Sajid Javid

The Race Disparity Unit became a fixed team in 2019. On 10 June 2020 there were 25 full-time equivalent officials; on 10 June 2019 there were 26 full-time equivalent officials.

Further to the answer given to PQs 54003, 54280 and 54102 on 8 June 2020, the Government understands the huge significance of weddings to couples planning to get married. We are working to ease restrictions safely to enable weddings to take place.

This Government is absolutely committed to making the United Kingdom the best place to be a veteran anywhere in the world. We have created the Office for Veterans’ Affairs in the Cabinet Office to ensure veterans are represented right at the heart of Government.

We have also introduced measures such as discounted railcards; guaranteed interviews to make it easier for veterans to join the Civil Service; creating more Armed Forces champions in the Department for Work and Pensions; introducing a national insurance holiday to encourage employers to maximise the talents of veterans in our workforce; improved access to housing, and making it easier for veterans to access physical and mental healthcare support for veterans in the NHS. This is alongside introducing legislation to ensure veterans are not subject to unfair historic investigations and further strengthening the Armed Forces Covenant in law.

The Government has put measures in place to support businesses of all sizes and stages of growth.

The Start Up Loans Company is part of the Government-backed British Business Bank and offers support to start or grow new businesses and those in operation for up to 24 months. Loans of up to £25,000 are available to individuals aged 18 and over, repayable across 1 to 5 years at a competitive fixed rate of 6%. These loans include 12 months of free mentoring from an industry expert.

The Government’s new ‘Help to Grow’ scheme will help small businesses across the UK to learn new skills, reach new customers, and boost profits. Help to Grow: Management will provide intensive management skills support to 30,000 small businesses. Help to Grow: Digital could support 100,000 small businesses with online advice and a voucher for software costs.

The Business Support Helpline and the 38 Growth Hubs across England also offer tailored advice to businesses and entrepreneurs seeking financial support, as well as joining up national and local support.

The Government’s business advice pages on GOV.UK, including the business finance finder search tool, provide information and guidance relevant to starting, growing and maintaining a business, as well as statutory rights and obligations, and links to support provided by devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

BEIS Ministers and officials meet with representatives of the sector-led UK Weddings Taskforce on a regular basis to discuss the challenges faced by the sector and how best to support it through the pandemic.

Information provided by the Weddings Taskforce is contributing to the Events Research Programme and helping us draw conclusions on how to bring about the return of larger weddings after Step 4.

Local Authorities have been provided with funding via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). The ARG is a discretionary scheme aimed at supporting businesses including those that have not been mandated to close but which have had their trade adversely affected by the restrictions that have been put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. Eligibility for the ARG is set locally, and guidance makes clear that Local Authorities may use this funding for grants or for other related business support as they see fit.

My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further £500m top up to ARG in January, in addition to £1.1bn already allocated in November 2020.

The Government is keen to allow larger wedding receptions and celebrations to take place as soon as it is safe. Weddings by their nature bring families and friends together in a single group for extended periods of time, are highly social, and particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19.

Through vaccination and testing we hope to increase the number of attendees when the scientific evidence shows that it is safe to do so.

I am planning to meet with the UK Weddings Taskforce early in the New Year.

The Government provides a wide range of support and information for small businesses. The main source of information is the GOV.UK website, with support also available via the Business Support Helpline on FREEPHONE 0800 998 1098 and via the network of 38 local Growth Hubs in England.

In order to provide specific support for businesses considering establishing an online presence, the Government launched The Skills Toolkit on 28 April 2020. The online learning platform includes over 70 courses in digital, numeracy and employability/readiness to help people build their skills, progress in work and boost job prospects. These courses include Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, How to Create Great Online Content and Digital Skills: Social Media (for business).

