Caroline Dinenage

We recognise the important role night-time economy business plays in supporting local economies and communities. Healthy night-time economy businesses not only support our creative industries, including musicians, DJs and performance artists, but also support tourism and bolster day economy businesses.

This Government is focused on its five-point plan to breathe life back into Britain’s high streets. This work will ensure that our high streets are great places for our businesses, supporting economic growth across the UK.

To deliver the manifesto pledge to protect the high street, from 2026-27, the government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values (RV) less than £500,000.

The Government has committed to partnering with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the requirements for phasing out of animal testing and we are currently engaging with the sector as to how to take this commitment forward.

The Government invests £10m annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to accelerate the development and adoption of non-animal approaches. The NC3Rs receives additional funding from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) for specific programmes and substantial in-kind support from companies for their CRACK IT innovation programme.

The Office for National Statistics is independent of ministers, who are therefore unable to require publication of any particular breakdowns, including statistics at 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification codes. DCMS has a strong working relationship with the Office for National Statistics, with significant collaboration between our officials. Through this relationship, we would request rather than require analysis.

We acknowledge the importance of sectoral analysis for monitoring the growth of the creative industries. The Office for National Statistics publishes some data at the 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification code level, such as in their Annual Business Survey, and offers a bespoke data service for requesting additional breakdowns where sample sizes allow. The ONS is bound by the Code of Practice for Statistics to ensure the quality of all estimates is appropriate and that any business data is protected and not identifiable in published statistics. DCMS publishes a portfolio of official statistics about the creative industries, predominantly based on data held by the Office for National Statistics.

Both DCMS and ONS are committed to developing official statistics and ensuring these reflect the needs of users.

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. This year, our department has funded eight uniformed youth organisations to help reduce waiting lists, create more spaces for young people, and offer new volunteering opportunities. Additionally, we are supporting key initiatives such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the #iwill Fund, and Adventures Away from Home, all aimed at creating opportunities for young people.

The Civil Society Covenant will set out the terms of a new relationship between government and civil society through high level principles for an effective long term partnership between government and all of civil society. The complementary National Youth Strategy will be co-produced with young people and the youth sector. Both the Covenant and National Youth Strategy will be published in 2025.

Over the coming months we will be developing our plans for the National Youth Strategy, in partnership with young people and with organisations within the youth sector, including civil society organisations. In November we held a roundtable with young ambassadors from the #iWill movement and in early December we held a roundtable with young people in Bristol. In early 2025, we will be holding further youth-led roundtables and will set up a Youth Advisory Group to work alongside us.

The Government is working closely with the live music industry to support an economically sustainable music sector.

The Government response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report on grassroots music venues, published 14 November, sets out our commitment to working with the sector to support the sustainability of the entire music ecosystem. Cultural venues provide enjoyment to many thousands of people as the opportunity to hear live music up close is an essential part of our cultural life.

Following the Autumn Budget, we are continuing to support Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music Fund which provides grants to grassroots music organisations - including those that host or promote electronic music – including venues, rehearsal and recording studios, promoters and festivals. ACE continues to engage with industry through targeted webinars and events to promote the Fund to the club sector and encourage applications.

This Government is focused on our five-point plan to breathe life back into Britain’s high streets, to ensure they are great places for businesses, and economic growth across the UK.

To deliver our manifesto pledge to protect the high street, from 2026-27, the government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values (RV) less than £500,000. To provide further support, the government has extended RHL relief at 40% for 2025-26.

We have no plans to develop a separate night clubs strategy, but would be interested in hearing from her Select Committee if it has suggestions in this area.

The Government is working closely with the live music industry to support an economically sustainable music sector.

The Government response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report on grassroots music venues, published 14 November, sets out our commitment to working with the sector to support the sustainability of the entire music ecosystem. Cultural venues provide enjoyment to many thousands of people as the opportunity to hear live music up close is an essential part of our cultural life.

Following the Autumn Budget, we are continuing to support Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music Fund which provides grants to grassroots music organisations - including those that host or promote electronic music – including venues, rehearsal and recording studios, promoters and festivals. ACE continues to engage with industry through targeted webinars and events to promote the Fund to the club sector and encourage applications.

This Government is focused on our five-point plan to breathe life back into Britain’s high streets, to ensure they are great places for businesses, and economic growth across the UK.

To deliver our manifesto pledge to protect the high street, from 2026-27, the government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values (RV) less than £500,000. To provide further support, the government has extended RHL relief at 40% for 2025-26.

We have no plans to develop a separate night clubs strategy, but would be interested in hearing from her Select Committee if it has suggestions in this area.

The Government is working closely with the live music industry to support an economically sustainable music sector.

The Government response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report on grassroots music venues, published 14 November, sets out our commitment to working with the sector to support the sustainability of the entire music ecosystem. Cultural venues provide enjoyment to many thousands of people as the opportunity to hear live music up close is an essential part of our cultural life.

