Jonathan Lord

Putin’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated to countries the dangers of relying on fossil fuels controlled by a hostile actor. Countries now understand the benefits of low-cost, homegrown renewables, the price of which cannot be manipulated from afar. Climate and environmental security are now synonymous with energy and national security. And it is clear that our long-term energy futures do not lie in fossil fuels.

I am pleased that governments are responding by accelerating the transition to clean power. Here in the UK, we have recently published our Energy Security Strategy, to turbocharge our deployment of wind, of solar, of nuclear, and of hydrogen.

At COP26 almost 200 countries agreed to the historic Glasgow Climate Pact which keeps alive the aim of limiting average global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Today 90% of global GDP is covered by net zero pledges (which includes China, the USA and India), up from 30% when the UK took on the COP Presidency, and 154 countries have submitted emissions reductions targets for 2030. Under the UK’s Presidency, 95% of the largest developed country climate finance providers made new commitments, with many doubling or even quadrupling their support for developing countries to take climate action.

The Paris Agreement made promises and now Glasgow’s legacy is focused on delivery. The most recent IPCC report highlighted the urgency of action on emissions reductions; adaptation and finance to support developing nations; and loss and damage. Throughout the UK’s Presidency year, we will work with Egypt as incoming Presidency, with the UNFCCC Secretariat, and with Parties to deliver on the agreed outcomes in the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Tackling domestic abuse is an important priority for this government. Over 10,900 suspects were charged with DA offences in the last quarter with a conviction rate of over 75% and in the last 5 years, the number of coercive and controlling behaviour cases has increased from 5 to 1,403.

We have continued focus on tackling this heinous crime by introducing non- fatal strangulation offence as part of our landmark Domestic Abuse Act. Those who strangle their partners in an attempt to control or induce fear will face up to 5 years behind bars.

In its role as a specialist law enforcement agency tackling the top level of serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is prosecuting eight cases within the 2022-23 financial year. These involve more than 20 individuals, charged with criminality worth over £550m.

Given this specialist role, as well as the scale and complexity of the cases it takes on, the focus of the SFO is less on increasing the number of cases it takes on, but rather increasing its capacity through the use of technology, reducing manual errors and delivering this year’s trials effectively.

Driving this, the SFO received a funding uplift in the 2021 Spending Review which included £4.4m over three years to invest in technology. This will complement the wider work that it is doing to reduce case lengths and ensure the tools it uses to investigate and prosecute fraudsters match the evolving methods used by these criminals.

The National Cyber Strategy sets out how the government will foster the growth of an already strong cyber sector in the UK. New government-funded programmes like Cyber Runway and the cyber accelerator, ‘NCSC for Startups’ are supporting entrepreneurs and businesses across the UK to turn their ideas into commercial successes.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office recently met the Minister for Care and Mental Health to discuss issues surrounding veterans’ health, including mental health services. The Minister for Defence People recently had the opportunity to meet Op COURAGE staff and service users at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

Op COURAGE is a mental health support pathway in England which continues to grow, and the Government strongly encourages any veterans who need support to engage with it. Op COURAGE was allocated £17.8 million funding last year and an extra £2.7 million over the next three years.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to the Honourable Member for Meriden on 11 February 2021.

"The civil service will launch its new apprenticeship strategy next year. The first phase will have delivered 30,000 apprenticeships by next April, but going forward I want to focus not just on numbers, but on the quality of training on offer, so that Departments get much better at growing their own talent and plugging skills gaps. To that end, we recently published the curriculum and campus for Government skills, with the goal of setting the highest standard in vocational training for all civil servants, including apprentices."

All public-facing online government services are required to comply with the Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice which ensure that they meet user needs, are accessible and secure.

We are introducing GOV.UK Accounts to meet changing user needs and expectations and make government services more personalised and data-driven. We have established a Data Standards Authority to make sure that data can be used, shared and understood across government, which is the foundation of joined-up and trusted public services.

