Lord Bishop of Sheffield

Reaching Net Zero requires a wide-reaching transformation of the UK economy but will be an incredible opportunity—supporting hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs across the UK, including in South Yorkshire. The UK has made significant progress in attracting investment into green sectors. According to analysis by the CBI, the net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy and the GVA of the net zero economy grew by 10% in 2024. Government also supports local areas to attract investment – including funding the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub.

There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures to low income and fuel poor households. Current schemes include the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Home Upgrade Grant, the Energy Company Obligation and the Great British Insulation Scheme. Between them they help social housing providers, local authorities, charities, homeowners and private and social tenants with domestic energy efficiency measures.

The Warm Home Discount schemes also provide a £150 rebate off bills to eligible low-income households across Great Britain. Through Industry Initiatives suppliers can provide further assistance through third parties such as fuel poverty charities and organisations.

This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we are committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. That is why this Government has launched the co-production of an ambitious new National Youth Strategy, which will be co-produced together with young people at the centre.

The DCMS Youth Participation Pilot Survey found that in the previous year, for young people aged 10-19 in Yorkshire and the Humber, 67% reported they had taken part in out of school activities (compared to 66% nationally), 39% reported they had been on an overnight stay (compared to 40% nationally), and 45% reported they had volunteered (compared to 44% nationally).

We do not hold the broken down data requested for Sheffield.

The UK is home to globally recognised universities that operate in nearly every corner of the world, often in partnership with overseas institutions. These partnerships strengthen global ties, facilitate research partnerships and enable transnational education provision to reach over 200 countries and territories, allowing 621,065 students to study overseas for UK higher education qualifications in 2023/24.

The UK’s International Education Champion, Professor Sir Steve Smith, has led multiple missions and delegations to promote educational partnerships in a range of countries. The department is currently reviewing the UK’s international education strategy to ensure that it continues to reflect the priorities of the education sector, including UK universities, and global partners across the world.

Citizenship education provides a framework to prepare pupils to be active, informed and responsible citizens. The national curriculum for citizenship is mandatory at key stages 3 and 4 and primary schools can choose to teach it.

Citizenship covers human rights and international law, and the need for mutual respect. Pupils should also be taught about international governance and the United Kingdom’s relations with the rest of Europe, the Commonwealth, the United Nations and the wider world. This could include teaching about the origins and contents of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which seeks to deliver a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that equips young people with the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to thrive in life and work. The Review will publish its final report in autumn 2025.

The immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base.

This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on higher education (HE) provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic HE and skills system. We will set out more details around the levy in the Autumn Budget.

We are committed to engaging with the sector on the design of the international student levy and want to understand specific concerns providers have as early as possible.

This government is committed to supporting educational partnerships between the UK and our overseas partners, including in further education.

The UK’s International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, spearheads overseas activities, opening up partnership opportunities and developing strong relationships. Sir Steve's international missions promote all sectors and areas of education. We are currently reviewing the UK’s International Education Strategy to ensure that it continues to reflect the priorities of the entire education sector and provides an attractive offer, including on vocational training and skills, to our global partners. We are working closely with the sector and aiming to publish the refreshed strategy this year.

​Generative artificial intelligence (AI) will support with the delivery of the government’s Plan for Change.

The government has published the AI Opportunities Action Plan, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-opportunities-action-plan/ai-opportunities-action-plan. This considered barriers to AI take-up across the economy and made 50 recommendations. The further education sector will enable the delivery of short new courses in areas such as AI, digital, and engineering. These will be funded through the Growth and Skills Levy to support Industrial Strategy sectors from April 2026.

In August 2025, the department published a policy paper setting out the opportunities and challenges for the use of generative AI in the education sector. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education/generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education?pStoreID=Http.

We are working with the education sector, educational technology industry experts, and academics to build the evidence base and support the education sector to use AI safely, responsibly, and effectively. This includes publishing free support, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/using-ai-in-education-settings-support-materials.

The Government is closely monitoring water levels and working with water companies and the Environment Agency (EA) to mitigate the impacts of drought across England, including in South Yorkshire.

Following the driest six-month period since 1929, the EA declared drought in Yorkshire on 12 June 2025. The EA is actively working with stakeholders in the region, monitoring the situation, mitigating environmental impacts, and balancing the needs of people and nature.

To support water supply resilience in South Yorkshire, the EA has granted Yorkshire Water seven Drought Permits for its reservoirs, conserving reservoir stocks and to secure public water supplies.

Water company drought plans set out how companies will maintain a secure water supply while minimising environmental impacts during dry weather and drought conditions. The Government expects all companies to take the necessary steps outlined in these plans to protect water supplies for their customers.

The Department for Transport works closely with transport operators to assess the risks to transport infrastructure arising from, for example, severe weather, security threats or accidents. These risk assessments are used by national and local government and the transport industry to inform planning at all levels. This includes the South Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum.

Following the publication of the UK Government’s Resilience Action Plan in July 2025, the Department for Transport is working with cross-government and transport sector stakeholders to identify transport-specific opportunities and interventions to address gaps identified in capabilities.

