The Government will publish its response to the consultation on flexible working in due course.

The current overall UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) portfolio of COVID-19-related grants, including awards supported by Innovate UK, includes vaccine projects that provide greater diversity of approaches than for the first generation of vaccines developed. Details can be found on the UKRI website.

UKRI will continue to review ongoing needs in this area with the Vaccine Taskforce.

The current overall UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) portfolio of COVID-19-related grants, including awards supported by Innovate UK, includes vaccine projects that provide greater diversity of approaches than for the first generation of vaccines developed. Details can be found on the UKRI website.

UKRI will continue to review ongoing needs in this area with the Vaccine Taskforce.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), including the Medical Research Council, invited applications for research related to COVID-19, including for research into vaccines, through funding routes such as the joint UKRI-Department of Health and Social Care rapid response call, as well as the UKRI rapid response rolling call. The requirements and guidelines for these were published on the respective application pages and decisions were made under a peer review process and in coordination with the Vaccine Taskforce.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) was established under the Higher Education Research Act 2017. The Medical Research Council is a council of UKRI.

The UKRI Board is accountable to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for the delivery of its functions.

Her Majesty’s Government respects the ruling of the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Decisions around the release of documents are an internal matter for the European Parliament, acting in accordance with the judgment of the Court.

The level of allowances for Members of the European Parliament and are decided internally by the European Parliament’s Bureau and and are outlined in the MEP Statute.

The allowances of the President and members of the Court of Justice of the European Union are provided for in Council Regulation (EU) 2016/300 determining the emoluments of EU high-level public office holders which was adopted on 29 February 2016.

The level of allowances for Members of the European Parliament are decided internally by the European Parliament’s Bureau and are outlined in the MEP Statute.

The European Council determines the salaries, allowances and pensions of EU high-level public office holders, including those of the judges of the CJEU. Therefore the UK, as a Member State, has had the opportunity to feed in and shape discussions around the relevant regulations governing these aspects.

The allowances of the President and members of the Court of Justice of the European Union are provided for in Council Regulation (EU) 2016/300 determining the emoluments of EU high-level public office holders which was adopted on 29 February 2016.

Appointments to the European Commission civil service are an internal matter for the Commission.

Following our exit from the EU, the UK will no longer be a Member State and will no longer have elected representation in the EU institutions. With regard to the Northern Ireland Protocol to the draft Withdrawal Agreement, the UK has been clear, and has reaffirmed, that we are committed to turning all of the commitments in the December Joint Report into legally binding text in the Withdrawal Agreement. Negotiations are ongoing and the Government has set out our proposed approach on the customs element of the backstop, the Temporary Customs Arrangement. The Government is committed to accelerating discussions on the backstop, alongside intensifying negotiations on the future relationship.

Any negotiated outcomes will need to be compatible with our international obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights.

The report shows a misunderstanding of the Northern Ireland and Ireland context and proposes a fundamental redesign of the Common Travel Area (CTA), which neither the UK, Ireland or the EU have ever envisaged.

Whilst there are some parallels with the work we are developing on the wider UK-EU border model that would apply, for example, to the border between Dover and Calais, this report proposes a form of hard border, albeit an efficiently managed one, for the Northern Ireland-Ireland land border and is therefore fundamentally inconsistent with Government policy and the commitments we have made.

It is unacceptable to suggest any solutions which would require physical infrastructure at the border. Both the UK Government and Irish Government have explicitly ruled this out, as the removal of physical checks and security installations has been a key dividend of the peace process.

From the very beginning the Prime Minister has been clear that safeguarding the rights of UK nationals living in the EU, and EU citizens living in the UK, was her first priority for negotiations.

The agreement reached and set out in the Withdrawal Agreement text will provide them with certainty about their rights going forward.

This will mean that all UK nationals resident in the EU by December 2020 will be able to continue living their lives broadly as they do now in their country of residence.

It will be for each Member State to determine how they will confirm the rights of UK nationals under the Withdrawal Agreement. We are seeking details of how each EU Member State will implement the Withdrawal Agreement for UK nationals.

As we continue to make progress in negotiations, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and that 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 has already become evident, and more will become public over the coming weeks and months.

My Lords, we have a number of initiatives in place to encourage ownership, and are investing more than £600 million up to 2020 to make the UK a leader in the development, manufacture and use of electric vehicles. We are cutting the up-front costs of purchase with our plug-in car, van and motorcycle grants, and helping meet the costs of installation of charge points in homes, on residential streets and in workplaces right across the UK.