Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing secondary school teachers in the first five years of their career who work in eligible schools have been able to claim Levelling Up Premium (LUP) payments of up to £3,000 after tax since September 2022. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the LUP payments to eligible school teachers to up to £6,000 per year after tax and extending the offer to key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subject teachers in all further education colleges for the first time.

A new school teacher receiving a £6,000 LUP will have an income equivalent of at least a £38,570 starting salary next year, even before accounting for the next pay award.

The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by region are below:

The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by subject are below:

The LUP is primarily designed to incentivise the retention of specialist teachers in the disadvantaged schools it targets, but it may also support recruitment by encouraging teachers to take up posts in these schools.

It is too early to fully evaluate the impact of the LUP, but it is possible to draw on evidence from the predecessor pilots which informed it. For example, a University College London (UCL) evaluation of the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Retention Payments pilot found that teachers who received these £2,000 after tax payments were 23% less likely to leave teaching. Furthermore, an evaluation of Early Career Payments assessed they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.

Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees starting school initial teacher teaching (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year can already benefit from tax free bursaries worth £28,000 and scholarships worth £30,000. These ITT incentives are a national offer and are not differentiated sub-nationally. This is because teachers often teach in a different school or area to that they trained in. The Levelling Up Premium is paid to school teachers once they are qualified and is therefore targeted sub-nationally to incentivise them to work in the schools most in need.

Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing secondary school teachers in the first five years of their career who work in eligible schools have been able to claim Levelling Up Premium (LUP) payments of up to £3,000 after tax since September 2022. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the LUP payments to eligible school teachers to up to £6,000 per year after tax and extending the offer to key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subject teachers in all further education colleges for the first time.

A new school teacher receiving a £6,000 LUP will have an income equivalent of at least a £38,570 starting salary next year, even before accounting for the next pay award.

The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by region are below:

The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by subject are below:

The LUP is primarily designed to incentivise the retention of specialist teachers in the disadvantaged schools it targets, but it may also support recruitment by encouraging teachers to take up posts in these schools.

It is too early to fully evaluate the impact of the LUP, but it is possible to draw on evidence from the predecessor pilots which informed it. For example, a University College London (UCL) evaluation of the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Retention Payments pilot found that teachers who received these £2,000 after tax payments were 23% less likely to leave teaching. Furthermore, an evaluation of Early Career Payments assessed they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.

Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees starting school initial teacher teaching (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year can already benefit from tax free bursaries worth £28,000 and scholarships worth £30,000. These ITT incentives are a national offer and are not differentiated sub-nationally. This is because teachers often teach in a different school or area to that they trained in. The Levelling Up Premium is paid to school teachers once they are qualified and is therefore targeted sub-nationally to incentivise them to work in the schools most in need.

Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing secondary school teachers in the first five years of their career who work in eligible schools have been able to claim Levelling Up Premium (LUP) payments of up to £3,000 after tax since September 2022. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the LUP payments to eligible school teachers to up to £6,000 per year after tax and extending the offer to key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subject teachers in all further education colleges for the first time.

A new school teacher receiving a £6,000 LUP will have an income equivalent of at least a £38,570 starting salary next year, even before accounting for the next pay award.

The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by region are below:

The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by subject are below:

The LUP is primarily designed to incentivise the retention of specialist teachers in the disadvantaged schools it targets, but it may also support recruitment by encouraging teachers to take up posts in these schools.

It is too early to fully evaluate the impact of the LUP, but it is possible to draw on evidence from the predecessor pilots which informed it. For example, a University College London (UCL) evaluation of the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Retention Payments pilot found that teachers who received these £2,000 after tax payments were 23% less likely to leave teaching. Furthermore, an evaluation of Early Career Payments assessed they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.

Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees starting school initial teacher teaching (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year can already benefit from tax free bursaries worth £28,000 and scholarships worth £30,000. These ITT incentives are a national offer and are not differentiated sub-nationally. This is because teachers often teach in a different school or area to that they trained in. The Levelling Up Premium is paid to school teachers once they are qualified and is therefore targeted sub-nationally to incentivise them to work in the schools most in need.

During his time as a Minister, my right hon. Friend helped to completely rebuild the apprenticeship system, introducing higher-quality standards. Apprenticeships are now longer, better and have more off-the-job training, with proper independent assessment at the end. They are more valued by employers and we have seen 5.8 million starts since 2010. He is an incredible advocate for further education. Following him in this role, I learnt very quickly that I had big shoes to fill. I look forward to working with him to ensure that we continue delivering in this area.

Between 1 January 2020 and 14 October 2022, members of the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access have received approval for an increase to the National Health Service list price for 35 medicines, for 120 presentations. The majority of price increases have been concentrated in specific market segments particularly impacted by global cost increases in the active pharmaceutical ingredient.

