Stephen Hammond

To support departments in implementing the Construction Playbook, the Cabinet Office offers in-person training sessions and an eLearning module that covers the key principles. Departments are also able to bid for additional commercial resources to support live procurements. This is targeted, short-term specialist support to upskill teams through ‘on the job experience’ where we work with project teams to ensure they adhere to the playbook principles.

Cabinet Office is also encouraging adherence by working with departments to improve their pipelines, and making use of these to identify early opportunities to offer support in implementation of Playbook principles. This is complemented by work with senior sponsors in each of the key construction departments to identify areas to offer greater support, or to identify challenging areas where more guidance or training is required. Finally, compliance with the Playbook principles is assessed on a ‘comply or explain’ basis as part of the Cabinet Office commercial controls process.

The Government set out our COVID-19 recovery strategy, ‘Our Plan to Rebuild’ in May. The Government has been regularly publishing information on the recovery effort and setting out its plans, updating guidance on GOV.UK as appropriate. The Government is committed to keeping the public informed and will continue to publish documents when it is appropriate to do so.

Since publishing our strategy, we have made excellent progress to grow our domestic sector, improve our supply chain resilience and protect our national security.

We have launched the Semiconductor Advisory Panel, an incubator pilot programme, ChipStart UK, joined the EU Chips Joint Undertaking, agreed an ambitious partnership with Japan and secured commitments to work more closely with the US and the Republic of Korea.

We are on track to invest £240 million by April 2025.

It should be further noted that this government has invested more into priority technologies like semiconductors than any government in history.

In his Autumn Statement, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer said that ”the Government will continue to ensure that all infrastructure is delivered quickly through reforms to the planning system, including through updating National Policy Statements for transport, energy and water resources during 2023, and through sector-specific interventions.” The Government aims to publish the revised Energy NPSs shortly, but does not yet have a specific date for publication.

At present, the Government has no plans to create a single National Policy Statement for Infrastructure. Our strategies for infrastructure investment and performance are set out in the National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) and Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030. The NIS includes ambitious reforms to the planning system for nationally significant infrastructure projects. Proposed infrastructure investments during the next decade are set out in the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline 2021, which identifies a pipeline of projects with a value of over £600 billion. The Pipeline is updated on a regular basis.

A review of the energy National Policy Statements is underway and the draft documents and their structure have been subject to consultation and scrutiny by Parliament. In the British Energy Security Strategy the Government committed to improve the energy planning system, including by strengthening the energy National Policy Statements. This is being taken forward as a matter of urgency and the Government will publish revised energy National Policy Statements in due course.

Agency workers’ rights are protected by legislation that covers employment businesses and employment agencies. Umbrella companies are not covered by this legislation, and they fall outside the remit of the Employment Agency Standards (EAS) Inspectorate, which is the body responsible for enforcing these protections.

The Government has committed to expand state enforcement for agency workers to cover umbrella companies. This will enable inspectors to investigate relevant complaints involving umbrella companies and take action where necessary. This will require primary legislation, which the Government will bring forward in due course.

Disinfectant products must comply with the relevant laws, depending on the products’ intended use, function, composition and how they are described and marketed. Consumer law requires traders to provide consumers with information on the main characteristics of goods. This information must be accurate and not mislead.

In May, the Office for Product Safety and Standards worked with the HSE to publish guidance for manufacturers and importers on hand cleaning and sanitising products. In order to ensure effective enforcement, the Office for Products Safety and Standards has provided training for trading standards enforcement officers on hand cleansing products and access to technical and scientific advice.

If consumers believe there has been a breach of the legislation then they should report the matter in the first instance to the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133; www.citizensadvice.org/.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 21 June 2023, in my capacity as a Department for Culture, Media and Sport Minister, to Question UIN 190569.

• Dormant Assets legislation currently defines financial inclusion as "the development of individuals' ability to manage their finances ​​or the improvement of access to personal financial services''.
• To date, the focus of dormant assets funding for financial inclusion has been tackling problem debt and improving access to affordable and appropriate financial products and services for people in vulnerable circumstances.
• At present, the government is considering over 3,300 responses to the public consultation on what the broad social and/or environmental purposes of the English portion of dormant assets should be going forwards.
• The government plans to publish a response in early 2023 setting out these future purposes of the English portion.

The consultation on the English portion of dormant assets funding closed on Sunday 9 October and received over 3,300 responses.

The consultation has enabled the public, civil society sector, and the Dormant Assets Scheme’s voluntary industry participants to have their say in how funds are spent in England.

The Government is considering all responses and plans to publish a response in early 2023 setting out the future social and/or environmental purposes of the English portion.

The Government is committed to building on the UK’s world-leading sporting reputation.

This year has seen us successfully host a number of major sporting events, including this year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games, UEFA Women’s Euros and the Rugby League World Cup.

We aim to retain our world-leading hosting reputation in the years ahead, with a number of major sporting events due to be hosted in the UK between now and 2030.

The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount.

National Governing Bodies are responsible for the regulation of their sports and for ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to protect participants from harm. With that in mind, we expect sports to do all they can to protect their athletes.

