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1691162

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Emergencies: Planning
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress his Department has made on strengthening national resilience.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	15389
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>Strengthening national resilience is a key priority for the Government.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In December 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister delivered the first Annual Statement to Parliament on risk and resilience and published the 2023 Implementation Update, which is available on GOV.UK. The update sets out the progress we have made to strengthen the UK’s national resilience since the publication of the Resilience Framework with context of the current risk landscape we face.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>On 6 February 2024, we convened the UK Resilience Forum to garner insight from key stakeholders from across the resilience system and drive a whole of society approach. Details from the meeting are available on GOV.UK.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Later this year, the Deputy Prime Minister will report to Parliament on the progress made implementing the UK Biological Security Strategy which was published in June 2023.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 01/03/2024 14:21:26 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1691163

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	National Security
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen national security.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	15390
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>The Cabinet Office leads and coordinates the UK’s national security crisis response through the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR), and national security policy through the National Security Council structures. This includes the National Cyber Strategy, National Security and Investment Programme, and the Biological Security Strategy, all of which the department is taking essential steps to deliver.</p><p>Key successes in 2023 included publishing the Integrated Review Refresh, passing the National Security Act, launching the Emergency Alerting service, and delivering the Atlantic Declaration and risk elements of the AI Summit. So far in 2024, we have launched a new Strategic Dialogue on Biological Security with the US and continued to coordinate the response to the conflict in Gaza and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart question first answered 01/03/2024 14:47:50 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1691165

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Cybersecurity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen cyber security.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	15391
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>The National Cyber Strategy 2022 sets out how the UK will continue to be a leading responsible and democratic cyber power, able to protect and promote our interests in and through cyberspace. It is supported by more than £2.6 billion of investment over three years with a particular emphasis on improving the government’s own cyber security.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Strategy is delivering a step-change in the UK’s cyber resilience with the government leading the way, adopting a more proactive and sustained campaign approach to deter our adversaries, putting cyber power at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy agenda, whilst protecting and pursuing a competitive advantage in the underpinning technologies that are critical to cyberspace. It also emphasises a whole-of-society approach calling on all parts of society to play their part in reinforcing the UK’s economic and strategic strengths in cyberspace.</p><p>In August 2023 the Government published its first annual report on progress implementing the Strategy. The report highlighted the success in the last twelve months in improving cyber resilience through the NCSC Cyber Action Plan and Cyber Essentials as well as disruptions such as the first tranche of cyber sanctions and the takedown of the GENESIS marketplace, a go-to service for cyber-criminals.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart question first answered 01/03/2024 14:35:54 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1688521

registered interest
date	08/02/2024
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Arts: Disadvantaged
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with Arts Council England on funding for art and cultural activities in deprived areas not identified as priority places.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	13803
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2024 answer text <p>The arts are for everyone, and His Majesty’s Government has made it a priority to ensure that funding for the arts is fairly distributed across the country. Through Arts Council England’s 2023–26 National Portfolio, increased funding of £444.6 million per annum will fund a record 985 organisations in more parts of the country than ever before. This is an increase from the £410 million per annum going to 828 organisations under the previous portfolio. Of the 275 new organisations joining the funding portfolio, 214 are outside London.</p><p>The Secretary of State, other Ministers, and officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport all regularly meet Arts Council England to discuss all aspects of its work. As well as the Arts Council’s existing Priority Places, DCMS and the Arts Council also agreed 109 Levelling Up for Culture Places, which partially overlap with the Priority Places, and which were identified as places of historically low investment and engagement in arts and culture. These places are targeted for additional engagement and investment.</p><p>In the Cheshire East local authority area, Arts Council England is providing £160,000 per annum of funding through the 2023–26 National Portfolio programme. The Arts Council's National Lottery Project Grants programme has also made awards totalling over £85,000 in the Cheshire East local authority area in 2022/23, which includes support for the Lindow Ensemble, and funding for Luminate, a project in Cheshire East libraries. In 2023/24, so far project grants totalling £113,982 have been awarded in Cheshire East, including for the LY2 – a project to transform Lyceum Square in Crewe.</p><p>In addition, in February DCMS launched the fourth round of the Cultural Development Fund, which is open to every part of England, and not just Priority Places. In this round we are particularly keen to fund activity in areas of low cultural investment. To date, the Cultural Development Fund has provided £76 million of capital investment to 20 transformative, place-based creative and cultural initiatives across the country.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 23/02/2024 11:40:48 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1688178

registered interest
date	07/02/2024
answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept id	216
answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
hansard heading	Broadband: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to improve rural connectivity.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	13626
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2024 answer text <p>Since the published response to Question 7150 on 19 December 2023, we have made further progress with Project Gigabit by signing an additional six contracts, providing more than £450 million to broadband suppliers to roll out fast, reliable broadband to rural and remote communities.</p><p> </p><p>The Crewe and Nantwich constituency is covered by the Project Gigabit procurement for Cheshire, for which we aim to award a contract in the coming months.</p><p> </p><p>Overall, the number of UK premises that can access gigabit-capable broadband has increased to over 80% up from just 6% in 2019, and the UK is on track to achieve 85% coverage by 2025.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 23/02/2024 09:51:40 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1688179

