Imran Ahmad Khan

Campaigning is an essential part of democracy. Voters deserve to be well informed before going to the polls and there must be a level playing field for candidates. However, all those involved in the electoral process must also ensure that public health is protected. There is therefore a necessary balance to be struck in allowing campaigning activity and continuing to protect the NHS and save lives.

On 22 February the Prime Minister announced the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown and on 26 February, we published further guidance on campaigning for all forthcoming polls, reflecting the updated COVID restrictions and guidance. All campaigners should follow the guidance on how to stop the spread of coronavirus at all times.

The Cabinet Office does not hold the data requested by constituency.

As at 31 March 2020, HM Revenue & Customs was the largest employer of civil servants in West Yorkshire.

The Cabinet Office does not hold the data requested by constituency.

As at 31 March 2020, HM Revenue & Customs was the largest employer of civil servants in West Yorkshire.

Further to my answer to PQ72996 on 21 July 2020, we are working to increase civil service presence throughout the regions and nations of the UK. We want to ensure our geography of locations covers as large and representative an area of the UK as possible, including West Yorkshire.

Companies House has identified the number of companies that were operating in Wakefield and West Yorkshire in the financial year 2018/19 and for which either a first or second notice was published in the London Gazette in the financial year 2019/20. These notices are indicative that a company is no longer trading and will be dissolved in due course.

Wakefield:

There were 1,794 companies that were operating in Wakefield in 2018/19 for which first or second notices were published in the London Gazette in 2019/20.

West Yorkshire:

There were 14,841 companies that were operating in West Yorkshire in 2018/19 for which first or second notices were published in the London Gazette in 2019/20.

The Government aims to make the United Kingdom the best place to start, grow and run a business. Government provides support and information for small businesses, including on starting and running a business, through our online services on GOV.UK; via the Business Support Helpline on FREEPHONE 0800 998 1098; and through the network of 38 local Growth Hubs in England.

A wide range of support and funding is available in Wakefield and across West Yorkshire for businesses at all stages, from start-ups and early-stage companies, to established businesses that are ready to expand and grow. With BEIS Growth Hub funding support, the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s Business Support Service provides a single point of access to a wide range of national and local support and funding.

Local programmes which encourage and support start-ups and young businesses include:

The Ad:Venture programme provides a full business start-up programme, with young West Yorkshire businesses benefitting from a tailored mix of practical advice, coaching, academic support, incubation work space, finance brokerage and low rate loans. Grant funding of between £1,000 and £25,000 is available to support capital growth costs. As of February 2021, 40 Wakefield businesses have benefitted from the programme, with £2.3m grant awarded to 427 businesses across the City Region.

The Business Growth Programme 2021/22 includes support for new start enterprises and assistance to established businesses to help them recover and adapt following the Covid-19 pandemic. Grants of between £5,000 and £500,000 will be available across West Yorkshire. The programme is supported by £7m from Government’s Getting Building Fund, extending services provided to March 2021 through the Local Growth Fund.

Entrepreneurship Support Package 2021 will encourage people from all communities across West Yorkshire to set up new businesses and help them tap into the wider sources of support that are available. The package will use at least £6m of investment funds provided by Government through the West Yorkshire Deal.

The British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme provides loans of up to £25,000 for those starting a new business, or for businesses which have been trading for up to 24 months. In addition to finance, loan recipients are offered a dedicated mentoring service and access to a free expert business mentor for 12 months to help them with every aspect of setting up a business. The Start Up Loans programme has delivered over 81,000 loans totalling more than £707m (as at end-Feb 2021). 92 loans have been issued in Wakefield, totalling over £727,000. 9% of loans have been issued in Yorkshire and the Humber region, totalling over £62m. The British Business Bank’s online Finance Hub also offers independent and impartial information on different finance options for businesses. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Hub has been updated to clearly signpost the financial support options available for businesses during this period of uncertainty.

The Government’s new ‘Help to Grow’ scheme will help small businesses across the UK learn new skills, reach new customers, and boost profits. Help to Grow: Management will provide intensive management skills support to 30,000 small businesses whilst Help to Grow: Digital could support 100,000 small businesses with online advice and a voucher for software costs. BEIS will be engaging with stakeholders shortly but businesses can register their interest now at https://helptogrow.campaign.gov.uk/.

As of 1 April 2021, the number of companies registered in (a) Wakefield was 14,380 and the number of companies registered in (b) West Yorkshire was 135,136.

