Jack Brereton

Further to the comments on the ceramics industry by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster made in the House on 19 May 2020, the Government has taken unprecedented action to support businesses, including the ceramics sector, during the outbreak of COVID-19 by introducing a range of initiatives from the opportunity to defer VAT and/or income tax for 3 months to the Job Retention Scheme and access to government-backed financing.

Government departments and executive agencies spend a significant sum on public procurement, and we are aware of the vital role this will play in kick-starting the economy once the pandemic has passed. Contracting Authorities are already required to consider the social and environmental impacts of procurements and we intend to deliver a package of ambitious measures, including launching a new social value model, to support the recovery effort to ensure that Government’s huge purchasing power is used to support communities and the local economy. The model can form a key part of the government’s overall plan for recovery as it enables commercial teams to select policy outcomes to:

• Tackle regional inequality with new jobs and skills, including retraining the unemployed in clean growth sectors, and helping disadvantaged communities recover.

• Promote economic growth and prosperity by supporting SMEs and start-ups to lead or be part of government supply chains.

• Support physical and mental health and ensure those in disadvantaged groups have equal opportunity to become part of a diverse, resilient workforce.

Further to the comments on the ceramics industry by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster made in the House on 19 May 2020, the Government has taken unprecedented action to support businesses, including the ceramics sector, during the outbreak of COVID-19 by introducing a range of initiatives from the opportunity to defer VAT and/or income tax for 3 months to the Job Retention Scheme and access to government-backed financing.

Government departments and executive agencies spend a significant sum on public procurement, and we are aware of the vital role this will play in kick-starting the economy once the pandemic has passed. Contracting Authorities are already required to consider the social and environmental impacts of procurements and we intend to deliver a package of ambitious measures, including launching a new social value model, to support the recovery effort to ensure that Government’s huge purchasing power is used to support communities and the local economy. The model can form a key part of the government’s overall plan for recovery as it enables commercial teams to select policy outcomes to:

• Tackle regional inequality with new jobs and skills, including retraining the unemployed in clean growth sectors, and helping disadvantaged communities recover.

• Promote economic growth and prosperity by supporting SMEs and start-ups to lead or be part of government supply chains.

• Support physical and mental health and ensure those in disadvantaged groups have equal opportunity to become part of a diverse, resilient workforce.

The Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Growth Hub has received more than £1m over five years and in the previous financial year supported over 5000 local businesses, including ceramics companies.

Furthermore, £98m of Local Growth Funding is supporting projects across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire such as the Heat Academy at Stoke-on-Trent College to help businesses access the skills they need to compete and grow.

The ICO took advice from the Electoral Commission on the matter of the Liberal Democrats. As a result this case was referred to the Metropolitan Police on 26 October 2018 as the issues fell outside the jurisdiction of the ICO. The Metropolitan Police later confirmed that they were unable to consider the matter any further.

The ICO’s wider investigations of several organisations on both the remain and the leave side of the UK’s referendum about membership of the EU has now concluded. The ICO identified no significant breaches of the privacy and electronic marketing regulations and data protection legislation that met the threshold for formal regulatory action. Where an organisation has continued in operation, the ICO has provided advice and guidance to support better future compliance with the rules.

The ICO will shortly publish a report of audits on the main political parties.

Ensuring that vulnerable children remain protected is a top priority for the government.

The multi-agency statutory guidance document ‘Working Together (2018)’ sets out what professionals and organisations need to do to safeguard children, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

Working Together (2018), is clear that practitioners should be proactive in sharing information as early as possible to help identify, assess and respond to risks or concerns about the safety and welfare of children. Practitioners should be alert to sharing important information about any adults with whom that child has contact, which may impact the child’s safety or welfare.

Section 11 of the Children Act, 2004 places duties on a range of organisations, agencies and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Many of the agencies subject to the section 11 duty are members of the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), including the police, prison and probation services. MAPPA should work together with ‘duty to co-operate agencies’ to manage the risks posed by violent and sexual offenders living in the community in order to protect the public and should work closely with the safeguarding partners over services to commission locally.

The government is introducing measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 9 March 2021, to clarify the information sharing powers of those agencies subject to the duty to co-operate under MAPPA.

Furthermore, provisions in the landmark Domestic Abuse Bill, currently passing through parliament, will contribute further to the management of offenders. Perpetrators who are subject to a Domestic Abuse Protection Order are required to notify the police of their name and address and any changes to this information. Failure to notify constitutes a breach punishable by up to 5 years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.

The government has not conducted an assessment of the potential merits of a national database.

As an independent trading nation, we are building strong trading relationships across the world and removing market access barriers for British businesses. We have secured trade agreements with 66 non-EU countries, worth £217bn in 2019. We have formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement which removes tariffs on 95% of goods between members and will deepen UK access to key markets around the world, from Mexico to Malaysia.

