Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the state of the UK commercial art market, particularly in London, and what plans they have to support that sector.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

We published art market statistics in December 2024 and the sector will be included alongside DCMS’s regularly scheduled publication of GVA, employment and trade in goods statistics going forward.

The UK has the second largest art market in the world and the Government is committed to embedding our position as a global centre for the trade of art. This commitment is shown through the sector’s inclusion in the Creative Industries Sector Plan published in June.

The Government takes a joined-up approach to supporting the art market and, in 2024, launched the first Cross-Government Art Market Working Group, bringing together officials across Government to ensure the sector is represented in all relevant policy matters.

The Government recently announced improvements to Temporary Admission (TA), a customs procedure to suspend import duties for artwork temporarily in the UK.

The Minister for the Creative Industries is hosting an art market roundtable later this month to explore the part the art market plays in the wider UK art and creative industries ecosystem, and how the government and the sector can work together to support its growth.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government to what extent the rise in employers' National Insurance contributions contributed to the loss of 69,000 hospitality jobs since last October, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, and how this compares with their initial estimates of sector specific job losses before implementing the rise.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer National Insurance contributions (NICs). The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.

The Office for Budget Responsibility also published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.

With all policies considered, the OBR's March 2025 EFO forecasts the employment level to increase from 33.6 million in 2024 to 34.8 million in 2029.

The Government protected the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what changes were made to the guidance Managing Public Money in the June 2025 version compared to the May 2023 version.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

As set out in the Dear Accounting Officer letter DAO 02/25, the 2025 edition of Managing Public Money includes the following revisions and additions.

1. New guidance on the circumstances in which it might be appropriate to ‘pre-fund’ future liabilities, aligned with guidance set out in Dear Accounting Officer letter 05/23.
2. Revised guidance on subsidy control to reflect changes to the wider UK subsidy control regime.
3. Updated guidance on how accounting officers should manage risk in their organisations.
4. Revised references and guidance on the importance of evaluation in government.
5. Updated guidance on the use of models in government.
6. Updated guidance on access to information by the National Audit Office, and clarifying rules on communication with the Public Accounts Committee.
7. Revised guidance on the propriety of using the Companies Act 2006 to establish government owned companies.
8. Revisions permitting the setting of delegations by the Treasury for the approval of special severance payments.
9. Revised guidance, to align with that in Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, on the disposal of public sector land.
10. An uprated threshold for the definition of ‘modest’ expenditure which may rest on the sole authority of the Supply and Appropriation Act, to reflect inflation.
11. Updated guidance on fees and charges reporting to ensure that these are backed by appropriate powers.
12. Updated guidance on the treatment of Public Corporations.
13. Updated wording to confirm the scope of the rules in Managing Public Money – in line with existing Clear Line of Sight guidance.
14. More detailed definitions of Regularity, Propriety, Value for Money and Feasibility.
15. Wider corrections and amendments including updated links to wider government guidance.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many large-scale exercises with their involvement were undertaken in the past year to prepare for terrorist attacks and other civil contingencies, and what were the learning outcomes from those exercises.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

As is longstanding practice under successive administrations, the Government does not publish the exercises that it undertakes for terrorist attacks or other civil contingencies unless requested to by inquiries or where it would serve to make the public better prepared.

The national exercise for 2025 will be a pandemic preparedness exercise. It will aim to test our ability to respond to a pandemic arising from a novel infectious disease, involving all regions and nations of the UK and thousands of participants.

The publicly available UK Resilience Academy Lessons Digest synthesises and shares lessons learned from selected large-scale exercises and emergency responses.