the department are available to all state-funded schools to provide renewal quotes, where required. The guidance to finding a suitable framework is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-a-dfe-approved-framework-for-your-school. Alternative providers are also available, including from other public sector buying organisations. It remains the responsibility of individual schools and trusts to decide who their energy suppliers should be.

The department continues to recommend that schools do not allow their existing contracts to expire before contacting their current supplier to discuss a contract extension. This is because buying energy out of contract is more expensive than buying at the market rate. Any changes to an existing energy contract require careful consideration of the terms and conditions and the costs and risks associated with changing supplier. Current energy market prices are likely to be significantly higher than any existing agreement.

The ‘get help buying for schools’ procurement team is available to provide schools with free advice and guidance to all state-funded schools on their energy contracts. This service can be found here: https://www.get-help-buying-for-schools.service.gov.uk/procurement-support?referred_by=aHR0cDovL2ZpbmQtZGZlLWFwcHJvdmVkLWZyYW1ld29yay5zZXJ2aWNlLmdvdi51ay9zZWxlY3Rpb24=/.

Apprenticeships provide people of all ages with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start, or progress in, an exciting career in the hospitality sector. Employers in the hospitality sector can access a range of high-quality apprenticeship standards to meet their skills needs, including the level 2 Commis Chef apprenticeship and the level 4 Hospitality Manager apprenticeship.

We are committed to supporting more employers and apprentices to benefit from the high-quality training that an apprenticeship offers, and we are increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024-25 financial year. This funding will support apprenticeships in non-levy employers, often small and medium-sized enterprises, where the government will continue to pay 95% of training costs. We also continue to provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged between 16 and 18 years old, helping to support younger people into apprenticeships.

To encourage more young people to consider apprenticeships, we are promoting apprenticeships in schools and colleges through our Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge programme. This free service provides resources and interventions to help better educate young people about apprenticeships and has reached over 2 million students across England since its introduction in the 2016/17 academic year. In February, during National Apprenticeship Week, I wrote to all year 11, 12 and 13 pupils and their parents to tell them about the great opportunities offered through apprenticeships.

We are also promoting apprenticeships through our new ‘Get the Jump’ and ‘Skills for Life’ campaigns which are raising awareness and understanding of the full range of education and training choices available to young people and adults.

The requested data is not yet available.

Data relating to the number of school days missed by pupils due to absence in the autumn term of the 2021-22 academic year is currently being collected in the termly school census. It will be published in May 2022 and will be available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england-autumn-term.

The daily education settings survey asks schools and colleges to report data such as on-site attendance and absence due to COVID-19.

The most recent published data for staff and pupil absences at national level is for 20 January 2022 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

Data relating to teacher sickness absence is collected from state-funded schools in England from the November school workforce census. Each census collects data for absence from the previous academic year. The November 2021 census, covering the 2020-21 academic year, will be published in summer 2022 and will be available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The requested data is not yet available.

The first data relating to the number of school days missed due to absence in the 2021-22 academic year is currently being collected in the termly school census. It will be published in May 2022 and relate to the autumn term only. It will be available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england-autumn-term.

Data on absence in the full academic year 2021-22 is expected to be published in March 2023 in the National Statistics release “Pupil absence in schools in England” and will be available here:https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.

The school census collects absence data for pupils of compulsory school age, covering those aged 5 to 15 at the start of the academic year, plus some less detailed information on 4-year-olds. It does not collect data on year 13 students.

The department is extremely grateful to all the teachers who are responding to our call to return temporarily to the classroom to support schools to remain open and deliver face to face education for pupils.

The department published the results of a sample survey of supply agencies on 12 January. 47 agencies reported 485 sign ups as a result of the call to arms with Teach First reporting over 100 expressions of interest from their alumni to temporarily return to the classroom.

The department needs to balance the need for data with the burden we place on those collating it. Therefore, we did not request information by upper/lower tier local authority and the employment agencies that are working with us have no reason to sort and organise their candidates in such a way. Where a specific supply teacher is prepared to work will differ from individual to individual for many different reasons.

The department remains in close contact with supply agencies to monitor the interest they receive to help schools during this time.

The department continues to monitor workforce absence very closely.

The daily education settings survey asks schools and colleges to report data such as on-site attendance and COVID-19 absence.

The most recent published data at national level is for 20 January 2022 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. The department estimates that 4.5% of teachers and school leaders were absent from open schools due to COVID-19 related reasons on 20 January, down from 4.9% on 6 January.

The deployment of Ofsted inspectors is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston directly and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Ofsted’s inspection arrangements have rightly been kept under review as the COVID-19 outbreak develops, and adjustments made where appropriate. At the start of January, Ofsted temporarily halted use of part time inspectors who are also front-line leaders so they could focus on their leadership responsibilities. From Monday 31 January, Ofsted are once again inviting those leaders who are able to inspect again to do so as it moves back to its full programme of inspections.

All of the 36 Skills Advisory Panels across England were established in 2019 as part of Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships. A list of the Skills Advisory Panels and their Local Skills Reports is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-advisory-panels/skills-advisory-panels-list.

We are investing up to £34 million in Skills Bootcamps in heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driving, to create up to 11,000 HGV driver training places for people that are new, returning to, or looking to upskill as an HGV driver.

Following the launch in December of Skills Bootcamps in HGV driving, the suppliers contracted to deliver training have seen high demand for places. We understand that training providers overall have seen at least twice as many people expressing an interest in completing a Skills Bootcamp in HGV as the number of training places they have been contracted to deliver.

The department publishes national statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey for young people aged 16-24, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief. However, these are only published at national and regional level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16-24 cannot be provided for the areas requested.

Local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people age 16 and 17. This data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures. It shows that of the 6,110 16 and 17 year olds who were known to Hounslow local authority around the end of 2020 (average of December 2020, January 2021 and February 2021), 210 were NEET or their activity was not known (115 known to be NEET and 95 young people whom the local authority could not confirm their activity). These are not national statistics but published as transparency data so some caution should be taken if using these figures. Data is not available for Feltham and Heston constituency.

In addition, 16-18 destination measures are published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/16-18-destination-measures. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship, or employment destination in the year after completing 16-18 study, that is 6 months of continual activity. This can be used as a proxy for NEET at age 18.

These statistics refer to the cohort of students leaving state-funded mainstream schools and colleges¹ in 2018/19 and shows their destination in 2019/20:

(1) Covers all state-funded mainstream schools, academies, free schools, city technology colleges , sixth-forms and other and further education sector colleges. Excludes alternative provision, special schools, other government department funded colleges and independent schools.

(2) Individuals are assigned to parliamentary constituencies based on the provider’s location. Individuals are assigned to local authorities based on the provider’s administrative local authority.

