David Smith

The Department is working closely with industry to make sure they are addressing meters across GB that are not providing automatic readings. Statistics on meters not providing automatic readings are published at a GB wide level only (at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/smart-meters-statistics).

Energy suppliers are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure their customers’ smart meters are fully functional. Ofgem regulates suppliers against these obligations.

The Government recognises that too many households across GB have smart meters which currently cannot send automatic readings to their energy suppliers. We will set out new plans to improve the rollout and the consumer experience, alongside Ofgem, in due course.

As sustainable biomass is a limited resource, the Government expects to prioritise its use in sectors like aviation, and potentially the small number of homes unsuitable for heat pumps, as these sectors have fewest options to decarbonise. The cost of renewable liquid heating fuels is currently much higher than other fuels available to off grid customers. Before taking decisions on whether to support the use of renewable liquid fuels, like hydrotreated vegetable oil, in heating, the Government would require stronger evidence on their affordability for consumers, and the availability of sustainable feedstocks.

The new government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child.

The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty and widening attainment gaps between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers. Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty by tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new Ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring 2025. The taskforce will consider a range of policies in assessing what will have the greatest impact in driving down rates of child poverty.

The department does not make a formal assessment of the proportion of children who are eligible to receive FSM but who are not registered. The last assessment conducted in 2013 suggested that 89% of eligible pupils were registered for FSM. As with all policies, the government keeps the approach to FSM under review.

Whilst it is our ambition through public ownership to deliver a more affordable railway, any long-term changes or concessions made to rail fares policy require balancing against the potential impacts on passengers, taxpayers, and the railway.

Public ownership will end the failed franchising system, allowing operators to serve the interests of passengers and taxpayers in the North-East and across the country, rather than private operators and their shareholders. Public ownership will mean all parts of the railway can pull together for the benefit of passengers and bringing passenger services into public ownership is the first step in the Government’s wider programme of reform. Public ownership will also save the taxpayer up to an estimated £150 million a year in fees that are currently paid out to private-sector operators.

As Minister for the Future of Roads I regularly meet with freight companies and trade associations, as do officials. Noting that lorries and vans crossing the Channel continue to be a key route for importing and exporting goods, I am keen to continue these discussions and welcome using a future engagement to consider small vans specifically.

Universal Credit treats all forms and sectors of self-employment in the same way, focusing on the level of a customer’s earnings rather than the sector in which they work. The Minimum Income Floor (MIF) encourages self-employed customers to progress in work and grow their earnings to a sustainable level.

The Government is committed to reviewing Universal Credit. Further details will be provided in due course.

ONS population estimates suggest that in 2021 there were approximately 7,630 females born in the 1950s currently resident in the North Northumberland constituency, and 23,639 females currently resident in Northumberland.

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman since the report into Women’s State Pension age was published on 21 March 2024.

As Pensions Minister, on behalf of the ministerial team, I had a meeting with the acting Ombudsman on 22 October to discuss the report.

I met representatives from the WASPI campaign on the 5^th September. There are currently no future meetings planned.

NHS England Health and Justice commissioned healthcare providers deliver both primary and secondary care mental health services to all individuals within the custodial estate, irrespective of their detained status. Each individual will be assessed, their care formulation will be agreed, and appropriate clinical treatment, interventions, and support will be provided. If the individual requires transfer to hospital, the transfer to hospital process will be initiated.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Over the last five years, the Government, through NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC), has invested over £57 million in long COVID research, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID. The NIHR specifically has invested £42.7 million towards research funding for long COVID. The projects funded aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care. Further information on the research into long COVID commissioned through the NIHR can be found at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/covid-19/long-COVID

The NIHR and MRC are committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences and treatment of long COVID, and are actively exploring next steps for research in these areas.

Since 2020, the National Health Service in England has invested significantly in supporting people with long COVID. This includes setting up specialist post-COVID services nationwide for adults, and children and young people, as well as investing in ensuring general practice teams are equipped to support people affected by the condition.

As of 1 April 2024, there are more than 90 adult post-COVID services across England, along with an additional ten children and young people’s hubs. These services assess people with long COVID and direct them into care pathways which provide appropriate support and treatment. General practitioners will assess patients that have COVID-19 symptoms lasting longer than four weeks and refer them into a long COVID service where appropriate. Referral should be via a single point of access, which is managed by clinician-led triage.

Over the last five years, the Government, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), has invested more than £57 million in long COVID research, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID. The NIHR specifically has invested £42.7 million towards research funding for long COVID. The projects funded aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care. Further information on the research into long COVID commissioned through the NIHR can be found at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/covid-19/long-COVID

The NIHR and MRC are committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences and treatment of long COVID, and are actively exploring next steps for research in these areas.

