Gareth Johnson

I am pleased to share that more than 98% of premises in Dartford can already access a superfast broadband connection and almost 81% have access to a gigabit-capable connection. Both of these figures are above the national average. Across the UK, over 75% of UK premises now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection, which is a significant increase from just 6% in January 2019.

The Government is committed to working with broadband suppliers to ensure 85% of UK premises can access gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and then for nationwide coverage by 2030. We are on track to achieve our target.

As part of Project Gigabit, the Government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK, we have begun launching procurements that give subsidies to broadband suppliers to build gigabit-capable infrastructure to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans alone.

In December 2022, we launched a procurement covering Kent, which will improve broadband connectivity for up to 72,000 premises, including many in Dartford. We currently aim to award a contract to the successful supplier later this year.

Constituents in Dartford have also made good use of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme which provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. More than 85 premises in Dartford have received a fast, reliable connection through the voucher scheme, worth over £190,000.

Work is ongoing to ensure that the regulatory system supports the development of a UK hydrogen economy. This includes through the BEIS Hydrogen Regulators Forum and bilateral engagement. The Government will work with industry and regulators to identify, prioritise and implement any changes to the existing framework, including addressing any gaps, to support the growth of the hydrogen economy. BEIS recently consulted on existing regulatory arrangements through a consultation on hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure business models and regulation, and is currently reviewing the submitted responses.

In July 2022, the Government published the Hydrogen Sector Development Action Plan which sets out actions the Government and industry are taking to support UK supply chains. Actions include improving project visibility and holding ‘Meet the Specifier’ events, designed to increase transparency of project timings and requirements for supply chain companies. Industry will also lead work voluntarily to set levels of ambition for supply chains in UK hydrogen projects.

Between September 2019 and August 2020, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles received 38,612 applications under the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme.

With government support, charities and civil society organisations have shown significant resilience over the past few years.

Government is supporting all organisations, including charities such as the British Evacuees Association, with their energy bills. This support has now been extended until March 2024 via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. This scheme provides long term certainty for organisations and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year.

Whilst it is not usual for DCMS to provide direct funding to individual charities, the department will keep engaging constructively across the civil society sector to monitor the impact of rising costs, and signposting to other sources of funding where appropriate.

With government support, charities and civil society organisations have shown significant resilience over the past few years, and will again be crucial in supporting communities and households through this challenging period.

Government is supporting all organisations, including those across the civil society sector, with their energy bills. This support has now been extended until March 2024 via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. This scheme provides long term certainty for organisations and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year.

Government’s support for energy bills sits alongside a range of existing funding that is delivered by central and local government in the form of grants and contracts. My Department will keep engaging constructively across the civil society sector to monitor the impact of rising costs, and signposting to other sources of funding where appropriate.

Government supports the commemoration of Second World War evacuees through the work of public bodies of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, including the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded 120 grants, totalling £1,088,450, to projects across 95 local authorities that are specifically related to Second World War Evacuee activities. The Heritage Fund also works with museums, libraries and archives across the UK, funding a range of history-related projects, some of which will also go towards commemorating Second World War evacuees.

The Department also directly sponsors Imperial War Museums, one of our national museums devoted to highlighting the stories and experiences of the Second World War, and evacuees.

We will be taking forward measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually through other means during the remainder of this Parliament. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way.

Since consulting on the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in 2019, officials have been developing final proposals for a DRS using further evidence and ongoing engagement with stakeholders. This will be presented in a second consultation in 2021 alongside a full impact assessment.

As we leave the EU, we will be a liberalising force for trade in the world. We aim to secure agreements with countries accounting for 80% of UK trade within three years of leaving the EU.

As we take up our independent seat at the WTO we will be a champion of global free trade.

Yes. Whilst the service is working well now, a number of users experienced unsatisfactory delays. National Highways will consider carefully similar processes in future.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides information about UK-registered vehicles to Transport for London in line with the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (England) Regulations 2002. The release of DVLA information for this purpose is governed by Regulation 27 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002.

