The National Audit Office does have adequate resources to scrutinise the cost of artificial intelligence and, indeed, produced a report in March that found that AI presents Government with significant opportunities to transform public services and that the Government have identified that artificial intelligence could deliver substantial productivity gains, potentially worth billions.

The Government continues to engage regularly at ministerial and official levels with the European Commission and the French government on EES implementation.

The Government also continues to work with port owners and operators, including the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel and Eurostar / HighSpeed1 (St Pancras) to understand the impact of EES and support their plans to mitigate these. However, it is ultimately for EU Member States to implement EES.

The Government engages with the European Commission on a range of border issues, including the EU Entry/Exit System. We continue to engage on manging its impacts, including plans for public communications.

Avanti West Coast (AWC) has reported a total of 292 part cancelations attributed to train crew shortages compared to 18,671 planned services between 1 January 2024 and 18 March 2024.

Traincrew shortages, linked to a lack of driver overtime and ongoing industrial action, present a challenge to running services with the reliability passengers expect. Difficulties in managing historic train crew terms and conditions will continue to impact AWC services until modernisation of working arrangements can be agreed.

To date, no fees have been paid to Avanti West Coast under the Service Quality Regime (SQR). This is because the first period to be assessed to determine the Performance Fee under SQR relates to the scores achieved between April and October 2023, and the evaluation process for this period is still underway.

Avanti West Coast has reported a total of 798 full cancelations attributed to traincrew shortages compared to 18,671 planned services between 1 January 2024 and 18 March 2023.

Traincrew shortages, linked to a lack of driver overtime and ongoing industrial action, present a challenge to running services with the reliability passengers expect. Difficulties in managing historic traincrew terms and conditions will continue to impact AWC services until modernisation of working arrangements can be agreed.

The Department meets with Avanti West Coast regularly to discuss its performance, across all areas including Customer Experience, and where improvement is required. Over the next few months Avanti West Coast is working to introduce a brand-new fleet of electric and bi-mode Hitachi trains offering more space and a quieter journey for passengers along the North Wales mainline.

The Government consulted on the role of hybrid heat pumps through the consultation on ‘Improving Boiler Standards and Efficiency’ and will set out our response in due course.

Meanwhile, the Government is supporting targeted deployment of hybrid heating systems in defined circumstances in England through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and the Sustainable Warmth competition.

The Government remains fully committed to supporting the transition to low-carbon heating. This includes the aim to grow the market to 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028.

A range of measures are supporting this, including schemes like the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the Energy Company Obligation and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. From 2025, we expect heat pumps will become the primary heating technology for new homes under the Future Homes Standard.

The Government consulted on the role of hybrid heat pumps through the consultation on ‘Improving Boiler Standards and Efficiency’ and will set out our response in due course.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme supports the transition away from fossil fuel heating to a low carbon alternative. Hybrid heat pumps are not currently eligible as the Government want to direct funding available to technologies that offer the greatest carbon savings, rather than those which would continue to involve the burning of fossil fuels for heating.

Heat pumps are suitable for the majority of UK homes, including off-gas grid and will play an important strategic role in decarbonising existing properties. The Government will keep our position on alternative heating technologies under review and make further assessments as supporting evidence develops.

The Government consulted on the role of hybrid heat pumps through the consultation on ‘Improving Boiler Standards and Efficiency’ and will set out our response in due course.

Meanwhile, the Government is supporting targeted deployment of hybrid heating systems in defined circumstances in England through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and the Sustainable Warmth competition.

The Department for Transport does not collect data on the value of goods import and exported through the border. His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do collect this data and is available for public use at: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/

The Department for Transport does not collect data on the value of goods import and exported through the border. His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do collect this data and is available for public use at: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/

Smoking is the number one entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability and death in this country. It is responsible for 80,000 yearly deaths in the United Kingdom and one in four of all UK cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, £14 billion of which is through lost productivity alone. It puts huge pressure on the National Health Service and social care, costing over £3 billion a year.

This is why the Government is committed to creating the first smokefree generation, ensuring no child born after 1 January 2009 will ever legally be sold tobacco. The tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was an opportunity for the UK to showcase this international leadership on tobacco control. The decisions agreed at COP10 will not impact our smokefree generation policies or our plans to tackle youth vaping.

The Windsor Framework replaces the old Northern Ireland Protocol, addressing issues in its operation and protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK. We continue to have discussions with the EU on the operation of the Windsor Framework, including through the structures agreed as part of the Windsor Framework.

The UK is fully committed to supporting the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Bathily's efforts to drive forward a UN-facilitated, Libyan-led political process. The UK is using its position as United Nations Security Council (UNSC) penholder to work with the council and engages regularly with international partners in support of the SRSG's efforts. British Embassy Tripoli engages regularly with UNSMIL and Libyan interlocutors to encourage them to work constructively with the SRSG as he seeks to facilitate a political agreement that addresses the underlying issues preventing elections.

Ministers and officials at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) have not had any meetings with ministers or officials at the Home Office or Ministry of Justice to discuss retained EU law (REUL) (now known as assimilated law), in the context of the removal of illegal migrants to Rwanda, although DBT officials regularly engage with both departments as a matter of course on their intentions for REUL/assimilated law falling within their areas of responsibility.

DBT is committed to working with any other government department to make the most of our freedoms outside the EU.

At the end of 2023, approximately 700 pieces of Retained EU Law (REUL) were revoked via schedule 1 of the Act (“the revocation schedule”) and subsequent secondary legislation. Unless actively revoked, no REUL was sunset and instead became “assimilated law” after the end of 2023.

The Retained EU Law Dashboard is the government’s public catalogue of each piece of REUL confirmed by government departments, and their status. The dashboard currently features 5020 pieces of REUL and will be updated in January 2024, in line with our statutory commitments in the REUL Act and alongside the forthcoming first REUL parliamentary report.

Under the Legal Services Act 2007, the legal profession in England and Wales, together with its regulators, operate independently of government. The oversight regulator for the legal services sector is the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) is the board responsible for administering the Legal Ombudsman Scheme. The OLC sets the strategy and business plan for the Scheme, as well as scrutinising its performance.

Since the changes to the Legal Ombudsman’s rules regarding the time limit for referring complaints, the Ministry of Justice has not made an assessment of the potential impact this may have on consumers. However, the OLC carried out an assessment of the potential impacts of the rule changes in its consultation in 2022. It predicted that although around 30% of complaints may fall outside the new time limit, this would be mitigated by a separate rule change which allows an Ombudsman to exercise discretion and extend the time limit for specific customers, if fair and reasonable to do so. Overall, it predicted a positive impact on consumer journey times, allowing for a quicker handling and prioritisation of cases which require Ombudsman decision, as well as having the potential to remove the duplication of work or proportion of Legal Ombudsman complaints.

The MoJ monitors the ongoing performance of the Scheme and the impact of the rule changes through the regular assurance letters provided by the OLC to the LSB. In an assurance letter provided to the LSB on 7 August 2023, the OLC stated that the impacts of the new Scheme rules on customer experience will continue to be monitored.