Lord Wigley

The R&R Client Board published the strategic case for the R&R Programme in March 2024. This sets out that three options for how to deliver the R&R works to the Palace (including full decant, continued presence and ehanced maintenance and improvement) will be developed in detail. This detailed work, which will include estimated costs and timescales as well as risks and mitigations for all three options, is expected to be presented to the Houses by the end of 2025 to enable an evidence-based decision on how best to restore the Palace.

There are currently 10 statutory public inquiries established by HM Government under the Inquiries Act 2005 still active. Each inquiry has a sponsor department whose role includes covering ongoing costs. The duration of an inquiry is a matter for the inquiry chair, who usually has target dates for completion.

Since July 2024, no discussion has been held with the Royal Household by the government about the inclusion of a symbolic representation of Wales on the royal standard.

Our priority is to pay compensation as quickly as possible. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is working to put in place a claim service that is simple and secure. We expect the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to begin making payments to people who are infected by the end of this year.

For people diagnosed with an eligible infection before 1 April 2025, the Scheme will remain open to applications until 31 March 2031. For people diagnosed after 1 April 2025, the Scheme will remain open to applications for 6 years from the person’s date of diagnosis.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

4 December 2024

Dear Lord Wigley,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 19 November (HL2370), what are the latest figures for employee activity rates for the regions of England (HL3125).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. The responses allow us to estimate how many people are in employment, and how many of those are in employment as employees, as opposed to other forms of employment such as self-employed.

Due to the current smaller sample sizes being achieved by the LFS, recent estimates are showing increased volatility and should be treated with additional caution.

The latest available estimates (July to September 2024) of the rates of employees for people aged 16 to 64 years, determined as the percentage of the population in employment as an employee, resident in each of England’s nine regions, are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Rates of employees, people aged 16 to 64 years, regions in England, not seasonally adjusted.

Source: Labour Force Survey

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

18 November 2024

Dear Lord Wigley,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what conversations have been had with the Welsh Government about seeking to include statistics on the number of people resident in England who can speak, read or write in the Welsh language in the 2031 census (HL2487).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is developing its population and migration statistics by further expanding the range of data sources and methods it uses. A key focus of the Future Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS) Programme is continuing to expand the use of administrative data to produce population and migration statistics, working across the public sector to maximise the statistical value of its data assets. The FPMS will create a sustainable statistics system that will be flexible and dynamic in how it responds to the emerging issues of the day. The UK Statistics Authority (the Authority) plans to publish a recommendation to government in the coming months.

Decisions about the 2031 census have not yet been made. As such, topics for inclusion in a 2031 census have not formed part of the ONS’ discussions with the Welsh Government or other stakeholders. The FPMS programme has an ongoing programme of user needs engagement and carried out a consultation in 2023[1], which acknowledged the importance of collecting data on this topic. The consultation document categorised Welsh language skills as a topic for which further research is required into delivering statistics primarily based on administrative data. Welsh language is regarded as a priority characteristic within the FPMS programme with exploratory work on this topic ongoing. However, it is likely that data on Welsh language skills will predominantly come from sources relating to people resident in Wales.

In April 2023, the ONS and Welsh Government published a joint work plan on the coherence of Welsh language statistics produced from different sources[2]. The first project, to understand differences between Census 2021 and household survey estimates, has been completed. Other work outlined in the plan is ongoing, with the next priority looking at comparing Census 2021 with the Welsh School Census and other administrative sources. Welsh Government and ONS teams meet monthly to discuss progress and are arranging a secondment from Welsh Government to the ONS to support work on the planned projects. The ONS is also exploring the feasibility of producing Welsh language estimates through using existing administrative sources, with the involvement of Welsh Government.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1]https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/ons/futureofpopulationandmigrationstatistics/

[2]https://www.gov.wales/office-national-statistics-ons-and-welsh-government-joint-work-plan-coherence-welsh-language-statistics

Wales is a prime destination for foreign direct investment from the United States.

Many companies are operating in the manufacturing sector. A number of US-owned companies are operating in Wales’ world leading compound semiconductor cluster, including KLA and Vishay. Both companies have recently announced large investments in South Wales driven by our world-class research facilities and skilled workforce.

