Gill Furniss

Cracking down on non-compliance in the Labour Market is a priority for the Government and a new Director for Labour Market Enforcement will be appointed as soon as possible. Recruitment for the role is ongoing and a successful candidate will be announced in due course.

The temporary vacancy has no impact on workers’ rights. The three enforcement bodies themselves are responsible for their overall work and enforcement responsibilities. They will continue to work hard to protect workers and bring enforcement action against employers who break the rules.

We want to attract and retain the most highly skilled, globally mobile talent from around the world, and ensure the UK is a top destination for scientists, researchers and innovators.

The UK has a world-leading research base: with less than 1% the world’s population, the UK accounts for more than 3% of researchers, 7% per cent of the world’s academic publications, and 14% of the world’s most highly-cited academic publications.

In order to encourage international PhD students to study in the UK, UKRI has increased the overall proportion of UKRI studentships available to international students from Academic Year 2021/22. All students would receive a full award, to include a stipend and fees at the home level.

The new Student route was launched by Government on 5th October as part of the UK's new points-based immigration system, streamlining the immigration process for international students. Furthermore, from summer 2021, the new Graduate route will enable students who have completed a PhD to remain in the UK after graduation to stay and work, or look for work, for up to three years. Students who have successfully completed undergraduate and master’s degrees will be able to stay for a further two years after study.

The Government has implemented a number of concessions to assist visa holders in the UK who have been impacted by global travel and health restrictions. This has included offering extensions of visas for those whose leave has expired, and relaxing the rules on switching in the UK, as well as extending the deadline by which international students need to be in the UK to be eligible to apply for the Graduate route.

This year’s overall settlement for BEIS follows four years of significant growth in R&D funding, including a boost of more than £1.5 billion in 2020/21 and will mean UK Government R&D spending is now at its highest level in four decades. The Government is committed to increasing public expenditure on R&D to £22 billion.

Despite current fiscal challenges, the November 2020 Spending Review set out the Government’s plan to cement the UK’s status as a global leader in science and innovation by investing £14.9 billion in R&D, with £11.3 billion for BEIS.

Specific funding breakdowns for 2021/22, including UKRI's funding, is subject to our Departmental allocations process, which is progressing at pace. As set out in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State takes advice from UKRI’s Board to ensure strategic priorities are met within BEIS’ overall R&D settlement.

The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers are prepared to shine a light on wrongdoing and believes that they should be able to do so without fear of recrimination.

BEIS has provided guidance for whistleblowers and employers (including a non-statutory code of practice).  This aims to ensure that more employers follow good practice when responding to disclosures relating to whistleblowing. The Department will review the effectiveness of guidance in due course.

Improving the energy efficiency of homes is the best long-term solution to tackle fuel poverty. The Energy Company Obligation is a GB wide energy efficiency scheme worth £640m per year until March 2022 and is focused on low-income and vulnerable households. The Green Homes Grant, launched in September 2020, is a £2 billion programme which will help improve the energy efficiency of homes in England. Of this, around half is specifically for low income, vulnerable and fuel poor households.

We recognise that some households may need immediate support this winter and so we provide assistance with energy bills for low income and vulnerable consumers through the Warm Home Discount, Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments.

We have also successfully negotiated an agreement with energy suppliers to support customers impacted by COVID-19. Based on the circumstances, this could include reassessing, reducing, or pausing debt repayments for households in financial distress and support for prepayment meter customers to stay on supply.

While the Government does account for carbon dioxide emissions at the regional and local authority level, estimates of these emissions following the introduction of Covid restrictions last year are not yet available. For 2018, the latest year available, carbon dioxide emissions for the Sheffield local authority area were estimated to be 2,200ktCO2. Total carbon dioxide emissions for the Yorkshire and Humber region in 2018 were estimated to be about 10% of the UK’s total.

As the Government continues to take the steps necessary to reduce our carbon emissions in line with our climate commitments, the Sheffield City Region, and the Yorkshire and Humber region more widely will play an important part in reaching net zero by 2050. For example, as part of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution, working with industry, the UK is aiming for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. This could see the UK benefitting from around 8,000 jobs across our industrial heartlands and beyond.

The Government is also determined for the UK to become a world-leader in technology to capture and store harmful emissions away from the atmosphere, with an ambition to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide a year by 2030, equivalent to all of Humber’s industrial emissions today. This is supported by an extra £200 million of new funding to create two carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s, with another two set to be created by 2030. This increased investment totals £1 billion, helping to support 50,000 jobs, potentially in areas such as the Humber, North East, North West, Scotland and Wales.

The Department have made no such assessment given that WHSmith’s restructuring programme is not expected to impact Post Office services provided in WHSmith stores. The review of WHSmith’s operations is to ensure the company is able to navigate the current uncertain economic times, particularly as a result of the decline in travel during Covid-19. However, the Department has an open dialogue with both Post Office Limited and WHSmith and will keep monitoring the situation.

The Government has invested over £2 billion in the Post Office network since 2010.

Our current funding agreement with Post Office runs up to 2021 and we are working with Post Office to ensure the network is sustainable beyond that point. Beyond 2021, Government remains committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the network and will work with Post Office Limited to achieve this.

Businesses operating from a domestic premises are eligible to benefit from a range of Government support during the pandemic, including the Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme (CBILS), Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), Future Fund, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

As of 12 July, £45 billion worth of loans have been approved under the three debt schemes (CBILS, CLBILS and BBLS). 429 convertible loans have been approved under the Future Fund, worth almost £419.6 million.

Around 95 per cent of those with more than half their income from self-employment in 2018-19 could be eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). As of 12 July, SEISS had helped 2.7 million individuals, claiming £7.8 billion of government support.

Those who pay themselves a salary through their own company via a PAYE scheme, including those based in domestic premises, are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). As of 12 July, 9.4 million jobs had been furloughed under the CJRS.

We engage frequently with businesses of all sizes including micro businesses and self-employed people and their representative organisations, to understand and identify the most effective support.

In order to apply for the Bounce Back Loans scheme, businesses complete a short, simple, online application form, meaning that applications can be submitted and processed rapidly. The Government is providing lenders with a 100% guarantee on each loan to give them the confidence they need to quickly support the smallest businesses in the country.

The scheme has proved popular with businesses and as of 5 July, there had been 1,013,410 approved loans totalling £30.93 billion.

The Government’s Safer Working guidance does not affect employers’ existing responsibilities under employment and equalities legislation. For example, this guidance does not change employers’ responsibilities towards new or expectant mothers. Workers who are pregnant are part of the “clinically vulnerable” group who are at higher risk of coronavirus.

Employers, therefore, need to bear in mind the particular needs of different groups or individuals, and make sure that the steps they take to address the risk of COVID-19 do not unjustifiably impact on some groups compared with others.

The Government is committed to protecting consumers from those who seek to profit from scams, and particularly those associated with Covid-19.

The Consumer Protection Partnership of consumer advice and enforcement agencies collects regular intelligence on scams as they emerge. Citizens Advice and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute issued advice and warnings on Covid-19 related scams earlier this month.

Consumers can access advice on how to spot a scam and how to report one through the Citizens Advice website. Citizens Advice refer cases onto enforcement agencies including local Trading Standards where appropriate.

The Government believes that Post Office Limited’s commitments for cultural and organisational change following the mediation are of the upmost importance and is determined to see them delivered.

I have personally challenged the Post Office CEO and Chair to strengthen their relationship with postmasters and take onboard the lessons learnt through the litigation. I will continue to raise this issue and test progress during my regular meetings with the CEO going forward. Officials will also monitor progress at regular meetings with Post Office officials.

BEIS has established and chairs a quarterly working group with the National Federation for Subpostmasters and the Post Office. This is a forum for discussing how the relationship between the Post Office and postmasters can be improved and highlighting any concerns that postmasters may have. This is a further forum where we will test whether progress is being made.

The Government is also committed to establishing an independent review to look at these issues further. We will announce more details in due course. We will ensure that any review does not undermine the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s work or the separate Director of Public Prosecution’s consideration.

The Government believes that Postmasters are at the heart of communities and we recognise the strength of feelings about the negative impact the Horizon Court case has had on postmasters, causing distress to them and their families.

In relation to £57.75 million settlement that was agreed between Post Office Limited and the postmasters concerned. The costs involved in the legal defence of this litigation were drawn from Post Office Limited’s own commercial revenues, including the settlement offer. The shareholder has specifically required that government funding is not used for this purpose.

Following the collapse of Thomas Cook, the Government committed to develop proposals for a capped, statutory payment scheme to support customers who suffered life-changing injuries, illness or loss of life while on Thomas Cook holidays for which the company would have been liable and who may now face serious financial hardship as a result of the company’s approach.

We intend to bring forward the legislation necessary to establish such a scheme in due course.

The UK’s creative industries are the finest in the world and this government is determined to support them.

This Government understands that the cultural and creative sectors rely on the ability to move people across borders quickly, simply, and with minimal cost and administration. Touring is a vital part of musicians and performers’ careers, providing not only a vital income stream, but also enriching opportunities for cultural exchange across the world.

Being outside the European Union does not change this. It does, however, mean practical changes on both sides of the Channel that will require understanding and adaptation.

UK performers and artists are of course still able to tour and perform in the EU, and vice versa. However, we understand the concerns about the new arrangements and we are committed to supporting the sectors as they get to grips with the changes to systems and processes.

We are now working urgently across government and in collaboration with the music and wider creative industries, including through a new working group, to help address these issues so that touring in Europe can resume with ease as soon as it is safe to do so.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings with social media platforms on a range of topics, including misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremist material. Information about Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website.

The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online.

The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, published in December 2020, sets out expectations on tech companies, including social media providers, to keep their users safe online. This includes a proposed legal duty of care on companies and the appointment of a new communications regulator, Ofcom, to ensure that new laws are enforced.The Full Government Response will be followed by legislation, which will be ready later this year.

The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, published in December 2020, sets out expectations on companies to keep their users safe online. This includes a proposed statutory duty of care on companies and the appointment of Ofcom as the regulator to ensure that new laws are enforced.

Under the new framework, all companies in scope will need to tackle the spread of illegal content and protect children. In addition, high risk and high reach social media platforms will need to set clear terms and conditions about content that is legal but harmful to adults, such as extremist materials, and enforce those terms consistently, transparently and effectively.

The Government takes the issue of disinformation very seriously. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it continues to be vitally important that the public has accurate information about the virus, and DCMS is leading work across Government to tackle disinformation.

That is why we stood up the Counter Disinformation Unit up in March 2020 to bring together cross-Government monitoring and analysis capabilities. The Unit’s primary function is to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation and misinformation regarding Covid-19 and to work with partners to ensure appropriate action is taken.

Throughout the pandemic, we have been working closely with social media platforms to help them to quickly identify and respond to potentially harmful content on their platforms, including unfounded conspiracy theories, in line with their terms and conditions, and to promote Government and NHS messaging.

In Tier 3 areas, indoor and outdoor performing arts venues, such as theatres, concert halls and music venues will be closed to audiences. However, training, rehearsals and performances without an audience for broadcast or recording purposes may continue. Drive-in venues will remain open to performances with audiences. Outdoor performing arts activity can still take place in line with the restrictions laid out in the Performing Arts Guidance, if not in an outdoor venue. The Performing Arts guidance covers both professional and non-professional activity and events.

We know that the introduction of venue closures in Tier 3 areas will affect some scheduled shows around the country. However we know that a number of venues are adapting their performances to broadcast without audiences. We have updated the performing arts guidance to enable all forms of performing arts activity to go ahead where it is safe for them to do so.

The Government continues to work with the cultural sector to bring back more and more performances and fuller audiences when it is safe to do so.

We have committed to a review of the Tiers on 16 December.

My department has not undertaken a recent assessment of the financial sustainability of public libraries in England.

The most recent assessment was the National Audit Office report published in 2018 on the Financial sustainability of local authorities for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government - https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Financial-sustainabilty-of-local-authorites-2018.pdf

The Government is providing local councils with unprecedented support during the pandemic with a £4.3 billion package, including £3.7 billion which is not ringfenced and £600 million to support social care providers. This is part of a wider package of almost £28 billion which the Government has committed to support local areas, with funding going to councils, businesses and communities. The 2020 Spending Review will look at pressures facing the sector and provide them with the certainty they need to aid financial planning.

On 17 July, the Prime Minister announced that as long as the prevalence of COVID-19 remains around or below current levels into the Autumn, we will reduce easements on a number of sectors including those listed from 1 October. We have always been clear that easing lockdown restrictions depended on the prevalence of COVID-19. As with all aspects of the Government’s response to Covid-19, our decisions have been and will continue to be based on scientific evidence and public health assessments.

From 15 August, audiences adhering to social distancing were able to return to live indoor theatres, music and performance venues. This is the fourth stage of the performing arts roadmap and we continue to work with the sector on how we can achieve the final stage of the roadmap, indoor performances with fuller audiences. Exhibition and conference centers were allowed to show small groups of up to 30 people with social distancing requirements to view the facilities and plan future events and to enable government-backed pilots to take place.

The Government also announced that a small number of sporting events and business events will be used to pilot the safe return of spectators and attendees through September– with the ambition to reopen competition venues for sports fans and venues for business events, with social distancing measures in place, from 1 October, subject to the covid situation.

We have worked closely with events stakeholders through both the Visitor Economy and Events & Entertainment Working Groups to develop Covid-19 Secure reopening guidance for the business events industry. We continue to meet with the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel to discuss the specific issues facing the industry.

Cinemas were able to reopen on the 4th of July thanks to the guidance that was recently published.

We also recently published a 5-stage roadmap for reopening performing art venues - which are currently allowed to rehearse and broadcast shows without an audience.

We hope to move to stage 3 which will allow for outdoor performances, and stage 4, indoors with social distancing soon.

On 5 July, DCMS announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of sectors, including performing arts and theatres, museums and galleries, heritage sites, live music venues and independent cinema. We want this package to support organisations across the cultural, heritage and creative sectors, and will publish further detailed guidance as soon as possible in July.