Many of the Department’s research, development, and demonstration funding programmes support the development of hydrogen for transport. This includes the £206 million UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions, the £165 million Advanced Fuels Fund as part of the Jet Zero programme, the pioneering £212 million Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstrator, and the £7.6 million First of a Kind fund in rail.

The Department’s investment of £23 million to a dedicated Hydrogen Transport Hub on Tees Valley will be used to explore how hydrogen works across transport in conjunction with regions energy system and local businesses. The Government is also supporting the development of skills and announced funding to enable this, working with the Tees Valley Combined Authority to upskill the local workforce.

We are committed to tackling this virus while enabling a sustainable and responsible return to international travel, and keep our approach to border measures under regular review to ensure that they remain effective and practical. To that effect, the Transport Secretary discusses a range of topics relating to COVID-19 with Cabinet colleagues and international counterparts.

On 7 October 2020, the Government announced the new Global Travel Taskforce, to support the travel industry and support the safe recovery of international travel. The Taskforce will accelerate work to inform proposals on a future testing regime, and develop options for how this could be introduced.

The Dartford Thurrock Crossing was designed to handle up to 135,000 vehicle movements each day, but it is not uncommon for over 180,000 vehicles to use the Crossing.

The Dartford Road User Charge was introduced in 2003 to manage user demand which currently exceeds the capacity of the Crossing. Given that low or zero emission vehicles also use scarce road capacity, there is a rationale for continuing to charge them to use the Crossing. The Department currently has no plans to remove charges for owners of wholly electric vehicles using the Crossing.

Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom. Smoking causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK and is responsible for just over 70% of all lung cancer deaths. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. Smoking costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Almost every minute of every day someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking, and up to 75,000 general practitioner appointments attributed to smoking each month, constituting over 100 appointments every hour.

This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old or younger this year will never be legally sold tobacco products. As per existing age of sale legislation, smokers will be required to produce identification if retailers are uncertain that they are above the legal smoking age.

Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, causes around one in four cancer deaths and is responsible for just over 70% of all lung cancer deaths. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. Smoking costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Almost every minute of every day someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking, and up to 75,000 General Practice appointments attributed to smoking each month – over 100 appointments every hour.

This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old this year or younger will never be legally sold tobacco products.

Modelling assumptions for the policy outline that one of our four scenarios modelled reflects the assumptions used in modelling from New Zealand. The document is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/651d3fdf6a6955000d78b29e/cp-949-II-stopping-the-start-annex-1-modelling-assumptions.pdf

As at all events at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, we will use the opportunity to speak about the United Kingdom’s progress on the implementation of tobacco control policies. This will include, where relevant, the role of nicotine replacement therapy and vapes in supporting people to quit all forms of tobacco.

All the COP papers and decisions during the COP are available at the following link:

https://fctc.who.int/who-fctc/governance/conference-of-the-parties/tenth-session-of-the-conference-of-the-parties

NHS England’s National Disease Registration Service, as the national cancer registry, collects diagnosis and treatment data on cancer patients in England.

There were 6,111 diagnoses of ovarian cancer in 2020. This figure is taken from the published national statistics publication, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/cancer-registration-statistics/england-2020

There were 6,527 diagnoses in 2021 and 6,451 diagnoses in 2022. These figures are not yet finalised and are taken from the rapid cancer registration data set, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/ndrs/data/data-outputs/covid-19-rcrd-and-treatment-data

Data on the number of people diagnosed with ovarian cancer in England before 2020 is available publicly at the CancerData website.

We do not currently screen for ovarian cancer, in part due to the unsuitability of the CA125 blood test as a screening tool. CA125 blood testing is not deemed by the UK National Screening Committee to be accurate enough for the purpose of screening. The blood test is offered to those who have symptoms that could be ovarian cancer as a part of routine diagnostics.