(3) Links to the destination measures statistics quoted in table:

Hounslow local authority: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f6c537cf-7b79-412a-91d1-ec7862c406bf.

Feltham and Heston Constituency: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/0196b256-45de-480e-8ad7-32430278ba47.

(4) Students who had participated in education, apprenticeships or employment during the academic year but did not complete the required 6 months participation.

(5) Students who were not found to have any participation in education, apprenticeship, or employment in England.

The government is making good progress on its commitment to offer senior mental health lead training to all state-funded schools and colleges in England by 2025. Since applications opened in October 2021, over 8,000 eligible schools and colleges have applied for a senior mental health training grant. As at 12 January 2022, over 6,500 of these have booked onto a Department for Education quality-assured training course, and their grant payments are being processed. Furthermore, over 3,500 senior leads are estimated to have begun their training, providing knowledge and skills to enable them to implement effective holistic approaches to promoting and supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in their school or college.

As at 14 January 2022, around 270 schools and colleges are on a waiting list for a senior mental health lead training grant. All currently available grants are reserved, pending schools and colleges that have submitted their initial application confirming they have booked a training course. The waiting list enables the department to quickly allocate any grants that become available, and our position on issuing grants for the 2022-23 financial year will be confirmed later in the spring.

Financial capability is a key component of successful entrepreneurship and in 2014 financial literacy was made statutory within the citizenship national curriculum. Pupils are now taught the functions and uses of money, the importance of personal budgeting, money management and the need to understand financial risk. We have also strengthened the national curriculum for mathematics to give pupils the necessary mathematics knowledge and skills they need to make important financial decisions.

The computing curriculum should prepare pupils to apply existing digital technologies confidently and effectively. It will also provide them with the fundamental knowledge and skills for the next stage of their education and life.

Schools are free to cover enterprise and entrepreneurship education within their personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education. PSHE is compulsory in independent schools, and although it is not a mandatory subject in maintained schools or academies, schools are encouraged to teach it as part of their duty to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. Teachers have the freedom to design lessons in PSHE that meet their pupils’ needs and are encouraged to develop their practice with the support of specialist organisations, such as subject associations.

The careers statutory guidance, originally published in 2015 and updated in 2018, requires schools in England to provide opportunities for pupils to develop entrepreneurial skills for self-employment. This should help pupils gain the confidence to compete in the labour market by providing opportunities to gain the practical know-how and attributes that are relevant for employment.

The department funds the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) to provide support to secondary schools and colleges and make links to employers, to increase young people’s exposure to the world of work. There are more than 4,000 schools and colleges in the CEC’s Enterprise Adviser Network, working with business volunteers to strengthen employer links. The result is 3.3 million young people now having regular encounters with employers, many of whom are entrepreneurs.

While it is for schools to decide how best to provide entrepreneurship education, we know that contact with entrepreneurs and businesses is essential. Modern careers guidance is as much about inspiration and aspiration as about advice.

The department regularly engages with secondary school leaders and organisations, representing them on a wide range of issues around pupil progress, including on the transition to secondary school.

The department continually reviews the evidence base on the potential economic impact of the time pupils have spent out of the classroom as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and are aware of a wide range of estimates which are based on little or no mitigation measures.

The department has commissioned an independent research and assessment agency to provide a baseline assessment of catch-up needs for pupils in schools in England and monitor progress over the course of the 2020/21 academic year. The latest findings from the research were published on gov.uk: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1029841/Understanding_progress_in_the_2020-21_academic_year_Report_4_October2021.pdf. The department is currently exploring options to assess progress over the course of the current academic year.

The department’s latest evidence suggests that pupils are showing some degree of recovery in education loss. In summer 2021, primary pupils were on average around 0.9 months behind in reading and 2.8 months behind in maths compared to where they would otherwise have been in a typical year. This is an improvement since spring 2021, where primary pupils were around 2 months behind in reading and 3.1 months behind in maths. For secondary pupils, they were on average around 1.8 months behind in summer 2021.

That is why the department is investing nearly £5 billion on measures to support further recovery such as the National Tutoring Programme, teacher development, and the recovery premium to support teachers to implement evidence-based interventions to address education gaps. This is in addition to a strong core funding settlement which will see core schools funding rise by £4.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year compared to existing plans.

The department has monitored the sufficiency of childcare and resilience of the private, voluntary and independent nursery sector throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, through regular attendance data collection and monitoring the open or closed status of providers. The department has continued this through this autumn term to monitor any change since the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Local authorities are responsible for stewardship of local childcare markets and the department also discusses sufficiency of provision in our regular conversations with them. Local authorities are not currently reporting any significant sufficiency or supply issues and the department has not seen any significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either this term or since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020. Sufficient early education and childcare places continue to be accessible to those parents that want it and take up of those places is stable giving providers certainty of income.

The department has also featured questions about the use, and withdrawal of, CJRS within our most recent parent and provider polls, which are being conducted this term and may provide information about any longer-term effect. The results of these polls are expected to be published towards the end of autumn term 2021 and in early spring term 2022 respectively.

The Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards, issued by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, under the Care Standards Act 2000, sets out the expectations that are placed on foster carers and their agencies. The standards can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192705/NMS_Fostering_Services.pdf.

The department is clear that carers should not be out of pocket because of their fostering role, and we expect all foster carers to receive at least the national minimum allowance (NMA), plus any agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them (standard 28). The NMA was developed by calculating the cost of caring for a birth child and accounting for the additional cost of caring for a foster child. The rate is reviewed annually to bring it in line with inflation.

Foster carers also receive qualifying care relief which is made up of two parts: tax exemption on the first £10,000 shared equally among any foster carers in the same household, and tax relief for every week a child is in their care.

One of the key priorities of the department is the take-up of languages.

In September 2014, a statutory requirement for all key stage 2 pupils to study either an ancient or a modern foreign language was introduced to the national curriculum. The department has also taken steps to increase the uptake of languages at GCSE, which is why GCSEs in all modern and ancient languages have been part of the English Baccalaureate performance measure for secondary schools, first introduced in 2010.

The department also recently carried out a consultation earlier this year on proposed changes to the subject content for French, German and Spanish GCSEs, the most popular languages at this level. The intention is that more pupils will want to study languages at GCSE level and encourage them to continue with this study to post-16 and beyond. The department plans to respond to the consultation later this year.

The total number of pupils in state-funded schools in England entered for examinations in at least one language GCSE has increased from 231,224 in 2010 to 253,379 in 2019. This amounted to an increase among all key stage 4 pupils of 7 percentage points from 40% in 2010 to 47% in 2019. With GCSE examinations due to re-commence in 2022, we will return to publishing, as far as possible, our usual range of English Baccalaureate entry and attainment measures.

