This is a challenging time for many sectors and individuals, including taxi drivers. In response to the second national lockdown, the Chancellor announced that the next Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant, which covers the period from November to January, will increase to 80% of average profits, up to £7,500.

The SEISS continues to be just one element of a substantial package of support for the self-employed, and those ineligible for the SEISS Grant Extension may still be eligible for other elements of the support available. The Universal Credit standard allowance has been temporarily increased for 2020-21 and the Minimum Income Floor relaxed for the duration of the crisis, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. They may also have access to other elements of the package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.

More widely, the Government uses the tax system to encourage the uptake of vehicles with low carbon dioxide emissions to help meet the UK’s legally binding climate change targets. Since April 2019, purpose built zero-emission capable taxis have been exempted from the Vehicle Excise Duty expensive car supplement. At Budget 2020, the Government also announced that First Year Allowances on purchases of zero-emission business cars, including zero-emission taxis, will remain available until at least March 2025. Businesses hiring zero-emission cars also retain the ability to set 100% of rental costs against taxable profits.

This is a challenging time for many sectors and individuals, including taxi drivers. In response to the second national lockdown, the Chancellor announced that the next Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant, which covers the period from November to January, will increase to 80% of average profits, up to £7,500.

The SEISS continues to be just one element of a substantial package of support for the self-employed, and those ineligible for the SEISS Grant Extension may still be eligible for other elements of the support available. The Universal Credit standard allowance has been temporarily increased for 2020-21 and the Minimum Income Floor relaxed for the duration of the crisis, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. They may also have access to other elements of the package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.

More widely, the Government uses the tax system to encourage the uptake of vehicles with low carbon dioxide emissions to help meet the UK’s legally binding climate change targets. Since April 2019, purpose built zero-emission capable taxis have been exempted from the Vehicle Excise Duty expensive car supplement. At Budget 2020, the Government also announced that First Year Allowances on purchases of zero-emission business cars, including zero-emission taxis, will remain available until at least March 2025. Businesses hiring zero-emission cars also retain the ability to set 100% of rental costs against taxable profits.

As set out in the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and the Spending Review 2020 the Government will invest £120 million in 2021-22 to start the delivery of the 4,000 zero emission buses announced by the Prime Minister in February.

Together with existing funding for the All Electric Bus Town, Government funding could support the purchase of 800 zero emission buses and the infrastructure needed to support them.

Further details on how funding will be distributed will be announced in due course.

So far, the Government has funded over 90 English local authorities to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with funding amounting to over £95 million. A full list of authorities that have received funding was attached in the answer to PQ 317236. The Department also publishes EV public charging device statistics quarterly, where a breakdown by region can be seen. These statistics are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electric-vehicle-charging-device-statistics-october-2020

This funding includes the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), which has supported over 50 local authorities in England to fund chargepoints for residents who do not have off-street parking. Funding for the ORCS was doubled to £20 million in May, and will make charging at home and overnight easier for those without an off-street parking space. We encourage local authorities to apply to the scheme to provide chargers for their residents, particularly those yet to receive funding. The Government has also supplied funding to authorities through the Go Ultra Low Cities Scheme and the Ultra Low Emission Taxi Infrastructure Scheme.

The Department has engaged in programmes of work to enable and support authorities to deliver charging infrastructure. This includes funding the Local Government Support Programme, delivered by the Energy Saving Trust, which is available to help authorities develop low carbon transport strategies. This summer and autumn we have held a series of webinars from the Go Ultra Low Cities, to build capability and share best practice amongst local authority officers, building on some successful local authority roadshows in 2019. We are also producing a comprehensive technical guide for local authorities, which they will be able to refer to when developing and delivering electric vehicle infrastructure.

We made a commitment to extend the successful Cancer Drugs Fund into an Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) so that doctors can use the most advanced, life-saving treatments for conditions such as cancer or autoimmune disease, or for children with other rare diseases.

Proposals for the IMF are in development and we expect NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to lead a consultation on the fund in due course.

The Department is providing £22 million to Sustrans to deliver 32 projects across the National Cycle Network in England. The funding will deliver a range of improvements including fixing dangerous junctions, reducing traffic levels, building better surfaces, creating wider paths, and repairing damaged signage. Further funding for the National Cycle Network will be considered as part of the Spending Review.

