This Government is committed to ensuring police have the powers they need to keep themselves and the public safe, that is why we have lifted restrictions on stop and search and committed £10m in ring-fenced funding for Taser.

We will also introduce a Police Protection Bill to give police the support and protection they need to do their jobs effectively and safely.

A gateway was introduced from 16 January 2019 to prevent those claimants entitled to the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) as part of their legacy benefit from claiming Universal Credit. Additionally, a commitment was made for monthly transitional payments to be made to eligible former SDP claimants who have already moved to Universal Credit due to a change in circumstances and to provide a lump sum arrears payment, where appropriate.

The Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, which were laid in Parliament on 22 July 2019, have allowed the Department to assess eligibility and make backdated payments to claimants covering the time since they moved to Universal Credit.

As of 26 September 2019, over 13,800 claims have been paid an SDP transitional payment. The average (median) value of the lump sum payments is £2,280. To date, over £37.2m has been disbursed to support former SDP claimants, including the recurring payments that have now commenced.

Having achieved initial operating capability from land in December 2018, and with the successful completion of its first operation, the Lightning programme is now focused on delivering initial operational capability for carrier strike, which is planned for December 2020.

This year we gave £20 million to the Local Government Association to fund council improvements, we introduced a programme to boost the use of digital technologies, and we are developing a tool to help councils improve efficiency. These measures will help councils continue their impressive work to manage budgets and deliver quality services.

My hon. Friend rightly makes the point about Sefton, and councils should absolutely be focused on delivering good-quality services and value for money. That is why we are investing in areas such as digital innovation and looking at how that can drive further support. My hon. Friend is also right about ensuring that good practice is shared, and we are working with the LGA and others on that.

Northern is now running an extra 2,000 services per week compared with two years ago and is introducing major improvements for its customers, including 101 brand new trains, which will be operating on the network from this summer. This is part of a major programme of rail investment across the north, which will see room for more than 40,000 passengers at the busiest times and will help transform the rail experience for coastal communities travelling into the cities.

My hon. Friend is a great champion of rail services in his area, just as he was of the Access for All bid for Hillside station. I appreciate how vital it is to have regular and reliable train services. I am aware that an additional service was added in the May ’19 timetable, and we are working on an extra service for December. Obviously, I am very happy to keep the pressure up and will keep him posted as we make progress.

The UK is a strong supporter of the rules-based multilateral trading system. I recently advocated for this at the Global Trade Review 2019 Conference and at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting where I held meetings with the Director General of the World Trade Organization, Roberto Azevedo and my Japanese counterpart Trade Minister, Mr Hiroshige Seko.

The whole issue of the WTO will be at the centre of what we discuss at the G20. The alternative to a rules-based system is a deals-based system, which would suit only the very biggest and most powerful economies, and we would lose the potential to use trade as a means of getting countries out of poverty. The rules-based system is necessary because it applies to everyone—the richest and the poorest, the strongest and the weakest—and we must give every defence to it that we can.

The Attorney General’s Office has regular engagement with the Crown Prosecution Service, and we know that the issue of community engagement is of key importance to the CPS. In May 2018, it launched its inclusion and community engagement strategy in addition to the existing consultation groups and scrutiny panels, all of which are pivotal in building trust with all communities in relation to CPS decisions.

My hon. Friend’s constituency falls within the Merseyside and Cheshire CPS area, and the inclusion and community engagement manager there is Jennifer Friday. She manages an ambitious programme of community engagement that includes sessions in high schools and a community conversation with people with learning disabilities, and I commend her work. The local criminal justice board has set up a sub-group to focus on hate crime, which is chaired by the CPS and includes Sefton Council.

The Government has not developed a strategy for the implementation of new onshore wind farms. We do not believe that more large-scale onshore wind power is right for England, but projects can be developed where there is public support and the projects are located in an area identified as suitable for wind energy development in a Local

or Neighbourhood Plan.

The Government has committed up to £557 million for future Contracts for Difference, which is our main mechanism for supporting new renewables. The scheme is open to less established technologies, such as offshore and remote island wind. The Government has also committed £2.5bn for investment in low carbon innovation up to 2021.

Marriage law within the United Kingdom is a devolved matter and the Home Office is only responsible for England and Wales.

A British subject resident within England and Wales, who wishes to marry outside of England and Wales, can obtain advice online at www.gov.uk/marriage-abroad. They can also obtain advice from their local register office and from a British embassy, High Commission, or Consulate within the country where they are marrying.

Ultimately it is for couples to contact the authorities in the country in which they wish to marry to ensure that they meet with the legal requirements of that country.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development to advance our trade relationship with Tunisia; Ministers and senior officials incorporate discussions on trade issues in their engagements with counterparts in Tunisia. My Hon. Friend for South West Wiltshire (Dr Andrew Murrison), appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Tunisia in 2016, has helped develop a strong bilateral trading relationship.

As we prepare to leave the EU, to provide stability for businesses, consumers and investors, DIT has been working closely with the FCO and its Tunisian counterparts to achieve continuity of trading arrangements by replicating the effects of the existing EU-Tunisia Association Agreement in a bilateral agreement.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) was established in 2012 and carries out the functions previously undertaken by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

The DBS’s complaints policy can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/494019/Complaint_Policy_v2_7_Web_version.pdf

Ordnance Survey estimates the total area given over to domestic gardens (including estate/national trust/heritage gardens) of any size in a) England to be 3,415.67 km2 (341,566.64 hectares) and b) Wales to be 177.30 km2 (17,729.57 hectares).

In addition, Ordnance Survey have looked at the distribution of these garden areas in England and Wales to compare the spread of area ranges to the number of residential properties. This was compared with average garden sizes for new build and large residential houses to get an upper limit for garden area to use for more standard domestic gardens. From this data set Ordnance Survey estimates the total area given to domestic gardens which are below 200m2 in size in a) England to be 1,231.72 km2 (123,171.75 hectares) and b) Wales to be 62.54 km2 (6,253.74 hectares).