Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what his priorities are for the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment; and whether he has had discussions with his counterparts who will be attending the summit on fostering agricultural resilience across the global south.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Global food security is an FCDO priority as set out in the refresh of the Integrated Review (IR) published in March 2023. The UN Food Systems Summit Stocktaking Moment is an opportunity for the UK to co-ordinate internationally on transforming food systems to improve the health of the planet, people and economies. We will showcase the UK's Agriculture Breakthrough initiative, making climate-resilient, productive and sustainable agriculture the most widely adopted option for farmers everywhere by 2030, at the event. Immediately after the Stocktaking Moment, the UK and World Bank will host a Policy Dialogue event on agriculture policy reform. In Rome, on 27 and 28 June, I [Minister Mitchell] spoke to the Heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) about supporting the most vulnerable countries access climate finance to build the resilience of their food systems.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help prevent global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2027.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In March 2023, government published the Net Zero Growth Plan which sets out how the UK will contribute towards global efforts to keep within 1.5 degrees of warming. Our transition to a green and sustainable future will provide new opportunities to grow and level up the UK economy and support hundreds of thousands of green, high skilled jobs, whilst ensuring the environment is in a better state for the next generation. The UK cannot achieve our climate and nature objectives alone and that is why we have also published The Strategic Framework 2030 for international climate and nature action, as well as our International Climate Finance Strategy, which set out the actions the UK will take to support climate and nature action across the world.
I have regular contact with my Cabinet colleagues to discuss climate change, including sitting on The Domestic and Economic Affairs (Energy, Climate and Net Zero) Cabinet Committee. This and supporting governance structures ensure that there is ongoing focus on implementation of our domestic and international net zero ambitions.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to encourage investment in (a) chemical recycling and (b) other new green technology.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Chemical recycling covers a range of emerging technologies that could potentially offer a complementary recycling route for plastics where mechanical recycling is impractical or uneconomic. The Government has funded innovative demonstrator projects, including on chemical recycling, through UK Research and Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme. In April of this year HM Treasury announced plans to consult on whether and how chemically recycled content could be accounted for in the Plastics Packaging Tax using a mass balance chain of custody model.
The Government works with public finance institutions such as UK Infrastructure Bank, British Business Bank, UK Research and Innovation, Export Credit Agency and UK Export Finance, to support investment in green technologies.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department plans to take to encourage investment in (a) new green technology and (b) chemical recycling.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government works with public finance institutions such as UK Infrastructure Bank, British Business Bank, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Export Credit Agency and UK Export Finance, to support investment in green technologies.
Chemical recycling covers a range of emerging technologies that could potentially offer a complementary recycling route for plastics where mechanical recycling is impractical or uneconomic. The Government has funded innovative demonstrator projects, including on chemical recycling, through UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme. In April of this year HM Treasury announced plans to consult on whether and how chemically recycled content could be accounted for in the Plastics Packaging Tax using a mass balance chain of custody model.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to review the cost of tuition fees.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The student finance and funding system must provide value for money for all of society at a time of rising costs. It is important that a sustainable student finance system is in place, that is both fair to students and fair to taxpayers. The department is freezing maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.
Maximum tuition fees, and the subsidised loans available from the government to pay them, remain at £9,250 for the current 2022/23 academic year in respect of standard full-time courses.
We believe a continued fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer, and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
Higher Education providers are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees under this level. In deciding to keep charging full fees, providers will want to ensure that they can continue to deliver courses which are fit for purpose and that help students progress their qualifications.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that British International Investment supports decarbonisation overseas.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
As part of its Climate Change Strategy, British International Investment (BII) takes an active approach in supporting decarbonisation. BII invests in mitigation solutions across Africa and Asia including renewable energy, low carbon transport, climate smart agriculture, forestry, climate technologies and the deployment of green finance via financial intermediaries. BII supports its investees to reduce emissions and increase their resilience both through investment capital and through technical advisory support.
