Dan Carden

We are committed to restoring public confidence in government and ensuring that all those in public service are held to the highest standards.

We will consider carefully the National Audit Office’s recommendations in its recent report ‘Managing Conflicts of Interest’.

The Department for Business and Trade is a newly formed Department established in February 2023. The new department absorbed the functions of the former Department for International Trade (DIT) and some of the functions of the former Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The amount spent on consultancy by both departments are as follows:

The Department publishes its annual expenditure on consultancy in its Annual Report and Accounts.

I refer the honourable member to my response on 29 January 2025 (UIN 25410).

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a market-led mechanism in which energy suppliers, not government, set both tariff levels and structure. This is to encourage innovation and competition between suppliers.

The Government keeps the SEG under regular review to ensure it continues to meet our objectives. The latest SEG report shows registered generators more than tripled between 2022/23 to 2023/24, from 92,946 to 283,666.

The Clean Energy Mission will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. The UK has a highly skilled oil and gas workforce, with high transferability of skills to these new roles.

The Office for Clean Energy Jobs (OCEJ) has been created to ensure that clean energy jobs are abundant, high quality, paid fairly, and have favourable terms and good working conditions.

The OCEJ will also set out targeted interventions to support specific skills needs in the clean energy workforce. It recently announced support for the Energy Skills Passport to support oil and gas workers into new roles in the clean energy sector.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) was created in February 2023, so no information is held for periods prior to that date.

The Departments spend on Consultancy Fees in financial year 23/24 can be found in the 2023/24 Annual Report, available here.

Ofgem’s price cap increased for the period 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024 due to the increase in global wholesale energy prices. The Government believes that the only way to protect billpayers permanently from price shocks, is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on foreign, volatile energy markets, and help in our commitment to produce all of the UK's energy from clean power sources by 2030.

DSIT was created by a Machinery of Government (MOG) change on 7 February 2023, we have not provided data prior to DSIT becoming a fully operational department. Departmental Group consultancy spend in financial year 23-24, as disclosed in 2023-24 Annual report & Accounts (ARA), was £24.0 million.

We recognise the Government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer. As part of this wider mission, the Government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.

The Online Safety Act (OSA) will be the Governments key tool in combatting online mis- and disinformation. It sets out a clear regulatory framework to tackle both mis- and disinformation where it constitutes illegal content or harmful content to children.

In addition, we are educating and empowering users through our work on media literacy to increase society’s resilience to mis- and disinformation.

Officials also regularly meet with major platforms, about disinformation activity, emerging risks and platforms’ responses.

The government’s consultation on Copyright and AI, launched 17 December and closing 25 February, was published alongside an accompanying options assessment. One of the main reasons for the consultation is to gather further evidence on the potential impact on the creative industries of any change to the copyright regime in the context of AI training.

Following the consultation, if legislative changes are needed to bring clarity to the UK copyright regime, a full economic impact assessment will be undertaken.

At the recent Budget, the government took a number of difficult decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the foundations of the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability.

Ministers have met with representatives from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to discuss this issue and the department is aware of their concerns about the impacts of the increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

The government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that more than half of businesses (including charities) with NICs liabilities will either gain or see no change next year.

We are also expanding eligibility of the Employment Allowance by removing the £100,000 eligibility threshold, to simplify and reform employer NICs so that all eligible employers now benefit. Businesses and charities will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

The Government publishes Tax Information and Impact Notes (TIINs) for tax policy changes, which give a clear explanation of the policy objective and an assessment of the impacts. The TIIN for the employer NICs changes was published on 13 November 2024.

Within the tax system, we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving. More than £6 billion in charitable reliefs was provided to charities, Community Amateur Sports Clubs and their donors in 2023 to 2024. The biggest individual reliefs provided are Gift Aid at £1.6 billion and business rates relief at nearly £2.4 billion.

2021-22 - The consultancy spend was £17.5m for DCMS core department as can be seen in note 4.3 page 146 of our laid annual report and accounts - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/638883e6d3bf7f3282be4061/DCMS_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2021-22_-_web_accessible_version.pdf

2022-23 - The consultancy spend was £9.1m for DCMS core department as can be seen in note 4.3 page 165 of our laid annual report and accounts - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/656e02469462260705c568ca/E03016038_HC_255_Dept_of_Culture__Media_and_Sport_ARA_2022-23_Accessible.pdf

2023-24 - The consultancy spend was £2.6m for DCMS core department; this is within the total for the DCMS group consultancy spend of £15.2m as can be seen in note 4.3 page 167 of our laid annual report and accounts - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673f1ae44ebce30ac7baf00d/E03231133_DCMS_ARA_2023-24_ACCESSIBLE.pdf

The figures for 2021-22 and 2022-23 are on a pre Machinery of Government basis and therefore included costings for Digital related activities that are transferred to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The figures for consultancy spend after 1 April 2024 will not be available until our 2024-25 accounts have been laid in parliament and published.

