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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what mechanisms her Department will put in place to ensure transparent and ongoing accountability for the delivery of the National Youth Strategy, including how progress against its commitments will be reported to Parliament and to the public.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, will put young people from all backgrounds in the driving seat when it comes to decisions that affect their own lives.

We are committed to being accountable to young people, their parents/carers, sector partners, and the wider public to deliver this strategy.

Every year, our department will invite a diverse group of young people to run a national hearing on the delivery of the strategy. This process will be co-designed with young people. We will also publish an interim delivery progress report in 2027.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government intends to begin the review of the statutory duty on local authorities to provide a sufficient youth offer, and whether this review will consider strengthening statutory protections to ensure equal access to high quality youth services nationwide.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

In September 2023 DCMS published updated statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing duty and how to deliver it. In the longer-term, we will explore reviewing the current local authorities’ statutory duty for youth services to empower them to better deliver on their responsibilities for youth services. The timeline for this review is not yet finalised.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the affordability of HMRC’s policy requiring people with Self-Assessment liabilities above £3,000 to enter into time to pay arrangements subject to interest; and whether she has considered reviewing the interest rate applied to those arrangements to ensure that individuals experiencing loss of income or financial hardship are not disproportionately affected.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC provides support to taxpayers who are unable to pay their tax liabilities in full through time to pay arrangements.

Taxpayers should contact HMRC as soon as possible so we can support them by working to negotiate time to pay what they owe based on their income and expenditure, designed to help customers pay what they owe in smaller, sustainable instalments. They are a longstanding option available to businesses and individuals who are in temporary financial difficulty and can be amended if the customers’ circumstances change.

Late payment interest is charged whenever tax is paid late and continues to accrue on amounts not paid on time, even if those amounts are included in a time to pay arrangement.

HMRC’s interest rates are set by statutory instrument. It is open to us to alter the rates, and we keep this under review. The rate balances the need to encourage payment, ensure fairness for those who do pay on time, the cost to the public purse of delayed payment, and affordability. Time to pay, and the guidance offered by HMRC advisers, is the mechanism by which additional support is given where needed.

If the rate of late payment interest is too low, HMRC may become the lender of first preference to some customers, impairing our ability to efficiently collect taxes and fund public services. HMRC’s debt balance grew significantly during the pandemic, and there is a risk of anything that encourages taxpayers to delay payment will further increase this. HMRC’s interest rate was linked to the Base of England base rate (BOE) in 2009 to introduce an element of independence in the rate setting. HMRC late payment rate is set in legislation as BOE +4% from April 2025.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that young people from constituencies such as Crewe and Nantwich will have direct opportunities to shape, monitor and influence the rollout of the National Youth Strategy.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

We will be engaging with local authorities and partners across the country to amplify youth voices through Youth Councils and other mechanisms, so that a diverse range of young people have a role in shaping decisions that affect their lives.

This may look different in every place, and we are eager to work with young people to co-design what this looks like in their local area, including Crewe and Nantwich.

The reporting and governance process across government will allow young people to hold us to account on what we are doing. This will be through a national hearing by young people every year to discuss progress and priorities on the delivery of the strategy.

Redundancies of skilled rail workers at Balfour Beatty