Alicia Kearns

The Administration Committee undertook a review of unsolicited material that is delivered to the House of Commons for distribution to all Members. The conclusion of that review limited the distribution of bulk mailings to letters and reports only with a size and weight restriction. Members must now opt-in to continue to receive specific mailings, such as the China Daily. At the present time, no Members subscribe to the China Daily.

China Daily has been delivered to our mail screening centre in bulk, addressed to all Members since 2016. There is an unsubscribing email address that is passed to Members who no longer wish to receive it.

The bulk delivery has never been requested by the Administration. However, the Speaker has now asked the Administration Committee to review the process of bulk mail deliveries including the related costs.

The Government has confirmed that the National Security Adviser will attend a private session with the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy in Parliament.

The Government has confirmed that the National Security Adviser will attend a private session with the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy in Parliament.

The National Security Adviser discusses a wide range of national security matters with the Prime Minister. The Government does not routinely comment on the meetings of the National Security Adviser, which are often sensitive in nature.

The Government does not routinely comment on the meetings of the National Security Adviser, which are often sensitive in nature.

As set out in the Plan For Change, this Government’s first duty is to make the UK safer, more secure, and resilient against growing and interconnected threats.

The Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary has announced plans to restructure and reorganise the Cabinet Office to make it more efficient and more effective. This programme is currently underway.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has not met with Britten-Norman.

Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published routinely on Gov.uk as part of the Government’s transparency agenda. The latest returns can be found here for Ministers: DBT: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, July to September 2024 - GOV.UK

No company in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain. The Department for Business and Trade will continue to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the UK's existing measures, alongside the impacts of new policy tools that are emerging, to ensure it can best tackle forced labour in supply chains, and work with businesses and international partners to understand the impact of measures to combat forced labour.

Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

The Department has not conducted its own assessment of the comparative costs of undersea cables and pylon networks. However, in April 2025, the Institution of Engineering and Technology published average lifetime cost estimates which suggest that 400kV AC overhead lines cost approximately £1,190/Megawatt-kilometre (MWkm), while subsea HVDC connections between onshore substations cost around £6,170/MWkm—over 5.2 times more.

An extensive offshore network is being built to meet the rising demand for electricity and connect new renewable generation. The strategic, coordinated approach National Energy System Operator (NESO) is taking to network planning has allowed them to recommend extensive use of offshore “bootstraps” to reinforce the onshore grid, and design integrated offshore networks in some areas, where they are the most optimised designs. The recommendations in NESO’s recent strategic network plans (‘Pathway to 2030’ (2022) and ‘Beyond 2030’ (2024)) could mean that by 2035, three times as much undersea cabling could be laid than new pylons across Britain.

The Clean Energy Partnership, signed by the Energy Secretary, allows UK officials to engage with the equivalent Chinese ministry to share policy best practice and technical knowledge in support of enabling the UK and China’s respective energy transitions, which is key in tackling the climate crisis. It also provides a platform to address any concerns we may have around energy security directly with China.

This partnership is a private document, consistent with the precedent agreed by the previous government and China’s National Energy Administration.

We will always take a consistent, long-term strategic approach to managing relations with China, ensuring that we have the appropriate measures in place to mitigate any risks.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon Friend the Minister for Climate gave on 12 February to the Urgent Question tabled by the hon Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine).

We cannot comment on individual investment cases, but investment into the energy sector is subject to the highest levels of national security scrutiny, and we will continue to work closely with industry to build secure supply chains and ensure the UK remains one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and its associated certifications are not owned by the UK Government. We therefore cannot comment on the policies and data security systems they recommend.

All cross government security and data policies are published on gov.uk and security.gov.uk . Each government organisation will have its own local policies on how to protect data and systems for realising this goal. This is not information held centrally by DSIT.

The government welcomes steps taken to remove this game from gaming platforms. The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls, including where it occurs online, in a decade. We expect all platforms, including gaming sites in scope of the Online Safety Act, to comply with the law. This currently requires all user-to-user and search services to have systems and processes in place to remove illegal content, and in the coming months, to protect children from harmful content.

The government takes the issue of global intellectual property crime and infringement seriously and engages with other governments, industry and law enforcement partners to tackle this issue. We also work with businesses to help them safeguard their innovations across international markets.

The UK aviation market operates predominantly in the private sector; therefore, it is ultimately the responsibility of the industry to determine appropriate protections of intellectual property.

Project Gigabit is the government’s programme to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to UK premises that are not included in suppliers' commercial plans. Eligible premises in the district council area of South Kesteven are set to benefit from three Project Gigabit contracts currently set to deliver new gigabit-capable connections between now and 2029.

We also want all areas of the UK to benefit from good quality mobile coverage. 4G coverage is now available from all four mobile network operators in 97% of South Kesteven. Our ambition is to go further, with all populated areas, including South Kesteven, having higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030.

The award of a £71.5 million Project Gigabit contract to the broadband supplier CityFibre to connect around 38,600 rural and hard-to-reach premises across Leicestershire and Warwickshire will deliver fast, reliable broadband, with the work due to commence in August. This contract includes homes and businesses in the Rutland and Stamford constituency that would otherwise miss out on a gigabit-capable connection. Parts of Rutland and Stamford are also set to benefit from other Project Gigabit contracts, including the £68.6 million contract that CityFibre is delivering across Cambridgeshire and surrounding areas.

Sports bodies operate independently of the Government. The shirt sponsorship contract with AIA is a commercial matter for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

China's imposition of the National Security Law on Hong Kong has seen opposition stifled and dissent criminalised. The UK has called for the National Security Law to be repealed and for an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it. This Government will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong.

