The development of stamp products is an operational matter for Royal Mail, a private company. The Government is not involved in Royal Mail’s operational or commercial decisions.

The development of stamp products is an operational matter for Royal Mail, a private company. The Government is not involved in Royal Mail’s operational or commercial decisions.

The development and administration of stamp products, including special stamps, is an operational matter for Royal Mail, a private company. The Government is not involved in Royal Mail’s operational or commercial decisions.

Royal Mail’s management is best placed to set out the operational benefits of its products.

I refer the noble Lord to the statement made by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 22^nd February 2021, Official Report, Column 625-628.

Vaccines are currently approved for storage in glass vials, rather than plastic. This is due to glass generally providing better shelf life and being more resistant to sterilisation processes. Plastics can be made sterile, but often do not have as good barrier properties reducing shelf life. It should be noted that the UK has a sufficient number of glass vials available, due to orders already placed.

Annual company accounts are prepared and filed on the basis of material items and in line with accounting standards governed by the Companies Act 2006. As part of this, companies are required to make disclosure on all matters that will enable their shareholders to gain a proper understanding of the company’s assets, liabilities and shareholder equity. In order to help companies ensure accounts give a true and fair view, the law allows companies to provide additional information where this is material.

At the present time we have no plans to change the requirements in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government wishes to avoid placing additional burdens on management at a time when their focus should be on maintaining the well-being of their businesses and employees. Directors will be required to record items material to the company’s finances within their accounts. This would include any Covid-19 financial support measures that are material to the company’s finances.

Officials in this department are engaging regularly with industry and the business community to discuss preparedness planning and to gather data, feedback and to ensure the best policy response is developed.

A wide range of UK and international businesses have offered to help provide services, including designing and building new devices, manufacturing components or transporting them to NHS hospitals.

The Government has received an overwhelming number of offers from the UK supply base in response to Covid-19. Suppliers are keen to offer a range of goods and services to help organisations and departments stay operational. The offers are coming through a number of different routes and the Crown Commercial Service is now coordinating these offers to create one central log.

We are aware that, in a small minority of cases, cyber criminals and fraudsters are attempting to exploit opportunities around the coronavirus outbreak and so the Government have issued appropriate guidance to follow to identify fraudulent activities and scams, through Action Fraud. We are also working with social media to combat disinformation.

The UK’s manufacturing sector plays a vital role in the UK economy through driving innovation, exports, job creation and productivity growth. The Government is taking steps to help drive increased competitiveness in UK manufacturing to anchor investment and production. This includes,

• increasing the Annual Investment Allowance to £1m until the end of this year to help manufacturers make the investments in capital equipment that can support their increased competitiveness;
• and investing £26m over three years to support aerospace and automotive supply chains through the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Levels programme.

We are also helping UK manufacturers build on their strengths in innovation. Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, we have invested £2.5 billion to drive cutting-edge research and innovation, from world-leading battery design to new light-weight composite materials. We are investing up to £167m into Made Smarter, the UK’s national industrial digitalisation programme, to boost manufacturing productivity through the development and adoption of cutting-edge digital technology.

Furthermore, the 2020 Budget announced the UK’s largest and fastest expansion of support for R&D across the economy, with spending set to reach £22bn by 2024/2025 and businesses receiving an increase in R&D tax credit from 12% to 13%. To help ensure this investment in research and innovation also helps anchor production in the UK, we have invested over £350m in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network to support the commercialisation of new manufacturing technologies, and we will be investing £600m more by the end of 2023.

However, in these difficult and unprecedented times of the coronavirus outbreak, the Government is doing everything it can to tackle the pandemic; to mitigate its impacts and protect jobs so that manufacturers can continue to provide essential goods and services.

An unprecedented package of support has been announced for business and workers to protect against the economic emergency caused by the coronavirus.

The Government has made available an initial £330 billion of loans and guarantees – equivalent to 15% of UK GDP to support firms and help them manage cashflows through this period. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), delivered by the British Business Bank, went live on 23 March 2020 and will support smaller businesses, including unincorporated businesses such as partnerships and sole traders. Full guidance, including eligibility criteria has been published here on the British Business Bank's website:

www.british-business-bank.co.uk/cbils.

The Government is in regular contact with businesses, including retailers, to discuss the impact of Coronavirus on industry, including supply chains, and preparedness planning.

On 9 March, we announced an extension of delivery hours for supermarkets and other food retailers, to help the industry respond to Coronavirus. The new measures enable food retailers to increase the frequency of deliveries to their stores, so they can move stock quickly from warehouses across the country to replenish their shelves.

The Government has also introduced new measures to support businesses to keep food supply flowing on to shelves and into homes. For example, we have temporarily relaxed competition laws, allowing supermarkets to work together. The rules on driver’s hours have also been flexed to allow a higher frequency of deliveries to stores, so shelves can be replenished at pace.

The criteria for naming of storms can take into account potential impacts from rain and snow, as well as wind. Storms can be named at any time of year, not just in winter. There are no plans for weather conditions other than storms to be given names.

The Met Office reviews the naming of storms on an annual basis, in conjunction with its partners at the national meteorological services of Ireland and the Netherlands. The review takes into account feedback from partners and stakeholders in government, the resilience community, in media and from the general public.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and in recent months the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly. However, as a responsible government we are preparing for all possible outcomes. Departments’ plans are well developed and are designed to respond to all scenarios, including the unlikely possibility that we leave the EU without a deal in place. Some delivery of contingency plans has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months. Parliament has been regularly updated on these preparations for ‘no deal’ and we will continue to provide updates.