We are investing £300 million of capital funding in the 2021-22 financial year to support local authorities to deliver new places and improve existing provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision. This funding is on top of the £365 million we have invested through the Special Provision Capital Fund from the financial years 2018-19 to 2020-21, and our continued investment in the free schools programme. We are also providing an increase in revenue funding for those children and young people with more complex needs, of nearly a quarter (24%) over 2 years, bringing the total high needs budget to more than £8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year.

The department will continue to work with local authorities to better understand future demand for SEND provision, including for children with autism, as it considers how it can best support the sector going forwards. Funding for places required in future years will be subject to the outcomes of the next government Spending Review, where we will have a chance to consider how we can best support the sector in the round.

The SEND review is looking at ways to make sure the SEND system is consistent, high quality, and integrated across education, health and care. It is also considering measures to make sure that money is being spent fairly, efficiently and effectively, and that the support available to children and young people is sustainable in the future.

HMCTS buildings are COVID-secure and we continuously monitor and review our guidance and practices to ensure that we are complying with the latest public health advice. There is an ongoing dialogue with legal professionals at all levels to allow them to feed into this process. Where there are concerns about capacity legal professionals can raise this locally, regionally or nationally. For staff and agency staff in HMCTS as a whole (including tribunals), positive test rates are falling in line with national numbers. The incident rate amongst staff is trending around the national average.

The HMCTS Organisational Risk Assessment sets out the suite of measures put in place to ensure our buildings remain safe for those who use them, and these measures have been developed with the endorsement of public health agencies. All court and tribunal buildings are individually risk assessed – at least weekly – to make sure they continue to meet public health guidelines. These assessments include the spaces for lawyers to safely see their clients. A copy of the court assessment can be obtained from the senior person on site.

Where it has been assessed as safe to do so, rooms within a court building suitable for private consultations are open. These rooms can be identified by posters on the doors, which confirm the maximum capacity and safety measures to be followed. More rooms will open once the Government’s review on social distancing measures and public health advice allows this to happen safely.

In relation to mobile units, HMCTS has prioritised the available space on its estate to house portable cabins to increase the ability to conduct more jury trials. The cabins are used by jurors who are safely marshalled, to limit transmission risk, between the cabin and court room. HMCTS will continue to prioritise the use of cabins in this way as part of a wider package of recovery measures, such as the use of Nightingale courts, that form its overall response to the pandemic.

Both HMCTS and HMPPS have taken action to provide measures to keep consolations with defendants in custody as safe as possible. Since the start of the pandemic, HMPPS took urgent action to enable the criminal justice system (CJS) to continue running by enabling CJS professionals to consult defendants in custody by video. First, it enabled secure remote access to the previously closed prison–to–court video links by deploying over 900 cloud video platform video meeting rooms. HMPPS then increased physical video capacity by over 50% in prisons with a remand function and by over 77% across the wider custodial estate. To date, 371 new video points have been installed, with further installations planned in the coming weeks. In addition, prisons with a remand function were asked to extend their video operating hours.

There will be occasions when lawyers must meet their clients in the court cells. HMCTS works closely with the Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS), who have the responsibility to risk assess the custody areas, to keep the same level of safety maintained throughout the court building. As public health advice changes, PECS review, assess and adapt their risk assessments accordingly to ensure that the custody suite remains safe. This ensures transmission risk is kept to a minimum during client consultations and the transfer of prisoners from cells to the court room. HMCTS will record, on its site-specific risk assessment, any safety concern identified by PECS and the action taken to resolve.

Sport and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus.

Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. Sport England has also provided £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic. This includes £6,599,437 investment in cricket to 1,362 projects.

On 26 January Sport England also published their strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ and as part of this have committed an extra £50million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Furthermore, in the last 10 years (since 2011), Sport England has invested more than £85 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding in community sports organisations and facilities for participation in cricket. For the period 2017/22 Sport England has invested £11,202,500 in the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The Government has established facilities within 9 Downing Street, rather than 10 Downing Street, which are being used for daily broadcasting by a number of news organisations, therefore I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 169917 on 22 March 2021.

Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. Sport England has also provided £270 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic. This includes £6,599,437 investment in cricket to 1,362 projects.

Furthermore, in the last 10 years (since 2011), Sport England has invested more than £85 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding in community sports organisations and facilities for participation in cricket. For the period 2017/22 Sport England has invested £11,202,500 in the England and Wales Cricket Board.