On 4 January, the Prime Minister announced a National Lockdown for all of England, in accordance with growing evidence of virus prevalence. Under these new restrictions, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies should only take place in exceptional circumstances. Up to six people can attend (including the couple). Anyone working is not included in that limit.

We recognise the restrictions may be disappointing for those planning such events. By their nature, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies are events that bring families and friends together, including from across the country and sometimes across the world, making them particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. We do not wish to keep restrictions in place for any longer than we have to, and restrictions will be kept under review in line with the changing situation. For further information, please refer to the guidance for small weddings and civil partnerships https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships. There is different advice for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The government continues to regularly make available scientific evidence supporting its COVID-19 response, including at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

On 22 February, the Prime Minister will set out the plan for reopening schools, and gradually reopening the economy and society, in a sustainable way in England.

For further information, please refer to the Coronavirus (COVID‑19) page on gov.uk, which will publish further information regarding the roadmap on 22 February, https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.

The Government’s Export Strategy, ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’, focuses on the challenges UK businesses face when exporting and sets out a 12-point plan which targets barriers to trade and helps businesses at every stage of their export journey. My Department continues to support companies through our network of domestic and overseas trade advisers, sector specialists, Export Support Service, Export Academy, International Markets network as well as through UK Export Finance. We are also helping businesses to benefit from new free trade agreements and working across Government to reduce barriers to exporting and simplify border processes.

The Government is aware that late payment remains a significant problem for small businesses across the country. That is why at the beginning of 2023 the Government launched a review of Cash flow and Prompt Payment, alongside a public consultation on the Payment Performance Regulations. The findings of the review, alongside the consultation response, will be published later in 2023.

The Government will use the findings of this review to improve the Payment Performance Regulations, the Small Business Commissioner, and the Prompt Payment Code to improve payment culture in the UK, to reduce late payments and its impact on SMEs.

My department has a team of experts across Africa supporting British businesses to thrive and increasing trade and investment. We are using our 9 trade agreements covering 18 African nations to grow trade. These provide preferential access to UK markets for African goods and frameworks for cooperation. The Developing Countries Trading Scheme will lower tariffs to support an additional 33 African countries to increase exports. We are also working bilaterally to deepen relationships with growing African economies. In 2024, the Prime Minister will host the second UK-African Investment Summit to showcase investment opportunities and advance two-way trade.

The Prime Minister has set a clear ambition to grow the UK as a Science and Technology Superpower. Core to this is the need to have UK companies growing through international expansion. My Department is supporting this growth through our teams in over 100 countries, sourcing opportunities for UK companies in sectors such as AI and Quantum. DBT also supports tech companies to access global markets through putting them on the world stage at large overseas trade shows such as Mobile World Congress and Web Summit. The Export Academy, which supports businesses from all sectors, and the Export Support Service – International Markets, which handled over 9,600 enquiries since launch in April 2022 - February 2023, help organisations with their international expansion.

My honourable friend is right to raise opportunities to boost trade at the state level. Just last week, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oklahoma, our fourth with an individual US state, which provides a framework to promote British business and tackle barriers to trade.

We are also supporting professional bodies and regulators to remove barriers at the state level, including through recognition of professional qualifications. Last week, I attended the launch of an architecture Mutual Recognition Agreement between British and American regulators which we estimate could increase UK services exports to the US by £40 million per annum.

The Government views sustainably sourced biomass as low carbon, in line with independent organisations such as the CCC and IPCC, as set out in the Government Biomass Strategy, published in August 2023.

Only biomass that complies with strict sustainability criteria receives support from Government. For forest derived biomass, the criteria includes requirements around sustainable forest management including regeneration rates and sustainable harvesting, requiring that the carbon stock of the forest is not decreased.

In 2024, Government will consult on a cross sectorial sustainability framework to see where we can strengthen the criteria further based on latest evidence.

Information is only available on Drax’s support for electricity generation from all types of biomass, (including wood from sustainable sources) and on lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The figures in the table below give the value of the support under the Renewables Obligation scheme for generation from all the types of biomass used by Drax.

