Iain Stewart

The Government congratulates the British Standards Institution (BSI) in reaching the 120^th anniversary of their Kitemark and also commends their work as the UK’s National Standards body. However, there are no plans to commemorate the reaching of this landmark.

DCMS does not provide direct funding to the Turner Prize. The Prize is managed by Tate, which funds it via a mixture of fundraising, contributions from host venues, and from Tate’s own budgets. DCMS provides Grant in Aid funding to Tate to support the organisation's overall operational and capital requirements.

The Secretary of State regularly discusses a range of matters with the Environment Agency (EA).

The Great Ouse river catchment area has been subject to regular flooding, with serious floods in 1912, 1947, 1953, 1998 and more recently, in 2020. The EA has worked to better protect thousands of properties from flooding in the catchment. Since 2003, the EA has invested in building and funding flood defence schemes that now better protect more than 25,000 properties across the catchment from flooding and erosion.

In the last year alone, the EA has invested around £18million in flood defence schemes and assets in the Great River Ouse catchment. It operates over one thousand assets to manage water through the catchment and it offers advice to riparian property owners on their responsibilities and how to prevent blockages to rivers that could increase flood risk. For properties in areas not protected by flood defences, the EA is looking at the potential for new schemes and also other measures such as Property Flood Resilience (PFR).

The risk of flooding can never be fully eliminated and it will continue to pose a threat to this region. The EA urge people to be prepared for flooding by following its ‘Prepare, Act, Survive’ guidance. The EA supports local flood action groups to help them better prepare their communities for future flood events and also provides the Flood Warning Service to provide time for people to prepare for flooding, and to protect their families and homes.

The Department works with both local highway authorities and National Highways to assess road surface condition across England annually. Local highway authorities undertake road condition surveys on their classified road networks, and their surveys identify road defects and provide an overall score of road condition. The latest data was published on gov.uk on 23 November 2023:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/road-conditions-in-england-to-march-2023

It is up to local highway authorities to determine how best to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, taking into account local circumstances and priorities. This includes decisions on the equipment, techniques, and materials used as part of their maintenance activities. The Department advocates a risk-based, whole-lifecycle-asset management approach that considers all parts of the highway network, and recommends that authorities follow the best practice guidance set out in the Well-managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice which is available via the website of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation.

Fifteen Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) were allocated funding for demand responsive transport (DRT) schemes as part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) process, totalling over £37m. This figure only includes schemes from LTAs who have had their funding confirmed. In cases where the LTA has not provided granular detail, some elements of this funding will include funding for other services alongside DRT.

My Department is working with representatives from the bus industry, through the Project Coral consortium, as well as Transport for the West Midlands and Midlands Connect, to develop a technical solution for multi-operator ticketing and automatic revenue apportionment for buses in England outside of London. Procurement is planned later this year.

We are also encouraging local authorities in England, through Enhanced Partnerships, to pursue low-cost, interim measures whilst the national system is being developed. For example, through paper-based, multi-operator tickets and mutual acceptance of return tickets, where different operators serve the same corridor.

76 Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) in England outside London are pursuing an Enhanced Partnership (EP) to deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) and provide better bus services to passengers. The majority of LTAs that have been awarded BSIP funding have now made their EPs.

For LTAs not in receipt of BSIP funding, 10 are finalising the content of their EP, in consultation with local bus operators and the rest have either now made their EP or are in the final stage awaiting the approval of local decision makers before making their EP. We expect the vast majority of EPs to be made and in operation by 31 March 2023.

Funding for 29 Bus Service Improvement Plans has been confirmed, representing 31 Local Transport Authorities. So far, payments have been made to 23 Local Transport Authorities to deliver the first year of their plans. To date, £143.5 million has been paid.

The Foreign Secretary has had no discussions with his Tunisian counterpart regarding the issue the Member for Milton Keynes South refers to. The UK is a firm supporter of Israel's normalisation ambitions, and of the Abraham Accords which are a historic milestone that bring us closer to the goal of shared prosperity throughout the region. We continue to encourage close regional cooperation in order to tackle regional challenges and, as we look ahead to the future, to secure a meaningful political horizon for Israelis and Palestinians.

Ensuring prison officers stay and progress their careers is a priority, and we are working hard to retain and develop clear career paths for operational staff.

HMP Woodhill has implemented an action plan focused on staff retention and improvements have been seen in attrition rates this year.

We have created a retention framework which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, will publish an initial action plan by no later than 29 September 2023, addressing immediate concerns at HMP Woodhill. The prison is already taking steps to drive improvement including:

• receiving support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations; and
• temporarily reducing capacity to free up resources and support stability.

We will be monitoring the situation at HMP Woodhill very closely to ensure there is a speedy and sustained improvement.