South Yorkshire will also receive £570 million in City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) funding by March 2027. Following this, the region will benefit from a £1.5 billion share of the £15.6 billion Transport for City Regions (TCR) settlement. This will fund a number of active travel improvement schemes—including segregated cycleways, improved footpaths, and highways upgrades—that will improve safety for both active travel and road users. The Magna Tinsley scheme, for example, incorporates safety by design. It has already delivered a new toucan crossing at the Sheffield Road/Raby Street junction to provide a safe crossing point from Tinsley Village across Sheffield Road. Further improvements are planned, including segregated cycleways and improved footways.

The Youth Guarantee will initially provide support to 18–21-year-olds to ensure young people not accessing higher or further education have a clear pathway to access quality support.

Across the UK, 18 to 21-year-olds have lower employment rates compared to 22 to 24-year-olds, even when taking into consideration their increased participation in full-time education.

DWP provides extensive support at a national and local level for 16–17-year-olds and 22–24-year-olds. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners. These young people will also be able to access tailored support through the DWP Youth Offer, which includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches and access to Youth Hubs across Great Britain.

We will continue to monitor the need to expand the Youth Guarantee during the delivery phase and through future evaluation.

The Get Britain Working White Paper identified a lack of accountability for support that joins up the various education, training and employment opportunities available to 18-21 year olds.

As a first step, the Get Britain Working White paper announced £45m funding for eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England. Our partnerships with local government will test one of the key objectives of the Youth Guarantee that ensures better connections through local systems, of knowledge and awareness of resource and services in local areas, to ensure all 18-21 year olds have easy access to a wide range of education, training or employment opportunities.

By working closely on the detail of the design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee with the eight trailblazer areas, we will be able to maximise the difference it makes to young people’s lives locally. The findings of the trailblazers will inform future approach.

We will also work in partnership with organisations at the national and local level to join up, enhance and champion their efforts as part of our new Youth Guarantee. Our first partnerships will be developed with Channel 4, the Royal Shakespeare Company and leading sports organisations including the Premier League.​

The Government’s plan to Get Britain Working includes a new Youth Guarantee for all young people in England aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. More detail on the Youth Guarantee will be set out in the upcoming Get Britain Working White Paper.

In the recent budget, the Chancellor announced funding for eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazer areas to test new ways of supporting young people into employment or training, by bringing together and enhancing existing programmes in partnership with local areas. Decisions on the locations of the trailblazers will be announced in due course.

We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity, including in Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire, to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including upgrading diagnostic facilities and equipment.

The Goole and District Hospital is currently providing key diagnostic services to patients across East Riding. The hospital currently offers imaging services, such as x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, as well as phlebotomy services.

NHS England work closely with each integrated care board (ICB), including the Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, to assess diagnostic capacity and prioritise investments. The ICB has invested £29.46 million of capital from the community diagnostic centre (CDC) programme to deliver seven CDCs, including the Selby Memorial CDC at the nearby Selby Memorial Hospital. This CDC offers a wide range of diagnostic tests, including x-ray, MRI, CT, electrocardiogram, non-obstetric ultrasound, Holter, and lung function tests, closer to home, and with a greater choice on where and how they are undertaken.

The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. Further details and allocations, including where any new diagnostics and equipment will be located, will be set out in due course.

The Government is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall and the Home Secretary has reduced in-donor refugee costs by taking action to reduce the asylum backlog and seeking to end the use of costly asylum hotels. We therefore anticipate further reductions to in-donor refugee costs in the next Spending Review period.

The Home Office’s Spending Review settlement will be subject to agreement with HM Treasury in the usual way.

Tackling unsustainable debt is one of the Government’s key international priorities. As a member of the Paris Club and G20, the UK is committed to providing debt treatments through the Paris Club and the G20 Common Framework, for countries that need it. The UK continues to work with our international partners to push for more timely, orderly and predictable restructurings.

We are also committed to tackling the underlying drivers of unsustainable debt, including through enhancing debt sustainability and transparency. The UK is a strong advocate of the G20 Operational Guidelines for Sustainable Financing – we have committed to adhering to these guidelines and call on other countries to do the same.

The UK has always reported ODA spending consistent with internationally agreed OECD Development Assistance Committee rules. This includes certain support for refugees arriving from developing countries. The Home Secretary is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall and has already acted, taking measures to reduce the asylum backlog, reform the asylum accommodation system to end the use of expensive accommodation, and increase detention capacity to facilitate more asylum removals. We expect these decisions to drive down in-donor refugee costs, creating more space in the ODA budget to spend on our international development priorities overseas. On current forecasts, ODA spending outside of in-donor refugee costs in 2025 will be more than the £11.0bn spent in 2023.

The Government has already begun consultation with charities and frontline support services on future asylum accommodation plans. Officials met with voluntary and community sector stakeholders on the 5th August and plan to meet again in September. Minister Norris will be hosting engagement with faith groups later this year on future asylum accommodation plans.