Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist

In the Autumn Budget, the Government confirmed £2.3 billion in revenue support for 11 green hydrogen projects from the first Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR1), including the HyBont project in Bridgend, and the West Wales Hydrogen Project in Milford Haven.

On 7 April 2025, the Government announced a shortlist of 27 projects, including three located in Wales, that have been invited to the next stage of the Second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2) process.

Projects offered support under previous programmes such as the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund include the Holyhead Hydrogen Hub, where we are working closely with the Wales Office, Welsh Government and Ambition North Wales as the project develops.

Tourism policy in the UK is devolved, but DCMS maintains regular engagement with the devolved administrations, including the Welsh Government, on a range of tourism-related matters and we are aware of the Welsh Government’s proposals to introduce a visitor levy and continue to monitor its development closely.

DCMS remains committed to understanding the potential cross-border impacts on the visitor economy, including any implications for tourism in England.

Our focus remains on supporting a thriving and competitive tourism sector across all parts of the UK, ensuring that destinations can attract visitors, support local businesses, and deliver sustainable growth.

The table below shows the UK Government funded expenditure on operations, maintenance, renewal and enhancement of railways in Wales for each financial year, noting that we do not have data for the financial year 2010/2011.

Spending on railways in Wales by the Welsh Government, including continuing subsidy for rail services operated by Transport for Wales is not included, nor is payment made by the Department in respect of services that Transport for Wales operates wholly within England.

In financial year 2024/2025, £259m was allocated for railways in Wales, which includes UK Government funded expenditure on operations, maintenance, renewal and enhancements. This is being built on through the Spending Review settlement, which marks a significant step forward in addressing Wales’s long term infrastructure needs, with a commitment of at least £445m over the next ten years for rail enhancements in Wales. Details of funding spent since July 2024 is not available at the current time.

The UK Government is responsible for rail infrastructure across England and Wales. Rail in Scotland is a devolved matter. From 2014/15 until 2019/20, a total of £2.716 billion was invested on rail infrastructure in Wales. This figure includes costs to maintain and operate the network (£1.889 billion) as well as costs to enhance the network (£0.827 billion).

The continuing subsidy for rail services operated by Transport for Wales (TfW) was made part of the UK Government Block Grant to Wales in c2007. It is not separately identifiable as the amount allocated to rail from the Block Grant was a devolved matter for Welsh Ministers. Separately, the Department made payments for services that TfW operated wholly within England of c£4 million per annum (i.e. c£20 million for 2014-2019).

No specific ministerial meetings have taken place on electrification of the North Wales Mainline. Both the Secretary of State and the Rail Minister have met with the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Transport & North Wales in recent months to discuss our shared ambitions for the development of rail services in Wales that can unlock economic growth.

The Wales Office has not launched any policy reviews or consultations since the General Election on 4 July 2024.