The income scheme announced on Thursday 2 July by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, aims to support local authorities who have incurred irrecoverable loss of income from sales, fees and charge which they had reasonably budgeted for. Further guidance will follow on the principle of the scheme.

Practical guidance for heads of library service and library staff to assist the reopening of physical library buildings in England from 4 July was published by Libraries Connected on Monday 29 June. The Libraries Connected Service Recovery Toolkit, developed in partnership with key library stakeholders and DCMS, will help libraries to reopen and to reintroduce their services gradually, in line with the latest public health advice. The toolkit is available at: https://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/resource/service-recovery-toolkit-june-2020-word.

The Department believes that all pupils deserve to be taught a knowledge-rich curriculum that promotes the extensive reading of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. School libraries complement public libraries in allowing pupils to do this.

It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. Many head teachers recognise the important role school libraries play in improving literacy and encouraging pupils to read for pleasure and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided.

The National Curriculum requires teachers to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. It also emphasises the importance of listening to, discussing, and reading for themselves a wide range of stories, poems, plays and non-fiction books.

The Department is investing £14 billion more in schools over the three financial years to 2022-23, allowing schools to provide more resources like library provision, to make sure all pupils get the top quality education they deserve.

The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, including for those children from disadvantaged backgrounds. English is fundamental to education and provides the knowledge pupils need to communicate with others, both in school and in the wider world, providing pupils the opportunity to develop their spoken language, reading and writing.

The National Curriculum has been designed to make sure that all children leave primary school fully literate and ready to progress at secondary school. There is a renewed focus on the requirement for pupils to be taught to read through systematic synthetic phonics and applying phonic knowledge to word reading. By ensuring high quality phonics teaching, the Government wants to improve literacy levels to give all children a solid base upon which to build as they progress through school and help children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.

The curriculum places a greater focus on reading and requires pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays to encourage the development of a lifelong love of literature. Within the framework of the National Curriculum, schools make their own choices on the specific programmes or resources they use. The curriculum for English increases the level of challenge from an early age with greater emphasis on grammar and vocabulary development, and in 2013 the Department introduced a new test of pupils’ knowledge in this area to be taken by Year 6 pupils. Ofsted’s inspection framework now puts much more focus on how well schools are teaching their pupils to read, with inspectors listening to children reading aloud, watching phonics classes, and checking how schools help weaker readers to improve. The Ofsted inspection framework is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-inspection-framework.

England achieved its highest ever score in reading in 2016, moving from joint 10th to joint 8th in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study rankings. This improvement is largely attributable to increases in the average performance of lower performing pupils. This follows a greater focus on reading in the primary curriculum, and a particular focus on phonics.

In 2018, the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The 34 English Hubs in the programme are primary schools which are outstanding at teaching early reading. The Department has since invested a further £17 million in this school to school improvement programme, which focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure. Since its launch, the English Hubs Programme has provided appropriate and targeted support to several thousands of schools across England. In the 2020/21 academic year the programme is providing intensive support to over 875 partner schools.

The proportion of Year 1 pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check has gone from 58% in 2012, when the check was introduced, to 82% in 2019. For disadvantaged pupils, this has gone from 45% to 71%.

From 8 March 2021, all schools and colleges should allow full attendance. Schools affected by the remote education temporary continuity direction are still required to provide remote education for pupils covered by the direction where their attendance would be contrary to Government guidance or legislation around the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes, for example, where such guidance means that a class, group, or small number of pupils need to self-isolate or clinically extremely vulnerable children need to shield. Further information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/remote-education-temporary-continuity-direction-explanatory-note.

During the period of national lockdown, the Department expects all primary schools, secondary schools, and further education (FE) colleges in England to provide remote education for the majority of their pupils and students, with the exception of vulnerable children and young people, and the children of critical workers, who can attend school or FE colleges in person. Where vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers do not attend school or FE colleges, the Department expects schools and FE colleges to provide them with remote education. The definition of vulnerable children and young people includes children who have a social worker, an education, health, and care plan or who may be vulnerable for another reason. This may include young carers.

The Government is providing over £400 million to support remote education and online social care, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over one million laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, FE colleges, academy trusts, and local authorities by 15 February 2021.

Where remote education is needed and pupils and students continue to experience barriers to remote education, the Department expects schools and FE college to work to overcome these barriers. This could include distributing school or FE college owned laptops or supplementing digital provision with different forms of remote education such as printed resources or textbooks. Where young carers require further support with their remote education, the Department encourages them to speak to their school or college.

The return to school for all pupils is being prioritised due to the significant and proven impact caused by being out of school, including on wellbeing. The support schools provide to their pupils as they return to face-to-face education should include time devoted to supporting wellbeing, which will play a fundamental part in supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing recovery. The expectations for schools in this regard are set out clearly in the main Department for Education guidance to schools.

The Government’s £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme is facilitating local expert support for education staff to respond to emotional and mental health pressures some children and young people may be facing. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/8m-programme-to-boost-pupil-and-teacher-wellbeing.

The Government has provided over £11 million to the See, Hear, Respond programme to support vulnerable children and young people whose usual support networks have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, including young carers as a target group. The programme provides a range of support, including online counselling and helping children and young people stay connected with school.

The Government has also published guidance for both schools and local authorities on how best to support families and protect vulnerable children during the COVID-19 outbreak, alongside guidance for young people with caring responsibilities. This guidance includes information on how and where they can find help and support, including encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, concerning their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/young-carers-and-young-adult-carers-providing-care-during-coronavirus/guidance-for-those-under-25-who-provide-care-for-someone.

In schools and colleges where year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn by adults (staff and visitors) and pupils when moving around indoors, outside of classrooms, such as in corridors and communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain.

Face coverings can make it more difficult to communicate with children with additional needs or children who may rely on lip reading or facial expressions for understanding. We expect staff to be sensitive to these needs when teaching and interacting with children.

As the Department’s guidance outlines, some individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings. This includes people who cannot put on, wear, or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability, or if you are speaking to or aiding someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate. The same legal exemptions that apply to the wearing of face coverings in shops and on public transport also apply in schools and colleges.

Based on current evidence and the measures that schools are already putting in place, such as the system of controls and consistent bubbles, face coverings will not generally be necessary in the classroom.

Children in primary schools do not need to wear a face covering and older children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities may be exempt from wearing them, depending on their need.

The Department’s guidance on face coverings can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. The Government is providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

On 12 January, the Department announced that it will be providing a further 300,000 devices over the course of this term. The Get Help with Technology scheme will email all schools with information on the number of additional devices allocated to them, and when they will be able to order.

The number of devices available for each school, academy trust or local authority is based on children eligible for free school meals and takes into account existing devices available in schools. Schools, academy trusts and local authorities are responsible for distributing the laptops and tablets and are best placed to know which disadvantaged children and young people need access to a device.

Figures on the number of devices delivered is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data. These figures are broken down by local authority and academy trust. Information on delivery by constituency is not available.

Laptops and tablets provided under the Get Help with Technology scheme meet defined technical specifications to enable remote education and allow for use in schools and colleges. Information on devices specifications is published at: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/devices/device-specification.

Details of the contracts for this programme are available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder, in line with normal Government commercial practice. Information on the proportion of each contract that has been fulfilled is not available.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. The Government is providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

On 12 January, the Department announced that it will be providing a further 300,000 devices over the course of this term. The Get Help with Technology scheme will email all schools with information on the number of additional devices allocated to them, and when they will be able to order.

The number of devices available for each school, academy trust or local authority is based on children eligible for free school meals and takes into account existing devices available in schools. Schools, academy trusts and local authorities are responsible for distributing the laptops and tablets and are best placed to know which disadvantaged children and young people need access to a device.

Figures on the number of devices delivered is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data. These figures are broken down by local authority and academy trust. Information on delivery by constituency is not available.

Laptops and tablets provided under the Get Help with Technology scheme meet defined technical specifications to enable remote education and allow for use in schools and colleges. Information on devices specifications is published at: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/devices/device-specification.

Details of the contracts for this programme are available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder, in line with normal Government commercial practice. Information on the proportion of each contract that has been fulfilled is not available.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. The Government is providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

On 12 January, the Department announced that it will be providing a further 300,000 devices over the course of this term. The Get Help with Technology scheme will email all schools with information on the number of additional devices allocated to them, and when they will be able to order.

The number of devices available for each school, academy trust or local authority is based on children eligible for free school meals and takes into account existing devices available in schools. Schools, academy trusts and local authorities are responsible for distributing the laptops and tablets and are best placed to know which disadvantaged children and young people need access to a device.

Figures on the number of devices delivered is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data. These figures are broken down by local authority and academy trust. Information on delivery by constituency is not available.

Laptops and tablets provided under the Get Help with Technology scheme meet defined technical specifications to enable remote education and allow for use in schools and colleges. Information on devices specifications is published at: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/devices/device-specification.

Details of the contracts for this programme are available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder, in line with normal Government commercial practice. Information on the proportion of each contract that has been fulfilled is not available.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced on 4 January 2021 that early years settings remain open for all children during the national lockdown. Details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home. For school-aged children, schools, childminders and wraparound care remain open for vulnerable children and children of key workers.

Early years provision should continue to allow all children to attend full time or their usual timetabled hours. This includes early years registered nurseries and childminders, maintained nursery schools, as well as nursery classes in schools and other pre-reception provision on school sites. Only vulnerable children and children of critical workers should attend on-site reception classes. Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff. Current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0 to 5 years) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission.

We do stay in regular contact with the early years sector, and we are closely monitoring both parental take-up of places and the capacity and responses of providers. An estimated 49,000 early years settings were open on 7 January 2021. This represents 72% of all settings, with 13% closed and 15% unknown. The percentage closed may include some providers which are open, due to differences in the ways local authorities collect data and report non-responses.

The Department for Education does not hold a central register of all wraparound provision and so does not routinely collect data on the number of providers in operation. However, ensuring sufficiency of childcare provision for critical worker parents and carers remains a government priority. This is why we have ensured that wraparound childcare providers, and other providers of out-of-school activities, can continue to remain open during the current national lockdown for the children of critical workers to support their parents or carers to work, seek work, undertake training or education, or to attend a medical appointment or address a medical need, as well as for all vulnerable children. We have also published updated guidance on ‘Protective measures for holiday and after-school clubs, and other out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ to support providers to continue to operate as safely as possible during the national lockdown. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

In addition, we are encouraging all schools to continue offering their before and after school provision to ensure parents and carers who are critical workers can continue to work, as well as to ensure vulnerable children continue to have access to this valuable provision. Schools can also continue to open up or hire out their premises for use by external wraparound providers, such as after-school or holiday clubs, to support them to do so.

Our Regional Education and Children Team, comprising education and social care staff from both the Department for Education and Ofsted, are also continuing to work closely with local authorities, and will act as a valuable source of intelligence on the sufficiency of wraparound and early years childcare places for the children of critical workers, and for vulnerable children and young people during the current national lockdown.

Given the critical importance of ensuring that all children and young people continue to learn during the national lockdown, we have updated the remote education guidance for schools and colleges to clarify and strengthen expectations while on-site attendance is restricted, drawing on our evolving understanding of best practice in remote education. Further information on this is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950510/School_national_restrictions_guidance.pdf.

Schools are expected to offer pupils online lessons and a set number of hours of remote education, having increased from the Department’s previous minimum expectations. This includes time for independent study and either recorded or live direct teaching. Schools are also now expected to have a system in place for checking daily whether pupils are engaging actively with their work and education. The Department has also asked schools and colleges to publish information about their remote education provision on their websites. This should be done by 18 January 2021 for colleges and 25 January 2021 for schools.

The Department recognises that different expectations are appropriate for younger and older age groups when undergoing remote education. We expect schools to consider the remote education expectations in relation to pupils’ age, stage of development or special educational needs. The number of hours of remote education we expect schools to deliver also varies according to pupil stage.

The Department also recognises that younger children in Key Stage One or Reception often require high levels of parental involvement to support their engagement with remote education, which makes digital provision a particular challenge for this age group. We therefore do not expect that solely digital means will be used to teach these pupils remotely.

The Department is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. We have already provided over 54,000 4G wireless routers, with free data for the academic year, and have also partnered with some of the UK’s leading mobile network operators to provide free data to disadvantaged families, further supporting remote education where it is needed.

The Department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy, both for the summer term of the 2019/20 academic year, and for the 2020/21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects, for Reception up to Year Eleven. Specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is also available.

The BBC has also adapted their education support for the spring term 2021 and will be making educational content available on the television. Bitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on BBC Red Button as well as episodes being available on demand on BBC iPlayer. This TV offer is in addition to the BBC’s online offer, which parents, children, and teachers can access when and where they need it.

A range of resources are available to help support children’s wellbeing at present. Public Health England has provided advice and guidance for parents and professionals on supporting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing, including suggested key actions to take, such as supporting safe ways to connect with friends. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-supporting-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-and-wellbeing. Resources are also available through the Every Mind Matters campaign and Rise Above, which aim to build resilience and support good mental health in young people aged ten to sixteen specifically. These can be accessed here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/ and https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/schools/topics/rise-above/overview.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

This includes over 560,000 laptops and tablets that have already been delivered to schools, trusts and local authorities in 2020.

The Department will have dispatched over 750,000 devices in total by the end of this week.

Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, trusts or local authorities who can lend these to children and young people who need them most during the current COVID-19 restrictions.

The Department has partnered with some of the UK’s leading mobile network operators to provide free data to disadvantaged families, which will support access to education resources, including Oak National Academy, and other websites.

Families will benefit from this additional data until July 2021. Schools are able to request free mobile data uplifts via the Get Help with Technology service. Further information on the Get Help with Technology service is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-technology-for-remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

The Department has already provided over 54,000 4G wireless routers, with free data for the academic year, and continues to provide 4G wireless routers where children need to access remote education.

