Kate Hollern

The Major Conditions White Paper, that we announced on Tuesday, will apply a geographical lens to address disparities in outcomes. This will support the levelling up mission to extend healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 and narrow the gap between areas by 2030.

As the Major Conditions White Paper will therefore cover many of the same areas as a document focused on health disparities, we will no longer be publishing a separate White Paper.

The Government’s Biomass Strategy, which will be published later this year, will establish the role which Bioenergy with Carbon Capture & Storage (BECCS) can play in reducing carbon emissions across the economy and set out how the technology could be deployed. No decision has been made on future BECCS deployment.

The Government does not hold this information.

Information on country and region of sourcing of generators is publicly available at https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/biomass-sustainability-dataset-2019-20.

The Government is conscious of the impact of fuel prices on household finances across the country.

That is why we have kept fuel duty frozen. This is the twelfth consecutive freeze, saving the average UK car driver a cumulative £1,900, compared to the plans set out by the previous government in 2010.

The UK will remain in European Structural & Investment (ESI) Fund programmes (ERDF, ESF, EAFRD and EMFF) until the end of December 2023, and after this they will be closed. Allocations are published in the Operational Programmes for each fund. These allocations need to be spent within three years of being allocated or by 31st December 2023.

Published information on all ESI funds can be accessed from the ESIF Home Page on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/european-structural-investment-funds, through which links to the websites of the Devolved Administrations can also be accessed.

Published information on ESI funding (ERDF and ESF) in Gibraltar can be found at www.eufunding.gi.

National authorities responsible for managing each Operational Programme will report progress against these allocations in their Annual Implementation Reports to the European Commission. For ESI funds in England the Annual Implementation Reports are available on GOV.UK. Annual Implementation Reports for ESI funds in the Devolved Administrations are available on their respective websites.

The UK will remain in European Structural & Investment (ESI) Fund programmes (ERDF, ESF, EAFRD and EMFF) until the end of December 2023, and after this they will be closed. Allocations are published in the Operational Programmes for each fund. These allocations need to be spent within three years of being allocated or by 31st December 2023.

Published information on all ESI funds can be accessed from the ESIF Home Page on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/european-structural-investment-funds, through which links to the websites of the Devolved Administrations can also be accessed.

Published information on ESI funding (ERDF and ESF) in Gibraltar can be found at www.eufunding.gi.

National authorities responsible for managing each Operational Programme will report progress against these allocations in their Annual Implementation Reports to the European Commission. For ESI funds in England the Annual Implementation Reports are available on GOV.UK. Annual Implementation Reports for ESI funds in the Devolved Administrations are available on their respective websites.

We thank all those organisations and individuals who gave and submitted evidence to the Fan Led Review of Football Governance, including COPA90. All submissions were assessed by the Independent Fan Led Review.

The Government has welcomed the Fan Led Review and has endorsed in principle the primary recommendation of the review, that football requires a strong, independent regulator to secure the future of our national game.

The Government is working at pace to review the report in full, including detailed consideration of the recommendations made on improving fan engagement and accountability across the game.

The Government will continue to engage with stakeholders as we work towards issuing a full response to the report in the Spring.

As well as the Government’s unprecedented financial support for business, which many football clubs have accessed, we ensured that elite sport could continue throughout the November national restrictions, and in every covid tier going forward. Spectators at elite sport are also now permitted in Tiers 1 and 2 - a crucial step for sport’s recovery.

I welcomed the deal agreed between the Premier League and EFL to provide up to £250m of support to EFL clubs, including the Championship - to ensure that no EFL club goes under due to the pandemic.

Childminders are a key part of the childcare market and they will play a significant part in the government’s increased early years entitlements offer.

Funding made available in the dedicated schools grant (DSG) for the entitlements to early education for two, three and four-year-olds cannot be claimed by, or spent on, childminders providing childcare for related children. This restriction is placed on local authorities funding relatives and is set out in the Childcare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act) Section 18(4)(c). The 2006 Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative, and section 18(8)(c) of the 2006 Act states that a relative, in relation to a child, means ‘a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership’.

This approach avoids creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis.

A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing care for a related child. However, this would have to be from the local authority funds that are independent of the DSG.

In the case of a nursery or pre-school, the funding is not necessarily paid to an individual who is caring for a relative, but to the setting which provides early education to a group of children, which may include a child related to a member of staff.

Nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. It has always been the case that where we are made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the maintenance of their schools. The Department does not therefore hold information on the number of buildings closed due to maintenance and structural issues.

The Department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The Government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.

The Department does not hold information on Tuition Partners or Academic Mentors in the required format at constituency level.

School-led tutoring grant allocations by school and local authority for the academic year 2021 to 2022 have been published at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1071234/School_Led_Funding_Publication_File_flat_values_v1.ods

Payment information relating to School-Led Tutoring for the academic year 2021 to 2022 will be published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency once the reconciliation process has been completed for that period.

School-led tutoring grant allocations for the academic year 2022 to 2023 have been published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-tutoring-programme-ntp-allocations-for-2022-to-2023-academic-year.

Between November 2020 and June 2022, over two million tuition courses were started. The Government has committed more than £1 billion to support tutoring over academic years 2020 to 2023/24, during which we aim to offer up to six million tutoring courses.

The department will continue to support the progress of tutoring through the three flexible routes to high-quality tutoring (school-led tutoring, tuition partners and academic mentors) and will consider in-year adjustments to ensure schools continue offering the type of tutoring that best suits their pupils to maximise the benefits of the programme.

This government continues to deliver, year on year, real terms per pupil increases to school funding with the total core schools budget increasing to £56.8 billion by financial year 2024-25 (compared to £49.8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year).

Future increases in funding have been frontloaded to rapidly get money to schools. In the financial year 2022-23 alone, core schools funding will increase nationally by £4 billion compared to 2021-22, a 5% real terms per pupil boost. This includes an additional £1.2 billion for schools in the new schools supplementary grant for financial year 2022-23.

In Lancashire, funding through the dedicated schools grant and the indicative figures for the schools supplementary grant for mainstream schools combined, is forecast to see an extra £53.6 million for schools in financial year 2022-23, an increase of 5.6% per pupil. This per pupil funding increase excludes “growth” funding, which is additional funding provided for schools seeing significant increases in pupil numbers. This takes total funding for 2022–23 in Lancashire to over £903 million. This will help schools rise to the challenges of COVID-19, increase teacher pay, and meet the cost of the Health and Social Care Levy, while continuing their work to raise attainment.

On top of the core funding uplift for schools, at Spending Review 2021 the department has announced a further £1.8 billion of new funding nationally, specifically for recovery for those the department knows will need it most. This takes overall investment specifically dedicated towards pupils’ recovery to almost £5 billion.

The department pays close attention to the financial health of the sector. The latest published data on schools’ revenue reserves shows schools on average have been able to add to their reserves in the 2020-21 financial year. At the end of the 2020-21 financial year, 92% of maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. The percentage of maintained schools in Lancashire operating with a cumulative surplus by the end of 2020-21 increased to 95%, compared to 92% at the end of financial year 2019-20. All schools continue to be able to access a wide range of school resource management tools. Schools in serious financial difficulty should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The department’s analysis of the cost pressures schools face are published annually in the schools’ costs technical note which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-costs-technical-note.

Analysis for financial year 2021-22 will be published shortly.