registered interest
date	07/02/2024
answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept id	216
answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
hansard heading	Horizon Europe
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to encourage UK participation in Horizon Europe.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	13627
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2024 answer text <p>The Government is committed to restoring the UK’s position in Horizon Europe by ensuring that businesses and researchers feel supported to re-engage with Horizon Europe and lead consortia. My Department is promoting the opportunities, including working closely with the EU to boost participation through joint UK/EU engagement campaigns. In January, Government launched a large-scale marketing campaign to encourage UK researchers and businesses to bid for Horizon funding. My Department is delivering a Horizon Europe Roadshow around the country to drive network-building and information-sharing and is making concrete support available through a ‘pump priming’ grant scheme delivered by the British Academy.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 23/02/2024 09:59:06 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1678257

registered interest
date	14/12/2023
answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept id	216
answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
hansard heading	Broadband: Rural Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to improve rural connectivity.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	7150
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to improve digital connectivity in rural areas. Project Gigabit is the Government’s £5 billion programme to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to rural and hard-to-reach communities across the UK. Alongside suppliers’ commercial rollout plans, our target is to achieve 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025, and then nationwide coverage by 2030. Over 79% of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, which represents significant progress since January 2019, when coverage was just 6%.</p><p> </p><p>We now have 16 contracts in place, and combined with our procurements running across the country, we have made over £2 billion of funding available to support the deployment of gigabit-capable broadband to over 1.1 million premises in hard-to-reach areas across the UK.</p><p> </p><p>Support is also available for homes and businesses in some rural areas through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. Over 108,00 vouchers have been used to connect rural homes and businesses with fast, reliable broadband.</p><p> </p><p>For very hard to reach premises, in April 2023, the Government announced a capital grants scheme to provide up to 35,000 premises with help to access Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite equipment to improve their connectivity. More information on this scheme will be announced in the new year.</p><p> </p><p>To improve 4G coverage in rural areas, the government is working with the UK’s four mobile network operators (EE, Three, VMO2 and Vodafone) to deliver the Shared Rural Network. This agreement will see the Government and industry jointly invest over £1 billion to increase outdoor 4G mobile coverage across the UK to 95% by the end of 2025. The programme targets areas of the country with partial or no 4G coverage, and will significantly improve mobile coverage for an extra 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads. 4G coverage across the UK is approaching 93%, which is up from 91% when the Shared Rural Network deal was signed in March 2020.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside the Shared Rural Network, the Government’s Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, published in April 2023, set out further steps to improve connectivity across the UK, including a new ambition for nationwide coverage of standalone 5G in all populated areas by 2030.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, Simon Fell MP has been appointed as the Government’s Rural Connectivity Champion. His role will be to ensure that rural communities and businesses can access and adopt the connectivity that they need.</p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Sir John Whittingdale question first answered 19/12/2023 11:46:45 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1678258

registered interest
date	14/12/2023
answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept id	216
answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
hansard heading	Life Sciences
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress her Department has made on strengthening the life sciences sector.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	7151
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p>Recent progress to strengthen the life sciences sector includes a raft of new initiatives and funding announced at the Autumn Statement. These include £520 million for life sciences manufacturing; £51 million for Our Future Health; the launch of a Rare Therapies Launch Pad; and £10 million of investment in a Centre of Excellence in Oligonucleotide Manufacturing Innovation. Additionally, the government has recently published the full response to the Commercial Clinical Trials Review. These announcements build on the £650 million growth package announced in May and reaffirm the government’s commitment to supporting a thriving life sciences sector.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 19/12/2023 16:46:48 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1677099

registered interest
date	11/12/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Unemployment: Young People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help unemployed young people into work.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	6359
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/12/2023 answer text <p>The Department of Work and Pensions Youth Offer provides individually tailored Work Coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming Universal Credit. This support includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.</p><p> </p><p>Previously, the Youth Offer was only available for those searching for work. As of the 25 September 2023, this been expanded to include to include additional young people on Universal Credit not currently searching for work, including young parents and carers.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 14/12/2023 17:33:21 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan

1677100

registered interest
date	11/12/2023
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Disability and Chronic Illnesses: Employment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to encourage people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness and disability into work.
tabling member constituency	Crewe and Nantwich
tabling member printed	Dr Kieran Mullan
uin	6360
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p>The Government delivers an extensive programme of initiatives to support disabled people and those with health conditions, including those with long-term sickness, to start, stay, and succeed in work.</p><p> </p><p>These initiatives include: the Work and Health Programme, Access to Work grants, Disability Confident, a digital information service for employers, Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres, Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care.</p><p> </p><p>Building on existing provision and the £2 billion investment announced at the Spring Budget, we announced a new package of support in Autumn Statement 2023 to: double the number of places on the Universal Support employment programme, launch WorkWell in approximately 15 pilot areas to provide light touch work and health support, explore new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with timely access to support, and establish an expert group to advise on a voluntary national baseline for Occupational Health provision.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside this, the Health and Disability White Paper announced plans to abolish the WCA. This reform will ensure those who are able to can progress in or towards work, without the worry of being reassessed and losing their benefits, giving claimants confidence they will receive support, for as long as it is needed, regardless of whether they are working.</p><p> </p><p>Ahead of the White Paper reform, we have announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) from 2025, that will continue to protect those with the most severe conditions while ensuring those that can work are supported in doing so. Alongside this, a new ‘Chance to Work Guarantee’, will effectively abolish the WCA for most existing claimants who have already been assessed and are not expected to look for or prepare for work. This will remove the fear of reassessments and give people the confidence to try work, while providing continuity of service for vulnerable claimants.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 19/12/2023 14:45:02 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4860 label Biography information for Dr Kieran Mullan