Simon Jupp

The reporting statistic the hon. Member has requested is not currently available. However, officials from the Forestry Commission have begun the process of analysing the data required to answer this question. I invite the hon. Member to write to the Forestry Commission where officials can provide the results of this analysis.

The Environment Act places new monitoring duties on the water industry to significantly improve transparency. It requires companies to make discharge data available in near real time to the public and to monitor water quality upstream and downstream of their assets.

The number of sustainable urban drainage schemes that are in full operation or under construction in England is not held by my department.

The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction plan will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years – to significantly reduce sewage discharges.

Our plan prioritises areas at risk of the greatest ecological harm first, to ensure we have the biggest impact, as quickly as possible. Our targets will ensure that no water body in England should fail to achieve good ecological status due to storm overflow discharges. We have prioritised action for storm overflows discharging near or into inland and coastal bathing waters. By 2035, water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging into and near designated inland and coastal bathing waters.

Ofwat’s findings that water companies are not spending investment assigned to make service improvements is completely unacceptable. Overall, water companies have only spent 61% of their forecasted wastewater enhancement cost allowance during 2020-22, which has resulted in delaying crucial wastewater infrastructure to improve water resilience and the environment.

Yorkshire Water and South West Water have only spent 20% and 39% of their allowance, respectively. The SoS and I met with the CEOs of these two companies in December to discuss their performance.

I am aware that the COVID pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have impacted on supply chains, but other water companies are exceeding their spend and I expect all water companies to urgently get their spending back on track and implement the upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure they have been funded to deliver and that customers rightly expect. I will continue to meet with the CEOs of underperforming companies to monitor their progress.

Ofwat, as the economic regulator for the water industry, has been clear that where these expectations are not met and companies are failing to comply with their obligations, they will take action, including enforcement action where warranted.

The Department for International Trade will announce further details on plans for a revised trade show support programme when discussions with HM Treasury are concluded.

The £38m Internationalisation Fund, launched last year, provides matching grants for export support including attendance at trade shows.

Following the changes to international travel implemented on 11 February, including the removal of all testing requirements for eligible vaccinated passengers, reducing measures for all other passengers, and recognising vaccine certificates from over 180 countries and territories, the UK now has one of the most open and streamlined COVID-19 border regimes in the world. Furthermore, my Rt Hon Friend the Transport Secretary is also looking at removing the Passenger Locator Form as soon as possible.

The Government has also committed to developing a contingency toolkit, to be set out ahead of Easter, with new border health measures only implemented in extreme circumstances where necessary to protect public health against COVID-19 variants.

The Department intends to make an announcement on this matter very shortly.

As set out in The Motor Cycles (Protective Helmets) Regulations 1998, every person driving or riding a motorcycle on the road must wear a helmet. The Department’s safety helmet assessment and rating programme (SHARP) aims to change riders’ attitudes and habits to helmet safety and in so doing contribute to a reduction in the number of motorcyclists killed and seriously injured on UK roads.

The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with representatives of the motorcycle industry but the Department routinely engages with them in the development of its policies. There are currently no plans to mandate the wearing of protective clothing for motorcyclists as the Government believes that the use of protective clothing should remain a matter for individual choice, rather than become a legislative requirement.

We are committed to ensuring transport plays its part in reaching our net zero targets, and as such we are considering how to support all modes of transport. This includes working with the coach industry to support the increase of zero emission vehicles in their fleets.

Allowances paid by Local Authorities to councillors for their official duties are earnings and are treated as such in the calculation of any Universal Credit award. All earnings, above any applicable work allowance, are subject to the 55% taper and the Universal Credit award is calculated on that basis.

The Universal Credit work allowance is an amount of earnings eligible households can earn before the single taper rate is applied to their earnings and their Universal Credit begins to be reduced. Those councillors with responsibility for a child or qualifying young person, and/or limited capability for work will be eligible for a work allowance.

We want everyone to be able to find a job, progress in work and thrive in the Labour Market, wherever they live.

We are moving at pace to introduce new Jobcentres across the UK, with leases already secured on 111 additional temporary sites. To date, we have recruited over 14,600 additional Work Coaches.

Throughout the pandemic, Jobcentres remained open for anyone who needed face-to-face support. As of last month, all jobcentres in England, Scotland and Wales returned to their pre-lockdown opening hours.