Support is also available for schools to get set up on Google or Microsoft platforms. These platforms bring together the school community, pool resources and give pupils the opportunity to work with their peers remotely. As of 5 January 2021, 6900 schools have applied to the Department’s digital platforms programme that forms part of the Get Help With Technology programme.

The EdTech Demonstrator Programme is in place to promote effective use of devices, including ways they can be used to promote greater accessibility to the curriculum.

The Government’s position is clear: exams will take place in summer 2021. Schools across the country, including in areas of high prevalence of COVID-19, are doing a brilliant job staying open and providing high quality education to pupils.

We recognise that there will be challenges for students being assessed in summer 2021. We have announced a wide range of contingency measures to ensure that as many pupils as possible can take an exam paper in their chosen subjects, and all students will have the opportunity to be awarded a qualification.

Exams will be sufficiently spaced to account for periods of self-isolation. If a student misses all their assessments in a subject, they will have the opportunity to sit a contingency paper held shortly after the main exams. Students who miss part of their exams because of the COVID-19 outbreak will be able to get a grade through the special consideration process, provided they have sat one paper or non-exam assessment and met requirements.

In the extreme case where a student has a legitimate reason to miss all their papers, then a validated teacher informed assessment can be used, only once all chances to sit an exam have passed. The Government will set out further detail on this process, and on adaptations to exams, in the New Year.

The purpose of the national curriculum tests is to determine pupil attainment in relation to the national curriculum. This enables parents to understand the performance of their child with respect to national expectations and supports schools in planning the appropriate next steps for teaching. As a result, it would not be appropriate to modify the tests to account for the adverse impact of COVID-19 as this would provide only a partial picture of pupil attainment.

Instead, to recognise the challenges that primary schools are facing, the key stage 1 tests and the English grammar, punctuation and spelling tests at key stage 1 and 2 have been removed for one year. There will also be no requirement to undertake and report on science teacher assessment at both key stages. In addition, the introduction of the multiplication tables check will be postponed by a further year, whilst still enabling schools to use it on an optional basis.

As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, confirmed to the House on 1 October 2020 in his oral statement, we will publish our further education white paper later this year.

During the COVID-19 outbreak while schools were largely shut, children from more than 1,800 schools taking part in the National School Breakfast Programme in disadvantaged areas were offered healthy breakfast support over the summer holidays, giving them nutritious meals to start their day.

Schools on the programme have flexibility in how they provide breakfast meals and can choose to support children in the way which works best for them. This may include parents collecting food parcels from open schools or breakfast food ‘drop offs’ to families where appropriate. This should be arranged alongside the school’s wider support for children on free school meals (FSM), and schools must follow the government’s advice on social distancing at all times.

In the event of local restrictions on education and childcare settings (including before-school clubs and after-school clubs) being required, the department will publish operational guidance for settings in the affected area to support them to implement contingency plans. We have also published guidance to help schools with secondary year groups plan for tier 2 local restrictions, outlining their responsibilities regarding FSM. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-schools-can-plan-for-tier-2-local-restrictions/how-schools-can-plan-for-tier-2-local-restrictions#free-school-meals.

The department is investing up to £35 million into the National School Breakfast Programme. This includes our extension of the programme by a further year until March 2021, with up to £11.8 million being invested during this current financial year. Overall, this money will kick-start or improve breakfast clubs in up to 2,450 schools in disadvantaged areas, making them sustainable in the long run. The focus of these clubs has been to target the most disadvantaged areas of the country – including the department's Opportunity Areas – to help make sure every child gets the best start in life. Any further investment in school breakfast clubs beyond March 2021 is subject to the upcoming Spending Review.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, further education colleges have responded swiftly to deliver education to students remotely and many have made enormous strides in the delivery of online learning, for which we are very grateful.

On 31 August 2019, the government announced that an extra £400 million would be invested in 16-19 education in 2020-21. This is the largest injection of money in a single year since 2010 and represents an increase of 7% in overall 16-19 funding. As part of this, the base rate of 16-19 funding will increase by 4.7% in the 2020/21 academic year, from £4,000 to £4,188.

We are also continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) (£1.34 billion in 2020/21).

Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) allocations for 2020 to 2021 have been confirmed, and payments will be made in line with the national profile, which has been confirmed in the relevant 2020 to 2021 funding rules. This should provide the funding certainty required to seek to address the impact of responding to COVID-19.

To support remote learning specifically, we have ensured that colleges are able to gain access to devices and connectivity for students facing financial barriers to participation through the 16-19 Bursary Fund. This was always possible with the 16-19 Bursary Fund and to complement this, we have introduced a change to the ESFA and AEB Funding Rules for the 2020/21 academic year, to enable providers to use their Learner Support funds to purchase IT devices and meet learners’ IT connectivity costs.

The department has also funded professional development support for staff to improve their skills and confidence in delivering online learning through funding the Education and Training Foundation and the EdTech Demonstrator Programme which delivers free training for further education providers. We are also funding 7 College Collaboration Fund projects to develop new high-quality digital curriculum content which will begin to be available for use by the sector from the Autumn.

The department is looking carefully at all elements of further educational funding, in preparation for the forthcoming Spending Review.

Students who leave school with a good grasp of English and maths increase their chances of securing employment, apprenticeship or going on to further education. It is important now more than ever to give this opportunity to students who have yet to secure a Level 2 in these essential subjects and we will continue to do so.

Young people from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds will be amongst those hardest hit by the unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of COVID-19. I recognise that colleges and their staff around the country have worked tremendously hard responding to this unprecedented challenge and working with us to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our students. Colleges and providers swiftly moved more learning online to allow students to continue with studies remotely.

We are aware that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused disruption to people of all ages in education, in particular lost teaching time. Many further education providers opened over the summer for priority learners, subject to the required safety measures being met. We know that we have the professional knowledge and expertise in the education system to ensure that students recover and get back on track. From Autumn 2020, all learners will return to a full high-quality education programme delivered by their college or post-16 learning provider. To support providers, additional funding of up to £96m for the academic year 2020/21 has been made available to schools, colleges and other 16-19 providers to provide small group tuition for disadvantaged students whose learning has been disrupted.

All members of school staff and pupils should get a test if they have symptoms of COVID-19. The capacity of the NHS Test and Trace system must be protected for those with symptoms of the virus, and so it is vital that only those with symptoms get tested.

Anyone who has been in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 must self-isolate in line with guidance, but should not get tested unless they themselves develop symptoms.

Further education college corporations as statutory corporations and exempt charities are responsible for completing risk assessments and the board must publish a statement in its annual accounts about how it manages risk. Health and safety legislation requires employers to assess risks and put in place proportionate control measures. This includes taking reasonable steps to protect staff, students and others from COVID-19 within the education setting.

As set out in the further education autumn return guidance, further education providers are responsible for ensuring that these risk assessments are adequate and meet the relevant legal requirements.

We expect most students will be able to fully return to college in the autumn term, apart from a small number of students who are self-isolating or have been advised not to attend due to local restrictions. In these circumstances, we expect colleges to make sure education and training is delivered remotely, as set out in our further education autumn return guidance published on 2 July and updated on 29 August. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision/what-fe-colleges-and-providers-will-need-to-do-from-the-start-of-the-2020-autumn-term.

Further education college corporations as statutory corporations and exempt charities are responsible for completing risk assessments and the board must publish a statement in its annual accounts about how it manages risk. Health and safety legislation requires employers to assess risks and put in place proportionate control measures. This includes taking reasonable steps to protect staff, students and others from COVID-19 within the education setting.

As set out in the further education autumn return guidance, further education providers are responsible for ensuring that these risk assessments are adequate and meet the relevant legal requirements.

We expect most students will be able to fully return to college in the autumn term, apart from a small number of students who are self-isolating or have been advised not to attend due to local restrictions. In these circumstances, we expect colleges to make sure education and training is delivered remotely, as set out in our further education autumn return guidance published on 2 July and updated on 29 August. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision/what-fe-colleges-and-providers-will-need-to-do-from-the-start-of-the-2020-autumn-term.

As set out in the Secretary of State’s statement of 1 September, most vocational and technical qualifications were not subject to standardisation like GCSEs and A levels. However, where an element of standardisation was used for some vocational qualifications, awarding organisations have reviewed these grades. This was done to ensure fairness for all pupils.

Pearson, the awarding organisation responsible for BTECs reviewed its results to ensure no BTEC pupils were disadvantaged and that consistency was achieved with the principles applied to GCSEs and A Levels. Pearson published guidance on how BTEC results were being reviewed. This is available at: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/campaigns/assessment-and-grading-in-2020.html. They have worked closely with schools and colleges throughout the process.

The vast majority of VTQ results have now been issued or reissued. No students saw their VTQ results downgraded - results either stayed the same or improved.

The government continues to support families with their childcare costs. Last October, we announced increases in our hourly rates for the 2 year old entitlement and in the vast majority of areas for the 3 and 4 year old entitlement, effective from April of this year.

We also announced that supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools will continue until the end of the financial year 2020-21. We are committed to supporting maintained nursery schools in the long term. Guidance on the use of free early education entitlements funding during the COVID-19 outbreak is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/use-of-free-early-education-entitlements-funding-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/use-of-free-early-education-entitlements-funding-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

We are planning to spend over £3.6 billion on our early education entitlements in 2020-21. Future funding is a matter for the next spending review.

We will continue to monitor the market closely through a range of research projects which provide insight into various aspects of the childcare and provider market.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, we have continued to pay the entitlements to local authorities as usual.

The government has also provided childcare providers with a range of measures to offer financial assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak, including business rates relief, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

On 20 July, we announced that we will fund childcare at the level we would have done before the COVID-19 outbreak until the end of the year. This will give nurseries and childminders another term of secure income, regardless of whether fewer children are attending.

We continue to work closely with the early years sector to understand how it can best be supported to ensure that sufficient childcare is available for those returning to work now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.

As my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, confirmed in his announcement on 23 June, community activities, holiday clubs, after-school clubs, tuition and other out-of-school provision for children will be able to operate over the summer holiday with safety measures in place. Adjustments to the measures for out-of-school provision were taken as part of Step 3 of the government’s recovery strategy from Saturday 4 July. This guidance covers tuition and learning centres, extracurricular clubs (such as football coaching), uniformed youth organisations (such as Scouts and Guides), supplementary schools, private language schools and religious schools offering education (such as madrassahs, yeshivas, and Sunday schools).

Before the end of the summer term, while state schools in their local area are open, out-of-school provision will only be able to operate for children from the eligible and priority groups, including vulnerable children, children of critical workers and select year groups (early years, Reception, year 1 and year 6). However, during the summer holiday period, out-of-school provision can open to all children, provided they put in place the appropriate protective measures, which are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-of-children-attending-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-of-children-attending-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

The Government is in regular contact with the food industry on the response to coronavirus, building on our well-established links with the industry to manage disruption. The industry has adapted quickly to what have been unprecedented changes in consumer demands, and food supply into and within the UK is resilient.

To help supermarkets, the Government has already introduced new measures to keep food supply flowing. We have relaxed competition law, issued guidance to local authorities to allow extended delivery hours to supermarkets so that shelves can be filled up more quickly, and have implemented extensions to drivers’ hours.

My Department ran a public consultation on creating a Road Collision Investigation Branch between 28 October and 9 December 2021. The consultation has now closed, and the Department is currently conducting a full analysis of the feedback. We expect to publish the response to the consultation in due course.

The call for evidence saw 149 responses submitted, many of which were incredibly detailed. We will publish once we have given the responses our full consideration.

We have published a landmark strategy setting out our plans to accelerate the rollout of a world-class charging network.

We have not set national targets at this stage. Setting binding targets at this stage would risk stifling innovative approaches and could lead to the installation of chargepoints in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, we have set an expectation that there will be at least ten times more public chargepoints to be installed across the UK by the end of the decade, bringing the number to at least 300,000 by 2030. The number of local public chargepoints needed will vary across different areas and over time, depending on the types of chargepoint installed, travel patterns, and consumer preferences.

To ensure that the transition to electric vehicles takes place in every part of the country, we are pledging at least £500m to support local chargepoint provision. As part of this, the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) fund will provide approximately £400m of capital and £50m of resource funding to support local authorities to work with industry and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking.

The RSSF will set out the vision over the longer term for road safety. This will be followed by action plans against the specific Safe System pillar areas next year. These will be developed in conjunction with the sector and road safety experts. It is at this stage we will consider wider public consultation.

Under the contract with DEKRA, I am aware that from 22nd of September 2021 to the 31st of March 2022, there have been approximately 629 audits of chargepoints that were funded through the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme and Workplace Charging Scheme.

Yes.

We are currently working on our Road Safety Strategic Framework (RSSF) which will be based upon the Safe System approach. This will include a new cross departmental governance structure to explore key issues with actions plans being developed at a later date.

We plan to publish the later in the RSSF as soon as possible.

The Government will work with the Ministerially-chaired Freight Council, which includes chief executive officer representation from the freight transport trade associations, on the delivery of the Future of Freight plan, continuing the constructive relationship we had with them in order to develop the plan.

We will consider if and how the structure of the Freight Council might be adjusted to best support implementation.

Under the Transparency policy, the department does not publish itemised lists. Total transactional amounts per invoice are published. This specific transaction was paid under one invoice amounting to £2,500.04.

DfT is compliant and has a process in place in line with HM Treasury guidance,

In March 2022, spend of £71,720 was paid to 23 Red for the development of the departments ‘It’s everyone’s journey’ campaign. The campaign aims to support our ambition of equal access on public transport by creating a more supportive and considerate environment. The department ran a short burst of campaign activity to raise awareness of the heightened needs of disabled people using public transport in the new COVID-19 environment.

The ‘World of Difference’ campaign assets were developed – including, digital audio, social assets and out of home posters in bus and train carriages. Additionally, we continued to engage partners across all transport modes and disability organisations to deliver key campaign messages through trusted voices.

The contract was not paid on the basis of day rates.

