Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he is taking steps to prepare for potential legal challenges to the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 after the commencement of part 3 of that Act.

Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Challenges against the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 have been heard in the High Court in Northern Ireland. The Government welcomes the Court’s findings that the ICRIR is operationally independent from Government and has the necessary powers to carry out reviews in accordance with the state’s obligations with Articles 2 and 3 of the ECHR.

However, following consideration of all aspects of the judgment, the UK Government has lodged an application for an appeal with the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.

We remain committed to implementing the Legacy Act and delivering the ICRIR to provide better outcomes for victims and survivors of the Troubles by giving them more information about what happened to their loved ones.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Northern Ireland will receive funding through the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia mission; and what her planned timetable for delivery of the mission is.

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

Spending and delivery plans for the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission are currently in development. The Dementia Mission Co-Chairs Hilary Evans and Professor Nadeem Sarwar have, and continue to, engage extensively across the sector to understand and develop the missions’ key aims, ensuring it addresses the challenges the sector faces and that patient voices are heard. This has informed the missions focus on three key pillars: biomarkers and experimental medicine; clinical trials infrastructure and innovation; and end-to-end implementation.

In March 2024, the Government hosted a roundtable and reception where charities, academics, investors, business leaders, and people with lived experience came together to further accelerate efforts to tackle this devastating illness, and to thank all those involved in supporting dementia research, including charities across the United Kingdom. This event made a series announcements, including: awarding a share of the £6 million of funding to 10 projects through Innovate UK’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) dementia biomarker tools competition; the appointment of Scott Mitchell as the People’s Champion for the Dementia Mission; the appointment of Dr Ruth McKernan CBE as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Neurodegeneration Initiative, which will be a public-private partnership delivering the mission's objectives around biomarkers, boosting the number and speed of clinical trials in dementia and neurodegeneration, and working with regulatory bodies around the implementation of new treatments; and the appointment of the Medicines Discovery Catapult as the delivery partner for the establishment of the Neurodegeneration Initiative. The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission continues to develop its deliverables, and will announce further plans for their delivery in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many major cyber crime incidents have been reported since the National Cyber Strategy was introduced.

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

Since the announcement of the National Cyber Strategy on 15 December 2021, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has received 71 reports associated with cyber crime activity, considered to be significant.

The NCSC categorise incidents based on numerous contemporaneous factors, including but not limited to, the technical impact of the incident, the nature of the affected organisation, and contextual considerations at the time of the incident report being received.

NCSC and law enforcement take action against cyber criminals by taking down their malicious URLs used to defraud people.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to hold discussions with representatives of the main banks on the potential merits of agreeing a new banking framework with the Post Office for the period after 2025.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is supportive of industry initiatives that assist access to in-person banking. These include the Post Office Banking Framework, which allows personal and business customers to carry out everyday banking services at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK.

Negotiations between the banking industry and the Post Office regarding any future Banking Framework are commercial discussions and the Government has no role.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will hold discussions with Ofcom on changes in the number of mobile phone social tariff subscribers since July 2023.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Government continues to work closely with Ofcom on the affordability of telecoms services, including on social tariffs.

Ofcom’s December 2023 Pricing Trends report showed that 380,000 UK households now take up a social tariff, an almost 160% increase from September 2022.

The report also notes that the majority of social tariff take-up is in the fixed broadband market, with only 3% of social tariff take-up in mobile. Ofcom noted that the lower take up of mobile social tariffs is most likely due to the fact that these products are new to the market, as well as the widespread availability of commercial ‘sim-only’ deals which can be purchased for as little as £6 per month.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the lessons learned for her Department of the implementation of the skills electrification project element of the emerging skills projects.

Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)

The Skills Electrification Project was part of the Emerging Skills Projects, which were pilot projects funded by the department to identify future skills needs and develop high-quality modular courses to help address future skills gaps in key sectors. The Skills Electrification Project, as well as the other emerging skills projects, were developed and run by the Advanced Manufacturing Catapult and completed in March 2022.

The department recognises the changing nature of skills needs, the importance of emerging skills such as electrification and assesses skills needs for such sectors. For example, the National Grid estimates the electricity network workforce will grow by 400,000 roles by 2050. This includes 260,000 brand new roles, and 140,000 to replace natural attrition such as retirement. This is on top of the existing shortage of crucial workers in the sector.

To help meet those needs there are three apprenticeship standards that directly serve the electricity networks sector: community energy specialist (Level 4), building energy management systems (Level 4) and power networks craftsperson (Level 3).

