Lord West of Spithead

The Government Property Agency (GPA) remains the Custodian of the Royal Naval Division War Memorial following transfer of the freehold.

Renovation works to the Memorial were put on hold during a major refurbishment of London, Old Admiralty Building which was only completed in 2021.

The Government Property Agency is working with Heritage England to assess the works required to develop a suitable plan. We expect the works to be concluded at the earliest opportunity once we have received feedback from the Heritage survey, until this has been concluded the GPA is unable to give a timescale for completion.

The National Security Adviser has appointed Whitehall leads to report to him directly on the UK’s collaboration with the US and Australia on AUKUS. The Ministry of Defence reports regularly to the National Security Adviser on the programme of work, conducted alongside US and Australian colleagues, to identify the optimum way to deliver new submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

Lord West of Spithead

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

27 October 2021

Dear Lord West of Spithead,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking the total number of COVID-19 deaths in England since 1 July; and how many of those deaths were people who were either (1) unvaccinated, or (2) had underlying health conditions (HL3191).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes mortality statistics for England and Wales compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. Based on the latest data in the bulletin ‘Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: 15 October 2021’¹, there were 7,673 deaths involving COVID-19 registered between 1 July 2021 and 8 October 2021 in England.

Information provided at death registration can be used to identify the presence of pre-existing health conditions. The data are published quarterly in the ‘Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales’ dataset². These are currently available until the end of June 2021. In the second quarter of 2021 (April to June), 18.8% of people who died due to COVID-19 in England and Wales had no pre-existing condition. The data for the third quarter (July to September) will be published on 23 November 2021.

The vaccination status of the deceased is not recorded at death registration unless the certifying doctor or coroner considered it to be relevant to the cause of death. To produce statistics on deaths by COVID-19 vaccination status the ONS has created a linked dataset which includes death registrations, vaccination data from the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) and Test and Trace data on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results. The methods are described in ‘Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021’³. Unfortunately, this publication only covered deaths that occurred up to 2 July 2021. However, an update of this publication, covering deaths that occurred up to 24 September 2021, will be published on 1 November. Of the 51,281 deaths involving Covid-19 that occurred between 2 January and 2 July 2021, 38,964 (76.0%) occurred in unvaccinated individuals. Please note, however, that this proportion is likely to change in the most recent period, as an increasing number of people are now vaccinated.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

1 Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: 15 October 2021

2 Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales

3 Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021. 13 September 2021

A team in the Cabinet Office has developed a Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) strategy that seeks to define the high-level requirements for resilient PNT systems. This work has included engaging subject matter experts across a full range of Government departments, including those leading in maritime, aviation, energy and communications sectors. Views have also been taken from selected PNT industry members to ensure peer review and robust challenge. The review of current governance arrangements, which aims to ensure that coordination of PNT across government is put on sustainable footing, is nearing completion and is expected to be concluded shortly.

A team in the Cabinet Office has developed a Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) strategy that seeks to define the high-level requirements for resilient PNT systems. This work has included engaging subject matter experts across a full range of Government departments, including those leading in maritime, aviation, energy and communications sectors. Views have also been taken from selected PNT industry members to ensure peer review and robust challenge. The review of current governance arrangements, which aims to ensure that coordination of PNT across government is put on sustainable footing, is nearing completion and is expected to be concluded shortly.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

19 January 2021

Dear Lord West,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people aged (1) below 50, (2) 50 to 59, (3) 60 to 69, (4) 70 to 79, and (5) over 80 years, have died as a result of COVID-19 as of 31 December 2020; and how many in each age group had a serious underlying health condition (HL12082).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales. As part of the ‘Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales’ publication[1], we produce the number of deaths involving COVID-19 by age group. Table 1 below shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 registered in England and Wales between 28 December 2019 and 1 January 2021, the relevant period used in our regular mortality reports, for the age bands below 50, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80 years and over.

