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.

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.

On 8 May, the UK government announced a landmark economic deal with the United States, making the UK the first country to reach an agreement with President Trump.

We have agreed new reciprocal market access on beef - with UK farmers given a guaranteed quota for 13,000 metric tonnes of beef exports at a very low tariff rate. Imports of hormone treated beef or chlorinated chicken remain illegal. Our approach to this trade deal has ensured that agricultural imports coming into the UK meet the highest food standards.

On 8 May, the UK government announced a landmark economic deal with the United States, making the UK the first country to get an agreement with President Trump.

The agreement will secure the UK preferential access to the US market for UK pharmaceuticals in case of new US tariffs being introduced in the future, further to any section 232 investigations. These conversations are ongoing, and we will work closely with the US administration to get the best deal for our pharma industry.

We have concluded a landmark economic deal with the United States, making the UK the first country to reach an agreement with President Trump. This deal protects jobs in the automotive, steel, aluminium, pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors - sectors that employ over 320,000 people across the UK. We are continuing talks on a wider UK-US Economic Deal which will look at increasing digital trade, access for our world-leading services industries and improving supply chains.

In April, Minister Alexander travelled to Beijing where he met ministers from the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to discuss a range of bilateral and global trade issues, including the trade tariffs.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

The Environment Agency (EA) generally commences criminal proceedings by way of summons. As of the date of this correspondence, no summons have been granted in respect of company directors and senior executives in the water industry over the past three years.

The EA is currently carrying out their largest ever criminal investigation into potential widespread non-compliance by water companies at over 2,000 sewage treatment works.

To drive this forward, the EA has hired 380 additional regulatory staff to carry out inspections and other enforcement activity. The most serious offences trigger a criminal investigation that could see water company fines and criminal prosecution for water bosses.

Earlier this year Ofwat proposed fines of £168 million against the first three investigated companies. These fines are alongside proposed enforcement orders, which require each company to rectify issues to bring them into compliance. OfWat’s investigations into eight further water companies continue.

In addition, the Water (Special Measures) Act has introduced a duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This will enable the public and regulators to see where, and how often, overflows are discharging and hold water companies to account.

For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. Water bosses taking bonuses when their companies criminally pollute our waterways is unacceptable.

As part of our Plan for Change, we’ve delivered on our promise to put water companies under special measures through our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act.

As part of the Act, Ofwat has new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if performance standards are not met. This means executives will no longer be able to take home eye-watering bonuses where companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability.

To achieve our ambitions for the automated vehicle sector, we are working at pace to implement the regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles in the second half of 2027.

We are exploring options for accelerating early commercial pilots in advance of full implementation and will update on this work soon. By combining long-term regulatory certainty with near-term trialling opportunities, we are creating the right conditions for a thriving self-driving vehicles market.

Alongside developing our domestic regulations, we are playing a leading role in work to align international rules and regulations on self-driving, which will enable our companies to export globally. This work is anticipated to complete in early 2027.

The Government recognises that the economic and environmental potential of rail freight is significant and is committed to supporting its growth.

We encourage modal shift from road to rail through the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme which has a budget of £18 million. The scheme has been extended to March 2026.

Under our plans to reform the railway, there will be a statutory duty on Great British Railways to promote the use of rail freight and there will be an overall rail freight growth target set by the Secretary of State, with clear and meaningful targets for rail freight growth within pre-defined periods.

This Government takes road safety very seriously and reducing those killed and injured on our roads is a key priority. The Department is currently considering policy options in this area.

The Government is reducing the upfront costs of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) by providing plug-in vehicle grants for vans, trucks and motorcycles, taxis and wheelchair accessible vehicles.

Drivers of ZEVs also benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives. They are also exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) until April 2025, after which electric vehicles will continue to have preferential first year rates of VED in comparison to the most polluting vehicles.

There are now over 70,000 public charging devices in the UK, supporting drivers to switch to EVs, alongside 680,000 private chargepoints in England alone. The Government is committed to working with industry to further accelerate the rollout of affordable, accessible charging infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Government is supporting the rollout of tens of thousands of local chargepoints, which are especially important for drivers without off-street parking. The Government also offers grants to support the installation of private chargepoints in certain residential and commercial properties and provides advice and guidance to support the planning and delivery of charging infrastructure.