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Written Question
Media Literacy Task Force
Friday 1st March 2024

Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if her Department will publish the recent work of the Media Literacy Taskforce.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Media Literacy Taskforce, a body of 17 media literacy experts drawn from the tech industry, civil society, the press sector and academia, was established in March 2022. DSIT consults the Taskforce on how to tackle the key challenges facing the media literacy landscape, in particular that of how to improve provision for citizens who are disengaged or lack access to support.

For example, the Taskforce played a key role in launching the Media Literacy Taskforce Fund, a grant scheme through which we awarded over £800,000 to four innovative media literacy projects delivered over the financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24. These projects seek to build the online safety and critical thinking skills of users from all age groups, empowering them to respond effectively to the threats posed by mis- and disinformation, along with other online harms. Taskforce members advised the government on which projects should be awarded funding, and then helped grant recipients to maximise the impact of their projects.

The Taskforce does not produce its own reports or other written materials for publication. However, Government has committed to publishing annual Action Plans until the end of Financial Year 2024/2025, setting out initiatives to meet the Online Media Literacy Strategy’s ambition. All projects funded in relation to the Strategy are evaluated robustly and findings will be published on gov.uk, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of future media literacy initiatives and informing government policy moving forward.


Written Question
Cereals: Production
Thursday 29th February 2024

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support UK farmers to increase the production of wheat, barley, oats, and other cereals.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Our fantastic British farmers are world-leaders and carefully plan their planting to suit the weather, their soil type, and their long-term agronomic strategy.

It is not Government policy to determine which crops farmers should prioritise to include in their crop rotation, but we will continue to support farmers, so they can make the right decisions for them and the productivity of their land.

At the NFU conference, the Government announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the farming sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, the Water Management grant, the adding Value grant. Lastly the Farming Equipment and Technology fund can fund productivity items from a specified list of equipment, including eligible drills, fertiliser applicators, and grain dryers, which is due to open in the coming weeks.

Defra’s Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) on Wheat, Oilseed Rape and Pulses crops aim to improve the main UK crops by identifying genetic traits to improve their productivity, sustainability and resilience. Across the GINs we have already successfully identified genetic traits that have improved resilience to climate change and common pests and diseases, and we are working with breeders to incorporate these traits into elite UK crop varieties.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Software
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.

Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Most of the systems within the Department for Transport and its agencies operate on the basis of updates being provided within the licence costs. As such, there is no specific budget or spend for updates.

The Department for Transport employs the Legacy IT Assessment Risk Framework, a standardised methodology designed by the Central Digital and Data Office, to assess the risks associated with legacy digital technology assets across His Majesty's Government. The highest category of risk within the framework is known as ‘red-rated’. This approach enables the Department for Transport to generate a prioritised overview of our legacy technology, clearly highlighting assets that necessitate remediation plans and the allocation of suitable funding for implementation.

At present, DfT(c) and its executive agencies have no red-rated systems and so we are providing a nil return.


Written Question
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: Software
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding her Department and the predecessor Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The accounting systems track IT spend, but do not capture the level of detail to readily identify spend on Infrastructure or legacy systems. Determination of legacy IT will require more work, the Legacy Risk Assessment will be prepared and submitted to Cabinet by the end of the current Financial year. Currently, within our centrally managed Digital function, there is no legacy IT of any material size or value so spend in the last 3 years for legacy software patching would be zero.


Written Question
Dementia: Finance
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government is on target to double dementia funding by 2024/25.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is dedicated to supporting research into dementia, and has committed to doubling the funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by the end of 2024/25. The Government’s responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.

In 2022/23, the most recent year we have data for, we estimate that total Government spend on dementia research was £96.9 million. Spend is dependent on the number and quality of applications received, as well as the volume of research that requires infrastructure support, therefore research spend can only be calculated retrospectively after the end of the financial year.