Details of the number of Child Maintenance Service complaints received and accepted for examination by the Independent Case Examiner’s Office in each of the last five full reporting years is detailed in table (a). Table (b) provides details of the number of Child Support Maintenance cases cleared by the Independent Case Examiner’s Office during the same period and the type of clearance. The Independent Case Examiner’s Office can only accept a complaint for examination once the complainant has exhausted the DWP complaints process.

Official figures show that nearly eight out of ten CMS customers stated that they are happy with the service they receive. In cases where the CMS directly manage payments 70% of money due to be paid in the quarter ending March 2020 was collected, amounting to more than £45 million.

We are clear that it is never acceptable for parents to evade their responsibilities to their children and the CMS will continue to clamp down on people who think they can abuse or dodge the system.

Table (a): Child Maintenance Service complaints received and accepted in each of the last five full report year.

Table (b): Number of Child Support Maintenance cases clear by the Independent Case Examiner’s Office during the last five full reporting years and the type of clearance / outcome.

The Child Maintenance Service is unable to provide figures relating to how many cases HMCTS have received. However, Table 15 of experimental data refers to cases which have been actioned by HMCTS for each quarter and were upheld. Upheld is defined as where Her Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service overturns the decision made by the Child Maintenance Service and supports the parent's appeal. This includes appeals where the appellant provides additional evidence to the court not previously made available to the Child Maintenance Service.

No estimate has been made.

As part of the Government’s commitment to increase diagnostics services, £2.3 billion of funding has been awarded to transform diagnostic services over the next three years which will help to increase the number of community diagnostic centres up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. The remainder of the funding will increase capacity for imaging, endoscopy as well as lung and mammography screening, and improve digital diagnostics.

There are no current plans to make an estimate.

Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who set their pay and terms and conditions, independent of central Government.

In ‘Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care’, we announced our intention to launch a new Care Workforce Pathway for Adult Social Care, which will support development and provide a career structure to the workforce.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the steps the National Health Service and education providers need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The ambition is to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians.

The LTWP also commits to extend the success of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has delivered an additional 29,000 multi-professional roles in primary care. This expansion will consider the additional capacity required to staff roles across primary

TARGET DATE 18/07/2023

care, including community pharmacy. NHS England have committed to undertake and publish a review of the scheme by the end of 2023.

Overseas pharmacy professionals must meet the same standards as United Kingdom pharmacy professionals. The General Pharmaceutical Council has recently written to accredited educational providers to highlight the demand for places from overseas professionals and students, and a limited number of additional places have been created.

The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal ends at the end of March 2024. We are currently consulting Community Pharmacy England on the implementation of the pharmacy proposals in the delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The funding for those proposals covers 2023/24 and 2024/25. There are regular discussions with NHS England about NHS funding. No discussions have been had with Community Pharmacy England about CPCF funding from March 2024.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the steps the National Health Service and education providers need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The ambition is to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians.

The LTWP also commits to extend the success of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has delivered an additional 29,000 multi-professional roles in primary care. This expansion will consider the additional capacity required to staff roles across primary

TARGET DATE 18/07/2023

care, including community pharmacy. NHS England have committed to undertake and publish a review of the scheme by the end of 2023.

Overseas pharmacy professionals must meet the same standards as United Kingdom pharmacy professionals. The General Pharmaceutical Council has recently written to accredited educational providers to highlight the demand for places from overseas professionals and students, and a limited number of additional places have been created.

The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal ends at the end of March 2024. We are currently consulting Community Pharmacy England on the implementation of the pharmacy proposals in the delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The funding for those proposals covers 2023/24 and 2024/25. There are regular discussions with NHS England about NHS funding. No discussions have been had with Community Pharmacy England about CPCF funding from March 2024.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the steps the National Health Service and education providers need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The ambition is to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians.

The LTWP also commits to extend the success of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has delivered an additional 29,000 multi-professional roles in primary care. This expansion will consider the additional capacity required to staff roles across primary

TARGET DATE 18/07/2023

care, including community pharmacy. NHS England have committed to undertake and publish a review of the scheme by the end of 2023.

Overseas pharmacy professionals must meet the same standards as United Kingdom pharmacy professionals. The General Pharmaceutical Council has recently written to accredited educational providers to highlight the demand for places from overseas professionals and students, and a limited number of additional places have been created.

The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal ends at the end of March 2024. We are currently consulting Community Pharmacy England on the implementation of the pharmacy proposals in the delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The funding for those proposals covers 2023/24 and 2024/25. There are regular discussions with NHS England about NHS funding. No discussions have been had with Community Pharmacy England about CPCF funding from March 2024.

