Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Allen of Kensington, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Lord Allen of Kensington has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Lord Allen of Kensington has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The Inquiry is expected to publish their final report on 20th May and the Minister for the Cabinet Office has committed to updating Parliament within 25 sitting days of the publication of the final report. The Government is appointing clinical, legal and social care experts to advise the Cabinet Office on detailed technical considerations to make informed choices in responding to the Inquiry’s recommendations on compensation.
Each inquiry chair will present their conclusions and recommendations to an inquiry’s sponsor minister. It is the responsibility of the lead department to determine how best to progress and implement the inquiry’s recommendations and the department will publish its response on Gov.uk.
The Cabinet Office takes the lead on the Covid, Grenfell and Infected Blood Inquiries and looks forward to acting on lessons learned.
As at December 2022, the number of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) based outside London and the South East is 2,130 (33.7%) on a full-time equivalent basis (FTE), including around 50 SCS who work overseas in a variety of roles. This data is provisional and subject to routine revisions over time.
Through the Places for Growth Programme, we aim to have 50% of UK-based SCS roles based outside of London by 2030. There have been 316 SCS roles relocated since March 2020, bringing more opportunities for civil servants to progress their careers in the regions and nations of the UK.
We do not hold a breakdown of SCS that have relocated from London and the South East or those that have been recruited into SCS roles locally.
Sir Michael Barber conducted a rapid review to help ensure the Government is in the very best shape to level up and build back better from the pandemic. Rather than documenting specific findings in a report, Sir Michael gave operational advice to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary on how a refreshed delivery unit could be established. This approach was accepted and the creation of the new No10 Delivery Unit was announced on 21 April.
As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster set out in his Ditchley Speech, the Government is determined to ensure that the Civil Service is better distributed across the country. The Places for Growth Programme is working with departments and public bodies to firm up relocation plans and further details will be announced in due course.
The Places for Growth programme is exploring opportunities across the whole of the UK. Lord Agnew is the Cabinet Office Minister of State with direct responsibility for this programme.
The Government has committed to relocating a minimum of 22,000 Civil Service roles outside of central London over the next decade, this will include the West Midlands alongside other parts of the UK. There is now a policy presumption against the creation of new public bodies in London.
As part of the Places for Growth programme, the Government will seek to establish sustainable career pathways into senior grades so that London is not the only route for progression to the Senior Civil Service. The programme is working with departments and public bodies to develop plans that ensure that roles across all grades are relocated.
This Government takes parliamentary accountability very seriously. The Cabinet Office complies with guidance on written Parliamentary Questions. This guidance is regularly reviewed and frequent discussions take place across Whitehall regarding possible improvements in the answering of questions from parliamentarians.
The information requested in the Parliamentary Questions HL2127, HL2128, HL2129, HL2130, HL2131 and HL2132 remains a policy in development. Parliament will be updated in due course in the usual manner as the policy, and its delivery, progresses.
The Government is clear the administration of government needs to be less London-centric. The Cabinet Office has established the Places for Growth programme to drive the necessary planning and preparation within departments and public bodies to locate roles and bodies out of London in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
The programme has introduced a presumption against the creation of new public bodies with a base in London. As such, 15 new public bodies have been established out of London since 2017.
Plans are focusing on the relocation of roles, through natural churn and new recruitment, rather than relocation of staff in post. It is intended that the majority of relocated roles will be recruited from local labour markets, offering career progression for civil servants throughout the UK.
The Government is clear the administration of government needs to be less London-centric. The Cabinet Office has established the Places for Growth programme to drive the necessary planning and preparation within departments and public bodies to locate roles and bodies out of London in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
The programme has introduced a presumption against the creation of new public bodies with a base in London. As such, 15 new public bodies have been established out of London since 2017.
Plans are focusing on the relocation of roles, through natural churn and new recruitment, rather than relocation of staff in post. It is intended that the majority of relocated roles will be recruited from local labour markets, offering career progression for civil servants throughout the UK.
The Government is clear the administration of government needs to be less London-centric. The Cabinet Office has established the Places for Growth programme to drive the necessary planning and preparation within departments and public bodies to locate roles and bodies out of London in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
The programme has introduced a presumption against the creation of new public bodies with a base in London. As such, 15 new public bodies have been established out of London since 2017.
