Departments publish quarterly details of Ministers’ meetings with external organisations on GOV.UK. Details for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.

The latest published data covers July to September 2020. Data for October to December 2020 will be published in due course.

I refer the hon. Member to the relevant transparency publications on GOV.UK for Cabinet Office Ministers’ meetings with external organisations.

As Prime Minister I meet individuals and organisations from across the United Kingdom. Details of my meetings are published on gov.uk. I most recently visited West Yorkshire in February when I went to the vaccination centre in the Al Hikmah centre in Batley where I was personally able to thank all the members of staff for their vital role in rolling out the coronavirus vaccination programme.

Ministers routinely meet with a range of organisations. Details of Ministerial meetings are published on a quarterly basis on Gov.uk

The table below provides a breakdown of the total number of new social homes that have commenced over the last three years funded by Homes England. Please note that data is not held at constituency level. York is defined as a “non-constituent” local authority in the founding Combined Authority Order 2014, the table therefore provides separate columns to show the data with and without the contribution of York. Further details of Homes England’s delivery data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/housing-statistics-1-april-2019-to-31-march-2020.

The table below provides a breakdown of the total number of new build homes that have commenced over the last three years funded by Homes England. Please note that data is not held at constituency level. York is defined as a “non-constituent” local authority in the founding Combined Authority Order 2014, the table therefore provides separate columns to show the data with and without the contribution of York. Further details of Homes England’s delivery data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/housing-statistics-1-april-2019-to-31-march-2020.

As part of Highways England’s 5-year plan for its management of over 3,000 Historical Railways Estate structures it has developed a programme of works to maintain safety. These works include repair, strengthening and refurbishment of structures, which can also include infilling or demolition where necessary.

There is no activity planned in West Yorkshire.

This programme is under internal review; and infilling and demolition works are currently only planned on a very small number of structures.

Data on National Health Service orthodontic waiting lists is unavailable.

The government is committed to ensuring that all students with the potential to benefit from further and higher education are able to access it. The government will provide a further update on the Alternative Student Finance product when it sets out the full and final conclusion to the Post-18 Review of Education and Funding alongside the next multi-year Spending Review.

The Government engages regularly with a wide range of leading industry experts in the creative industries, including through the Creative Industries Council (CIC), a forum for Government and industry to convene and share information, and discuss concerns and opportunities. The CIC is formed of a broad range of representative bodies across the sub-sectors of the creative industries.

In January, we received a joint letter from a range of representative bodies including the Design and Artists Copyright Society, the Association of Authors’ Agents and the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain among others. The letter called for the creation of a UK Creators’ Council and highlighted their concern that the issues faced by the UK’s creative industries workforce were not being heard, in particular during this Covid crisis.

We would like to reaffirm that the Government and DCMS are keenly aware of the significant challenges faced by the UK creative workforce. These issues have been repeatedly discussed in both CIC meetings and in ongoing conversations with sector bodies across the creative industries. And it is partly as a result of these conversations that the Government announced the expansion of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme scheme to cover over 600,000 newly eligible self-employed individuals, and extended the Culture Recovery Fund with £300m additional funding for 21/22, to continue to support key cultural organisations.

Considering this, we believe that the interests of the creative workforce are well-represented across Government and the benefits of creating a new entity would need to be carefully weighed up against the risks of duplicating the work of existing organisations such as the CIC. However, I would be happy to discuss further ideas to ensure the creative workforce are strongly represented in Government.

The government is clear that racism has no place in cricket, sport, or society at large. The sport and physical activity strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ has diversity and inclusion at its heart. However, it is ultimately for individual sports to decide on the appropriate initiatives for their circumstances.

The Government welcomes the steps taken by the English Cricket Board (ECB) in recent years to increase diversity in cricket, including the most recent establishment of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, chaired by Cindy Butts. This body looks to examine all issues relating to race and equity in cricket. It will play an important role in ensuring inclusivity, and that cricket is a game for everyone, at all levels.

There is still more to do, however, and we will continue to liaise with the ECB to ensure this issue is tackled effectively.

During the GCSE reform process from 2011, the Department consulted extensively with schools, colleges and universities, and employers on both the principles for reform and the detail of the content of individual subjects. As part of this, we also carefully considered the effect of the reforms on pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and published Equalities Impact Assessments for all subjects.

In addition to this, examination boards have a duty, under the Equality Act 2010, to make reasonable adjustments for pupils with disabilities who, because of their disability, would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage when demonstrating their skills, knowledge and understanding. These adjustments are made to remove or reduce disadvantages that such students face compared with students who are not disabled.

Whilst decisions on what GCSEs to offer at a local level are for individual schools to take, all state funded schools have a statutory duty to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, and this is replicated in academy funding agreements.

The majority of children with autism are educated in mainstream settings. Of those children identified with a primary need of autistic spectrum disorder as either requiring special educational needs support (67,867 children) or who have an education, health and care plan (82,847 children), 108,481 are currently educated in mainstream settings in England. This trend is replicated in the Kirklees local authority area, where 328 of 474 children with a primary need of autism are in mainstream settings, and in the Batley and Spen constituency, where the numbers are 75 out of 79 children. [1]

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. We provide funding for all of the places that are needed, based on local authorities’ own data. This is why we have announced nearly £500 million to provide places needed for 2023. This funding is on top of over £8.1 billion to provide places needed from 2015 to 2022 and our investment in the free schools programme.

Published data on school capacity estimates that, as at May 2019, Kirklees still needed to provide a further 300 places by September 2021. Funding is allocated at local authority level and cannot be broken down further. Kirklees has been allocated £53.2 million to provide new school places since 2010.

Under the SEND Code of Practice 2015, all mainstream schools are under a duty to use their best endeavours to support children with special educational needs (whether or not the child has an education, health and care plan). The Children and Families Act 2014 requires local authorities to keep the provision for children and young people with SEND under review (including its sufficiency), working with parents, young people, and providers.

[1] https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england

Reading for pleasure brings a range of benefits. As well as the strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment, there are a number of other positive effects including: improved text comprehension and grammar, positive reading attitudes, pleasure in reading in later life, increased general knowledge and character development.

The National Curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. Within the National Curriculum, the programmes of study for English have been developed to make clear the importance of reading for pleasure. The National Curriculum also emphasises the importance of listening to, discussing and – as pupils’ fluency increases – reading for themselves a wide range of stories, poems, plays, and information books.

Discussions about VAT on goods have featured as part of discussions with the EU in the context of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The VAT treatment of goods entering the EU, including on a temporary basis, is a matter for the EU. EU Member States are responsible for the implementation of those rules.

The Department has made no such assessment. The design and location of street name signs and property numbering are matters for local authorities. The Department has published guidance for local authorities in Circular Roads 3/93 ‘Street Name Plates and the Numbering of Premises’.

Circular 3/93 is available at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/roads-circulars

The Department has made no such assessment. The design and location of street name signs and property numbering are matters for local authorities. The Department has published guidance for local authorities in Circular Roads 3/93 ‘Street Name Plates and the Numbering of Premises’.

Circular 3/93 is available at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/roads-circulars