Naz Shah

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

This includes over 700,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to local authority maintained schools, trusts and local authorities by 11 January. Support through this programme does not cover schools that are not state funded.

The Department has delivered 1,980 laptops and tablets directly to Bradford local authority. We have also delivered devices to academy trusts that include schools in Bradford, which are not included in this figure. Data on the number of laptops delivered by parliamentary constituency is not available. This is because most laptops have been delivered to academy trusts and local authorities, which are responsible for distributing them to schools, usually in multiple constituencies.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

This includes over 700,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to local authority maintained schools, trusts and local authorities by 11 January. Support through this programme does not cover schools that are not state funded.

The Department has delivered 1,980 laptops and tablets directly to Bradford local authority. We have also delivered devices to academy trusts that include schools in Bradford, which are not included in this figure. Data on the number of laptops delivered by parliamentary constituency is not available. This is because most laptops have been delivered to academy trusts and local authorities, which are responsible for distributing them to schools, usually in multiple constituencies.

In light of the increase in COVID-19 rates, the Government has made the decision to limit attendance at schools and colleges to reduce the number of contacts between households. As a result, examinations will not go ahead in the summer as planned.

The Department and Ofqual have launched a two week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives. The consultation can be accessed from the Ofqual website and will be open until 29 January 2021. We strongly encourage all our stakeholders, including students and their parents, to respond.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has confirmed he wishes teachers to assess the standard at which pupils are performing and thus the grade they should receive. The consultation proposes that teachers will be supported in doing so through training, guidance, and papers to inform assessments. Guidance materials will be made available after the consultation has closed and the detail of the approach is agreed. The consultation also proposes and seeks views on approaches to assessment which will allow teachers to assess pupils’ performance on content they have had an opportunity to study, despite the disruption, whilst continuing to ensure they have sufficient breadth of knowledge to enable them to successfully progress.

The Department recognises the challenges faced by schools, teachers, and pupils, and knows that disruption has been felt differently across the country and between schools and colleges in the same area, and between pupils within individual institutions. In order to support schools to make up for lost learning, the Government has provided a £1 billion catch-up programme. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for all schools in recognition of the fact that all pupils will have been impacted by disruption to their education. Additionally, the £350 million National Tutoring Programme is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted tuition support for disadvantaged pupils who need the most help to catch up.

In light of the increase in COVID-19 rates, the Government has made the decision to limit attendance at schools and colleges to reduce the number of contacts between households. As a result, examinations will not go ahead in the summer as planned.

The Department and Ofqual have launched a two week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives. The consultation can be accessed from the Ofqual website and will be open until 29 January 2021. We strongly encourage all our stakeholders, including students and their parents, to respond.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has confirmed he wishes teachers to assess the standard at which pupils are performing and thus the grade they should receive. The consultation proposes that teachers will be supported in doing so through training, guidance, and papers to inform assessments. Guidance materials will be made available after the consultation has closed and the detail of the approach is agreed. The consultation also proposes and seeks views on approaches to assessment which will allow teachers to assess pupils’ performance on content they have had an opportunity to study, despite the disruption, whilst continuing to ensure they have sufficient breadth of knowledge to enable them to successfully progress.

The Department recognises the challenges faced by schools, teachers, and pupils, and knows that disruption has been felt differently across the country and between schools and colleges in the same area, and between pupils within individual institutions. In order to support schools to make up for lost learning, the Government has provided a £1 billion catch-up programme. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for all schools in recognition of the fact that all pupils will have been impacted by disruption to their education. Additionally, the £350 million National Tutoring Programme is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted tuition support for disadvantaged pupils who need the most help to catch up.

All evidence suggests that the new variant of concern is more transmissible than previous cases and is now the dominant strain across the country.

However, the data suggests that this effect is broadly uniform across age groups. The new variant does not appear disproportionately more transmissible among children than adults, nor is there any evidence that the new variant is more transmissible in schools than elsewhere in society.

