Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that around 3.5 million private sector employees do not pay anything into their pensions in a given year, and what they will do to address this.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Automatic Enrolment has already seen more than 11 million people enrolled into pension saving to date, with around an additional £29 billion in real terms saved into workplace pensions in 2021 compared to 2012.
Automatic Enrolment (AE) is and will continue to be based on the principle of extending saving to as many people as possible for whom it makes sense to save. We remain committed to increasing the number of employees who are saving, through implementing the AE 2017 Review measures to lower the age for being automatically enrolled to 18 and abolishing the lower earnings band for workplace pension contributions, which will disproportionately benefit lower earners, giving them access to an employer pension contribution for the first time. This will see 3 million people saving £2 billion extra a year.
The Government supported the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 which gives us the legislative powers to implement the expansion of AE subject to consultation. We remain committed to doing this in the mid-2020s.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of reports that homelessness among military veterans in England increased by 14 per cent in the past 12 months, what steps they plan to take to ensure that ongoing regular training on the benefits of financial, dietary and physical education are provided to members of the armed forces throughout their careers rather than only as they leave the armed forces.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence is committed to the health and wellbeing of our Armed Forces. The Defence People Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-27 promotes the importance of health and wellbeing across Defence, adopting a holistic approach to mental health, physical health, and social health. It directs a coordinated approach to promote, prevent, detect and treat poor health and wellbeing early to enable optimal recovery. It ensures that all our people will be in a state of positive physical, mental and social health and wellbeing throughout their career.
The Ministry of Defence is also working to raise financial awareness among Service personnel; all three Services provide links on their welfare sites to several financial advisory sites including the Money and Pension Service (https://maps.org.uk/en#) and Joining Forces Credit Union (JFCU) (https://www.joiningforcescu.co.uk/). Service personnel are provided with online and face to face briefings from the JFCU which aim to assist them, their partners, families, and dependants, to be better equipped to manage their money and financial affairs. Officers can also signpost their personnel to the JFCU which supplies bespoke products to move Service personnel away from Payday Loan Companies. JFCU also attend events on military bases and provide general financial advice to both existing personnel and new recruits.
Regarding advice on nutrition, the Defence Nutrition Advisory Service (DNAS) provides evidence-based nutrition education and training through career, starting in Initial Military Training. The DNAS also provides over a hundred evidence-based factsheets and briefs within the themed areas of: Public Health Nutrition, Sports and Exercise Nutrition Military Nutrition, Clinical Nutrition and Nutrition for Health Professionals.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the underlying causes of food insecurity in the UK.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government takes the issue of food security very seriously. Tackling inflation is one of this Government’s priorities. Inflation has more than halved, but it remains a challenge which is why we continue to monitor all key agricultural commodities and work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.
Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates. Some of these factors are influenced by our trading arrangements with other countries. Changes in food prices are dependent on changes in one or more of these factors.
Through regular engagement, Defra will continue to work with food businesses throughout the supply chain to explore the range of measures they can take to ensure the availability of affordable food. For example, by maintaining value ranges, price matching and price freezing measures.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.
Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 73% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year, and these figures have changed little over the last 20 years.
UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, published in December 2023, which estimated that around 47 percent of children and young people were meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of taking part in sport and physical activity for an average of 60 minutes or more every day, and what steps they are taking to prioritise physical education in the national curriculum.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government wants all pupils to be healthy and active. A positive experience of sport and physical activity at a young age can create a lifelong habit of participation.
Physical education (PE) is a foundation subject at all four key stages, and it is a vital part of a broad and balanced curriculum for all pupils to access. The PE national curriculum is designed to ensure that all pupils develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities, are physically active for sustained periods of time, and lead healthy and active lives.
The government published the School Sport and Activity Action Plan update in July 2023. The action plan is attached. This sets out the next steps and provides further detail for school leaders and teachers on how the government will support them to improve the quality of PE and school sport, and to deliver two hours of PE a week. This will help all pupils to engage in physical activity and meet the Chief Medical Officers’ recommendations of 60 active minutes a day.
The government’s Get Active strategy, published in August 2023, also provides a blueprint for a system wide approach to support schools in getting one million more children to meet the Chief Medical Officers’ daily recommended amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
The department will publish non-statutory guidance for schools this spring, which will illustrate the practical steps taken by schools to provide two hours of PE, as well as ensuring equal access for girls and boys.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote, encourage and ensure the involvement of UK small and medium sized-enterprises in the supply chain for the global combat air programme.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This Government recognises that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to the defence supply chain and wider UK prosperity. That is why we are taking steps to make it easier for SMEs to access opportunities and to bid for requirements. We are also encouraging our major suppliers to publish their own sub-contract opportunities through the Defence Sourcing Portal, making it easier for SMEs to find and bid in for defence work.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) will be hosting a SME event to help support the procurement activity of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP). This initial event will explore the opportunities GCAP presents, as well as giving SMEs direct contact with prime suppliers and senior MOD stakeholders connected to the programme.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports that 40 per cent of foreign direct investment projects in Northern Ireland in the year to August 2023 came from American companies, what assessment they have made of the diversity of the investor base for foreign direct investment projects in Northern Ireland, and what steps they are taking to ensure further diversification, including from regions who were not invited to the Northern Ireland Investment Summit in September.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) worked closely with the Northern Ireland Office and Invest Northern Ireland to ensure that a diverse group of investors attended the Northern Ireland Investment Summit. Investors from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia Pacific markets all attended.
DBT teams globally work in conjunction with Invest NI colleagues to showcase Northern Ireland as a location for investment. The UK Government, via the Northern Ireland Office, has provided support to Invest Northern Ireland for additional international staff across the globe, helping to diversify foreign direct investment.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their response to the House of Lords National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee's report, A national plan for sport, health, and wellbeing, where they note the average time teaching PE in primary schools was 90 minutes per week in 2016, what plans they have to increase the average time spent teaching PE in (1) primary schools, and (2) secondary schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is prohibited by law in prescribing the exact time a school should allocate to individual subjects in the curriculum. On 8 March, the government made an announcement on physical education (PE) and school sport which included an expectation for both primary and secondary schools to strive for a minimum of two hours of PE and sport in the curriculum time every week.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the recommendation in the House of Lords National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee’s report A national plan for sport, health and wellbeing (HL Paper 113, Session 2021–22) to establish a new ministerial post with responsibility for sport, health and wellbeing.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
While His Majesty’s Government welcomed the report of the House of Lords’ Committee on a National Plan for Sport and Recreation, we do not agree with its proposal to establish a separate, new ministerial post for Sport, Health and Wellbeing.
The Government is committed to improving the health of the nation, including through supporting sport and activity, within its existing structures. Ministers and officials at Government Departments including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Department for Education work closely together on policies to promote sport, health and wellbeing.