The department also provides funding for several programmes to improve teaching quality and take-up in specific languages. These are:

• The Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Pilot led by the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy at the University of York

• The Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) led by University College London Institute of Education in partnership with the British Council

• Modelled on the MEP, the Department also recently announced a £4 million Latin Excellence Programme to increase uptake and attainment in Latin in secondary schools from September 2022 onwards

Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.

Finance education forms part of the citizenship national curriculum which can be taught at all key stages and is compulsory at key stages 3 and 4: https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum. Financial education ensures that pupils are taught the functions and uses of money, the importance of personal budgeting, money management and managing financial risk. At secondary school, pupils are taught about income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings and pensions, financial products and services, and how public money is raised and spent.

The department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum, which provides young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money.

The secondary mathematics curriculum develops pupils’ understanding and skills in relation to more complex personal finance issues such as calculating loan repayments, interest rates and compound interest.

As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver these subjects, so they can develop an integrated approach that is sensitive to the needs and background of their pupils.

The department works closely with the Money and Pensions Service and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty's Treasury, to consider what can be discovered from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.

Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.

Finance education forms part of the citizenship national curriculum which can be taught at all Key Stages and is compulsory at Key Stages 3 and 4: https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum. Financial education ensures that pupils are taught the functions and uses of money, the importance of personal budgeting, money management and managing financial risk. At secondary school, pupils are taught about income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings and pensions, financial products and services, and how public money is raised and spent.

The Department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum, which provides young people with the knowledge and mathematical skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that pupils should be taught. This is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money. The secondary mathematics curriculum develops pupils’ understanding in relation to more complex personal finance issues such as calculating loan repayments, interest rates and compound interest.

The Department works closely with the Money and Pensions Service and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty’s Treasury, to consider what can be discovered from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.

Mentoring is an important element of careers programmes. The government funds support for secondary schools and colleges in England, via the Careers & Enterprise Company’s (CEC) Enterprise Adviser Network and Careers Hubs, to make progress towards meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance. This includes increasing young people’s exposure to employers and the world of work and supporting schools and colleges to make links with providers and employers that offer mentoring opportunities.

Through CEC’s ‘Give an Hour’ initiative, individual volunteers, groups of employees or entire businesses can volunteer to share their career journey and insights with young people in schools and colleges in their local community.

Cornerstone Employers are local and national businesses from a range of sectors that are experienced and have a strong track record of engaging with education. They drive leadership and strategic support within their communities to bring together business effort and engagement with local schools and colleges. They have a commitment to work with schools and colleges to offer more young people meaningful employer encounters through activities such as mentoring, work experience, mock interviews and careers talks. There are currently over 200 Cornerstone Employers.

Enterprise Advisers (EAs) are senior business volunteers that are matched locally with an individual school or college. EAs use their business experience and professional network to help senior leadership teams to develop their careers programme and create opportunities for young people to meet with employers.

The National Careers Service offers expert career coaching and guidance in the community, online and on the telephone.

The London Enterprise Adviser Network (EAN) connects schools and colleges with employers and entrepreneurs so that all young Londoners are aware of the career pathways and opportunities available to them. Over 500 London schools and colleges are part of the London EAN. They are supported by nearly 600 volunteer EAs from different industry sectors and professional backgrounds. The network is co-funded by the CEC and the Mayor of London. In West London, it is delivered by Reed In Partnership and Talentino in special schools and colleges. Careers Hubs will be launched in London in September 2021.

Higher education providers should consider appropriate provision to support access to university facilities for the purposes of online learning.

On 22 February 2021, we issued updated guidance on students returning to, and starting, higher education in the spring term 2021, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963446/HE_guidance_spring_term_220221_FINAL.pdf. As outlined in the guidance, we expect university libraries to stay open to provide library services during the lockdown, including the provision of study space and borrowing materials if necessary. Libraries have continued to adapt to the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak, including by offering order and collect services and providing digital services.

We are clear that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, have the resources to study remotely.

We are now advising providers that they can resume in-person teaching and learning for students who are studying practical or practice-based subjects (including creative arts) and require specialist equipment and facilities from 8 March 2021. Providers should not ask students to return if their course can reasonably be continued online. The government will review, by the end of the Easter holidays, the options for timing of the return of remaining students. This review will take account of the latest data and will be a key part of the wider roadmap steps.

Given the critical importance of ensuring that all children and young people continue to learn during the national lockdown, the Department has updated the expectations for schools to clarify and strengthen what is expected during the period of restricted attendance and draws on our evolving understanding of best practice in remote education: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak#section-5-contingency-planning-for-outbreaks.

With most pupils now having to learn remotely, and schools and colleges having made huge progress in developing their remote education provision, it is right that we increase the expectations on what remote education they receive. Schools are now expected to provide remote education that includes either recorded or live direct teaching alongside time for pupils to work independently to complete assignments that have been set. Online video lessons do not necessarily need to be recorded by teaching staff at the school. Oak National Academy lessons, for example, can be provided in lieu of school led video content.

The number of hours expected for different age groups has also changed. Hours include both direct teaching and time for pupils to complete tasks or assignments independently. Primary schools are now expected to provide, as a minimum:

• 3 hours a day for Key Stage 1, on average across the cohort with less for younger children.
• 4 hours a day for Key Stage 2

Primary schools are also expected to have a system in place for checking on a daily basis whether pupils are engaging actively with their work, and learning. Primary schools will need to work with families to identify swiftly where pupil engagement is a concern and find effective solutions.

The Department recognises that different expectations are appropriate for younger and older age groups when learning remotely. We expect schools to consider the remote education expectations in relation to pupils’ age, stage of development or special educational needs. The number of hours of remote education we expect schools to deliver also varies according to pupil stage.

We also recognise that younger children in Key Stage 1 or Reception often require high levels of parental involvement to support their engagement with remote education, which makes digital provision a particular challenge for this age group. We do not expect that solely digital means will be used to teach these pupils remotely.

There is a wide range of resources available to support schools to meet the expectations we have set.

Get Help with Remote Education provides a one stop shop for teachers, signposting the support package available: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education. This includes helping primary schools to access technology that supports remote education, as well as peer to peer training and guidance on how to use technology effectively. It also includes practical tools, a good practice guide and school led webinars to support effective delivery of the curriculum. Information is also available on issues such as safeguarding, statutory duties and expectations, supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and recovery and catch up to stop pupils falling behind. We worked with some of the demonstrator schools and colleges to help develop a self-assessment framework, to help schools review and improve their approach to remote education through technology. This has now been launched as the Review your Remote Education Provision framework: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-your-remote-education-provision.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over 800,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 17 January. All schools, trusts and local authorities have now been given the opportunity to order their full current allocation of devices.