DEKRA were paid based on the number of inspections they conducted of chargepoint installations that OZEV have provided grant funding for. The contract started on the 22nd of September 2021 and ended on the 31st of March 2022

Development of the Future of Transport Rural Strategy is underway with the aim to publish it as soon as possible. The Rural Strategy will set a vision for the future of rural transport and how the benefit of transport innovation is delivered in rural areas. This strategy will explore how future transport solutions and interventions can tackle rural mobility issues, improve connectivity and accessibility, increase low carbon travel options and deliver more integrated transport services.

The Government has committed to developing a long-term and cross-modal plan for the freight and logistics sector in collaboration with industry. The plan will focus on priority areas that will help deliver a cost-effective, reliable, resilient, environmentally sustainable and valued by society UK freight sector. My Department is currently finalising the Future of Freight plan, in which the Government and industry initiatives developed to tackle the identified priority areas will be outlined, with the aim of publishing as soon as possible.

The impact assessment done at the time of the Goods Vehicles (Plating and Testing) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2017 is published online alongside the regulations and is available to view at legislation.gov.uk.

The UK’s departure from the EU provides the platform to capitalise on regulatory freedoms and make decisions that are right for Great Britain (GB) and benefit road safety.

Not all parts of the EU’s General Safety Regulation may be right for Britain. Further analysis of the potential benefits for GB will be needed before a decision on whether to mandate any of the technologies.

The STATS19 data collection was recently reviewed, and as result of this it was recommended that a vehicle type category for ‘powered personal transporter’ be added to allow e-scooters to be more easily identified within STATS19.

The review recommendations are currently being implemented.

The statistics on Reported road casualties Great Britain, provisional results: 2021, due to be released on 25 May 2022, will include an update of the previously published statistics on e-scooters based on provisional data.

On 30 April 2022 the number of full time equivalent staff employed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency was 5601.42.

Following regulatory changes in 2017, a temporary regime was put in place to allow a limited number of volumetric concrete mixers (VCMs) to temporarily operate at higher than standard weights until 2028 at the latest. An impact assessment was undertaken at the time of the regulatory changes in 2017 .

The UK’s departure from the EU provides the platform to capitalise on regulatory freedoms and make decisions that are right for Great Britain and benefit road safety.

An assessment is being undertaken on the relevant technologies and a decision will be taken in due course as to whether to introduce any of those in Great Britain.

The £950 million Rapid Charging Fund aims to future-proof electrical grid capacity at service areas on motorways and major A-roads, to ensure that there is a rapid-charging network ready to meet the long-term consumer demand for electric vehicle chargepoints ahead of need.

The primary route to deliver the 2023 targets will be through industry-led and funded activities, including upgrading electricity network capacity when necessary.

The Department continues to work closely with the Highways Authorities and Utilities Committee England (HAUC), devolved administrations and wider stakeholders in its review of the safety code and will continue to broaden participation as the review progresses.

The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.

The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.

In 2021, the DVLA received 16,972 items of correspondence from Members of Parliament. Of these, 36% were answered within the DVLA’s target of eight working days. The DVLA has allocated extra resource to the team that deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament and we expect that this will start to show an improving picture going forward.

The table below shows the average processing time for ordinary driving licence applications between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022 in working days, by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications, and (c) replacement applications.

The table below shows the average waiting time for customers to speak to a DVLA agent by telephone in each of the last five years and during the current year.

Since 1 April 2020, the DVLA’s contact centre has recruited and trained 166 extra staff with 20 more due to join during March and a further 150 being recruited. In addition, the DVLA’s new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham have recruited extra staff who are processing medical driving licence applications as well as supporting customers who call the contact centre.

The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.

The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.

In 2021, the DVLA received 16,972 items of correspondence from Members of Parliament. Of these, 36% were answered within the DVLA’s target of eight working days. The DVLA has allocated extra resource to the team that deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament and we expect that this will start to show an improving picture going forward.

The table below shows the average processing time for ordinary driving licence applications between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022 in working days, by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications, and (c) replacement applications.

The table below shows the average waiting time for customers to speak to a DVLA agent by telephone in each of the last five years and during the current year.

Since 1 April 2020, the DVLA’s contact centre has recruited and trained 166 extra staff with 20 more due to join during March and a further 150 being recruited. In addition, the DVLA’s new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham have recruited extra staff who are processing medical driving licence applications as well as supporting customers who call the contact centre.

The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.

The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.

In 2021, the DVLA received 16,972 items of correspondence from Members of Parliament. Of these, 36% were answered within the DVLA’s target of eight working days. The DVLA has allocated extra resource to the team that deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament and we expect that this will start to show an improving picture going forward.

The table below shows the average processing time for ordinary driving licence applications between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022 in working days, by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications, and (c) replacement applications.

The table below shows the average waiting time for customers to speak to a DVLA agent by telephone in each of the last five years and during the current year.

Since 1 April 2020, the DVLA’s contact centre has recruited and trained 166 extra staff with 20 more due to join during March and a further 150 being recruited. In addition, the DVLA’s new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham have recruited extra staff who are processing medical driving licence applications as well as supporting customers who call the contact centre.

The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.

The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.

In 2021, the DVLA received 16,972 items of correspondence from Members of Parliament. Of these, 36% were answered within the DVLA’s target of eight working days. The DVLA has allocated extra resource to the team that deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament and we expect that this will start to show an improving picture going forward.

The table below shows the average processing time for ordinary driving licence applications between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022 in working days, by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications, and (c) replacement applications.

The table below shows the average waiting time for customers to speak to a DVLA agent by telephone in each of the last five years and during the current year.

Since 1 April 2020, the DVLA’s contact centre has recruited and trained 166 extra staff with 20 more due to join during March and a further 150 being recruited. In addition, the DVLA’s new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham have recruited extra staff who are processing medical driving licence applications as well as supporting customers who call the contact centre.

The Department has made no assessment of local highway authority adoption or compliance with the sector scheme seven when contracting road marking services.

The Government has no plans to review the current vehicle licensing categories or driver entitlements for road construction vehicles.

Some construction vehicles can be driven by those holding a category B licence, however, vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, including HGVs, require a Category C licence, road rollers Category G, and tracked vehicles Category H.

Almost all motorway service areas in England already have electric vehicle chargepoints, though in many locations there will only be one or two lower powered chargers at present. To make faster charging more readily available across the motorway network, Government is working with industry to ensure that every motorway service area in England has at least six high powered chargepoints by the end of 2023, including through Ofgem’s £300m Green Recovery Scheme which is providing network upgrades at over 50 service stations. Government is also launching the £950m Rapid Charging Fund to provide the network upgrades required to support the growth of electric vehicle charging for decades to come.

The Department for Transport has allocated and will spend over £500,000 raising awareness of the changes to The Highway Code this financial year.

The campaign includes radio and social media advertising. Additional media investment has also been provided by Transport for London and Transport Scotland to amplify the campaign in those areas.

Further communications are planned later in the year, to align with seasonal increases in active travel, to help embed the changes and encourage uptake of the new guidance. The Department for Transport has allocated over £1 million to support this activity in the next financial year. However, this funding remains subject to the Cabinet Office professional approval process.

The Department directly liaises with the Liverpool NHS Trust on their findings however their research is conducted independently. We have also received findings from the Bristol NHS Trust via the West of England Combined Authority.

The latest available information collected on e-scooters through STATS19 has been made publicly available through the e-scooter factsheet. The latest published year covers the year ending June 2021:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-e-scooter-factsheet-year-ending-june-2021

Additionally, the record level information covering e-scooters, alongside other road user type, is also publicly available through the open dataset: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/cb7ae6f0-4be6-4935-9277-47e5ce24a11f/road-safety-data

The Government will continue to support the police by ensuring they have the tools needed to enforce road traffic legislation including those relating to electric scooters. However, a decision on the publication of the national strategy for tackling the illegal use of e-scooters lies with the National Police Chiefs' Council and is not a matter for the Department for Transport.

We have consulted on using our powers under the Automated Electric Vehicles Act (2018) to improve the consumer experience at public chargepoints. Proposals included opening public chargepoint data; improving the reliability of the network; streamlining the payment methods offered to drivers; and increasing pricing transparency. We will publish a response soon and seeking to lay legislation later in 2022.

The Secretary of State has made no recommendation to Middlesbrough, or any other e-scooter trial area, regarding either continued participation in the trials, or the appointment of any e-scooter operator. E-scooter trials were originally meant to end on 30 November 2021, but trials were extended until 31 March 2022 to take into account the slower start to trials as a result of the pandemic. In October 2021 trials were further extended to 30 November 2022. The further extension will allow us to continue to fill data gaps and allow us to collect more evidence. We wrote to all trial areas in January asking them if they wanted to extend their current trials to November 2022. We have always been clear that participation in trials is entirely voluntary and the decision must be made locally.

The Department estimates that 750,000 private e-scooters are owned across England based on survey results from the DfT Transport Technology Tracker. While trials are running, privately-owned e-scooters used on public property remain illegal. Officials have been in regular contact with the National Police Chiefs’ Council who have developed a national strategy for tacking the illegal use of e-scooters (both private use and illegal use in trial areas – e.g. pavement and twin riding) to ensure a more uniform approach, but it is not our intention to provide guidance to the police. We are considering further options for how best to regulate e-scooters and crack down on their illegal use. New measures being considered will be designed to create a ​much clearer, fit for purpose and fully enforceable regime for e-scooters and other micromobility vehicles.

Officials have not had recent discussions with the Department for Health and Social Care on this issue. To identify trends in the numbers of injuries as a result of e-scooter use, the Department is using STATS19 data and working directly with some NHS Trusts, for example Liverpool. The Department is collecting evidence on rental e-scooter casualties (including the type and severity of injuries) through its monitoring and evaluation programme.

The Department is running trials of rental e-scooters to assess their safety and wider impacts and has in place a monitoring and evaluation programme, commissioned to Arup in partnership with NatCen. This is a mixed-methods impact evaluation drawing from wide range of data sources, including a direct data feed from trial e-scooter operators, survey data with e-scooter users and trial areas residents, and qualitative research with local and national stakeholders. A full set of findings on rental e-scooters from our national evaluation, will be included in our final report due later in 2022.

Most public chargepoints are commercial assets where maintenance and repair are the responsibility of the chargepoint provider. Operational contracts agreed between local authorities and commercial chargepoint providers should include provision of maintenance for their operational lifespan. The Government does not record data on public chargepoint maintenance and repair costs.

The Government will provide over £1.3 billion over the next four years to support the continued roll-out of chargepoints on motorways and major A roads, in homes and businesses, and on residential streets.

The Government is working with industry to improve the consumer experience across the UK’s charging network. Following consultation, we recently announced plans to lay secondary legislation this year to mandate a new reliability metric to ensure that consumers can rely on the charging network.

Operators are currently reviewing their timetables and budgets, and any service changes will be measured against this. Northern tells us there are several alternative rail options between Meadowhall and York however we will continue working with communities to identify specific concerns and help operators to develop the most effective timetable.

As of 1 January, there were 28,375 public electric vehicle charging points available in the UK. On average, over 600 new chargers are being added to the UK’s road network each month, and today, a driver is never more than 25 miles away from a rapid chargepoint anywhere along England’s motorways and A roads. In 2021 the total number of public chargepoints increased by 37%, whilst rapid chargepoint numbers increased by 33%. In addition, the government has also supported the installation of over 250,000 home and workplace chargepoints.

On 12 January 2022, the Government’s response to the Transport Committee committed £390 million over the duration of the second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2) to roll out an Emergency Area (EA) retrofit programme. This will see over 150 additional EAs being added to All Lane Running smart motorways by 2025. National Highways is now developing detailed plans for the design and construction of these additional EAs. Further details on the location, design and schedule for construction of these EAs will be provided in due course.

In 2020, there were 168.1 miles of All Lane Running motorway in England. This is the latest validated information available^[1].

^[1] Source: National Highways scheme information and DfT road length statistics.

Evidence and data from trials and other sources continues to grow. The Department and its evaluation contractor are analysing this information and we expect to publish findings later this year.

£390 million has already been committed towards retrofitting, which will see 150 additional emergency areas being added to ALR motorways in operation and construction by 2025. A decision on whether to retrofit across the remainder of ALR smart motorways will be considered as part of the formulation of the third Road Investment Strategy.

As of December 2021, 50.7 miles of operational All Lane Running motorways had emergency area average spacing between at least 0.75 miles and 1 mile apart. Work will start immediately on retrofitting the remaining operational network, so that it meets the latest standard of emergency area spacing being 0.75 mile where feasible, up to a maximum of 1 mile.

£390 million has already been committed towards retrofitting, which will see 150 additional emergency areas being added to ALR motorways in operation and construction by 2025. A decision on whether to retrofit across the remainder of ALR smart motorways will be considered as part of the formulation of the third Road Investment Strategy.

As of December 2021, 50.7 miles of operational All Lane Running motorways had emergency area average spacing between at least 0.75 miles and 1 mile apart. Work will start immediately on retrofitting the remaining operational network, so that it meets the latest standard of emergency area spacing being 0.75 mile where feasible, up to a maximum of 1 mile.

£390 million has already been committed towards retrofitting, which will see 150 additional emergency areas being added to ALR motorways in operation and construction by 2025. A decision on whether to retrofit across the remainder of ALR smart motorways will be considered as part of the formulation of the third Road Investment Strategy.

As of December 2021, 50.7 miles of operational All Lane Running motorways had emergency area average spacing between at least 0.75 miles and 1 mile apart. Work will start immediately on retrofitting the remaining operational network, so that it meets the latest standard of emergency area spacing being 0.75 mile where feasible, up to a maximum of 1 mile.

The Bus Recovery Grant is providing support to the bus sector following the lifting of restrictions in the summer. Most of the £226.5 million funding available has been allocated to commercial bus operators to support the recovery of bus services.

However, £18.3 million of funding has been allocated to Local Transport Authorities to support tendered services. This funding has been calculated based on claims made by Local Transport Authorities under the previous emergency support scheme. The Department does not distinguish between the areas outlined, however the allocations for each Local Transport Authority are below.

