Susan Elan Jones

This Government is proud to support the community energy sector, including renewable energy cooperatives. We have provided £2m to support over 100 community groups through the Urban and Rural Community Energy Funds. We also provided £885,000 to Bristol City Council to develop a Local Authority Best Practice Programme. In September, during Community Energy Fortnight, the DECC-funded Community Energy Hub was launched, which will help communities across the UK share knowledge and information on community energy projects.

The community energy sector is thriving and resilient. There are over 5,000 community groups active in the UK and the sector independently raised over £25m in project finance in 2014. There has also been a number of exciting initiatives recently, including the first local authority energy supply company set up by Nottingham City Council which aims to support local community groups.

This Government strongly supports the community energy sector, including the mutual society model for community groups. However the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is an independent non-governmental body and it is important that the Government does not interfere with its work. The FCA recently consulted on their registration function under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 and it is working to ensure the right balance is struck between investor protection and continued growth of this form of investment. The FCA will respond to this consultation later this year.

The Office for Budget Responsibility make forecasts for net trade and GDP, and will be updating these on the 8^th July. Exports and imports made up 28.3% and 30.3% of GDP in 2014. However, trade has wider economic benefits than through net trade, as it indirectly boost growth through increasing competition, innovation and efficiency of UK firms.

The report shows that biomass, when sourced responsibly, can provide a cost-effective, low carbon and controllable source of renewable energy. The results of the BEAC calculator discussed in the report “Life Cycle Impacts of Biomass Electricity in 2020” allows users to choose between various scenarios and the calculator then models the possible global lifecycle GHG emissions and energy input requirement resulting from those scenarios. The energy input requirement is just one of the factors that need to be taken into account in order to develop a sustainable and low carbon energy policy.

The report shows that biomass, when sourced responsibly, can provide a cost-effective, low carbon and controllable source of renewable energy. We are committed to improving further the evidence base on the carbon impacts of heat and power generation from biomass. A programme of work is underway to understand the likelihood of the various scenarios developed in the report.

This Government has introduced some of the toughest sustainability criteria in the world and we have taken steps to strengthen them further, introducing a trajectory of tightening GHG standards and a requirement to demonstrate that wood is sourced only from sustainably managed forests; together with reporting requirements which will allow us to assess how biomass is being sourced.

The White Paper on the content and conduct of the 2021 Census will be published later in 2018.

In my Department, at 28^th February 2017, (a) eleven full-time staff, and (b) no part-time staff were seconded from (i) business, and (a) no full-time staff, and (b) five or fewer part-time staff were seconded from (ii) charities.

Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretary meetings with external organisations, including senior media figures, are published routinely on Gov.uk and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications

Information about meetings between officials, businesses and charities are not centrally held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Offshore wind is a success story for the UK. Government support has enabled investment, cost reduction and building of the supply chain across the UK. This support has resulted in two world leading floating offshore wind demonstration projects being developed in the UK.

The UK’s main public funders of food-related research are working together through the Global Food Security programme to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with access to safe, affordable and nutritious food, all of the time and in ways the planet can sustain into the future.

Government policy on research funding is governed by the Haldane principle. The principle states that decisions on individual research proposals are best taken by researchers themselves and therefore competitive funding for science research is allocated by the UK Research Councils on the basis of the scientific quality of the proposals.

We are increasing research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. This equates to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21 and is an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979. This R&D investment funding is additional to the protection of science resource funding that was announced at the spending review in autumn 2015.

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said, the UK must remain one of the best places in the world for science and innovation. We value the contribution of overseas researchers and will look to develop a future immigration system that works for all. The UK remains fully open to researchers from across the EU. We are also open to talent from the rest of the world with a visa system that provides a range of options for attracting top researchers from around the globe.

The UK’s main public funders of food-related research are working together through the Global Food Security programme to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with access to safe, affordable and nutritious food, all of the time and in ways the planet can sustain into the future.

Government policy on research funding is governed by the Haldane principle. The principle states that decisions on individual research proposals are best taken by researchers themselves and therefore competitive funding for science research is allocated by the UK Research Councils on the basis of the scientific quality of the proposals.

We are increasing research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. This equates to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21 and is an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979. This R&D investment funding is additional to the protection of science resource funding that was announced at the spending review in autumn 2015.