Last month we co-hosted a donor conference with the UN, Qatar and Germany. This raised over $2.4 billion for the UN’s humanitarian appeal.

Ahead of the summit, the Foreign Secretary announced the UK’s pledge of £286 million for Afghanistan this financial year.

The Foreign Secretary has committed to prioritising funding for women and girls. In Afghanistan, we will ensure at least 50% of those we reach with our aid should be women and girls.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.

Introducing new reliefs would impose additional pressure on the public finances to which VAT makes a significant contribution. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax and is forecast to raise £161 billion in 2023/24, helping to fund key spending priorities, such as the NHS, education and defence. Plus, there is no guarantee that a VAT relief would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.

That is why the government has instead put in place a comprehensive framework to support flood recovery, which is used in exceptional circumstances to support councils and communities following severe flooding.

Whilst the government keeps all taxes under review, there are no current plans to reduce VAT charged on property repairs required as a result of damage caused by flooding.

Under the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (CRCA), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a statutory duty of confidentiality to protect the information it holds about taxpayers. As a result, it is not possible to confirm the tax status of individual schemes, but many schemes will have made public statements separate to this.

The Government considers a variety of factors to understand the health of the UK corporate sector and inform economic analysis and policymaking. This includes monitoring official data, internal economic modelling and regular engagement with firms and business groups.

As part of this, HM Treasury monitors aggregate and sectoral trends in corporate lending and deposits, including via the use of Bank of England data.

The Government will continue to monitor trends in corporate saving and borrowing to inform policy making and its assessment of corporate health.

The Government is introducing comprehensive alcohol duty reforms from 1 August this year, which will support small cider producers through the introduction of the new Small Producer Relief, providing a tapered duty discount which helps small beer and cider producers to grow and thrive.

The Government is also providing a duty discount on draught cider sold in pubs, whilst equalising the treatment of fruit ciders with beer. Further, ciders between 3.5% and 8.5% ABV will continue to benefit from a lower duty rate than other categories of alcohol to support their transition to the new duty system.

The values have been published in the quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-stamp-duty-land-tax-sdlt-statistics

We remain committed to negotiating Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) arrangements with other countries and territories, including the EU or nations within it. On 01 January, Iceland became a new addition to the scheme demonstrating the Government’s commitment to further expansion.

However, as each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal agreement which also provides benefit to UK nationals with the detail negotiated and agreed between the relevant parties, we are unable to disclose the status of negotiations as they occur. Further details of additional YMS agreements will be announced once they are concluded.

The Government intends to commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to undertake a review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) later this year. The exact terms of the commission will be set out in a letter to the Chair of the MAC and will be published on GOV.UK, in line with the approach taken for previous SOL commissions.

More broadly, acting upon advice from the MAC, the Government broadened out the skills threshold of the Skilled Worker route to include occupations at RQF level 3 and lowered the general salary threshold to £25,600. The MAC’s modelling suggests the new threshold strikes a reasonable balance between controlling immigration and providing businesses access to labour.

Being on the SOL does not exempt an occupation from meeting the wider requirements of the Skilled Worker immigration route.

Up until 6 April 2021, Chefs were on the Shortage Occupation List. The Government accepted a recommendation from the independent Migration Advisory Committee to remove Chefs from the SOL citing;

‘…the reduced restrictions and lower salary threshold under the Skilled Worker route compared to Tier 2 (General), and the on-going and persistent concerns that not enough is being done to train chefs from within the domestic workforce.’

Due to the expanded eligibility under our new system, for both salary and skill levels, chefs may now be recruited through the Skilled Worker visa without the requirement to demonstrate 5 years experience, and they can be paid £25,600 or more per year rather than the previous threshold of £29,570.

A job does not have to be on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to qualify for the Skilled Worker visa and being on it does not exempt a job from other requirements such as the English Language requirement.

Our Plan for Jobs is focused on helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work, rather than providing alternatives to this via immigration policy. Beyond the Points Based System, there is the resident labour market which includes UK workers and non-UK citizens with general work rights.

There is no requirement to obtain a new DBS certificate each time an individual goes from one role to another, as a volunteer or paid worker in a regulated activity in the same workforce e.g. children’s workforce.

The Update Service is an online subscription for standard and enhanced checks (i.e. those which individuals working with children and vulnerable people or employers will be checking against). The Update Service enables an individual to take their DBS certificate from one job to the next unless an employer asks an individual to get a new certificate, or a different type of workforce certificate is needed, e.g. ‘adult workforce’ to ‘child workforce,’ or a different level of certificate is required, e.g. standard to enhanced.