In Ilford South, Sport England’s recent funding for cricket has included £9,445 to Ilford Cricket Club and £3,366 to Redbridge Cricket Club through their COVID-19 Community Emergency Fund.

This information is not centrally held by the Cabinet Office.

Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. That’s why we continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we ensured that grassroots sport was front of the queue when easing those restrictions.

On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. From 8 March, sport can take place in school for all children, or as part of wraparound activities if children are attending in order to enable their parents to work, seek work, attend education, seek medical care, or attend a support group. Organised outdoor sport restarted on 29 March and indoor leisure facilities including gyms re-opened for indoor use on 12 April.

The Government has provided unprecedented support to the sport sector to ensure these facilities are able to open. Beyond elite level sport, on the 22nd October 2020, the government announced a £100 million support fund for local authority leisure centres. Sport England are also providing £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. Sport England’s new strategy, ‘Uniting the Movement’, dedicated an additional £50 million to support grassroots sports clubs and organisations.

A briefing room has not been constructed in 10 Downing Street, therefore we do not hold the information requested. The Government is establishing facilities within 9 Downing Street which will be used for daily broadcasting by a number of news organisations, therefore I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 169917 on 22 March 2021.

Throughout the pandemic, we have consistently adapted our response as we have learnt more about the virus and how best to tackle it. Decisions on when to lift restrictions, and in which order, seek to strike a balance between the epidemiological evidence and advice, the impact lockdown is having on people’s health (including mental health and disproportionate impacts on certain groups), wellbeing, and the economy. Scientific evidence supporting the government response to coronavirus is regularly published here - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

On 22 February the Government published its 'COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021'

roadmap to recovery. The roadmap outlines four steps for cautiously easing restrictions across England. The first measures of Step 1 took place on the 8th March. Schools breaking up for the Easter holidays will provide an opportunity for further, limited relaxation particularly in outdoor settings where there is less risk. Therefore from 29 March, outdoor sports and leisure facilities will reopen and organised sport (for adults and children) will resume.

The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of our country.

The Government has set up the Future Parks Accelerator, which is a joint National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Trust programme to support a cohort of eight local authority areas to transform their parks estates, testing and learning from new and innovative models of parks management and funding to create more sustainable parks estates for the future.

The learning from the programme will be shared widely across the parks sector.

The ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ published 22 February advises that indoor entertainment and visitor attractions can resume at Step 3, which will commence no earlier than 17 May. This includes indoor play centres.

The timings outlined in the roadmap are indicative, and the Government will be led by data, rather than fixed dates. Before taking each step, the Government will review the latest data and will only ease restrictions further if it is safe to do so. The indicative, ‘no earlier than’ dates in the roadmap are all contingent on the data and subject to change.

Each full step of the roadmap will be informed by the latest available science and data and will be five weeks apart in order to provide time to assess the data and provide one week’s notice to businesses and individuals.

(a)

A breakdown of the figures given out in response to a Freedom of Information Act request on 06/01/2021 is as follows” -

The Government is establishing facilities within 9 Downing Street which will be used for daily broadcasting by a number of news organisations. This will necessarily require one-off capital works, including audio-visual equipment, internet infrastructure, electrical works and lighting.

This spending is in the public interest as the new broadcasting of lobby briefings will increase public accountability and transparency about the work of this Government now and in the future.

Such spending on maintenance and technical facilities reflects that 9 Downing Street (the Privy Council Office) is a Grade 1 listed building.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1267063

All such listed buildings must be maintained to high heritage standards, reflecting the buildings’ important role in the cultural fabric of our nation.

A breakdown of the costs which we hold are below.

Annual figures on expenditure on property, plant and equipment by the Cabinet Office can be found in the departmental annual report and accounts.

(b)

In assessing the business case for the spending (i.e. the costs and the benefits), it was noted that No 9 Downing Street is a Grade 1 listed building which has not been updated or modernised for over 50 years. Over half of the cost of this project provides for modernisation to a substantial part of the building in line with the Cabinet Office’s statutory duties to preserve and maintain it, through making the roof sound, strengthening the floor, new heating and cooling, and electrical wiring replacement. The space being converted was idle and dilapidated and this project maximises the capability of the building. It was also deemed necessary to the success of the project to bring in technical expertise from specialist contractors.