This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

The Government views sustainably sourced biomass as low carbon, in line with independent organisations such as the CCC and IPCC, as set out in the Government Biomass Strategy, published in August 2023.

Only biomass that complies with strict sustainability criteria receives support from Government. For forest derived biomass, the criteria includes requirements around sustainable forest management including regeneration rates and sustainable harvesting, requiring that the carbon stock of the forest is not decreased.

In 2024, Government will consult on a cross sectorial sustainability framework to see where we can strengthen the criteria further based on latest evidence.

Information is only available on Drax’s support for electricity generation from all types of biomass, (including wood from sustainable sources) and on lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The figures in the table below give the value of the support under the Renewables Obligation scheme for generation from all the types of biomass used by Drax.

From 2016 (the start of their support under the Contracts for Difference scheme) to 2023, Drax was paid £1.38bn in net difference payments. The details are published by the Low Carbon Contracts Company on their Data Portal[3].

Drax’s GHG emissions under the Renewables Obligation are available in Ofgem’s sustainability datasets[4]. For the Contracts for Difference scheme, Drax’s avoided GHG emissions are published by the Low Carbon Contracts Company on their Data Portal.

[1] Support under the Renewables Obligation is through tradeable certificates. The figures give the notional value of the support

[2] Provisional figure as all the certificates for 2022/23 may not have been issued yet.

[3] The Low Carbon Contracts Company’s Data Portal is at: https://dp.lowcarboncontracts.uk/dataset/actual-cfd-generation-and-avoided-ghg-emissions/resource/fa730219-fbd2-41b5-9510-ba2b0ff2c1ba

[4] Ofgem’s annual sustainability datasets are at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/renewables-obligation-ro/renewables-obligation-ro-suppliers/biomass-sustainability

People are receiving their passports in good time. Between January and August 2023, 99.3% of customers using the standard UK service received their passport within the published processing timeframe of ten weeks.

The most recent Defence Command Paper highlighted the importance of science, innovation and technology in securing strategic advantage for our Armed Forces. Defence is investing over £6.6 billion in advanced Research and Development, working closely with UK industry and academia, including Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), to identify and invest in innovative technologies, ensuring we have the capabilities we need to address our most pressing threats.

On 31 January, the Government confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £313.8 million when compared to 2022/23.

Since then, the Home Office have announced a further £330 million of in year funding to support forces in managing the costs associated to the 2023/24 pay award. This is in addition to grant increases announced previously at the 2023/24 settlement.

This investment in the policing system continues to support policing, delivering resources to the front line and delivering the high-end capabilities needed in modern policing.

The Government is aware that late payment remains a significant problem for small businesses across the country. That is why at the beginning of 2023 the Government launched a review of Cash flow and Prompt Payment, alongside a public consultation on the Payment Performance Regulations. The findings of the review, alongside the consultation response, will be published later in 2023.

The Government will use the findings of this review to improve the Payment Performance Regulations, the Small Business Commissioner, and the Prompt Payment Code to improve payment culture in the UK, to reduce late payments and its impact on SMEs.

The Government’s Export Strategy, ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’, focuses on the challenges UK businesses face when exporting and sets out a 12-point plan which targets barriers to trade and helps businesses at every stage of their export journey. My Department continues to support companies through our network of domestic and overseas trade advisers, sector specialists, Export Support Service, Export Academy, International Markets network as well as through UK Export Finance. We are also helping businesses to benefit from new free trade agreements and working across Government to reduce barriers to exporting and simplify border processes.

I said to the House in May that we aimed to process all outstanding initial ARAP applications by the end of August. We now have just over 1,800 complex cases remaining from more than 93,000 principal applications received. We have issued over 58,000 decisions to applicants in the past three months alone, giving them the clarity they deserve. We continue to move at best pace to process the remaining applications.

We also continue to move eligible Afghans from Afghanistan to the safety of third countries at best pace and have relocated over an estimated 12,200 people to the United Kingdom.

On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan) ensuring the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies have the powers and tools they need to tackle the blight of anti-social behaviour facing communities across England and Wales.

The plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we are working with 10 police force areas, but from 2024 we will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales. We are also providing up to £50m to support the provision of Immediate Justice, by issuing out of court disposals with conditions to swiftly repair any damage – the aim being for them to start within 48 hours of referral. This will start in 10 initial trailblazer police force areas and be rolled out across England and Wales from 2024.

On 6 July, we launched the fifth round of the Safer Streets Fund. Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales will receive a total of £43 million on top of the £120 million already awarded for the previous four rounds of the Safer Streets Fund to continue to deliver crime and anti-social behaviour prevention measures.

I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to my hon Friend the Member for Hendon (Dr Matthew Offord) on 15 September to Question UIN 198081.

Businesses, including those within the Woking constituency and across the UK, have already benefitted from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which ended on 31 March and provided over £7.4 billion of support.

Businesses experiencing high energy costs will continue to get a discount on gas and electricity bills under the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) until 31 March 2024, including the higher level of support for eligible Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) and domestic heat network customers on commercial contracts.