The Department has also made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy both for the summer term of the academic year 2019-20, and then for the 2020-21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Specialist content for pupils with SEND is also available. Since the start of the spring term 2021, 4.1 million users have visited the Oak National Academy platform and 28 million lessons have been viewed, as of 17 January 2021. Oak National Academy will remain a free optional resource for 2020-21.

The BBC has adapted their education support for the spring term 2021 and will be making educational content available on the television. This will help to ensure all children and young people can access curriculum based learning from home. Starting on Monday 11 January, each week day on CBBC will see a three hour block of primary school programming from 9am. Bitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on BBC Red Button as well as episodes being available on demand on BBC iPlayer. This TV offer is in addition to the BBC’s online offer, which parents, children and teachers can access when and where they need it.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

As of Monday 18 January, over 800,000 laptops and tablets had been delivered to state schools, academy trusts and local authorities.

Figures on requests for, and delivery of, devices by constituency are not available.

More information on the number of devices delivered can viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data. We will be publishing updated data on a weekly basis.

Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, academy trusts or local authorities who can lend these to children and young people who need them most, during the current COVID-19 restrictions.

The Government is providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

We have also partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home.

We are grateful to EE, O2, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, and Vodafone for their collaboration. We continue to invite a range of mobile network providers to support the offer.

All four major mobile network operators - Vodafone, O2, Three and EE - have also committed to working together to make access to Oak National Academy free for school children. Additionally, BT and EE are making access to BBC Bitesize resources free from the end of January 2021.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. Over 750,000 laptops and tablets had been delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by the end of last week, nearly 140,000 of which had been delivered this month.

The number of devices available for each school, trust or local authority is based on recent data on free school meal eligibility. On 12 January 2021 we announced that we will be providing a further 300,000 devices over the course of this term.

Figures on the number of devices delivered is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data. These figures are broken down by local authority and academy trust, depending on which organisation ordered devices. Information on delivery by region is not available.

This has been a very difficult time for students, and the government is working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies. The government’s clear and stated expectation is that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, have the resources to study remotely. This is more important than ever now, with the vast majority of students studying solely online.

Universities are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees, up to a maximum of £9,250 for standard full-time courses offered by approved (fee cap) providers for the 2020/21 academic year. The government has already announced that maximum tuition fee caps will remain frozen for the 2021/22 academic year.

The Office for Students (OfS), as regulator for higher education (HE) providers in England, has made it clear that HE providers must continue to comply with registration conditions relating to quality and academic standards, which set out requirements to ensure that courses are high-quality, that students are supported and achieve good outcomes and that standards are protected, regardless of whether a provider is delivering its courses through face-to-face teaching, remote online learning, or a combination of both.

Whether or not an individual student is entitled to a refund of fees will depend on the specific contractual arrangements between the provider and student. 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 (OIA) for Higher Education to consider their complaint. The OIA website is available via the following link: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance on consumer contracts, cancellation and refunds affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. This sets out the CMA’s view on how the law operates to help consumers understand their rights and help businesses treat their customers fairly. This is available via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds.

The OfS has also published guidance on student consumer protection during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is available via the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-and-consumer-protection-during-coronavirus/.

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 provide advice on who should be offered them.

JCVI advises that the first priorities for the COVID-19 vaccination programme 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.

Regarding the next phase of vaccine rollout, JCVI have asked that the Department of Health and Social Care consider occupational vaccination in collaboration with other Government departments. The Department for Education will input into this cross governmental exercise.

The Department is providing funding support to schools on autumn exam fees and we expect school and colleges to pay these on behalf of all the students they enter in the autumn. This is set out in our guidance on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responsibility-for-autumn-gcse-as-and-a-level-exam-series/centre-responsibility-for-autumn-gcse-as-and-a-level-exam-series-guidance.

The autumn exams are an important backstop to the summer grade process and we are helping schools and colleges to offer them to students by assisting with additional space and invigilators where required, as well as covering exam fee deficits to ensure that exam fees are not passed on to students.

Ofqual has published summary guidance, agreed with school and college leaders, which makes clear what the process was for putting together centre assessment grades and the grounds of appeal which are available. The guidance can be viewed here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/887018/Summer_2020_Awarding_GCSEs_A_levels_-_Info_for_Heads_of_Centre_22MAY2020.pdf.

Any students who have evidence of bias or discrimination will be able to go through the normal complaints procedure at their school or college or complain to the exam board, which could investigate potential malpractice.

The Government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan set out a range of measures to ensure that all children have access to high quality PE and sport sessions during the school week and opportunities to be physically active throughout the school day, to help them do the 60 minutes a day of physical exercise recommended by the Chief Medical Officer.

The Government has provided £2.4 million in funding to support this activity in 2019-20 and has worked with Active Partnerships, teaching schools and sport providers to support children to take part in activities that encourage good physical health.

Physical activity is important for children’s physical and mental wellbeing and will be especially important for children who have had restricted opportunity to exercise while at home due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department has published online educational resources approved by subject experts for schools and parents to help children to learn at home, including for PE:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-online-education-resources/online-science-pe-wellbeing-and-send-resources-for-home-education.

The Department is working to ensure that schools are fully supported as they re-open and are able to give pupils opportunities to be physically active during the school day.

The Department will confirm arrangements for the primary school PE and Sport Premium in the 2020-21 academic year as soon as possible.

Apprenticeships will have an important role to play in creating employment opportunities, particularly for young people, and supporting employers in all sectors to access the skilled workforce they need to recover and grow post COVID-19. The flexibilities we have introduced are enabling apprenticeships to continue. We are looking to support employers of all sizes, and particularly smaller businesses, to take on new apprentices this year. We will set out further details in due course. We will also ensure that there is sufficient funding to support small businesses wanting to take on an apprentice this year.

We are continuing to meet with employers and their representative organisations. I hosted a series of round tables with employers and business representative groups to discuss what more is needed to support employers, including the Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The National Apprenticeship Service continues to support employers, intermediary organisations and stakeholders through regular virtual meetings, and timely communications about changes to apprenticeship policies in response to COVID-19. Insight gathered from our engagement with employers and their representative bodies is used to help shape further flexibilities.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers.

The Government is providing over 200,000 laptops and tablets to vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. The Government is also providing over 50,000 4G wireless routers to care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and disadvantaged children in year 10 who do not have internet connections.

The Department has also partnered with BT to give 10,000 young people free access to BT WiFi hotspots, who do not have access to good internet by other means.

Local authorities and academy trusts are best placed to identify and distribute the laptops and tablets to children and young people who need devices. The Department invited local authorities to order devices for the most vulnerable children first, children with a social worker and care leavers.

Devices are being delivered to local authorities and academy trusts daily and will continue to be distributed throughout June.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers.