As recognised in our report from January this year, employers can play a key role in supporting their employees if they are victims of Domestic Abuse, including working with other employers to break the silence on domestic abuse. I am proud to promote membership of the Employers Initiative on Domestic Abuse to employers in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and all across the country. I have recently done this through an open letter to employers. I welcome the support and interest from my Hon. Friend on this important agenda, and hope that he will continue to encourage businesses in his local area to take action.

Guidance for the Restart Grant scheme was published on the 17^th March for both Local Authorities and businesses. This guidance sets out the funding and eligibility criteria for businesses.

The Government is working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that Restart Grant schemes are set up and operational for April.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) works closely with electricity and gas companies, the regulator Ofgem and other stakeholders to ensure that the appropriate measures are in place to protect customers, especially the most vulnerable.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, electricity and gas network operators reviewed and modified their working practices to comply with the Safer Working Guidance published by the Government. They also carried out targeted engagement with their most vulnerable customers to update them on changes to processes, and provide assurance that essential services remain available.

Additionally, the Department secured a voluntary agreement with energy companies in March 2020 to support all households impacted by Covid-19, requiring suppliers to support those struggling with their energy bills and to take action to keep them on supply. This is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-agrees-measures-with-energy-industry-to-support-vulnerable-people-through-covid-19.

Electricity network operators are obliged to maintain a Priority Services Register (PSR) to ensure the correct support is given to the most vulnerable customers. Each network operator maintains its own register and shares this information with energy suppliers.

Northern Power Grid, the network operator responsible for operating and maintaining the electricity distribution network in North East England, has 27,709 properties on the PSR within the postcodes covered by the Wakefield constituency.

In 2019, the Government consulted on high-level options and principles for reforming the parental leave and pay system to enable parents to balance the gender division of parental leave. We are currently assessing the responses to the consultation and intend to publish our response later this year.

We are also carrying out an evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme which was introduced in 2015. The scheme challenges the assumption that the mother will always be the primary carer and enables eligible working parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay in the first year of their child’s life. As part of this evaluation, we have undertaken a large-scale representative survey which sought views from over 3,000 parents on parental leave and entitlements. We are currently processing and analysing the data that we have collected and intend to publish our findings later this year, alongside the response to the consultation.

In order to gather information among parents on how parental entitlements, including Maternity Leave and Pay, are used in practice, the Government commissioned the Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey. Fieldwork for the survey is complete and we are currently processing and analysing the data that we have collected. We intend to publish our findings, including detailed information on the duration of Maternity Leave taken by mothers surveyed, later this year.

Officials are working closely with local authorities to establish the number of wet-led pubs in each area that are in scope for the Christmas Support Payment for wet-led pubs.

Full guidance to local authorities will be issued shortly setting out the process local authorities must undertake to enable eligible pubs to apply for the payment.

My Department will continue to provide guidance and support to tourism businesses across England to ensure that they can comply with COVID-19 restrictions.

The Government’s COVID-19 Secure guidance for hotels and guest accommodation and the visitor economy will be kept up to date over the coming months, in line with the reopening process for the sector. We have also worked with industry bodies like UKHospitality and the Association of Event Organisers during the pandemic to produce more detailed sub-sector specific guidance.

We will continue to provide guidance and assurance regarding when people can safely go on holiday - as demonstrated through initiatives such as VisitBritain’s ‘Good to Go’ COVID-19 secure industry standard, now in use by over 44,000 tourism businesses across the UK.

My Department plans to take a number of steps to encourage tourism in all regions following the easing of restrictions.

The Global Travel Taskforce last year committed the Government to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the Spring, including plans for a marketing campaign to welcome visitors back to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.

The recently announced £56 million Welcome Back Fund will help councils improve green spaces, provide more outdoor seating areas and support tourism’s reopening this summer.

When holidays are permitted again, we will work with VisitBritain, VisitEngland and local partners to champion the UK’s diverse tourism offer once again - just as we did with last year’s Enjoy Summer Safely and Escape The Everyday campaigns.

The government is committed to supporting local and regional media outlets as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. Local newspapers have benefited from a number of recent interventions, including the extension of business rates relief for local newspaper office space in England for an additional five years; the investment of £2 million in the Future News Fund; and the zero-rating of VAT on e-newspapers.

During the pandemic, many newspapers have also benefited from a unique and unprecedented government advertising partnership, designed to deliver important messages to UK citizens. Newspapers received up to £35 million additional government advertising revenue as part of the first phase of our coronavirus communications campaign. The campaign has subsequently been extended with at least 60% funding going to smaller regional and local titles. The Wakefield Express and Dewsbury Reporter are both included in the Partnership.