Price increase requests are assessed in line with Scheme’s rules, which ensure companies cannot make excess profits by setting a return on sales target of 6% for standard price increase requests.

The Department has no plans to carry out an impact assessment on the 2023 payment percentage. The Department’s standard practice is to set the payment percentage based on measured sales. The payment percentage projected for 2023 is in line with Department projections shared with industry when the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS) was agreed.

We have seen no evidence that increased VPAS payments have or will impact on the supply of medicines to the National Health Service. Where payment rates may put pressure on the profitability of individual products, there are provisions in the scheme for companies to apply for a price increase.

Medicines which are required to be prescribed by brand name, including some branded generics and biosimilars, are not interchangeable. Therefore, competitive forces will not act in the same way as for generic medicines and price regulation is justified. The inclusion of these medicines in the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access was agreed with industry in 2019.

The current Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access expenditure forecast assumes that average spend at patent expiry will decrease by 70% for a non-biologic medicine or 45% for a biologic medicine. The Secretary of State has also commissioned further policy advice on this matter. These assumptions will be reviewed ahead of the negotiation of a new Scheme.

We have no plans to do so.

Prices paid for medicines internationally are generally confidential. It is therefore not possible to make an accurate comparison of the net price of medicines between the UK and other countries, with or without rebate rates.

The Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access includes a 36 month exemption from payments for drugs containing a new active substance, starting once the marketing authorisation has been granted. Treatment of new active substances under a future voluntary scheme is subject to negotiation.

There were 106 students funded for T Levels in the 2021/22 academic year at Harlow College, the only provider offering T Levels in the constituency in 2021. The department has not published any figures for T Level student numbers in the 2022/23 academic year. We would expect to publish figures at institution level in spring 2023.

The Chairman of the Select Committee is absolutely right to push hard on this issue because it is vital to the future of not only those children, but their families. He is right that following the pandemic we have seen a reduction in attendance. One silver lining coming out of the pandemic was the fact that we now have real-time attendance data for a majority of schools—we are working to complete that for all—which allows us to focus in our efforts on driving attendance in those schools. Given my previous job at the Home Office, I am particularly keen that police, schools and local education authorities should work closely together to make sure that those children who are not at school and are not findable at home are found somewhere out in the community and brought back.

The 2017 reforms to the Electronic Communications Code were intended to make it easier for digital communications operators to deploy and maintain their networks. Those changes included the introduction of a statutory valuation regime, which reflected the government’s view that the cost of acquiring rights to install digital infrastructure on private land prior to 2017 was too high and needed to be addressed. The valuation regime introduced in 2017 is more closely aligned to those for utilities such as water and electricity and reflects the fact that access to good quality digital services is an increasingly critical part of daily life for residents across the UK.

The Government continues to believe that the framework strikes the correct balance between ensuring individual landowners receive fair payments for allowing their land to be used and encouraging the industry investment needed for consumers across the UK to have access to fast, reliable digital services. Data provided to DCMS shows that so far this year agreements have been reached on 107 new sites, with heads of terms being agreed on a further 66. In relation to existing sites, 533 renewal agreements have been concluded so far this year, with heads of terms agreed on a further 119 sites. The data also shows that there has been a year on year increase in the number of concluded agreements since 2020. We think this reflects informal feedback we have received from all stakeholders suggesting that the market is adapting to the valuation framework.

Since the introduction of the reforms in 2017 we have engaged with and listened to stakeholders to understand the impact of the reforms in practice. This has included a formal consultation on further changes to the Code, which led to the provisions in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill, as well as ongoing (and continuing) engagement with stakeholders throughout the passage of the Bill.

In parallel, DCMS officials have convened monthly Access to Land Workshops over the last 12-18 months, which cover a number of workstreams and attract attendance from stakeholders across the telecommunications industry, including site provider representatives. I am pleased to say that these workshops have made excellent progress and one of the outputs of this work is the creation of a new industry body, the National Connectivity Alliance, which in time will continue this work independently of DCMS.

Any impacts on the rights of individual property owners have been carefully considered and balanced against the public benefits of improved connectivity. In particular, where measures in the Bill have the potential to be applied retrospectively, the rights of landowners were given careful consideration.

The Government does not intend to separately or specifically review the Electronic Communications Code rental payments market. However, the government will continue to carefully monitor the effectiveness of this legislation. For example, officials will continue to engage with stakeholders in the period leading up to the Bill’s implementation and subsequently, to understand how the new provisions are working in practice.

