Steven Bonnar

All primary and secondary schools in England are now expected to provide remote education for the majority of their pupils and students, with the exception of vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers, who can attend school or college in person. Where vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers do not attend school or college, we expect schools and colleges to provide them with remote education.

We have updated the remote education guidance for schools to clarify and strengthen expectations while on-site attendance is restricted, drawing on our evolving understanding of best practice in remote education. This guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/952443/210114_School_national_restrictions_guidance_FINAL_14012021.pdf#page=46&zoom=100,72,76.

To ensure all pupils continue to access high-quality education, we are securing 1.3 million laptops, investing over £400 million to support access to remote education. A comprehensive package of support continues to be available to schools and colleges which can be accessed via the Get Help with Remote Education page on gov.uk, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education. As part of that support, we have published a ‘Review Your Remote Education Provision’ tool to help schools to understand their remote education strategies and signpost them towards packages of support to help them meet basic requirements and go further in their strategies, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-your-remote-education-provision?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=53522a25-c275-4777-996d-ade6d8f11bd5&utm_content=immediately.

We have asked schools to publish information about their remote education provision on their websites by 25 January and published an optional template to support schools in setting out that information, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/providing-remote-education-information-to-parents-template.

During the spring term Ofsted will conduct monitoring inspections of schools most in need. These will have a strong focus on remote education and an emphasis on being supportive. In addition, Ofsted will inspect schools of any grade if it has any significant concerns about a school’s provision, including in relation to remote education. Where parents approach Ofsted with concerns, having first sought to resolve them with the school, Ofsted will consider and take action where appropriate. This could mean discussing the complaint with the school, or if necessary, inspecting the school.

Discussions with the devolved administrations took place in advance of the publication of ‘COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19’. In addition, officials are in regular contact understand the approach taken by each nation and any implementation issues.

Experts continue to keep the symptoms under review as our understanding of the virus develops. We assess the data from the COVID Symptom Study in addition to other surveillance studies and will update our guidance if necessary.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working closely with the Ministry of Justice to gather more evidence on the use of screening tools, including screening for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults within the criminal justice system in England. An action plan in response to the recommendations of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services report, Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, is due to be published in October 2021 and will address this recommendation.

We have set out five tests that will need to be satisfied before any lockdown measures are eased which are as follows:

• ensuring the National Health Service has capacity to provide critical care right across the United Kingdom;
• evidence to show a sustained and consistent fall in daily death rates from coronavirus;
• the rate of infection decreased to manageable levels across the board;
• the UK is ready for operational challenges including testing and personal protective equipment are in hand with supply able to meet future demand, and;
• confidence that measures do not risk a second peak.

To offset the risk for a second peak, a certain degree of social distancing measures will need to remain. We have rapidly and very significantly expanded our testing capability and are developing a test and trace programme to support the next phase of our Covid-19 response.

I continue to speak regularly to my counterparts in Europe.

The FCDO continues to work closely with colleagues across Government, including the Secretary of State for Transport, to maintain smooth operation of the UK's border with the EU for both freight and passengers.

We are working closely with the Ministry of Justice on the development of a national strategy to improve outcomes for neurodivergent people in the criminal justice system (CJS).

The recent Criminal Justice Joint Inspection report on neurodiversity in the CJS is welcome. I look forward to discussing this with the new Secretary of State for Justice.

The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those in need. Since 2015, we have resettled more than 25,000 people – more than any other EU country – and we have a new global UK Resettlement Scheme running.

The Nationality and Borders Bill, which was introduced last week, will fix the broken asylum system in the UK and ensure that access to the UK’s asylum system is based on need, not on the ability to pay people smugglers

We welcomed the Evidence Review Report on Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, which has highlighted the importance of gaining a better understanding of the needs of people with neurodivergent conditions across the criminal justice system.

The report suggests that potentially half of the adult prison population has some form of neurodivergence. The report identifies current gaps in provision and areas of good practice, and it provides six recommendations as to how current provision might be improved.

The first recommendation is to develop a cross government overarching neurodiversity strategy across the criminal justice system. An action plan in response to the report is due to be published in October 2021 and my department is currently engaging in discussions with all of the relevant departments to identify appropriate steps to work towards this key recommendation.

I was pleased that we could agree a fantastic deal on the Protocol in December. It delivers on the commitments we made to the people of Northern Ireland, maintaining unfettered access, protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK Customs Territory, and ensuring that Great Britain to Northern Ireland trade flows as smoothly as possible.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is in constant contact with the Executive on matters relating to the Protocol, as was the case throughout the Transition Period. This includes regular engagements with the First and deputy First Ministers, as well as cross-Government forums like the EU Exit Operations Committee and JMC(EN).

Effective working relationships already exist between the Crown Estate and the Welsh Government.

There is no public appetite at all in Wales to devolve the Crown Estate, which would serve merely to fragment the market and delay the further development of key projects in Wales.