The information is not held centrally.

Trade between the UK and Argentina was worth £2 billion in the 12 months to June 2024 with our top goods exports including beverages, pharmaceuticals and manufactured goods. In October, the Secretary of State met his Argentine counterpart, the first trade-related bilateral ministerial meeting between both governments since 2019. They agreed to work together to strengthen our trade relationship further including in areas such as services, customs, and education. This will build on our existing cooperation this year which saw the largest delegation from Argentina in 20 years to London’s Metal Exchange Week in September.

There have been two nuclear reactors located in Wales; both are now being decommissioned. The nuclear power plant on the Trawsfynydd site came offline in 1991 and the plant on the Wylfa site in Anglesey stopped generating electricity in 2015. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) regulate nuclear sites in Great Britain and publish a map of licensed sites on their website at www.onr.org.uk/our-work/map-of-sites-and-facilities/. GE Healthcare operated a Nuclear Licensed site in Cardiff which was used for radiopharmaceutical manufacture and de-licensed in 2019. There was no reactor present on this site.

Hydroelectric power accounts for 2% of the UK’s electricity generation. A majority of hydroelectric output is generated in Scotland.

In 2023, annual figures show that:

3% of hydroelectricity was generated in England*

7% of hydroelectricity was generated in Wales*

90% of hydroelectricity was generated in Scotland*

Latest data available on hydroelectric generation is available via the DESNZ publication, Energy Trends December 2024, Table ET 6.1: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6762b0d6cdb5e64b69e30735/ET_6.1_DEC_24.xlsx. This table shows annual generation (latest data 2023) of hydroelectricity in GWh, by country, on which the above information is based.

*Rounded to the nearest hundred.

There are over 6,000 disused coal tips in Britain with 2,573 located in Wales. The majority of tips are in local authority or private ownership which includes legal responsibilities. Welsh Government released details of their work programme to address the tips issue including inspections/maintenance. https://www.gov.wales/coal-tip-safety

There is no central tips record in England or Scotland. The geological makeup of tip locations in Scotland and England, and previous reprofiling/restoration, has left a lower risk profile. The Mining Remediation Authority has contacted all Local Authorities reminding them of their responsibilities relating to the management of coal tips, offering support where required.

Finalised terms for applications to the Long Duration Electricity Storage (LDES) investment support scheme, which could include applications from Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) projects, will be set out in a Technical Decision Document to be published in the first quarter of 2025.

Ofgem is the delivery body for the LDES investment support scheme and has informed Government that it intends to open the scheme to a first round of applications in the second quarter of 2025 and is working with the aim of making decisions on initial applications in early 2026.

As announced in October, the Government has decided to introduce an investment support scheme for long duration electricity storage (LDES) assets, including pumped storage hydro (PSH). This scheme will be delivered by Ofgem. We expect it to open for applications in 2025.

As the scheme has not yet opened, there are currently no formal proposals for Ofgem to consider. The Government is aware of interest in Welsh PSH and the potential for there to be some Welsh project applications in due course.

Based on the latest available data from VisitBritain and the International Passenger Survey (IPS), the UK received 38 million inbound visitors in 2023, of which Wales received 892,000 visits.

The Media Act 2024 gives commercial radio greater flexibility to organise its programmes to meet the changing needs of its audiences. While decisions on changes to local radio services are ultimately matters for commercial radio companies, we are disappointed in recent decisions which have resulted in the end of Welsh language programmes.

The Government is a strong supporter of Welsh language broadcasting and will consider the wider implications on Welsh language radio with the Welsh Government and other stakeholders in Wales. Neither I nor any DCMS Ministers have had any direct discussions on this matter with Global.

While tourism in Wales is devolved to the Welsh Government, VisitBritain, an arm’s length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, retains responsibility for marketing Great Britain on the international stage.

Visit Wales leads on the development of a tourism brand specifically for Wales, while VisitBritain works with Visit Wales to ensure that these brand values are reflected in the broader GREAT Campaign, which highlights a number of the many destinations and experiences on offer across Wales.