Furthermore, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is supporting the Digital Boost platform, which provides much-needed digital support for small businesses and charities in the UK that have been impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. The platform is building a community of skilled digital expert volunteers, who are providing one-to-one support to small businesses and charities free of charge to help them improve their digital capability, build sustainable incomes through digital channels, reach more customers online, and stay competitive during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

The National Cyber Security Centre also published guidance on 20 May to support businesses moving from physical to digital delivery. The guidance was created specifically to support businesses who are relying more heavily on IT services to run their business. The support package includes guidance on home working, video teleconferencing and spotting Covid-19-related email scams.

We also provide grant funding to Be the Business, a business-led independent charity which aims to raise productivity at the firm level, through technology adoption and by promoting best practice management and leadership. Be the Business provides a tech adoption toolkit to help SMEs decide what kind of technology might benefit them, how to choose tech that best meets their needs, and how to implement it effectively into the business.

The Secretary of State has appointed Malcolm Sheehan QC to lead the independent review of the Football Index gambling product and we have published its scope and terms of reference on gov.uk. As I said in my Written Ministerial Statement of 7 June, many former customers of Football Index have already contacted the Department to provide information and they can continue to do so via gamblingactreview@dcms.gov.uk. The statement can be found at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-06-07/hcws63

Protecting children is at the heart of our online harms agenda and wider government priorities. The strongest protections in the online safety legislation will be for children.

Under our now-published draft Online Safety legislation, we expect companies to use age verification technologies to prevent children from accessing services which pose the highest risk of harm to children, such as online pornography.

The online safety regime will capture both the most visited pornography sites and pornography on social media, therefore covering the vast majority of sites where children are most likely to be exposed to pornography. Social media platforms will need to put appropriate systems and processes in place to prevent children viewing pornography on their services.

The draft Online Safety legislation will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny in this session. We are also working closely with Ofcom to ensure that the implementation period, that will be necessary following passage of the legislation, is as short as possible.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.

Many football clubs have benefited from the multi-billion pound package of cross-sector business support from the Government that has enabled many sports clubs and leisure businesses to survive, including the furlough scheme and business interruption loan scheme. Sports have accessed many hundreds of millions of pounds of support through this.

As part of this, Sport England has provided £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, via a range of funds including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. This support is available to both men’s and women’s clubs with the latest figures showing £10.5m has already been awarded to over 1,500 football clubs. This sector support was recently boosted by an extra £50 million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations as part of Sport England’s new strategy Uniting the Movement.

The Government continues to invest in community sport facilities as well, via the Football Foundation, alongside The Football Association and the Premier League, with government investing £18 million per annum. This three-way partnership sees £70 million of investment into community sport facilities every year.

My Department is taking a number of steps to encourage tourism once restrictions are eased, including in Worcestershire.

The Global Travel Taskforce last year committed the Government to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the Spring, including plans for a marketing campaign to welcome visitors back to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.

We are working with VisitBritain, VisitEngland and local partners to champion the UK’s diverse tourism offer through the Escape the Everyday campaign.

We will continue to work with industry to provide assurance regarding when people can safely visit attractions - as demonstrated through the We’re Good to Go industry standard, which has been used by over 45,000 businesses.

The March Budget included £700m of extra funding to support our world-leading arts, culture and sporting institutions - protecting the venues which make the UK an attractive destination to visit.

Across all rounds and competitions of the Culture Recovery Fund, the West Midlands region received around £110m in funding, through awards to over 450 organisations/sites. As examples of funding in Mid-Worcestershire, Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust received £290,000 across both rounds of funding, and The Mono Box received £107,318 across both rounds of funding.

As some examples of funding in Bromsgrove, Avoncroft Museum received £275,943 across both rounds of funding, and Blackwell Adventure received £55,000 in Round 2.

In total, over £25bn has been provided to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.

The National Leisure Recovery Fund seeks to support eligible public sector leisure centres to reopen to the public, giving the sport and physical activity sector the best chance of recovery to a position of sustainable operation over the medium term.