Records of all Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website at the following links:

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy&publication_type=transparency-data

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bis-quarterly-publications-april-to-june-2012

Department for Energy and Climate Change

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-meeting-with-external-organisations

Information about meetings between officials, businesses and charities are not centrally held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The government hugely values the hundreds of thousands of people who give up their time to act as trustees across the country. We do not have any plans to introduce a statutory duty for trustees to be given time off from work at this time. However, as set out in the Civil Society Strategy, we are keen to work with partners in the charity sector to consider different ways to strengthen trusteeship.

As outlined in the Civil Society Strategy, this Government aims to ensure that it is as easy and compelling as possible for everyone to give to the causes they most care about. In recognition of the importance of legacy giving, the Government offers a reduced rate of inheritance tax for individuals leaving charitable gifts. We also strongly support the Institute of Fundraising’s Remember a Charity campaign, for example The Minister for Sport and Civil Society recently took direct action to encourage more legacy giving, urging solicitors to join the campaign and discuss leaving a gift with their clients.

We plan to continue this support and to work with other organisations to raise awareness of legacy giving and the incentives to leave a gift in a will.

As outlined in the Civil Society Strategy, this Government aims to ensure that it is as easy and compelling as possible for everyone to give to the causes they most care about. In recognition of the importance of legacy giving, the Government offers a reduced rate of inheritance tax for individuals leaving charitable gifts. We also strongly support the Institute of Fundraising’s Remember a Charity campaign, for example The Minister for Sport and Civil Society recently took direct action to encourage more legacy giving, urging solicitors to join the campaign and discuss leaving a gift with their clients.

We plan to continue this support and to work with other organisations to raise awareness of legacy giving and the incentives to leave a gift in a will.

It is necessary to carefully prioritise resources towards those Conventions that will have the most impact on the safeguarding of our heritage, such as the ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property undertaken last year. However, the Government fully recognises the contribution that the UK’s oral traditions, social practices and festive events make to the country’s cultural fabric, and continues to encourage communities to celebrate these practices, keeping them alive for future generations.

Primary and secondary schools can choose to teach the Welsh language to pupils if there is sufficient demand. It is possible for a pupil in England to take privately a Welsh language GCSE offered in Wales if an examination centre is willing to enter them. This will include a revised Welsh Second Language GCSE which will be available for first teaching from September 2017.

The Government recognizes the concerns of stakeholders and is determined to get the best deal for the UK in our negotiations to leave the EU, including for our world-leading dairy sector.

Whilst preparing for all outcomes, as any responsible Government would, we have also been preparing for the possibility of no deal, which is why we have contingency plans in place to minimize disruption for the food and farming sector as much as possible.

We remain confident in the resilience of our agricultural sectors, including our dairy industry, and their ability to thrive outside of the EU.

The Political Declaration on the future relationship with the EU outlines the UK and EU’s commitment to a free trade area for goods, with no tariffs and no quotas. The Government also recently consulted on possible future free trade agreements with the United States, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as on the UK’s potential accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership. We also want to work with other partners around the world to increase trade and investment flows and improve market access.

The Government aims to secure a deep and comprehensive free trade deal with the EU that provides for frictionless, tariff-free trade with the EU, supporting the continued success of our agricultural sectors. Leaving the EU also provides an opportunity for the UK to have an independent trade policy and a new agriculture policy will enable the dairy industry and other sectors to improve their productivity and competitiveness outside of the EU, while also improving our environment.

We are conducting a rigorous analysis of the full range of UK-EU trade scenarios across UK agriculture sectors. However, we remain confident in the resilience of our agricultural sectors and their ability to thrive outside of the EU.

We want to move away from a system that awards subsidies based on the amount of land held. We will create an ambitious new system based on paying “public money for public goods”. Public goods will include improving air and water quality, mitigating climate change and providing habitats for wildlife.

It can be important to control bracken in order to protect agricultural land and conservation areas and to tackle ticks, which can carry diseases including Lyme disease. Mechanical methods such as cutting and crushing can be effective in some circumstances. Where there is a need to avoid harming other plants or the terrain does not allow access to cutting equipment, a selective herbicide, such as asulam, may be the safest and most effective method of managing bracken.

Pesticides are only authorised if the risks to people and to the environment are considered acceptable. The use of asulam to control bracken is not routinely permitted. The case for a short-term, limited and controlled authorisation is considered each year on the basis of scientific advice from the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides. This year, asulam has been authorised for use from July to October 2017. Individual operators wishing apply asulam from the air are required to meet additional requirements under permitting arrangements administered by the Health and Safety Executive.