Josh Babarinde

The Government published its Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which outlines the first five actions we are taking over the next year to boost digital inclusion in every corner of the UK.

These will be targeted at local initiatives for boosting digital skills and confidence, widening access to devices and connectivity, and getting support to people in their own communities. This includes improving digital literacy, increasing digital upskilling, and enhancing support for the Essential Digital Skills framework, which helps businesses and individuals to get the digital skills they need.

The Online Safety Act gives social media companies new duties to protect all UK users on their services, including users based in Eastbourne and the South East. Under the regulation, platforms need to take steps to reduce the risk their services are used to facilitate illegal activity. They need to remove illegal content when it does appear. They need to offer UK users reporting routes so that they can report illegal content, and they need to take effective action in response. Ofcom oversees these duties and has strong powers to enforce compliance.

The Online Safety Act requires all platforms to proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content, including illegal incitement to violence and sexual offences, including where these are targeted at men and boys.

Services must employ age-appropriate measures to protect all children from legal abusive and hateful content, including misandry.

Category 1 services will have extra duties where abuse is not illegal, requiring them to offer user empowerment tools, enabling all adult users greater control over their online experience. Category 1 services will also need to remove legal misandry content, when prohibited in their terms of service.

Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.

The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 requires the Secretary of State to “superintend and promote the improvement of the public library service provided by local authorities in England”. To assist this function the department regularly monitors local authority library service provision.

I understand that as at 31 December 2023 the statutory library provision delivered by East Sussex County Council was 17 local authority-run static libraries. Two of these static libraries are located in the Eastbourne constituency: Eastbourne and Hampden Park.

We are committed to ensuring that funding is targeted effectively at the places and services that need it most and allocated in a way that empowers local leaders to deliver against local priorities. Recent decisions taken at the Spending Review result in an average real terms increase in local authority core spending power of 2.6% per year between 2026-27 to 2028-29.

The Government is determined to ensure that everyone has access to quality sport and physical activity opportunities. That is why we have committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years. This funding builds upon the additional £100 million that was announced for the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in March. Details regarding funded projects can be found via the recently updated 2024/25 project lists, which are publicly available here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2024-to-2025 - and is also available in the Library of the House.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sports and health club facilities in England, through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.

We will now work closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, and then set out further plans on how future funding will be allocated across the UK.

For 2023 - 2026 our arms-length-body Arts Council England is investing around £444 million per annum into their National Portfolio Organisations across England. This includes nearly £550k of annual funding to the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, which attracts over 175,000 visitors a year, and engages with over 55,000 participants a year through its learning and outreach programme.

Arts Council England’s open funding programme, National Lottery Project Grants provides over £100 million of support annually to individuals and organisations, and since 2023 has invested over £600k into arts projects across Eastbourne.

The government wants to ensure everyone has access to high quality arts and culture in the places they call home, and the new Creative Foundations Fund, announced in February, will invest £85 million to support arts and cultural organisations across England to resolve urgent issues with their estates. This will ensure their buildings and infrastructure will provide improved user experience for visitors and ensure they can be enjoyed by visitors for many more years to come. Guidance for the fund was published at the end of May and Arts Council England will be accepting Expressions of Interest until 25 July. With grants available from £100,000 and up to £10 million, this fund is a significant opportunity for eligible organisations across the country, including those in Eastbourne, to address their capital needs.

The Government is implementing the most significant overhaul of regional destination management in a generation, creating a portfolio of nationally supported, strategic and high-performing Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) in partnership with VisitEngland. These LVEPs will provide strong local leadership and governance in tourism destinations all over the country, including in rural and coastal areas.

The East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and West Sussex LVEP are included in this partnership, and works collaboratively with both local authority and private sector partners to communicate investment opportunities and to showcase Eastbourne’s strengths as a place to live, work, study and invest in, as well as a premier destination for visitors.

DCMS continues to work with VisitBritain/VisitEngland to champion visits to the British countryside to a worldwide audience. VisitBritain’s new GREAT-funded international marketing campaign, ‘Starring GREAT Britain’, uses the hook of Britain’s rich film and television history to encourage more international visitors to explore across Britain, including many rural destinations.

Sustainability of local journalism across the country is an area of particular concern for this Government, including in Eastbourne and East Sussex. Government understands the important work that local news does across the UK, including outlets such as the Argus, the Eastbourne Reporter and the Eastbourne Herald. We are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.

We are working across Government and with other stakeholders as the Strategy develops, and we recently held a roundtable discussion with local news editors to discuss our planned approach and collaboration with industry on the Strategy. An industry working group has now been set up to consider the issues in more detail and we will announce more in the coming months.

Free breakfast clubs were made available in up to 750 early adopter schools from April 2025, as part of a test and learn phase in advance of a national rollout. Further details on the national rollout, including guidance for schools, will be available in due course.

To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the school food standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.

School governors and trustees have a statutory duty to ensure compliance with these school food standards. To improve understanding of the school food standards and give governing boards confidence to hold their school leaders to account, the department, along with National Governance Association, developed an online training course on school food for governors and trustees.

Additionally, the department has announced that we are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. Giving half a million more children access to a nutritious meal during the school day will lift 100,000 out of poverty and lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.

This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country, including in Eastbourne and East Sussex, and support the industrial strategy.

From August, the department will be introducing seven new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, including construction and the built environment, digital, and health and social care. We are also reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to eight months so that shorter apprenticeships are possible from August. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.

To support employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays £1,000 to employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years old, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 years old who have an education, health and care plan or have been in local authority care. We will also provide £2,000 payments to employers for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to 25 when they earn less than £50,270 a year.