Plans are focusing on the relocation of roles, through natural churn and new recruitment, rather than relocation of staff in post. It is intended that the majority of relocated roles will be recruited from local labour markets, offering career progression for civil servants throughout the UK.
The Government is clear the administration of government needs to be less London-centric. The Cabinet Office has established the Places for Growth programme to drive the necessary planning and preparation within departments and public bodies to locate roles and bodies out of London in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
The programme has introduced a presumption against the creation of new public bodies with a base in London. As such, 15 new public bodies have been established out of London since 2017.
Plans are focusing on the relocation of roles, through natural churn and new recruitment, rather than relocation of staff in post. It is intended that the majority of relocated roles will be recruited from local labour markets, offering career progression for civil servants throughout the UK.
The Government is clear the administration of government needs to be less London-centric. The Cabinet Office has established the Places for Growth programme to drive the necessary planning and preparation within departments and public bodies to locate roles and bodies out of London in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
The programme has introduced a presumption against the creation of new public bodies with a base in London. As such, 15 new public bodies have been established out of London since 2017.
Plans are focusing on the relocation of roles, through natural churn and new recruitment, rather than relocation of staff in post. It is intended that the majority of relocated roles will be recruited from local labour markets, offering career progression for civil servants throughout the UK.
The Government is clear the administration of government needs to be less London-centric. The Cabinet Office has established the Places for Growth programme to drive the necessary planning and preparation within departments and public bodies to locate roles and bodies out of London in the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
The programme has introduced a presumption against the creation of new public bodies with a base in London. As such, 15 new public bodies have been established out of London since 2017.
Plans are focusing on the relocation of roles, through natural churn and new recruitment, rather than relocation of staff in post. It is intended that the majority of relocated roles will be recruited from local labour markets, offering career progression for civil servants throughout the UK.
The main causes of the £33 billion decrease (current prices) in goods exports were fuels (predominantly oil) down £24 billion, non-monetary gold and other precious metals down £15 billion, and non-ferrous metals (mainly silver and metals in the platinum group) down £7 billion.
Trade in these commodities is known to be very erratic and export values can fluctuate substantially year on year.
The Department for Business and Trade are committed to growing exports and will continue to provide businesses with a wealth of export support options on great.gov.uk, including trade advisers, Export Champions, the Export Academy, our International Markets network and UK Export Finance
The Department will be updating our SME Action Plan later this year and it will set an ambition for future spending aligned with our procurement strategy.
We are expecting to publish the review of economic regulation in the coming months, delivering on the Government’s commitment to drive growth through the activities of key economic regulators (Ofgem, Ofcom and Ofwat), as published in the Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy policy paper on 10 May 2023.
We have an ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations to help our nation become a truly Global Britain. We have completed two rounds of negotiations with Mexico, and three rounds of negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. The fifth round of negotiations with Canada concluded on 24 March.
We look forward to concluding negotiations at the earliest opportunity, but it is the substance of trade deals that is important, not the timing.
We have an ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations to help our nation become a truly Global Britain. We have completed two rounds of negotiations with Mexico, and three rounds of negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. The fifth round of negotiations with Canada concluded on 24 March.
We look forward to concluding negotiations at the earliest opportunity, but it is the substance of trade deals that is important, not the timing.
The UK is continuing to negotiate accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. Recent discussions have seen the department make considerable progress towards concluding talks, aiming to finish them at the earliest opportunity. The Government is working to ensure that the UK joins on terms that work for British business and are in line with domestic priorities.
Joining CPTPP will offer significant benefits to exporters. It could give tariff free access to up to 99% of UK goods, to export to a market of 500 million people, while reducing barriers to our world leading service firms.
In 2020, the UK and US held five productive rounds of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
We remain ready to progress these discussions, but recognise that the US is not currently focused on FTAs with any country. In the meantime, we have done much to help grow our £279bn* of annual bilateral trade. In the last year, we’ve removed US tariffs on UK steel and aluminium and ended the US ban on UK lamb and beef exports. We’ve also been working closely on shared priorities identified at the recent UK-US Trade Dialogues – including digital trade and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
* Total UK-US trade (goods and services / exports plus imports) in 2022
We have been in negotiations since January 2022, and talks are ongoing. Both nations have come to the table with the very highest of ambitions and a willingness to work together towards a mutually beneficial deal. We are now working through substantive issues like goods market access, services, and investment, and are starting to see a way forward that works for both sides.