My Department is working closely with ADEPT and CPT to gather information to gain an understanding of, and assess, the current staffing levels and recruitment pipeline in the bus sector. This will inform the Department about the extent of the shortages across the country, so that this can be monitored as the situation develops and ensure that Government’s response is appropriate and effective. The Government is committed to maintaining high service levels for bus users to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and has announced £226.5 million in Bus Recovery Funding to support this.

As of 23 November 2021, the average waiting time for a car practical driving test at Middlewood test centre, Sheffield, is 24 weeks. The suspension of testing due to the pandemic has meant some candidates are having to wait longer than usual to take their driving test. Middlewood test centre is operating at full capacity and offering overtime to examiners to increase test availability. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is in the process of a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners, including at Middlewood.

We are working closely with international partners on reopening travel and will provide an update in due course on how to safely reopen travel for fully vaccinated people from overseas.

We are working with the travel industry and private testing providers to see how we can further reduce costs for the British public while ensuring travel is as safe as possible. We are considering a range of options ahead of international travel re-opening on 17 May. The price of tests has reduced significantly in recent weeks, with providers offering testing packages for green arrivals starting at £20 and a single PCR test for £44.90.

We have established minimum standards for laboratories and testing providers, which cover turnaround times for Covid test evaluation, and providers that offer a sub-standard service are given 5 days to rectify the problem. Failure to do so means they are removed from the gov.uk list of providers.

The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) is primarily aimed at improving mobility. There are seven categories of disability under which a person may be considered eligible for the concession. The categories do not focus on any specifically identified medical condition but on its effect and how it may impair a person’s mobility. Under the existing categories, people with a wide range of disabling conditions will therefore already be considered eligible.

The Government has acted to support those that are self-employed and have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak across all sectors of the economy. The overwhelming majority of taxi and PHV drivers are self-employed and can therefore apply for grants through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Over the first three rounds of the scheme a total of up to £19,410 has been made available to those eligible. A further grant will cover a three-month period from the start of February 2021 until the end of April 2021. HMRC will review the level of the second grant and set this in due course.

Taxi and PHV drivers may also be eligible for Universal Credit, from 6 April the standard allowance available under the Universal Credit system was increased from £317.82 to £409.89 a month. In addition, the Universal Credit calculation was amended, no longer using an assumed level of earnings (Minimum Income Floor) but actual earnings.

The aviation sector can draw on the unprecedented package of economic measures we have put in place during this time. These measures include: HMRC’s Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, including VAT deferrals; the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme; HMT and the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility; and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme for large and small businesses.

If airlines or airports find themselves in trouble as a result of coronavirus, even following the Government’s cross-economy wage and financial interventions, the Transport Secretary and Chancellor have confirmed that we are prepared to enter discussions with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted all other options. Any intervention would need to represent value for money for taxpayers.

The recent announcements about proposed redundancies will be very distressing news for employees and their families. Government recognises the challenges facing the aviation industry and remains committed to an open dialogue with the sector and unions, to minimise the damage to industry and retain jobs. We encourage airports and unions to engage constructively with each other, striving to provide employees with as much certainty as possible during this challenging time.

We recognise that some people are not able to wear a face covering for a variety of reasons, including people with certain health conditions. We are working with transport operators and the police to understand how this is working on the ground, and reminding them of need to be sensitive.

Our Safer Transport Guidance and DFT-produced communications are clear that face coverings don’t need to be worn if disabilities make that difficult, and that people relying on this exemption should not routinely be required to produce any written evidence in support of their reliance. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengers

It is important that anyone who should not be wearing a face covering is able to travel without fear of harassment. We are working closely with transport operators to make sure that their staff and passengers are aware that not everyone is required to wear a face covering.

We do not want members of the public to challenge anyone not wearing a face covering – they may have a perfectly good reason. It is a matter for operators and police

The Government remains committed to delivering inclusive transport for all passengers. As part of the work to implement the changes, we have undertaken an Equalities Impact Assessment and have taken advice from the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, as well as other disability stakeholder groups.

HS2 has huge potential to support growth across the UK and will promote regeneration, boost skills and generate new jobs. Our procurement process is open to all bidders with the relevant experience and required credentials and ensures value for money for the taxpayer.

HS2 Ltd has a continuing programme of engagement with local businesses, attending events arranged by local Chambers of Commerce and other networks to ensure that the procurement opportunities of the project are spread across all four nations of the United Kingdom.

We are sympathetic to those affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook and passengers with ATOL protection are entitled to a full refund on any future bookings.

Following the collapse of Thomas Cook, the Government and the CAA together carried out the largest peacetime passenger repatriation. Consequently, the CAA are undertaking the UK travel industry’s largest ever refund programme.

In order to process refund claims as quickly and efficiently as possible, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) set up an automated claims process for claims to be submitted online, using the dedicated Thomas Cook claims website. Over the last four months the CAA have processed more than 95% of the claims they have received which totals over £310 million of ATOL payments to over 320,000 customers. They are still receiving hundreds of claims per week. If people require further assistance they should contact the CAA.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting low-income families, including through spending over £110 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 and by increasing the National Living Wage by 6.6% to £9.50 from April 2022. We take the issue of food security seriously, which is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 2019/20 and published the data in March last year.

With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our focus now is on continuing to support people into and to progress in work. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty.

In addition, Universal Credit recipients in work are now benefitting from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, while eligible in-work claimants can also benefit from changes to the Work Allowance. These measures represent, for the lowest paid in society, an effective tax cut of around £2.2 Billion in 2022-23, and are now benefitting almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.

We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter, which is why vulnerable households across the country are now able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million.

To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English Local Authorities.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting people on low incomes and we continue to do so through many measures, including through spending over £110 billion in 2021/22 on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 who meet the relevant eligibility conditions.

With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our long-term focus remains on continuing to support people into work and to help those in work to progress out of low pay. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects. We have doubled the number of work coaches to 27,000 to provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.

Through the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) the Government protects the lowest paid within our society. The National Living Wage increased by 2.2% to £8.91 from April 2021 - the equivalent of more than £345 extra per year for someone working full-time. At Autumn Budget 2021, we announced a further increase of 6.6% to £9.50 for over 23s from April 2022, as well as reinforcing our commitment for the National Living Wage to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, provided economic conditions allow.

Universal Credit supports people in and out of work and working claimants will now benefit from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%; and the increase in the work allowance by £500 per year means that 1.9m working households will be able to keep substantially more of what they earn. These measures effectively represent a tax cut worth around £2.2bn a year in 2022-23 for the lowest paid in society and will benefit almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.

We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.

To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English LAs.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting people on low incomes and we continue to do so through many measures, including through spending over £110 billion in 2021/22 on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22 who meet the relevant eligibility conditions.

With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our long-term focus remains on continuing to support people into work and to help those in work to progress out of low pay. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects. We have doubled the number of work coaches to 27,000 to provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.

Through the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) the Government protects the lowest paid within our society. The National Living Wage increased by 2.2% to £8.91 from April 2021 - the equivalent of more than £345 extra per year for someone working full-time. At Autumn Budget 2021, we announced a further increase of 6.6% to £9.50 for over 23s from April 2022, as well as reinforcing our commitment for the National Living Wage to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, provided economic conditions allow.

Universal Credit supports people in and out of work and working claimants will now benefit from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%; and the increase in the work allowance by £500 per year means that 1.9m working households will be able to keep substantially more of what they earn. These measures effectively represent a tax cut worth around £2.2bn a year in 2022-23 for the lowest paid in society and will benefit almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1000 a year on average.

We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.

To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English LAs.

No such assessment has been made of the impact on regional inequalities.

The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced. With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, it is right that our focus is on helping people back into work.

Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for Universal Credit claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; we have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job; and introduced Restart which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people

We recognise that some people continue to require extra support, which is why we have introduced a £421 million Household Support Fund to help vulnerable people in England with essential household costs over the winter as the economy recovers. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.

This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty in all its forms. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to protect incomes by spending £407 billion last year to protect jobs, keep businesses afloat and help families get by. This includes spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system for those most in need, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21. In December 2020 we introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. It will now run until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.

The Department for Work and Pensions has recently published new data from the Family Resources Survey on household food security, giving us a better understanding of who is most at risk and underlining how seriously we take the issue of food insecurity. The new data shows that 92% of households are food secure.

As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. Our Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes investing over £7 billion on new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme.

This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to support the most vulnerable including through spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21. In December 2020 we introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. It will now run to the 20th June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.

We will spend over £57 billion during 2021/22 on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions, including but not limited to new style Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment. Benefits to meet the additional costs of disability were excluded from the benefit freeze which was in place from 2016 to 2020 and during that period were uprated in line with prices.

There is clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. The Government recognises the important economic contribution of disabled people in the labour market and in 2017 we set a goal to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. DWP delivers a range of programmes to support disabled people, to stay in or move into work. These include the Work and Health Programme, Intensive Personalised Employment Support, Access to Work, Disability Confident and initiatives in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services and Individual Placement and Support.

No assessment has been made.

The policy already allows for the provision of an additional bedroom in certain circumstances, such as to support the needs of disabled people, as well as exempting households in receipt of pension age Housing Benefit.

If a claimant’s ability to mitigate any shortfall between their housing support and rent has changed as a result of Covid-19, Discretionary Housing Payments can be considered by their local authority. We have allocated a further £140 million for Discretionary Housing Payments for 2021/22 in England and Wales.

As of the 4^th March 2021, there have been over 900 unique gateway applications approved and 1,000 unique employer bids accepted on the Kickstart Scheme.

We are unable to provide the number of small businesses that have benefitted from the Kickstart Scheme at present as many of these SME’s will have applied through a Gateway organisation.

We have responded to feedback to make the scheme as accessible as possible for small businesses, most recently removing the 30 threshold for the number of jobs to make a direct application.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme is providing job placements for 16-24 year olds across the UK. Many local authorities have been successful in bidding to participate directly in the scheme. Beyond this, local authorities are working with us acting as Kickstarters gateways to facilitate local businesses who would like to take on less than 30 participants to ensure that as many young people benefit as possible.

We have made available a number of additional labour market provisions over recent months which are evidenced through the recent Spending Review and July Plan for Jobs announcements. The principle remains that we look to local partners to complement the national government offer where possible.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR), as the compliance authority for workplace pensions, has a range of statutory powers including the ability to issue fixed and escalating penalty fines to employers for failure to comply with the law.

Information about the use made of those enforcement powers can be found in TPR’s quarterly automatic enrolment compliance and enforcement bulletins, the most recent of which is published on its website, here: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/enforcement-activity/enforcement-bulletins/compliance-and-enforcement-quarterly-bulletin-april-to-june-2020

Automatic enrolment duties continue to apply to all employers with eligible workers.

The Pensions Regulators latest message on reporting duties and enforcement is published on its website, here: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/covid-19-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-consider/covid-19-an-update-on-reporting-duties-and-enforcement-activity

Government is monitoring the implications of Covid-19 for savers, employers and the pension industry. And as part of supporting the United Kingdom’s economic recovery, our aim remains to help workers achieve greater financial resilience for the long term.

Work Coach recruitment commenced in June with an initial cross government campaign and followed by a further 12 targeted external campaigns at the beginning of July. Additional external campaigns will be launched on Wednesday 9 September with further adverts launching on a weekly basis over the following 4 weeks.

Over 300 new work coaches have now started and our plans will see over 4500 start by 31 October with a further 9000 starting by 31 March 2021.

The Department continues to keep the services it provides to customers and the resources to support that service under review: this includes our response to the effect of COVID-19 on the labour market.

We are rapidly making provision, in line with public health guidance, for jobseekers to be offered face-to-face appointments with our work coaches, as we re-open our jobcentres across the country.

We have already committed to the doubling of the number of work coaches, the majority of these [13500] roles will be new posts.

The ‘Job Finding Support’ online service will provide tailored support for those who have lost their job to improve their employability, as well as skill-matching them with employers.

The number of claims made between 01 June 2020 and 23 June 2020 are as follows:

(a) online 254,840

(b) telephone 4,280

Notes:

1. Figures provided to 23 June 2020 in line with published Universal Credit Management Information

2. Figures are GB and rounded to nearest 10

3. Based on claims declared between 01 June 2020 and 23 June 2020

Food banks are independent charitable organisations and, as such, are best placed to decide on the most appropriate arrangements for supporting people who use them. As both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances, we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

I also refer the honourable member to the response given by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in response to an oral question made on 19 March:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-03-19/debates/EBB8F3D7-F9F4-4C5C-B913-86FD27851B5D/VulnerablePeopleFoodSupplies”

Additionally announcements were made at the Prime Minister’s daily briefings on 21 and 22 March in relation to food supply.

Food banks are independent charitable organisations and, as such, are best placed to decide on the most appropriate arrangements for supporting people who use them. As both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances, we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

I also refer the honourable member to the response given by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in response to an oral question made on 19 March:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-03-19/debates/EBB8F3D7-F9F4-4C5C-B913-86FD27851B5D/VulnerablePeopleFoodSupplies”

Additionally announcements were made at the Prime Minister’s daily briefings on 21 and 22 March in relation to food supply.

The Government remains committed to growing the number of doctors in general practice and is determined to deliver this as soon as possible. As such no revised target has been published. We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Health Education England and the profession to increase recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.

The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new retention schemes alongside continued support for existing schemes for the general practice workforce. These include the GP Retention Scheme, the International Induction Programme, the Return to Practice Programme, the Fellowship Programme, the New to Partnership Payment and Supporting Mentors Scheme. We have also increased the number of general practitioner training places with 4,000 trainees this year, compared to 2,671 in 2014.

Since 9 January 2022, eligible fully vaccinated travellers from Pakistan can take a lateral flow device test on or before day two of their arrival in England, without the need to quarantine. Those who receive a positive result must self-isolate immediately and order a National Health Service polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test through GOV.UK. Positive PCR tests for these arrivals will be sequenced to understand the potential for variants of concern.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for services and support for people with dementia. We expect CCGs to commission services that take into account relevant guidance, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines and the Dementia Care Pathway, which sets out benchmarks to improve the delivery and quality of care and support.