The Government is providing over 200,000 laptops and tablets to vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. The Government is also providing over 50,000 4G wireless routers to care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and disadvantaged children in year 10 who do not have internet connections.

The Department has also partnered with BT to give 10,000 young people free access to BT WiFi hotspots, who do not have access to good internet by other means.

Local authorities and academy trusts are best placed to identify and distribute the laptops and tablets to children and young people who need devices. The Department invited local authorities to order devices for the most vulnerable children first, children with a social worker and care leavers.

Devices are being delivered to local authorities and academy trusts daily and will continue to be distributed throughout June.

It is up to each school to determine how to deliver education to its pupils and we recognise that many schools have been regularly sharing resources with pupils. This could be in the form of online learning as well as high quality printed resources where needed.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G routers.

The Department has also partnered with BT to give 10,000 young people free access to BT WiFi hotspots, who do not have access to good internet by other means.

We are providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and disadvantaged children in Year 10 do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G routers.

We are committed to ensuring that all children can continue to learn remotely in a number of ways during these very difficult circumstances, and are supporting sector-led initiatives such as the Oak National Academy. This brand-new enterprise has been created by 40 teachers from schools across England. It will provide 180 video lessons for free each week, across a broad range of subjects, for every year group from reception through to Year 10. By 24 May, over 2.3 million users had visited the Oak Academy site and over 10.7 million lessons had been accessed.

Schools can also utilise the many resources which have been made by publishers across the country.

The Department has published an initial list of high quality online educational resources, which have been identified by some of the country’s leading educational experts to help pupils learn at home.

Schools and families will also be able to draw on support from the BBC which is broadcasting lessons on television. Some of the BBC educational content is offline, via the red button, which disadvantaged pupils without digital devices or connectivity will still be able to access.

The government has committed over £100 million to help schools and young people continue their education at home and access online social care services. We have committed over £14 million on technical support to give schools access to cloud-based education platforms, nearly £6 million to support a new demonstrator school network who are offering peer support on how to use education technology, and over £85 million to provide laptops, tablets and 4G internet devices, including security and e-safety packages and their distribution, and to top up the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund.

The department has also partnered with BT to give 10,000 young people free access to BT Wi-Fi hotspots, who do not have access to good internet by other means.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education. We are providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examination in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. We are also providing 4G routers to care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and disadvantaged Year 10 pupils who do not have sufficient internet connections.

The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets and allocated devices based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device.

Schools will continue to receive their budgets for the coming year as usual, regardless of any periods of partial or complete closure, and this will ensure they are able to meet their regular financial commitments, while delivering the provision required during this unprecedented period.

Where possible, schools are encouraged to work with their existing suppliers to provide meals or food parcels. If they are unable to use this, we have developed a national scheme to provide supermarket vouchers via the Edenred online portal. This portal allows schools to directly order vouchers to be sent to families for use at Aldi, McColl’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and M&S. Schools will not have to pay for these vouchers as the costs of this scheme will be picked up centrally by the Department for Education.

We recognise that it may not be convenient or possible for schools in some areas to use these supermarkets. Where schools use their own alternatives to the national voucher scheme they are able to claim for additional costs incurred in supporting free school meal pupils. As set out in our guidance, schools will be able to claim up to a certain limit, depending on their number of pupils, and where they are unable to meet these additional costs from their existing resources. In exceptional instances where individual schools face additional costs that are higher than the grant’s limits, schools will be able to able to apply to increase their limit. The full additional costs guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools.

Schools will continue to receive their budgets for the coming year as usual, regardless of any periods of partial or complete closure, and this will ensure they are able to meet their regular financial commitments, while delivering the provision required during this unprecedented period.

Where possible, schools are encouraged to work with their existing suppliers to provide meals or food parcels. If they are unable to use this, we have developed a national scheme to provide supermarket vouchers via the Edenred online portal. This portal allows schools to directly order vouchers to be sent to families for use at Aldi, McColl’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and M&S. Schools will not have to pay for these vouchers as the costs of this scheme will be picked up centrally by the Department for Education.

We recognise that it may not be convenient or possible for schools in some areas to use these supermarkets. Where schools use their own alternatives to the national voucher scheme they are able to claim for additional costs incurred in supporting free school meal pupils. As set out in our guidance, schools will be able to claim up to a certain limit, depending on their number of pupils, and where they are unable to meet these additional costs from their existing resources. In exceptional instances where individual schools face additional costs that are higher than the grant’s limits, schools will be able to able to apply to increase their limit. The full additional costs guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools.

The government is working closely with the sector on a wide range of issues and student wellbeing is at the heart of those discussions. It will be a matter for universities to deal with individual students’ situations.

Eligible students studying on full-time and part-time courses will continue to receive scheduled payments of loans towards their living costs for the remainder of the current, 2019/20, academic year.

We have engaged closely with the Office for Students to enable providers to draw upon existing funding to increase hardship funds and support disadvantaged students impacted by COVID-19. As a result, providers will be able to use the funding, worth around £23 million per month for April and May, towards student hardship funds, including the purchase of IT equipment, and mental health support, as well as to support providers’ access and participation plans.

Students with a part-time employment contract should speak to their employer about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been set up to help pay staff wages and keep people in employment. Information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronaviruscovid-19.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits related free school meals, by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children, and we encourage this approach where it is possible. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.

Through the national voucher scheme, schools and families could initially access eGift cards for Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and M&S. On Monday 27 April Aldi were added to this list and on Wednesday 29 April McColl’s were also added. We recognise that it may not be convenient or possible for some families to visit one of these supermarkets and we are continuing to work to see if additional supermarkets can be added to this list.

Where none of these supermarkets are convenient for families, schools can directly purchase vouchers for alternative supermarkets and be reimbursed for the costs.

Full details are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, directly addressed young people in the Downing Street press conference on Sunday 19 April, acknowledging the challenges that they are facing in their lives and education and the contribution that they are making to the national effort:

“And to any young people watching, I wanted to say to you how sorry I am that you have had your education disrupted in this way. I know how hard it must be and I would like to thank you for making the adjustments you have had to make.

I know you will be missing your friends, your teachers and your lessons. I want you to know that you are an important part of this fight too and I cannot thank you enough for all that you are doing.”

The department continues to plan a range of activities in the coming weeks to engage with diverse groups of young people who have been affected in different ways by the outbreak. This included a recent address to young people on the new national online learning platform Oak National Academy via an online assembly on Thursday 30 April, which is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgdhOstV6iI&feature=emb_logo.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits related free school meals, by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children, and we encourage this approach where it is possible. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.

