My noble Friend, the Under-Secretary of State for the School System and Student Finance (Baroness Barran) has made the following statement.

I am announcing today an additional temporary cap to the post-2012 income contingent repayment undergraduate and postgraduate loan interest rates effective as of 1 March 2023.

The Government announced on 13 June 2022 that the student loan interest rate would be set at a maximum of 7.3% between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023, in line with the forecast prevailing market rates. The Government confirmed that should the actual prevailing market rate turn out to be lower than forecast, a further cap would be implemented to reduce student loan interest rates accordingly.

From 1 September 2022 to 30 November 2022, reflecting a lower than forecast prevailing market rate, the maximum interest rate was 6.3% for all post-2012 (plan 2) and postgraduate (plan 3) loans. Following an increase in the prevailing market rate, the maximum interest rate increased to 6.5% between 1 December 2022 and 28 February 2023.

I am now announcing a further cap: from 1 March 2023 to 31 May 2023 the maximum interest rate will be 6.9% for all post-2012 (plan 2) and postgraduate (plan 3) loans, reflecting the most recent prevailing market rate. This is a reduction compared to the 7.3% maximum rate announced in June.

From 1 June 2023 to 31 August 2023, the maximum interest rate will be 7.3%. Subject to the prevailing market rate, the Government may announce further caps to apply during this period.

[HCWS551]

I am laying a departmental minute to advise that the Department is retrospectively notifying Parliament about contingent liabilities not previously disclosed, due to procedural errors. His Majesty’s Treasury has approved the contingent liability.

The minute describes the contingent liabilities that the NDA has entered with two landlords, The Crown Estate and Baron Egremont, for the renewal of an uncapped indemnity in the Sellafield replacement sea line (RSL) lease.

A pipeline runs from the Sellafield nuclear plant site over foreshore and seabed owned by two separate third party landowners, The Crown Estate (TCE) and Baron Egremont of the Leconfield Estate (Egremont). The replacement sea line (RSL) is a critical asset for the delivery of nuclear safety and the environmental performance of the Sellafield site.

These are long-standing liabilities, with the lease arrangement for the unlimited liabilities in place since 1991. This lease pre-dates the formation of NDA in 2004. The introduction of new guidelines and status of Sellafield as part of central Government (2016) meant such indemnities now require Government approval.

On this occasion, there was an unfortunate oversight: HMT approved the indemnity in February 2021, though due to a delay in commercial negotiations, the NDA did not notify the Department that the lease had been finalised in January 2022. BEIS recognises that the notification process has not been followed and is notifying Parliament now.

Therefore, it was not possible to notify Parliament of the liability particulars in advance of the transaction documents being signed. The Department has noted the Committee’s concerns regarding this matter and fully accepts the need to follow the correct approvals and reporting procedures and is in the process of conducting a review into best practices.

The contingent liability’s expected risk to the Department’s available resource loss is considered very low as any nuclear liability would be covered by the Government indemnity, with liability above £140 million falling to central Government under the Paris Brussels convention. Non-nuclear liability is covered by insurance up to £100 million, and above this threshold would need to be funded from the NDA and Department annual budget. If the liability is called, provision for any payment will be sought through the normal supply procedure.

If, following the laying of the departmental minute, a Member signifies an objection by writing to me, I undertake to examine the objection and respond to the Member concerned.

I will update the House of any further changes as necessary.

[HCWS548]

The Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my noble Friend Lord Callanan, has today made the following statement:

This statement concerns an application for development consent made under the Planning Act 2008 by Orsted Hornsea Project Four Ltd for the construction and operation of an offshore wind farm, located approximately 69 km offshore, to the east of Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Under section 107(1) of the Planning Act 2008, the Secretary of State must make a decision on an application within three months of the receipt of the examining authority’s report unless exercising the power under section 107(3) of the Act to set a new deadline. Where a new deadline is set, the Secretary of State must make a statement to Parliament to announce it. The current statutory deadline for the decision on the Hornsea Project Four offshore wind farm application is 22 February 2023.

A decision has been made to set a new deadline of no later than 12 July 2023 for deciding this application. This is to enable my Department to seek further information from the applicant and to ensure there is sufficient time to allow for consideration of this information by other interested parties.

The decision to set the new deadline for this application is without prejudice to the decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent.

[HCWS552]

My noble Friend the Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (The Viscount Younger of Leckie) has made the following written statement.

I am pleased to inform the House that tomorrow, the Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2023 will come into force. This means, for the first time, bereaved cohabitees with children will be able to access bereavement support payment and its predecessor, widowed parent’s allowance, supporting thousands more families with dependent children.

Bereavement support payment was introduced on 6 April 2017, replacing the previous suite of bereavement benefits which included widowed parent’s allowance. For bereavement support payment, where a claimant’s partner died before 30 August 2018, we will make a part payment and no initial lump sum will be payable. Where the death occurred before the order came into force and the claim is received within 12 months of that date, claimants will get the full amount due to them.