We are aware of the difficulties British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) passport holders are experiencing in seeking early withdrawal of their pension held by the Mandatory Provident Fund in Hong Kong. The root of the problem is the Chinese Government's decision not to recognise the British National (Overseas) passport. The UK firmly opposes the discrimination against BN(O)s in this way. We have urged the Hong Kong authorities to facilitate the early withdrawal of funds as is the case for other Hong Kong residents who move overseas permanently. I raised this issue with Christopher Hui, Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury on 18 April and pressed for a pragmatic solution.

The department has engaged with various stakeholders since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak with respect to company directors who are paid via dividends.

The Government’s concern is about identifying what is operationally feasible, managing technical complexities and fraud risks, and ensuring that other schemes the Government has committed to are delivered in a timely way.

Company directors who are paid via dividends may still be eligible for various elements of the support available, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (in respect of their salary but not their dividends), Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, increased levels of Universal Credit, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.

Any legal advice received by the Home Office is subject to legal professional privilege and, as such, we do not comment on legal advice that may or may not have been sought or received.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is already in force. This raised the maximum penalty for wilful obstruction of the highway, ensuring offenders can receive proportionate sentences for the disruption they cause.

The Public Order Bill is now passing through Parliament and will improve the police’s ability to respond to highly disruptive tactics. For example, lock-on offence and the associated stop and search power will allow the police to pro-actively prevent the selfish minority of protesters causing serious disruption on our roads.

The Government have tabled an amendment to the Bill which will allow the police to intervene before disruption occurs, enabling them to shut down protests before they descend into chaos. The amendment also allows the police to consider the total disruption caused by multiple events occurring at the same time or in close proximity, as well as long-running campaigns designed to cause repeat disruption over a period of days or weeks.

The responsibility for the costs of fixing historical building safety defects should rest with building owners. They should not pass these costs on to leaseholders but should seek to recover costs from those who were responsible for building unsafe homes.

We have undertaken extensive work over the last two years to review buildings under 11 metres which have been reported to us as having potential building safety issues. Almost all have proven not to need any intervention following detailed review.

In rare cases where remediation work is required in buildings under 11 metres, the Government has retrospectively extended the limitation period under Section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 enabling legal action against developers and contractors where works completed in the last 30 years made a dwelling not “fit for habitation”.

These rights include:

• extending the Defective Premises Act to 30 years retrospectively, so compensation can be sought from developers where homes have not been built to the appropriate standard and are not fit for habitation; and,
• civil claims where products have caused or contributed to a dwelling being ‘not fit for habitation’.

The Government has implemented a risk-based and proportionate approach to regulating safety in residential buildings and in remediating cladding and other building safety defects. In general, the risk to life in lower-rise buildings is low and can be mitigated, for example, by installing fire alarms.

We are aware of a very small number of buildings under 11 metres where expensive remediation is proposed. We have written to freeholders and managing agents in affected buildings to make sure that any proposed works are necessary and proportionate and the rights to redress are being fully utilised.

This Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners and making sure that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.

By law, variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard. Leaseholders may make an application to the appropriate tribunal to challenge the reasonableness of their service charges. We are committed to better protecting and empowering leaseholders by giving them more information on what their costs pay for, and removing barriers to challenge when things go wrong.

For those homeowners living on freehold estates, we are also committed to making the management companies more accountable to their freeholders.

We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this parliament.

It is already a legal requirement for letting and managing agents in England and Wales, and residential sales (estate) agents in the UK, to belong to one of the two Government approved redress schemes.

The Government is considering the recommendations in the final report on the regulation of property agents from Lord Best's working group. We will continue to work with industry on improving best practice, including in relation to codes of practice. Announcements will be set out in the usual way.

It is already a legal requirement for letting and managing agents in England and Wales, and residential sales (estate) agents in the UK, to belong to one of the two Government approved redress schemes.

The Government is considering the recommendations in the final report on the regulation of property agents from Lord Best's working group. We will continue to work with industry on improving best practice, including in relation to codes of practice. Announcements will be set out in the usual way.