Through the national voucher scheme, schools and families could initially access eGift cards for Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and M&S. On Monday 27 April Aldi were added to this list and on Wednesday 29 April McColl’s were also added. We recognise that it may not be convenient or possible for some families to visit one of these supermarkets and we are continuing to work to see if additional supermarkets can be added to this list.

Where none of these supermarkets are convenient for families, schools can directly purchase vouchers for alternative supermarkets and be reimbursed for the costs.

Full details are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

The government is doing everything it can to ensure that all parts of the education system are getting the guidance and support they need to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and protect the most vulnerable groups. The government has already announced it will make extra funding available for schools to cover the unique challenges and financial costs of the COVID-19 outbreak. The money will cover specific unforeseen additional costs up to the end of the 2019 to 2020 summer term including £3.2 billion for local authorities.

We know that there will be many challenges across the sector, and we are working hard to mitigate the impact on education, childcare and children’s social care and prepare to help the sector recover from the crisis.

We are working with schools, teaching unions and other partners to make sure we have the right guidance and support in place once we are ready to re-open education settings.

The government recognises the significant effect COVID-19 may have on children and will do whatever it takes to protect them. The government has taken a range of actions to ensure that children are supported, particularly those who are most vulnerable. This includes keeping schools and other educational settings open for vulnerable children, such as those with a social worker or with an Education, Health and Care Plan, and encouraging attendance from them where that would be in their best interests; providing resources to support children to continue learning at home; funding vouchers for free schools meals; and providing additional funding for the NSPCC to support their helpline for those with concerns about children. The government has also given local authorities more than £3.2 billion to support local services at this time, including children’s social care. The department has also announced additional support for adoptive families and up to £12.1 million of new money to continue 14 separate projects that are aimed at supporting vulnerable children and families.

Ministers and officials have had, and continue to have, discussions with organisations representing the interests of children, including with the Children’s Commissioner for England, in order to monitor and minimise the impact for children, particularly for those who are most vulnerable. The department has also already established a Vulnerable Children and Young People National Board to provide a forum to share good practice across the sector and provide a cohesive and ambitious system-wide response to support vulnerable children and young people through the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Secretary of State for Education will therefore not appoint an additional role of a Special Envoy for Children.

On 19 April 2020, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that devices will be provided for the most disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for exams (in Year 10), or receive support from a social worker or are a care leaver. Local authorities, trusts and other relevant organisations overseeing schools have been given guidance on how to place online orders for government-funded and allocated devices for eligible children and young people.

Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in Year 10 do not have internet connections, we will also provide the capability for them to access the internet.

Additionally, the country’s major telecommunication companies will make it easier for families to access selected educational resources by temporarily exempting these sites from data charges.

For those in rural areas or without a connection, schools will be able to draw on support from the BBC which is broadcasting lessons on television; as well as their existing resources and the many resources offers which have been made by publishers across the country.

Ministers at the Department for Education have not discussed nurture groups with their counterparts in the Scottish Government.

I met with Nurture UK in January 2020 to discuss the use of nurture groups in schools and the evidence they have collected.

In 2018, the Department published updated Mental Health & Behaviour in Schools Guidance, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2. The purpose of this guidance is to help schools to identify pupils whose behaviour may be a result of an underlying mental health difficulty, and to understand when and how to put in place support. It includes links to further sources of practice and advice, including Nurture UK. It is for schools to decide whether a nurture group might be of benefit, based on the evidence of impact and the needs of their pupils.

As part of our careers strategy setting out our aim to develop a world-class careers system, the Careers and Enterprise Company is taking forward work in this area.

It has developed the Enterprise Advisers Network, resulting in schools, colleges and businesses working together on a national scale. Over 150 businesses are engaged as cornerstone employers and more than 2,500 business people are working with schools and colleges as Enterprise Advisers to improve careers provision. This has led to at least 2 million young people regularly meeting employers and learning about the world of work.

It is establishing 40 Careers Hubs around the country, which are groups of 20 or more secondary schools and colleges located in the same geographic area, working together, and with partners in the business, public, education and voluntary sectors to ensure careers outcomes are improved for all young people and providing young people aged 11-18 with employer encounters.

In addition, schools must open their doors to providers of technical education and apprenticeships to give all young people a better understanding of the qualifications, courses and subjects available. This is enshrined in law, requiring all maintained schools and academies to publish a policy statement setting out how they will do this.

We also offer a free service to schools through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) project to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and support to enable them to promote apprenticeships to their students. As part of the ASK project, we work with employers to offer Apprenticeship Live broadcasts that schools can stream directly into the classroom. Employers can use these to showcase their apprenticeship programmes and they give students and teachers the opportunity to speak to employers and their apprentices directly. In 2018/19 we delivered over 40 live broadcasts covering a variety of sectors, reaching over 130,000 students and 1,965 teachers.

The Government is taking forward an ambitious programme of action on behaviour, exclusion and alternative provision (AP). This will respect head teachers’ powers to use exclusion, enable schools to support children at risk of exclusion, and ensure that excluded children continue to receive support and a good education.

Engagement in full-time, high-quality education is a protective factor against children’s risk of involvement in serious violence. Research has shown that excluded children have a higher risk of being both a victim and perpetrator of crime. However, we must be careful not to draw a simple causal link. The surrounding issues and causes of serious violence are complicated. The Department is working with the education and care sectors, the Home Office and other Government Departments to help make our streets safer by supporting children and young people who are at risk of being caught up in serious violence.

The Department recognises that timely access to full-time, high-quality AP plays a critical role in improving outcomes for excluded pupils who may have vulnerabilities that make them at risk of involvement in crime. We will expand AP and improve the quality of the sector so that pupils in AP receive the right support and an education on par with that received by their mainstream peers. Further information on the timeframes for this work will be provided in due course.

The Government is taking forward an ambitious programme of action on behaviour, exclusion and alternative provision (AP). This will respect head teachers’ powers to use exclusion, enable schools to support children at risk of exclusion, and ensure that excluded children continue to receive support and a good education.

Engagement in full-time, high-quality education is a protective factor against children’s risk of involvement in serious violence. Research has shown that excluded children have a higher risk of being both a victim and perpetrator of crime. However, we must be careful not to draw a simple causal link. The surrounding issues and causes of serious violence are complicated. The Department is working with the education and care sectors, the Home Office and other Government Departments to help make our streets safer by supporting children and young people who are at risk of being caught up in serious violence.

The Department recognises that timely access to full-time, high-quality AP plays a critical role in improving outcomes for excluded pupils who may have vulnerabilities that make them at risk of involvement in crime. We will expand AP and improve the quality of the sector so that pupils in AP receive the right support and an education on par with that received by their mainstream peers. Further information on the timeframes for this work will be provided in due course.

