Tom Rutland

We are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds to create a modern Civil Service that delivers high quality public services.

Recruiting and retaining talented individuals is vital to support the delivery of the Plan for Change. As my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster outlined in his Reform speech, there is a clear need to overhaul the recruitment processes to reduce bureaucracy and support external candidates.

Actions to address this include embedding a test-and-learn approach to recruitment, reviewing the current selection processes to ensure they are appropriate and support all candidates and working with departments to utilise secondments to recruit and retain key skills.

The previous government consulted on various options to reform the electricity market and the government has committed to making a decision by the middle of 2025. We are developing further analysis to determine the impact of zonal or reformed national pricing on different consumers, geographical locations and businesses, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade.

The fundamental quantitative analysis will include scenario modelling of the electricity system to understand the wide-reaching impacts of market reforms. This will produce estimates of changes in the total electricity system cost and distributional consequences for consumer bills. This analysis will inform the final decision on market reform in mid-2025.

The previous government consulted on various options to reform the electricity market and the government has committed to making a decision by the middle of 2025. We are developing further analysis to determine the impact of zonal or reformed national pricing on different consumers, geographical locations and businesses, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade.

The fundamental quantitative analysis will include scenario modelling of the electricity system to understand the wide-reaching impacts of market reforms. This will produce estimates of changes in the total electricity system cost and distributional consequences for consumer bills. This analysis will inform the final decision on market reform in mid-2025.

The previous government consulted on various options to reform the electricity market and the government has committed to making a decision by the middle of 2025. We are developing further analysis to determine the impact of zonal or reformed national pricing on different consumers, geographical locations and businesses, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade.

The fundamental quantitative analysis will include scenario modelling of the electricity system to understand the wide-reaching impacts of market reforms. This will produce estimates of changes in the total electricity system cost and distributional consequences for consumer bills. This analysis will inform the final decision on market reform in mid-2025.

The previous government consulted on various options to reform the electricity market and the government has committed to making a decision by the middle of 2025. We are developing further analysis to determine the impact of zonal or reformed national pricing on different consumers, geographical locations and businesses, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade.

The fundamental quantitative analysis will include scenario modelling of the electricity system to understand the wide-reaching impacts of market reforms. This will produce estimates of changes in the total electricity system cost and distributional consequences for consumer bills. This analysis will inform the final decision on market reform in mid-2025.

The previous government consulted on various options to reform the electricity market and the government has committed to making a decision by the middle of 2025. We are developing further analysis to determine the impact of zonal or reformed national pricing on different consumers, geographical locations and businesses, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade.

The fundamental quantitative analysis will include scenario modelling of the electricity system to understand the wide-reaching impacts of market reforms. This will produce estimates of changes in the total electricity system cost and distributional consequences for consumer bills. This analysis will inform the final decision on market reform in mid-2025.

The department is assessing the capacity of the education system as part of our work to deliver the Opportunity Mission. This is why we are starting by recruiting 6,500 additional teachers to address workforce shortages, creating 3,000 new or expanded school-based nurseries to increase the availability of high quality affordable childcare places and launching Skills England which will play a pivotal role in making sure our skills system meets the needs of young people and employers. We are also investing more in children’s services to set them on a sustainable trajectory and have announced new funding for kinship care and fostering to keep children safe and provide family security for our most vulnerable children.

We remain committed to investing £5 billion of funding in the farming budget this year and next (£2.6 billion for 24/25 and the £2.4 billion for 25/26, as previously announced).

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in Environmental Land Management schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.

Whilst we aim to give notice where possible, to ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice of the closure of SFI, to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand.

We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.

It is only right that we recognise the sacrifices made many members of the emergency services and we are always willing to consider proposes for new medals towards that end.

However, any official award is a gift from the Government, on behalf of His Majesty The King, and the creation of a new award requires cross Government consensus and approval from the Committee on The Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (“HD Committee”), before advice is put to HM The King to make any subsequent decision.

The Government funds the independent Fire Standards Board (FSB) to develop and maintain a comprehensive set of professional standards for fire and rescue services in England. The FSB has published 19 national standards for fire and rescue services: these cover a range of topics relating to operational management, leadership and ethics.

The Government has accepted, in principle, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s recommendation to establish a national college of fire and rescue. The Inquiry report suggested a range of potential functions for a college to fulfil, including the development of policies and procedures to ensure both the effectiveness of fire and rescue services and the safety of firefighters and the public. The Government response to the Inquiry’s report notes that a necessary first step in the process will be to consult on the functions a college should have and how it could best be structured and delivered. We expect to launch this consultation later in the year.

Any future college function relating to national standards would build on the work already undertaken by the FSB.