Free Courses for Jobs also offers a range of qualifications in electrical disciplines, as well as digital engineering and electrotechnical installation.

T Levels in engineering and construction teach young people some of the skills that are crucial to the growth of the UK’s energy networks. Relevant T Levels in engineering, manufacturing, and construction can lead to crucial occupations such as civil engineering technician, electrical engineering technician and technical surveyor.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels were used to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers on 31 December (a) 2023 and (b) expected to be used by 2024.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office has been clear that the use of hotels is a temporary and necessary measure to ensure we meet our statutory obligation to accommodate destitute asylum seekers.

We have made rapid progress since autumn 2023, having handed back over 100 hotels to their local communities. Over 20,000 fewer asylum seekers are accommodated in hotels now than in September 2023. In total, we will have closed 150 hotels by the beginning of May 2024.

Our statutory accommodation needs are kept under continuous review, and we will write to MPs and local authorities as further decisions on hotels are made.

For the safety and security of individual premises, the Home Office does not publish statistics showing the number or location of hotels used to house asylum seekers. However, provisional internal management information indicates a total of 342 hotels were accommodating asylum seekers as of 31 December 2023.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how much funding the UK plans to provide to the Productive Safety Net Programme in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

We plan to make an estimated contribution of £23 million to the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) this financial year.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on the UK Green Taxonomy financial proposals.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government remains committed to delivering a UK Green Taxonomy to support an increase in financing for activities supporting the transition to net zero and delivering on UK environmental objectives.

The Government expects to publish the consultation on the UK Green Taxonomy shortly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a knife amnesty.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Many police forces provide amnesty bins all year round to provide the public with a facility to safely dispose of unwanted knives and other offensive weapons. It is for Chief Constables, directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Mayors with PCC functions to make operational decisions including how to allocate resources based on their local knowledge and experience.

The Government continues to encourage police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The operation includes targeted stop and searches, weapon sweeps of hotspot areas, surrender of knives, including through amnesty bins, test purchases of knives from retailers, and educational events. The latest phase of the operation took place between 13 to 19 November 2023 and saw 12,149 knives surrendered or recovered.

On 25 January we laid the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 in Parliament. Subject to parliamentary approval, this will prohibit the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes in England and Wales from 24 September 2024. From 26 August 2024 to 23 September 2024 we will be running a surrender and compensation scheme so that those who own zombie-style knives and machetes which will be banned, can surrender them and receive compensation.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will have discussions with the Mayor of London on the (a) reasons for the duration of time during which an escalator at Paddington Station has been out of service and (b) impact of that on elderly and disabled visitors to that station.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Facilities at Paddington London Underground station are the responsibility of Transport for London (TfL). DfT Ministers and officials meet regularly with TfL on a range of issues.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects to receive the results of the evaluation of Future Transport Zones commissioned by his Department from the National Centre for Social Research.

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

The Department manages a programme-level evaluation of the Future Transport Zones on how the four Zones designed, procured and implemented their programmes, currently running from 2021-25. The externally commissioned evaluation of Future Transport Zones is still ongoing.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take in the 2024-25 financial year to help tackle crypto currency fraud.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously, and published a comprehensive Fraud Strategy in May last year. Through this the Government will work: with industry to remove the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit; with intelligence agencies to shut down fraudulent infrastructure; with law enforcement to identify and bring the most harmful offenders to justice; and with all partners to ensure that the public have the advice and support they need

Further, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) commenced enforcement of the cryptoassets financial promotion regime in October last year, requiring such promotions to be fair, clear and not misleading. This is aimed at improving consumers’ understanding of the risks and benefits associated with cryptoasset purchases and ensuring that cryptoasset promotions are held to the same standards as similar risk financial services products. In the next phase of its work, the Government is creating a comprehensive financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets in the UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will hold discussions with his Irish counterpart on the accuracy of figures for asylum-seekers who moved between the two countries in 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

There is a high level of cooperation on migration and border security between the UK and Irish Government. In particular, the Home Office regularly discuss asylum trends and work to respond to these trends with our counterparts in the Department of Justice.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of householders declined the installation of a smart meter in 2023.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Department does not hold information on households declining a smart meter installation.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an estimate of the number of people paying basic rate income tax in the financial years (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

This data is published in Table 2.1 Number of individual Income Tax payers in the Income Tax statistics and distributions publication.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that most zero-emission buses for use in the UK are built in the UK.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

UK bus manufacturing is an area of strength for the UK, with 80% of buses operating in urban areas produced in the UK.