The Fraud Plan set out our ambitions in three key areas. We are making good progress in delivering our investment in frontline services and bringing together the full force of the private and public sectors. Decisions on legislation are for the King’s Speech.

The department continues to explore the application of cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning to prevent, detect and deter those who would try to cheat the system, whilst also supporting genuine and vulnerable claimants.

Details of our work in this area are set out in the DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

We remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court and have introduced a series of measures since the start of the pandemic to increase capacity of the courts, and to improve the experience of court users and delivery of swift justice.

Steps taken to maximise court capacity and optimise efficiency include: extending unlimited sitting days in the Crown Court for the last two financial years; opening two new ‘super courtrooms’ in Manchester and Loughborough; extending the use of 24 Nightingale courtrooms beyond March 2023 to provide additional capacity for all jurisdictions; passing the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act so that remote hearings can be used in criminal proceedings; recruiting up to 1,000 judges across jurisdictions in 2022/23; retaining an extra 400 judges and tribunal members (per year) by raising the statutory mandatory retirement age; and increasing spending on criminal legal aid by £141 million a year.

The Government delivers an extensive programme of initiatives to support disabled people, and people with health conditions, including people with long-term health conditions, to start, stay, and succeed in work. These include:

• Increased Work Coach support in Jobcentres for disabled people and people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance;
• Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;
• The Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, providing tailored and personalised support for disabled people;
• Access to Work grants helping towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;
• Disability Confident, encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace;
• An online Information Service called “Support with Employee Health and Disability”, providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting health and disability in the workplace;
• Increasing access to occupational health, including the testing of financial incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed;
• Work in partnership between the DWP and the health system, including:

o Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies, which combines psychological treatment and employment support for people with mental health conditions; and

o The Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) programme, a Supported Employment model (place, train and maintain) delivered in health settings, aimed at people with physical or common mental health disabilities to support them to access paid jobs in the open labour market.

Building on our existing programme, we announced a wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work.

New investment broadens access to additional Work Coach support for disabled people and people with health conditions, introduces a new supported employment programme (Universal Support) and focuses on providing faster access to joined-up work and health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two leading causes of economic inactivity due to long term sickness.

A new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022.

In May 2023, we announced a complementary arrangement whereby the UK Government has agreed to provide support to modernise and expand the Albanian prison system and in return Albania has agreed to accept the return of up to 200 Albanian Nationals currently serving sentences of 4 years or more in the UK.

The arrangement will save taxpayers’ money, as it is cheaper to house prisoners in Albania than in England and Wales, and will also free up capacity in our prisons.

We expect to see the first transfers under this agreement later this year. The deal builds on the prisoner transfer agreement signed between the UK and Albania in 2021, which came into force in May 2022. This implementation package will ensure Albania has the right processes and prison capacity in place, meaning transfers can now proceed at pace.

Albanians are the most common nationality in the Foreign National Offender population, making up approximately 14% of the total Foreign National Offender prison population. Between January 2021 and December 2022, 1,484 Albanian FNOs were removed from the UK (from custody and the community).

Our extensive communications campaign has been running since April 2022 and there is a strong indication that it is having a positive effect. The number of Pension Credit applications is up by around 75% in the 12 months to May compared to the same period last year.

Earlier this year we boosted our campaign with extensive television adverts which highlight that Pension Credit is worth £3,500 a year on average – as well as up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. For the Pension Credit ‘Week of Action’ in June, DWP joined forces with a whole range of partners to raise awareness and promote take-up of Pension Credit. I held an event to raise awareness of Pension Credit in my constituency and wrote to all MPs encouraging them to hold their own community event.

Today [Monday 17 June] I am pleased to announce the launch of an innovative “Invitation to Claim” trial across 10 local areas in Great Britain. Approximately 2,500 pensioner households already in receipt of Housing Benefit, but who are not claiming Pension Credit are being targeted during the trial. The first letters and ‘call to action’ leaflets will start landing on doorsteps this week inviting pensioners to apply for Pension Credit. Evaluation of the trial will help show whether targeting households in this way can be an effective way of reaching these households and increasing take-up.

I am pleased to say that the proportion of prisoners released from custody who were employed at six months from their release has more than doubled between April 2021 and March 2023, from 14% to over 30%. In March 2023, 715 people released 6 months previously were in the workforce and contributing to the economy, an increase from 394 in April 2021.

We know that employment reduces the chance of reoffending significantly, by up to nine percentage points. That is why we are determined to increase the number of prison leavers securing employment on release to cut their chances of reoffending and so we can keep the public safe.

We are offering more offenders the chance to work in prison and on release from custody, supported by our new, dedicated Prison Employment Leads, who are now in post at 92 prisons. They provide case-level employment support, match prisoners to roles on release, and head up our new Employment Hubs, where prisoners can access support with job applications and CVs.

We are building stronger links with employers, including through our prison Employment Advisory Boards, which are chaired by local business leaders. They will provide challenge and advice on how to align the skills delivered in prisons with labour market demand. Chairs have now been appointed to 92 Employment Advisory Boards.

Data on the number and proportion of people in employment after release from prison is published regularly and can be found on the Gov website at Employment Rates following Release from Custody - Ad Hoc - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).