Toby Perkins

The Government recognises biomethane as a practical and cost-effective way of contributing to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) applies a zero emissions factor to combustion of biomethane where supplied directly to ETS installations. Where biomethane is injected into the gas grid, there is not currently a mechanism to ensure biomethane is accounted for separately.

The ETS prices emissions from electricity generation but not from electricity use as emissions are only priced at the point of combustion.

As outlined in the future policy framework for biomethane production call for evidence, the Government is working with the ETS Authority to consider whether the ETS could account for biomethane injected into the gas grid and will provide an update on this in due course.

The Department recognises the importance of anaerobic digestion plants. Where low carbon energy infrastructure, including anaerobic digestion plants, meets the threshold for being a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, the National Policy Statements already define such projects as being of Critical National Priority.

The Government is aware that the expiration of Renewables Obligation accreditation may affect the commercial viability of generators from a range of technologies, including anaerobic digestion plants.

We are continuing to assess the situation to understand the impact that the end of Renewables Obligation support will have on security of supply, clean power 2030, carbon budgets and the environment.

No decisions have been made yet on potential further support.

The Government is aware that the expiration of Renewables Obligation accreditation may affect the commercial viability of generators from a range of technologies, including anaerobic digestion plants.

We are continuing to assess the situation to understand the impact that the end of Renewables Obligation support will have on security of supply, clean power 2030, carbon budgets and the environment.

No decisions have been made yet on potential further support.

A smart and flexible energy system is essential for meeting net zero. Co-locating solar and onshore wind farms with battery storage are a part of this, making it possible for the delivery of stored electricity when the wind is not blowing, or the sun does not shine.

The Government is supportive of renewable energy deployment alongside other functions, such as energy storage, in order to maximise the efficiency of land use and network infrastructure.

This government is focused on fixing our economy after inheriting a £22 billion black hole in our public finances. That means we must take difficult decisions across our public services.

All children should have high quality science teaching, which is why at the Autumn Budget education was prioritised with a £2.3 billion increase to core school budgets for the 2025/26 financial year. Schools can use this funding for continued professional development, which evidence suggests can support teacher retention.

In addition, the department will continue to fully fund the Subject Knowledge for Physics Teachers programme to support the uptake and teaching of physics in the 2025/26 financial year.

However, along with other tough decisions to support cross-government efforts to rebuild economic stability, the department has taken the difficult decision to cease funding the Stimulating Physics Network beyond the end of its current contract in March 2025.

There is a range of other support for science education in schools, including free, optional materials from Oak National Academy in all three sciences.

Support for high quality science teaching mainly comes from core school budgets which will increase by £2.3 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.

Funding allocations for continuing professional development in science were £8,385,649 for the 2022/23 financial year, £8,384,137 for the 2023/24 financial year and £4,455,281 for the 2024/25 financial year.

The department considers level 2 English and mathematics to be essential for enabling students to achieve and to seize opportunities in life, learning and work.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review is looking at how best to support 16 to 19-year-olds who currently do not achieve level 2 in English and mathematics by the age of 16.

The department is already strengthening the support offered to students under the mathematics and English condition of funding for students on 16-19 study programmes and T Levels who have not yet attained level 2 English and mathematics. This includes requiring providers to offer minimum hours of in-person, whole class, stand-alone teaching in English and mathematics, and for more students to be offered this.

The department calculates the basic funding for institutions for students aged 16 to 19 or students up to the age of 25 when they have an education, health and care (EHC) plan using funding rates, which depend on the size of the student’s study programme.

All students are funded at the same national funding rates per student, per year, regardless of which type of institution they study at. However, the department then applies the other elements of the 16 to 19 funding formula, such as programme cost weights, support for disadvantage and area costs, meaning average per student funding levels do differ between schools, sixth form colleges and further education colleges. Because the funding reflects the mix of programmes provided at each institution, the department does not have data on the rates of funding purely for A level students at these different organisations.

Skills England will ensure the supply of skills needed for growth, which is crucial for supporting the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and to kickstart economic growth.

Skills England will bring together businesses, education and training providers, unions, and regional and national government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the government’s forthcoming industrial strategy.

It will work with the Migration Advisory Committee to make sure skills training in England accounts for the overall needs of the labour market, and it will coordinate between local areas to ensure everyone can access all the opportunities available.

The government’s ambition for Skills England is that it will bring coherence to the assessment of skills’ needs and to the training landscape. It will ensure that training programmes are well designed and delivered so that they meet these needs and ensure businesses have the highly skilled workforce they require to thrive.

In October 2024, the Government published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment did not split the assessment by sector.

Since Autumn 2024, the Government has been working with stakeholders, including representatives of the hospitality sector, to consider potential amendments to the definition of household packaging. We are planning next steps as a priority and will share more information soon.

The UK’s packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) policy has been in development since 2019. This is underpinned by extensive consultation and engagement with industry stakeholders, including the glass manufacturing sector, to provide businesses with a clear indication of the scheme’s design and implementation.

Consultations were held in 2019 and 2021, concluding with a final consultation on reforms to the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) system in 2022. In 2023, the four nations of the UK jointly consulted on the operability of the draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024. Feedback from stakeholders during this process directly informed a number of amendments made prior to final regulations.

