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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which of the actions set out in the Online Advertising Taskforce action plan, published on 30 November 2023, are (a) completed, (b) being taken forward and (c) not being taken forward.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Online Advertising Taskforce last met on May 6th 2025, and is expected to meet again in Autumn. Its six industry-led working groups are delivering a programme of work to help tackle illegal advertising, and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to be sold to them. A progress report was published in November 2024, updating on progress to date and planned next steps. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-advertising-taskforce-progress-report-2023-24

Since the publication of this report, working groups have continued to set further targets to improve advertising trust, transparency and accountability, and a new AI-focused working group has been established.

The Action Plan also referred to the passage of legislation at the time and to other government initiatives to support a reduction in advertising harms, including fraudulent advertising. This includes the Online Safety Act 2023 and Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which restates the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and applies from 6 April 2025. The Government committed to introducing an expanded Fraud Strategy in our manifesto, covering the continued and modern-day threats our society faces. Development of the strategy has begun, and we are considering all harms, including fraudulent online advertising.

The Online Advertising Programme was an initiative of the previous government and a second consultation was not published, but we continue to monitor the regulatory framework closely.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when will the Online Advertising Taskforce next meet; and how many meetings are anticipated in 2025.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Online Advertising Taskforce last met on May 6th 2025, and is expected to meet again in Autumn. Its six industry-led working groups are delivering a programme of work to help tackle illegal advertising, and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to be sold to them. A progress report was published in November 2024, updating on progress to date and planned next steps. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-advertising-taskforce-progress-report-2023-24

Since the publication of this report, working groups have continued to set further targets to improve advertising trust, transparency and accountability, and a new AI-focused working group has been established.

The Action Plan also referred to the passage of legislation at the time and to other government initiatives to support a reduction in advertising harms, including fraudulent advertising. This includes the Online Safety Act 2023 and Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which restates the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and applies from 6 April 2025. The Government committed to introducing an expanded Fraud Strategy in our manifesto, covering the continued and modern-day threats our society faces. Development of the strategy has begun, and we are considering all harms, including fraudulent online advertising.

The Online Advertising Programme was an initiative of the previous government and a second consultation was not published, but we continue to monitor the regulatory framework closely.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take legislative steps to regulate programmatic advertising.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government will continue to monitor the regulatory framework around online advertising to assess if further legislation is needed. The Online Advertising Taskforce continues to take forward non-legislative action on addressing illegal advertising and minimising children being served advertising for products and services illegal to be sold to them.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to fund level 6 apprenticeships for all ages for 2027-28.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Level 6 apprenticeships are a core part of our apprenticeships offer and continue to be funded by government.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of merging the Valuation Office Agency and HMRC when dealing with businesses, in the context of changes to Agricultural Property Relief.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

On 28 April 2025, the government announced that the Valuation Office Agency’s functions will be brought into HMRC by the end of this financial year. This will combine the expertise and experience of both organisations in policy, valuations and programme delivery to support the government to deliver change more effectively. The move will improve the experience for taxpayers and businesses.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 22 May 2025, HCWS652, whether programmatic advertisements served to UK residents on non-UK sites will be covered by the regulations.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. These restrictions are expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from United Kingdom children’s diets per year and deliver £2 billion in health benefits.

As set out in the Communications Act 2003 (as amended by the Health and Care Act 2022), the online restrictions will apply to advertisements which are intended to be accessed principally by people in the United Kingdom. The Advertising Standards Authority, as the frontline regulator, will issue guidance to set out how this will be enforced. As also set out in legislation, video on demand (VOD) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services that are under the jurisdiction of the UK, and therefore regulated by Ofcom, will be subject to the 9:00pm television watershed. Whereas VOD and IPTV services not regulated by Ofcom, and therefore outside of UK jurisdiction, will be subject to the 24-hour online restrictions.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's definition is of expert teachers.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Recruiting and retaining high quality teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child. This is why the government’s Plan for Change has committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary and special schools, and in our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.