However, we remain clear – the Secretary of State will only sign when we have a deal that is fair, reciprocal, and ultimately in the best interests of the British people and the economy.
The Government does not think a one-in-three-out rule is consistent with delivering world-class regulation to support the economy in adapting to a new wave of technological revolution or to achieving net zero.
We absolutely want to reduce costs to business wherever we sensibly can, though we intend to do that by looking at the merits of each case rather than using a one-in, three-out system.
The Government has provided a digital assist service for the energy advice tool on GOV.UK for those without digital literacy skills or internet access. Later this year, we will provide further support through a free retrofit phoneline for consumers in England to access tailored and impartial information about how to improve the energy performance of their homes. In addition, the Government will launch a series of local demonstrator projects, which will test various approaches to delivering in-person advice, with a particular focus on harder-to-treat properties and digitally excluded consumer groups. Lessons learnt from these projects will inform further action post-2025.
The Heat and Buildings strategy, published in 2021, confirmed the need to upgrade the worst performing homes first. The Government is providing £3.2 billion in targeted support for social housing residents, low income and fuel poor household through the Local Authority Delivery scheme, the Home Upgrade Grant, and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The Energy Company Obligation has been extended from 2022 to 2026, boosting its value from £640 million to £1 billion a year
The Government has also launched a digitally led service ‘find energy improvements suitable for your home’ on GOV.UK to provide impartial and tailored advice helping people make their homes greener and cheaper to run.
The one-in-three out policy came into force in March 2016 and was abolished in June 2017. We do not have a record of regulations which were abolished or brought into force under the one-in-three out policy during this period. Individual departments are responsible for maintaining a record of their regulatory measures.
The one-in-three out policy was abolished by the then Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells.
We are unable to give a breakdown of the number of regulations which have been abolished or brought into force in the subsequent years since the one-in-three out policy was abolished. The "Statement of new regulation" which provided this information for previous policies was not produced for one-in-three out. However, the annual Business Impact Target (BIT) report does cover regulations that came into force, with a total of 691 introduced in the successive years since the ending of the one-in-three out policy.
The one-in-three out policy came into force in March 2016 and was abolished in June 2017. We do not have a record of regulations which were abolished or brought into force under the one-in-three out policy during this period. Individual departments are responsible for maintaining a record of their regulatory measures.
The one-in-three out policy was abolished by the then Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells.
We are unable to give a breakdown of the number of regulations which have been abolished or brought into force in the subsequent years since the one-in-three out policy was abolished. The "Statement of new regulation" which provided this information for previous policies was not produced for one-in-three out. However, the annual Business Impact Target (BIT) report does cover regulations that came into force, with a total of 691 introduced in the successive years since the ending of the one-in-three out policy.
No. The Government discontinued the one-in-three-out policy in 2017.
Energy security is an absolute priority for this government. It is sensible for the Government to explore all possible options to maintain security of gas supply, this includes exploring the future of the clean energy storage landscape. The department has and will continue to engage with the sector to explore options for storage capacity expansion in the longer term.
The Government recognises the increased capacity the Rough gas storage site could provide and hence welcomes Centrica taking the necessary steps to re-open a proportion of the Rough site for this winter. It is Centrica’s commercial decision to apply for regulatory approvals, and to invest in re-opening the site, and management of injection and production rates is at their discretion.
Government is helping businesses to invest in digitisation and training through our Help to Grow programmes. Help to Grow Digital aims to support up to 100,000 SMEs to boost their performance by providing financial discounts of up to £5,000, to cover up to half the costs of approved digital technologies, along with advice and support on the learning platform. Help to Grow Management, meanwhile, is an intensive national training programme designed to improve leadership and management skills. Delivered by leading business schools across the UK, the programme is 90% subsidised by government, with participants contributing £750. It will support up to 30,000 SME business leaders to increase productivity, seize investment opportunities and grow their businesses, developing skills in areas such as financial management, innovation and staff engagement.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and government aims to make the UK one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business. The government provides a range of support that all businesses can access. These include information on starting up and running a business on GOV.UK, one to one advice via our free Business Support Helpline and through 38 Growth Hubs across England, government backed Start-Up Loans, and businesses with 5 or more employees can access our Help to Grow schemes.
Small businesses will also benefit from the £15 billion of targeted support to help with the rising cost of living. This brings the total cost of living support measures announced to £37 billion this year. Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials. This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years.