Throughout this period, Defra officials engaged closely with industry experts, including the glass industry. This collaboration has helped to ensure that the modelling of local authority costs used within the scheme reflects the practical realities of waste management operations.

We have made a full assessment of the expected business impacts of the policy, including on the glass sector. This is detailed in the official impact assessment for the Producer Responsibility Obligations (packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, which remains publicly available: The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024.

The Government remains committed to ongoing engagement with manufacturers and other stakeholders to support the successful and fair implementation of the scheme.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I provided to PQ 33304 on 4 March 2025.

The Government has been engaging extensively with stakeholders from various sectors, including the hospitality sector, to develop a better understanding of the potential impacts of a change in the definition of household packaging. The government will set out its intended next steps on the definition shortly.

The Information requested is not held by the department.

The information requested is not available. The Department for Transport does not hold information on whether the land on which a public charging device is located is (a) local authority land or (b) privately owned land.

The latest statistics on the number of public charging devices broken down by local authority can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electric-vehicle-public-charging-infrastructure-statistics-july-2024.

The Department for Transports vehicle hire contract provides hire services for the core department, agencies and some arms-length bodies for cars, vans and other vehicles. Over a period of 5 years (Jan 2020 – Oct 24) on average 28,087 are hired a year, however, we don’t centrally record information on fuel or engine type.

I am grateful to the Honorable Member for his continued support for the scheme and I look forward to meeting with you to discuss it in the future if this would be beneficial to you. I can confirm that discussions on the viability of the proposed Chesterfield Regeneration route are ongoing between my officials and Derbyshire County Council. The timetable has yet to be confirmed on the commencement of the investigations; however, additional information has been submitted by Derbyshire council to help ministers with their considerations.

I am grateful to the Honorable Member for his continued support for the scheme and I would be very happy to meet him to discuss it. The Outline Business Case submitted by Derbyshire County Council has been assessed in detail by officials, who have obtained additional information from Derbyshire County Council to help Ministers in their considerations.

No estimate has been made. The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost, as it would require a bespoke survey of claimants.

As announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers advice. We will embed the principles of accessibility and inclusivity into the design of the new service and through the entire user journey, recognising that people have different support needs.

As part of the Get Britain Working White Paper reforms, we have committed to establishing a panel to consult disabled people, ensuring that their voices are at the heart of the design and delivery.

The National Careers Service website contains a range of information for people with disabilities, including advice on job support for people with disabilities. All disabled people can access careers information and advice through the National Careers Service webchat, telephone helpline and website. People with disabilities are part of a priority group for the Service and can also access in-depth face-to-face support from locally based careers advisers. National Careers Service community-based contractors work with a range of organisations, including specialist providers, to reach customers who are furthest from the labour market, including disabled people.

As announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers advice. We will embed the principles of accessibility and inclusivity into the design of the new service and through the entire user journey, recognising that people have different support needs.

As part of the Get Britain Working White Paper reforms, we have committed to establishing a panel to consult disabled people, ensuring that their voices are at the heart of the design and delivery.

The National Careers Service website contains a range of information for people with disabilities, including advice on job support for people with disabilities. All disabled people can access careers information and advice through the National Careers Service webchat, telephone helpline and website. People with disabilities are part of a priority group for the Service and can also access in-depth face-to-face support from locally based careers advisers. National Careers Service community-based contractors work with a range of organisations, including specialist providers, to reach customers who are furthest from the labour market, including disabled people.

This Government is committed to championing the rights of disabled people and to working with disabled people to design our reforms.

The Get Britain Working White Paper announced that DWP will establish a panel to consult disabled people as part of our wider efforts to ensure that the views and voices of disabled people are at the heart of the design and delivery of the reforms set out in the White Paper.

We will incorporate any changes identified by implementing the Get Britian Working White Paper into the new entrant learning journey and provide relevant learning products to support existing Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers if required.

The Department will also launch a new coaching academy. This initiative will seek to build on our existing work coach offer and will provide further upskilling for colleagues to support customers to overcome barriers, making full use of the Jobcentre offer and wider support in our communities.

All new Work Coaches and Disability Employments Advisors currently receive the necessary training and development to enable them to support all our claimants.

The Department continually impacts, reviews and evaluates the training and development of Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisors to ensure they have the most relevant training and skills to support disabled people.

In addition to this Work coaches receive specialist support from Disability Employment Advisers on how to tailor their support to help disabled customers move closer or into the labour market. Disability Employment Advisers can also offer “direct support” to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions where additional bespoke support would benefit the customer.

We are committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, such as heart disease, which includes cardiovascular disease (CVD), and stroke. That is why in our Health Mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we have committed to reducing deaths from heart disease and strokes by a quarter within ten years.

We are taking steps to reduce heart disease. The NHS Long Term Plan set an aim to prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029, and activity is underway. The NHS Health Check programme, England’s CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.3 million people a year and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes each year. To improve access and engagement with the NHS Health Check, we are developing a new digital service which people can use at home to understand and act on their CVD risk, providing people with a more flexible, accessible, and convenient service. We are also piloting a new programme to deliver more than 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in the workplace. These checks can be completed quickly and easily by people at work across 48 local authorities until 31 March 2025.

The National Health Service’s funding increases have not been ring-fenced in that way. Ring-fencing funding restricts the freedom of integrated care boards to take decisions based on the specific circumstances of their local populations.