BII is committed to reaching net zero emissions in its investment portfolio by 2050 in a way that supports decarbonisation and sustainable development in the real economy. More details about BII's approach to decarbonisation can be found in BII's Taskforce on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) disclosure and Annual Reviews.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education,what assessment she has made of the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year which have impacted students. The department has not directly assessed the impact of increases in the cost of living on Higher Education (HE) students. The department closely monitors the evidence produced by other organisations and uses this to inform decision-making. For example, the Office for National Statistics’ work on the behaviours, plans, opinions and well-being of students related to the cost of living from the Student Cost of Living Insights Study (SCoLIS) and the Office for Students’ brief, ‘Studying during rises in the cost of living’.
Having considered reports such as these, on 11 January 2023, the department announced a one-off funding boost of £15 million to this year's student premium. There is now £276 million of student premium funding available this academic year to support disadvantaged students who need additional help. This extra funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.
Decisions on student support for HE courses are taken on an annual basis and changes for the 2023/24 academic year were made through regulations laid in January 2023. The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs on an annual basis, with a 2.3% increase for the 2022/23 academic year and a further 2.8% increase for 2023/24.
Furthermore, students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2022/23 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the tax year 2022/23 has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, have been able to apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
Decisions on student finance have had to be taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of HE are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing (a) Official Development Assistance to Malawi, (b) funding for programmes to build climate change resilience and (c) Official Development Assistance to 0.7 per cent of GDP.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The FCDO's Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations are set out in my [Andrew Mitchell] Written Ministerial Statement of 30 March. We plan to publish full breakdowns of the allocations, including by country, in the FCDO Annual Report and Accounts 2022 to 2023. Allocations are regularly reviewed to respond to changing global needs to ensure ODA is being used most effectively.
We remain committed to doubling our International Climate Finance to £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26 and to balancing our funding between mitigation and adaptation. This will include programmes that seek to build the resilience of those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The Government is committed to returning to spending to 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) on ODA as soon as the fiscal situation allows. We will return to spending 0.7 per cent of GNI on ODA when, on a sustainable basis, the government is no longer borrowing for day-to-day spending and when underlying debt is falling.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of growth of the hospitality sector in the period since the end of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are working closely with the Hospitality Sector Council, a collaboration between government and the hospitality sector, to deliver the 2021 Hospitality Strategy, with the aim of building the sector’s long-term resilience. A Delivery Report showing progress made was published in March.
The Council’s business-led working groups are considering ways to improve business resilience following the pandemic, including innovation and sustainable practices, energy efficiency, jobs and skills, local partnerships and improving access to finance.
ONS inflation-adjusted data shows that the aggregate output of the hospitality sector in March 2023 was 0.4% above March 2022 levels, when most COVID-19 related restrictions were lifted. Output in the 12-months to March 2023 was 7.1% above 2019 levels.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to protect access to (a) green spaces and (b) Greenways in (i) Huddersfield constituency and (ii) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.
The Government is delivering a number of policies to protect access to green spaces including in urban areas. Examples of these include:
Local highway authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of existing public rights of way and are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan to plan improvements to the rights of way network in their area. This must include an assessment of the local rights of way including the condition of the network.
In the West Yorkshire area specifically, as part of its work to deliver England’s Nature Recovery Network, Natural England is working with a range of partners in the iconic upland, rural and urban landscapes in West Yorkshire to create a shared vision for nature recovery that will underline the cultural and environmental links between the industrial heartland of West Yorkshire and the moors that help to define them.
In the South Pennine Moors Natural England is working with public and private finance, stakeholders and landowners with the aim of creating more habitat mosaics and dynamic sites, helping to build resilience for species that are likely to be impacted by climate change and improve natural flood management, ensuring that environmental and economic sustainability go hand in hand.
Utilising Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Net Gain opportunities, Natural England is also aiming to build in green corridors and steppingstones leading into Bradford. Local communities are being engaged in the project, providing opportunities to connect the people of Bradford and West Yorkshire with their surrounding wild places, and encouraging greater sustainable access.