Previous Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice has been clear that the measures that reduced transmission of the older variant all continue to apply for the new variant, including those in schools. Those measures are now all the more important.

There is a legal requirement for in-scope businesses, including shops, to display signage to inform the public that face coverings are mandated in their premises, unless they are exempt from wearing them or have a reasonable excuse. Staff should remind people of the requirement to wear a face covering, but this should not result in anyone having to prove that they have an exemption or reasonable excuse. If necessary, police and police community support officers can issue a fixed penalty notice to anyone who does not comply without a valid exemption or reasonable excuse.

There are very limited exemptions to the requirement to book, enter or leave managed quarantine if an individual has been in a ‘red list’ country at any point in the 10 days prior to their arrival into England. These exemptions are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exemptions-from-managed-quarantine-for-medical-and-compassionate-reasons

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

Doctors cannot refuse to register individuals whose immigration status is yet to be decided, for a COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination against COVID-19 is offered to every adult living in the United Kingdom free of charge, regardless of immigration status. Entitlement to free National Health Service treatment is generally based on ordinary residence in the UK. A person who can show they have taken up ordinary residence in the UK can access all NHS services immediately, including COVID-19 vaccinations, based on clinical need. No immigration checks are needed to receive these services and the NHS is not required to report undocumented migrants to the Home Office.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

We take parliamentary scrutiny incredibly seriously and it is fundamentally important that hon. Members are provided with accurate and timely information to enable them to hold the Government to account. We are working rapidly to provide all Members with accurate answers to their questions, as well as supporting the Government’s response to the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hon. Member’s questions will be answered as soon as possible.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of the spread of variants of concern internationally. These risk assessments cover a range of factors for each country including assessment of surveillance and sequencing capability, available surveillance and genome sequencing data, evidence of in-country community transmission of COVID-19 variants, evidence of exportation of new variants to the United Kingdom or other countries and travel connectivity with the UK.

Decisions on the risk assessment are taken by Ministers and are informed by evidence including JBC’s analysis as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variants.

Public Health England publishes the weekly incidence of COVID-19 cases by ethnicity in the weekly National Flu and COVID-19 Surveillance report, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports

Public Health England (PHE) reports weekly numbers of deaths in England in people with a laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test, who died within 28 days of the first positive specimen date. This data is reported in the weekly National Flu and COVID-19 Surveillance report, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports

PHE also reports the weekly proportion of these deaths by ethnic group. This is available in the weekly surveillance reports.

Public Health England (PHE) reports weekly numbers of deaths in England in people with a laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test, who died within 28 days of the first positive specimen date. This data is reported in the weekly National Flu and COVID-19 Surveillance report, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports

PHE also reports the weekly proportion of these deaths by ethnic group. This is available in the weekly surveillance reports.

Staff or residents within retirement complexes and sheltered accommodation who are symptomatic are eligible for testing through the self-referral portal. We are expanding our testing capacity all the time and we now have capacity to test over 500,000 people a day. We have prioritised people who are most at risk from the effects of Covid-19, and we will continue to review our social care testing strategy for adult social care in light of the latest evidence and available capacity.

This information is not held in the format requested.

Decisions on the need to take COVID-19 tests are based on scientific evidence, the stage of the epidemic and the expert clinical judgement of the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers. Current evidence has not identified a need to take a COVID-19 test once a self-isolation period has concluded. We constantly review the data and make changes when we are confident it is appropriate to do so.

The Department with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has established a single United Kingdom-wide process which labels COVID-19 research with the most potential with Urgent Public Health (UPH) status. Any trials evaluating the effectiveness of inhaled treatments are subject to this same process.

National and international trials are monitored by the RAPID-C19 initiative, which aims to get treatments for COVID-19 to National Health Service patients quickly and safely. This process begins with scanning all trials for COVID-19 treatments. Any promising drugs will be identified for further review.