A total of £100 million is available as a biddable fund to eligible local authorities in England, which will be allocated in a single funding round covering the period 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. Eligible local authorities include: those in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure services, those who have outsourced their leisure provision to an external body to and those whose outsourced leisure arrangements have ended since 20 March 2020 and services are now delivered as an in-house function. This is in addition to the wider financial support provided to councils throughout the pandemic.

Government has worked closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), ukactive, the District Councils' Network, Community Leisure UK, Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association and others to make sure the application and funding process is as fast and simple as possible.

In addition, the Local Government Income Compensation Scheme looks to compensate authorities for eligible losses income from sales, fees and charges.

The Department is committed to ensuring that there continues to be a good take-up and engagement with the programme. We are undertaking a range of communications and engagement activities to ensure that schools are aware of the support offered by the National Tutoring Programme (NTP).

We are working directly with multi-academy trusts and local authorities to target schools in particular need of support and increasing our engagement with local and regional school networks. The NTP is also providing regular newsletters and blogs direct to schools, alongside targeted social media activity. Since the programme’s launch in November 2020, the Department has continued to share case studies and good practice to show how tuition can support pupils effectively, including guidance on making the most of tutoring during the recent lockdown period.

We will continue to monitor how many schools in different regions are accessing the NTP so we can bolster our efforts in areas where schools would benefit from the programme.

Over 4,000 schools are now participating in the programme. It is estimated over 250,000 pupils will benefit from tuition provided by Tuition Partners this academic year. This is in addition to the 1,000 Academic Mentors have been placed in our most disadvantaged schools this academic year.

We are continuing to focus on regions with the most disadvantaged pupils who have yet to take advantage of NTP, including the Bromsgrove District. We are engaging directly with head teachers, local networks of schools and national stakeholders to ensure that NTP support reaches as many disadvantaged pupils in these areas as possible. We have also attended local network meetings, including the Handforth Heads Forum in the West Midlands, and have delivered a number of webinars to schools in the regional Midland areas with high levels of disadvantage to highlight the benefits and the support being offered through the programme.

The annual National Apprenticeship Week is taking place between 8 and 14 February 2021 and is a celebration of apprenticeships. The theme "Build the Future" will shine a light on the amazing work being done by employers and apprentices across the country. The week will also recognise how employers of all sizes have stepped up to the challenge during this unprecedented time.

National Apprenticeship Week brings together apprenticeship ambassadors, MPs, training providers, apprentices, parents and employers to highlight the work being done across the whole apprenticeship community and to promote apprenticeships and their impact.

Throughout the week, I will be taking part in a series of virtual events, including career fairs, interviews, conferences, and roundtables. I will be meeting with apprentices and employers from a range of industries such as hospitality and financial services, and taking part in several awards ceremonies which recognise and celebrate the achievements of apprentices.

We are encouraging employers and stakeholders to promote the great work of their apprentices through virtual events and social media, whilst highlighting the many benefits apprenticeships bring to their business. These include building the skills and knowledge required for a rewarding career and showcasing how apprentices of all ages and backgrounds are helping to transform businesses across the country.

We are sharing the message about how to get involved in National Apprenticeship Week with all employers and education providers on the apprenticeship service through regular emails and webinars. We also share information via our networks of ambassadors, account management teams and through intermediary organisations which has a potential reach of over 6 million employers.

Furthermore, we have been promoting the National Apprenticeship Week 2021 toolkit since December 2020 to support the apprenticeship community with planning their activity for the week. Further information on National Apprenticeship Week and our developed toolkit can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/955827/National_Apprenticeship_Week_2021_toolkit.pdf.

The Department has provided additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak that could not be met from their budgets. We have paid schools £102 million for all claims in the first claims window that were within the published scope of the fund, and we will shortly process claims made in the second window in December 2020.

Last term, the Department announced a COVID-19 Workforce Fund for schools and colleges, to help those with high staff absences and facing significant financial pressures to stay open. It funded the costs of teacher absences over a threshold from 1 November 2020 until the end of the autumn term. We expect the schools claims form to be launched in Spring 2021.