Small businesses will benefit from the £15 billion of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living. This brings the total cost of living support measures announced to £37 billion this year. Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials. This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years.
Additionally, Help to Grow programmes will enable eligible SMEs to mitigate the effects of rising costs by providing financial discounts on approved digital technologies up to a value of £5000 and improving SME leadership and management skills though subsidised courses.
The Government expects all energy suppliers to treat their customers fairly. Ofgem, as the independent regulator, has recently launched a consultation to strengthen the existing requirements on the level of direct debits licensed energy suppliers can charge customers, according to the best and most current information available to them, to ensure credit balances do not become excessive.
The Government understands that fuel prices are an important component of UK household and business expenditures and understands the negative impact of domestic fuel costs on UK consumers.
The main drivers of changes in heating oil prices are the international traded prices of crude oils and refined products. BEIS continues to monitor the market closely and to work with the industry to mitigate any supply risks to ensure that prices stay as low as possible.
The Government recently announced a £15 billion package to support households with the cost of living, in addition to over £22 billion that had already been committed.
Prepayment meter consumers who are repaying a debt, repay a set amount each time they top up the credit on the meter for their current use. Energy suppliers are required under the terms of the supply licence to set repayment rates based on a consumer’s ability to pay.
Ofgem’s licence conditions stipulate that, when estimating bills, suppliers must ensure that each customer is provided with relevant billing information.
Suppliers must also ensure customers receive regular and accurate bills and take all reasonable steps to obtain meter readings at least annually and make a bill or statement available at least twice per year. They must also take reasonable steps to reflect meter readings in bills that have been provided by a customer.
The Government recognises this continues to be a worrying time for businesses facing pressures due to the significant increases in global gas prices.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has met representatives of the UK’s high energy-using sectors in recent months in order to better understand the impact of energy costs on their businesses, and extensive engagement with industry continues across government at both ministerial and official levels. A Government priority is to ensure that supplies of energy are maintained.
In order to help our industry to remain strong and competitive, between 2013 and 2020, total relief to energy intensive industries for electricity policy costs of over £2 billion was provided. This has so far helped over 270 businesses across the UK. In 2020 alone, the Government provided relief to Energy Intensive Industries (EII) for electricity policy costs worth over £470million.
It was announced on 7 April 2022 in the Energy Security Strategy that the EII Compensation Scheme will be extended for a further three years to protect manufacturing sectors from high electricity costs.
The Government is increasing the level of aid intensity for the scheme from 75% to up to 100% to reduce the electricity price burden for eligible businesses.
This represents more than doubling of the current budget to support energy intensive industries.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support for business. Nearly £27 billion has been allocated to Local Authorities for the provision of grants for businesses in England. In response to the Omicron variant, BEIS used the latest business property data from the Valuation Office Agency to make available £635 million for Local Authorities to support the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors, via the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG)
Local Authorities received OHLG funds by the second week of January 2022, and have so far reported to Government that 22,952 payments have been made by 30 January 2022. (This does not indicate the number of businesses but the number of premises.) Local Authorities report to Government that £79 million has been paid out so far in OHLG grants. Government does not publish individual payment details but the mean average payment is £3,457
Regarding the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) and the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF), Local Authorities reported to Government that they had distributed £11.1 billion to businesses. As recorded by 30 September 2020, 906,673 business premises (not the number of unique businesses) in all English Local Authorities had received grants across the two schemes. The mean average payment as reported by Local Authorities was £12,268 for the RHLGF and SBGF schemes combined. This is the average for each payment as reported, not necessarily the average each claimant received if some claimants received more than one payment. The SBGF and RHLGF schemes closed in August 2020.
A full breakdown of grant funding allocated to, and distributed by, each Local Authority, is available on Gov.UK.
The 2021 Spending Review set out the government’s plan to increase public R&D spending from £14.9bn in 2021/22 to £20 billion per annum by 2024/25. The substantial uplift to research and science funding will not only allow the UK to build on our core strengths but will also provide opportunities to grow research and innovation investment across the entire country as part of the Government’s approach to levelling up the UK economy. Further details of how this funding will be allocated will be announced in due course.
The Government’s Innovation Strategy, published in July, outlined our thinking on how to grow innovation clusters and ensure that research and innovation benefits the economy and society across the UK. The forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper will take a comprehensive place-based approach to economic growth and will set out more detail on how Government will support levelling up through R&D.
