Ofgem regulate investment by network companies in improving the electricity grid through the price control process. The Government welcomes Ofgem’s work to create a price control that will ready the grid for changes to electricity demand and supply needed for a secure, net zero system, including in rural areas. In the current electricity distribution network price control, they have set baseline funding at £22.2bn, including £3.1bn proposed for upgrades, which will improve the network in rural areas and support the expected uptake in electric vehicles, heat pumps and the connection of more local, low carbon generation.

National planning policy is clear that local authorities should have a positive strategy in place to promote energy from renewable and low carbon sources such as solar plants.

The Government also recognises the need to preserve our most productive farmland. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that planning decisions should 'contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment' by recognising the 'benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land'. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, the Framework sets out that areas of poorer quality land should be used in preference to those of a higher quality.

The Government recently consulted on proposed changes to the NPPF, which includes a change relating to food security, building on what is already in the NPPF on preserving most productive farmland. Ministers and officials are currently analysing the responses received before issuing a formal response.

Defra officials and Ministers have worked closely with counterparts across Government on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) support since the Government started to support business energy prices in Autumn 2022, raising the energy needs of businesses in our sectors via cross Government discussions on design of the scheme and formal Write Round processes.

We are delivering our commitment to boost UK exports. We want people at home and abroad to be lining up to buy British.

We have expanded our agrifood attaché network from two to eleven locations around the world. They work to resolve market access barriers, reduce the complexity of trading requirements, and raise the profile of British products, enabling U.K. producers to tap into the growing international demand for our quality products.

The attachés work to drive export growth and help deliver on the opportunities created by new Free Trade Agreements.

The Government published the Border Target Operating Model (TOM) ON 05 April 2023. In developing the TOM, we have designed a modern border with a simplified, effective, risk-based system of controls based on current assessments of risks to biosecurity. It will strike the appropriate balance between protecting the UK’s public health, food supply chains and natural environment, and setting a proportionate controls regime. The TOM will operate a more sophisticated approach to risk categorisation than the EU’s 3rd country model, with the intensity of controls calibrated to the level of risk presented by each commodity, and the country of origin. This will be underpinned independent and dynamic risk assessments which respond to changing risks. For high-risk and medium-risk goods, including POAO products in those categories, we will retain health certification and BCP inspection, albeit with frequently lower inspection rates than under the EU model.

Some emerging technologies, such as low speed, low weight, last-mile delivery vehicles with automated technology, have no specific provision for them under existing legislation. Any development of regulation for these technologies would need to be balanced with the need to maintain safety and accessibility for other road users. The Government is considering research to inform possible ways forward in this area.

The information requested is not collected centrally.

In the week ending 15 January, the daily average number of patients who remain in hospital and do not meet the criteria to reside in Kettering General Hospital Trust was 54, 9% of available beds, and in Northampton General Hospital Trust was 114, 17% of available beds.

In the week ending 15 January, there was a daily average of 14,000 patients in hospital who were medically fit to be discharged. This accounts for 14% of the total beds available from the trusts who submitted discharge data.

The Government and I are very committed to ensuring we maximise the opportunities of leaving the EU to support economic growth. My hon. Friend, with his invariable parliamentary perspicacity, follows from one question to another seamlessly, because what we need is the removal of overburdensome and bureaucratic regulation such as solvency II and the clinical trials directive to create new pro-growth regulatory frameworks in data and AI. Her Majesty’s Government are already delivering an ambitious programme of work to unleash innovation, propel start-up growth across all sectors of the economy and help to level up parts of the United Kingdom. The Procurement Bill alone will cut 350 separate pieces of EU law to one UK law. I have also been receiving excellent ideas from readers of The Sun and the Sunday Express.

This Government’s priority is keeping the people of this country safe, and we make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals. Foreign national offenders (FNOs) who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.

We do not comment on individual cases. However, convicted criminals guilty of heinous crimes, including manslaughter, rape, robbery, child sex offences, drug offences and violent crime, and persistent offenders, were not deported on 18 May 2022. These are extremely serious offences which have a real and lasting impact on victims and communities.

All those returned are provided with the opportunity to raise claims prior to their removal. But where representations are made at the last minute, despite the offender having ample opportunity to raise these at an earlier stage, and the claim cannot be resolved in time for the flight’s departure, it can act as a barrier to removal.

We are doing everything possible to reduce legal challenges and to increase the numbers of FNOs being removed. Our New Plan for Immigration, underpinned by the Nationality and Borders Act, is the first major reform of the system in decades and will end the merry-go-round of last-minute legal challenges that stop us removing those with no right to be in the country.

The Government is committed to removing FNOs with no legal basis to be here and since January 2019 we have returned over 10,000 people from the UK.

The Nationality and Borders Act provides clarity on human trafficking victims’ rights and entitlements, it goes further in supporting the victims of this horrendous crime and reduces the opportunity for the system to be abused. We will continue to engage with the Welsh Government on this, and the Modern Slavery Bill will be introduced in due course.

We have had five productive rounds of negotiations to date and agreed a significant proportion of legal text across multiple chapters.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade attended the first UK-US Future of Atlantic Trade Dialogue last month and hosted the second in Aberdeen this week to progress mutual priorities with USTR Katherine Tai.

The Commission is statutorily accountable to the Speaker’s Committee for the economical, efficient and effective discharge of its functions. The Committee scrutinises the Commission’s financial, operational and strategic planning on an ongoing basis. Yesterday, it took evidence from the Commission in public on its annual estimate and five-year corporate plan. As of yesterday, the Committee has no plans to make an assessment, and the Commission has impartiality.