The Department will also fund school and colleges, which have remained open, for costs relating to COVID-19 testing. We have published a workforce planning tool which illustrates the levels of funding available. Funding will be paid to schools who have conducted testing in respect of workforce costs and other incidental costs relating to testing such as waste disposal.

The Government is delivering catch-up funding worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch-Up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Alongside this, we have also announced a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils, including the National Tuition Fund for students age 16-19.

Finally, schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the outbreak, regardless of any periods of full or partial closure, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure schools can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments

The government’s Plan for Jobs will help to kickstart the nation’s economic recovery. We believe that apprenticeships will be more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow - both now and in the long term.

To help businesses offer new apprenticeships, we are providing £1,500 for every apprentice they hire as a new employee from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2020. This will rise to £2,000 if they hire a new apprentice under the age of 25 - in recognition of the particular impacts of COVID-19 on the employment prospects of this group.

The new payment will encourage employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities and take advantage of existing flexibilities to train their apprentices in a way that suits their needs. We will ensure that there is sufficient funding this year to support small businesses wanting to take on an apprentice.

We also introduced a number of flexibilities to ensure that apprenticeships can continue where possible, helping employers to retain their existing apprentices. We are working with key partners such as the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, the West Midlands Combined Authority, local business to business organisations, sector and trade bodies to raise the awareness of the incentives and the benefits of apprenticeships.

We have increased the amount that levy payers can transfer from 10% to 25% and are seeing numbers of transfers rise steadily. We are also working closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority to promote levy transfers from large employers, to date these include HSBC and Lloyds, BT, BBC, RAC, University of Birmingham and University of Warwickshire. These levy funds are being used to support local small and medium-sized enterprises in the automotive, digital and construction sectors across the West Midlands Region. Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce are actively promoting levy transfers. They are also now producing marketing materials to promote levy transfers to employers across a broad range of sectors.

We have produced guidance to help employers looking to transfer levy funds. This is supported by online tutorials, but we know we need to make the process even more simple. The guidance is avaliable here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transferring-apprenticeship-service-funds.

We are committed to working with large employers to improve the transfer process, making it easier for them to find smaller employers to transfer surplus levy funds to, thus helping them maximise the amount of funding they will be able to transfer. In doing so we will build on successful regional pilot schemes, such as that in West Midlands Combined Authority.

There are now 44 schools, colleges and other training providers teaching the first 3 T levels. Five of these 44 are in the West Midlands region. The confirmed enrolment figures for T levels (at a national level) will be available once the September recruitment has been formally reported in summer 2021. We have been monitoring the situation closely and are confident that recruitment has progressed well and a viable cohort of young people will benefit from taking these new, high quality qualifications, leaving them in a great position to move into skilled employment or further training.

Fly-tipping is a crime which affects all of society, including rural communities and private landowners, and we are committed to tacking this unacceptable behaviour

We appreciate the difficulty and cost that fly-tipping poses to landowners and we work with a wide range of interested parties through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), such as the National Farmers Union, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Countryside Alliance and the Countryside Landowners Association, to promote and disseminate good practice, including advice on how to prevent fly-tipping on private land which can be found at: NFTPGAdviceforLandowners.pdf (tacklingflytipping.com)

We are also working with the NFTPG to develop a fly-tipping toolkit to help local authorities, landowners and others work in partnership to tackle this crime.

We expect local authorities to investigate all incidents of fly-tipping, including those on private land; prosecuting fly-tippers when there is sufficient evidence and recovering investigation, enforcement and clearance costs where possible

Budget 2020 allocated up to £2 million to support innovative solutions to tackle fly-tipping. In April 2021 we commissioned a research project considering the drivers, deterrents and impacts of fly-tipping tipping, which will include consideration of rural areas. This research project is due to be completed before the end of this year and will support informed policy making. We are exploring additional funding opportunities and priorities, including considering the role of digital solutions.