Widowed parent’s allowance was introduced in 2001 to replace widowed mother’s allowance. It is payable to working age people who were bereaved before 6 April 2017 and who were entitled to child benefit for at least one child, or pregnant, on the date of death. It can be paid for as long as the claimant holds an entitlement to child benefit which can be up to 20 years in some cases.

Claimants will be eligible for widowed parent’s allowance where the death was before 6 April 2017, and they continued to meet the entitlement conditions on 30 August 2018. They must also claim within 12 months of the date the order comes into force.

Where more than one person claims for the same death, DWP will pay once per death, prioritising who was living with the claimant on the date of death. Where there are claims from different addresses, entitlement would be established as part of the normal decision-making process. In cases where more than one person was living with the deceased on the date of death, entitlement will be decided according to a hierarchy to reflect the most established relationship.

Widowed parent’s allowance is treated as income for the purposes of income-related benefits such as universal credit and is assessed at the point of award. This order provides for all retrospective widowed parent’s allowance payments up to the date of claim to be treated as capital and disregarded for 12 months or 52 weeks for the purposes of income-related benefits. This ensures that claimants will not lose any existing entitlement to income-related or passported benefits as a result of receiving a retrospective award. This order also ensures there is a disregard for the same period for retrospective bereavement support payment awards.

Widowed parent’s allowance will be treated as income for tax credits and assessed in the year of payment rather than entitlement so no adjustments to past years will be needed. The payment of bereavement support payment does not affect a person’s tax credit entitlement.

For bereavement support payment, claimants can make a claim online via gov.uk, by phone through the DWP bereavement service number, or via a paper claim. As widowed parent’s allowance has now been replaced by bereavement support payment for deaths after April 2017, it is not possible to claim online and they will be processed by paper, with applications downloadable via gov.uk or by calling the bereavement service number.

Any cohabiting parents who were previously ineligible for bereavement support payment or widowed parent’s allowance before the start date of the order will need to make a new claim as this will be a new entitlement.

[HCWS550]

This Department continues its commitment to provide local personalised support for customers and families to help them into employment and progress their careers, while delivering for the economy.

During the pandemic, and in direct response to the anticipated pressures on the labour market, the Department secured time-limited funding to rapidly introduce additional jobcentres. This was to deliver a temporary expansion to the existing network of 639 established jobcentre sites and provide more work coaches to support claimants.

The temporary expansion of the jobcentre estate enabled us to drive forward our plan for jobs, helping people back into the labour market, right across the UK. Our plan for jobs saw the launch and success of kickstart and restart which has resulted in:

Over 305,000 kickstart jobs approved for funding (as at 31 January 2021);

Over 163,200 kickstart jobs started by young people (as at 27 June 2022); and

340,000 claimants commenced on the restart scheme (as at September 2022).

We now have a low unemployment rate of 3.7%, payroll employment at a record high of 29.9 million, over 2 million more women in employment since 2010 and a record high ethnic minority employment rate of 69.2%.

In a written statement of 20 July 2022, “DWP Estate”, HCWS253, the Department outlined its plans to take advantage of lease breaks and vacate older, poorer-quality jobcentre buildings. Several of the temporary sites, where they offer better, more suitable accommodation than our existing offices—and provide better value for money for the taxpayer—will be retained. Established jobcentres will move into these buildings. Others will be decommissioned where the increased capacity is no longer needed. This is due to the removal of social distancing measures, but also where work coaches and services can now be accommodated in established jobcentres.

The Department is also committed to improving the sustainability of its buildings, contributing to the commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and is therefore adapting its estate to be more sustainable and energy efficient.

The Department has always been clear the additional jobcentres were opened on a temporary basis to help us adapt our services and support in response to the pandemic, as set out in my previous statement “DWP—Expanding Our Services” on 23 March 2021. The decommissioning of these additional temporary sites, where they are no longer required, will not reduce our levels of service or access to face-to-face appointments going forward. Most customers will return to being served by their established jobcentre and there will be no reduction in the number of work coaches serving customers as a result of these changes.

The Department is taking a phased approach towards decommissioning these temporary jobcentres. This will minimise any impact on service delivery and optimise opportunities, where appropriate, to gain better buildings and work environments for all.

The first tranche will include 20 temporary jobcentres, with subsequent phases throughout 2023 and 2024 as we continue to review the extra capacity across all sites and assess when exiting might be appropriate.

Letters are being sent to each MP with changes in their constituency to explain what it means for their local jobcentre and its staff, and their constituents.

We remain committed to updating Parliament on the renewal of our estates, as well as our work to ensure that both our staff and customers are operating in buildings and environments fit for the future.

The first 20 sites to be formally decommissioned by March 2023 are:

[HCWS549]