The 2017 reforms to the Electronic Communications Code were intended to make it easier for digital communications operators to deploy and maintain their networks. Those changes included the introduction of a statutory valuation regime, which reflected the government’s view that the cost of acquiring rights to install digital infrastructure on private land prior to 2017 was too high and needed to be addressed. The valuation regime introduced in 2017 is more closely aligned to those for utilities such as water and electricity and reflects the fact that access to good quality digital services is an increasingly critical part of daily life for residents across the UK.

The Government continues to believe that the framework strikes the correct balance between ensuring individual landowners receive fair payments for allowing their land to be used and encouraging the industry investment needed for consumers across the UK to have access to fast, reliable digital services. Data provided to DCMS shows that so far this year agreements have been reached on 107 new sites, with heads of terms being agreed on a further 66. In relation to existing sites, 533 renewal agreements have been concluded so far this year, with heads of terms agreed on a further 119 sites. The data also shows that there has been a year on year increase in the number of concluded agreements since 2020. We think this reflects informal feedback we have received from all stakeholders suggesting that the market is adapting to the valuation framework.

Since the introduction of the reforms in 2017 we have engaged with and listened to stakeholders to understand the impact of the reforms in practice. This has included a formal consultation on further changes to the Code, which led to the provisions in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill, as well as ongoing (and continuing) engagement with stakeholders throughout the passage of the Bill.

In parallel, DCMS officials have convened monthly Access to Land Workshops over the last 12-18 months, which cover a number of workstreams and attract attendance from stakeholders across the telecommunications industry, including site provider representatives. I am pleased to say that these workshops have made excellent progress and one of the outputs of this work is the creation of a new industry body, the National Connectivity Alliance, which in time will continue this work independently of DCMS.

Any impacts on the rights of individual property owners have been carefully considered and balanced against the public benefits of improved connectivity. In particular, where measures in the Bill have the potential to be applied retrospectively, the rights of landowners were given careful consideration.

The Government does not intend to separately or specifically review the Electronic Communications Code rental payments market. However, the government will continue to carefully monitor the effectiveness of this legislation. For example, officials will continue to engage with stakeholders in the period leading up to the Bill’s implementation and subsequently, to understand how the new provisions are working in practice.

This information relating to which Departments have been party to cases in the Upper Tribunals Lands Chamber involving disputes under the Electronic Communications Code is not centrally recorded and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The department will consider any recommendations that come out of the Education Select Committee’s review. We will continue to listen to key stakeholders to ensure high-quality industry placements can be delivered, in all subjects, throughout England.

The department has invested more than £200 million over the past 4 years to help T Level providers build their capacity for placements and develop relationships with local employers. We have put in place bespoke support for both providers and employers which includes direct, hands-on support. We also have a T Level Ambassador Network that is continuing to recruit T Level advocates across key industries to inspire engagement in the T Level programme.

T Levels are a two year programme and were first taught in a modest number of providers from September 2020. No T Levels were delivered in Harlow constituency in 2020 and so no students there have yet completed a T Level.

Harlow College has been offering T Levels in the constituency since 2021 and the first students will complete their course in 2023.

The Department has sent a questionnaire on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) to all responsible bodies, asking them to complete the information on RAAC for all their schools. The questionnaire asks whether RAAC is present in any buildings on their school estates, and how responsible bodies are managing it. The purpose of the questionnaire is to allow the Department to better understand the prevalence of RAAC across the school estate and ensure the correct support is in place to meet the responsible bodies’ needs. The questionnaire has been sent to responsible bodies of schools and does not include colleges.

The questionnaire remains open. At present, the Department only has partial data and is not yet able to provide an estimate of the number of schools fitted with RAAC.

Depending upon the survey uptake in the next 6 months, an initial estimate may be issued in April 2023.

The Department has also previously issued guidance on identifying and managing RAAC, which it will be updating later this year.

My right hon. Friend is a redoubtable and highly persuasive representative of his constituents. I would be happy to talk to him about what we can do together to help his great constituency.

HM Government Food Strategy published in June this year acknowledges the important role of industrial horticulture, including the contribution of glasshouse crop production in ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of fresh produce throughout the year. Growth of this sector would boost home-grown fruit and vegetable production, help future-proof the sector in a warming climate and create new skilled job opportunities.

HM Government Food Strategy explains that industrial horticulture will be considered alongside other manufacturing sectors in decisions on industrial energy policy and that we will also incentivise the sector to make use of surplus heat and CO2 from industrial processes, and renewable sources of energy. HM Government is developing a Horticulture Strategy for England which will explore how controlled environment horticulture can be supported.

In recognition of significant increases in energy costs, we have recently announced that businesses, charities and public sector organisations will be protected through HM Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme from October over the next six months. This support discounts price per unit of gas and electricity, meaning businesses and others will pay wholesale energy costs well below half of expected prices this winter.