Public Health England has published factsheets for CCGs to understand local patterns and potential reasons for trends in dementia diagnosis rates, as well as identifying specific areas for support. In addition, £17 million has been made available to CCGs to address the needs of those waiting for diagnosis and those who have a diagnosis but are unable to access support services due to the pandemic.

The training needs for staff supporting those living with dementia are available at the following link:

https://skillsforhealth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Dementia-Core-Skills-Education-and-Training-Framework.pdf

Since 1 April 2015, health care assistants and social care support workers, including those providing care to people with dementia, have received training as part of the implementation of the Care Certificate. As at September 2020, over 1.5 million episodes of tier 1 basic dementia awareness training have been completed by National Health Service staff. In addition, over 233,000 episodes of dementia training at tier 2 and nearly 32,000 episodes of dementia training at tier 3 have been delivered and over one million care workers have completed the Care Certificate or common induction standards. We will be setting out our plans on dementia for England, including training, for future years in due course.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for funding end of life and palliative care services in their area as part of their statutory responsibilities. NHS England’s palliative and end of life care delivery plan describes their focus on improving access, quality and sustainability in line with the NHS Long Term Plan, which contains a specific commitment to provide more personalised care.

NHS England’s Dementia Well Pathway highlights that services should be integrated, commissioned, trained and monitored aligned with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s standards. The Pathway is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/03/dementia-well-pathway.pdf

Data on the number of women and girls subjected to virginity testing is not held. NHS England does not collect data on hymenoplasty procedures in the format requested. Both procedures are often carried out outside the National Health Service. The Department, in conjunction with the Home Office, is working rapidly to investigate both practices. We will set out the findings from this review, including any proposals for legislation, in the ‘Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy’ in due course.

Data on the number of women and girls subjected to virginity testing is not held. NHS England does not collect data on hymenoplasty procedures in the format requested. Both procedures are often carried out outside the National Health Service. The Department, in conjunction with the Home Office, is working rapidly to investigate both practices. We will set out the findings from this review, including any proposals for legislation, in the ‘Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy’ in due course.

As of 30 June, there have been 10,300 bookings for accommodation for family rooms or 12.7%.

For bookings made via the online portal, 100% of customers receive a confirmation and invoice within 15 minutes. For family room booking requests, 67% of all requests received three to five days ahead of travel with confirmations provided, subject to availability, 24 hours ahead of departure to the United Kingdom. Over 30% of all Managed Quarantine Service hotel bookings made are subject to customer amendment in advance of travel due to date change, an airline schedule change, or COVID-19 test result delay.

All bookings made online should be confirmed within 30 minutes.

The Department is constantly adding additional Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) hotel capacity to meet requirements for large family groups. Currently, 18% of all MQS hotel capacity is suitable for larger families.

It is not possible to select a particular room at the quarantine hotel. However, hotels will prioritise allocating larger or connecting rooms for families.

For bookings made via the online portal, 100% of customers receive a confirmation and invoice within 15 minutes. For family room booking requests, 67% of all requests received three to five days ahead of travel with confirmations provided, subject to availability, 24 hours ahead of departure to the United Kingdom. Over 30% of all Managed Quarantine Service hotel bookings made are subject to customer amendment in advance of travel due to date change, an airline schedule change, or COVID-19 test result delay.

All bookings made online should be confirmed within 30 minutes.

The Department is constantly adding additional Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) hotel capacity to meet requirements for large family groups. Currently, 18% of all MQS hotel capacity is suitable for larger families.

It is not possible to select a particular room at the quarantine hotel. However, hotels will prioritise allocating larger or connecting rooms for families.

No formal assessment has been made. However, we continue to work with stakeholders and health and care system partners to support people with dementia and their carers, including NHS England and NHS Improvement’s guidance on the adjustments needed across the Dementia Well Pathway to ensure people continue to be diagnosed and can access care and support.

We have also commissioned research through the National Institute for Health Research on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on people with dementia and their carers living in the community. This includes help to manage the psychological and social impacts of social distancing, self-isolation and lockdown. Leaflets were produced for people with dementia and their carers and are available at the following link:

http://www.idealproject.org.uk/covid/

Personalised care and support planning is supported by ‘Dementia: Good Care Planning – information for primary care and commissioners’ which sets out the development of care and support planning following an initial holistic assessment of a person’s health and well-being needs within the context of their whole life and family situation. This process recognises the person’s skills and strengths as well as their experiences and the things that matter most to them. The guide is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/dementia-good-care-planning-information-for-primary-care-and-commissioners/

We continue to work with stakeholders and health and care system partners to support people with dementia and their carers, including work by NHS England and NHS Improvement’s guidance on the adjustments needed across the Dementia Well Pathway during the pandemic to ensure people continue to be diagnosed and can access care and support. In addition, we have made £17 million available to NHS England and NHS Improvement to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent body made up of scientific and clinical experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.

The Government has accepted the JCVI's advice, updated on 19 April, which now indicates that women who are pregnant should be offered vaccination at the same time as non-pregnant women, based on their age and clinical risk group. Clinicians should discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with the woman, who should be told about the limited evidence of safety for the vaccine in pregnancy. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are the preferred vaccines for pregnant women of any age, because of more extensive experience of their use in pregnancy. Pregnant women who commenced vaccination with Oxford/AstraZeneca are advised to complete with the same vaccine.

Pregnant women may wish to contact their general practitioner, who will identify the available vaccination centres where the person is able to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. If a woman finds out she is pregnant after she has started a course of vaccine, she may complete vaccination during pregnancy using the same vaccine product unless contra-indicated. Alternatively, vaccination should be offered as soon as possible after pregnancy.

To support and drive local action to address inequalities, Public Health England, with the Association of Directors of Public Health and the Local Government Association, published an evidence-based resource Place Based Approaches for reducing health inequalities. This was produced to support cross-system action to address avoidable differences in health outcomes between populations and groups. We have a refreshed obesity strategy, are providing National Health Service health checks, have a tobacco control plan in place and the world’s first diabetes prevention programme. The NHS also funds national vaccination and screening programmes.

In March, we published ‘Transforming the Public Health System: Reforming the Public Health System for the challenges of our times’ which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-public-health-system

This sets out our plans to reform the public health system by establishing a new Office for Health Promotion within the department, with professional oversight from the Chief Medical Officer. The Office will lead work across Government to promote good health and prevent illness.

To support and drive local action to address inequalities, Public Health England, with the Association of Directors of Public Health and the Local Government Association, published an evidence-based resource Place Based Approaches for reducing health inequalities. This was produced to support cross-system action to address avoidable differences in health outcomes between populations and groups. We have a refreshed obesity strategy, are providing National Health Service health checks, have a tobacco control plan in place and the world’s first diabetes prevention programme. The NHS also funds national vaccination and screening programmes.

In March, we published ‘Transforming the Public Health System: Reforming the Public Health System for the challenges of our times’ which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-public-health-system

This sets out our plans to reform the public health system by establishing a new Office for Health Promotion within the department, with professional oversight from the Chief Medical Officer. The Office will lead work across Government to promote good health and prevent illness.

To support and drive local action to address inequalities, Public Health England, with the Association of Directors of Public Health and the Local Government Association, published an evidence-based resource Place Based Approaches for reducing health inequalities. This was produced to support cross-system action to address avoidable differences in health outcomes between populations and groups. We have a refreshed obesity strategy, are providing National Health Service health checks, have a tobacco control plan in place and the world’s first diabetes prevention programme. The NHS also funds national vaccination and screening programmes.

In March, we published ‘Transforming the Public Health System: Reforming the Public Health System for the challenges of our times’ which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-public-health-system

This sets out our plans to reform the public health system by establishing a new Office for Health Promotion within the department, with professional oversight from the Chief Medical Officer. The Office will lead work across Government to promote good health and prevent illness.

During the pandemic the Government has provided over £11 million to the See, Hear, Respond programme, to support vulnerable children and young people whose usual support networks have been impacted by the outbreak, including young carers as a target group. The programme provides a range of support, including online counselling and helping children and young people stay connected with school.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) announced on 14 January 2021, that it was reintroducing the emergency education standards, to enable final year nursing students to opt into paid placements to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, dependent on local National Health Service need.

Student nurses opting into paid placements will be paid a salary and will receive an automatic NHS pension entitlement at the appropriate band. Time spent on paid placements can count towards students’ requirements to complete a specified number of training hours in order to successfully complete their degree.

Students may also volunteer or undertake paid ‘bank’ work within a health or care setting while maintaining their academic study if they wish to do so. In line with current guidelines, volunteering or paid work on the ‘bank’ will not be counted towards NMC required practice hours and assessed experience.

The Infection Control Fund has provided over £1.1 billion of ring-fenced for infection prevention and control in the care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial support is being provided to the sector in other key areas through the £149 million Rapid Testing Fund and the £120 million Workforce Capacity Fund. Additionally, £4.6 billion has been provided to support local authorities to address pressures on public services, including adult social care.

In 2021/22, we expect to provide local authorities with estimated funding of around £3 billion to help manage the impact of COVID-19 across their services, including in adult social care and to compensate for income losses. The Government will continue to monitor pressures on the sector and will keep future funding under review.

This information is not currently held centrally.

The Government does not have direct responsibility for pay or wider terms and conditions in adult social care in England.

The Government nonetheless maintains oversight of the social care system and we are committed to raising the profile of the social care sector. The Government expects local authorities to commission care at the rate that allows providers to employ the staff they need to deliver quality care. We are providing councils with access to an additional £1 billion for social care.

In July 2020, the National Health Service launched the ‘Your COVID Recovery’ service to support the recovery of people who have been in hospital or suffered at home with the virus. This is a two-phase endeavour with phase one being available as an open, publicly available site containing general information on all aspects of recovering from COVID-19, including physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing. Over 100,000 people have used the online service since it was launched in July.

On 7 October the NHS announced £10 million is be invested this year to help kick start and designate ‘long COVID-19’ clinics that will be available to all patients in England. Alongside this, new guidance has been commissioned by NHS England from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the clinical case definition of ‘long COVID-19’. This will include patients who have had COVID-19 who may not have had a hospital admission or a previous positive test. It will be followed by evidence-based NICE clinical guidelines that will outline the support that ‘long COVID-19’ patients should receive, enabling NHS doctors, therapists and staff to provide a clear and personalised treatment plan. This will include education materials for general practitioners and other health professionals to help them refer and signpost patients to the right support.

The Public Health Grant to local authorities is £3.279 billion in 2020-21. This is in addition to what the National Health Service spends on public health, which included over £1.3 billion in 2019-20 on national public health programmes such as immunisations and screening. Local authorities have also been provided with £4.3 billion in 2020/21 to support their response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Funding beyond 2020-21 will be set out at the next Spending Review.

The Department has provided support to general practitioners (GPs) throughout the pandemic, reflecting GPs’ vital role in tackling the virus and maintaining business as usual services to patients. Our COVID-19 Support Fund is helping general practices with the additional costs of responding to the pandemic. Details of the Fund were laid out in a letter to GP practices on 4 August 2020 which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/03/C0651-covid-support-fund-letter-aug-2020.pdf

NHS England and NHS Improvement have produced detailed guidance on treating individuals in a COVID-secure way. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/managing-coronavirus-covid-19-in-general-practice-sop/

The guidance offers advice on maintaining social distancing during face-to-face appointments, sourcing personal protective equipment and on accessing the COVID-19 Support Fund.

All National Health Service patient facing staff in acute, mental health, ambulance and community trusts have been provided with lateral flow tests to enable them to test themselves at home twice a week. Lateral flow tests are also being distributed across primary care including general practice, community pharmacy, dentistry and optometry. In addition tests have been provided to independent sector providers and community interest companies providing NHS care.

For care homes, new guidance advises all care home staff to undertake an additional two lateral flow tests per week, in addition to the current regular polymerase chain reaction testing regime.

The Government is aware of and sympathises with the hardships faced by women who experience severe symptoms from conditions such as endometriosis.

There is currently no plan to introduce a target to reduce the average waiting time for a diagnosis. NHS England advises that women with symptoms suggestive of endometriosis may undergo diagnostic and/or operative laparoscopy, a minimally invasive procedure carried out by a gynaecologist on referral. This is the only way to confirm a diagnosis of endometriosis.

The Government is committed to the open sharing of the scientific advice guiding our response to COVID-19 where possible.

The scientific papers presented at Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) meetings together with the minutes of each SAGE meeting have been, and will continue to be, released into the public domain as soon as is practicable. The scientific papers and SAGE minutes are available to view at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19

Endometriosis manifests itself in a variety of ways and shares symptoms with other conditions. As a consequence, diagnosis can be difficult and is sometimes delayed.

There are currently no plans to reduce the average waiting time for an endometriosis diagnosis.

Given the highly invasive nature of the diagnostic procedure and the varying degree to which women experience symptoms, it can be more appropriate to treat mild symptoms on clinical grounds and reserve a laparoscopy with its inherent risks for women with more significant symptoms.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of information and guidance on diagnosing and managing endometriosis, and we expect all clinicians to use NICE guidelines to inform their clinical practice.

Endometriosis manifests itself in a variety of ways and shares symptoms with other conditions. As a consequence, diagnosis can be difficult and is sometimes delayed.

Information on endometriosis is available at the following webpages:

NHS.UK:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/endometriosis/

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists:

https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/patients/patient-leaflets/endometriosis/

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/conditions-and-diseases/gynaecological-conditions/endometriosis-and-fibroids

Endometriosis UK:

https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/

No discussions have taken place between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions on the potential merits of introducing legislative proposals to ensure that employers provide increased support for those in the workplace with endometriosis.

Regulations came into force on 29 January 2020 to add Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (now known as COVID-19) to Schedule 1 of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015. This means there can be no charge made to an overseas visitor for the diagnosis, or treatment, of COVID-19. Patients that are known to be undergoing testing and treatment for coronavirus only are not subject to Home Office status checks.