In 2019/20, income from Network Rail’s managed stations, all of which is reinvested in the railway, grew by £8m / 4%.

A full break down of this information by region is provided in the table attached.

Stoke-On-Trent Station is owned by Network Rail and leased to the Train Operating Company, Avanti. We do not hold information on income for this station.

NHS England is responsible for funding allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This process is independent of government and NHS England takes advice on the underlying formula from the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. CCG allocations take account of health inequalities and unmet need. The approach was updated in 2019/20 and further information can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/note-on-ccg-allocations-2019-20-2023-24.pdf

NHS England and NHS Improvement are responsible for the design of tariff, including the Market Forces Factor. The approach and underlying data were updated in 2019/20. These changes have been introduced on a five-year glide path to ensure stability for the sector. Further information can be found in the guide available at the following link:

https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/475/Guide_to_the_market_forces_factor.pdf

NHS England is responsible for funding allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This process is independent of government and NHS England takes advice on the underlying formula from the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. CCG allocations take account of health inequalities and unmet need. The approach was updated in 2019/20 and further information can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/note-on-ccg-allocations-2019-20-2023-24.pdf

NHS England and NHS Improvement are responsible for the design of tariff, including the Market Forces Factor. The approach and underlying data were updated in 2019/20. These changes have been introduced on a five-year glide path to ensure stability for the sector. Further information can be found in the guide available at the following link:

https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/475/Guide_to_the_market_forces_factor.pdf

As each Private Finance Initiative (PFI) company raises its finance in different ways and from different sources, the most relevant and easily comparable way of describing the cost of PFI finance is the pre-tax nominal project internal rate of return. This rate for the Royal Stoke University Hospital PFI project was 5.70% in June 2007 based on the Government’s standard inflation rate assumption.

At the time the Royal Stoke University Hospital PFI was signed in June 2007, the interest rate for loans for capital investment, which was based on the relevant National Loan Fund rates, was 5.65%.

Where public dividend capital is made available for capital investment, under current rules Trusts are required to pay a 3.5% dividend on its net assets.

We support the opposition’s struggle to seek a democratic future for all Belarusians through peaceful means. We strongly condemn the ongoing repression and human rights violations committed by the Lukashenko regime. The Government has increased financial support to civil society organisations and independent media. We have provided over £1m in 2020, and an additional £1.8m this financial year to support civil society and media freedom in Belarus. We have imposed over 90 sanctions designations in response to the fraudulent elections and human rights violations in Belarus and we are actively considering further designations. Following the FR4978 flight, the UK took clear decisive action:

• We suspended the operating permit of Belavia airlines.

• We banned Belarusian airlines from UK airspace without prior authorisation

• We have advised all UK airlines to avoid flying over Belarus.

The Foreign Secretary discussed the political situation in Belarus and further measures the UK might take with the opposition leader in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya 2 June. The UK pressed for a fact finding investigation by ICAO, the international organisation responsible for civil aviation, which was established on 27 May.

We have a duty both to protect our borders and prevent loss of life. That’s why we are doing everything we can to stop these dangerous Channel crossings and bring to justice the criminals behind this evil trade.

No one should be making these dangerous and illegally-facilitated crossings. France is a safe country with a well-run asylum system.

The National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and UK Police are working closely with French authorities to stop ruthless criminals who facilitate the crossings, putting lives at risk. A UK-France Coordination and Information Centre was opened in Calais in November 2018 to co-ordinate law enforcement activity.

Councils are on the front line as we tackle this pandemic, and we have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an un-ringfenced grant so they can address pressures in response to COVID-19.

It is important that we carefully monitor the pressures councils are facing. We have now carried out three rounds of the COVID-19 financial monitoring survey and received data for every single authority in the latest round. We are currently analysing the results from the third round and we will publish the data in due course.

We are extremely grateful for the continued collaboration from councils, which enables us to understand pressures at a national and local level. A summary of the data provided to us by councils in England from the first two rounds of monitoring can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-covid-19-financial-impact-monitoring-information . We are not currently publishing LA-level data, but are keeping this approach under review.

We know from the first two rounds of monitoring that the majority of the money is being allocated to supporting those most vulnerable in society, as we would expect. Other service areas that money is being allocated to environmental costs (which includes death management) and housing which includes homelessness and rough sleeping.

Councils are on the front line as we tackle this pandemic, and we have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an un-ringfenced grant so they can address pressures in response to Covid-19.

It is important that we carefully monitor the pressures they are facing. Across both rounds of our Covid-19 financial monitoring survey we received data from every single authority asked. We are extremely grateful for their continued collaboration, which enables us to understand pressures at a national and local level. A summary of the data provided to us by councils in England will be available in due course.

We know from the first two rounds of monitoring that the majority of the money is being allocated to supporting those most vulnerable in society, as we would expect. Other service areas that money is being allocated to environmental costs (which includes death management) and housing which includes homelessness and rough sleeping.