The Government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer.

As part of this wider mission, the Government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.

The government recognises the great importance of sport and physical activity for disabled people at both the grassroots and elite levels. We recognise there are barriers which exist and prevent some people from taking part and spectating. We will continue to do all that we can to tackle these and are encouraging sport bodies to make sport more accessible.

The government recently ratified the St Denis Convention. In doing so, we committed to providing an integrated safety, security and service approach at football matches and other sports events. The Sports Ground Safety Authority, one of DCMS’s Arm's-Length Bodies, has begun a partnership with the Council of Europe to better understand and promote the ‘safety’ and ‘service’ element of the convention to the benefit of all fans.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion in England. Of that total, Liverpool City Council is being allocated over £103 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), which is an increase of £10 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 10% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.

In addition to the DSG, local authorities will also receive a separate core schools budget grant (CSBG), and funding in respect of the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, in 2025/26. This CSBG continues the separate grants payable this year, which are to help special schools and alternative provision with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases, and other staff pay increases. Individual local authorities’ allocations for both grants for 2025/26 will be published in due course.

School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment. For example, the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found a 34 point difference in reading performance between pupils in England who “very much” liked reading and pupils who “do not” like reading. Additionally, the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study found that enjoyment of reading links to pupils’ reading engagement, and that reading engagement was strongly positively correlated with reading performance. There is also a strong evidence base linking reading for pleasure to other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.

It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.

Given this autonomy, the department does not collect information on the number of school libraries or school librarians. ​​There are currently no plans to make it a statutory requirement for primary schools to have a library, although we will continue to keep this matter under review.

​The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.

The department publishes national statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey for young people aged 16 to 24. However, these are only published at national and regional level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16 to 24 cannot be provided for the area requested. The available statistics can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.

Local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. This data shows that of the 10,372 young people aged 16 and 17-years-old who were known to Liverpool local authority around the end of 2022 (average of December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023), 885 were NEET or their activity was not known (530 known to be NEET and 355 young people whom the local authority could not confirm their activity). This data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures. These are not national statistics but published as transparency data so some caution should be taken if using these figures. Data is not available for Liverpool, Walton constituency.

In addition, 16 to 18 destination measures are published. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16 to 18 study, that is 6 months of continual activity. This can be used as a proxy for NEET at age 18. Data for Liverpool Walton is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/55eab43f-7467-408e-90c8-08dd184e91f8. This shows that out of 357 pupils completing 16 to 18 study in the 2021/22 academic year in Liverpool Walton, 39 pupils were not recorded as having a sustained destination in the 2022/23, and 23 pupils did not have their activity captured.

The government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer.

As part of this wider mission, the government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.

The latest available data that has been audited and published as part of the Group Annual Report and Accounts, is linked below:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024

The data for post-March 2024 is live and unaudited. Additionally, due to the department’s accruals accounting, the partial year’s data may be incomplete and misleading. Therefore, we are unable to provide data beyond March 2024.

The department recognises that care leavers have poorer outcomes than their peers across all aspects of their lives. We want all those leaving care to have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships, and help to engage in education, employment and training. The department is committed to helping children thrive, and we want the best for every child and family. We want to build on the foundations laid by local authorities to create a care system that works for everyone.

We have already begun this vital work. My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced in his speech in September that we will bring forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.

In the King’s Speech, we committed to introduce a Children’s Wellbeing Bill to take forward further legislative changes needed to improve the children’s social care system, including support for care leavers.

Expenditure on consultancy is reported each year in the Annual Report and Accounts.

For 2021-22, this is shown on page 111 at

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/635a7f1e8fa8f5653f83f4f0/defra-annual-report-2021-2022.pdf

For 2022-23, this is shown on page 108 at

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/653a9479e6c9680014aa9be8/annual-report-and-accounts-2022-23.pdf

The 2023-24 figures are being audited and are not yet finalised or published.

The Government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer.

As part of this wider mission, the Government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.

In July, the Secretary of State confirmed the Government’s intention to launch a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP). Our review will make sure that the EIP is fit for purpose to deliver on our ambitious targets, including 30by30, and we will communicate updates in the usual way.

