Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the the EHRC Code of Practice on single-sex spaces on (a) businesses, (b) community spaces and (c) public spaces.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC has submitted a draft Code of Practice to Ministers, and we are reviewing it with the care it deserves, engaging with the EHRC to ensure that it provides clarity for service providers.
We have always been clear that the proper process needs to be followed, which includes understanding the potential impact on businesses, public functions and services. The Code will have implications for service providers up and down the country so it is important that we get this right.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department’s plan to ban for-profit ticket resale will apply to (a) tickets sold through peer-to-peer messaging platforms and (b) tickets sold through encrypted peer-to-peer messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government has recently announced plans to introduce a price cap on the resale of live events tickets, which will make it illegal for tickets to be resold for more than their original cost.
Our intention is that all businesses that facilitate the resale of live events tickets to UK consumers will be obliged to ensure compliance with the price cap.
Detailed work to prepare the new legislation is ongoing, involving further consideration of how platform obligations should be configured.
The government will legislate when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of restricting ticket resales via peer-to-peer messaging applications on user privacy and encryption.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government has recently announced plans to introduce a price cap on the resale of live events tickets, which will make it illegal for tickets to be resold for more than their original cost.
Our intention is that all businesses that facilitate the resale of live events tickets to UK consumers will be obliged to ensure compliance with the price cap.
Detailed work to prepare the new legislation is ongoing, involving further consideration of how platform obligations should be configured.
The government will legislate when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department provided funding to boxing programmes to help prevent crime amongst young people.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
In the financial year 2022/2023, the Ministry of Justice invested £5 million in sports-related projects across England and Wales, to use sport to enhance positive outcomes for vulnerable young people at-risk of criminality (the ‘Youth Justice Sport Fund’). Around 50% of the 220 organisations funded through this programme provided boxing support to young people.
Youth justice funding now takes a more flexible approach. Local authorities receive funding to deliver youth justice services, including through the Turnaround early intervention programme. Local authorities can use this funding to commission activities that were previously supported by Youth Justice Sports Fund such as boxing.
An independent evaluation of the Turnaround programme published earlier this month highlighted that boys taking part in boxing reported improved physical and mental health.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which Minister within her Department has responsibility for (a) measuring the impact of the National Youth Strategy on the provision of enrichment activity for young people and (b) leading on implementation of enrichment programmes in that Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I am responding as the Minister for Sport, Tourism, Civil Society and Youth with responsibility for DCMS youth enrichment policy.
On 10th December 2025, we published ‘Youth Matters’, the first cross-government Strategy for young people in England in 15 years. Backed by £500m of DCMS funding over the next 3 years, the Strategy will ensure every young person has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of. We are working closely with Other Government Departments to ensure the successful delivery and accountability of the National Youth Strategy, including the implementation of enriching activities for young people. This involves establishing a cross-government reporting and governance process to ensure successful delivery.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the plans set out in the National Youth Strategy for the implementation of enriching activities for young people.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I am responding as the Minister for Sport, Tourism, Civil Society and Youth with responsibility for DCMS youth enrichment policy.
On 10th December 2025, we published ‘Youth Matters’, the first cross-government Strategy for young people in England in 15 years. Backed by £500m of DCMS funding over the next 3 years, the Strategy will ensure every young person has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of. We are working closely with Other Government Departments to ensure the successful delivery and accountability of the National Youth Strategy, including the implementation of enriching activities for young people. This involves establishing a cross-government reporting and governance process to ensure successful delivery.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will set out the timeline for the youth portion of Every Child Can Dormant Assets funding to support the delivery of grassroots enrichment and youth provision.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
‘Every Child Can’ is a £132.5 million programme to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities between 2024 and 2028 to meet the needs of young people. This funding will increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the culture, sport, and wider youth sectors. Development is in active progress and further details will be announced in due course, including expected timelines.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of Local Authorities commissioning gambling harms prevention; and of their capacity to do so.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In April 2025, the statutory gambling levy came into effect to fund the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm across Great Britain. In its first year, the levy has raised nearly £120 million, with 30% allocated to gambling harms prevention activity.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for the implementation and oversight of the gambling levy, remains confident that levy commissioners are best placed to make decisions on the future of their work programmes regarding the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harms.
As prevention commissioners, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in England and Scottish and Welsh Governments continue to work collaboratively on the development of their respective work programmes, drawing on expertise from across the system. OHID will employ a ‘test and learn’ approach as they transition to the new levy system, to better-understand what interventions are most effective in preventing gambling harms at a local, regional and national level.
Local authorities are well placed to play a central role in preventing gambling‑related harms across local communities. An OHID-led stocktake of local authority activity in this space indicated that whilst some activity is already underway, there is appetite within local authorities to do more.
OHID is developing a fund for all upper-tier local authorities across England, which will aim to strengthen local capacity to tackle gambling‑related harm by facilitating improved understanding of local need and supporting the development of effective local and regional networks. This will be delivered alongside the Gambling Harms Prevention: Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) grant fund which will fund VCSE organisations to deliver prevention activity across England from April 2026 to March 2028.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of Local Authorities commissioning gambling harms prevention; and of their capacity to do so.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In April 2025, the statutory gambling levy came into effect to fund the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm across Great Britain. In its first year, the levy has raised nearly £120 million, with 30% allocated to gambling harms prevention activity.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for the implementation and oversight of the gambling levy, remains confident that levy commissioners are best placed to make decisions on the future of their work programmes regarding the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harms.
As prevention commissioners, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in England and Scottish and Welsh Governments continue to work collaboratively on the development of their respective work programmes, drawing on expertise from across the system. OHID will employ a ‘test and learn’ approach as they transition to the new levy system, to better-understand what interventions are most effective in preventing gambling harms at a local, regional and national level.
Local authorities are well placed to play a central role in preventing gambling‑related harms across local communities. An OHID-led stocktake of local authority activity in this space indicated that whilst some activity is already underway, there is appetite within local authorities to do more.
OHID is developing a fund for all upper-tier local authorities across England, which will aim to strengthen local capacity to tackle gambling‑related harm by facilitating improved understanding of local need and supporting the development of effective local and regional networks. This will be delivered alongside the Gambling Harms Prevention: Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) grant fund which launched in January to fund VCSE organisations to deliver prevention activity across England until March 2028. More information on the grant is available at the following link:
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of Local Authorities commissioning gambling harms prevention; and of their capacity to do so.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2025, the statutory gambling levy came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm across Great Britain. In its first year, the levy has raised nearly £120 million, with 30% allocated to gambling harms prevention activity.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is responsible for the implementation and oversight of the gambling levy, remains confident that levy commissioners are best placed to make decisions on the future of their work programmes regarding the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harms.
As prevention commissioners, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in England and the Scottish and Welsh administrations continue to work collaboratively on the development of their respective work programmes, drawing on expertise from across the system. OHID will employ a ‘test and learn’ approach as they transition to the new levy system, to better-understand what interventions are most effective in preventing gambling harms at a local, regional, and national level.
Local authorities are well placed to play a central role in preventing gambling‑related harms across local communities. An OHID-led stocktake of local authority activity in this space indicated that whilst some activity is already underway, there is appetite within local authorities to do more.
OHID are developing a fund for all upper-tier local authorities across England, which will aim to strengthen local capacity to tackle gambling‑related harm by facilitating improved understanding of local need and supporting the development of effective local and regional networks. This will be delivered alongside the Gambling Harms Prevention: Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise grant fund which launched in January to fund voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations to deliver prevention activity across England until March 2028. Further information on the Gambling Harms Prevention: Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise grant fund is avaiable at the following link: