Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

The Office for Equality and Opportunity encourages the use of Government Statistical Service harmonised standards for ethnicity data collection across government departments and other public bodies.

The current ethnicity harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions across the UK. The ethnicity questions were adjusted so they could be used in the 2021 censuses for England and Wales, and Northern Ireland; and the 2022 Census for Scotland.

The 2021 classification for England and Wales has 19 groups including the categories ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’ and ‘Roma’. (https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/ethnicity-harmonised-standard/).

Data collected by government departments for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller groups is already published on the Office for Equality and Opportunity’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures website (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/). It was the first of its kind in terms of scale, scope and transparency and has been welcomed as best practice internationally. It contains statistics covering topics such as health, education, employment and the criminal justice system.

The Government is committed to attracting highly skilled, talented individuals from abroad to live, work and contribute to the UK economy. Which is why we have launched the new Global Talent Taskforce. The Taskforce – working alongside the Global Entrepreneur Programme and our £54 million Global Talent Fund – will support the world’s best researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, top tier managerial and engineering talent and high-calibre creatives, to relocate to the UK. This builds on commitments in the recently published Industrial Strategy and Immigration White Paper to fast-track the relocation of the brightest minds into the UK to supercharge our growth-driving sectors.

I thank the APPG for their report into this important topic, on which there is cross-Government work to tackle the issues raised and make sure e-bikes are safe to buy and use. Our product safety framework makes clear that consumer products can only be placed on the UK market if they are safe and comply with relevant laws. Businesses, including those modifying or servicing electric bikes, have responsibilities for the safety of those products. The Office for Product Safety and Standards and local authorities enforce the regulations.

E-bikes used illegally on public land is an enforcement matter for the police.

The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and other Ministers, as well as officials from my department and across government have been engaging widely with business organisations and companies from across the economy, including those in the pharmaceuticals sector.

We received a number of responses from the pharmaceuticals sector to DBT's Request for Input launched on 3 April to inform our response to US tariffs.

We will continue our extensive engagement with pharmaceutical businesses from across the UK throughout negotiations, ensuring that their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities are fully understood.

The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and other Ministers, as well as officials from my department and across government have been engaging widely with business organisations and companies from across the economy, including those in the pharmaceuticals sector.

We received a number of responses from the pharmaceuticals sector to DBT's Request for Input launched on 3 April to inform our response to US tariffs.

We will continue our extensive engagement with pharmaceutical businesses from across the UK throughout negotiations, ensuring that their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities are fully understood.

Between February and April 2025, there were 83,000 vacancies in the hospitality sector, which is 21% less than last year.

This is a significant improvement which can be credited to Government’s collaboration with the Hospitality Sector Council in addressing jobs shortages and building the sector’s talent pipeline.

As part of this, we are expanding Hospitality Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) which fast track individuals into hospitality vacancies by providing flexible training and support. SWAPs have already seen 10,000 starts in the sector in less than two years.

The Government recently consulted on the proposed National Policy Statement EN-7, which outlines an updated planning framework for new nuclear projects, including Small and Advanced Modular Reactors. We aim to finalise and designate EN-7 later this year.

Great British Energy-Nuclear (GBE-N) recently announced that it has selected Rolls Royce SMR as preferred bidder, subject to final government approvals and contract signature, to partner with to build the country’s first small modular reactors. GBE-N aims to allocate a site for its small modular reactor programme later this year.

The East Coast Cluster reached financial close in December 2024 and the HyNet Transport and Storage Network, operated by Liverpool Bay CCS, reached financial close in April 2025, with Government signing contracts with industry to get the first CCUS projects up and running. These two clusters will help remove up to 8.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year and are due to start operating from 2028.

Officials have continued to engage with Track-2 clusters to understand their plans. We recognise industry will be hoping for clarity on Track-2 - and future CCUS clusters – and further details will be provided in due course.

Hydrogen Allocation Rounds (HARs) remains our primary mechanism for allocating revenue support through the Hydrogen Production Business Model to low carbon, non-CCUS enabled hydrogen production facilities across the UK.

In the Autumn 2024 Budget, we confirmed support for 11 green hydrogen projects from the first Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR1), and on 7 April 2025 we announced a shortlist of 27 projects that were invited to the next stage of the Second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2) process.

This announcement reinforces the Government’s recognition of the key role low carbon hydrogen will play in delivering our Clean Energy Superpower and Growth Missions.

The Immigration White Paper reaffirms the government’s commitment to attracting top talent by simplifying the Global Talent visa and increasing the number of people arriving on high talent routes. The government has launched a new £54 million Global Talent Fund to bring around 10 leading researchers and their teams to the UK and invested £25 million in new Turing AI ‘Global’ fellowships. In addition, £150 million and £250 million endowment funding was allocated respectively in 2023/24 for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Green Future Fellowships and the Royal Society’s Faraday Discovery Fellowships.

A new Global Talent Taskforce has been announced to attract exceptional talent into our Industrial Strategy sectors.

As set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, the Government is committed to making the UK a global hub for AI talent.

We recently announced over £115 million of investment to attract world-leading research talent to the UK, strengthening our position as an AI superpower. This includes the £54 million Global Talent Fund, the proposed expansion of ARIA and Pillar VC’s Encode fellowship, and the launch of a Global Talent Taskforce to identify and support top international researchers to work and settle in the UK.

These initiatives complement Turing AI ‘Global’ Fellowships and Spärck AI scholarships announced earlier this month, which will attract world-leading academics and students to the UK.

The Government is encouraging growth in the data centre sector by addressing barriers to building. This includes changes to planning rules, cross-sectoral power reforms to reduce connection timelines and launching AI Growth Zones.

As part of the over £2 billion Spending Review settlement for the AI Action Plan, we have committed over £1 billion to expand the AI Research Resource, positioning the UK as a leader in high-performance AI computing, driving global innovation and scientific discovery. We’ve also announced that Scotland will host the UK’s most powerful supercomputer, backed by up to £750 million in additional investment.

Sustainability of local journalism, in print as well as online, is an area of particular concern for this Government. We are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level: reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.

We are working across Government and with other stakeholders as the Strategy develops, and we recently held a roundtable discussion with local news editors to discuss our planned approach and collaboration with industry on the Strategy. An industry working group has now been set up to consider the issues in more detail and we will announce more in the coming months.

The department regularly engages with the higher education (HE) sector to discuss range of topics including the recruitment of international students. This has recently included discussions with various HE institutions and their representative bodies on the measures set out in the Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May, and plans for their implementation.

This government will always welcome international students where they meet the requirements to study in this country. Our world class HE sector can offer a fulfilling and enjoyable experience to international students from around the world.

The Immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK HE sector’s globally competitive position and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting the UK’s skills base.

This government is committed to tackling child poverty and earlier this month announced an expansion of free school meals eligibility to all pupils in England with a parent receiving Universal Credit. This will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the Parliament, in decisive action as a downpayment ahead of publication of the Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn.

The government will use the leading, internationally recognised measure of poverty, Relative Poverty After Housing Costs. This is the proportion of families with below 60% of the median income, after deducting housing costs.

The government will also measure the experience of children in the most severe and acute forms of poverty, which we are considering how best to measure as we develop the Strategy.

These headline metrics will be supported by a range of other metrics as part of a monitoring framework to ensure the Strategy is on track to meet its aims, which will be set out alongside the publication.

The department strongly encourages schools to have a uniform as it can play a key role in promoting the ethos of a school, provide a sense of belonging and identity and setting an appropriate tone for education.

By creating a common identity amongst all pupils, regardless of background, a school uniform can act as a social leveller. If, however, the uniform is too expensive it can place a financial burden on families. This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require. The measure will help to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities.

Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance 2024. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

New research from the Children’s Commissioner, with responses from nearly all schools and colleges in England, shows that the overwhelming majority of schools, 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools, already have policies in place that limit or restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.

The Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of Higher Education (HE) in England, publishes an annual report on the financial health of the HE sector.

The OfS’ most recent report, published in May 2024, showed that the financial position of the HE sector has become increasingly challenging. The report can be found at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/ly1buqlj/financial-sustainability-report2024.pdf, as attached.

The government recognises the immediate financial strain that some providers are under, and the department is working closely with the OfS to monitor any risks to ensure there are robust plans in place to mitigate them. Sir David Behan has been appointed as interim Chair of the OfS to oversee the important work of refocusing their role to concentrate on key priorities, including prioritising the financial stability of the HE sector.

This government is committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading universities so they can deliver for students, taxpayers, workers and the economy. This government has already started reviewing options to deliver a more robust HE sector, but we recognise it will take time to get it right.

Ultimately, HE providers are independent from government and therefore it is their responsibility to ensure they have a sustainable business model.

To manage the drought, the EA and water companies have activated their drought plans. These plans outline actions that are needed to reduce the impact of the drought on the economy and communities. Current actions by the EA include enhanced monitoring, acting to save fish where rivers are at risk of drying up, responding to environmental incidents, and coordinating actions through the National Drought Group. Water companies are following statutory plans, and the Government and the EA are regulating water companies to ensure they follow their plans.

Droughts pose a risk to communities and the economy by impacting public water supply, agriculture, fisheries, energy, transport, tourism and navigation. The EA recently published the National Framework for Water Resources, which identifies the ambitious actions needed to meet these significant national water resources challenges out to 2055.