The table shows the total departmental spend on consultancy for financial years 2020/2021 to 2023/2024. The total includes the central department (DfTc), Executive Agencies and Arm Length Bodies (ALBs).

Departmental total spend (£)

2020/21 175,720,840

2021/22 198,001,723

2022/23 225,477,742

2023/24 165,372,920

The Department’s campaign to promote Pension Credit has been running across Great Britain since September. The latest phase of the campaign, which launched on 8 November, is aimed at friends and family - especially adult children of eligible pensioners - asking them to tell people they know about Pension Credit, encourage them to check their eligibility, as well as help them make a claim. It is running on TV, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube and on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens.

The Department’s ‘Invitation to Claim’ initiative was launched on 30 October. Since then, we have written to around 120,000 pensioner households across Great Britain who are in receipt of Housing Benefit but not Pension Credit. The letter and accompanying leaflet urge these households to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment in winter 2024/25.

The reforms to Jobcentres across Great Britain that we have announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper will be transformative.

Key to the White Paper’s successful delivery will be ensuring it is locally responsive and engaged. This will mean it will operate differently in different areas to reflect local systems and needs.

We will work closely with key partners, including Mayoral Combined Authorities, as we design, develop and test the new service into the next year. These tests will help us discover how we can shape a local service, while the UK Government maintains overall accountability for it.

In the Get Britain Working White Paper, the Government announced £45 million of funding for eight trailblazers in England to test delivery of the Youth Guarantee. Liverpool City Region are one of the eight areas set to receive a proportion of this funding to support 18-21 year olds access education, training and employment opportunities in their area.

Working closely on the detail of the design and delivery in the Liverpool City Region, we will be able to maximise the difference it makes to young people’s lives locally. Further analysis will be available through the course of the trailblazer.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations and our response to the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’.

The CMS Service Modernisation Programme has delivered improvements to the customer experience enabling parents to access their on-line My Child Maintenance Case, ensuring parents can report changes of circumstances and access their digital communications at any time of the day. In addition, caseworker training to support vulnerable customers has been updated following invaluable engagement with stakeholders.

The CMS has recently consulted on significant reforms and are analysing the responses. This included removing the Direct Pay service and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster.  The consultation also sought views on how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported to use CMS and whether removing Direct Pay completely would benefit victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Government will publish a response in due course.

There are already a number of easements in place within the benefit system to support particular groups – including care leavers. To support the additional challenges care leavers face, care leavers benefit from an exemption to the Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR) until the age of 25.

The Department formally consults with the British Dental Association on the details of contract uplift proposals before these are implemented, as the recognised representative body for dentists. We consulted the British Dental Association on the proposed uplift for 2024/25, as we do each year.

The Government implemented the overall uplift to contract values on 29 January. Uplifted payments will be made in March, backdated to 1 April 2024.

There are currently no plans to commission a public inquiry into the safety of Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) breast implants.

As part of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) market surveillance for medical devices, we worked with the National Health Service and other health partners to ensure the PIP issue was properly investigated. PIP breast implants were withdrawn from the market in 2010. It is important to note that while PIP implants are associated with a higher risk of rupture, leading to symptoms such as tenderness or swollen lymph glands, there is no evidence linking ruptured PIP implants to serious long-term health issues.

As with any medical device, breast implants do not come without risks. The current advice from the MHRA remains that anyone with a PIP breast implant should consult with their doctor about the possibility of removal. The NHS and MHRA provide guidance for patients on the available options for PIP implant removal. This is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pip-implants/

Since PIP breast implants were withdrawn, two independent reviews have identified lessons learnt, specifically the Howe Review in 2012 and the Keogh Review in 2013. The health system has since enacted important changes. As a result of the Keogh Review, since 2016 the Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry collects data on all types of breast implant and removal surgeries in England and Scotland, aiming to help detect emerging safety issues and trace patients if necessary.

The MHRA is developing a future regulatory framework for medical devices that will ensure that patients have access to the safe and effective medical devices they need. The first step is the introduction of new Post-Market Surveillance regulations, which will come into force in June, and will put in place strengthened legal requirements for how manufacturers monitor and report on their devices once they are being used in the real world. We intend to follow this with updates to the UK Medical Device Regulations later this year, which will bring further improvements to device traceability and patient safety by introducing additional measures that must be taken before a product can be placed on the market. This will include requirements for unique device identifiers, implant cards, new rules to ensure that claims are consistent with the intended purpose, and changes to the classification of some medical devices, such as implantables, to better reflect the potential risks to patients and ensure risk proportionate requirements for manufacturers.