This information has been widely communicated to NHS staff and the public, including a message published on Public Health England’s Migrant Health Guide, which has been translated into 40 languages.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) Regulations 2020 does not stop in-person physical and mental health support sessions from being held. The local authorities and charities who operate these sessions must decide on whether it is possible to do so whilst following relevant COVID-19 secure guidance.

Public Health England (PHE) is providing record level data, including postcode, to local authorities on a daily basis. PHE is also, providing identifiable data to Directors of Public Health daily from 21 July via a secure platform to improve their accessibility to the data.

The weekly syndromic surveillance reports are published on GOV.UK each Thursday and are available for local authorities and the public to access at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/news/weekly-covid-19-surveillance-report-published

They contain a range of primary care syndromic indicators, including COVID-19. COVID-19 syndromic outputs at England and Public Health England (PHE) Centre level are also included in the weekly PHE COVID-19 Surveillance Report. The England and Centre outputs are also included in the PHE Daily COVID-19 Surveillance Report. Both outputs are in the PHE COVID-19 LA Report Store available for Directors of Public Health and local authorities to access.

We are aware that limiting visits in care homes is difficult for many families and residents who want to see their loved ones. All our guidance is designed with care users in mind, to ensure that individuals are treated with dignity and respect and that their particular needs are addressed.

While we have recommended that care homes limit visits, we are clear that some visits, such as visits at the end of life, are important both for the individual and their loved ones and should continue with appropriate infection control precautions.

We are reviewing our policy on visitors and are looking to update our guidance shortly.

From 20 July and to augment the standing local arrangements between Public Health England (PHE) and Directors of Public Health, PHE will share daily fully identifiable (including names) test, case and contact tracing data via a dashboard with Directors of Public Health to further support their investigation of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The information is not held in the format requested.

The Government has published clear guidelines on helping to prevent facial skin damage beneath personal protective equipment (PPE), which can be found in the NHS England Health and Safety section online. These guidelines state the importance of keeping the skin clean and well moisturised before applying PPE and using skin protectants if individuals will be wearing PPE for extended periods. More detailed information around optimising the correct fit of masks is also included. For example, if the mask is digging in, it is advised to move away from direct patient contact and remove the mask - using doffing guidance - and allow the skin to recover for approximately five minutes. Individuals are encouraged to inspect skin for signs of redness or soreness and take regular breaks (we recommend every two hours), from wearing a mask to relieve the pressure, and reduce moisture build-up. Where possible, staff should rotate in teams where PPE can be removed between clinical shifts. This will help allow the skin time to recover.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have published a recent paper on type 1 and type 2 diabetes and COVID-19 related mortality in England which can be found on their website and accessed via the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/type-1-and-type-2-diabetes-and-covid-19-related-mortality-in-england/

It is not currently possible for Public Health England to capture evidence on the outcomes for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, whose ethnic categories are not part of the NHS Data Dictionary. We will raise this issue as part of the work that the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP) will be taking forward following the publication of PHE’s report into disparities in COVID-19 risks and outcomes and we are in discussion with NHS England and NHS Improvement about the equality monitoring data that can and should be gathered.

We have not made such an assessment but are working hard to understand more about COVID-19 and establish robust data on the factors impacting the number of COVID-19 cases and health outcomes for different groups within the population where data is available.

As part of this, we have commissioned Public Health England to consider the impact of various factors such as ethnicity, obesity, age, gender and geographical location.

There is no legal requirement for the data controller to consult the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under Article 36 of the General Data Protection regulation as the data collected is not identifiable and the processing is not therefore considered to be high risk.

However, the ICO has been working with NHSX for some time providing information governance assurance on the app development, including advising on the Data Protection Impact Assessment regarding risk mitigation. The ICO is represented on the Assurance Board and on the Ethics Advisory Board as an observer. Both boards report up to the app’s Oversight Board.

The ICO published a statement on 24 April confirming they will offer support during the life of the app as it is developed, rolled out, and when it is no longer needed.

If users delete the app, all data stored on the phone and not already voluntarily shared with the Department or the National Health Service would be deleted. If users do not opt to share their data while the app remains on their phone, it will automatically be deleted on a continuous 28-day cycle within the app, on the phone.

By law, an individual has a number of rights as a data subject, such as the right to access information held about them or ask for their data to be deleted. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides more detail about individual rights at the following link:

https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters

The data collected cannot identify an individual. It is not however anonymous: the data is categorised as pseudonymous and therefore is treated as personal data although not identifiable.

Existing law and National Health Service standards set out a framework of protective measures to ensure the app is legally compliant and meets the standards expected to keep data secure and confidential. These include the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016, Data Protection Act 2018, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (as incorporated into United Kingdom law by the Human Rights Act 1998) and the common law duty of confidentiality.

The app complies with the law around the use of data, including the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. The Information Commissioner’s Office has worked with NHSX to ensure a high level of transparency and governance and we have appointed an independent ethics board to provide guidance on the app development.

Testing is a crucial part of the United Kingdom’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government is working on multiple fronts to deliver additional testing capacity into the system.

We have committed to boosting National Health Service lab-based testing to at least 25,000 a day by the end of April for patients most in need and are working to increase our total testing capacity.

By increasing our testing capacity, we can provide better care for the most vulnerable patients across the NHS; help key workers get back to work as soon as possible; and provide certainty and reassurance to the wider UK population.

Key worker testing has now started, with hundreds of staff to be tested. This will increase from the end of March and tests will be turned around as quickly as possible.

We are also purchasing new types of tests including antigen tests to identify those who currently have the virus, and antibody tests to identify those who have had the virus and are now immune. We are working hard to bring additional tests to those that need them as soon as possible.

No discussions have taken place between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Health on funding for support services for friends and family members of people with addictions. The issues that addiction causes are all too often felt by family and friends. The Government is committed to ensuring that anyone with an addiction problem can access the help and support they need to overcome their problem and to help them rebuild their lives and sustain their recovery. There is a network of high quality addiction services across the country to support those who have drug and alcohol dependency issues and their families.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning effective alcohol and drug prevention and treatment services based on an assessment of local needs. Local authorities have received £3.1 billion in 2019/20 to be used exclusively on public health including addiction treatment services. The public health grant for 2020/21 will increase in real terms allowing local authorities to continue to invest in the services they provide.

The Department of Health and Social Care, with the Department for Work and Pensions, is providing £6 million, over three years, for a package of measures, to improve outcomes and support for children whose parents are alcohol dependent. This includes a local authority innovation fund; funding for voluntary sector organisations to develop new resources and training; and additional helpline and contact services for children.

The Government has committed to welcome up to 20,000 people through the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme (ACRS) over the coming years. The ACRS will provide those put at risk by recent events in Afghanistan with a route to safety. Unaccompanied children may be offered resettlement where they have been identified as eligible for the ACRS and it is determined that resettlement to the UK is in their best interests. This assessment will be made with expert partners. Where a child is unaccompanied, it may be in their best interest to remain in the region, where they are more likely to be reunited with family.

We condemn the Houthis' escalation of violence around Marib and their intensifying of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, which is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. On 20 October the UK supported a UN Security Council Press Statement calling for an immediate end to the Houthi escalation in Marib. On 9 November we achieved international agreement to impose sanctions against Houthi military leaders for leading offensives, orchestrating cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia and using their position to seize the assets of opponents and circumvent the UN arms embargo.

The Houthis, and all other parties to the conflict, need to engage constructively in negotiations. Dialogue is the only way to sustainably end this conflict and alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis.

UK Ministers and officials engage with their international and regional counterparts on Yemen regularly and use the monthly briefings to the UN Security Council to encourage efforts towards a political solution, deliver further economic support and bring an end to the humanitarian suffering. Administrative restrictions imposed on humanitarian partners remain the principal driver of access constraints across Yemen. We are clear that humanitarian aid must not be used as a political tool and call on all parties to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 2451 by facilitating safe, rapid, and unhindered access for the humanitarian response.

On 20 October the UK supported a UN Security Council Press Statement calling for an immediate end to the Houthi escalation in Marib, and the Foreign Secretary also visited Riyadh where she discussed the conflict in Yemen with Saudi counterparts. We urge the parties to engage constructively with the UN process and call on all states to release humanitarian funding commitments promptly.

UK Ministers and officials engage with their international and regional counterparts on Yemen regularly and use the monthly briefings to the UN Security Council to encourage efforts towards a political solution, deliver further economic support and bring an end to the humanitarian suffering. Administrative restrictions imposed on humanitarian partners remain the principal driver of access constraints across Yemen. We are clear that humanitarian aid must not be used as a political tool and call on all parties to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 2451 by facilitating safe, rapid, and unhindered access for the humanitarian response.

On 20 October the UK supported a UN Security Council Press Statement calling for an immediate end to the Houthi escalation in Marib, and the Foreign Secretary also visited Riyadh where she discussed the conflict in Yemen with Saudi counterparts. We urge the parties to engage constructively with the UN process and call on all states to release humanitarian funding commitments promptly.

The Foreign Secretary recently discussed the cases of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on 8 November. The Foreign Secretary has also taken every opportunity to discuss the situation with other key players in the region and more widely and will continue to do so. I raised their cases with my Iranian counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister, Bagheri Kani when he visited the FCDO on 11 November. Our Ambassador in Tehran also continues to regularly raise Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministers hold regular meetings with officials to direct activity across the FCDO to secure the release of unjustly detained British nationals.

We recognise that there are human rights concerns in both India-administered-Kashmir and Pakistan-administered-Kashmir.  We encourage all states to ensure domestic laws are in line with international standards. Any allegation of human rights violations or abuse is deeply concerning and must be investigated thoroughly and transparently.  We have raised our concerns with the Governments of India and Pakistan.

Freedom of expression and of the media are essential qualities of any functioning democracy. We are concerned by reports of some ongoing detentions of journalists and call for these to be lifted as soon as possible. We also work closely with the Indian media, including by funding an annual South Asia Journalism Fellowship Programme under our flagship Chevening brand. Last year, we funded 17 fellows, including seven from India.

We have previously expressed concern at reports of use of pellet guns by Indian security forces. The UN Secretary General also expressed concern in a June report and called on India to end the use of shotgun pellets against children. Ministers and senior officials have raised our concerns with the Indian Government and we call on all states to take preventive measures to protect children.

We are aware of recent reporting related to migrants being expelled from Saudi Arabia. Officials have raised this issue and the potential humanitarian and economic implications with the Saudi authorities. I, Lord Ahmad and the previous Foreign Secretary raised human rights in our latest engagements with the Saudi authorities. No aspect of our relationship with Saudi Arabia prevents us from speaking frankly about human rights.

Following the US Administration's decision to designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, we have urged the US ensure that the international humanitarian response, commercial imports and UN peace efforts are able to continue. We welcome the US commitment to work with the UN, NGOs and donors to address the implications for humanitarian activity and imports into Yemen. We await the release of full legal documentation of the designation framework, which will allow us to more fully understand its impact.

The UK is committed to delivering our £200 million aid pledge to Yemen this financial year (2020/21) and we will have disbursed 87 per cent of this funding by the end of November. Our funding aims to support at least 600,000 vulnerable people each month to help buy food this financial year (2020/21) and treat 55,000 children for malnutrition.

The funding for next financial year (2021/22) will enable the UK to deliver humanitarian support in current and emerging crises, such as in Yemen, and to tackle the combined threats of coronavirus and famine.

Country specific financial allocations for the new financial year (2021/22) will be taken in due course.

We are deeply concerned by reports of civilian deaths in Washah. Whenever the UK receives reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), we routinely seek information from all credible sources, including from Non-Governmental Organisations and international organisations. We use every opportunity to raise the importance of complying with IHL with the Saudi Arabian Government and other members of the Coalition, including requesting investigations into alleged incidents of concern. The UK continues to call on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to exercise restraint, comply fully with IHL and engage constructively with the peace process led by the UN Special Envoy, which is the only way to end the cycle of violence.

We are aware of reports that the Houthis recently downed a US drone, but we have seen no evidence to corroborate these reports. We are clear that continued Houthi violence only makes a peaceful resolution to the Yemeni civil war less likely. We continue to urge all parties to de-escalate, participate in positive dialogue and engage with the peace process led by UN Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths.

We are also deeply concerned by the findings of the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen that military equipment of Iranian origin was introduced into Yemen after the imposition of the targeted arms embargo. This puts Iran in non-compliance with Security Council Resolution 2216 (2015) and reaffirms our concerns about destabilising Iranian activity in Yemen and the wider region. We have raised these concerns with the Iranian Government.

The FSO SAFER oil tanker is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Unless UN experts are allowed to access it, we are facing a catastrophic environmental threat. The Houthis cannot continue to hold the environment and people's livelihoods to ransom. It is in everyone's interests, especially the suffering people of Yemen, that this tanker is made safe immediately. In support of UN efforts, we have raised this directly with the Houthis and with other leaders to try avert an avoidable crisis. We are also working with the UN and other donors to ensure there is sufficient funding and that contingency plans are in place should a spill occur in the interim.

Modelling funded by the Department for International Development predicts that Yemen could suffer up to 85,000 COVID-19 deaths in a worst case scenario. In response, the UK is disbursing its £160 million commitment to Yemen promptly this financial year to help the UN to tackle the spread of COVID-19. We expect our funding to provide over 700,000 medical consultations for a range of health conditions, train 1,500 healthcare workers to work safely in a COVID-19 environment and provide a much-needed boost to nearly 600 health centres to continue providing existing health services.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) suspended its operations in Yemen in 2015. Since then our ability to offer consular assistance to British nationals in Yemen has been extremely limited. Since March 2011, the FCO has consistently advised against all travel to all parts of Yemen, and advised British nationals to leave the country. However, where possible, the FCO remains committed to doing what it can for those British nationals who remain in Yemen. Our consular team continues to work around the clock to provide support, advice and information. British travellers needing to speak to a consular officer should call the FCO in London on +44(0)20 7008 1500.