The Government is taking forward an ambitious programme of action on behaviour, exclusion and alternative provision (AP). This will respect head teachers’ powers to use exclusion, enable schools to support children at risk of exclusion, and ensure that excluded children continue to receive support and a good education.

Engagement in full-time, high-quality education is a protective factor against children’s risk of involvement in serious violence. Research has shown that excluded children have a higher risk of being both a victim and perpetrator of crime. However, we must be careful not to draw a simple causal link. The surrounding issues and causes of serious violence are complicated. The Department is working with the education and care sectors, the Home Office and other Government Departments to help make our streets safer by supporting children and young people who are at risk of being caught up in serious violence.

The Department recognises that timely access to full-time, high-quality AP plays a critical role in improving outcomes for excluded pupils who may have vulnerabilities that make them at risk of involvement in crime. We will expand AP and improve the quality of the sector so that pupils in AP receive the right support and an education on par with that received by their mainstream peers. Further information on the timeframes for this work will be provided in due course.

The Department commissions or co-funds a number of studies with young people. Current live projects include longitudinal studies such as the Millennium Cohort Study and the second Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE2), which collect evidence about the lives and experiences of young people and the transitions they make from education into early adulthood.

Other surveys include the ‘Pupils and their parents or carer: omnibus survey’, which gathers the views from pupils (and their parents or carers) in state-funded secondary schools on a wide range of topics, including subject choice, careers guidance and career aspirations. In addition to commissioned social research, the Department also engages with young people on an ad hoc basis to inform policy development and improve existing services.

Information on the number of children in care since 2010 is published in table H1 of the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2018 to 2019’, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.

The drivers of demand are complex. A sector-led ‘Care Crisis Review’ in 2018 found that there are many inter-linked factors contributing to the rise in care proceedings and children entering care. We are funding a What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care whose first research priority is to look at what works in safely reducing the need for children to enter care.

The government is committed to supporting children in care and wants all looked-after children to have a secure, stable and loving family environment to support them through childhood and beyond. In December, we announced an additional £45 million for the adoption support fund to reduce the number of children waiting for a permanent home and to strengthen relationships with their adoptive parents. We are also providing councils with an additional £1 billion for adults and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament. As set out in the manifesto, we are committed to undertaking a review of the care system. This review will allow us to go even further and to ensure that all care placements and settings provide children and young people with the support they need.

Since 2010 we have improved support for children in care, and have invested funding and support in local authorities in a range of areas including:

• £200 million in the Innovation Programme, testing new approaches in children’s social care, including targeted support for looked after children
• established the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care to drive improvement and ensure that innovation and best practice are at the heart of local authority social work
• introduced the Corporate Parenting Principles through the Children and Social Work Act 2017, for the first time setting out how local authorities can be a good ‘corporate parent’
• put in place measures such as the local authority Virtual School Head, giving looked-after children top priority in school admissions and extra funding to meet their needs through the Pupil Premium Plus, worth £2,300 per child
• invested £1 million to pilot high quality mental health assessments for children on entry to local authority care

This is in addition to the commitments we have made to improve the lives of children in residential and foster care, through our strategies published in 2016 and 2018.

Information on the number of children in care since 2010 is published in table H1 of the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2018 to 2019’, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.

The drivers of demand are complex. A sector-led ‘Care Crisis Review’ in 2018 found that there are many inter-linked factors contributing to the rise in care proceedings and children entering care. We are funding a What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care whose first research priority is to look at what works in safely reducing the need for children to enter care.

The government is committed to supporting children in care and wants all looked-after children to have a secure, stable and loving family environment to support them through childhood and beyond. In December, we announced an additional £45 million for the adoption support fund to reduce the number of children waiting for a permanent home and to strengthen relationships with their adoptive parents. We are also providing councils with an additional £1 billion for adults and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament. As set out in the manifesto, we are committed to undertaking a review of the care system. This review will allow us to go even further and to ensure that all care placements and settings provide children and young people with the support they need.

Since 2010 we have improved support for children in care, and have invested funding and support in local authorities in a range of areas including:

• £200 million in the Innovation Programme, testing new approaches in children’s social care, including targeted support for looked after children
• established the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care to drive improvement and ensure that innovation and best practice are at the heart of local authority social work
• introduced the Corporate Parenting Principles through the Children and Social Work Act 2017, for the first time setting out how local authorities can be a good ‘corporate parent’
• put in place measures such as the local authority Virtual School Head, giving looked-after children top priority in school admissions and extra funding to meet their needs through the Pupil Premium Plus, worth £2,300 per child
• invested £1 million to pilot high quality mental health assessments for children on entry to local authority care

This is in addition to the commitments we have made to improve the lives of children in residential and foster care, through our strategies published in 2016 and 2018.

Information on the number of children in care since 2010 is published in table H1 of the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2018 to 2019’, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.

The drivers of demand are complex. A sector-led ‘Care Crisis Review’ in 2018 found that there are many inter-linked factors contributing to the rise in care proceedings and children entering care. We are funding a What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care whose first research priority is to look at what works in safely reducing the need for children to enter care.

The government is committed to supporting children in care and wants all looked-after children to have a secure, stable and loving family environment to support them through childhood and beyond. In December, we announced an additional £45 million for the adoption support fund to reduce the number of children waiting for a permanent home and to strengthen relationships with their adoptive parents. We are also providing councils with an additional £1 billion for adults and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament. As set out in the manifesto, we are committed to undertaking a review of the care system. This review will allow us to go even further and to ensure that all care placements and settings provide children and young people with the support they need.

Since 2010 we have improved support for children in care, and have invested funding and support in local authorities in a range of areas including:

• £200 million in the Innovation Programme, testing new approaches in children’s social care, including targeted support for looked after children
• established the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care to drive improvement and ensure that innovation and best practice are at the heart of local authority social work
• introduced the Corporate Parenting Principles through the Children and Social Work Act 2017, for the first time setting out how local authorities can be a good ‘corporate parent’
• put in place measures such as the local authority Virtual School Head, giving looked-after children top priority in school admissions and extra funding to meet their needs through the Pupil Premium Plus, worth £2,300 per child
• invested £1 million to pilot high quality mental health assessments for children on entry to local authority care

This is in addition to the commitments we have made to improve the lives of children in residential and foster care, through our strategies published in 2016 and 2018.

The department funds education and training, including English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for adults aged 19 and over, through the adult education budget (AEB). With effect from 1 August 2019, approximately half the AEB has been devolved to 6 mayoral combined authorities and delegated to the Mayor of London acting through the Greater London Authority (GLA). These authorities are now responsible for funding adult education provision, including ESOL, for learners who are resident in their areas.

As the London Borough of Hounslow is within the area of the GLA, they are now responsible for commissioning and funding ESOL provision for adults who are resident in their areas, rather than the department.