NHS England’s regional teams have worked closely with the integrated care boards to ensure that appropriate action is taken to address and mitigate the issues identified within each declared critical incident, including at the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The Government is committed to building a National Health Service fit for the future, with a greater emphasis on the prevention of avoidable health harms, supporting people to live well for longer.

We have noted the United States Surgeon General’s recommendations, and will continue to consider how alcohol labelling can be improved to support consumers in making informed decisions about the products they are purchasing, whilst also promoting low risk consumption.

The following table shows the amount the Department spent on consultancy fees, each year since 2021:

Source: the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts within the Accountability Report, in the table on expenditure on Consultancy, Agency and Temporary workers.

The value for 2020/21 has been amended from previous Parliamentary Questions as a prior year adjustment for 2020/21 was reflected in the 2021/22 Annual Report and Accounts to account for £17,365,000 for the vaccine taskforce, which was transferred from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, amending the value for 2020/21 from £171,613,000 to £188,978,000. The table excludes the date for 2023/24. Fully audited figures for 2023/24 will be available upon the publication of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts later this year.

Per the annual report and accounts published figures, the FCDO has spent the following amounts on consultancy fees since 2021:

• £2.7 million in 20/21
• £5.8 million in 21/22
• £4.3 million in 22/23
• £3.5 million in 23/24
• The reporting for the current financial year, Apr 2024 to Mar 2025, is not available and will be published in due course in 2025.

The Government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer. As part of this wider mission, the Government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.

The UK has a long-standing commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights. In July, the UK government expressed concern about the situation in Bangladesh and called for all sides to work together to end the violence. We were clear that a full and independent UN-led investigation is important. The Interim Government in Bangladesh has the UK's full support as it works to restore peace and order including investigating alleged human rights violations. The UK supports the work of the UN as it works to conduct an impartial and independent fact-finding mission to identify human rights violations.

The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable groups, and is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses. Furthermore, the Government recognises that businesses need access to cash deposit services in order to continue accepting cash.

Furthermore, where a community, or interested party, feels that access to cash in their area is not sufficient, they are able to submit a cash access assessment request to LINK, the operator of the UK’s largest ATM network, who undertake these assessments. Further information about submitting a cash access assessment request can be found at the following link: https://www.link.co.uk/helping-you-access-cash/request-access-to-cash

LINK publishes data on the number of ATMs across each parliamentary constituency. In the constituency of Liverpool Walton, LINK data identifies 46 free-to-use ATMs out of 75 cash access facilities across the constituency. There are also 40 Post Office branches in the wider Liverpool area where you can deposit and withdraw money.

The Government recognises that some individuals may need assistance, including in-person assistance, to support their access to cash, and is committed to ensuring appropriate services are in place to support this.

This is why the Government is working closely with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs across the UK. The UK banking sector has committed to deliver these hubs by the end of this parliament. These hubs will provide small businesses and individuals who need face-to-face support with critical cash and in-person banking services. Over 100 Banking Hubs are already open across the UK.

A Tax Information and Impact Note that covers the employer NICs changes was published by HMRC on 13 November and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl .

The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.

The Government recognises the important role charities play in our society, and has made it a priority to reset the relationship with civil society by developing a Civil Society Covenant.

To repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the government has taken the difficult decision to increase employer National Insurance.

The Government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of employers with NICs liabilities either gain or see no change next year. Charities will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

More broadly, within the tax system, we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving, with more than £6 billion in charitable reliefs provided to charities, CASCs and their donors in 2023 to 2024.

Treasury Ministers regularly meets with Ministerial colleagues to discuss a range of issues. The LGBT Veterans Independent Report recommended a level of funding to be made available for those dismissed or discharged from service as a result of policy prohibiting homosexuality in the Armed Forces (‘the ban’). The details of the financial recognition scheme recommended by the report are still in development and approval, including the total fund to be made available by MoD in recognition of those dismissed, discharged, or otherwise impacted by the ban. The Scheme details will be announced in Parliament when the Government is ready to publish its response.

Following the recent alcohol duty reforms, all alcoholic products are now taxed by strength. This reflects public health priorities and helps to address potentially harmful products like ‘white’ ciders and strong fortified wines, which are often cited by health groups as being abused.

The Chancellor has confirmed that she will set out plans for tax – as well as spending and borrowing – in the usual way at the Budget on 30 October.

HM Treasury welcomes representations as part of this policy making process and Budget submissions will be received through the online portal until 10 September.