Looking ahead, the government announced in November 2020 that it will establish a new pro-competition regime for digital markets. At the heart of this will be a mandatory code of conduct to govern the relationships between dominant firms and those that rely on their services, including news publishers. The code will be a significant intervention in the government’s effort to support the sustainability of the news publishing industry, helping to rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely.

We will continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining high-quality news journalism at a local level.

Addressing the challenges of COVID-19 disinformation is a whole of Government effort. That is why we stood up the Counter Disinformation Unit in March 2020, drawing on resources from a number of existing cross-government teams, giving it the flexibility to respond to a range of different issues as needed.

We have reallocated staff from within the Department to boost the size of the team at DCMS. We continually review the requirement and work flexibly across government to ensure the unit is sufficiently resourced, allowing us to surge capacity where it's needed.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health, and are a vital weapon against coronavirus. That’s why we have made sure that people can exercise throughout the national and local tiered restrictions. We will continue to promote sport and physical activity and encourage the usage of indoor sports facilities such as gyms as part of Step 2 of the Roadmap.

Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. On top of wider economic support, the Government has announced a £100m support fund for local authority leisure centres to ensure these important facilities remain available once public health restrictions are lifted. This is on top of the £270m which Sport England have committed to providing to the Grassroots sports sector.

We know how important sport is for young people’s physical and mental wellbeing. That is why the Culture Secretary and Education Secretary are working closely with our national sports and Sport England on an extensive offer of activities in schools over the summer.

The Government has been here for culture throughout the pandemic, and, as we emerge from it, we know that the public will want to be there, too. As our cultural institutions reopen, we will encourage people to get out there and support them and we will continue to provide guidance to ensure venues are safe for the public.

The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.

DCMS has been working closely with the tourism, arts and cultural sectors to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.

The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.

The Government recognises that this continues to be an incredibly challenging time and that there are many cultural organisations and professionals who are currently facing difficult and uncertain circumstances. We are continuing to engage extensively with stakeholders from across DCMS’s sectors to understand the impacts of the pandemic and to determine how sectors can reopen when it is safe to do so.

The Government has been here for culture throughout the pandemic, and, as we emerge from it, we know that the public will want to be there, too. As our cultural institutions reopen, we will encourage people to get out there and support them and we will continue to provide guidance to ensure venues are safe for the public.

The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.

DCMS has been working closely with the tourism, arts and cultural sectors to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.

The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.

The Government recognises that this continues to be an incredibly challenging time and that there are many cultural organisations and professionals who are currently facing difficult and uncertain circumstances. We are continuing to engage extensively with stakeholders from across DCMS’s sectors to understand the impacts of the pandemic and to determine how sectors can reopen when it is safe to do so.

The Government has been here for culture throughout the pandemic, and, as we emerge from it, we know that the public will want to be there, too. As our cultural institutions reopen, we will encourage people to get out there and support them and we will continue to provide guidance to ensure venues are safe for the public.

The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.

DCMS has been working closely with the tourism, arts and cultural sectors to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously.

The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.

The Government recognises that this continues to be an incredibly challenging time and that there are many cultural organisations and professionals who are currently facing difficult and uncertain circumstances. We are continuing to engage extensively with stakeholders from across DCMS’s sectors to understand the impacts of the pandemic and to determine how sectors can reopen when it is safe to do so.

The Government’s roadmap to recovery reaffirms its commitment to publish a Tourism Recovery Plan in support of the sector. The Government intends to set out proposals in the spring, including plans for a world class marketing campaign to welcome back visitors to the UK as soon as it is safe to do so.

DCMS has been working closely with the museums sector to ensure that they are ready for reopening. The government published the roadmap on 22 February, which sets out a step-by-step plan to ease restrictions in England cautiously. Under the roadmap, we seek to reopen outdoor elements of museums and galleries in Step 2 (no earlier than 12 April), with indoor elements at these attractions opening at Step 3 (no earlier than 17 May).

The design of the roadmap has been informed by the latest scientific evidence and seeks a balance between our key social and economic priorities, whilst preserving the health and safety of the country. The scientific evidence shows that opening too early or too quickly risks a further lockdown.

Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. That’s why we have continued to make sure that people can exercise throughout the national restrictions, and why we have ensured that grassroots and children’s sport is front of the queue when easing those restrictions.

On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. From 8 March, sport can take place in school for all children, or as part of wraparound activities if children are attending in order to enable their parents to work, seek work, attend education, seek medical care, or attend a support group. Any organised outdoor sport can restart on 29 March.