The mortality statistics produced by the ONS are based on the information recorded when a death is certified and registered. A doctor will only record a health condition on the death certificate if it was in the sequence of events leading to death, or was a contributory factor in the death; the death certificate does not list all health conditions the person suffered from. Therefore, we can say in how many deaths a particular condition was involved (i.e. mentioned on the death certificate) but not how many deaths in total were of individuals suffering from such conditions. Similarly, where several conditions are mentioned on the death certificate, we cannot necessarily say whether each one was ‘serious’ in itself. For example, a chronic condition such as diabetes might have contributed to the death in combination with COVID-19, but be unlikely to have caused death on its own.

Information on deaths involving COVID-19 and pre-existing health conditions was published in July for the period 1 March to 30 June 2020 [2]. Table 2 shows the number of deaths involving COVID-19 occurring in England and Wales between 1 March and 30 June 2020, registered up to 4 July 2020, for the age bands below 50, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80 years and over, divided into those did or did not have one or more pre-existing conditions mentioned on the death certificate. The analysis of pre-existing conditions in the deaths involving COVID-19 is planned to be updated in the next six weeks.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1. Deaths due to COVID-19 registered between 28 December 2019 and 1 January 2021, England and Wales[3]^,[4],[5],[6]

Table 2. Deaths involving COVID-19 by whether a pre-existing condition was mentioned on the death certificate, deaths occurring 1 March to 30 June 2020, England and Wales[7]^{,[8],[9],[10]}

Source: ONS

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/latest

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19englandandwales/deathsoccurringinjune2020

[3] Includes deaths registered between 28 December 2019 and 1 January 2021. These figures represent death registrations, there can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. More information can be found in our impact of registration delays release.

[4] Does not include deaths where age is either missing or not yet fully coded.

[5] Does not include deaths of those resident outside England and Wales or those records where the place of residence is either missing or not yet fully coded.

[6] All figures for 2020 and 2021 are provisional.

[7] Includes deaths occurring between 1 March and 30 June 2020, registered up to 4 July 2020.

[8] Based on all deaths involving COVID-19 (ICD-10 codes U07.1 and U07.2) not only deaths ‘due to’ COVID-19 (i.e. where COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death).

[9] Includes deaths of non-residents.

[10] All figures for 2020 and 2021 are provisional.

The Cabinet Office (which includes the Prime Minister’s Office) does not hold any records on HMS Dasher or Operation Mincemeat. In line with standard practice, historic records are transferred to The National Archives. A number of files relating to both HMS Dasher and Operation Mincemeat are held by The National Archives, including under references CAB 154/66; CAB 154/112; CAB 79/60/18; CAB 79/60/20; CAB 79/60/24; CAB 79/60/26; CAB 79/60/27; and CAB 146/442.

The Cabinet Office (which includes the Prime Minister’s Office) does not hold any records on HMS Dasher or Operation Mincemeat. In line with standard practice, historic records are transferred to The National Archives. A number of files relating to both HMS Dasher and Operation Mincemeat are held by The National Archives, including under references CAB 154/66; CAB 154/112; CAB 79/60/18; CAB 79/60/20; CAB 79/60/24; CAB 79/60/26; CAB 79/60/27; and CAB 146/442.

The Cabinet Office holds the original CAB 93/7, it contains no material related to Operation Mincemeat. A version is held by The National Archives (TNA). Consultation of the volume held by TNA would need to be made by appointment, a service currently suspended owing to national restrictions. Details of how to arrange a visit are available here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/

The UK and the EU discussed the Galileo programme during the Withdrawal Agreement negotiations. The EU’s offer then on Galileo did not meet the UK’s defence and industrial requirements.

Planning for a pandemic inevitably engages the work of many different departments. Each department is responsible for ensuring its own preparedness, and that of its relevant sectors, to manage the impacts of a pandemic. The Cabinet Office's role includes coordinating the regular assessment of the UK’s overall risk landscape for both internal and public purposes, the Resilience Capabilities Programme, managing central government response including by convening COBR, providing crisis management training through the Emergency Planning College, and working with Departments to test emergency response plans.

It is our ambition to deploy up to 24 Gigawatts of civil nuclear generation by 2050, around 25% of our projected 2050 electricity demand.

GBN is running an SMR technology selection process to select those technologies best able to facilitate Final Investment Decisions in the next Parliament and be operational by the mid-2030s.