Synairgen have been requested to submit a formal submission to UK-CTAP and NIHR UPH for review, where the inhaled interferon beta-1, SGN001 will be reviewed by a panel of independent experts to assess if it will be suitable to be incorporated into the RECOVERY+ trial or an independent trial, for Phase III.

UK-CTAP is an independent COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel, which will advise on what treatments should be proposed for testing through RECOVERY+. As with all other therapeutic compounds in trial, progress of the effectiveness will continue to be monitored by the Chief Medical Officer, NIHR UPH and RAPID C-19.

The Government already provides a safe and legal route to bring families together through its family reunion policy. This allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country. Refugees may apply to sponsor family via this route free of charge.

Our policy makes clear there is discretion to grant visas outside the Immigration Rules, which caters for extended family members in exceptional circumstances – including young adult sons or daughters who are dependent on family here and living in dangerous situations.

There are separate provisions in the Rules to allow extended family to sponsor children to come here where there are serious and compelling circumstances.

Refugees can also sponsor adult dependent relatives living overseas to join them where, due to age, illness or disability, the person requires long-term personal care which can only be provided by relatives in the UK.

Refugees who have since gained British citizenship may sponsor family under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant concessionary adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021. There are, however, no plans to change the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement at this time.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant concessionary adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021. There are, however, no plans to change the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement at this time.

Visa demand has significantly increased as travel restrictions relating to the pandemic have eased both in the UK and across the globe.

To tackle this the Home Office are pursuing a wide range of programmes to transform systems and processes across a number of immigration routes, alongside a number of business improvement initiatives to speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce the numbers who are awaiting an interview were required or a decision.

, In response to the raising number of asylum claims and delays in processing them, we are taking forward our New Plan for Immigration which aims to transform our broken asylum system. This includes almost double the number of decision makers r to c.1,000, plus providing improved training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff. This investment in our people will speed up processing times and increase the throughput of asylum decisions.

We are continuing to develop existing and new technology to help build on recent improvements such as digital interviewing and move away from a paper-based system. We are streamlining and digitalising the case working process to enable more effective workflow, appointment booking and decision-making.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021.

We are carefully considering the impacts of COVID-19 on meeting the Minimum Income Requirement for spouse/partner visa applicants. We are also considering the exceptional circumstances related to the pandemic we will take into account in future for applications made under the family Immigration Rules. We will set out our future policy in updated guidance in due course.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021.

We are carefully considering the impacts of COVID-19 on meeting the Minimum Income Requirement for spouse/partner visa applicants. We are also considering the exceptional circumstances related to the pandemic we will take into account in future for applications made under the family Immigration Rules. We will set out our future policy in updated guidance in due course.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021.

We are carefully considering the impacts of COVID-19 on meeting the Minimum Income Requirement for spouse/partner visa applicants. We are also considering the exceptional circumstances related to the pandemic we will take into account in future for applications made under the family Immigration Rules. We will set out our future policy in updated guidance in due course.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021.

We are carefully considering the impacts of COVID-19 on meeting the Minimum Income Requirement for spouse/partner visa applicants. We are also considering the exceptional circumstances related to the pandemic we will take into account in future for applications made under the family Immigration Rules. We will set out our future policy in updated guidance in due course.

The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.

We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021.

We are carefully considering the impacts of COVID-19 on meeting the Minimum Income Requirement for spouse/partner visa applicants. We are also considering the exceptional circumstances related to the pandemic we will take into account in future for applications made under the family Immigration Rules. We will set out our future policy in updated guidance in due course.

The Biometrics Services Gateway (BSG) is a technological solution implemented by the Home Office Biometrics (HOB) Programme to provide a “common front door” into the legacy biometric systems and services.

