Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to support young people in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes into employment, education or training.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is investing in young people’s futures. At the Budget, we announced more than £1.5 billion of investment over the next three years, funding £820 million for the Youth Guarantee to support young people to earn or learn, and an additional £725 million for the Growth and Skills Levy.
Through the expanded Youth Guarantee, young people aged 16-24 across Great Britain are set to benefit from further support into employment and learning, including:
The Growth and Skills Levy’s £725 million investment will deliver more apprenticeships for young people and help match skills training with local job opportunities. Young people will benefit from:
50,000 young people across the country will be better equipped for jobs of the future through a major investment to create more apprenticeships and training courses.
As this programme is across Great Britian, my hon. Friend will be assured that it will have an effect on his constituency.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the availability and duration of backup power supplies for radio broadcast transmission sites during prolonged power outages.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC has specific requirements under its Framework Agreement in relation to broadcast security and resilience, and works closely with DCMS in ensuring its networks are able to support emergency communications. DCMS has full oversight of these plans and works with Cabinet Office and other lead Government Departments to ensure BBC’s capabilities are integrated into wider resilience planning.
Detailed planning and preparations for a range of risks including power outages is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC has informed the Government that its plan for maintaining emergency communications to the public in an extended national power outage includes a detailed assessment of back up power generation capacity and capabilities at key BBC sites and transmitter sites operated by third-party providers. The plan for this risk is designed to maintain broadcasts of key BBC radio channels nationally to both urban and rural communities. The BBC regularly tests its plan and procedures including live tests of its broadcast systems.
The loss of broadcast coverage to a specific geographic area is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC collects and holds detailed information about the disruption of its radio services from individual transmitters.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the sustainability of prosthetics and orthotics apprenticeship provision in England; and what steps she is taking to support its continuation.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to support the availability of a diverse range of training routes into health and care careers. We have worked with the health and care sector to design the Level 6 prosthetics and orthotics and Level 6 therapeutic radiography standards. These are approved for delivery and information about these standards, including funding bands, is published here and here.
Apprenticeship providers are independent bodies responsible for making their own decisions about which courses they deliver.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of therapeutic radiography apprenticeship provision; and what steps she is taking to support the long-term viability of those courses.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to support the availability of a diverse range of training routes into health and care careers. We have worked with the health and care sector to design the Level 6 prosthetics and orthotics and Level 6 therapeutic radiography standards. These are approved for delivery and information about these standards, including funding bands, is published here and here.
Apprenticeship providers are independent bodies responsible for making their own decisions about which courses they deliver.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) effectiveness of the role of BBC Radio 4 in national emergency communications and (b) the resilience of its transmission network to power loss.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC has specific requirements under its Framework Agreement in relation to broadcast security and resilience, and works closely with DCMS in ensuring its networks are able to support emergency communications. DCMS has full oversight of these plans and works with Cabinet Office and other lead Government Departments to ensure BBC’s capabilities are integrated into wider resilience planning.
Detailed planning and preparations for a range of risks including power outages is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC has informed the Government that its plan for maintaining emergency communications to the public in an extended national power outage includes a detailed assessment of back up power generation capacity and capabilities at key BBC sites and transmitter sites operated by third-party providers. The plan for this risk is designed to maintain broadcasts of key BBC radio channels nationally to both urban and rural communities. The BBC regularly tests its plan and procedures including live tests of its broadcast systems.
The loss of broadcast coverage to a specific geographic area is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC collects and holds detailed information about the disruption of its radio services from individual transmitters.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what contingency arrangements exist if local radio transmission infrastructure becomes unavailable during a national emergency.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC has specific requirements under its Framework Agreement in relation to broadcast security and resilience, and works closely with DCMS in ensuring its networks are able to support emergency communications. DCMS has full oversight of these plans and works with Cabinet Office and other lead Government Departments to ensure BBC’s capabilities are integrated into wider resilience planning.
Detailed planning and preparations for a range of risks including power outages is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC has informed the Government that its plan for maintaining emergency communications to the public in an extended national power outage includes a detailed assessment of back up power generation capacity and capabilities at key BBC sites and transmitter sites operated by third-party providers. The plan for this risk is designed to maintain broadcasts of key BBC radio channels nationally to both urban and rural communities. The BBC regularly tests its plan and procedures including live tests of its broadcast systems.
The loss of broadcast coverage to a specific geographic area is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC collects and holds detailed information about the disruption of its radio services from individual transmitters.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that online platforms offer children diversity of content.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting high-quality, culturally relevant, UK-made children’s content, and the considerable benefits it brings. The popularity of online services, including video-sharing platforms, means there is now more choice than ever for young audiences. The Government is engaging with creators, producers, broadcasters, and video-sharing platforms to see how they can work more closely together to surface UK-made, high-quality content. We want to ensure children’s programming is easily accessible, and continues to inform, educate, and entertain young people into the future.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support children’s educational content creators on online platforms.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting high-quality, culturally relevant, UK-made children’s content, and the considerable benefits it brings. The popularity of online services, including video-sharing platforms, means there is now more choice than ever for young audiences. The Government is engaging with creators, producers, broadcasters, and video-sharing platforms to see how they can work more closely together to surface UK-made, high-quality content. We want to ensure children’s programming is easily accessible, and continues to inform, educate, and entertain young people into the future.
Asked by: Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that all future use of hydrogen in the UK is of green hydrogen.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government encourages a range of hydrogen production technologies, including CCUS-enabled ‘blue’ and electrolytic ‘green’ hydrogen technologies, provided they can meet the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard, they fit within our broader strategic approach to hydrogen, and that we understand the system and environmental impacts.
‘Blue’ hydrogen is an important tool for scaling up the hydrogen economy while electrolytic hydrogen costs fall and the power system decarbonises. It is well-suited to provide continuous predictable 'baseload' supply of hydrogen to industrial clusters as both hydrogen storage and electrolytic production increase.
‘Green’ hydrogen is likely to be a core long-term hydrogen production technology as it is expected to be able to operate flexibly, responding to the availability of electricity inputs, and when paired with renewable electricity, can deliver zero carbon hydrogen.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish their response to the findings of the Competition and Markets Authority's report into the subsidy regime for Drax.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We welcome the report from the Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) regarding government support for large-scale biomass generation. This report makes clear that DESNZ has given detailed consideration of how the Low Carbon Dispatchable CfD is in line with the principles within the Subsidy Control Act and relevant environmental regulations.
We have carefully considered the recommendations in the report and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has determined that the subsidy is compliant with the requirements under the Subsidy Control Act. The publication of a response to the SAU report is not required.