The Government is making significant progress towards meeting the commitment and has instigated momentous new programmes of work, for instance investing almost £50 million over five years into the NIHR’s Dementia Translational Research Collaboration Trial Network, which will expand the United Kingdom’s early phase clinical trial capabilities in dementia, speeding up the development of new treatments. A new Clinical Trials Delivery Accelerator focused on dementia was also announced in the Autumn Statement 2023, with up to £20 million of funding to help innovation reach National Health Service patients even faster. Many new initiatives and research projects will begin to spend in 2024/25.


Written Question
Job Creation and Skilled Workers: Bury South
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what fiscal steps she is taking to support (a) training programmes, (b) apprenticeships and (c) other efforts to promote (i) job creation and (ii) skills development in Bury South constituency.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government is committed to creating a world leading skills system which is employer-focused, high quality and fit for the future. The government’s reforms are strengthening higher education (HE) and further education (FE) to help more people get good jobs and upskill and retrain throughout their lives, as well as to improve national productivity and economic growth. The government’s reforms are backed with an additional investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen HE and FE.

This additional funding will help providers such as those in Bury to deliver high quality education and training.

Bury College serves the Bury South constituency and received £25.3 million to deliver learning and skills training programmes in 2022/23 for 16 to18 year olds and apprentices for local employers. Bury College has also received capital investment of over £12 million since 2019.

Bury College offers a wide range of post-16 education and training from pre-entry level qualifications, A levels, T Levels, vocational courses at Levels 1 to 3, and apprenticeships in health and public services, business administration, engineering, retail and commercial enterprise, and education and training. It also has a University Centre and works in partnership with several local universities to deliver a range of HE courses at Higher National Diploma, Foundation Degree and Degree level to the local community. Bury College also receives funding for adult education programmes via Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Bury College is a partner of the Greater Manchester Institute of Technology, led by The University of Salford, and has received £1.353 million of funding for refurbishments and specialist equipment in Heath Innovation, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Enterprise and Sports provision. Bury College will account for 25% of all learners at the Institute of Technology. This equates to approximately 200 learners in 2023/24.

The area is also served by Holy Cross College, a Catholic sixth form college, which received £12.89 million to deliver learning programmes for 16 to18 year olds in 2022/23. It delivers a largely academic Level 3 programme and a small Level 2 cohort. Holy Cross College has a University Centre delivering HE both through a direct contract with Office for Students and in partnership with Liverpool Hope University.

The department is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 to support employers of all sizes and in all areas of the country, including Bury South, to grow their businesses with the skilled apprentices they need. Since 2010, there have been 11,380 apprenticeship starts in Bury South.

The department has introduced the Free Courses for Jobs scheme which enables eligible adults to gain a qualification for free. Residents in Bury can access provision in a range of sector subject areas delivered through colleges and training providers in the area.

In addition, the department has also introduced Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast track to an interview with an employer. In each of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years, the department has allocated £7.5 million to Greater Manchester Combined Authority to deliver Skills Bootcamps in the Greater Manchester area, including in Bury South via grant funding.

T Levels will equip more young people with the skills, knowledge and experience to access skilled employment or further study. From September 2023, 18 T Levels will be available and will be delivered through nearly 300 providers across all regions of the country. Bury college is delivering T Levels in business administration, legal, financial, and accounting, education and childcare, and health and engineering in 2023/24. The college intends to introduce further T Levels in catering and hospitality, construction and the built environment, creative and digital, and hair and beauty in 2024/25.


Written Question
Electronic Funds Transfer: Fraud
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of authorised push payment scam cases that have originated online in the last five years.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

UK Finance analysis of nearly seven thousand authorised push payment (APP) scam cases shows that 70 per cent of scams originated on an online platform - highlighting the internet's significant role in enabling fraud. This includes data from UK Finance members only, for the whole of the UK. More details on this can be found here: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/press/press-releases/over-two-thirds-of-all-app-scams-start-online-new-uk-finance-analysis

To protect victims against APP scams, ten of the UK’s largest banks are currently signed up to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code. In 2022, £248m of losses to APP scams were reimbursed to victims under the commitments of this code.

Recognising that more needed to be done to protect people from this devastating crime, through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the government legislated to require the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to introduce mandatory reimbursement for APP scams within the Faster Payment System, where 98% of APP fraud takes place. This will come into force in October 2024.