The Government strongly sympathises with all customers who are impacted by the collapse of a gambling operator and appreciates the difficulties caused where significant sums of money are lost in such a scenario. However, there is no compensation scheme for losses caused by a gambling firm ceasing to operate and the Government does not think it would be appropriate to use public funds for these purposes. Money staked with a gambling business is not protected by the Gambling Commission or the Government in the same way as money in personal bank accounts.

The growth and development of digital radio and changes in listener behaviour have resulted in a clear shift away from analogue listening – digital listening now accounts for 74% of all radio listening (RAJAR Q3 2024). Although AM/FM platforms remain important for smaller commercial and community stations, significant numbers of listeners are migrating to digital platforms.

The licensing of AM/FM radio services is a matter for Ofcom, and in October Ofcom set out its current approach to licensing in a progress report on the rollout of small-scale DAB (SSDAB) technology. This report set out Ofcom’s current view that SSDAB offers audiences a wider range of services and makes a more efficient use of spectrum than FM, and committed to at least two further rounds of SSDAB licensing before considering the possibility of any further analogue licensing in the future.

The digital elements of the reception baseline assessment (RBA) have been in development since 2019 and subject to extensive trials with teachers and pupils, using the Standards and Testing Agency’s internationally recognised assessment development approach. This has included item validation trials in 2020, 2021 and 2023 involving 2,801 pupils across 277 schools, and a technical pre-test trial in 2022 where 2,406 assessments were completed across a nationally representative sample of 254 schools. In November and December 2024, a voluntary trial involving over 1,000 schools took place, and participating schools undertook key activities needed to administer the assessment, including completing a sample assessment with three pupils. Input from the trials and extensive review by early years experts and teachers has helped shape the content and the digital platform to meet the needs of schools and pupils.

The revised RBA remains interactive and play-based, retaining the use of small toys and verbal responses for other questions. Pupils can respond verbally to on-screen questions if they do not wish to interact with the screen, and a paper-based alternative is available where this is more suitable for the pupil.

Schools, trusts, and local authorities are responsible for making decisions that best meet their educational and operational needs regarding the use of technology in the classroom. The department does not set specific requirements for how often schools should use tablets. To help schools make informed decisions when procuring technology, the department has published advice and guidance to schools through the digital and technology standards and the plan technology for your school service.

The digital elements of the reception baseline assessment (RBA) have been in development since 2019 and subject to extensive trials with teachers and pupils, using the Standards and Testing Agency’s internationally recognised assessment development approach. This has included item validation trials in 2020, 2021 and 2023 involving 2,801 pupils across 277 schools, and a technical pre-test trial in 2022 where 2,406 assessments were completed across a nationally representative sample of 254 schools. In November and December 2024, a voluntary trial involving over 1,000 schools took place, and participating schools undertook key activities needed to administer the assessment, including completing a sample assessment with three pupils. Input from the trials and extensive review by early years experts and teachers has helped shape the content and the digital platform to meet the needs of schools and pupils.

The revised RBA remains interactive and play-based, retaining the use of small toys and verbal responses for other questions. Pupils can respond verbally to on-screen questions if they do not wish to interact with the screen, and a paper-based alternative is available where this is more suitable for the pupil.

Schools, trusts, and local authorities are responsible for making decisions that best meet their educational and operational needs regarding the use of technology in the classroom. The department does not set specific requirements for how often schools should use tablets. To help schools make informed decisions when procuring technology, the department has published advice and guidance to schools through the digital and technology standards and the plan technology for your school service.

The core Adult Skills Fund covers a very wide breadth of qualifications including those related to butchery and poultry dressing (for example the Level 2 Certificate for Proficiency in Meat and Poultry Industry Skills). The department sets funding rates which are designed to incentivise the delivery of “high value” courses in the Adult Skills Fund. Butchery courses (insofar as they are included in the Manufacturing Technologies Sector Subject Area) are in the “High” funding band which means providers receive more funding per learner than courses relating to other industries.

The government also funds training through the Level 2 Butcher apprenticeship standard and the Level 3 Advanced Butcher apprenticeship standard.

The UK welcomes international partnerships, including with China, which make a positive impact on the UK’s higher education (HE) sector, our economy and society as a whole. However, we will always protect our national security interests, human rights and values.

Any international arrangements made by registered HE providers in England must be within the law and comply with the registration conditions set by the Office for Students, including a commitment to their public interest governance principles. There are a set of further measures that protect against undue foreign interference in our universities. These range from the Academic Technology Approval Scheme, which vets students and researchers seeking to study in sensitive areas, to the provisions in the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act 2023, which will offer a focussed route for concerns, including relating to foreign interference in academic freedom and free speech, to be escalated.

To support universities to maximise the opportunities of international collaboration whilst managing the risks, the government offers practical advice through the National Protective Security Authority, the National Cyber Security Centre and the Research Collaboration and Advice Team. The department works alongside these partners and engages directly with the sector to increase their understanding of the risks and their ability to respond to them.

This government will take a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China, rooted in UK and global interests. We will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to and challenge where we must. The department is contributing towards the government’s audit of the UK’s relationship with China as a bilateral and global actor, to improve our ability to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities China poses.

The government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled. We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies.

The government's Generative artificial intelligence (AI) framework outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process governmental information.

Everyone who works with government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.

It is for educational bodies to make their own decisions on how to manage the use of Generative AI in their specific organisational and technology contexts.