The BSG facilitates the exchange of data between biometric systems and in doing so, supports a range of biometric business processes, such as visa enrolments, asylum applications and criminal police searches, by routing biometric data between and on behalf of the systems. The BSG 'front door' to HOB services:

• Reduces the complexity of the IT environment by introducing standards and common formats.
• Reduces the future cost of integration between HOB and other systems/services.
• Reduces ongoing run costs and increases system robustness, resilience and security of data

The BSG is one component of the HOB technical architecture and only sends data to the biometrics systems; it does not make decisions based on the biometric data.

We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.

The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.

Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.

Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.

The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.

We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.

The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.

Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.

Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.

The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.

We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.

The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.

Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.

Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.

The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.

We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.

The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.

Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.

Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.

The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.

We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.

The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.

Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.

Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.

The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.

Foreign national offenders should be in no doubt of our determination to remove them. Since 2010 we have removed more than 53,000 FNOs.

It would be inappropriate to comment on this case while legal proceedings are ongoing

For some people, places and communities, the benefits and opportunities of our society are not felt equally. No community should suffer poorer outcomes simply because of the school they went to, the faith they hold, or the area that they live in.

That is why the Government published the Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper in 2018 and followed this up with a cross-Government Action Plan in 2019. Since then, significant progress has been made, including providing over 18,000 learner places through new English Language programmes, delivering a new Integration Action Plan covering all relevant Whitehall departments, and setting up an innovative new Integration Area Programme, to identify what works and share this learning nationally

This progress continues today. For example, Government continues to work with the first wave of Integration Areas, as they deliver interventions and build stronger communities and places in Blackburn with Darwen, Waltham Forest, Peterborough, Walsall and Bradford. An evaluation of the Integration Area Programme is scheduled to be published later this year, which will provide further evidence on the impact of this work and help to inform future Government integration policy and programmes.

This Government is proud to continue to ensure that local voices are heard, valued and produce change - so that no community is left behind and that we strengthen work to recognise and value those common themes which bind us all together - not least as we begin to vital process of helping people, places and communities across the whole of the United Kingdom to build back better from the coronavirus pandemic.

All forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable. The Government takes hate crime very seriously which is why we are clear that victims should be supported and the individuals who carry out hateful attacks must be brought to justice. This Department has, since 2015, supplied over £8,130,000 to combat all forms of hate crime and prejudices.

The names of recipients of funding from the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme 2020- 2021 will be publicly available in due course.

All towns selected for Town Deals are in the more deprived half of towns in the UK, and the 40 highest priority towns were selected. Of those in the lower priority groups, there were specific reasons for inclusion based on local intelligence about both the challenges in those towns and the opportunity for transformational change. The different reasons for selecting Brighouse, Morley, Stocksbridge and Todmorden are listed in the NAO Review of the Town Deals Selection Process (July 2020).

a The £5.1 million ESOL for Integration Fund is supporting 30 local authorities in 2020 / 21 to deliver English language sessions for residents with little or no English helping them to integrate more widely with the people, places and amenities in their local area.

Through the Integration Area Programme we continue to fund Integration Areas to deliver English language classes in innovative ways to address local integration challenges – this is supporting communities to better integrate, participate fully in society and access the opportunities that life in modern Britain provides.

Additionally, MHCLG funded resources to support organisations and individuals seeking to provide volunteer led English language clubs were recently published via the Learning and Work Institute website.

b Subject to the Department’s future funding settlement we will explore how MHCLG funds ESOL provision beyond 20/21 at that point.

My Department has so far allocated £890,000 for hate crime reporting and support of victims for the financial year 2020/21. We are also considering applications to our £2,000,000 Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme which closed to applications in May and is to support projects seeking to tackle religiously and racially motivated hate crime as well as social integration.

This Government remains committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all and continues to provide funding to help build strong, integrated communities.

We have launched the new ESOL for Integration Fund that will take a localised approach to boosting the English language skills of those residents with little or no English language, who may also be isolated or disconnected from services and the wider area. Up to £6.5 million has been made available in 2020/21 to support successful local authority proposals.