The retail banking sector’s primary fraud concern was the rise of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud (where someone is tricked into sending money to a criminal). The sector therefore committed to the following key deliverables in the charter:

o Better utilise technology to share data to detect potential frauds.

o Capture and analyse data reported to them from victims of APP fraud.

o Provide customers with greater control over account features

The Online Safety Act (OSA) will mean that companies are held to account by an independent regulator if they fail to remove illegal content on their platforms.

Alongside the OSA, the Government has created the Online Fraud Charter: a voluntary agreement bringing together the largest companies in the tech sector, who have committed to a series of actions aimed at reducing fraud on their platforms and services. The Charter was signed on 30th November and will deliver a much quicker and more targeted response than regulation.

The OSA is an ambitious and forward-looking piece of legislation that will tackle online harms including fraud and fraudulent advertising.


Written Question
Russia: Overseas Trade
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the involvement of UK-based (a) insurers, (b) insurance markets and (c) shipping companies in the provision of services for the (i) export of goods to and (ii) import of goods from Russia.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK has introduced a comprehensive set of import and export restrictions on Russia. This has led to a 94 per cent fall in Russian imports into the UK and a 74 per cent fall in UK exports to Russia. Over £20 billion of UK-Russia bilateral trade (from 2021 figures) is now under full or partial sanction.

As well as banning the import and export of goods and technology, UK nationals and companies are prohibited from providing ancillary services which enable their trade, including financial services and funds which includes insurance, brokering and technical assistance.

The UK, alongside the G7 and Australia, has also banned the import of Russian oil and oil products. This substantially reduces the size of the global market for Russian oil and oil product exports.

Importantly, we have also created the Oil Price Cap which operates globally by prohibiting UK and G7+ firms from providing services such as shipping, insurance, and finance to facilitate the maritime transport of Russian oil and oil products to third countries, unless the oil was purchased from Russia at or below the cap. By limiting the price of Russian oil and oil products exported to third countries rather than restricting maritime services altogether, we restrict the revenues flowing to the Russian state and undermine Putin's ability to fund his illegal war in Ukraine, while still enabling oil to flow in a tight market and ensuring that third countries can continue to secure affordable oil.


Written Question
Ministry of Justice: Software
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Please see the figures for budget and spending by the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS.

The Ministry of Justice does not record its budgets and expenditure to a level of granularity that permits it to identify spend that is specifically for software updates to legacy computer systems.

The Ministry of Justice maintains a fund specifically for the reduction and eradication of technical debt – this fund focusses on improving and replacing legacy infrastructure and software applications; migrating business-critical applications from legacy hosting arrangements to the cloud, which is much more modern and secure; and bringing its digital and technology estate up to required standards.

The table below sets out the Ministry of Justice budget and expenditure of the Technical Debt fund for the past three full financial years – 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Budget

Expenditure

FY 20/21

£15.08m

£19.17m

FY 21/22

£32.78m

£26.56m

FY 22/23

£67.64m

£60.32m

Total:

£115.5m

£106.05m


Written Question
Universities: Finance
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that funding allocated to universities for teaching for 2024-25 sufficiently enables institutions to support their students.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) is funding which is supplied by the government on an annual basis to support teaching and students in higher education (HE). This funding also includes subjects that are expensive to deliver, such as science and engineering, students who are at risk of discontinuing their studies, and world-leading specialist providers.

​The department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This is to support high-quality teaching and facilities including funding for science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade.

In the 2023/24 financial year, over half of the total £1,454 million SPG recurrent funding budget is being directed towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy (for example, medicine and dentistry), science, engineering, and technology subjects, and specific labour market needs.

There is also £276 million of Student Premium and mental health funding available this academic year, 2023/24, to support students who need additional help, including disadvantaged students. This funding complements the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. It will continue to liaise with the Office for Students on the impacts of cost-of-living pressures.

Over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25, the department is also providing £450 million in capital funding to invest in teaching and learning facilities which meet the government’s strategic priorities.

The next SPG allocations will be announced ahead of the 2024/25 academic year.