On reforming welfare, we are increasing the incentives to work and increasing the disincentives not to work or to engage with the system, and we are looking to better target help for those who need it most.

We are investing approximately £1.3 billion of our £5.6 billion flood and coastal risk management investment programme in coastal projects. They will better protect over 100,000 properties, as well as critical infrastructure. The Environment Agency is also running the £36 million Government-funded coastal transition accelerator programme, which is funding coastal authorities so they can explore how to better support their communities.

High-quality apprenticeships reach nearly 700 occupations and deliver for individuals and businesses, with apprenticeship starts up 2% so far this year.

Over 80% of employers are satisfied with their apprenticeships and 92% of apprentices that achieve go into sustained employment.

The department is injecting an additional £60 million this year to support even more apprenticeships, including for young people and small and medium-sized enterprises, and £50 million over two years to boost starts in growth sectors like engineering and manufacturing.

The department has also increased the apprentice minimum wage by 21% to £6.40 per hour which will benefit an estimated 40,000 apprentices.

The figures in the table below represent the number of shared ownership homes aimed at older persons by shared ownership providers, the majority of which, but not all, will be provided through the Older Persons Shared Ownership (OPSO) scheme.

We are making great progress on our 10-year vision for adult social care reform. We have introduced the first ever national career structure for care workers, and we have introduced new assessments by the Care Quality Commission, which will shine a light on how well councils are delivering their social care duties.

Maximising the take up of free school meals is important in ensuring that as many eligible children as possible benefit from a healthy and nutritious meal. The department aims to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.

To support this, an Eligibility Checking System has been provided to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.

The department has looked at this issue and considers there to be merit in local authorities exploring initiatives to maximise take up and to better understand the barriers that prevent such take up, whilst ensuring adherence to legal and data protection constraints.

The landmark Procurement Act 2023, which this Government passed last year, will deliver simpler and more effective public sector procurement and help small and medium-sized enterprises across the country secure a greater share of that expenditure, which totals approximately £300 billion every year. The Act includes a new duty on contracting authorities to have regard for the particular barriers faced by SMEs and consider what can be done to overcome them.

The Government strongly supports the sharing of information across sectors to tackle economic crime and has legislated to make this easier.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act contains new measures to provide greater comfort for firms working in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulated sector to share relevant information for the purposes of tackling economic crime. Further information on these measures cane be found here: Factsheet: information sharing measures - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Act also includes the power for the Secretary of State to amend the offences covered, so that law enforcement and businesses can be responsive to future changes in the patterns of economic crime.

The Government is leading an ambitious Public-Private Economic Crime Data Strategy. This will build on the commitments in the Economic Crime Plan 2, Fraud Strategy, and from industry in the Online Fraud and Telecoms Charters to improve information sharing.

We are not currently considering further legislation.

The government recognises that protecting the UK population from fraud, including is incredibly important. That is why we have agreed the Online Fraud Charter with the technology sector. Signatories, including some of the largest global tech companies, have committed to a number of actions to reduce fraud on their platforms and services including: blocking and reporting fraudulent activity, taking down fraudulent posts, and engaging with law enforcement.

More broadly, under the Online Safety Act, social media platforms will be required to establish systems and processes to remove both user generated fraudulent content and fraudulent advertising. If platforms do not comply, they may face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their annual turnover, whichever is higher.

UK Finance analysis of nearly seven thousand authorised push payment (APP) scam cases shows that 70 per cent of scams originated on an online platform - highlighting the internet's significant role in enabling fraud. This includes data from UK Finance members only, for the whole of the UK. More details on this can be found here: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/press/press-releases/over-two-thirds-of-all-app-scams-start-online-new-uk-finance-analysis

To protect victims against APP scams, ten of the UK’s largest banks are currently signed up to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code. In 2022, £248m of losses to APP scams were reimbursed to victims under the commitments of this code.

Recognising that more needed to be done to protect people from this devastating crime, through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the government legislated to require the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to introduce mandatory reimbursement for APP scams within the Faster Payment System, where 98% of APP fraud takes place. This will come into force in October 2024.

The retail banking sector’s primary fraud concern was the rise of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud (where someone is tricked into sending money to a criminal). The sector therefore committed to the following key deliverables in the charter:

o Better utilise technology to share data to detect potential frauds.

o Capture and analyse data reported to them from victims of APP fraud.

o Provide customers with greater control over account features

The Online Safety Act (OSA) will mean that companies are held to account by an independent regulator if they fail to remove illegal content on their platforms.

Alongside the OSA, the Government has created the Online Fraud Charter: a voluntary agreement bringing together the largest companies in the tech sector, who have committed to a series of actions aimed at reducing fraud on their platforms and services. The Charter was signed on 30th November and will deliver a much quicker and more targeted response than regulation.

The OSA is an ambitious and forward-looking piece of legislation that will tackle online harms including fraud and fraudulent advertising.

The Government have committed over £325 million to multi-sport grassroots sites across the whole of the UK. This is part of our mission to ensure that every community has the pitches and facilities it needs. So far, 2,300 sites have been supported. That includes funding for grass pitch maintenance at Waveney football club in my hon. Friend’s constituency, creating many more opportunities for people of all backgrounds to get active.

The consultation on Improving Boiler Standards and Efficiency launched on 13 December 2022 and closed on 22 March 2023. We have been analysing responses and plan to publish a government response in due course.

The Government is committed to enabling as many households and small businesses to benefit from smart meters as soon as possible. This is why we’ve set energy suppliers ambitious, but realistic minimum installation targets to deliver the rollout.

Energy suppliers are responsible for engaging their customers and encouraging them to upgrade to smart metering. Smart Energy GB, an independent not for profit organisation is responsible for national consumer engagement on the rollout in Great Britain.

Ofgem is responsible for regulating both energy suppliers and Smart Energy GB against their statutory obligations.

The Government published the research report ‘Defining and identifying complex-to-decarbonise homes’ alongside the cross-Government review ‘Adapting historic homes for energy efficiency: a review of the barriers’ in January 2024. The review looks at the practical barriers to energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures in historic homes, and sets out the actions the Government is taking to overcome these barriers.

The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament on clean heat and improving energy efficiency in buildings, reducing our reliance on fossil fuel heating. In addition, £6 billion of new Government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028.