Matt Vickers

Since the announcement of the UK-US Economic Deal on 8 May, the Secretary of State and senior officials from the Department for Business and Trade have been meeting with representatives of the bioethanol sector in the Tees Valley and Humberside to discuss how the quota will impact their businesses.

In parallel, DBT officials are continuing to work closely with other government departments, including the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, to monitor and assess risks across the supply chain.

We will continue to work closely with the industry to understand the impacts of the trade deal and other pressures on the UK’s bioethanol sector.

Since the announcement of the UK-US Economic Deal on 8 May, the Secretary of State and senior officials from the Department for Business and Trade have been meeting with representatives of the bioethanol sector in the Tees Valley and Humberside to discuss how the quota will impact their businesses.

In parallel, DBT officials are continuing to work closely with other government departments, including the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, to monitor and assess risks across the supply chain.

We will continue to work closely with the industry to understand the impacts of the trade deal and other pressures on the UK’s bioethanol sector.

The Department for Business and Trade supports the adoption and deployment of technologies to increase productivity in these areas. The upcoming Industrial Strategy will set out our vision and the ambitious set of actions we will take, in partnership with business and academia, to support the tech sector and power the economy of the future. The Industrial Strategy, alongside the upcoming Trade Strategy, will also set out further detail on the steps we are taking to enhance supply chain resilience.

As well, the Department for Transport will publish a new freight plan later this year. While currently under development, we anticipate this will consider the role of technology in enabling the sector to boost economic growth.

The Office for Budget Responsibility is an independent macroeconomic forecasting body. As such it would not be appropriate for us to comment on the specifics of its forecasts.

The Government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy White Paper has an explicit ambition to support productivity, as well as economic growth, jobs, and wages across the UK, by delivering a credible 10-year plan which provides the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high-growth sectors that will drive our growth in the future.

An impact assessment for the Fair Work Agency (FWA) was published on 21^st October 2024.

The FWA will take a balanced approach to upholding workers’ rights, providing better support on how to comply with the law but taking tough action against rogue employers who exploit their workers. Every business will be treated with fairness and equity, but it is not fair when businesses who want to do right by their staff are undercut by a minority who flout the law.

The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently.

The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030. This, combined with our Warm Homes Plan to upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run is how we will drive down energy bills and make cold homes a thing of the past.

We recognise that we need to support households struggling with bills whilst we transition to clean power by 2030. This is why we are delivering the Warm Home Discount to around 3 million eligible low-income households this winter. On 25 February, we published a consultation on the expansion of the Warm Home Discount, giving more eligible households £150 off their energy bills. These proposals would bring around 2.7 million households into the scheme – pushing the total number of households that would receive the discount next winter up to around 6 million. The consultation has now closed and the Department is evaluating the responses.

Emissions savings through fuel switching from fossil fuels to low carbon alternatives, improvements in resource and energy efficiency and industrial carbon capture are all needed for the industrial sector to transition to net zero, and government is developing a suite of policies to deliver these savings.

We will bring forward a clear plan for industrial decarbonisation. A new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy will set the strategic direction for our approach to working with industry towards a competitive and low carbon industrial base in the UK, ensuring growth opportunities are captured in tandem with emissions reductions.

Great Britain has a highly resilient energy network with diverse sources of supply and maintaining the security of electricity supply is a key priority for Government.

We are working with the National Protective Security Authority, the energy industry, regulators and other stakeholders to continually improve and maintain the resilience and security of energy infrastructure. We work to reduce the vulnerability of networks and assets, taking into account a range of threats and future system changes.

The National Energy System Operator can balance the system in a wide range of scenarios, including potential disruptions to offshore infrastructure.

NESO's analysis confirmed delivering clean power by 2030 is deliverable, more secure, and could see a lower cost of electricity, and lower bills.

We are committed to working with industry to grow our clean energy system with once-in-a-generation levels of energy investment – an estimated £40 billion, the vast majority of which will come from the private sector.

The Government is leveraging public finance institutions like the National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy to catalyse private investment. By providing early-stage funding, de-risking projects, and supporting the development of critical infrastructure, we aim to attract private capital and accelerate the deployment of clean power technologies.