The term ‘expert teacher’ focuses on the qualities and expertise it requires to be a high quality teacher and ensuring that teaching remains a valued profession. Quality teaching is essential to reduce the attainment gap and is the most significant in-school and college determinant of pupil outcomes.

This is why the department has put in place initiatives to ensure teachers are better qualified and better trained. We are introducing legislation to ensure new teachers have or are working towards qualified teacher status, and to help further improve teacher quality from September 2025, we will also introduce the new initial teacher training and early career framework, replacing the current initial teacher training core content framework and the early career framework. We are also reviewing national professional qualification courses to align with the latest evidence and best practice.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54726 on Schools: internet, what steps she is taking to ensure blocks on illegal content are (a) technically enforced and (b) cannot be overridden in all education settings.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Keeping children safe is an absolute priority for this government and schools play a critical role in this.

In England, schools must procure their own technology, including filtering and monitoring systems, and ensure they meet the statutory safeguarding requirements set out in the ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE) statutory guidance and in the filtering and monitoring standards, in order to protect students from harmful and/or illegal content. Both are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2 and https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/filtering-and-monitoring-standards-for-schools-and-colleges.

The standards require filtering systems to effectively block harmful and inappropriate content using regularly updated blocklists from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU). Schools cannot alter or disable these lists. Additionally, filtering providers must be members of the IWF, signed up to CTIRU, and committed to maintaining updates.

KCSIE signposts to resources to help schools make informed decisions to support safeguarding which, amongst others, includes a tool from South West Grid for Learning that allows schools to check whether their filtering provider is aligned with the necessary blocklists. This resource is available here: https://swgfl.org.uk/services/test-filtering/. We also funded the UK Safer Internet Centre to produce a series of webinars, which are available at: https://saferinternet.org.uk/blog/filtering-and-monitoring-webinars-available. We have also recently launched the plan technology for your school service which helps schools understand how to meet the standards. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-technology-for-your-school.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the fall in the number of children at independent schools was in line with her Department’s projections.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Pupil numbers remain firmly within expectations and higher than 2021/22. As a percentage of the overall school population, private school pupils have remained the same, at 6.5%. It has been between 6% and 7% for the last two decades.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what date her Department first published a projection of the number of (a) Primary and (b) Secondary school places that would be needed in September 2024.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

​​Estimates of the primary places needed to meet predicted demand for places in September 2024 were first published on 24 March 2022.

​Estimates of the secondary places needed to meet predicted demand for places in September 2024 were first published on 28 March 2019.

​The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department provides to HM Treasury for the purposes of forecasting future numbers of claims for (a) PIP and (b) the (i) Limited Capability for Work Element and (ii) Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity Element of Universal Credit; and whether her Department is responsible for any of the assumptions underpinning those forecasts.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Forecast number of claims for PIP and health components of Universal Credit are produced by the Department as part of overall expenditure forecasts provided to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) at each fiscal event. DWP provides forecasts of benefit payments based on DWP assumptions agreed by OBR, alongside economic determinants, judgments and assumptions provided by the OBR. These forecasts are shared with HM Treasury in parallel with the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Full details of the relationship between DWP, OBR and HMT can be found within the Memorandum of understanding between the Office for Budget Responsibility, HM Treasury, the Department for Work & Pensions, and HM Revenue & Customs.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 60037 on Dentistry: Higher Education, when he expects the Privy Council approval process to be completed.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Privy Council must be satisfied that it has all the required information before it can make a final decision to award Dental Authority Status to an organisation.

I understand that the Privy Council Office has recently requested additional information from Portsmouth Dental Academy pertinent to its application, and that it is awaiting a response.

Found: Rochford) Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat; Guildford) Mr James Frith (Labour; Bury North) Rt Hon Damian Hinds

Central South APPG
Wednesday 2nd July 2025

Found: Apologies: Tom Hayes MP; Suella Braverman MP; Damian Hinds MP; Chris Loader MP; Desmond Swayne MP; Alan

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A new inquiry will explore the provision of children’s TV and video content in the UK and what can be done to ensure future generations continue to have access to high-quality British-made programming. The inquiry will examine how to ensure those making original high-quality content can continue and how it can be made easier to find it online. 

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