Following the Autumn Budget, we are continuing to support Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music Fund which provides grants to grassroots music organisations - including those that host or promote electronic music – including venues, rehearsal and recording studios, promoters and festivals. ACE continues to engage with industry through targeted webinars and events to promote the Fund to the club sector and encourage applications.

This Government is focused on our five-point plan to breathe life back into Britain’s high streets, to ensure they are great places for businesses, and economic growth across the UK.

To deliver our manifesto pledge to protect the high street, from 2026-27, the government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values (RV) less than £500,000. To provide further support, the government has extended RHL relief at 40% for 2025-26.

We have no plans to develop a separate night clubs strategy, but would be interested in hearing from her Select Committee if it has suggestions in this area.

We have not made such an assessment, but Historic England has commissioned an external evaluation of the High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme, which was designed to drive economic growth in places that need it the most. We await the report for this which will be published in March 2025.

There are around 500 large society lotteries licensed by the Gambling Commission. The Gambling Act 2005 has licensing objectives that underpin the responsible functions that any Lottery must meet. These include:

• preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime

• ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way

• protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

All Society and local authority lotteries licensed by the Gambling Commission are required to comply with the relevant conditions and codes of practice, which are set by the Gambling Commission. These licence conditions are set out at the time a licence is issued. Further information about social responsibility requirements are contained in the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice.

The National Lottery is managed under separate legislation - the National Lottery Act 1993. This establishes a statutory duty on the Government to ensure it is run with due propriety, wide social value commitments, while contributing substantially to Good Causes across the UK and via the Lottery Duty.

The Licence is awarded through a competitive process to an operator with an overriding duty to ensure the interests of every Participant in respect of playing, engaging with or being exposed to, the National Lottery are protected. This is supported through regulatory requirements overseen by the Gambling Commission.

The current operator Allwyn has its own strategy of creating additional social value commitments in the way they operate their business and engage with all National Lottery partners. More information on Allwyn’s social value plan can be found here.

We recognise the important role that the UK copyright framework plays in supporting investment into the creative industries and ensuring that talent and creativity are rewarded. Finding the right balance between rewarding human-centred creativity, fostering the potential of AI to open up new creative frontiers and ensuring legal certainty for all those working in these fields is going to be complex and challenging, but addressing it is a priority of this Government. My department is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to address this issue.

This work requires thoughtful engagement with the creative industries and with AI developers including widespread consultation. DCMS and DSIT chaired roundtables with AI developers and representatives of the creative industries to discuss AI and IP issues on 17 September. The Government will continue to work closely with a range of stakeholders on this topic, and will set out next steps soon. These would need to address a range of issues in the round, including transparency.

We recognise the important role that the UK copyright framework plays in supporting investment into the creative industries and ensuring that talent and creativity are rewarded. Finding the right balance between rewarding human-centred creativity, fostering the potential of AI to open up new creative frontiers and ensuring legal certainty for all those working in these fields is going to be complex and challenging, but addressing it is a priority of this Government. My department is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to address this issue.

This work requires thoughtful engagement with the creative industries and with AI developers including widespread consultation. DCMS and DSIT chaired roundtables with AI developers and representatives of the creative industries to discuss AI and IP issues on 17 September. The Government will continue to work closely with a range of stakeholders on this topic, and will set out next steps soon. These would need to address a range of issues in the round, including transparency.

We recognise the important role that the UK copyright framework plays in supporting investment into the creative industries and ensuring that talent and creativity are rewarded. Finding the right balance between rewarding human-centred creativity, fostering the potential of AI to open up new creative frontiers and ensuring legal certainty for all those working in these fields is going to be complex and challenging, but addressing it is a priority of this Government. My department is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to address this issue.

This work requires thoughtful engagement with the creative industries and with AI developers including widespread consultation. DCMS and DSIT chaired roundtables with AI developers and representatives of the creative industries to discuss AI and IP issues on 17 September. The Government will continue to work closely with a range of stakeholders on this topic, and will set out next steps soon. These would need to address a range of issues in the round, including transparency.

The film and TV sector forms a critical part of UK society, democracy and its creative industries. DCMS estimates that the number of filled jobs within the film and TV industry is 182,000, as of the 2023-2024 financial year. The Government is committed to continue supporting growth and job creation in this sector.

On 18 March, the department announced our intention to launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education.

The National Centre will support the delivery of high-quality arts education in schools, including through online training, local partnership and better information for teachers, parents and young people.

By widening access to a high-quality arts education, the National Centre will aid schools and others in teaching a rich and broad arts education to all children. It will also support a globally respected creative economy by opening up career paths to a new generation of musicians, artists, film-makers and creatives.

Our plan is to launch the National Centre in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details, including funding, will be released in due course.

The new National Centre will also take over the management of the existing Music Hubs programme.