Earlier this year the Government introduced legislation to extend the definition of a ‘position of trust’ within the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to include sports coaches, making a vital step in making our sports clubs more secure to young people. This came into force on 28 June 2022.

Sport England is expanding its safeguarding case management pilot service for grassroots sport, established to help sporting organisations access expert support in relation to safeguarding concerns and referrals.

UK Sport’s new Sport Integrity disclosure and complaints pilot launched in May 2022 to support athletes, coaches and support personnel within the Olympic and Paralympic high-performance community across the UK, helping National Governing Bodies to uphold the highest standards of conduct in their sports. UK Sport will also include consideration of whether further measures to strengthen the integrity of sport are needed.

All funded sports must meet a number of conditions in relation to safeguarding and duty of care. They must comply with the Code for Sports Governance, including the appointment of a lead director for welfare and safety. They must also have appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure the safeguarding of children and adults at risk. They must comply with, maintain and embed the Standards for Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Sport for organisations working with children and young people and working towards and maintaining the Safeguarding Adults in Sport Framework for those organisations working with adults at risk.

We remain committed to working with the sports sector to help ensure the safety of all participants in sport​.

Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions, and know where to seek further information when needed.

At primary school, financial education is included in the mathematics curriculum. In the curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. The mathematics curriculum also includes specific content regarding financial education, such as calculations with money.

Primary schools can also teach financial education through citizenship. Although this is not part of the National Curriculum until Key Stage 3, the Department has published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, to support schools to ensure that pupils are taught how to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving. There is also a wide range of resources available for schools, including the Money and Pension Service’s (MaPS) financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England. This can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.

The Department continues to work with MaPS and HM Treasury to consider the evidence and explore opportunities to promote the importance of financial education to schools. The Department is currently working with MaPS to deliver financial education webinars this academic year, promoting the importance of financial education and building teachers’ confidence in this area.

The department believes that increasing uptake in Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) is key to helping people climb the ladder of opportunity.

HTQs began teaching from September 2022, starting with Digital HTQs. 106 qualifications have now been approved as HTQs across Digital, Construction and Health and Science routes, available for teaching from September this year. All occupational routes are due to be rolled out by 2025 where relevant occupational standards are available.

To support more people studying HTQs:

• We are promoting HTQs as part of the communications and engagement campaigns for young people, adults and employers.
• We have extended student finance access for HTQs for September 2023. This will allow learners studying them part-time to access maintenance loans, as they can with degrees. This will help learners fit study around work and other commitments.
• We have announced investments of around £70 million to date to support the growth of high-quality higher technical education.

The Government wants all young people to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.

The Department works closely with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and HM Treasury to consider the wide range of evidence for financial education, including reports from the Centre for Financial Capability, and to explore the opportunities to improve access for all pupils to high quality financial education.

MaPS has a statutory duty to develop and co-ordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities and their ten-year strategy, published in 2020, set out their national goal that two million more children and young people will receive a meaningful financial education by 2030. The strategy is supported by Delivery Plans for each nation of the UK, which are available here: https://www.maps.org.uk/uk-strategy-for-financial-wellbeing/.

The Department has introduced a rigorous mathematics curriculum which provides young people with the arithmetic that pupils should be taught to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic that pupils should be taught. This is vital, as a strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content on financial education, such as calculations with money. Primary schools can also choose to teach financial education content within their citizenship curriculum, using the non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/citizenship-programmes-of-study-for-key-stages-1-and-2.

MaPS published guidance for primary and secondary schools in England, to support headteachers to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools. The guidance can be found here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.

The Department and MaPS will deliver a series of joint financial education webinars this academic year, aimed at promoting the importance of financial education for all pupils and improving teacher confidence and knowledge, as well as providing a launchpad for further engagement with training and resources to support continuous improvement.

The London Weighting element of the Strategic Priorities Grant accounts for a small proportion of London-based providers’ income. Providers in London received around £64 million London Weighting in academic year 2020-21, which was less than 1% of their estimated total income.

The Strategic Priorities Grant, formerly referred to as the Teaching Grant, plays an important role in supporting providers and students to develop the skills and knowledge needed locally, regionally and nationally to support the economy.

The grant is funding supplied by the government on an annual basis to support higher education (HE) providers’ ongoing teaching and related activities. In the financial year 2020-21, the Department for Education provided £1,253 million in recurrent Teaching Grant funding. In financial year 2021-22, the department will maintain this level of funding and is providing £1,253 million in recurrent Strategic Priorities Grant funding.

We have asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the grant for the 2021-22 financial year to ensure that more of taxpayers’ money is spent on supporting HE provision which aligns with national priorities, such as healthcare, science, technology, engineering and mathematics and subjects meeting specific labour market needs.

We have also asked the OfS for a £10 million increase to the specialist provider allocation, to support these institutions which are particularly reliant on Strategic Priorities Grant funding, many of whom are London-based. We want to ensure that our small and specialist providers, including some of our top music and arts providers, receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.