Through the Advanced Nuclear Fund, the Government has awarded up to £210m to support development of the Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design. The Rolls-Royce SMR entered the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process in March 2022, becoming the first SMR to begin UK nuclear regulation. In April 2023, the Rolls-Royce SMR progressed to Step 2 of GDA.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has made it more important than ever to reduce international dependencies on Russian energy supplies, which is why through the Sapporo Agreement and the Atlantic Declaration, the Government has committed to the development of shared, resilient supply chains to support global divestment from Russian nuclear fuel supply.

The UK’s uranium enrichment capabilities are amongst the best in the world, and Government has announced its commitment to growing these by developing a High Assay Low Enriched Uranium capability in the UK. The Government has also committed £13m, match-funded by Westinghouse, to fund preparatory work to bring Uranium Conversion capability back to the UK’s Springfields site, with the potential to deliver 7,500 tonnes of uranium conversion capability, for both reprocessed uranium and naturally enriched uranium, by the end of the decade. This would give a vital alternative capacity to Russia.

While fuel and uranium procurement is ultimately a commercial matter for reactor operators, the government continues to work closely with international fuel suppliers and our allies to mitigate and respond to any supply chain risks.

In the June 2022 Group of Seven Leaders’ Communique, the Government joined with G7 partners to state our collective intent to reduce reliance on civil nuclear and related goods from Russia, including working to assist countries seeking to diversify their nuclear fuel supply chains.

To this end, the Government has led discussions within the ‘Sapporo 5’ group of nuclear energy leaders Canada, France, Japan, and the United States to identify potential areas of collaboration on nuclear fuels, with the goal of reduced global dependence on Russian supply chains. UK regularly raises the topic of dependency on Russia for civil nuclear goods and materials with likeminded international partners and supports efforts to diversify.

In the June 2022 Group of Seven Leaders’ Communique, the Government joined with G7 partners to state our collective intent to reduce reliance on civil nuclear and related goods from Russia, including working to assist countries seeking to diversify their nuclear fuel supply chains.

To this end, the Government has led discussions within the ‘Sapporo 5’ group of nuclear energy leaders Canada, France, Japan, and the United States to identify potential areas of collaboration on nuclear fuels, with the goal of reduced global dependence on Russian supply chains. UK regularly raises the topic of dependency on Russia for civil nuclear goods and materials with likeminded international partners and supports efforts to diversify.

In the June 2022 Group of Seven Leaders’ Communique, the Government joined with G7 partners to state our collective intent to reduce reliance on civil nuclear and related goods from Russia, including working to assist countries seeking to diversify their nuclear fuel supply chains.

To this end, the Government has led discussions within the ‘Sapporo 5’ group of nuclear energy leaders Canada, France, Japan, and the United States to identify potential areas of collaboration on nuclear fuels, with the goal of reduced global dependence on Russian supply chains. UK regularly raises the topic of dependency on Russia for civil nuclear goods and materials with likeminded international partners and supports efforts to diversify.

The import, acquisition, supply and delivery of Russian oil and oil products into the UK has been banned since 5 December 2022. The ban uses the well-established non-preferential rules of origin under which products are regarded as originating from a country if there has been substantial, and economically justified, processing in that jurisdiction. Processing is regarded as substantial if it results in the manufacture of a new product such as the refining of crude oil into fuels.

In the three months to February 2023, since the ban came into effect, there has been no marked change in the volume of imports from India compared to the year before.

According to the International Energy Agency, Russian oil exports to India totalled 2.1 million barrels a day in March 2023, an increase of 1.7 million barrels a day compared to March 2022.

More precise data on international oil flows is observed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero but is subject to commercial licensing agreements and cannot be published by the Department.

The UK no longer receives information from the European Commission on the expected date by which the Galileo system and its different services will become fully operational.

The SBPP has now reported on options for improving the resilience of space-based PNT services and Government is considering the findings to determine the next steps as part of the business planning process.

The Government is committed to strengthening PNT resilience. Departments across Government are now looking at their resourcing for greater coordination of PNT requirements and risk appetite in relevant CNI sectors.

Once appropriate mechanisms are established, the outputs from GNSS and SBPP will provide a solid foundation to take forward further PNT resilience work.

OneWeb’s first generation satellites were not designed with Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services in mind.