Luke Taylor

We refer the Hon member to the answer given to question 48266 on 25 April 2025.

This Government recognises the immense economic and social value of the hair and beauty industry, which is why we have committed to reforming business rates from 2026-27 with a permanently lower multiplier for retail, leisure and hospitality properties, including hair and beauty salons.

For national insurance contributions, increasing the employment Allowance to £10,500 will mean that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all and more than half of employers see no change or gain overall from this package including many businesses in the hair and beauty industries.

Revitalising our high streets is a priority for this government. Improving footfall on the high street is essential to create strong high streets. The Secretary of State and I are working with MHCLG to consider how we can deliver a cross-government approach for high streets and supporting their businesses to thrive.

This means addressing anti-social behaviour and crime, working with the banking industry to roll out 350 banking hubs, reforming business rates, stamping out late payments, empowering communities to make the most of the vacant properties, strengthening the Post Office network and reforming the apprenticeship levy.

Furthermore, the government is investing in local growth with local allocations for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2025-26 now announced, which places may choose to invest in rejuvenating high streets.

The Government has protected the smallest businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500 meaning, that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, and more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package.

All eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no Employer NICs. Additionally, 4.1million SMEs do not employ anyone aside from the business owner and will not be affected by these tax rises.

SMEs remain a key part of the high street, and a thriving high street will need a strong retail offering.

This is why the Government is creating a fairer business rate system and transforming the apprenticeship levy to support business and boost opportunities. This work will be supported by the publication of The Small Business Strategy Command Paper next year.

Through the Retail Sector Council, we are addressing strategic issues for the sector, including high street regeneration, skills and sustainability.

Heat network operators typically buy their energy through commercial contracts. As the energy price cap has been designed for domestic electricity and gas customers, it could not be applied to the price of energy purchased on the wholesale market.

DESNZ and Ofgem continue to monitor the heat network sector and to consider actions that could improve price deals available to heat network operators.

Wholesale energy costs have decreased for non-domestic consumers since the global energy crisis, but we recognise that some businesses may be struggling to pay their bills.

The Government believes that the only way to protect billpayers permanently, including small and medium sized enterprises, 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 volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

For non-domestic consumers who agreed to contracts at very expensive rates at the peak of price spikes, they can contact their supplier to enquire about ‘blend and extend’ contracts. These contracts blend the original, higher, unit rate with a new lower rate, spreading the cost over the course of an extended contract lifetime.

As the first step towards the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency. The Government will partner with combined authorities and local councils to roll out this plan.

Alongside current energy efficiency schemes, local councils will receive support through the recently announced Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) in England, and Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG), with delivery expected in 2025. The WH:LG will use an expression of interest model to allocate funding to local authorities. The application window will run from 16th October to 1st December 2024.

Artificial intelligence is the defining opportunity of our generation, and the Government is taking action to harness its economic benefits for UK citizens. As set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we believe most AI systems should be regulated at the point of use, with our expert regulators best placed to do so. Departments are working proactively with regulators to provide clear strategic direction and support them on their AI capability needs. Through well-designed and implemented regulation, we can fuel fast, wide and safe development and adoption of AI.

The Government is committed to the development of non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has a diverse portfolio of investments that supports research which can lead to alternatives, such as organ-on-a-chip, cell-based assays, functional genomics and computer modelling. UKRI also invests £10 million annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). The Government also co-funds seven Centres of Excellence for Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI), two focusing on AI which will support alternative method development.

I refer the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam to the answer of 9^th June 2025 to Question 55940.

This government has set an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. The Online Safety Act forces in scope services to reduce the risk of illegal content being encountered on their services. Platforms must focus on ‘priority offences’, including content which amounts to stalking and must reduce the risk of priority offences being committed on their services.

Ofcom is the regulator for this new regime, and it will have extensive enforcement powers to take action where companies do not comply with their new duties.

This data is publicly available. Charity income for universities can be found in the HESA website (HE Finance Data | HESA). CRSF allocations can be found on the Research England website (e.g. Research England grant allocations basis 2024 to 2025 – UKRI) and for data pre-dating the creation of Research England in the HEFCE archives (Archive Timeline - UK Government Web Archive).

DCMS has no specific plans to do so.

The Government introduced a strengthened Football Governance Bill in October 2024, establishing an independent regulator and a new set of rules to protect clubs, empower fans and keep clubs at the heart of their communities. The Regulator will protect and promote the long term financial sustainability of the game.

The legislation is progressing and the Bill concluded its Committee Stage in the other place on 15 January.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill should not prohibit the voluntary engagement of children as match ball assistants at grassroots football clubs, as it does not change the scope of what is or is not considered employment for the purposes of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

I refer the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam to the answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62871.

Works at Angel Hill Free School are expected to commence in September 2025 subject to the contract being awarded in August.

