My hon. Friend leaves no stone unturned in advocating for his constituents to get better broadband, because we all know how important it is in rural areas. Superfast broadband coverage in Dorset is now up to 96%; that is progress, but the Government have more work to do, and Project Gigabit is a crucial part of delivering that.

While he is carrying out academic study and writing a book, the Archbishop will delegate some of his duties to the Archbishop of York and other bishops.

Study leave is available to all clergy and bishops, and the Archbishop’s two immediate predecessors also both took study leave.

Our trade policies will open global markets for UK farmers and lower their input costs. We have successfully rolled over EU FTAs but now want to give farmers enhanced access to countries with whom the EU could not or would not do a deal. We are giving farmers a stronger voice in trade policy, putting the Trade and Agriculture Commission on a statutory footing and we have just launched a major promotion campaign for the industry.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has a number of schemes which provide financial support to the rural economy. The three main land schemes, which offer an annual payment, are Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship (CS) and the Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ES).

Famers submitting a valid claim under these schemes will normally receive a payment between 1 December and 30 June the following year.

For 2019 we released by 30 June:

o BPS 2019 – 84,225 (99.9%) payments worth £1.79bn

o CS 2019 – 10,899 (94.2%) worth £88.46m

o ES 2019 – 12,020 (97.7%) worth £182.22m

There are several reasons for why payments may be delayed beyond the 30 June such as ongoing discussions with claimants, the resolution of probate, or ongoing fraud investigations.

Payments for 2020 claims began in December and are ongoing. The RPA delivered its best ever December payment performance, paying around 98% of BPS claims by the end of the year, despite the challenges caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The UK is aware of reports that Hizballah continues to amass an arsenal of weapons within Lebanon, in direct contravention of relevant UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs). The UK Government regularly raises this at the UN Security Council, and we call on the Lebanese authorities to abide by provisions of the relevant UNSCRs. Hizballah's destabilising influence threatens regional stability and endangers Lebanon and its people.

The Church Commissioners are undertaking a natural capital assessment to provide a baseline for our carbon outputs and to understand our ecosystem services. This will provide a plan to lower carbon outputs and inform our natural capital strategy. Where possible, our tenancies have clauses relating to good husbandry and the non-removal of topsoil, and with longer-term tenancies, soil analyses are carried out at the beginning and the end of leases to ensure that soil health is maintained to a good standard.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) consists of independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.  For the first phase, the JCVI has advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors

Those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person, whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill, should also be offered vaccination in priority group six.

The latest Performance Data on Heathrow Queue times can be found on the link below:

Heathrow Queue Performance

This Government recognises and values the vital contribution made by carers each and every day in supporting some of the most vulnerable in society including pensioners and those with disabilities. The support that carers provide has been even more vital during the Covid-19 pandemic when other support services may have been reduced or even closed and the caring role became even harder due to the need to self-isolate or shield the person they care for.

Unpaid carers may be able to apply for Carer’s Allowance if they meet the qualifying conditions, such as providing 35 hours of care a week. To ensure that carers already in receipt of Carer’s Allowance do not inadvertently stop receiving it because of changes to patterns of care, we have allowed emotional support to count towards the 35 hours of care being provided by the carer as well as relaxing the rules around breaks in care. We have extended these provisions until 12 May 2021 in recognition that carers need extra flexibility in the way they provide care during the current emergency.

Between 2020/21 and 2025/26 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to increase by nearly a third (around £1 billion). By 2025/26, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4bn a year on Carer’s Allowance.

As of May 2020, there were 1008 carers in the West Dorset constituency that were receiving Carer’s Allowance and in 2019/20 we spent approximately £3.6 million on Carer’s Allowance there. A further 673 carers had a claim to an underlying entitlement to Carer’s Allowance.

Carers have access to the full range of social security benefits according to their circumstances. Income replacement benefits help people and households on lower incomes, and can include a carer premium, currently £37.50 a week. An equivalent additional amount applies in Pension Credit. Universal Credit also includes a carer element at the rate of £162.92 per monthly assessment period. These amounts recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and mean that lower-income carers can receive more money than others who receive these benefits. Between the existing carer-specific support, and the temporary Covid-19 uplift, 270,000 carer households receiving Universal Credit have benefitted from up to an extra £2,990 this financial year.

During the pandemic, the Government has also, for example:

• provided funding to Carers UK to extend their support phoneline;
• provided funding to Carers Trust to make onward grants to provide support to unpaid carers experiencing loneliness during the pandemic;
• produced a leaflet to help carers identify themselves on discharge from hospital;
• published guidance specifically for carers and young carers, which includes further information about sources of support including looking after their own health and wellbeing;
• under the current lockdown restrictions carers can arrange for another family member or friend to provide respite care so that they can take a break where this is reasonably necessary. Certain households can also form a support bubble with another household. This includes one person of any age living with one or more disabled persons of any age who require continuous care. This also includes a similar household but with other non-disabled persons also living in the household as long as there is no more than one non-disabled adult in the household. Further, one or more adults living with a child under 5 with a disability requiring constant care can also form a support bubble.

Border Force is confident that resources to meet anticipated overall operational requirements are in place with Border Force recruiting sufficient additional frontline staff and continuing to build staffing levels during 2020/2021 across all critical ports.

Resource and staffing requirements at every port, including Heathrow, are continually reviewed by Border Force working with airport operators including Heathrow Airport Ltd, and resources are deployed flexibly as and when they are required.

Nationally, Border Force recruited over 1,000 additional officers in preparation for the end of transition and continues to ensure maximum flexibility in their recruitment and deployment approach.