We are taking forward the commitment in the Resources and Waste Strategy to develop proposals for the reform of the waste carrier, broker, and dealer regime. We are currently working with industry and the regulator and we intend to consult later this year. We also intend to consult on the introduction of mandatory electronic waste tracking. Digital records of waste movements will allow regulators to detect when waste does not reach the next stage, which may help to identify illegal activity including fly-tipping.

The Environment Bill will help us to use our resources more efficiently and reduce the amount of waste we produce. It will enable us to fundamentally change the way we use resources, including increasing rates of recycling and making the products we use every day more durable and easier to recycle.

Fly-tipping is a crime which blights local communities and the environment, and we are committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour. The role of central Government is to enable and support local action by providing a clear legal framework of rights, responsibilities and powers and setting national standards. We continue to work with partners to tackle this crime. In recent years we have bolstered local authorities’ powers to tackle fly-tipping, such as by introducing the power to issue fixed penalty notices and to stop and seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers.

Our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy set out our strategic approach to prevent, detect and deter waste crime. We committed to strengthen sentences for fly-tipping and to develop a fly-tipping toolkit to help local authorities and others work in partnership to tackle this crime. We also committed to increasing penalties for fly-tipping in our manifesto.

Budget 2020 allocated up to £2million to support innovative solutions to tackle fly-tipping. We are exploring funding opportunities and priorities at this stage, including considering the role of digital solutions and supporting research into the drivers, deterrents, and impacts of fly-tipping in urban, suburban and rural areas.

We are also preparing a number of legislative reforms to tackle waste crime, which will help to tackle fly-tipping. We are taking forward the commitment in the Resources and Waste Strategy to develop proposals for the reform of the waste carrier, broker, and dealer regime. We are working with industry and the regulator and we intend to consult later this year. We also intend to consult on the introduction of mandatory electronic waste tracking. This will help to ensure that waste is dealt with appropriately and to reduce the incidence of waste crime and fly-tipping.

The Environment Bill also includes several measures to help tackle waste crime. The Bill will ensure agencies and authorities can work more effectively to combat waste crime through better access to evidence and improved powers of entry. These new powers will help ensure waste criminals, such as illegitimate waste operators reliant on fly-tipping for income, are held accountable for their actions.

Defra is taking steps to support farmers throughout the UK, including Worcestershire, by introducing schemes using powers in the Agriculture Bill. This Bill will allow us to introduce ambitious new schemes in England, based on the principle of "public money for public goods", so that we can reward farmers and land managers who protect our environment, improve animal welfare and produce high quality food in a more sustainable way.

The Bill helps farmers to stay competitive with measures to increase productivity and invest in new technology. We will also improve transparency in the supply chain to help food producers strengthen their position at the farm gate and seek a fairer return from the marketplace. The Bill also provides the legislative framework necessary to ensure a smooth transition to the new system. Farmers and land managers will be supported over a seven-year agricultural transition period, giving them time to plan and adapt to the new approach.

The Government appreciates that the food and farming sectors are currently facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and is grateful for the hard work farmers have done to maintain food supplies. In response to the pandemic, we introduced a range of measures to support the agriculture sector, including farmers and agricultural businesses in Worcestershire. These included: easements to competition law to help producers get food where it was needed; a dairy support scheme; support for various AHDB promotional campaigns and the opening of intervention and storage aid schemes for various products. Employees in the food sector were also designated as key workers and there has been a temporary relaxing of the normal rules on drivers' hours, enabling the sector to keep supply chains running, including deliveries from farm gate to processors. Farmers have also, where eligible, been able to apply for public support through the various Covid-19 related Government schemes including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, business rates relief, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme. On 24 September, the Government announced an extension to its access to finance schemes to 30 November 2020 for new applicants and introduced ‘Pay as you Grow’ options for Bounce Back Loan borrowers, who will be offered more time and greater flexibility for their repayments.