120 employers in Eastbourne accessed funding for apprenticeships in the 2024/25 financial year to support new apprenticeship starts or those continuing their apprenticeships from previous years. This figure includes levy-paying employers as well as non-levy paying employers, who are likely to be small and medium-sized employers.

The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life, breaking the link between background and opportunity.

From the start of September 2024, eligible working parents have been entitled to 15 hours a week of early education and care from the term after their child turns nine months. From September 2025 this will extend to 30 hours, matching the three and four-year-old offer to support children right up until starting school.

In 2025/26 alone, we plan to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements. This represents a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25 as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements, so eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 30 hours of funded childcare.

As announced at Spending Review 2025, the government will provide an additional £1.6 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26, to continue the expansion of government-funded childcare for working parents.

Additionally, the Universal Credit childcare offer supports claimants with the costs of childcare, no matter how many hours they work.

Tax-Free Childcare remains available for working parents of children aged 0-11, or up to 17 for eligible disabled children.

The Government is backing British farming. We are prioritising investment that supports the Government’s Plan for Change and building on the Secretary of State’s work to reform Defra to drive growth while maintaining a steadfast commitment to farming, food security, and nature’s recovery.

We are investing more than £2.7 billion a year in farming and nature recovery. Funding for the Environmental Land Management Schemes paid to farmers will increase by 150% from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.

Overall farmers and land managers will benefit from an average of £2.3 billion a year through the Farming and Countryside Programme, and up to £400 million from additional nature schemes, including those for tree planting and peatland restoration.

We do not hold that information at a constituency level.

We are committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future.

Delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, this Government is investing a record £2.65 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 for the construction of new flood schemes, and the maintenance and repair of existing ones.

With this funding, 1,000 flood schemes have been or will continue to be supported, better protecting 52,000 properties by March 2026.

The Government launched a consultation 3 June on proposals to reform the way we fund flood and coastal defences. We want to ensure funding for flood defences is distributed more effectively across the country – to protect properties across all communities including in rural, coastal, and poorer areas. The 8-week consultation is open to everyone and all stakeholders, including organisations that play a role in flood resilience, community groups and members of the public, are invited to be part of the consultation.

The Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for monitoring the water quality of designated bathing water sites, reporting bathing water quality, informing the public of pollution which could affect bathing waters and investigating and identifying actions to improve bathing water quality. Throughout the bathing season (May to September), the EA takes up to 20 water samples at each of England's designated bathing waters and tests them for two bacteria, E. coli and intestinal enterococci, which can indicate pollution that can pose a risk to bathers' health.

There is one designated bathing water in the Eastbourne constituency – Eastbourne bathing water, which is currently classified as ‘Good’. The EA SWIMFO website, shows the latest water quality sample results for all the bathing waters in England. So far this season, all results have been within the excellent threshold for Eastbourne bathing water.

Local authorities review and assess air quality in their areas and publish an annual report on their actions to improve local air quality including local monitoring data which is assessed by Defra. In their most recent report, Eastbourne Borough Council indicated they were monitoring NO2 levels at 21 sites with additional monitoring of particulate matter at 2 sites. No exceedances of the Air Quality Objectives set by Defra for nitrogen dioxide or particulate matter were recorded at any monitoring location. Decrease in NO2 concentrations were seen at all 21 monitoring locations.

This Government has committed to empower all Protected Landscapes, including the South Downs National Park, to be greener, wilder and more accessible.

In the 25-26 financial year, we are providing £9.6 million of core resource funding to South Downs National Park Authority, alongside £2 million capital investment. We have also extended programmes such as Farming in Protected Landscapes, providing £30 million to support projects in our National Landscapes and National Parks, until March 2026. In 25-26, the overall Farming in Protected Landscapes allocation to the South Downs National Park is £756,488.

On the 16 December we committed to strengthen their underpinning legislation and governance. We will co-design the new legislation with partners but intend to strengthen the statutory purposes of National Landscapes and National Parks to give them a clear mandate to recover nature. Through this recovery, Protected Landscapes will fight climate change, foster a thriving green economy, and support the mental and physical health of the nation.

The legislation will also update their governance to ensure it creates the conditions for success, innovation and collaboration. This will include providing National Park Authorities with a general power of competence – which will clarify their legal framework and remove barriers to integrated delivery.

We have also published guidance for relevant authorities to make expectations clear in relation to their duty to seek to further the purposes of Protected Landscapes.

Operators must make the best use of train paths when planning their timetables to meet current and future demand, while ensuring value for the taxpayer. Govia Thameslink Railway is currently engaging with stakeholders and actively developing proposals for a direct service between Eastbourne and London Bridge and will ensure that stakeholders are kept updated on any progress in this area as soon as possible.

On 12 February, the Department and Active Travel England announced local authority allocations of the Consolidated Active Travel Fund. Of this funding, East Sussex County Council has been awarded £1,110,557 in revenue funding for 2024/25 and capital funding for 2025/26. It will be for East Sussex County Council to allocate this funding in line with local investment priorities, including to support schemes in the Eastbourne constituency.

The Spending Review announced £616 million for active travel infrastructure from 2026-27 to 2029-30, Active Travel England will set out future allocations from this funding in due course.

The Government also announced a further £2.3 billion to local authorities through the Local Transport Grant (LTG). This funding will support local authorities to invest in their local transport priorities, including schemes to support walking and cycling. East Sussex County Council has been awarded over £22 million up to 2029/30 through the LTG.