Passengers bringing in accompanied commercial goods into Great Britain can benefit from Merchandise in Baggage arrangements such as making a simple online declaration, rather than a full electronic customs declaration, and not being required to make a Safety and Security declaration. This applies where the goods are under £2,500, weigh less than 1,000kg and are not restricted or excise goods. The government is committed to facilitating legitimate UK trade and HMRC has set out a package of measures to simplify customs import and export processes for traders, while upholding the UK’s high regulatory and security standards at the border. Details of this can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customs-simplification-measures-december-2023/summary-of-customs-simplification-measures-december-2023.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement governs goods trade between the UK and EU and provides that all goods can be traded tariff-free subject to rules of origin requirements being met. The Government is committed to working with European partners to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship across a range of areas. Further information on trading tariff-free under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is available on GOV.UK here: Introduction to rules of origin and claiming duties when trading between the UK and EU - GOV.UK

The UK's commodity code nomenclature forms the core structure for delivering the UK's international trade policy. Derived from the World Custom’s Organization’s Harmonized System, for which HMRC represents and promotes UK interests, the commodity codes used in the UK provide critical granularity to enable the delivery of key UK policy required to support UK growth. As such, there are no plans to fundamentally change or reduce the UK commodity code structure; the current system is designed to both facilitate cross border trade and help maintain the UK’s compliance programme to protect UK businesses. HMRC offers guidance and a significant support service to help people in determining the correct commodity code for their goods.

The weighing of goods for customs duty and declarations is required to operate an effective tariff system and is in line with recognised international trade practices. We are therefore unlikely to make any significant changes to weight requirements for the types of goods covered.

The government is committed to facilitating legitimate UK trade and HMRC has set out a package of measures to simplify customs import and export processes for traders, while upholding the UK’s high regulatory and security standards at the border. Details of this can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customs-simplification-measures-december-2023/summary-of-customs-simplification-measures-december-2023.

Whilst working within a global customs framework, HMRC’s strategic aim of ‘making it easy to get tax right and hard to bend or break the rules’ ensures that HMRC has an ongoing interest in balancing the need for facilitations, to reduce administrative burdens, and the right compliance activities to support and protect UK businesses.

Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. The Government will give police the powers they need to take illegal, dangerous and antisocial vehicles off the streets for good by more quickly seizing vehicles from offenders. We will set out more information in due course.

Enforcement of road traffic law, including in relation to the illegal use of e-scooters, is an operational matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to decide how to deploy available resources, taking into account any specific local problems and demands.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 20894 on 19 December 2024.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 20894 on 19 December 2024.

This Government is committed to tackling the horrendous crime of domestic abuse, in line with our manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, with improved support for victims.

Since 2021, councils in England have a duty to ensure that all victims, including their children, have access to support within safe accommodation when they need it.

This is a locally led duty. Each council must work closely with their Local Partnership Board to assess the needs of victims locally and commission the right safe accommodation support services needed to meet the identified need. MHCLG statutory guidance makes clear that all support provided under the duty should meet appropriate quality standards, such as the MHCLG Quality Standards, which state that victims should be assessed and offered trauma informed services on the basis of their individual need for safety and support.

MHCLG also leads the cross-government Changing Futures programme which works with 15 local partnerships in England to improve outcomes for people facing multiple disadvantages, including domestic abuse, using trauma informed approaches.

Government guidance is available here on help available to domestic abuse victims.

There were four self-inflicted deaths of those serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection in 2024. This information can be found in Table 1.7 of the 'Safety in custody: quarterly update to September 2024.

Self-inflicted deaths are any deaths of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life irrespective of intent. This not only includes suicides but also accidental deaths as a result of the person’s own actions.

We believe that disclosing the exact tariff information for a single person would be likely to lead to the individual concerned being identified. For this reason, we have chosen to provide figures for the ten prisoners who have served the longest period over their minimum tariff.

The table below shows ten unreleased prisoners that have served the longest period over their tariff, broken down by their tariff length, as of 31 December 2024. All ten prisoners have served 35 years or more over their minimum tariff.

Notes:

1. Tariff length is the time between date of sentencing and tariff expiry date and does not take into account any time served on remand.

2. Figures only include those with recorded tariff information.

Where a request is made for information and the total figure amounts to five or fewer, we must consider whether this would be likely to lead to the identification of individuals and whether disclosure of this information would be in breach of our statutory obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and/or the Data Protection Act 2018.