In an unstable world, the only way to guarantee energy security and protect billpayers is to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. That is why government has a mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.

We have a sustainable, long-term plan to protect all UK billpayers from volatile international gas markets. Backed by £8.3 billion, Great British Energy is part of this plan, driving the deployment of the clean, homegrown energy we need to boost our energy independence. As a publicly owned company, Great British Energy will ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers, and communities reap the benefits of this plan.

The Prime Minister announced on 3 June 2025 that responsibility for government and public sector cyber security moved from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to strengthen the resilience of digital public services by better integrating cyber security responsibilities and expertise into the Government Digital Service.

The government is progressing work on an implementation plan to support the delivery of the Government Cyber Security Strategy and is developing a new, more interventionist operating model to clarify, enable, and enforce cross-government responsibilities for cyber and digital resilience.

Additionally, important steps have been taken to understand and mitigate cyber risk through the launch of the GovAssure cyber assurance regime and the Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GC3).

The Government does not record or monitor data breaches across government departments centrally.

The government is committed to offering a free and universal breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England. Breakfast clubs support children’s attendance and attainment, enabling them to thrive academically and socially, and supporting working families.

From this summer term, we are funding 750 early adopter schools to test and learn our new free breakfast clubs, ahead of national rollout. Early adopter schools have already received their first payments and will continue to receive termly fixed payments, plus attendance-based payments based on the number of children who attend, over the course of the scheme.

Funding for breakfast clubs beyond the current financial year will be confirmed through the next phase of the spending review. Payment schedules and allocations for the next academic year will be confirmed in due course.

The apprenticeship achievement rate for apprenticeship standards increased by 6 percentage points to 60.5% for the 2023/24 academic year.

There are a range of drivers of non-achievement, and the department worked in partnership with providers, employers and apprentices to understand and directly address these.

The Apprenticeship Accountability Framework has supported and challenged providers to take proactive steps to improve the quality of their provision. Where performance falls short, the framework enables targeted challenge and intervention. As a result, most providers with an Accountability Framework Improvement Plan significantly improved their achievement rates between 2021/22 and 2023/24.

In addition, the support and guidance available to employers and apprentices has been enhanced and the department has worked with the Learning and Work Institute to produce a number of guides to support apprentices’ on-programme experience, including a line manger guide to apprenticeships.

The department has also introduced tools to provide timely feedback on quality and reasons for withdrawal so that we can continue to drive forward progress in the coming years, in partnership with the sector.

I refer the hon. Member for Stockton West to the answer of 12 May 2025 to Question 49739.

Small businesses are a vital part of our economy and apprenticeship system. They provide valuable opportunities in priority sectors for young people and apprentices from disadvantaged areas.

This is why the department will continue to provide an effective levy-funded training offer for learners and employers. Our new growth and skills offer, with apprenticeships at the heart, represents a positive step towards better meeting the skills needs of employers, delivering greater flexibility for learners and employers in England.

The department engages with small employers regularly to promote apprenticeships. During National Apprenticeship Week 2025, we held a round table with small and medium employers and other key partners to better understand the challenges they are facing in recruiting apprentices. This insight allows us to better target engagement activities with small businesses.

Moreover, Skills England will play a key role in engagement with businesses and will be establishing effective forums for collaboration, ensuring that employer voices shape the skills agenda and drive meaningful outcomes. It will work with large and small businesses in the delivery of its functions to identify and tackle skills needs.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work.

The Review is being undertaken in close consultation with education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and other stakeholders such as employers, universities and trade unions. The Review has consulted employers and further education (FE) providers through events and meetings and has received call for evidence submissions from a variety of employers, colleges and representatives.

FE colleges already prepare people of all ages for the skills they need for work, delivering on wide range of technical education and training. This includes the following:

• T Levels which also include an industry placement to prepare young people for work.
• Apprenticeship training linked to an actual job.
• Skills Bootcamps giving learners the chance to build sector-specific skills with a job interview on completion.
• Free Courses for Jobs giving eligible learners the chance to access high value Level 3 qualifications for free, which can support them to gain higher wages or a better job.
• A wide range of FE provision and qualifications to prepare learners for their chosen career.