We have also launched the Faith, Race and Hate Crime grant scheme, which will support organisations that are working to bring different faith and ethnic groups together and tackle racially and religiously motivated hate crime to create integrated communities. Up to £2 million has been made available to support this work.

Our 16 trailblazing projects funded through the Integrated Communities Innovation Fund have engaged 70,000 people in a range of settings to stimulate and test innovative approaches to integration.

A national evaluator is currently compiling evidence on the effectiveness of each intervention. Although the coronavirus outbreak has meant that some of our funded projects have had to temporarily pause activity, our findings will be shared in due course and used to inform future policy.

Applications for projects tackling religiously and racially motivated hate crime are currently being considered under the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme. Proposals are expected to demonstrate how successful projects will work towards one or both of the following aims: i. To promote shared values among people of all backgrounds through sustainable social integration and meaningful civic participation and/or ii. To effectively tackle and prevent religiously and racially discriminatory behaviour and those acting against others because of their faith or race. Further detail on the application and assessment criteria has been set out in guidance for applicants which was published in April 2020.

We set out an ambitious programme of actions in our Integrated Communities Action Plan to support the education sector to drive forward integration, as part of a cross-government commitment to building strong integrated communities

We recognise the important role that young people play in this agenda and the significance of forging meaningful connections and relationships with people from different backgrounds.

As part of this, we committed to working with the National Citizen Service Trust and DCMS to support social mixing opportunities for young people in areas of high segregation. We are also continuing to work with DfE to support the National Schools Linking Programme.

The Government is committed to preventing and tackling hate crime and with the participation of our civil society partners we are considering a range of options to tackle hate crime beyond the current action plan. In the interim we have ensured that key hate crime projects remain funded and we have launched a competitive grant scheme for 2020-21 to support projects related to our hate crime objectives with funds worth up to £2 million.

We know that the causes of poor integration are complex and we have to admit that it will take generational change to truly deliver the well-integrated communities that we want to see. But first we need to know what works.

The Integrated Communities Innovation Fund (2019/20) supported 16 projects to test innovative approaches to integration and generate important learning on how to bridge divides and bring communities together.

The purpose of the Innovation Fund was to trial new approaches and address this evidence gap. In order to understand which interventions have been effective, we now need to review the findings. A national evaluator will compile this evidence, which will be shared widely and used to inform future policy.

All forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable and tackling racially motivated hate crime remains a priority for this government.

MHCLG paid approximately £219,00 to projects specifically to target racism in the financial year 19/20. These include Show Racism the Red Card and the Anne Frank Trust who work with young people across the country to challenge prejudice and discrimination. We are also supporting Kick It Out to tackle racism in sport and have confirmed funding for the Kingston Race Equality Council to improve support for victims of racially motivated hatred nationally.

In addition to this, 2019 saw the first provision of an annual £500,000 grant to support Windrush Day celebrations. This annual grant will be providing £500,000 to a further 49 projects this year. Government has also committed to spending a total of £1 million on the Windrush monument, which will be placed in London Waterloo Station.

We are committed to continue promoting shared values among people of all backgrounds through sustainable social integration and meaningful civic participation, whilst tackling and preventing religiously and racially discriminatory behaviour. To support this, we have launched a competitive grant scheme for 2020-21 to support projects in this space, with a budget of up to £2 million.

This Government remains committed to stamping out anti-Muslim hatred and all forms of hate crime. It is unacceptable for anyone to feel unsafe while practising their religion and we continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to Islamophobia.

The definition of Islamophobia proposed by the APPG is not in line with the Equality Act 2010 and could have consequences for freedom of speech. We recognise he importance of this matter and will interrogate it in further detail.

John Mann was appointed as an independent adviser on Antisemitism by the Prime Minister in July 2019. The Department has not allocated staff or funding to John Mann.

We continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Muslim hatred and recognise the importance of this matter. We will continue to explore and interrogate the issue of publishing a definition of Islamophobia in further detail.