Tom Randall

The Civil Service is committed to developing inclusive workplaces. We are refreshing our approach based on new evidence of what works.

The focus will be on embedding best practice, ensuring the Civil Service acts as an exemplar employer.

Senior officials are consulting Departments and staff on the new approach, and are working closely with Ministers from across Departments who have an interest.

On 17th April, the Government tabled amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill which include a statutory duty to make interim payments of £100,000 to estates of the deceased infected people who were registered with existing or former support schemes (where previous interim payments have not already been made to infected individuals or their bereaved partners). This is an important step forward to get substantial compensation into the hands of families of victims of infected blood.

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

The flexibility of the ARG allows Local Authorities to provide support that suits their local area, to determine how much funding to provide to businesses and exactly which businesses to target. The scheme aims to support businesses when most needed, and Local Authorities should use this funding as quickly as possible.

We are working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that grants are delivered swiftly to businesses in scope of this funding. In light of the delay to Step 4 of the Roadmap, we have extended our deadline for Local Authorities to access the top-up payment (part of the £425m) from 30 June to 30 July, 2021. We have also doubled the frequency of our payment rounds of ARG in order that funding can reach businesses as soon as possible.

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

The flexibility of the ARG allows Local Authorities to provide support that suits their local area, to determine how much funding to provide to businesses and exactly which businesses to target. The scheme aims to support businesses when most needed, and Local Authorities should use this funding as quickly as possible.

We are working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that grants are delivered swiftly to businesses in scope of this funding. In light of the delay to Step 4 of the Roadmap, we have extended our deadline for Local Authorities to access the top-up payment (part of the £425m) from 30 June to 30 July, 2021. We have also doubled the frequency of our payment rounds of ARG in order that funding can reach businesses as soon as possible.

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

The flexibility of the ARG allows Local Authorities to provide support that suits their local area, to determine how much funding to provide to businesses and exactly which businesses to target. The scheme aims to support businesses when most needed, and Local Authorities should use this funding as quickly as possible.

We are working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that grants are delivered swiftly to businesses in scope of this funding. In light of the delay to Step 4 of the Roadmap, we have extended our deadline for Local Authorities to access the top-up payment (part of the £425m) from 30 June to 30 July, 2021. We have also doubled the frequency of our payment rounds of ARG in order that funding can reach businesses as soon as possible.

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

The flexibility of the ARG allows Local Authorities to provide support that suits their local area, to determine how much funding to provide to businesses and exactly which businesses to target. The scheme aims to support businesses when most needed, and Local Authorities should use this funding as quickly as possible.

We are working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that grants are delivered swiftly to businesses in scope of this funding. In light of the delay to Step 4 of the Roadmap, we have extended our deadline for Local Authorities to access the top-up payment (part of the £425m) from 30 June to 30 July, 2021. We have also doubled the frequency of our payment rounds of ARG in order that funding can reach businesses as soon as possible.

This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for Gedling directly and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Ofsted’s routine school inspections were paused in March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The suspension of routine school inspections was lifted on 28 April 2021. Whilst some graded inspections took place during the 2021 summer term, Ofsted returned to its full programme of routine school inspections in September 2021.

In November 2021, Ofsted announced its aim to inspect every state funded school by the end of summer 2025, so that every school will have at least one inspection between May 2021 and July 2025. Ofsted is confident it can meet this target.

Next year, our National Funding Formula is delivering an average increase in per pupil funding of 4.2%, while ensuring that pupil-led funding for every school can rise at least in line with inflation. We are levelling up the lowest funding schools to receive minimum per pupil amounts of £3,750 at primary and £5,000 at secondary.

In March 2020, the Government doubled its investment in new flood defences to a record £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion.

Additionally, over £200 million per year is invested in maintenance, ensuring flood defences are kept in good working order.

In Gedling, final environmental work is underway on the Nottingham Trent Left Bank flood defence scheme, which has better protected 15,000 properties since 2012.

Defra is a co-signatory with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of the UK's Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) 5 year National Action Plan (2019-2024) and the UK's 20 year Vision to Contain and Control AMR by 2040. These plans both take a One Health, whole of government approach. Defra and DHSC work closely together at all levels, together with other government departments, to deliver this plan. The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals, while safeguarding animal welfare. Since 2014, the UK has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals.