From 2016 (the start of their support under the Contracts for Difference scheme) to 2023, Drax was paid £1.38bn in net difference payments. The details are published by the Low Carbon Contracts Company on their Data Portal[3].

Drax’s GHG emissions under the Renewables Obligation are available in Ofgem’s sustainability datasets[4]. For the Contracts for Difference scheme, Drax’s avoided GHG emissions are published by the Low Carbon Contracts Company on their Data Portal.

[1] Support under the Renewables Obligation is through tradeable certificates. The figures give the notional value of the support

[2] Provisional figure as all the certificates for 2022/23 may not have been issued yet.

[3] The Low Carbon Contracts Company’s Data Portal is at: https://dp.lowcarboncontracts.uk/dataset/actual-cfd-generation-and-avoided-ghg-emissions/resource/fa730219-fbd2-41b5-9510-ba2b0ff2c1ba

[4] Ofgem’s annual sustainability datasets are at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/renewables-obligation-ro/renewables-obligation-ro-suppliers/biomass-sustainability

I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to my hon Friend the Member for Hendon (Dr Matthew Offord) on 15 September to Question UIN 198081.

Businesses, including those within the Woking constituency and across the UK, have already benefitted from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which ended on 31 March and provided over £7.4 billion of support.

Businesses experiencing high energy costs will continue to get a discount on gas and electricity bills under the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) until 31 March 2024, including the higher level of support for eligible Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) and domestic heat network customers on commercial contracts.

The importance of the role of nuclear energy in the Government’s strategy for achieving our net zero emissions targets was most recently set out in our March 2023 policy paper: Powering Up Britain initiatives. This includes our Net Zero Growth Plan, which reiterates the ambition of the 2022 British Energy Security Strategy for deploying up to 24 gigawatts of nuclear by 2050, around 25% of our projected 2050 electricity demand. Modelling for nuclear, which was first published alongside the Energy White Paper 2020, is set out in Table 2, page 24, of the Technical Annex to the Net Zero Growth Plan.

The Government is providing substantial funding to help Post Office give postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal the compensation they deserve.

Post Office is negotiating compensation with wrongly convicted postmasters, paying interim compensation of up to £100,000; as of 17 October, £7.6 million has been paid.

The Government is funding additional compensation to those non-convicted postmasters who took Post Office to the High Court. As of 24 October, interim payments of £15.9 million had been made.

The Historical Shortfall Scheme is compensating other non-convicted postmasters. As of 26 October, offers totalling £57 million had been made to 85% of eligible HSS claimants.

At the 2021 Spending Review, the Government announced an increase in public expenditure on R&D, including a commitment to £20 billion per annum by 2024/2025.

R&D investment supports delivery of the Innovation Strategy, by creating the conditions to grow private sector investment. To develop R&D strengths across the country, Government is increasing domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East by at least 40% by 2030. We have also committed £800 million to the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, a new science and research funding agency, to fund research that will develop new technologies.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme was announced on 21 September 2022 to provide a discount on energy bills for all eligible non-domestic customers, including businesses, whose current gas and electricity prices have been significantly inflated in light of global energy prices. The scheme will initially run for 6 months covering energy use from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 and will help support growth, prevent unnecessary insolvencies and protect jobs.

The Government has worked to secure internationally mobile, transformative investment projects in sectors across the economy, supporting the delivery of key Government priorities. In March, Australian Investors announced £28.5 billion of investments for clean energy, technology and infrastructure. In addition, the Government has provided further support to attract significant investment in manufacturing, including delivering Britishvolt’s £1.7 billion Gigafactory in Blythe Valley which will support 3,000 direct jobs and a further 5,000 across the supply chain. The Government has further worked to secure over £80 million R&D investment by Smith and Nephew into their manufacturing facility near Hull.

The Government intends to take one project to Final Investment Decision (FID) this Parliament and two projects in the next Parliament, subject to value for money, approvals and technology readiness.