Even with the removal of the London Weighting, the reforms mean that around 1 in 6 London providers are estimated to see an increase in their Strategic Priorities Grant funding. These are HE providers offering courses aligned with the government’s strategic priorities.

The OfS will consult on these changes, before final allocations for the 2021-22 financial year are confirmed, and carefully consider the impact of any changes on providers.

Parent and pre-school children classes and groups need to meet necessary exceptions to continue during the November 2020 national restrictions.

Where these are held in Ofsted registered settings, they should follow government guidance on the COVID-19 outbreak for early years and childcare providers. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.

Support groups for new parents in community settings, such as places of worship, community centres or halls, or libraries, and that are essential to deliver in person, can continue. These can be conducted with up to 15 participants where formally organised to provide mutual aid, therapy, or any other form of support. These groups must be organised by a business, a charitable, benevolent, or philanthropic institution, or a public body, and must follow COVID-19 secure guidance. Restricted businesses which are required to close, such as coffee shops, cannot hold support groups. When national restrictions apply, in determining the limit of 15 participants, no account is to be taken of any child who is below the age of 5.

Informal groups, such as those organised by a parent, need to comply with the gathering and household mixing rules. In practice, during the period of national restrictions, this means these groups should only meet virtually.

Supervised activity for children can continue to take place where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, search for work or to undertake training or education, for example in indoor gyms, fitness studios, indoor sports facilities and other indoor leisure centres, community centres or halls.

For further information, Cabinet Office guidance on the new national restrictions can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november#childcare-and-childrens-activities.

The department's guidance for education and childcare setting during national restrictions can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020#early-years-and-childcare.

The Government’s longstanding recommendations on fibre are based on the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), which advises the Government on nutrition related matters. As part of its horizon scanning processes in June 2022, the committee agreed to undertake an overview and initial assessment of existing definitions of wholegrain and wholegrain foods for consideration and agreement by SACN, before consideration of any further work in this area.

The Government Food Strategy set out our plan to transform the food system to ensure it is fit for the future and we are focussed on implementing the plans and policies we announced in the strategy. Recently this has included publishing plans for our Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain, running a call for evidence on methane suppressing feed additives, and completing our consultations on improved reporting of food waste by large food businesses and public sector food and catering policy.

We are confident that most policies in the Food Strategy can be implemented using existing primary powers. We will continue to review the legal powers needed for our policies and will seek new legislation only where needed.

The Government Food Strategy sets out our plan to ensure the food system is fit for the future and supports healthy and sustainable diets and are focussed on implementing the measures in this strategy. We have committed to report on how we are taking forward our actions under the strategy alongside the next UK Food Security Report.

DHSC have published impact assessments alongside all of our regulatory policies on products high in fat, salt or sugar. Restrictions on the promotion by location of products high in fat, salt or sugar in large retail settings came into force on 1 October and are expected to accrue health benefits of over £57 billion and provide NHS savings of over £4 billion, over the next 25 years. We are also working with the food industry to ensure it is easier for people to make healthier choices and increase progress on the reformulation of products.

The Government Food Strategy set out our plan to ensure the food system is fit for the future and supports healthy and sustainable diets and we are focused on implementing the measures in the strategy. We have committed to report on how we are taking forward our actions under the strategy alongside the next UK Food Security Report.

A balanced diet is rich in fruit and vegetables, beans, pulses and wholegrain starchy carbohydrates. It can also include dairy, fish and meat which are valuable sources of many nutrients important for human health. The Government already encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the UK's healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide. The Eatwell Guide shows the proportions in which different types of foods are needed to have a well-balanced and healthy diet.

Defra is working with stakeholders across the food system to explore options for delivering healthier and more sustainable diets.

We have discussed a range of options to help increase consumption of fibre, fruit and vegetables (including the role of public private partnerships) and will continue to engage with industry and experts in the weeks and months ahead.

I agree entirely and as part of our £381 million Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, officials are working to deliver exactly this.

As part of the Plan for Drivers, the Government announced its intention to expand the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant as a trial to support the installation of safe cross-pavement solutions. This measure would apply across the UK and is intended to make EV ownership a more practical option for those without off-street parking.

The Government will closely monitor this trial, once implemented, to determine the success of the rollout and decide on future policy accordingly.

The Department regularly reviews the availability of apprenticeships within the transport industry. It is committed to working with arm’s length bodies and industry partners to create high quality apprenticeships, so that the sector has the skilled workforce in place to build, maintain and run the UK transport system. For example, the HS2 programme is expected to create 2000 apprenticeships. The Transport Employment and Skills Taskforce, established in 2022, is considering what more IT can do to promote apprenticeships and other training routes across the industry.

Last month my Right hon. Friend Mark Harper MP, Secretary of State for Transport, delivered his vision for rail and set out his plans to modernise the rail industry and progress vital reforms to ensure the railways are fit for purpose.

He confirmed his ambition for a customer-focussed, commercially led industry, with the creation of Great British Railways as the new guiding mind for the sector.

We recognise that reform is needed to create a railway fit for the 21^st century and that the private sector has an important role. We are engaging with the sector and will set out our plans for delivering this much needed reform shortly.