VisitBritain champions Wales as a distinguished travel destination, emphasizing its rich cultural heritage and landscape. VisitBritain also promotes UNESCO heritage sites on its website, including Wales slate communities.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

Earlier this year, the department announced an initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, which is a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a £10,000 tax free bursary to encourage trainees to teach music.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer of 16 December 2024 to Question 19397.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

In the 2023/24 financial year, the department allocated £200,000 through the Strengthening Chess in Primary Schools grant, supporting primary schools to improve their pupils’ access to chess.

More broadly, at the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion next year.

Each year schools receive core funding from the department to cover their expenditures. These expenditures could include teacher salaries, school lunches, electronic resources, art and craft supplies, or any other number of items.

It is for headteachers to decide how best to manage their budgets, including spending on the promotion of extracurricular activities such as chess. This funding is not ringfenced.

Schools may also choose to utilise their pupil premium funding to support enrichment. The pupil premium grant is funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England. Schools must use this funding in line with the menu of approaches which are based on the evidence of how best to improve attainment for disadvantaged pupils. This includes the flexibility to use pupil premium to tackle non-academic barriers to success, including providing enrichment opportunities to benefit those pupils who may not be able to have access otherwise.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), now part of the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), collects and publishes data on student enrolments across all UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on full person equivalents enrolled in different subject areas, categorised using the HE coding of subjects system. Counts of enrolments across all subjects from 2019/20 to 2022/23 are published in Table 49 of HESA’s Student Data, which can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-49.

Table 49 can be used to determine that in the 2022/23 academic year, there were 31,030 HE enrolments in ‘mathematics’ across 75 English HE providers and 31,405 HE enrolments in ‘music’ across 106 English HE providers. There were 58 HE providers in England that had enrolments in both ‘mathematics’ and ‘music’ in 2022/23.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The numbers of entries in A level music in the 2014/15 and 2022/23 academic years are published by the department in the ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results’ statistical release. There were 6,709 A level music entries in 2014/15 and 4,911 A level music entries in 2022/23

These numbers include all A level entries by students aged 16 to 18 in England in that academic year.

For too long, customers have been let down and water companies have discharged record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

That is why we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will strengthen regulation, including delivering new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bringing criminal charges against persistent law breakers.

Executives will no longer be able to take home eye-watering bonuses where companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability.

In October 2024, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, also launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. This is a wide-ranging review to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.

Over 170 countries met for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Busan from 25 November 2024 to 1 December 2024 to discuss a landmark treaty to end plastic pollution. While it is disappointing that no agreement was reached, the Committee decided it would resume the meeting for final negotiations in 2025.

The UK was one of 85 countries to endorse the Stand Up for Ambition statement calling for a global target to reduce the production of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels, phasing out the most harmful plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastics, ambitious and effective financing from all sources, and allowing the treaty to be strengthened over time. The UK also supported using the text proposed by the Chair as a basis for future negotiations.

We urgently need an ambitious international agreement to end plastic pollution that tackles the full life cycle of plastics. The Government is committed to moving to a circular economy for plastics - a future where we keep our resources in use for longer; waste is reduced; we accelerate the path to net zero, we see investment in critical infrastructure and green jobs; our economy prospers; and nature thrives.

Our latest position on cost is noted in our December 2024 report to parliament. We are undertaking a full reset of the programme, led by the new CEO Mark Wild. Until that work is concluded we are unable to provide a robust assessment of outturn cost but will be reporting to parliament in due course.

There has not been any consideration given to reducing the general speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour in built-up residential areas in England.

It is for local authorities to decide where reduced speed limits will be effective on the roads they manage, and consultation and community support should be at the heart of the process.

This investment in renewing and upgrading rail infrastructure is critical to meeting current and future needs of communities along the West Coast Main Line. The Department expects operators to minimise the impact of planned engineering works on passengers as far as possible.

It is expected that route blockades to facilitate these essential works will span a number of years, and it is possible there could be some disruption on parts of the route away from the works, including in north Wales. However, the specifics in terms of effect on passenger services are yet to be agreed between Network Rail and Train Operating Companies. Therefore, the Department is not yet able to assess the full impact on passengers during the work.