Wait times in airports can be caused by a number of factors, not just related to resourcing. This includes the volume of immigration case working, additional support and checks in relation to Covid-19, and specific security activity. Our teams seek to balance this range of tasking each day. Whilst mindful of passenger wait times and experience, our primary objective is to ensure the security of the border and that all mandated security activity is carried out to keep the country safe.

Businesses in tier 2 that are required to close can access payments of up to £1,500 per 14 days of closure. We are giving additional financial support of £1.1 billion to local authorities to support other businesses severely affected by restrictions even though open.

Education providers use their government funding on qualifications that are approved by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). The list of qualifications approved for funding includes 18 qualifications that involve preparation for uniformed service (sometimes referred to as Military Preparation Diplomas).

The funding providers receive for qualifications approved by the ESFA is based on a range of factors detailed in our guidance published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-rates-and-formula.

All qualifications at level 3 and below (excluding A levels, T Levels, GCSEs and Functional Skills) are subject to a review in which we will decide which qualifications will be available for public funding in future. As part of the review, we have recently published a consultation and call for evidence. Respondents are welcome to give views on the role and purpose of specific qualifications, including those designed to prepare students for the military.

There are no plans to expand the Pathway in the South West.

HQ South West continue to engage in regional Youth Outreach projects.

Young Enterprise does excellent work, engaging young people and providing valuable education in enterprise and financial skills. Ministerial colleagues recently met Young Enterprise to hear about its work and correspondence

on this and have shared that information with education Ministers. If I may also add, the lessons that I learned when I did Young Enterprise in the sixth form, which was not so long ago, were invaluable.

The police funding settlement for 2020-21 set out the biggest increase in funding for the policing system since 2010, with Dorset police receiving up to £144.3 million in funding. That is an increase of £8.8 million on the previous year. We are giving the police the resources they need to fight crime and keep the public safe.

Education, health and care plans identify the support needs of children and young people across those three areas. Local authorities and health bodies are required to jointly commission the services. The Government are currently undertaking a review of the special educational needs and disability system, and I am working on this with my ministerial counterpart in the Department for Education.

The Department is committed to supporting UK helicopters and the defence industry more broadly. Over the next decade, we plan to spend over £180 billion on equipment and equipment support, which currently includes around £10.9 billion on helicopter capability.

On 15 July, the Government launched its website to help the public mark the 75th anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day on 15 August. Further information on how to get involved will be made available shortly at https://ve-vjday75.gov.uk/

As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster set out in his Ditchley Speech, the Government is determined to ensure the Civil Service is better distributed across the country. The Places for Growth Programme is working with departments and public bodies to firm up relocation plans and further details will be announced in due course. The Places for Growth programme is exploring opportunities across the whole of the UK.

The Government are providing significant funding for the bus industry at this time. Our covid-19 funding package for England’s buses totals £651 million. The Government provide £43 million annually to local authorities for supporting socially necessary services, plus £30 million of additional funding in 2021 to support, improve or restore services. Ministers and officials meet regularly with key stakeholders, including local transport authorities and operators to discuss a wide range of matters.

The new dairy response fund opened for applications on 18 June 2020. Full details of the application process can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/dairy-response-fund-2020. The funding will provide eligible dairy farmers in England with up to £10,000. Payments will commence from 6 July 2020. The scheme will help those dairy farmers most in need of support to sustain their businesses by maintaining production capacity without impacts on animal welfare.

Post Office has not prosecuted any cases relating to its Horizon system since 2015. According to Post Office’s records, no-one is currently imprisoned as a result of its historical prosecutions.

Records of cases prosecuted by the UK’s public prosecution agencies which may also relate to Horizon will be kept by the Crown Prosecution Service, Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland respectively.

Post Office has made those agencies aware of the concerns relating to Horizon and Judge Fraser’s findings in the recent Horizon court case.

Our thoughts are indeed with our colleague who was murdered, Jo Cox, and also with the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Amy Callaghan); we wish her a safe return to this House.

We have introduced an unprecedented package of support for businesses across the country to get through this incredibly challenging period. More than £10 billion in grants—grants—has been paid to over 830,000 businesses of all sizes, including £100 million to over 8,000 businesses in Dorset. I want to thank the local leadership there for delivering that. This has explicitly been targeted at those in receipt of rural rate relief, as well as small business rate relief.

My department works with a number of network operators to deliver improved broadband to rural areas. This includes Openreach and their work in West Dorset.

We are also working closely with Openreach and other operators to prepare our £5 billion “Outside In” programme, as announced in the Spring Budget.

This programme will focus on delivering gigabit-capable broadband to the hardest to reach premises in the UK, which are mainly in rural areas.

The House of Bishops revised their guidance on access to churches on the 5th May 2020.
The new guidance can be read here: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/house-bishops-backs-phased-approach-revising-access-church-buildings

Government guidance states that ‘a minister of religion or worship leader may leave their home to travel to their place of worship’. In most cases, they will do so in order to pray or to stream a service of worship. If clergy wish to mark VE Day by ringing a church bell or flying a flag from their church buildings, that is within government guidance. This advice does not extend to bell-ringers, sextons or other church officers or volunteers.

The parish church would usually be central to local commemorations of events such as Victory in Europe Day, but for this anniversary they will be honouring the sacrifice of all those who were involved in World War Two in a new way. Archbishops, Bishops and clergy will be participating in local and national virtual services to mark VE Day. The Church of England has released national resources for worship and prayer which can be used by local communities: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/worship-resources-ve-day-2020

Additional resources have been released by Westminster Abbey to help churches shape their services over the anniversary weekend which can be found here: Service of Thanksgiving to mark the 70th Anniversary of VE Day

I continue to have regular conversations with ministerial colleagues across Government on all aspects of exiting the European Union. The Government have been clear that we will not weaken our current environmental protections as we leave the European Union, and that we will maintain, and even enhance, our already high environmental standards.