All mechanically propelled vehicles that are used or kept on a public road must be registered and taxed. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) operates a comprehensive package of measures to tackle untaxed vehicle, including those used for business purposes. These range from automatic number plate recognition cameras, wheelclamping, the removal and impounding of untaxed vehicles, and court prosecutions.

When the DVLA is made aware of an untaxed vehicle, a report is sent to its national wheelclamping contractor NSL Services Ltd (NSL); so that they can, where appropriate, take enforcement action. NSL maximises its resources by visiting different areas on a daily basis.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Milton Keynes North, to the answer of 12 February 2024 to Question 13186.

Section 29 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 makes it an offence to use or keep an unlicensed vehicle on the public road. Where such an offence has been committed, Schedule 2A of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994, as well as the Vehicle Excise Duty (Immobilisation, Removal and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations 1997, provide the statutory powers to immobilise and remove vehicles.

The department’s national kinship strategy, Championing Kinship Care, which was published in December 2023, has allocated £20 million in the next financial year to prioritise kinship care.

One of the commitments in Championing Kinship Care is to deliver a package of training and support that all kinship carers across England can access from this spring.

All training and information will be accessible via the supplier Kinship’s website, and the department currently has no plans to assess the merits of a centralised portal.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is committed to supporting UK businesses to export to Morocco. The UK-Morocco Association Agreement, which entered into force in January 2021, facilitates our trading relationship. Bilateral trade was worth £3.4 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023, up £661 million in current prices on the same period the previous year.

In February 2023, the 2nd Association Council was held where Ministers discussed commercial opportunities and collaboration to increase bilateral trade and investment. DBT continues to provide export support to companies through a network of trade advisers, sector specialists, Export Support Service, Export Academy, International Markets network as well as through UK Export Finance, where £4.5bn of credit is available for Morocco.

Commercial premises can be converted to residential use under permitted development rights. Under current guidance, contributions for affordable housing should not be sought for permitted development.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (the 2023 Act) introduces powers to create a new Infrastructure Levy which will reform the existing system of developer contributions in England. It will be possible for the Levy to capture land value uplift associated with permitted development, subject to provision that is made in regulations. Under our current proposals, the Infrastructure Levy will capture value uplift associated with the change of use of commercial buildings to residential use, whilst recognising the need to preserve the viability of brownfield development schemes. We are currently analysing responses to our recent technical consultation which sought views on this proposed approach.

If the Levy is charged on development it can be used to fund social housing within the meaning of Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, and any other description of housing that Infrastructure Levy regulations may specify. This is set out in new section 204A(4) (in Schedule12 of the 2023 Act). This includes Social Rent homes and Affordable Rent homes.

Following the conclusion of the first two rounds of the Local Authority Housing Fund in 2024, an evaluation will be conducted which will include an assessment on the delivery routes that participating local authorities have taken.

Commercial premises can be converted to residential use under permitted development rights. Under current guidance, contributions for affordable housing should not be sought for permitted development.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (the 2023 Act) introduces powers to create a new Infrastructure Levy which will reform the existing system of developer contributions in England. It will be possible for the Levy to capture land value uplift associated with permitted development, subject to provision that is made in regulations. Under our current proposals, the Infrastructure Levy will capture value uplift associated with the change of use of commercial buildings to residential use, whilst recognising the need to preserve the viability of brownfield development schemes. We are currently analysing responses to our recent technical consultation which sought views on this proposed approach.

If the Levy is charged on development it can be used to fund social housing within the meaning of Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, and any other description of housing that Infrastructure Levy regulations may specify. This is set out in new section 204A(4) (in Schedule12 of the 2023 Act). This includes Social Rent homes and Affordable Rent homes.

Following the conclusion of the first two rounds of the Local Authority Housing Fund in 2024, an evaluation will be conducted which will include an assessment on the delivery routes that participating local authorities have taken.