Network Rail and relevant Train Operating Companies will keep passengers informed closer to the dates when they are agreed.

DfT is working closely with the Welsh Government, which is leading on this matter. Welsh officials have had regular contact with operators, including Stena, which operates the port of Holyhead. UK Government officials (including DfT, Border Force, DBT and HMRC) have supported them in the implementation of additional routes. DfT is also working very closely with the Irish Government and British Embassy Dublin, to support the response.

The Government recognises that this will have been a challenging time for the people and businesses of Ynys Mon. The Isle of Anglesey County Council business support portal will give the opportunity for businesses to express concerns to the Welsh Government. The Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales has also announced a new multi-stakeholder task force to help deliver a new strategy for the future of Holyhead Port.

The Department for Transport publishes maritime freight statistics for all of UK’s major and minor ports, including the Port of Holyhead, as part of the annual Port Freight Statistics Publication.

Table 1 shows the maritime freight volume through the Port of Holyhead across the period 2015 to 2023. The freight volume has increased by 7% across this period.

Table 1: Maritime freight volume through the Port of Holyhead from 2015 until 2023

There have not been any discussions between the Department and the Welsh Government about safeguarding the funding of children’s hospices.

The Department works collaboratively with the Devolved Governments to drive forward our objective of supporting people to lead more independent, healthier lives for longer. While health is predominantly devolved, the Department holds some reserved functions and working together across the United Kingdom on health and social care is ingrained in the values of our National Health Service and social care sector.

Children and young people’s hospices in England will receive £26 million in revenue funding for 2025/26, through what until recently was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant. We are also supporting both the children and adult hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We will set out the details of the funding allocation and dissemination for both funding streams in the coming weeks.

The supply of radioisotopes has now returned to normal levels, and a Written Ministerial Statement was laid on 26 November to update Parliament. During the disruption to supply, the Department worked with industry, the devolved administrations, the National Health Service, members of the radiopharmaceutical community, and regulators to secure fair and equal access across the United Kingdom for patients, including for the treatment of cancer. Patients with the most critical needs were given priority.

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. We are committed to expanding the role of pharmacies and to better utilising the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists as we shift care from hospital to the community.

Now that the budget for Government has been set, we will shortly be resuming our consultation with Community Pharmacy England regarding the funding arrangements.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

It is expected that up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief will be affected by these reforms. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected.

The Government takes into account all representations, and HM Treasury officials and Ministers meet with stakeholders on a regular basis. In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

The Scottish Government receives funding from the UK Government through the mechanical operation of the Barnett formula when there are changes to UK Government department funding.

Following Autumn Budget 2024, the Scottish Government is receiving £47.7 billion in 2025-26. This includes an additional £3.4 billion through the operation of the Barnett formula. This settlement is the largest in real terms since devolution.

Barnett-based funding for the Scottish Government is not ringfenced for a specific policy area such as responding to bad weather. This allows the Scottish Government the flexibility to allocate its funding across devolved areas as it sees fit, according to its own priorities and local circumstances. The Scottish Government is accountable to Scottish Parliament for these decisions.

HM Treasury continues to engage closely with finance counterparts in the Welsh Government.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor provided funding to the public sector to support them with the additional cost associated with changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions.

The Welsh Government will receive funding through the Barnett Formula in 2025-26 for any changes to UK Government department budgets, including support for Employer National Insurance Contributions. This is the normal operation of the funding arrangements as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy.

This funding will be in addition to the Welsh Government’s record Spending Review settlement for 2025-26, which is the largest in real terms of any settlements since devolution.

All devolved government settlements are growing in real terms in 2025-26.

The devolved governments’ Spending Review settlements for 2025-26 are the largest in real terms of any settlements since devolution. They are each receiving at least 20% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK. That translates into over £16 billion more in 2025-26.

The Barnett formula ensures broadly the same change in funding per person across the whole of the UK, while the underlying baseline funding broadly reflects higher needs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Fiscal Framework agreed between the UK and Welsh governments in 2016 added a needs-based factor into the Barnett formula to ensure Wales receives fair funding.