On 28 July, the Prime Minister launched ambitious plans to boost cycling and walking, where half of all journeys in towns and cities are cycled or walked by 2030. As part of this drive, the Government is committed to installing more cycle racks in town and city centres and where they are most needed. The Cycling and Walking Plan can be viewed at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-plan-for-england

In May, the Government announced £2 billion of new funding for cycling and walking. £225 million is being made available to local authorities in 2020-21 via the Emergency Active Travel Fund. The Department made clear to local authorities that some of this funding could be used for cycle parking to complement new cycle routes. Decisions on the rest of the £2 billion will be a matter for the Spending Review later this year.

The Secretary of State for Transport has not held any recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in relation to this issue.

There are regular, official-level discussions on this matter occurring in the context of the forthcoming Spending Review.

£2 billion of dedicated investment is being provided over the next five years to help deliver the aims and targets set out in the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. This is expected to leverage in significant amounts of wider Government and local funding that will be required to double cycling by 2025. On the 7^th February the Department published extensive material from the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy Investment Model, including technical reports and evidence base research papers setting out the relationship between investment and cycling and walking levels.

A total of 40 local authorities have completed Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs), 9 of which were submitted by November 2019.

£225 million has been allocated to local authorities from the Emergency Active Travel Fund in 2020-21 to implement measures such as pop-up bike lanes with protected space for cycling, widened pavements, safer junctions and cycle corridors. Authorities have been encouraged to align this funding with schemes prioritised in LCWIPs where possible. Further funding for 2020-21 is being provided through the Transforming Cities Fund and other highways and local growth funding sources.

The Government intends to provide a second wave of support to enable more authorities to produce LCWIPs following the outcome of the Spending Review.

We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the night time industries. On Sunday 5 July 2020, the Secretary of State announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors including some businesses operating in the night time economy. We will publish detailed guidance on eligibility as soon as possible in July.

Whilst the Cultural Package is extensive, it cannot support every organisation. There are a number of financial packages available to support nightclubs, including business rates relief, grants, and the Bounceback Loan Scheme. Furthermore, on rent liabilities, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced on 19 June 2020 the introduction of a new code of practice for commercial property, and an extension to temporary tenant protections until 30 September 2020.

On Sunday 5 July 2020, the Secretary of State announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors.

We are working closely with DCMS’ Arm’s Length Bodies to develop detailed guidance indicating who can apply for the different elements of this funding. We will publish this guidance as soon as possible in July.

The Department has not made an estimate of the number of jobs in research and development, manufacturing and other sectors that could be created across all forms of low emission public transport as a result of Government investment. However, we recognize that transport has a key role to play in the economy reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions and we are developing an ambitious plan to accelerate the de-carbonisation of transport.

In February, the Government announced plans for investment in 4,000 zero emission buses, as part of a £5 billion funding package for buses and cycling. This investment supports the Government's decarbonisation plans and the bus sector and will help to stimulate a green economic recovery from COVID-19. There are a number of UK-based bus manufacturing companies well-placed to benefit from this investment. The recent £48m Ultra Low Emission Bus competition allocated 88% of funding to UK companies.

The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has also designed and funded a series of R&D competitions with Innovate UK, focusing on demonstrating low and zero emission road transport technology, strengthening UK industrial and supply chain capability. These projects include public transport applications. For example, OLEV has funded a project to develop a new, highly efficient, zero emission bus with lower total cost of ownership and maximisation of passenger numbers.

For rail transport, the use of electrification and new technologies to decarbonise the railway will create long-term employment opportunities, and previous electrification projects have supported hundreds of UK jobs.

The Prime Minster announced £5 billion of new funding to boost bus and cycling links on 11 February, including at least 4,000 new zero emission buses to make greener travel the convenient option, driving forward the UK’s progress on its net zero ambitions. The details of the programmes, including how funding will be distributed, will be announced in due course.

In line with other government funded bodies, decisions about Home Office funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2021 will be taken as part of the next Spending Review.

Funding has been allocated under the Countryside Stewardship scheme for woodland creation and the associated maintenance payments for the financial years 2019/20 to 2023/24 as follows:

It has been estimated that in the earlier years of the Countryside Stewardship, the average cost per hectare was £4,243. More recent applications, since 2018, had a value of £4,153 per hectare. These figures are for capital grants only and exclude the additional annual maintenance grants, worth £200/ha for 10 years, also available.

In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration in England. We intend to publish it in due course. That strategy will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We are considering the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations in drawing up the strategy.

We are currently allocating £10 million in 2018-21 for approximately 5,948 hectares of peatland restoration; our manifesto committed to increase that as part of the new £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. We will set out more details of funding allocated specifically to peat restoration in due course.

​No funding has been specifically allocated to the re-election of Michael Lodge, Secretary General of the International Seabed Authority.