The UK’s points-based immigration system will not offer a dedicated route for au pairs, as has been the case since 2008. However, there are other immigration routes which will exist for people who may wish to take up these roles, such as the Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS).

We have indicated our desire to negotiate a YMS with the EU, or with individual countries within it, ensuring young people can continue to enjoy the social, cultural and educational benefits of living in the EU and the UK.

The Defence Command Paper highlighted the importance of science, innovation and technology in securing strategic advantage for our Armed Forces. Defence is investing over £6.6 billion in advanced Research and Development, and is working closely with UK industry and academia, to identify and invest in innovative technologies to ensure we have the capabilities we need to meet threats.

The National Shipbuilding Strategy supports our ambition to grow the UK shipbuilding enterprise and support UK jobs. Five new T31 frigates being built in Rosyth will support more than 1,000 UK jobs. The Fleet Solid Support contract will create more than 1,200 UK shipyard jobs and Type 26 will sustain over 4,000 jobs across the UK supply chain.

This Government is committed to ensuring that veterans receive a gold standard of support and the recognition they deserve so that the UK becomes the best place in the world to be a veteran.

Later this year we will publish the next iteration of the Veterans Strategy Action Plan setting how we’ll ensure veterans can lead successful civilian lives, this will build on the steps we have already taken through improved support for employment, housing and access to healthcare.

HMS DRAGON and HMS ENTERPRISE have both recently operated in the Black Sea conducting a highly successful programme of regional defence engagement activity with Georgia, Ukraine and Romania. This included joint exercising with the Ukrainian and Romanian Navies to share expertise and knowledge, as well as delivery of a package of maritime interdiction training to the Georgian Coastguard. This is a further demonstration of the UK’s ability to provide reassurance to allies and partners, as well as a deterrent effect across the Euro-Atlantic area.

As of 28 April 2023, there are over 700 FTE staff working in the Department’s Levelling Up Group.

To drive delivery of the levelling up agenda, a Director General led group was established under Will Garton, Director General for Levelling Up. The group includes director led units working on strategy and policy, place, delivery, spatial data, funds and area teams based around the country. The group are responsible for work including, but not limited to Investment Zones, Levelling Up Partnerships, Freeports, the devolution agenda in England including the recent Trailblazer agreements secured with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, the department’s role on Anti-Social Behaviour, the Levelling Up Fund, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Community Ownership Fund, legacy funds as well as servicing the Levelling Up Inter Ministerial Group and wider cross-cutting Levelling Up priorities (including the Levelling Up Missions). This activity is support by the Spatial Data Unit and the department’s analytical capability.

Other portfolios within the department’s wider senior leadership team also ensure that Levelling Up is the central mission of the department. There are currently Groups covering Local Government, Resilience and Communities; Building Safety, Grenfell and Net Zero; Regeneration (specifically Housing); Finance; and the Union. Further details will be set out in the department’s organogram which will be updated and published in due course on gov.uk

In early 2022, prior to the establishment of the Levelling Up group and the wider departmental reorganisation, the former Second Permanent Secretary led an external recruitment process for Levelling Up Directors. There were over 500 applicants, but – given the wider departmental changes - Ministers have decided not to proceed with the appointment of the directors.

This renewed and significant senior departmental capacity, combined with the progress of the English devolution agenda, means that we believe that we are best placed to deliver levelling up by working directly with Mayoral Combined Authorities, local government, and the devolved administrations. We will continue to co-ordinate government policy via means of specific, targeted placed based interventions. We are grateful for all those who showed an interest in the roles, and for the work of the Civil Service Commissioner who supported this recruitment.

The department will continue to keep under review its staffing dedicated to its priorities including work driving Levelling Up across the whole of the UK.

The Government is committed to creating a fairer and more transparent housing system that works for everyone. Leasehold reform supports our mission to level up homeownership by addressing the power imbalance at the heart of the leasehold system.

In 2017 the Government asked the Law Commission to review existing leasehold legislation. The Law Commission's findings, published in 2020, made clear that under the current system too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive. The Law Commission made a number of recommendations and the government will respond to these, including those relating to National Trust leaseholders, in due course.

The Government is committed to creating a fairer and more transparent housing system that works for everyone. Leasehold reform supports our mission to level up homeownership by addressing the power imbalance at the heart of the leasehold system.