The Department for Business and Trade supports UK businesses looking to invest in Morocco by offering advice on the market and communicating opportunities which may be of interest to UK business. In 2021, the outward stock of foreign direct investment from the UK in Morocco was £904 million.

At the UK-African Investment Summit on 23-24 April 2024, the UK will showcase investment and commercial opportunities in Morocco.

It is for local authorities to decide how to monitor local vacancy rates.

The Department for Business and Trade regularly engages businesses and the Moroccan government to promote and support bilateral trade and green investment. The UK-Morocco Association Agreement, which entered into force in 2021, facilitates this trading relationship.

Bilateral trade between the United Kingdom and Morocco was worth £3.4 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023, up £661 million in current prices on the same period the previous year.

In February 2023, the 2^nd Association Council was held, when Ministers discussed how best to increase bilateral trade and investment.

Research to further our understanding of the impacts of self-driving technology in “autonomous pavement robots”, is planned to be undertaken in the next 12 months, and is expected to last 6 to 9 months. The results are due to be published in line with the government research protocols, particularly those relating to commercial confidentiality.

We must balance the safety of pedestrians and vulnerable road users with the potential benefits of this novel technology. I am pleased to confirm that the Department will be funding research to further its understanding of the impacts of this new technology. The results will be published once the research has concluded.

The Online Safety Bill concluded parliamentary passage on 19 September. The Bill introduces a duty on Ofcom to produce and publish a report on in scope providers’ use of age verification and age estimation technologies. This must be done within 18 months of the first date on which the duties relating to children’s safety and to regulated provider pornographic content are in force. This report must assess how effective the use of age verification and age estimation has been for the purpose of compliance with the duties set out in the Bill.

The Online Safety Bill is technology neutral in its approach; however, in-scope services must be able to demonstrate how they are complying with the duties set out in the Bill. This includes ensuring and demonstrating that any emerging technologies they use are effective in fulfilling their duties.

While the Bill does not mandate the use of parental controls, Ofcom will set out the steps that providers can take to comply with the child safety duties in codes of practice.

In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.

This Government has recommitted to increasing public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion per annum by 2024-25. This represents an increase of around a third from 2021-22.

Since its creation, DSIT has made strong progress towards optimising public R&D investment in line with Government’s strategic priorities. Our Science and Technology Framework was announced alongside a raft of new measures to support the UK’s world-leading position across the technologies of tomorrow. These include £100 million in initial start-up funding for the Foundation Model Taskforce to lead vital AI safety research and £121 million to improve commercial clinical trials as part of the £650 million ‘Life Sci for Growth’ package.

Planning rules already mean that councils must consider the needs of older and disabled people when planning new homes. The National Model Design Code provides tools and guidance to local councils for producing design codes; it details how the ten characteristics in the National Design Guide can be translated into design standards in local design codes. My Hon Friend will want to know that the Government has set out its intention to mandate higher accessibility standards for all new homes by raising the minimum standard in Building Regulations in England in due course.

The Government supports the Horticulture Industry with its Water Management Grant, under the Farming Investment Fund which offers grants of between £35,000-£500,000 towards capital items to improve farm productivity through more efficient use of water for irrigation, and to secure water supplies for crop irrigation by constructing on-farm reservoirs and adopting best practice irrigation application. It is open to arable and horticultural businesses growing, or intending to grow, irrigated food crops, ornamentals or forestry nurseries. We have launched two rounds of the scheme at a budget of £10 million each; £7 million of applications have been approved to date.

We recognise that many businesses have changed to peat free operations already. For those who are finding the transition difficult we will be exploring what support might be made available as we move to phasing out the use of peat by 2030.

The Government are committed to ending rough sleeping. Last year we published our cross-Government strategy “Ending Rough Sleeping For Good”, which set out how we are investing a huge £2 billion over three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. In 2022 there was 25% less rough sleeping than the 2017 peak, and 28% less than in 2019, before the pandemic.