The number of ‘hair and beauty’ related apprenticeship starts in England is published in the Apprenticeship accredited official statistics publication, which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/66bd1260-5cd4-4769-1f8e-08dd8e2f6934. These were last published in March 2025. They include full year figures from 2019/20 to 2023/24, and year to date figures for 2024/25 (August 2024 to January 2025).

During 2023, the department reviewed the initial teacher training core content framework (CCF) and the early career framework (ECF) to ensure they remained based on the most up-to-date evidence. This review paid particular attention to the needs of trainees and early career teachers (ECTs) when supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

As part of the review process, the department analysed evaluation data and feedback, which included discussions with lead providers, senior school leaders, induction tutors, and mentors and ECTs. The department also worked closely and met regularly with groups of influential educational stakeholders. These were representative groups who acted in an advisory capacity and included SEND educational specialists.

As a result of this review, the updated initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF), which will underpin training for trainee and ECTs from September 2025, contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND and the department has enhanced the requirement on lead providers of ECT training to develop SEND training materials.

As the updated ITTECF will not be implemented until September 2025, the department has not yet evaluated its impact, however we recognise that continuous improvement is essential in order to transform the training and support for all new teachers, and to review the experiences and needs of ECT as well as trainees. This is why we are committing to a full review of the programme in 2027 to ensure it continues to provide the best possible support for ECTs. We know that it is crucial that ECTs feel supported teaching pupils with SEND and will review our approach to SEND and the support we provide ECTs in teaching pupils with SEND. We will work with stakeholders to ensure that we continue to provide the best possible support for pupils with SEND.

All schools maintained by a local authority in England are required to send a Common Transfer File (CTF) to the new school when a pupil ceases to be registered at their school and becomes a registered pupil at another school. Academies, including free schools, are also strongly encouraged to send CTFs when a pupil leaves to attend another school.

Information specified by the department for inclusion in a CTF includes a record of the pupil’s attainment and achievements, which would include details of key stage 4 results where available. Details of a pupil’s prior attainment is included in the CTF to ensure schools are able to meet the individual needs of each pupil with greater accuracy and maintain the momentum of their learning.

Although there is no legal requirement for a school to transfer information to a further education (FE) college, schools are encouraged to do so on request from the FE college, where a secure method of transfer is available.

In addition, the department runs the Learning Records Service (LRS). The LRS allows providers to collect and manage unique learner numbers on behalf of learners aged 14 and above. This provides a consistent identifier for young people to learning providers including schools, academies, FE providers, higher education providers and offender learning providers (prisons), which allows those providers to access a learner’s personal learning record to support education and career information, advice and guidance.

Schools spend an estimated £75 million a year on recruitment advertising. Teaching Vacancies is a leading job listing service and 98% of secondary schools and 75% of primary schools have signed up to post their vacancies, for free. The department estimates that primary and secondary schools using Teaching Vacancies have saved, in total, between £47.3 and £60.8 million (from September 2018 to August 2024). More information about this calculation can be found on the Teaching Vacancies website: https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/pages/savings-methodology.

In addition to listing teaching and leaderships roles, the service expanded last year to include all school roles meaning schools will be able to save even more money by using the service.

The hair and beauty sector have developed several high-quality apprenticeships, including the level 2 hairdressing professional standard, and the department continues to encourage employers in the sector to use apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need.

To support smaller employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care. Employers can also benefit from £1000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. Employers can choose how they spend these payments.

As the report highlights, we recognise that the increase to employer National Insurance contributions will have a varying impact across all sectors. Employers are not required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, where they earn less than £50,270 a year.

This government also remains committed to ensuring that apprentice wages support the attraction of talented individuals into apprenticeships and remain fair for employers.

The department supports vocational education and training programmes that include heritage conservation skills. This includes funding for courses at further education colleges and specialist training providers. A wide range of government-funded programmes are available for construction employers who are considering hiring employees, offering work experience, or upskilling existing staff. These include apprenticeships, T Levels, Skills Bootcamps, and Higher Technical Qualifications.

Together with employers, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) have developed 90 apprenticeship standards in the construction and built environment sector. These apprenticeships provide hands-on experience and formal qualifications in heritage areas such as heritage construction specialist, cultural heritage conservation technician, craft carpenter and joinery, and stained glass craftsperson. IfATE works with key stakeholders such as Grosvenor, Peabody, Historic England, the National Trust, and the Crown Estate to ensure that employers can access the heritage construction skills they need.

The department is working across government and in partnership with industry through the Construction Skills Delivery Group (CSDG) and the Construction Leadership Council to identify policy levers and other actions to ensure that our skills offer, including apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and T Levels, meets the needs of employers in the sector, including small and medium enterprises. The department works closely with Historic England, through the CSDG, to ensure that training programs meet the needs of the heritage sector.

The government recently announced over £200 million funding for the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme for 2025/26.

The HAF programme has been delivered nationally by local authorities in England since 2022, to provide healthy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefitting their health, wellbeing and learning.

Funding beyond March 2026 will be subject to the multi-year Spending Review taking place later this year.