In light of the challenges following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent restrictions put in place by the authorities in Yemen, FCO officials have been in contact with 29 British nationals who have expressed a wish to return to the UK since the start of the outbreak. These British nationals are spread across Yemen, but most are located in Aden and Seiyun. Officials have worked with the UN and regional partners to arrange departures to neighbouring countries, from where onward flights to the UK have then been secured. To date, seven British nationals have successfully left Yemen.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) suspended its operations in Yemen in 2015. Since then our ability to offer consular assistance to British nationals in Yemen has been extremely limited. Since March 2011, the FCO has consistently advised against all travel to all parts of Yemen, and advised British nationals to leave the country. However, where possible, the FCO remains committed to doing what it can for those British nationals who remain in Yemen. Our consular team continues to work around the clock to provide support, advice and information. British travellers needing to speak to a consular officer should call the FCO in London on +44(0)20 7008 1500.

In light of the challenges following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent restrictions put in place by the authorities in Yemen, FCO officials have been in contact with 29 British nationals who have expressed a wish to return to the UK since the start of the outbreak. These British nationals are spread across Yemen, but most are located in Aden and Seiyun. Officials have worked with the UN and regional partners to arrange departures to neighbouring countries, from where onward flights to the UK have then been secured. To date, seven British nationals have successfully left Yemen.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) suspended its operations in Yemen in 2015. Since then our ability to offer consular assistance to British nationals in Yemen has been extremely limited. Since March 2011, the FCO has consistently advised against all travel to all parts of Yemen, and advised British nationals to leave the country. However, where possible, the FCO remains committed to doing what it can for those British nationals who remain in Yemen.

In light of the challenges following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent restrictions put in place by the authorities in Yemen, FCO officials have been in contact with 27 British nationals who have expressed a wish to return to the UK. Officials have worked with the UN and regional partners to arrange departures to neighbouring countries, from where onward flights to the UK have then been secured. To date, six British nationals have successfully left Yemen.

Due to the response to the COVID-19 outbreak our work in this area has been delayed. The Government will provide an update and next steps in due course.

The UK is concerned at continued access restrictions within Yemen, including the closure of Sana'a airport. We are pressing the authorities to facilitate better access through ports and airports to ensure Covid experts and humanitarian personnel and supplies are able to enter Yemen, alongside food and fuel. This will be imperative to facilitate an effective international Covid-19 response. We support the UN Special Envoy's efforts to find a lasting solution to the airport issue with the parties.

As of 6 May, in Yemen there were 23 publicly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and four deaths. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) assessment is that a widespread outbreak in Yemen will be catastrophic. We are extremely concerned by the capacity of the healthcare system to respond to a severe outbreak of COVID-19. Only half of Yemen's health facilities are currently functioning and almost 20 million people lack access to basic health care. We are also concerned about the capacity of the Yemeni authorities to contain and manage the outbreak given the ongoing conflict; we are urging all parties to agree a ceasefire and to work together to enable a nationwide response. The Department for International Development is currently assessing how best to respond through existing programmes in Yemen, with the WHO and United Nations Children's Fund already working with Yemen's Ministry of Health to strengthen the country's health care capacity, by providing vital equipment across the country.

The Government has announced unprecedented support for businesses and workers across the country, in recognition of the impact of COVID-19. The Plan for Jobs will support employment across the whole country, including doubling the number of work coaches in Job Centre Plus, as well as through the Flexible Support Fund, which is delivered at a local level through Job Centre Plus branches and allocated based on local needs, and through the Rapid Response Service, which can be mobilised rapidly anywhere in the country to help provide immediate support to employees at risk of redundancy. These measures are designed to ensure that areas most vulnerable to the economic impact of the crisis are given the support they need.

Time to Pay arrangements are already available to all brewers, which enable them to seek deferrals for beer duty and other taxes with no interest or late penalties due. HMRC’s dedicated Covid-19 helpline can be reached by calling: 0800 0159 559.

This comes on top of the wider package of support announced by the Chancellor, worth over £350bn. Small brewers will be able to access interest-free loans, defer their VAT payments due on VAT returns for the period until the end of June and receive support worth up to 80% of their employees’ wages.

The Chancellor has announced an unprecedented package of support for businesses across the economy, including the pubs sector. Alongside £330bn worth of government-backed and guaranteed loans, firms eligible for small business rate relief or rural rate relief will be eligible for cash grants of up to £10,000, and firms in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors with eligible properties with a rateable value below £51,000 will be eligible for cash grants of up to £25,000. In addition, a business rates holiday has been put in place for all eligible businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors.

The Government’s Homes for Ukraine Scheme launched on Friday 18 March.

Potential applicants and sponsors should visit homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk for further information.

The Government implemented reforms in February 2020 to streamline the decision-making processes and increase the effectiveness of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Further to this, the Home Secretary announced last year that she was bringing forward a periodic review of the IOPC. This review will be led by an independent reviewer and will consider the IOPC’s efficiency and effectiveness, including its decision-making processes.

The review will start this year. The IOPC is an investigative body and is not itself responsible for the outcomes via the police misconduct system and the criminal justice system.

The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release in February 2022 and will cover the period October-December 2021. These numbers are updated each quarter.

This adheres to the standard practice for the release of information about the work of the department, both through the quarterly national statistics and the additional transparency data that is released, which ensure that statistics are published properly in a way which is open and accessible to all. Statistics on the number of people resettled under the scheme in 2022 Q1 will be included in subsequent edition of Immigration Statistics.

The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of Hon. Members written correspondence within 20 working days.

Performance has been impacted by a very significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan. Ministers and officials have also had to instigate a remote process for drafting and signing correspondence during the period of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Department recognises that it has not been able to meet service standard in some cases but has implemented an action plan to clear backlogs and drive up performance. The Department has recruited additional resources and expects to return to answering Hon. Member’s correspondence within service standard by the end of March 2022.

Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members correspondence are published quarterly with the latest Quarter available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q3-2021 and this includes data up to and including the end of quarter 3 - 2021.

The Department does not publish data about the number of cases still awaiting a response after 20-30 days, over 30 days or those specifically made to the MPs urgent inbox.

The Home Office is continuing to work with local authorities in the UK and authorities in the USA to ensure the best interests of the children are met when deciding where the children are ultimately settled.

We are working with the utmost urgency to ensure that, where it is in their best interests, these children are brought to the UK. Where the children cannot be safely settled in the UK they will be settled in the USA. None of them children remain in Qatar.

The points of learning made by Bishop James Jones in his report on the experiences of the Hillsborough families span a number of departments and organisations.

The Home Office is coordinating the Government’s response to the report and is working closely with its partners in the relevant government departments and organisations to carefully consider the points of learning. The Government will first engage with the Hillsborough families and will publish the Government’s overarching response to the Bishop’s report in due course.

The Home Office’s Chief Statistician wrote to the Office for Statistics Regulation last July to explain why the Home Office does not provide a breakdown or overall figure for the total number of people currently in the UK to whom the NRPF condition applies. His letter can be found at: https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/response-from-daniel-shaw-to-ed-humpherson-parliamentary-question-response/.

Those with temporary migration status are generally required to demonstrate their ability to support themselves and any accompanying family members, including children, in the UK without recourse to public funds as part of their immigration application. This is a well-established principle which protects taxpayer-funded public services from becoming overburdened.

There are, nonetheless, strong and important safeguards in place to ensure migrants receive support where they are destitute, at risk of destitution, or have community care needs, including issues relating to human rights or the wellbeing of children.

Migrants with leave under the family and human rights routes, and those who have been granted leave on the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa route as a British National (Overseas) status holder or a family member of a British National (Overseas) status holder can apply, for free, to have their NRPF condition lifted by making a ‘change of condition’ application if they are destitute or at risk of destitution, if the welfare of their child is at risk due to their low income, or where there are other exceptional financial circumstances.

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 imposes a general duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of “children in need” in their area. Support provided to a child by local authorities under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 is not dependent on the immigration status of the child or their parent(s).

Local authorities may also provide basic safety net support, regardless of immigration status, if it is established there is a genuine care need that does not arise solely from destitution. This might include where there are community care needs, migrants with serious health problems or family cases where the wellbeing of a child is in question.

Migrants who have made the necessary national insurance contributions can also claim contributory benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance and a state pension, which are not subject to residence conditions.

Clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill amends section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981 to allow a decision to deprive a person of British citizenship to be implemented in the absence of contact with a person, in specified circumstances, including where it is not reasonably practicable to give notice.

The reasons why it may not be reasonably practicable to give notice could include where the Home Office knows the address of an individual, but the postal service in the country does not function, private couriers do not operate, or the security situation prohibits an official serving notice in person.

We recognise the important work Women’s Aid and other such charities do in raising issues around support for victims of domestic abuse. The Home Office funds many such vital services, providing support to frontline services to victims and survivors, and the national domestic abuse helpline.

The Home Office has regular engagement with the sector in a multitude of forums, including regular dedicated stakeholder sessions. As part of this we use sector insight to understand their assessment of gaps in provision.

The Government set out its Budget and Spending Review plans in October of this year, including the high-level Home Office funding settlement for the next 3 years.

In order to deliver our ambition in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, and complementary Domestic Abuse Strategy to be published later this year, we will take advantage of any multi-year Spending Review outcome to best fund specialist support services.

The Home Office is aware of a group of unaccompanied Afghan minors with family links to the UK in Qatar and officials are working closely with UNICEF, the UNHCR and the US State Department to ensure the most appropriate outcomes for these children. Our priority is to ensure that the children will be safe and well cared for and to ensure any outcome is in the best interests of the children.

We are working with the utmost urgency to ensure that, where appropriate, these children are brought to the UK. However, we need to conduct assessments of the relatives the children will be living with to ensure the children’s safety, and that moving to the UK is in their best interests. As soon as these assessments are made, and we are content moving to the UK is in the best interests of the children, arrangements will be made to bring them to the UK.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) is not yet open. Officials are working urgently to stand up the remaining elements of the scheme, amid the complex and changing picture.

The Government will continue to work closely with other government departments, non-governmental organisations, charities, local authorities and other partners and relevant organisations in the development and implementation of the ACRS.

Further information on the eligibility, prioritisation and referral of people for the ACRS is set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement

The Home Office is logging the cases we have received from Honourable Members, and we are considering how this data will be used in the future.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) is not yet open. Officials are working urgently to stand up the remaining elements of the scheme, amid the complex and changing picture.

The Government will continue to work closely with other government departments, non-governmental organisations, charities, local authorities and other partners and relevant organisations in the development and implementation of the ACRS.

Further information on the eligibility, prioritisation and referral of people for the ACRS is set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement

The Home Office is logging the cases we have received from Honourable Members, and we are considering how this data will be used in the future.

The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). These include the average time taken to make a Country Guidance Decision. The latest published NRM statistics can be found here: Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, Quarter 1 2021 – January to March - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are delivered by FedEx, which took over the delivery contract from DX in February 2020, with the key performance indicator being to attempt to deliver 99% of BRPs within 48 hours of collection from the production facility.

FedEx took over the delivery contract from DX in February 2020, after a bedding in period formal reporting started in July 2020. Between 1 July 2020 and 31 March 2021 FedEx attempted to deliver 99.2% of BRPs within 48 hours. Of the deliveries attempted, 90.4% were successful.

We are working with FedEx to improve the number of BRPs successfully delivered by improving Management Information reporting, incident/investigation reporting and reconciliation, and customer service functions.

Ahmadiyya marriage certificates which for legitimate reasons are not registered with the Pakistan Union Council, but which have been accepted for official purposes by the Pakistani authorities, will be recognised as evidence of marriage in an EU Settlement Scheme family permit application.

The EU Settlement Scheme family permit is open for eligible family members of a relevant sponsor to apply. Individuals in red list countries can apply in the normal way.

If their application is successful, they will not be prevented from travelling to the UK, as they have residence rights, but like all travellers to the UK must comply with the prevailing border health measures, including the managed quarantine service where relevant.

The UK signed the Istanbul Convention in 2012, signalling its strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and this Government remains committed to ratifying it as soon as possible.

The Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017 requires Ministers to publish annual reports on their progress towards being able to ratify the Convention. The most recent report was published on 22 October 2020 and can be found here: Ratification of the Council of Europe convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence - progress report 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The October 2020 report confirmed that the UK already complies with almost all of the Convention’s articles (and in a number of respects goes beyond them) and sets out the steps which the Government and the Devolved Administrations are taking, to comply with the outstanding articles as we progress toward ratification.

When we are satisfied that we are compliant with the Convention then we will, in line with section 1(3) of the Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017, make a statement to Parliament confirming that fact and outline when we would expect to ratify.

71% of correspondence received in 2020, to the end of August, has been replied to within 20 working days. This includes replies to correspondence from hon. Members relating to immigration casework and operational matters provided by officials.

On 30 September, I published a Comprehensive Improvement Plan in response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.

This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-lessons-learned-review-response-comprehensive-improvement-plan

My officials are consulting external experts, community organisations and the very people the Home Office has failed in the past in an extensive programme of engagement to ensure officials understand the change that is needed and that the organisation at every level learns the lessons of what went wrong.

I have accepted the Windrush Lessons Learned review’s important findings and I will be updating the House in the coming weeks.

Asylum seeker right to work is a complex issue and is under review; it is crucial we take the time to get this right. We are listening carefully to the arguments and considering the evidence put forward on the issue.

The findings of the review will be communicated once this work is completed.

The UK is one of the world’s leading refugee resettlement states. We resettle more refugees than any other country in Europe and are in the top five countries worldwide. Since 2015, we have resettled more than 25,000 refugees. We can be proud as a country of our ambitious commitments and achievements.

The UK has a long and proud tradition of providing safe haven to those who genuinely need our protection, and we remain committed to providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations.

Those who fear persecution should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not put their lives at risk by making unnecessary and dangerous journeys to the UK. Illegal migration from safe countries undermines our efforts to help those most in need - controlled resettlement via safe and legal routes is the best way to protect such people and disrupt the organised crime groups that exploit migrants and refugees.