In 2017 the Government asked the Law Commission to review existing leasehold legislation. The Law Commission's findings, published in 2020, made clear that under the current system too many leaseholders find the process for extending their lease or buying their freehold too complex, lacking transparency and prohibitively expensive. The Law Commission made a number of recommendations and the government will respond to these, including those relating to National Trust leaseholders, in due course.

The Government’s recent ‘British Energy Security Strategy’ sets out a series of changes to the planning system to support the delivery of renewable energy infrastructure. These technologies will play a key role in reaching the UK’s ambitious Carbon Budget and Net Zero targets. We will consult on amending planning rules to strengthen policy in favour of solar development on non-protected land, while ensuring communities continue to have a say and environmental protections remain in place.

Solar projects are subject to strict planning controls to protect local communities and the environment. For larger projects (over 50MW in England), planning decisions are made through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime. The NSIP regime is a rigorous process designed to scrutinise larger projects and developers must engage closely with local authorities and communities before approval is granted.

By law, planning applications are determined on their own merits in accordance with the development plan for the area unless material considerations indicate otherwise. There may be occasions though where other existing or approved development may be relevant in determining an application, in particular where it is integral as part of a more substantial development. It is for local planning authorities to consider proposals, they act independently of central Government, and Ministers have limited remit to intervene in their day-to-day affairs, particularly where it is integral as part of a more substantial development.

The Government remains committed to creating a fair and just housing system that works for everyone. The Government will be taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform to end unfair practices in the leasehold market.

In 2017 the Government asked the Law Commission to review the legislation on leasehold enfranchisement, with the aim of making it easier, quicker and more cost effective for leaseholders to buy their freehold or extend their lease.

The Law Commission's report on enfranchisement includes recommendations relating to how and when leaseholders would qualify for enfranchisement and lease extension rights. This included a proposal on how the rules would apply to leaseholders of the National Trust. We will bring forward a response to this and the other remaining Law Commission recommendations in due course.

The Ministry of Justice holds data on the number of prisoners convicted of (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences who were held in a category D open prison in each year between 1997 and 2010. This can be viewed in the attached table. The required dates for PQ135716 (between 2007 and 2010) are a subset of the data required for PQ135715 and so are contained within the same attachment.

For prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, the data requested to answer question 3 is not held as it pre-dates current casework systems which came into use in 2010.

The Ministry of Justice holds data on the number of prisoners convicted of (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences who were held in a category D open prison in each year between 1997 and 2010. This can be viewed in the attached table. The required dates for PQ135716 (between 2007 and 2010) are a subset of the data required for PQ135715 and so are contained within the same attachment.

For prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, the data requested to answer question 3 is not held as it pre-dates current casework systems which came into use in 2010.

The Ministry of Justice holds data on the number of prisoners convicted of (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences who were held in a category D open prison in each year between 1997 and 2010. This can be viewed in the attached table. The required dates for PQ135716 (between 2007 and 2010) are a subset of the data required for PQ135715 and so are contained within the same attachment.

For prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, the data requested to answer question 3 is not held as it pre-dates current casework systems which came into use in 2010.

In response to the pressures of the pandemic, prisons moved rapidly to prevent infection and minimise loss of life, the Probation Service introduced new delivery models, and in Courts and Tribunals we made quick safety adjustments to court buildings meaning that we were among the first internationally to re-start jury trials.

We remain committed to our continued recovery, rolling out vaccination in prisons, getting cases heard more quickly, and accelerating efforts to increase capacity. We will continue to innovate and improve so that we can build back better.

Information about (a) receipts and (b) outcomes for Child Maintenance Service appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

The latest period for which data are available is January to March 2020. The most recent tribunal statistics publication covering the period April to June 2020 does not include SSCS data due to issues identified as the Tribunal was being migrated to a new operational system. The data will be made available as soon as this is resolved and the data quality assured.

We are working closely with colleagues across Government and the NI Executive to support opportunities for Northern Ireland at this important event. This Government has announced a number of initiatives to promote Northern Ireland’s potential as a leader in innovative technology, especially in green and clean technologies. This includes the £400 million investment through the New Deal for Northern Ireland.

I recently attended a meeting with the COP President and pressed for continued engagement with the Executive and NI businesses in order to promote Northern Ireland’s interests. I also met with Laura Sandys, our former Hon. Friend, to discuss her work as an adviser to NI’s energy strategy.