Suzanne Webb

Further to the answer given by my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during his oral statement on 28 April 2020, the Government will ensure recognition is both timely and appropriate and is reflective of the profound gratitude the nation feels towards everyone on the frontline.

The Department works in close contact with UK Business Representative Organisations (BROs) – including with leading BROs such as the British Chambers of Commerce, the Federation for Small Businesses, and MAKE UK, the Manufacturers Organisation and UK Finance.

This engagement has been increased significantly across all levels of the Department, for Government to understand where support is needed most for businesses across the economy during the Coronavirus outbreak. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I hold numerous calls every week with a range of BROs to discuss feedback on government support measures; and we have initiated additional calls to announce additions and developments to the suite of COVID19 business finance, such as the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan scheme.

In my role as Minister for Small Businesses, I have also engaged with local Chambers of Commerce such as in Merton, for example on Wednesday 5^th May I joined a webinar to engage in a Question and Answer session.

We have now launched negotiations virtually with the US. The UK government remains in regular contact with the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and we will jointly decide how to proceed with each negotiation in a way which respects public health. Our partners remaining willing to make progress on high quality free trade agreements. Increasing transatlantic trade can help our economies bounce back from the economic challenge posed by COVID-19.

The Department is providing over £2.7 billion for the maintenance of England’s local highway network, outside of London, over 2020/21 and 2021/22, and £4.1 billion for capital renewals on the strategic road network in England over the next 5 years.

On 12 May 2020, in response to Covid-19, the Department for Transport published safer travel guidance for passengers and operators. These documents are clear that all equality and discrimination laws and obligations continue to apply and that operators should ensure everyone who needs to can continue to access the transport network.

Operators should consider their messaging, and continue to support those with protected characteristics, as they normally would. The documents also remind passengers of the potentially different experience of those with disabilities, including hidden disabilities. The Department is working closely with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee to identify how to improve the experience of disabled passengers during lockdown and into the future.

The guidance advises the public to avoid public transport where possible and, if they need to use it, how to stay safe – for example by wearing a face covering if possible and washing their hands before, during and after travel. We have advised operators that they could consider additional cleaning measures and protocols to limit coronavirus transmission. These steps should help boost confidence for all passengers.

The Department and Transport Focus are in regular contact with the rail industry to monitor the effectiveness of the systems in place to refund rail season tickets. This has led to the introduction of new processes to make claiming refunds easier during this crisis.

Passengers are now able to claim refunds remotely and we have allowed passengers to backdate their season ticket refund claim to 17th March, when ‘do not travel’ advice was first introduced. The refund acceptance period for passengers has also been extended to 56 days, and a season ticket refund calculator has been added to National Rail’s website.

Train operators have allocated additional resources to process the unprecedented number of refund requests as quickly as possible. Since 17th March over 85,000 season ticket holders have claimed season ticket refunds totalling over £130 million in response to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Major investment is planned to improve rail services throughout the region. In the West Midlands, £700m is being invested in a fleet of 180 new carriages which will deliver 20,000 more peak hour seats into Birmingham over the next two years,

The East Midlands will benefit from our £1.5bn upgrade of the Midland Mainline, with faster peak time journeys to London from this December and a brand-new fleet of bi-mode trains entering service from 2022.

The most recent Official ONS Labour Market Statistics, for the period October to December 2022, show that the current youth employment rate was 54.1%. This is up 3.2% on 2010 figures and 6.6% above the G7 average.

This Government remains committed to delivering a comprehensive and tailored package of support for 16–24-year-olds claiming Universal Credit and seeking employment or progression through the DWP Youth Offer. This includes an initial 13 weeks of intensive help through the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for those with complex barriers to employment and our national network of partner led Youth Hubs.

For the young people of Stourbridge, the Dudley Youth Hub is a fundamental part of the support offered. Through this Hub, our work coaches can meet with claimants who have a barrier to employment in an alternative setting that allows them to feel at ease and engage with a range of on-site services. Examples of this include a range of employer and recruitment events, Disability Employment Advisors matching claimants with Disability Confident employers and regular National Career Service pre-employability training.

As of 15 May, we estimate that at least 317,800 unemployed Universal Credit claimants have moved into work during the Way to Work Campaign between 31 January and the end of 15 May 2022. Furthermore, during March 2022 we have seen the highest number of into work movements on record for any March – over 99,800.

This total figure is composed of our into work measure to the end of March (over 192,600) and our internal management information for April (91,800) as well as data up to 15 May (33,400). Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency and timeliness.

The Department has ensured high levels of payment timeliness with over 90% of new claims paid in full and on time as of October 2020; an increase from 88% in March 2020.

People receive support quickly, through the Universal Credit helpline and online. Additionally, we have provided funding to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland, to deliver tailored and practical support to people making a claim to Universal Credit and receive their first full correct payment on time. This support has been bolstered by the announcement of a further 12 months of funding this year for Help to Claim.

Over 150,000 job placements have been approved for the Kickstart scheme. Over 50,000 vacancies have been made available for young people, so far over 6,000 job placements have started.

Over 4,000 of the vacancies are in the technology sector.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system which has been developed quickly. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency.

To date, there have been around 41,100 referrals made to the Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS) programme. This data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics publication standards.