The Government will set up a new flagship body - ‘Great British Nuclear’ - to develop a resilient pipeline of projects. The Government appointed Simon Bowen to lead and help develop government proposals for this body.

On the 13^th of May 2022, the Government launched a Request for Information for the £120million Future Nuclear Enabling Fund. This fund will provide targeted support to potential new and advanced nuclear projects seeking to enter the UK nuclear market.

Supporting grassroots sport is a key government priority. Last year, Sport England - our Arm’s Length Body responsible for growing and developing grassroots sport - received almost £350 million from the Government and National Lottery to fund grassroots sports projects. The Government also invests £18 million a year into community sport facilities via the Football Foundation alongside the English Football Association and the Premier League.

Sport England uses its funding to support and encourage the development of sport and recreation with the view to increasing participation rates across England. This includes the over £2.2 million of funding Sport England has provided in the Woking constituency since 2019, £240,000 of which supported projects through the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are investing £300 million to develop thousands of state-of-the-art community football pitches and multi-use sports facilities across the UK. The Football Foundation has also invested over £400,000 in nearly 20 grants across the constituency, funding pitches, changing facilities, maintenance and equipment.

We have committed £30 million a year for 3 years to school sport facilities in England, and over £20 million with the Lawn Tennis Association to renovate park tennis courts across England, Scotland and Wales.

At the Spring Budget, we also announced a £63 million package to address the cost pressures facing some public swimming pool providers, and provide investment in energy efficiency measures to make facilities sustainable in the long-term. Both of these interventions aim to ensure that children and adults up and down the country have accessible opportunities to get active.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has committed to delivering a new sport strategy that will set the direction for the Government's priorities and its role in the sport sector. This strategy will support grassroots sport by having a specific focus on ensuring that everyone has access to appropriate and accessible opportunities to get active.

On 23 February 2023, the Government published a White Paper on reforming club football governance. This set out our detailed plans to improve the financial stability and governance of football clubs across all leagues through the introduction of an independent regulator. The regulator’s primary strategic purpose will be to ensure that English football is sustainable and resilient for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

We recognise the need for urgent action to safeguard the future of football clubs throughout the English football pyramid, so we will legislate to put the regulator on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.

The Government is delivering the biggest broadband upgrade in UK history. Currently, 69% of UK premises can access gigabit-capable broadband, continuing a rate of incremental growth in line with meeting the target of at least 85% gigabit-capable coverage across the country by 2025. This is not the limit of our ambitions and we will continue to work closely with the industry to get close to complete gigabit coverage as quickly as we can thereafter.

To support this, we are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit so hard-to-reach areas can get ultra-reliable gigabit speeds. We have already upgraded coverage to over 600,000 premises, and we have over half a billion of pounds of contracts out for tender right now.

In addition to our Project Gigabit contracts, we are investing up to £210 million in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.

We are also providing funding to connect rural public buildings like schools, GP surgeries and libraries. We recently announced a joint £82 million investment with the Department for Education (DfE) to connect up to 3,000 eligible schools to lightning-fast gigabit broadband.

On 23 June my department laid a statutory instrument to amend the Television Licences Act 2000, that will ease the administrative burden put on eligible over-75s when applying for a free licence.

Under the new plans the BBC will be able to automatically verify whether a person applying for a free TV Licence is on Pension Credit with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It will mean in most cases the 7,000 people who apply to TV Licensing for a free licence per month will simply need to apply online or over the phone without any need to supply additional paperwork.

The changes to the application process are expected to come into effect next year.

Fraudulent online advertisements are illegal. However, the government recognises that more should be done to tackle the devastating effects caused by fraudulent online advertisements that are placed.

The Online Safety Bill includes a standalone duty on the largest online platforms and search services (Category 1 and 2A services) to prevent the publication of fraudulent adverts on their services.

In addition, the Online Advertising Programme will look at the entire online advertising ecosystem in relation to fraud, as well as other harms caused by online advertising. It will consider the role of all actors not currently covered by regulation. The Online Advertising Programme consultation closed on 8 June, and the government will set out its response in due course.