Changes to the law on veterinary medicines represent one tool that can be used to help effect reductions in antibiotic prescribing in animals. The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 are currently under review, and the feedback from the recently closed public consultation will be analysed and considered. The publicly available consultation documents for the revision of the Veterinary Medicines Legislation set out the rationale for the government’s proposed approach to the use of antibiotics to prevent disease in animals (prophylaxis). In summary, the proposed new legal restrictions on antibiotic prophylaxis prohibit this type [MG1] of use in all but exceptional circumstances to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, protect animal welfare, and allow changes to prescribing practices to be made sustainably.

Officials from DHSC, Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) meet regularly to consider appropriate actions to address AMR across the human and animal health sectors. This has included discussion of the proposed changes to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations.

The Defra-funded survey of TB in badgers in the Edge area of England involved examination and sampling of carcasses of found-dead badgers for the presence of Mycobacterium bovis (the bacterium that causes TB). Professor Bennett’s work formed part of that project. Researchers are currently working on a peer-reviewed publication of their study in a scientific journal and a final report will be published by Defra on the http://randd.defra.gov.uk/ website in due course.

An interactive map showing the different bovine TB risk areas in Great Britain, including England’s Edge Area, can be found here: https://tbhub.co.uk/preventing-tb-breakdowns/bovine-tb-risk-map/.

On 7 September Natural England published licences for areas that will undertake badger control operations in England this autumn. This includes the reauthorisation of licences for 33 existing areas alongside licences for 11 additional areas. All applications received were carefully assessed by Natural England to ensure that each cull company has suitable arrangements and plans in place to carry out an operation that is safe, effective and humane.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-authorisation-for-badger-control-in-2020

This operational publication is a continuation of the long-term strategy to tackle the animal disease Bovine TB which was published in April 2014.

Prior surveillance for TB infection in badgers is not required to grant licences for the removal of badgers to control the spread of TB in the High Risk and Edge Areas of England.

My Rt Hon. Friend for South West Surrey, then Foreign Secretary, announced on 25^th June 2019 that we would not issue any further export licences for crowd control equipment to Hong Kong unless we were satisfied that concerns raised about human rights and fundamental freedoms have been thoroughly addressed. Further, I can confirm that there are no extant licences for crowd control equipment to Hong Kong.

HM Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) about export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK. These reports contain detailed information on export licences issued, refused or revoked, by destination, including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.

The most recent publication will be on 14^th July 2020, for licences issued up to the end of March 2020.

The Government recognises the importance of affordable public transport. While decisions on the level of fares are for commercial operators, the Government recognised in the National Bus Strategy the need to make bus services cheaper.

We are providing over £1 billion to Local Transport Authorities to help make bus services cheaper. We are also providing £60 million to cap single bus fares across England at £2 from 1 January to 31 March.

The £2 bus fare cap is not only an innovative way of helping people save money on their transport costs, but it helps to take 2 million car journeys off our roads. There are 4,600 routes across England in the scheme, including the 44 bus from Nottingham and the 53 and 39 buses.

I would be delighted to visit you on your constituency soon.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is prioritising applications for vocational driving licences, including those for HGV entitlement, and has moved additional staff into this area.

On 24 October 2021, there were 29,545 applications for vocational driving licences awaiting processing, this is a significant reduction from the more than 55,000 held in mid-September. The main reason for the backlog was delays due to Coronavirus and ongoing industrial action at the DVLA.

There is no backlog for provisional vocational licences and these are being processed within the normal turnaround time of five working days, reduced from 10 working days.

It is important to note that the large majority of those applying to renew a vocational licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed. The DVLA continues to prioritise applications to renew vocational licences and expects to be back to normal turnaround times by early November.

The recent fire and explosion on board the X-Press Pearl and the subsequent environmental impact of the incident highlights the importance of fire safety on container ships. There are two main international standards applicable in these cases, these are the International Code for Fire Safety Systems and the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code. These are implemented in the UK and compliance is monitored through the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) survey and inspection regime.

The MCA is part of an international working group assessing certain provisions of the IMDG Code and developing amendments which would enhance safety and fire prevention. These amendments will be made to the next edition of the IMDG Code.