As part of the application process for the ZEBRA programmes, bidders were asked to highlight any community benefits from their proposals. This included local economic development in the area, the creation and/or retention of jobs and apprenticeships related to the maintenance of zero emission vehicles, including batteries and fuel cells, and supporting infrastructure.

The UK Government has no role in the procurement of buses, this is the responsibility of the LTA and the bus operator. During the procurement process for ZEBs, LTAs and bus operators tend to consider criteria such as value for money and route suitability, rather than geographical origins. Their priority is to procure the right vehicle, for the right location, based on quality and value for money.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will hold discussions with the Public Sector Fraud Authority on the setting of longer term targets for savings.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Minister Neville Rolfe, who leads on the counter fraud portfolio, regularly meet with the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) CEO and Senior Leadership Team to discuss their progress - target setting forms part of those discussions.

It is the government’s stated ambition to continue to increase the impact from counter fraud activity. The PSFA exceeded its target of achieving £180 million of savings in its first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million of audited savings.

The PSFA CEO works with the PSFA data and analytics delivery teams and Ministers to set the PSFA delivery target on an annual basis. The PSFA’s second year target is to deliver £185m of savings and will report performance against it when the independent audit of savings is complete. The PSFA is working with Ministers to set a financial target for its third year as part of routine business planning.

As the centre of the Government Counter Fraud Function (GCFF), the PSFA also requires, and supports departments to set financial impact targets for their counter fraud work and progress against this is published in the annual Fraud landscape Reports.

Government policy is that setting targets not only improves the transparency of counter fraud spending, but also ensures that we deliver a serious message to fraudsters that the government is making a concerted effort to tackle their ever-evolving crimes.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the NHS using hydrotreated vegetable oil as an alternative to fossil fuels.

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

NHS Supply Chain has trialled hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in its vehicles, and continues to assess HVO’s long-term viability as a fuel source for its network. A 2023 trial showed a 90% reduction in carbon emissions, though not other greenhouse gases, offered by HVO, although it also identified a 62% uplift in fuel costs. Whilst the National Health Service is committed to reducing reliance on fossil fuels across its operations, it will only roll out new measures where they are both fit-for-purpose and cost effective.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Ukrainian government has requested that boats used for illegal channel crossings be offered to that country.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Office is not aware of any formal request from the Ukrainian government for these lethally dangerous and unseaworthy craft, though it has repeatedly made clear the unsuitability of these boats to those who have advocated that they be sent to Ukraine.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many cases have been forwarded to the Prosecution Service concerning people who are based in Confucius Institutes in the last two years.

Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold data on whether defendants are based in or members of Confucius Institutes or indeed any other similar organisations.

It would not be possible to determine whether a defendant in any specific case was based in or associated with a Confucius Institute without an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to include the Northern Ireland Security Guard Service in the issuing of the Wider Service medal.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The guarding of military establishments in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Security Guard Service is not activity that falls within scope of the eligibility criteria for the Wider Service Medal.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of the upkeep of Type 23 Frigates in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Type 23 Frigates undergo a planned series of Upkeep periods in order to maintain their condition and introduce capability updates. A total sum of £99.8 million has been allocated for financial year 2024-25, as part of a 10-year allocation.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will hold discussions with NATO allies on the potential merits of all member countries increasing defence spending to a minimum of 2.5% of their gross domestic product.

Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The mounting threats we face mean we must invest in defence if we are to continue to defend our values, freedoms and prosperity. To rise to the challenge in this more divided world, the Prime Minister’s announcement [last week], to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade, marks the single greatest strengthening of our defence since the Cold War.

This sets a new standard for other major European NATO economies to follow. If all NATO countries committed to at least 2.5% of their GDP to defence, our collective budget would increase by more than £140 billion. Now is the time for all democratic nations across the world to ensure their defence spending is growing, and we will continue to make the case with our NATO Allies.

Found: _Gov_26 Secretary Kemi Badenoch Gavin Robinson Sammy Wilson Mr Gregory Campbell Jim Shannon

Found: _Gov_26 Secretary Kemi Badenoch Gavin Robinson Sammy Wilson Mr Gregory Campbell Jim Shannon

Found: _Gov_26 Secretary Kemi Badenoch Gavin Robinson Sammy Wilson Mr Gregory Campbell Jim Shannon