Navigation authorities, including the Canal and River Trust and the Environment Agency (EA), are responsible for keeping their waterways clean, clear of obstacles, rubbish, aquatic plant overgrowths, and any other impediments, including responding to pollution incidents, to ensure safety of navigation for users.

EA funding is closely monitored to ensure it can carry out its duties and functions effectively and deliver for the public and the environment. Its total budget for 2025 to 2026 is £2,274 million.

The Canal and River Trust has responsibility for 2,000 miles of canals and rivers in England and Wales. Its purposes are to maintain the waterway network and conserve its heritage and natural environment in perpetuity for public benefit and enjoyment. Its grant from Defra, agreed for the period 2012 to 2027, is approximately £740 million.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations make producers responsible for electrical products (including vapes) they place on the market when they become waste. This week, following a consultation under the previous Government, we laid an amending SI to create a new category of electrical equipment for vapes (previously included in category 7: Toys, and Leisure), to ensure vape producers pay their fair market share towards separate collection, treatment, and recycling costs of their products.

Single-use vapes are a blight on our environment with an estimated 5 million incorrectly disposed of each week. This is why on 1 June 2025 we banned the sale and supply of these products. We have published our impact assessment which considers the environmental, economic and other impacts of this policy and will continue to monitor the impact of the ban.

On 1 June 2025 the sale and supply of disposable vapes across the UK was banned. Officials considered other international bans, such as the one in Australia, as part of the work to develop this policy, but did not formally assess them.

The Government is committed to making it easy for consumers to find public chargepoints. To support this, the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 came into effect in November 2023. These regulations require operators to share open data freely – including chargepoint location and availability information. This data is then made available to consumers via commercial platforms such as mapping services and roaming providers.

The Government is reducing the initial costs of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) by providing plug-in vehicle grants for vans, trucks, motorcycles, taxis and wheelchair accessible vehicles. Drivers of ZEVs also benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives. ZEVs will continue to have preferential first year rates of vehicle excise duty in comparison to the most polluting vehicles.

Government is also committed to increasing awareness of the benefits of ZEVs. We have been working with industry to create a more coordinated, focused cross-industry and Government approach to promoting ZEVs.

As of 1 June 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 80,552 publicly available charging devices across the UK (including 16,231 devices rated 50kW or above).

The latest data available regarding the number of public charging devices, for electric vehicles in each local authority area, in the UK, as at 1 April 2025, can be found in table 1a of the attached document.

The £381 million Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund has been allocated to all highest tier local authorities in England and will support the installation over 100,000 local chargers, ensuring the rollout continues at pace to support drivers across the country.

There has been strong progress from industry on the rollout of chargepoints on our Strategic Road Network (England’s motorways and major A-roads). There are now over 5,560 open-access rapid and ultra-rapid chargers (excluding Tesla-only superchargers) within one mile of the Strategic Road Network (Zapmap, April 2025), which includes over 1180 open-access rapid and ultra-rapid chargepoints specifically at motorway service areas in England, (industry data, April 2025). This means charger numbers on the Strategic Road Network, including at motorway services, have nearly quadrupled in the last three years (Zapmap and industry data, 2022 – 2025).

Government is continuing to work closely with industry to support their ambitious plans to continue rolling out chargepoints at sites to meet demand, and to address barriers to further roll-out.

The resilience of the UK aviation sector is important, and key to its success. It is the responsibility of the industry to manage demand, recruit, and roster staff. The aviation sector has increased resilience, with ground handlers, airlines, airports and air traffic control providers all undertaking significant recruitment campaigns, whilst investing in new infrastructure, equipment and technology.

The Aviation Minister regularly writes to industry to seek assurances from the aviation sector that they have sufficient resilience plans to manage operations effectively over peak periods, and the department continues to work closely with the sector to understand any potential risks and mitigating actions.

The latest take up figures were published in October 2024. They showed that in financial year 2022/23, 65% of those entitled to Pension Credit claimed the benefit.

Data on Pension Credit claims and awards was published in November. It showed that there has been a 145% increase in Pension Credit claims received by DWP in the 16 weeks following the Chancellor’s Winter Fuel Payment announcement on the 29 July, compared to the number received in the 16 weeks prior to the announcement.

Benefit expenditure and caseload forecasts are regularly made publicly available by the Department. The latest published forecasts estimate that Winter Fuel Payments will cost £330m in nominal terms, for financial year 2025/26.

The Department is running a national uptake campaign to encourage the estimated up to 880,000 citizens who may be entitled to Pension Credit apply for it. The Department is in the process of modernising the Pension Credit delivery and has previously undertaken an assessment of the application process and introduced online claims in addition to telephone and paper claims. DWP Agents and third-party organisations are available to support customers with the application process.