Departmental officials working on the programme would be happy to meet to discuss the project in detail alongside the Trust.

Get Information About Schools (GIAS) is the department’s register for several organisation types, including schools and academies. GIAS is used by the department and key partners to contact establishments, update systems, perform analysis and inform policy decisions, some of which carry funding implications.

Information on pupils in the GIAS service is based on data provided by schools in the January school census and is updated each summer following the publication of the Schools, pupils and their characteristics accredited official statistics release, which is available at the following address: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2023-24. This time point is used because it is the spring collection when the department receives information for all establishment types (such as General Hospital Schools, Alternative Provision and independent schools) and across all data items (such as free school meal eligibility). This allows for one consistent time point to be used in this public resource.

Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin or progress a successful career in the hair and beauty industry. Employers in the sector have developed several apprenticeships, including the level 2 hairdressing professional standard, to help them develop their workforce.

The department continues to promote apprenticeships to young people, adults and employers through the Skills for Life campaign.

Employers can benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care. To support smaller employers access apprenticeships, the government pays full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an EHC plan, or have been in local authority care.

Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 where they earn less than £967 a week, or £50,270 a year.

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter. We understand that there is a pressing need to address the welfare concerns associated with this method of stunning pigs.

The Animal Welfare Committee has carried out an up-to-date and comprehensive animal welfare assessment of the evidence on high concentration carbon dioxide stunning of pigs and alternative pig stunning methods. The Committee carefully considered the evidence and provided their report to the UK Government, and Scottish and Welsh Governments, in July which we are now considering.

We continue to engage with stakeholders including the tourism industry and animal welfare groups to explore both legislative and non-legislative options to stop the advertising of low-welfare animal activities abroad.

Defra is continuing to engage with stakeholders including the tourism industry and animal welfare groups to explore both legislative and non-legislative options to stop the advertising and offering of sale in England and Northern Ireland, of low-welfare animal activities abroad.

Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is an offence to cause any animal unnecessary suffering or to fail to provide for its welfare. Anyone who is cruel to an animal, or does not provide for its welfare, may be banned from owning animals. They may also face an unlimited fine, be sent to prison, or both.

Local authorities and the police have powers under the 2006 Act to investigate allegations of cruelty, poor welfare, or neglect of animals. Where necessary, they may also take possession of animals to protect them from harm.

Irreplaceable habitat includes some of England’s most ecologically valuable habitats. The list of irreplaceable habitats in the biodiversity net gain regulations reflects the non-exhaustive list of examples of irreplaceable habitat in the National Planning Policy Framework. Given the breadth of habitats which could be considered irreplaceable, the Government plans in due course to review the definition of irreplaceable habitats to ensure it is robust and comprehensive to support decision makers.

Govia Thameslink Railway and Network Rail are working closely to improve reliability of services between Sutton Common and Wimbledon, including through better management of trespass incidents, improving signalling infrastructure reliability and increasing the train driver establishment to improve availability and avoid cancellations.

Department officials continuously monitor the performance of the train operating company across a range of measures, set out in its National Rail Contract, and meet regularly with senior management to scrutinise and challenge its performance.

The development of Crossrail 2 was paused in 2020, and whilst the route through Central London remains safeguarded to protect it from conflicting development, the Government currently has no plans to move forward with the scheme.

In February, the Department and Active Travel England (ATE) announced £30 million to provide Bikeability cycle training to children. The Bikeability Trust operates a number of outreach programmes to encourage more people to access cycle training, including Cycle to School Week and Get Cycling in Schools. Outside of the Bikeability schools programme, local authorities can use revenue funding awarded by ATE to support cycle training delivery for children and adults.

The government is committed to delivering greener transport, supporting its missions to make Britain a clean energy superpower and kickstart economic growth.

We have already made significant strides to decarbonise the aviation sector including through the introduction of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate, legislating for a Revenue Certainty Mechanism to encourage investment in UK SAF production, and delivering a modernised airspace to help make flights more efficient and greener.

A frequent flyer levy is a taxation issue which is a matter for the Treasury. In the last Budget, the Chancellor announced changes to Air Passenger Duty (APD), which is the principal tax on the aviation sector. This included a 13% increase in APD rates for 2026/27 and a further 50% increase for larger private and business jets. APD generates revenue that funds government priorities, including tackling climate change.

Domestic air travel in the UK is vital for supporting jobs, trade and investment, and ensures regional connectivity. Alongside being a gateway to international opportunities, domestic flights help maintain social and family ties and strengthen the bonds between the four nations.

All types of road vehicle headlamps are designed, tested, and approved to internationally recognised standards to help prevent undue glare and ensure safety on a broad range of roads and environments.

However, noting increased public concern, Government has commissioned independent research to better understand the root causes of headlamp glare. The work is underway and is due to deliver in summer 2025.