The Government is taking steps to increase the transparency of how places benefit from R&D funding. UKRI are publishing detailed breakdowns of their funding data at a regional level annually – the latest available data is on UKRI's website.
At the Spending Review 2021 (SR21), my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer set out the Government’s plan to cement the UK as a global science and technology superpower, with public spending on R&D rising to £20 billion in 2024/25, an increase of around a quarter in real terms over the SR period. This settlement will make significant progress towards the government’s ambition to increase R&D spending to £22 billion by 2026-27, and drive economy-wide R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP in 2027, with over £5 billion of additional annual investment per year by 2024/25.
This settlement represents a significant uplift against one of the most challenging fiscal positions of the last century and provides certainty to our R&D partners of government plans for the next three years. This will help the whole R&D sector plan ahead, which will be particularly welcome given recent fiscal challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Private investment forms over two-thirds of current R&D activity, so it is only by working with innovative businesses and funders from the private sector that we will reach our goal. The Innovation Strategy sets out how we will use enablers such as procurement, regulation, and the identification of key technologies to create the conditions for private sector investment in innovation across the country.
A strength of the UK is that the Government have a diverse gas supply which prevents over-reliance on natural gas storage which instead plays an important role in providing system flexibility.
Its exposure to global gas prices underscores the importance of its plan to build a strong, home-grown renewable energy sector to reduce further its reliance on fossil fuels. This is why the Government outlined measures to transition to more nuclear and renewable electricity for the future whilst acknowledging the role gas will play in the future for essential security of supply.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) was introduced by the Government in March 2020 to provide financial support to smaller businesses across the UK that were losing revenue as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As of 31 May 2021, 251,342 applications had been submitted to approved CBILS lenders, of which 109,877 were successfully approved. Decision-making on whether a business was eligible for CBILS was fully delegated to the accredited lenders.
CBILS closed for new applications on 31 March 2021.
Many borrowers have begun to repay their Covid-19 Government facilities. Many have also taken advantage of the Government’s amendments to loan scheme rules which have provided businesses greater flexibility and space to start repayments.
For those who borrowed under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Government has taken action to allow lenders to extend the term of CBILS loans up to a maximum of ten years where they assess that borrowers are in difficulty and will benefit from the extension.
Information related to loan repayments for the Government’s Covid-19 loan schemes will be included in the Department’s 2020-21 Annual Report and Accounts, to be published in due course.
The Home Heating Cost Reduction Obligation falls under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). The current scheme is an obligation on larger energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency and heating measures in the homes of low-income and vulnerable and fuel poor householders.
Since ECO began in 2013, around 935,0000 homes have been upgraded under the Home Heating Cost Reduction Obligation. Of those, over 664,000 were owner occupiers; 193,000 were private rented tenants and almost 78,000 were social rented tenants.
The Local Authority Flex scheme enables participating local authorities to refer low-income and vulnerable and fuel poor households, for support under the Energy Company Obligation.
Since Local Authority Flex began in 2017, almost 168,000 measures have been delivered in over 100,000 homes under the scheme across Great Britain, up to July 2021. Local Authority Flex scheme data is not available by tenure.
As set out in my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, the Government is supporting industry to deliver community trials of 100% hydrogen heating. The first trial will be a neighbourhood trial in Levenmouth, Fife, which is due to start in 2023.
BEIS and Ofgem have also invited Gas Network Operators to submit outline proposals for a larger village trial by December 2021. The Government is expecting that one or more of these proposals will require detailed planning during 2022, before location selection in 2023. Government’s intention is that the village trial will begin by 2025.
The Government is determined to secure a competitive future for our energy intensive industries and in recent years have provided them with extensive support, including more than £2bn to help with the costs of electricity and to protect jobs.
This includes electricity price relief schemes for eligible energy intensive industries in sectors such as steel, chemicals, cement, ceramics, paper and glass.
Various funds are in place to support businesses with high energy use to cut their bills and reduce their carbon emissions, including the £315m Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.
In the recent ‘Build Back Better: our plan for growth’ published alongside Budget, the government announced the publication of a new Innovation Strategy in the summer.
In line with its commitment, BEIS is currently working across government to develop the Strategy in time for then.
The Strategy will outline how we look to achieve our ambitions in innovation and where we want to focus our efforts over the next decade.