Grant funding for renewable innovation or community-based renewable schemes is open for both local authorities and private investors to bid for. The Contract for Difference scheme, the Government’s main mechanism for supporting low carbon generation, is awarded through a competitive process, ensuring that the most cost-effective projects are supported regardless of their location. We encourage projects in Wallasey to apply.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold a breakdown of Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding by constituency. Lists of all projects funded through the scheme can be found on the scheme’s gov.uk page: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-sector-decarbonisation-scheme.

BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, some households in all wards in Wallasey constituency have had external wall insulation fitted.

The Government does not collect green jobs data at constituency level.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme is set out clearly in legislation and will be applied in a uniform way by all licensed suppliers. The regulations include a robust compliance and enforcement regime to ensure requirements are being met. Suppliers are also required to inform customers about the details of support, including the amount of the discount and discounted supply price.

The department regularly discusses skills matters with other government departments, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, but not specifically about individual constituencies.

The department is investing £3.8 billion more in further education and skills over the Parliament to ensure people across the country, including in Wallasey, have access to the skills they need to build a fulfilling career in jobs the economy needs.

The department has boosted funding by an extra £1.6 billion for 16 to 19 education in 2024/25 compared with 2021/22. This is the biggest increase in 16 to 19 funding in a decade and will help to fund the additional students anticipated in the system, 40 extra hours per student, and an affordable increase in funding rates per 16 to 19 student.

This additional funding will help providers such as Wirral Metropolitan College, which is a very strong General Further Education College serving the Wallasey area. Their curriculum offer includes T Levels, apprenticeships, an extensive range of qualifications from entry level to higher education, and adult education programmes. Their provision is shaped in collaboration with local employers to ensure it meets local skills needs and the college is also a strategic partner in the delivery of the Wirral Waters project, which enables its learners to access unique learning and employment opportunities.

The college started to offer T Levels in September 2022 and has plans to build this offer in future years, but there are also a number of other local colleges offering T Levels to students in the area since 2021, such as The City of Liverpool College, Hugh Baird College and Birkenhead Sixth Form College.

The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 and supporting employers in all sectors and all areas of the country to use apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need. Since May 2010, there have been a total of 12,940 apprenticeship starts in Wallasey.

The department has introduced the Free Courses for Jobs scheme, which enables adult learners without a level 3 qualification (or learners with any qualification level, but earning below the National Living Wage) to gain a qualification for free. This is serving communities right across the country.

In addition, we have also introduced Skills Bootcamps, which are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with an employer. There are digital Skills Bootcamps based in Wirral which offer training online as well as Skills Bootcamps in other sectors being delivered both online and face to face in the Liverpool region, which Wallasey residents would be eligible to apply for. An example of this is Tech Lancaster’s Electronics Skills Bootcamp which is being delivered in Liverpool.

The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) at £1.34 billion in the 2021/22 academic year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

Currently, approximately 60% of the AEB is devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Mayor of London. This includes Liverpool City region which covers Wallasey. This gives Liverpool City Region direct control over adult education provision for their residents and provides the local area with the opportunity to meet local needs.

BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, around 1,500 cavity wall insulation measures, 1,700 loft insulation measures and 1,300 under floor insulation measures were installed in Wallasey constituency. Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.

BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, around 1,500 cavity wall insulation measures, 1,700 loft insulation measures and 1,300 under floor insulation measures were installed in Wallasey constituency. Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.

BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, around 1,500 cavity wall insulation measures, 1,700 loft insulation measures and 1,300 under floor insulation measures were installed in Wallasey constituency. Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.

The Microgeneration Certification Scheme Installations Database shows that as of 31 October 2022, forty-four heat pump installations were registered in the Wallasey constituency.

The database does not include all heat pump installations, for example, those installed without Government funding support, such as in new buildings. These are not typically recorded in the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Installations Database.

In Wallasey’s jobcentres, Work Coaches, aided by Disability Employment Advisers, tailor support to claimant’s individual needs, taking account of local provision, training, and employment opportunities.

This Government is committed to improving the lives of disabled people and delivering the most ambitious disability reform agenda in a generation. DWP delivers a range of national programmes, as well as initiatives in partnership with the health system, to support disabled people to stay in or move into work. These include the Work and Health Programme, Employment Advisors in Improving Access to Psychological Therapy and Intensive Personalised Employment Support.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19^th January to question number 104377.

It is not possible to answer directly the question as data on the number of people furloughed whose jobs have been supported by the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is not available. However, data is available for the number of employments furloughed with the support of the CJRS (a person may have multiple employments). Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published statistics about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme on 21 August 2020, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-august-2020.

These statistics are the latest available to include figures for the number of jobs furloughed in local areas, and include the total number of jobs furloughed at any time in the Wallasey constituency. They also include figures for the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. The number of jobs furloughed by Parliamentary constituency is not available for each month. The production of the figures depends on the matching of employment level CJRS data to other data held by HMRC. For records where this has been possible, the release reports that a cumulative total of 11,200 jobs had been furloughed under CJRS for employees living in Wallasey. This figure is based on claims received to 31 July and covers all jobs supported by the CJRS up to the end of June (when the scheme closed to claims for employments not already furloughed).

The next release of these statistics will provide data on the number of jobs furloughed by Parliamentary constituency at 31 August. This is due to be published on 22 October. More information on this release can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-october-2020.

We have introduced satellite testing centres as both to expand overall test capacity and to provide a more agile and flexible method to complement the fixed regional testing centres.

The daily allocations given to each testing site across the testing network are determined by many factors, including expected demand, capacity and prioritisation of certain outbreak regions. From mid-July, the capacity of the satellite testing centre in Bidston, Wallasey site has increased to 150 tests a day.

We do not publish data by individual mobile testing units. All our mobile testing units currently have the capacity to process up to 500 tests a day.

I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave on 23 June 2020 to Question 54195.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers.

The Department is providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examination in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver. Where care leavers, children with a social worker at secondary school and children in Year 10 do not have internet connections, we are providing 4G wireless routers.

The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets and allocated devices to local authorities and academy trusts based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device. Local authorities and academy trusts are best placed to identify and prioritise children and young people who need devices.

The Department is providing these devices in the shortest possible timeframe; deliveries to schools and local authorities started in May and will continue in June.

The government is committed to delivering a sustainable long-term solution to poverty in all its forms and in all parts of the UK by building a strong economy and ensuring that the benefit system works with the tax system and the labour market to support employment and higher pay.

The evidence shows that full time work substantially reduces the risk of being in poverty. Universal Credit is designed to help people move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings, provides more financial help with childcare costs and removes the 16-hour ‘cliff edge’ for those who are working. To help families keep more of what they earn we have delivered another rise in the National Living Wage, increasing a full-time worker’s annual pay by over £2,750 since its introduction, and by nearly £3,700 with the recently announced rise from this April, with our tax changes making basic rate tax payers over £1,200 better off from April 2019, compared with 2010.

In order to develop a better understanding of the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk we have introduced a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey questionnaire from April 2019 onwards. This will enable us in the future to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups.

The Government is developing policies to increase tree planting at a national scale and does not target particular constituencies.

Working with the Devolved Administrations, the Government is committed to planting 30,000 hectares per year of new forests across the UK by 2025, in line with the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation. In England, the Nature for Climate fund will help drive planting in this Parliament.

We are supporting the creation of a Great Northumberland Forest, where one million trees will be planted by 2024. We are also investing £5.7 million to accelerate and further develop the Northern Forest - planting 1.8 million new trees, helping towards a long-term ambition of 50 million trees over 25 years.

This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to you and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.