In June we announced a package of trade support for food and drink exporters. This joint Defra and Department for International Trade package of short-term practical measures will support businesses to get their products back in front of international buyers and grow their exports. More information can be found on the GOV.UK website: www.gov.uk/government/news/bounce-back-plan-for-agriculture-food-and-drink-industry-launched.

As of 17 May 2020, 9,977 food parcels have been delivered to clinically vulnerable people who have requested food support in Worcestershire.

For information, this covers delivery outcome codes 1 and 2. These codes refer to a box successfully delivered to the individual, or delivered and left on the doorstep.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) delivers a range of export services across the West Midlands. These include: providing support in accessing international opportunities; participation in trade missions; providing export credit and insurance through UK Export Finance (UKEF); access to DIT’s international network; and face-to-face support provided by experienced International Trade Advisers. There is a dedicated local DIT team of five International Trade Advisers based in Worcester who cover Hereford and Worcestershire including the Bromsgrove constituency. DIT Midlands are working closely with the Hereford & Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership team, providing additional International Trade Adviser support to help grow business exporting opportunities.

Goods exports from the West Midlands were £473M in 2019. The UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was agreed in principle on Friday 11 September. The deal secures additional benefits beyond the EU-Japan free trade agreement deal and will give UK companies exporting to Japan a competitive advantage in a number of areas.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) delivers a range of export services across the West Midlands. The steps include support for accessing international exporting opportunities and participation in trade missions; providing export credit and insurance through UK Export Finance (UKEF); access to DIT’s international network and face to face support provided by experienced international trade advisers. There is a dedicated local DIT team of five international trade advisers based in Worcester, which covers Hereford and Worcestershire including the Bromsgrove constituency.

UKEF also has its own network of Export Finance managers who act as local points of contact for exporters and businesses with export potential. Further information is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-an-export-finance-manager.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has put in place a number of measures to increase practical driving tests. These include offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays). The DVSA is also running a recruitment campaign to increase the overall number of examiners.

The DVSA’s aim is to increase testing capacity and reduce the backlog as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners. Standard Operating Procedures are in place at all test centres to ensure measures are in place to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

The Government is committed to tackling climate change, which is why in Spring this year we will be publishing a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan which will set out how to achieve net zero emissions across all modes of transport. Tackling emissions at a local level will make an important contribution to the decarbonisation of transport. Developing solutions that consider the needs of different locations is one of our six strategic priorities for transport decarbonisation and recognises that different decarbonisation solutions will be required and will work best in different places across the UK.

On 30 March, the Department launched the £120 million Zero Emission Buses Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme. The scheme will be open to local transport authorities, including Worcestershire County Council, who can bid for funding introduce single and double decker zero emission buses for local bus services buses and the infrastructure needed to support them.

A decarbonised transport system is at the heart of the Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, which will mobilise £12 billion of government investment to unlock three times as much private sector investment by 2030. Our upcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set out more clearly the steps we will take to deliver transport’s contribution to net zero, stimulating development and private sector investment.

The new Veterans’ Railcard will benefit approximately 830,000 HM Armed Forces Veterans who are not eligible for existing railcards. Officials are working closely with the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, Veterans UK and charities such as Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion to raise awareness and ensure as many veterans as possible benefit from the railcard, with more than 4,000 sold during its first week on sale.

At launch we worked with high-profile veterans on a campaign targeting television, radio, print and digital media with the story featured by more than 100 regional radio stations across the UK. We will continue to work with stakeholders to raise awareness over the coming months.

We have received 19 expressions of interest in becoming Britain’s first All-Electric Bus Town, and each sets out a proposed timeline for roll-out. We expect to announce the phase one winner, who will proceed to develop a business case, over the summer. Further details, including confirmation of timings, will therefore be available in due course.