The MCA is also reviewing existing legislation related to the carriage of dangerous goods by sea and fire safety systems on ships and will be consulting on these later this year. The proposed amendments would allow a swifter implementation of new provisions and standards so that the UK can quickly embed the latest provisions for dangerous goods and fire safety on containers ships into domestic regulations.

Where someone fails to pay on time or in full, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will contact the parent concerned and aim to re-establish compliance to avoid the build-up of arrears.

The CMS also has a range of strong enforcement powers, which can be used to to ensure children receive the financial support they deserve.

On 24 January 2023, we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy. This strategy will explore how we can tackle the key drivers of ill-health in England, reduce pressure on the National Health Service and reduce ill-health-related labour market inactivity.

The Strategy will focus on six major groups of conditions, including musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. MSK conditions affect people across the life course and cover a range of conditions, including inflammatory conditions such as axial spondyloarthritis.

We have now published our initial report ‘Major Conditions Strategy: Case for change and our strategic framework’. It sets out what we have learned so far, and shares what we plan to focus on next to develop the final strategy.

For MSK conditions, it sets out that we will look to: improve secondary prevention and the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, embedding a biopsychosocial and personalised approach and building upon the progress made through the NHS Long Term Plan; advocate the use of population health management methodologies to target the right kind of support based on individual circumstances and need to those who need it most; and aim to improve services where medical treatment is necessary.

Following publication of the strategic framework, we will continue to develop the strategy, informed by the Call for Evidence and ongoing engagement with stakeholders.

Integrated care systems are responsible for commissioning musculoskeletal services for their local populations.

Resistant bacteria and/or resistance genes can transfer between people and animals in both directions. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate conducts two surveillance schemes for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals, including regular monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species such as pigs and poultry. The results of these surveillance schemes are published annually in the ‘UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales and Surveillance Report’ which can be found at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1126450/FOR_PUBLICATION_-_UK-VARSS_2021_Main_Report__Final_v3_-accessible.pdf

Since 2014, the United Kingdom has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing AMR in bacteria from animals. The UK has a cross-Government contingency plan to mitigate the risk to public health of resistant bacteria found in animals, a copy of which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/resistant-bacteria-from-animals-of-possible-risk-contingency-plan/response-to-the-identification-from-an-animal-of-a-resistant-bacterial-isolate-of-risk-to-human-or-animal-health-contingency-plan

The plan announced by the Government and NHS England in October 2021 set out a package of measures to support general practice (GP) over the winter period and in the longer term. This included making £250 million available for a Winter Access Fund to increase capacity, a short term telephony solution for GP practices, expanding the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service and NHS England’s Access Improvement Programme and a £5 million fund to facilitate essential upgrades to practice security measures.

Examples of how the Winter Access Fund was used include the creation of additional hubs and helplines, expanding home visiting capacity, funding additional sessions from staff.

NHS England’s short term telephony solution is already helping practices to free up lines for incoming calls and from this month, January 2023, NHS England is accelerating work to support all GP practices to procure cloud-based telephony systems.

In the 12 months up to December 2022, there were on average 1.32 million GP appointments per working day, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Compared to the 12 months up to December 2021, which was 1.23 million, this is an increase of 7%.

We recognise that some people are still struggling to access general practice services in a timely way. We will soon be publishing our Recovery Plan for primary care.

In NHS Digital’s December 2022 Appointments in General Practice data publication, the number of general practice appointments recorded with the category “clinical triage” was 3.50 million, in November 2022. New data was published on the 26 January 2023 showing that 3.23 million appointments were recorded with the category “clinical triage” in December 2022. This will include first contact triage appointments, but data is not available for exclusively first contact triage appointments.

On 24 April, I met with Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui during my six-day visit to China and Hong Kong. I raised the deterioration of rights and freedom in the city precipitated by the 2020 National Security Law, and the recent passage of legislation under Article 23. I also raised the case of Jimmy Lai during the meeting. We will continue to raise areas of disagreement or concern in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.

The UK takes allegations of neutrality violations extremely seriously, including any incidents related to UN installations. The FCDO also monitors this closely through our annual assessment of UNRWA. When violations have been identified, UNRWA has taken action, including raising the issue with relevant parties.