Since the publication of the Summary of responses to the Consultation on introducing a Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Defra officials have been developing proposals for a deposit return scheme for drinks containers using further evidence and ongoing engagement with stakeholders. We are seeking powers in the Environment Bill to introduce deposit return schemes, which can be set up to sustain, promote or secure an increase in recycling or reuse of materials, or to reduce the incidence of littering or fly-tipping. The Government is minded to introduce such a scheme for drinks containers from 2023, subject to further evidence and analysis. The proposed scope, model and implementation of a deposit return scheme for drinks containers will be presented in a second consultation in 2020.

My Department maintains regular dialogue with both Heathrow Airport Ltd and the Civil Aviation Authority on a range of issues, including mechanisms for funding transport improvement projects to and from Heathrow.

The Civil Aviation Authority sets the policy for cost recovery by Heathrow Airport Ltd on surface access costs and where appropriate will consult on the application of this policy to projects proposed by Heathrow Airport Limited.

We are working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to achieve net zero aviation – or Jet Zero – by 2050. In July, we published the Jet Zero Consultation which focuses on the rapid development of technologies in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK. We are currently assessing responses to this consultation, including on whether changes to our approach to landing charges and slots could support our decarbonisation objectives.

We are collaborating with the CAA to support the enabling of demonstration activity of zero- and low-emission aircraft in a safe way, and to ensure the UK remains the best location in which to develop and deploy these new aircraft. We are also working with the CAA as co-sponsors of the Airspace Modernisation Programme, the national programme of airspace change amongst major UK airports.

The CAA are active members of the Jet Zero Council, a key partnership between industry and government – co-chaired by DfT and BEIS Secretaries of State - to drive the delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions.

The Government recognises the challenging circumstances facing the aviation industry because of Covid-19 and firms experiencing difficulties have been able to draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the Chancellor. In total, we estimate that by the end of September 2021 the air transport sector (airlines, airports and related services) will have benefited from around £7bn of Government support since the start of the pandemic. This includes support through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The Department for Transport works closely with HM Treasury on matters related to aviation. We continue to take a flexible approach and keep all impacts and policies under review.

The Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure competition, announced at the June meeting of the Jet Zero Council, has taken place over the summer and an announcement on the projects receiving funding will be made shortly.

The Government has in addition consulted over the summer to develop our Jet Zero Strategy to be published later this year.

Economic regulation of Heathrow Airport is carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), independently of the Secretary of State for Transport, in accordance with the Civil Aviation Act 2012.

Heathrow Airport’s licence arrangements are subject to periodic review by the CAA. The current licence was granted in 2015 and is due to expire at the end of 2021 (having been extended and amended since its initial five-year period). The CAA is presently developing the regulatory framework for a new licence to commence in 2022. It most recently sought views on development of that framework in its April 2022 ‘Way Forward’ consultation, which closed for responses in June, and is now reviewing those consultation responses.

While the Department for Transport works with the CAA to understand its direction of travel in developing the licence arrangements, the CAA’s work is independent of Government and the Secretary of State has no statutory role in reviewing those arrangements.

Staff parking charges at Heathrow Airport are set in line with the principles set out in the under the terms of Heathrow Airport Limited’s licence, granted to the airport by the CAA.

These principles include that prices should be set to enable only the recovery of costs, with no profit margin; that pricing must be supported by transparency of costs and revenues; and that any “over” or “under” recovery in one year must be accounted for setting the following year’s charges.

We continue to work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) supporting the response to the pandemic across a range of areas. We have no plans for a comprehensive review of the CAA’s powers. However, there are areas where the pandemic has required changes to the role of the CAA, and others where the Government will keep policy under review. For example, the Government will be consulting later this year on more flexible and modern tools to protect consumers whilst travelling by air, including reforming the CAA’s enforcement powers where airlines breach consumer rights.

Economic regulation of Heathrow Airport is carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), independently of the Secretary of State for Transport, in accordance with the Civil Aviation Act 2012.

In line with s.19 of that act, the licence granted to Heathrow Airport by the CAA regulates the prices that the Airport may charge to its airline customers. It does this by setting a ‘cap’ on the total revenue the Airport may levy against its customers, expressed on a per passenger basis.

The CAA may include whatever conditions it deems necessary or expedient to guard against the risk of the Airport exploiting its significant market power. My Department has no reason to believe that the price control principles of the Act, and the powers granted to the CAA, are inadequate to enable the CAA to satisfy that aim and carry out its functions in line with its duties (as laid out in s.1 of the Act).

The Airport and Ground Operations Scheme provides eligible commercial airports and ground operators support towards permitted fixed costs subject to certain conditions. These eligible businesses can claim based on the equivalent of their business rates liabilities, or COVID losses, whichever is lower, up to the scheme cap.

The cap strikes an appropriate balance between supporting airports in financial distress while protecting the interests of the taxpayer.

In total, we estimate that by the end of September 2021 the air transport sector (airlines, airports and related services) will have benefited from around £7bn of Government support since the start of the pandemic. This includes support through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The number of battery electric vehicles licensed at 31 March 2021 by region and nation are as follows:

Source: Table VEH0132B, DVLA/DfT

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/all-vehicles-veh01

DfT maintain a capability to produce a range of demand scenarios, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding the potential shape of recovery, for internal use.

The Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme will support airports and ground handlers that have been severely impacted by the pandemic while retaining relatively high fixed costs, including business rates liabilities. We do not comment on the commercial or financial matters of private firms, because this information is commercially sensitive.

The Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme intends to allow commercial airports and ground handlers operating at airports in England to be able to apply for support to the equivalent of their site’s business rates liabilities, up to a cap of £8m, if they meet the qualifying criteria and conditions. Final details of the scheme are still to be made and we aim to launch the scheme shortly.

This is a very important issue. The UK has been leading work with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to help civil aviation restart and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. A key part of ICAO’s work has been agreeing guidance last November for States to use testing more as a means to reduce the reliance on quarantine or self-isolation measures, such as the UK’s Test to Release scheme. Building on this, ICAO is now looking at how to reflect progress on vaccination within that guidance and how to support the mutual recognition of tests and vaccination records for international travel. When I spoke to the ICAO President in December, I welcomed ICAO’s work so far and committed UK support.

On 16 December 2020 the Supreme Court overturned the earlier Court of Appeal decision and declared that the Airports National Policy Statement is lawful. We will carefully consider the Court’s judgment and set out any next steps in due course.

The Government have always been clear that Heathrow expansion is a private sector project which must meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change, as well as being privately financed, affordable, and delivered in the best interest of consumers.

As set out in the Global Travel Taskforce report, the UK continues to explore pre-departure testing pilots with partner countries on a bilateral basis, including exploring different possible models for such a scheme.