The Government has provided unprecedented support to the sport sector to ensure these facilities are able to open. Beyond elite level sport, on the 22nd October 2020, the government announced a £100 million support fund for local authority leisure centres. Sport England are also providing £220 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic, including their £35 million Community Emergency Fund. Sport England’s new strategy, ‘Uniting the Movement’, dedicated an additional £50 million to support grassroots sports clubs and organisations.

Since its inception in 2012, the Superfast Broadband programme has delivered superfast broadband coverage to 5.3 million premises, which constitutes 17% of all households in the UK. As part of this programme, to date, superfast coverage has been provided to c12,000 premises within the Wakefield District.

According to Thinkbroadband (http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E14001009), superfast broadband speeds in the Wakefield constituency are above the national average with superfast connectivity (>=30Mbps) of 98%. The UK average is 96.7%, and the average in England is 97.2%.

We are, however, not resting on our laurels and have a project running in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to utilise the latest Fixed Wireless technology to further deliver superfast broadband connectivity across the West Yorkshire region, including an additional 1,000 premises in the Wakefield district.

The government is committed to providing world-class digital infrastructure, and our ambition is for the majority of the population to have access to 5G by 2027. Approximately 3,000 mobile base stations now provide 5G services across the UK, and it is available in 200 towns and cities including Wakefield.

The Government has demonstrated the significance it places on culture through the Cultural Recovery Fund. This £1.57bn support package to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions, is the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture. The funding will support our critical cultural and heritage institutions to survive and recover through the coronavirus pandemic.

My department has been working tirelessly with our Arms’ Length bodies to process the awards and I am pleased organisations across the country have benefitted including The Hepworth Wakefield, which was awarded £146,726, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was awarded £804,013 from the Fund.

The National Coal Mining Museum is also supported via Grant in Aid distributed through the DCMS- sponsored Science Museum Group.

Heritage policy ensures that the historic environment across all parts of England are protected and conserved for the benefit of present and future generations. Through statutory functions (for example, making listing and scheduling decisions to protect our most special buildings and ancient monuments) and also through the bodies it funds such as Historic England, DCMS seeks to promote understanding of and access to the historic environment.

Within the Wakefield constituency, Wakefield Upper Westgate is a High Street Heritage Action Zone under the Government funded High Street Heritage Action Zone £92million scheme. A Historic England grant of £1,899,994 with match funding of just under £2.4m will see the repair and conversion of around 20 priority historic buildings along Westgate.

In addition to this, as of the end of the financial year 2019/20 the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a total of 91 projects worth £26m in the Wakefield constituency. This includes two awards totalling £5m to The Hepworth, 10 awards totalling £10.1m to the National Coal Mining Museum, 6 awards totalling £3.8m to Wakefield Cathedral and £2.8m to Pontefract Market Place.

The £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund will provide targeted support to critical cultural, arts and heritage organisations to help them survive and recover through the coronavirus pandemic.

Our priority is to ensure that organisations get the funding they need as swiftly as possible. That is why £3.36 million has already been allocated to 136 grassroots music venues across England, in view of the urgent need to protect organisations in that sector from imminent collapse. The delivery bodies are also currently processing more than £800 million of applications for grant funding, and will make announcements about hundreds of allocations in the coming weeks.

We are aware that the events industry and its supply chain has been severely impacted by Covid-19. We continue to engage with stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to monitor the situation.

We appreciate the important role that the events and music industries play in the UK’s economy, and that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to these sectors.

The Chancellor has announced the Winter Economy Plan to protect jobs and support businesses over the coming months, once the existing Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme come to end. From November, the Jobs Support Scheme will provide further support to returning workers, while the extended Self-Employed Income Support Scheme will aid the self-employed who are currently actively trading but are facing reduced demand.

We are also offering businesses who face a drop in demand for their services and possible cash flow issues generous terms for the repayment of deferred taxes and government-backed loans. We will give all businesses that borrowed under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme the option to repay their loan over a period of up to ten years. This will reduce their average monthly repayments on the loan by almost half. We also intend to allow CBILS lenders to extend the term of a loan up to ten years, providing additional flexibility for UK-based SMEs who may otherwise be unable to repay their loans.

In addition, the Secretary of State announced an unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the cultural sector which will benefit the live music sector by providing support to music venues and many other cultural organisations to stay open and continue operating.

We continue to engage with the sector to discuss the on-going challenges facing the industry.