We are aware that the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and Catherine Colonna have now provided their interim reports to the UN Secretary-General. Their independent investigations include assessment of the policies and systems UNRWA has in place to ensure neutrality.

We are aware of reports of Hamas using schools and other infrastructure for their operations. We are strongly condemn Hamas' ongoing use of civilian areas. By embedding themselves in the civilian population and civilian infrastructure, Hamas is putting Palestinian civilians at grave risk. We have been clear that for a lasting peace, removing Hamas' capacity to continue launching attacks against Israel and ensuring Hamas is no longer in charge of Gaza are both vital steps.

However, we also remain deeply concerned about the impact of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations on the civilian population in Gaza. The Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister have underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza. We want to see Israel take greater care to limit its operations to military targets and avoid harming civilians and destroying homes.

We maintain regular contact with the Government of Israel on a full range of issues relating to conflict in Gaza. The Foreign Secretary met his counterpart Foreign Minister Cohen on 23 November in Israel where they discussed aspects relating to the conflict. The safety of humanitarian personnel and healthcare workers in Gaza is critical to enable aid to reach those who need it most. We strongly condemn all forms of violence and incitement to violence directed towards humanitarian personnel and healthcare workers and we have been consistently clear that everything must be done to protect lives. The wounded and critically ill in Gaza should be able to access the urgent medical care they need.

The production and smuggling of captagon is a multi-billion dollar trade, essentially emanating from Assad-regime control within Syria. This trade is destabilising the region and provides illicit revenue to multiple malign actors, notably the Assad regime and its co-conspirators, including Hizballah and other Iranian-backed militias. The UK has drawn international attention to this (through an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) and increased our cooperation with regional states to combat this. We have made clear our concerns about the malign activity of Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both organisations we have sanctioned in their entirety.

This was an appalling tragedy and my thoughts remain with all those affected. We understand the strength of feeling on this and the need for action and that is why the Government has accepted the moral case for compensation and acknowledged that justice needs to be delivered for the victims.

The Government is working as quickly as possible to consider all the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations with the thoroughness merited by this terrible injustice, to ensure that we are best placed to respond to the Inquiry’s final report once it is published in May.

High inflation is the greatest immediate economic challenge that we must address. That is why the Government has made it a priority to halve inflation this year, on the path back to the 2% target. Our commitment to this target is iron-clad and applies at all times. The Bank of England has the Government’s full support as they take action to return inflation to target.

Inflation has already fallen by more than a third from the peak in October. We are on track to halve inflation this year: the majority of major forecasters agree in forecasting inflation to halve by the end of the year and subsequently return to target. However, this is not inevitable, and we must remain vigilant.

The UK recognises that the production and smuggling of captagon is a lucrative trade, which provides illicit revenue streams to multiple actors, notably the malign Syrian Asad regime and its co-conspirators, principally Hezbollah and other Iranian militias.

The UK is stepping up its efforts to work with likeminded partners and regional states to combat this and is drawing international attention to the issue (for example in an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) to ensure accountability.

HMG regularly assess the threat posed to the UK by the trafficking of illicit drugs, and currently assess that there is little/no direct UK facing threat. To date, no instances of Captagon being seized at a UK border have been recorded.

In December 2021, the Government launched its ten-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives. As part of this, £300 million has been allocated to fund activity to break drug supply chains from end-to-end. This includes restricting upstream flow, securing the UK border, and ensuring we remain agile in the face of changing threats.

Government recognises the pressures councils face from Covid-19. We are providing councils with an unprecedented package of support, allocating £4.3 billion for spending pressures, including £3.7 billion of unringfenced grants and the £600 million Infection Control Fund.

Overall, Government has committed nearly £28 billion to support councils, their communities and businesses.

We have a significant prison build programme, delivering safe, secure and modern prison places across the country. More than 3,100 places have already been delivered.

As part of this, we are building brand new prisons with a design focused on security and rehabilitation, supporting family ties and resettlement into the community. These include HMP Five Wells which opened earlier this year and was the first of its design to be built; HMP Fosse Way near Leicester which is due to open next year; and a new prison next to the existing HMP Full Sutton where construction has started, and the prison is due to open in 2025.