There are no plans to assess the potential impact of introducing mandatory food waste reporting on food prices.

This Government has announced plans to publish a Circular Economy Strategy for England and is committed to transitioning to a circular economy – one that stimulates growth, reduces waste, and alleviates pressure on household bills. As this work is developed, evidence from across the economy will be considered as the interventions that may be needed are evaluated. This includes for the potential introduction of a mandatory food waste reporting requirement for large food businesses. As with all policies, if the policy were to be taken forward, a detailed assessment of costs and benefits would be published as part of the legislative process.

The secondary legislation necessary to implement the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 for plants in England has successfully passed through Parliament and was passed into law on 13 May 2025. Through this enabling regulatory framework, crops with a range of beneficial traits including increased disease resistance can be developed more quickly. The Government is considering the requirements for a regulatory framework for precision bred animals as outlined in the Act.

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

It is not possible to estimate the amount of illegal food products which have evaded border checks and entered the UK in the last six months. Data supplied by Border Force to the end of 2024 indicates that it detained and seized 137,000 kilograms of illegal animal products and 18,000 kilograms of illegal plants and plant products at the UK border in the last six months of 2024.

Biosecurity is paramount – it underpins safe food; protects human, animal and plant health; and supports a prospering economy and trade. This Government will be decisive and take the necessary action to protect our country from new and emerging and notifiable disease threats.

We have in place robust measures to maintain and improve our ability to understand, detect, prevent, respond and recover from outbreaks. We monitor new and emerging threats to our biosecurity through our Veterinary Risk Group, Plant Heath Risk Group and the Human and Animal Infections Risk Surveillance Group, and our strong surveillance network provides an early warning system to detect signs of disease, pests or other threats such as antimicrobial resistance.

This Government will act quickly to prevent pests and diseases entering the country by putting restrictions in place at the border. Our disease contingency plans are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain fit for purpose and that we have the necessary capacity and capability to respond to outbreaks should they occur. As part of this, the Government is committed to delivering a National Biosecurity Centre at the Animal and Plant Health Agency Weybridge campus - a world leading science centre protecting people and animals from disease outbreaks. We are also promoting best practice while providing practical support to livestock keepers in England through the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.

Defra announced on 24 February 2025 that the standalone Capital Grants scheme will re-open in summer 2025. We will introduce maximum grant thresholds for 4 groups of capital items in the standalone capital offer, from summer 2025. The thresholds will be £25,000 for water quality, air quality and natural flood management and £35,000 for boundaries, trees, and orchards. We will confirm the date that the standalone Capital Grants scheme will re-open and announce any further changes to the scheme in due course.

The previous government announced investment for several transport capital schemes which were unfunded, and this government has had to make difficult decisions about priorities for infrastructure and transport investment. This process is still continuing, and further plans for investment in transport infrastructure will be set out at the multi-year spending review next month.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.

On the 18 December, DVSA set out further plans to reduce driving test waiting times across the country. These steps include recruiting 450 driving examiners and improving rules for booking driving tests. Full details of these steps can be found on GOV.UK.

As of 10 March 2025, there were 573,352 car practical driving tests booked, and 31,689 driving tests available within the 24-week booking window.

We announced a £200m uplift for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements in 2025/26, in addition to the £310m and £563m already allocated to Tees Valley and North East Combined Authority respectively. We announced a further £31m for buses in the region; reopened the Northumberland Line and funded new Metro trains.

This government’s strategic vision is to maximise benefits of drone technology – for the economy and for communities – whilst ensuring their emergence is both safe and secure, and respecting the needs of local communities across the country.

The future aviation sector is central to delivering on the Government’s missions, including kickstarting economic growth and delivering opportunities for all across the country.

My Department and I remain committed to delivering on the five future of flight strategic outcomes, which include demonstration and then routine use of drones operating Beyond the operator’s Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) at scale, and initial demonstrations of piloted electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flights, followed by routine use and autonomous operations.